With 2025 and the Holidays past, I think it is appropriate to reflect on my experiences in the last year. And by “reflect,” I mean frantically gesture at the things that kept my brain from dissolving into a fine paste.

Beginning back in January, I finally experienced the conclusion to Alan Wake 2, as well as the DLC that connected Control and the other Remedy-Verse titles (shout out to the three people who still talk about Quantum Break at parties).

For me, this was a major creative moment. I was inspired by the aspects of these titles to begin working on a handful of ideas that will someday take on some new legs. The tone and the creative direction of each of those titles were eye-opening, and they stick with me today as prime examples where even nebulous and esoteric ideas can still find their place in the medium of entertainment.

With those in the rearview, I steeled my focus on observing narrative structures and the blend of disparate themes in wholly new ways. This critical observation was key to my enjoyment of what came next… personally, my Game of the Year!

Expedition 33 took the world by storm. I half-remembered the early trailer from the previous Game Awards, and I’d heard rumblings about its impending arrival. Then, the Saturday after the game’s April release, my YouTube feed was carpet-bombed by video essays. I made it as far as them describing the combat as “Final Fantasy X meets Legend of Dragoon“ before I blacked out and woke up with a controller in my hand.

What followed was a still-ongoing reckoning with the immense nature of the game.

Made by a small team (still under 100 people, which in AAA gaming terms is basically a garage band), Expedition 33 tells a perennial story about the Light and the Dark—but nothing as facile as a “Good versus Evil” dichotomy. Instead, the Light and Dark here are the “brushes” that life brings to us. Not every day will be full of light, and the inverse is also true.

Without giving away too much, if you can imagine a scenario where Light and Dark might come together to find a balance, or equilibrium, then you will see it represented here in some way. The title itself is the French translation of the Italian art concept of Chiaroscuro—the use of strong contrasts between light and dark to affect a whole composition. It is a game that uses its inspirations to its benefit while treading new narrative ground. The ending(s) are still divisive, which is ultimately the point; there are never clean answers. For every light, there is a shadow. And for every Reddit thread praising the ending, there is another one calling it a crime against humanity. Balance.

As my frequent readers may have noticed, I’ve been reading a lot of Brandon Sanderson this year. It all started back in May when I picked up the Mistborn Trilogy at Barnes & Noble. Initially, I’d planned to pick up the first book, The Final Empire simply, but thanks to the price discrepancy of the Trade and Mass Market (RIP) paperbacks, I ended up walking out of the mall with the first trilogy tucked under my arm and a bag of Takis lollipops (ostensibly “for my students,” but let’s be real).

I finished the first book in about a week—roughly 670 pages. In retrospect, I remember initially struggling to make my way through. Part of my difficulty was most certainly due to my reading endurance having atrophied in recent years. My reading stamina would steadily improve over the next several weeks, leading to a veritable marathon sprint of literary consumption.

In fact… let’s go ahead and do a breakdown of exactly HOW MUCH I’ve read this year.

Mistborn Era 1 - Total: 2,248 pages

Mistborn Era 2 - Total: 1,724 pages

*Mistborn: Secret History - 240 pages

“Standalones” Total: 1629 pages

The Stormlight Archive - Total: 2903 pages

With all of that broken down… I’ve read a combined 8,744 pages… of Sanderson in 7 months… And surprisingly, 400 of those were just last week! And bookwise… it ends up being a total of 11 full-length novels from Brandon Sanderson.

It turns out, reading is like any other muscle. If you don’t use it, it gets floppy. But once you get back into the rhythm, you realize that there is nothing quite like the high of a 1,000-page fantasy doorstopper coming together in the final act.

Here’s to 2026 being filled with even more stories and more experiences to come!