Pod Insights Pop Culture Happy Hour 2025 Best Video Games About this episode 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’sroundup of best games of 2025 https://www.npr.org/2025/12/03/nx-s1-5627036/best-games-2025-npr 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 https://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 https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.
0:15 Linda Holmes? 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 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.
1:00 Linda Holmes? 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.
1:31 Linda Holmes? 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.
1:58 Speaker 00 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from AT&T. Right now at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with eligible trade-in. It has the ultimate pro camera system and a big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Connecting changes everything. Requires trade-in of $230 or more and eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit an AT&T store for details.
2:27 Speaker 02 This message comes from Google Workspace with Gemini. Ever notice how every new AI tool asks you to explain your business to it all over again? Google Workspace with Gemini skips that. You get Google's AI built right into the premium versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, and more. No new tools, no extra logins, just one subscription that gives you personalized AI right inside your actual workflow. Try Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. This message comes from International Medical Corps. When crises strike, every second matters, and that's why International Medical Corps moves fast. From the flooding in Nepal to earthquakes in Venezuela, they deliver lifesaving medical
3:12 Speaker 02 care and supplies around the world while training local health workers to ensure care continues long after the emergency ends. This giving season, your generosity saves lives and builds resilience for tomorrow. Learn more or donate today at internationalmedicalcorps.org/NPR.
3:32 Linda Holmes? 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 Acavino. He's a producer on NPR's All Things Considered and also covers video games. Hello, Vincent.
3:48 Speaker 03 Thanks for having me.
3:49 Linda Holmes? 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?
4:21 Speaker 04 Yeah, well, I have to give the shout out to Claire Obscura 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
5:05 Speaker 04 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 fated to die that year because they are turning 33 years old.
5:24 Linda Holmes? Got it. So by the end of this, you're like fighting babies.
5:28 Speaker 04 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 Claire Obscura.
6:12 Linda Holmes? All right. Well, and it sounds like in the end. You're not going to actually fight babies, so.
6:16 Speaker 04 I can neither confirm nor deny if there is baby fighting.
6:19 Linda Holmes? I will not call it the fighting babies game. So that is Claire Obscure Expedition 33. It's available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox. All right, Vincent, what is your first pick?
6:30 Speaker 03 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 Lovecraftian-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 jumpscare 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
7:15 Speaker 03 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, Lovecraftian monster story.
8:00 Speaker 03 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.
8:13 Linda Holmes? Uh huh, uh huh. 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, and when you say it's not jump scares, it's just deeply disturbing. I'm sort of like, yeah, that's.
8:28 Speaker 03 Yeah. And, 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 gonna 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.
9:09 Speaker 04 Well, you, you have to play it more if you want to get the secret ending, right?
9:13 Speaker 03 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 like, 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 I've had this year because it kind of, it's what you want to take from it, you get from it. And I, and I love that.
9:43 Speaker 04 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 wacky monsters.
9:51 Linda Holmes? 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, like.
10:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, I'm with you.
10:01 Linda Holmes? 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.
10:12 Speaker 04 Don't you love to be graded like you're back in school by a video game?
10:15 Linda Holmes? Well, it's like, listen, I finished. What do you want from me? I'm not going back to find all your little stars and all your little things.
10:23 Speaker 04 You gotta find the bobbleheads, Lynda. They're there.
10:26 Linda Holmes? 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 pot. Like, I'm, I am not that, 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.
10:46 Speaker 03 Yes.
10:47 Linda Holmes? So that is Silent Hill F, also available for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox. James, we're going to your second pick. I gotta tell you, I look at this title and I think, I know this one.
10:58 Speaker 04 Yeah, Hades 2, 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 2. 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' realm. So it is as much of an evolution of that format as I could have hoped for. Like, it's just about twice as big as the original Hades.
11:43 Speaker 04 It has so many characters, a lot of Greek gods that you can befriend, or even schmooch. 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.
12:14 Linda Holmes? Yeah, I gotta say, it's gonna be a baby with some interesting sense memories.
12:17 Speaker 04 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.
12:26 Speaker 03 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?
12:41 Speaker 04 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 2 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, Hades 1 may be even better for you, but if you want to jump in, totally fine.
13:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, okay, cool.
13:20 Linda Holmes? So that is Hades 2, and that one is for the Switch and 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, but I got you, bud. Go ahead.
13:34 Speaker 03 I know. I was sort of second guessing whether I should do two horror video games for this segment.
13:40 Linda Holmes? Listen, don't let me dissuade you.
13:43 Speaker 03 Well, listen, we're here. We're fully down this path. 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 Samansky, 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
14:27 Speaker 03 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 funny. 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 like stuff like that and which are very, 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
15:12 Speaker 03 blunt this very disturbing premise that it has. And I just, I 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.
15:45 Speaker 04 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.
15:58 Speaker 03 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 auteurs 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.
16:29 Linda Holmes? 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.
16:52 Speaker 03 Oh man, I'm sorry.
16:53 Speaker 04 Some of them look like unicorns.
16:55 Speaker 03 They do. That's true.
16:56 Linda Holmes? 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. 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
17:38 Linda Holmes? 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.
18:23 Linda Holmes? 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.
19:07 Speaker 03 Like, I've tried playing these puzzle games that people really love, and I'm just like, fully too stupid. So I'm like,
19:13 Linda Holmes? I don't think that's what it is.
19:14 Speaker 03 I'm like, I can either like, look up the answer, or just not, and then not never play this game again.
19:21 Speaker 04 Doesn't Silent Hill F have one of the most notorious puzzles in the whole series, though?
19:25 Speaker 03 I think it's like a different kind of puzzle, though. Like, 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.
19:37 Linda Holmes? I mean, in a way, it does feel like you're cheating if you're getting hints, in the sense that like, 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-
20:03 Speaker 04 Build your own labyrinth and solve the mysteries within.
20:06 Linda Holmes? Build your own labyrinth. I got so flummoxed by this game. 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?
20:24 Speaker 04 I wonder what happened five years ago? That would make you play a lot of games by yourself.
20:28 Linda Holmes? 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, you know? So, this, uh, 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.
21:12 Linda Holmes? 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 Acavino, James Mastro Marino, thank you so much for being here. This was really fun.
21:27 Speaker 03 So much fun. Thanks for having me.
21:28 Speaker 04 Thank you, Lynda.
21:29 Linda Holmes? 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.
21:48 Speaker 02 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.
Previous 2025 Books We Love Next 2026 Pop Culture Predictions Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated