Screenshot: Cairn We are, seemingly, in the middle of a climbing game renaissance. Following the meditative flow of Jusant  in 2023 and the high-stakes co-op of 2025’s Peak , Cairn  arrives to offer yet another distinct perspective on the ascent. These games aren’t just copying each other; instead, they focus on vastly different aspects of the vertical journey. Developer The Game Bakers describes Cairn  as a “realistic simulation.” It’s not a simulation in a funny Goat Simula

MIO comes agonizingly close to being an early Game of the Year contender for me. If not for a few hostile design decisions, it would likely make my "Best of 2026" list. If you are a die-hard fan of Metroidvanias with patience to spare, definitely check out MIO: Memories in Orbit. For everyone else, be warned: this beautiful machine has sharp edges.

Winter's coming, and you don't get a choice in whether you like it or not. So, let's at least prepare, because not everyone's been through this at least three times a year.

Maybe you're like us, and you grew up in the golden era of TV - catch jingles in commercials, TV special events, and full blocks of entertainment for the whole family. Either way, a lot of us love television, and we're entering a new golden era, where shows are lickably gorgeous, have amazing stories, and return to the zeitgeist the term "must-see-TV." Yeah, we're late getting you this list, but that just means you've got more time to argue it and suggest your own favor

Despite the main gameplay loop being reminiscent of a Milgram experiment, it justifies its ickiness through “but zombies!” as so many more violent and exploitative games did in the past. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this shit. I’ll just go back to chunking people into giblets with my boltgun in Darktide like a respectable person. But Quarantine Zone: The Last Check is ultimately a janky, buggy mess of a game that happened to nail down the feeling of a zombie apocalypse

When Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally did hit store shelves, its negative buzz kept me away. Did I really want to ruin my mental image of Samus and the Metroid series with annoying Federation NPC allies and a useless open world? I mean, look at the damage Other M did to the Metroid series. The early buzz practically made it sound like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be the last Metroid game we’ll see in a while–and probably the last Prime game ever.

It’s been a crazy rollercoaster for Hytale. This Minecraft-meets-RPG style game was declared dead in June 2025, when Riot Games dissolved the studio. Despite its trailer on YouTube getting 60+ million views, Hytale has been mired by changes in focus during development, and eventually stalled out altogether. Then, in November of last year, original founder Simon Collins-Laflamme bought the rights back from Riot Games to save the project he started.

StarRupture takes the automation base building concept and throws it into a world that’s fun to explore. The extra layer of lore has made me really invested. That being said, the Early Access roadmap promises more wildlife, new buildings, new locations and points of interest and much more, including new exploration mechanics.

he Pitt is great because it’s great TV, and it’s great because it’s spectacularly put together. It’s a clockwork of vignettes each with perfect timing and just enough intrigue, a whole deck of face cards with obvious chops acting their faces off, and the ability to say something intelligent and somewhat novel about it all. 

Listen, we've been through the Game Awards, we've seen the announcements, and we've perhaps even finally gotten some new gear for Christmas to work with in the New Year. It's cold (maybe? Sometimes?) and, if you're anything like us, you're out of money to go out. What's that mean? Well, it's a great time to go back and play some of the best games of 2025 you just didn't have time to. We're choosing our favorites while we gear up for what's to come in 2026

Movies are back, and so, our butts return to the theater seats (and our comfy couches, thanks to streaming.) This year's had a lot of exciting returns to the big screen and a lot of great new things to explore, and as a team full of film junkies, we're excited to share our favorites from this past year. Let's jump in.

Fractured Utopias fleshes out the sandbox and adds some fantastic faction mechanics, but it double-downs on the macro-scale detachment. It’s a warm spot in an icy game, but don’t expect it to melt the barrier between you and your subjects.

We recently got to play a preview build of DarkSwitch that shows off a little bit more than the Steam demo does—and few colony sims have grabbed me quite like this. I probably haven’t been this invested in the genre since the original Frostpunk thrust me into a “what if” frozen world and tasked me with keeping its residents alive. But instead of a frozen wasteland, DarkSwitch drops you into a lush fantasy world where being on the ground means being subjected to a creeping fog

Stop me if you've heard this one: You've got very specific health, academic, and social goals. There are 24 hours in a day You need money, but you also need to exercise, eat right, and do chores By Wednesday, you're hopped up on caffeine and feeling good. You’re motivated, and you're gonna do the things.  On Friday, you find out you're short 12 dollars for your college application fees, have no energy at all, no laundry done, and can't go to the party. I'm sorry, is th

Of all the muscled glow-ups there are to talk about, his was my favorite - because not only did it reflect a change we as fans knew was important to that scrawny kid, it was also for a Marvel movie. Still, you can’t help but wonder, when someone gets super buff, has a hit film that wins multiple awards, and lives in LA, if they can still pull off that same colander headed, “house full of betas” vulnerability.  And the answer is a resounding yes, much to my absolute delight

Nostalgia isn’t new, and neither is blatant nostalgia bait. I’m actually okay with it though, especially since I’m the target of this one. Terminator 2: Judgment Day was seminal to my childhood cultural appreciation. I saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day  in the theater as many times as I could convince my parents to let me go, and later rented Terminator on VHS to see where it all started.

Okay, I know Hive Scum released way earlier this month, but I’ve been busy! Seriously, though: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is still the best Left 4 Dead style 4-player co-op game on the market. Easily the best. And it’s a shame that it doesn’t get more attention. Maybe it’s overshadowed by its equally great Warhammer: Vermintide 2 spiritual prequel, or maybe people have been burnt by too many bad 40k video games to really feel the draw to it. Still, The Hive Scum is a dece

You can tell a lot by the way people orbit a person, and Reiner’s casts oftentimes became like family, or at the very least dear lifelong friends. This was certainly true of the amazing cast of The Princess Bride, who spoke so intensely fondly of him throughout the years. 

Jason Haight-Ellory, Chris Eccleston and Annete Badland at Chicago TARDIS 2025. Photo: Marielle Bokor It’s hard to properly convey the privilege of having gotten to see Christopher Eccleston at Chicago TARDIS this year. As fellow Whovians, we are always super hyped to see a Doctor or companion grace the stage of any local convention, and we’ve been privileged to pack into panel rooms where the likes of Tennant, Tate, Smith and Gillian were set to appear. They’re amazing piece

Reiner led with laughter and kindness that he wove into his work and "IRL" persona, and we can't help but feel a light go off in that little corner of our childhoods with him leaving so soon.