Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2025 Best Video Games

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

If you’re anything like us, you spend a fair amount of your screen time playing video games. Whether you like combat, horror, or peacefully going over archival research, NPR’s roundup of best games of 2025 is a helpful guide to find something that’s just right for you. Today we’re talking about some of the best video games featured including Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Silent Hill f, Butcher’s Creek and The Roottrees Are Dead.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hi, Linda Holmes here. Somehow we are almost at the end of 2025. And I'm going to be honest with you, it's been a pretty challenging year for NPR and local stations. But here's the thing. Despite losing federal funding for public media and despite all the attacks we've seen on the free press, we're still here for you. We are still independent, a critical right guaranteed by the First Amendment. And with your support, NPR will not be silent. Here at Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're will continue keeping you company with thoughtful, engaging conversations about all the movies, TV, music, and more 2026 has in store. If you're already an NPR Plus supporter, thank you so much. We see you, and we're so grateful for you. If not, please join the community of public radio supporters

right now before the end of the year at plus.npr.org. Signing up unlocks a bunch of perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcasts. Plus, you get to feel good about supporting public media while you listen. End the year on a high note and invest in a public service that matters to you. Visit plus.npr.org today. Thanks. We spend a lot of time at the end of the year going over the best in movies, music, and television. But if you're anything like us, you also spend a fair amount of your screen time playing games. And whether you like combat, horror, or peacefully going over archival research, we've got some games to share

with you. I'm Linda Holmes, and today we're talking about some of the best video games of the year on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is James Mastro Marino. He is a producer for NPR's here and now and edits NPR's gaming coverage. Hi, James. Hello, Linda. And also with us is Vincent Acovino. He's a producer on NPR's All Things Considered and also covers video games. Hello, Vincent. Thanks for having me. So both of you have suggestions that appear in NPR's big roundup of staff recommendations of the best games of 2025. We are focusing here on video games, but there are also tabletop games there, which I know a lot of you also love. That project is available at npr.org. It allows you to filter the games by platform and by type. You know, I went right

for that cozy tag and find something that is right for you. We're going to touch on just a few of the recommendations that you made, but there are a lot more. James, what do you want to start with? Yeah, well, I have to give the shout out to Claire Obscure. Expedition 33 here. I mean, in a way, it's the most obvious pick imaginable. It just swept at the game awards largely deservedly because this thing is kind of like what you would get if you cross like a French New Wave film with an existentialist novel with kind of a throwback 1990s role-playing game design.

It's a turn-based RPG. So you're taking turns with a party as you adventure through this land that's been destroyed by this sort of apocalyptic event. Everyone in this kind of community of survivors under this twisted kind of Eiffel Tower knows that people will die every year at a certain day in their calendar that they've actually picked out and kind of made a celebration around. But the age at which you will die, that age is constantly lowering. So one year it might be 66, the next 65.

And so by the time Expedition 33 runs around, these are all people that are faded to die that year because they are turning 33 years old. Got it. So by the end of this, you're like fighting babies. Yeah. If you couldn't stop what is happening to the world around you, then absolutely that's what would happen. So again, it's all these people who have literally nothing left to lose going on this

journey and one teenage girl who also feels like she needs to be part of this party. And the monsters are all very interesting. There are like paintbrush people that have hair that looks like paintbrushes and bodies made of wood. So again, very high concept, very, very moving. And it twists and turns in ways that you will never expect and you will never see coming. It's meaningful and moving and has some of the best art and performances of the entire year. If you're into a really kind of avant-garde adventure that still has a lot of old school vibes, you really can't go wrong with clear obscure. All right. Well, and it sounds like in the end, you're not going to actually fight babies. So

either confirm nor deny if there is baby fighting. I will not call it the first. Fighting Baby's game. So that is Claire Upsure, Expedition 33. It's available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox. All right, Vincent, what is your first pick? So my first pick is the horror game, Silent Hill F. The basic premise, though, with like almost every Silent Hill game is that this town is being overrun with these Lefcraftian-looking monsters and you have to survive. And that all sounds like fairly standard horror stuff right there. But what makes things different is that these monsters and the locations which are like these corroded decaying places reflect the inner turmoil of your character. And so it's a lot more psychological horror than it is kind of jump scare

horror. If you're someone who's staying away a lot from these kinds of games because you're afraid of something coming around the corner, that does happen. But it's not really like where the game derives its fear. It's kind of about these images that sort of stress and get under your skin and kind of stick with you as you progress through the story. In Silent Hill, F specifically, It takes place in 1960s, Japan, and the main character Hanako is being pressured by her parents into this marriage that she doesn't really want to be in. And the story uses that really simple setup to tell this story that's filled with these disturbing little details, but that you feel like you're learning about a time and a place

that's very researched and very real. And I think that feels really new for the series, where before it's kind of like, here's how you're learning about the inner minds of these characters. And with Silent Hill F, it feels like here's how you're learning about the inner world that this character is setting up and the little disturbing social and historical things that are going on around this very, you know, scary, lovecrafty and monster story. So it really has a little bit of everything for me that you want in a Silent Hill game and in a horror game. You get the scares, you get the creep out factor, but you also sort of get

like the deeper little narrative things that kind of keep you hooked. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I have not played anything like this. I have played only a few horror games in my life and I tend to come away utterly terrified. And when you say it's not jump scares, it's just deeply disturbing. I'm sort of like, yeah, that's. Yeah. And you know, it's like, it is true that the series is deeply disturbing and will leave you terrified. I also think it's true that if you're going to play a horror game, Silent Hill isn't a bad choice because you have this narrative richness that you kind of don't get in a lot of other horror video games. So I would say, if you're able to convince yourself that you want to be scared, this isn't a bad way to do it.

And I do think it's like one of the most, what I love about the game too, and this has been kind of divisive among people who are playing it, is that it's relatively short. It's like under 10 hours, which I love. I don't have enough time to go through like the 50 hour things as much as I used to. Well, you have to play it more if you want to get the secret ending, right? Right. But that's what's been divisive is that like there's all different endings you get from playing it over again. But there's little changes they make to make it so you want to actually do that.

But I kind of love it because if you love the game like I do, you can decide whether or not you want to invest that time. It's sort of optional. And I think like the fact that you can peel back layers of this onion that feel like they keep giving is like something that it's like one of the most remarkable storytelling experiences have had this year because it's what you want to take from it. You get from it.

And I love that. Well, and Linda, I know that you love puzzles. And there is no shortage of puzzles in the Silent Hill series. and including in Silent Hill F. It's not just whacking monsters. Yeah. It's interesting what you say about trying it to get to different endings and different parts because when I do play a game all the way to the end, which is not that common.

Yeah, I'm with you. When I do play a game all the way to the end or even like a level all the way to the end, I will very often look at it and they're like, you found eight of the possible 36 things. I'm like, that's fine. Don't you love to be graded like you're back in school by a video game? Listen, I finished. What do you want for me? I'm not going back to find all your little stars and all your little things.

You got to find the bobble heads, Linda. No. I am results oriented. If I finish the thing and you let me move on to the next thing, I'm not going back to find the star that's under the box. It's under the flower pet. Like, I'm not that person. But it's good.

I think it's good to have the ones that have that wide range of like if you want to go back and try new things and, you know, discover new things you can. Yes. So that is Silent Hill F, also available for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox. James, we're going to your second pick. I got to tell you, I look at this title, and I think, I know this one. Yeah, Hades, too, the follow up to the 2020 sensation of Hades. And, you know, it's funny that we were talking about playing a game over and over to get new narrative content,

because that's exactly what's motivated me in Hades, too. I had a baby this year, so I've spent many nights, long nights and long mornings with my steam deck, with a baby on my chest, rocking it to sleep. as I just have to go to the depths of the underworld or to the heights of Olympus to progress this very drip-fed story of a witch in ancient mythological Greek times trying to take back her father's realm, Hades's realm. So it is as much of an evolution of that format as I could have hoped for. It's just about twice as big as the original Hades. It has so many characters, a lot of Greek gods, and you can be. friend or even smooch. And it's been just what my brain has needed in this kind of new

parenthood phase of my life. So I have just about extracted every morsel, like every drop that I can possibly get out of this thing. After maybe 80 hours, am I beginning to feel like some of the character dialogue is starting to run dry. So it is deeply rich, incredibly beautiful, and has some of the most spectacular and stylish action of any game this year. Yeah, I've got to say it's going to be a baby with some interesting sense. memories. Yeah, well, the thing is, hopefully he's been asleep this whole time. But yeah, he's definitely getting the cortisol that's spiking in my system through the skin-to-skin contact. James, I am wondering because I skipped Hades 1, which I'm embarrassed to admit,

if you are wanting to jump in and just not be left out of the conversation with Hades 2, can you do that or do you need to play the first game? I actually think you can. I think Hades 2 may not be the better game, but it is the more perfect game. It's mechanically more complicated. Its narrative is more ambitious, though in my opinion, a little less successful. But Hades is just so much easier to recommend because it is a little bit more concise, succinct, and less complicated. Hades, too, is the game for people who just want way more Hades in their life.

It is still a remarkable game that doesn't assume anything from the audience because you play a character who wasn't in the original Hades. If you really want to play a Hades game, honestly, a Hades one may be even better for you. But if you want to jump in, totally fine. Yeah. Okay, cool. So that is Hades 2, and that one is for the Switch and the Switch 2 and PC. Thank you very much.

All right. Vincent, we're going to your second pick. This doesn't sound cheerful for me either, but I got you, bud. Go ahead. I know. I was sort of second-guessing whether I should do two horror video games for this segment. Listen, don't let me dissuade you. Well, listen, we're here.

We're fully down this bath. So yes, my second game is also a horror game. It's called Butchers Creek. It's a horror game that came out earlier this year, and it was made pretty much by one person entirely. And his name is David Samanski, and he's made a lot of these weird sort of retro-style horror games. So if you're familiar with, like, early 90s, 80s stuff, and you like those kind of graphics, you might be into this. But the premise of the game, and it's a little bit twisted, is you sort of happen upon a hideout for these cult members who make snuff films. And as you're making your way, through their hideout, you use these various blunt instruments to take them down. But it actually has a

really great sense of humor, and that's kind of what I like about it. It's like horror. If you're into like black comedy horror stuff, I think it's like a great choice for that kind of player. So in video games, there's often this way of telling stories where it's slowly revealed to you by these text documents and little things that you pick up in the environment. And in early horror games, especially Resident Evil, they're so poorly written that they're like unintentionally fun. For example, in the original Resident Evil, there's like this guy who just turned into a zombie and you're reading his diary entry. And it just says, Itchy, tasty. And Butchers Creek takes stuff like that and which are these very retro game design ideas and turns them into jokes.

And they're just reeking of bureaucratic incompetence. They're telling you, like, where everything is, where you can find all the secrets and stuff like that. So the game has like a great sense of humor. And I think it helps to like blunt this very disturbing, premise that it has. And I just think if you're into like dark humor kind of horror stuff, you'll really like this. And also if you're into retro games, you might find a lot of love in something like this because it feels very old school, but in a way that is like how you remember it versus how you actually would feel if you tried to play like an old game and ran into the frustrations. So yeah, Butchers Creek, I love it because it's sort of part of this lo-fi horror genre.

That feels very fruitful for big ideas, but happening in these kind of smaller packages. I caught up with it, and I totally concur with that. It does so much with so little, but the narrative is actually really effective, really funny, and I was just really impressed with all of the little mechanics that add up to something way more than the sum of its parts. Yeah, and to bring this full circle, I think why I picked two horror games for the list is that I often find that in video games, horror is sort of a genre, just like in movies, where autores are kind of able to take big risks in kind of a genre that allows for it. So I think these are two examples of games that feel very authored in a very specific way, where you can tell they're the product of someone with a very clear story, a very clear vision. And that's sort of why I picked these two horror games today.

I love it. Honestly, like, I know it doesn't sound like I do, but I really do. Because these are not the kinds of things that I would pick. And that's why you have multiple people who contribute to things like this guide from games of the year because everybody likes different things. And again, Butchers Creek is available for PC if you are looking for, you know, snuff film guys in a hideout. Oh, man, I'm sorry. Some of them look like unicorns. They do.

That's true. Love it. Love it. Well, we are making the hardest of possible hard turns because I wanted to talk about the one game that I did write up for the guide this year. And it's one that I sort of fastened on and immediately just tore through because I thought it was so fun. And it's called The Root Trees Are Dead. And it's a PC game where essentially there's a wealthy family that has died in a plane crash. There's a lot of money left.

And to resolve the estate, you have been kind of retained to fill in the family tree and figure out who the heirs are. And so there's a ton of like archival material. There's documents and letters and photos that you look at, which are in the game. They're represented by like drawn illustrations. One of the funny pieces of trivia about this game is they originally released it with a bunch of AI art. And they got a lot of pushback about that and went back and redid it all as illustrations, which look way better than the AI pictures did anyway. So you're going through and you're looking at these things like, oh, well, these people are in this picture together. So they must have been alive at the same time.

That means the year must have been sometime between blah, blah, blah. And you just do all of that. And you can look them up on these fictional. internet searches that it comes up with. You can read articles about different people. I have a low threshold for frustration when I am playing games. One of the reasons why a lot of really popular games end up not working for me is that when I have attempted to not die for an hour, I am really bored and I'm not here to just be banging my head against the wall. And so a game like this, a puzzle type of game, has often a hint structure.

And much depends on how good is the hint structure, by which I mean, will the hint structure actually solve your frustration? And in this game, I would say the answer is yes. But also does the hint structure not just handy the answer? And I also think it's a yes to that. So it will help you get unstuck if you are stuck, but obviously you don't have to call on that

if you don't want to, if you want to just keep looking and looking and looking. Like I've tried playing these puzzle games that people really love and I'm just like fully too stupid. So I'm like... I don't think that's what it is. I'm like, I can either like look up the answer or just not. And then never play this game again. Doesn't Silent Hill F have one of the most notorious puzzles in the whole series, though?

I think it's like a different kind of puzzle though. Like these games that have like these like riddle games or like where it's like fully about like you're putting together this big puzzle that like is interlocking in all these complicated ways. I mean, in a way, it does feel like you're cheating if you're getting hints in the sense. in the sense that you're getting information that isn't part of the puzzle and that theoretically I always feel a little bit more victorious if I do it without the hint.

But sometimes you just get stuck, man. And the other thing is in a game like this, it takes a while to figure out the language of what the game is telling you matters and doesn't matter. There are certain games. Like, I played a bit of blueprints this year, which was a very, very hot game.

I would say maze game, kind of, but it's like... Build your own labyrinth and solve the mysteries within. Build your own labyrinth. I got so plummixed by the day and I got so frustrated and I will probably go back to it. But it's just like, I think the point of all of this and what I think is cool about it, as somebody who didn't play a lot of games and then like more started to maybe like five years ago. I wonder what happened five years ago. That would make you play a lot of games by yourself.

It's a combination of different kinds of things that I like. But I think this is what I like about a feature like the one that you guys worked on is that it will. remind you much in the manner of books we love and other similar projects that like there's lots of different stuff out there for lots of different people. And if you didn't know there was a video game that you can play where you run a bookshop, now you know. And if you didn't know there was one where you just basically do research in the archives about a family of dead rich people, now you know. So this, this was my pick. The root trees are dead. It's a PC game. Check it out. It's got mystery. It's got gossip, salacious pasts of the dead. So find your indie games, find your big games. And we want to know what are your favorite games of 2025. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCHH. That brings us to the end of our show. Vincent McAvino. Thank you so much for being here. This is really fun.

So much fun. Thanks for having me. Thank you, London. This episode is produced by Liz Metzger, Kayla Latimore, and Mike Katzif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, come in, provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes. We'll see you all next time. Happy Gaming.