Before we start, I can’t talk about the year that was without talking about my injury. In late March, between helping friends, charity streaming for 25 hours in a week (which is a lot for me!) and a surprise apartment inspection, I somehow managed to injure my shoulder and my elbow. I later found out after a good few rounds of physiotherapy that I had essentially torn my rotator cuff.

So, this year’s writeup is going to be a tad bit different. The reason being there was little or no gaming for many months of the year. It made the summer weather unbearable, it made sleep impossible and unfortunately it made video games and streaming too difficult to continue. And that was, at the time, a very hard pill to swallow! I had a lot of plans for 2025 and I couldn’t execute on most of them. I sat on that disappointment for a long time, only partly because I couldn’t lie down without a jolt of pain down my sides!

After some reflection (and talking with my therapist) I feel like I still did a lot this year even if much of it wasn’t broadcast live on the internet. It’s a bit different to the usual format, but in a year where I messed myself up a bit, I want to talk about the good choices that improved my quality of life, along with some of the things in the wider media I enjoyed in general.

Alright then, on with the show!

2000 AD and getting back into reading comics

I think I’ve said it already, but in case you didn’t know, by far the best thing I did in 2025 was start picking up the weekly 2000 AD Prog again, as well as the monthly Judge Dredd Mega-Zine. I dropped it in 2018 around the time my brother passed away. He was instrumental in my fandom for 2000AD, albeit I was always more of a Judge Dredd person and his favourite was Johnny Alpha, aka Strontium Dog. 

The ritual of going to the bookshop for the Prog has been genuinely healing. Digital comics kept my fandom trucking along during the lean years, but the physical Prog in my hands even with the messiness and sometimes the flimsiness, it just feels right. Something something this is what peak performance looks like, you get the idea.

I always read Dredd first and it’s been a trip catching up with the world of Mega-City One as it still reels from Chaos Day as well as the Mega-Epic to come in 2026, which surely means disaster for the city and its populace. And maybe even Dredd himself? It’s unthinkable to consider the Prog without Joe but considering we are starting 2026 with a story called Death of a Judge. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m nervous. 

Of course, Judge Dredd is only the headliner of the festival of delights that is 2000 AD, and I can definitely say that the Prog is in a mini-Golden Age as of right now. My favourite stories have included Red Dragon (a prequel and sequel to Grant Morrison’s superhero saga Zenith), the Azimuth stories (a digital world ruled by a rogue AI, surely not prescient at all!) and while it’s just started, I have high hopes for the return of Herne & Shuck (a young demonhunter and his pet demon, in the form of a dog, sort of Chainsaw Man with an ASBO!). 2027 is the 50th Anniversary of 2000 AD and it feels as full of life as it did in 1977!  

I have dipped into other comics too. My favourites have been the Absolute Universe from DC (I’m an Absolute Green Lantern truther and Absolute Martian Manhunter is an actual work of art.) and the end of Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corona’s run on Transformers, which had me on the edge of my seat!

A Summer of Absolute Cinema

The summer is a difficult time where I live. It’s hot, it’s noisy, fans quadruple in price. My doctor and I sat down to figure out ways to make it more tolerable and we had the eureka moment of buying a subscription to the local cinema. 

It’s not ideal as you must stay subscribed for three months, and obviously you don’t get your snacks included. I have to say, it worked out quite well. I saw almost every film that was released over the summer and it was a real treat during the hottest weather to escape to a dark room with an aircon for two hours in order to get lost in a story. 

I would say the only film I didn’t really enjoy was the new Jurassic World, which felt a bit thin overall. As far as the ones I enjoyed most, F1 blew me away and was the surprise of the year. A wholly predictable sports movie, but I loved every minute. Meat and potatoes but the steak was perfectly cooked and the potatoes were fluffy, buttery goodness! Final Destination Bloodlines also surprised me, a real return to form for that franchise after a gap of over 15 years! 

Outside of the summer there was some good stuff during the rest of the year. I expect One Battle After Another to win a shelfful of awards, Predator Badlands was another solid Alien/Predator entry from Disney (it must be said, they’re arguably handling these properties better than Star Wars or Marvel) and the Chainsaw Man movie was a delight, in a sort of horrific way. I hope to make one last trip to the cinema this year for Saipan. (I’ve never been much of a James Cameron’s Avatar fan. I’m only three quarters into the first part but I think I’m way more into Avatar The Last Airbender. Perhaps we’ll talk about that next year?

Steam Deck

I had a big decision to make after the charity stream week this year. I had to choose, and this was after the big Nintendo Direct, between the brand new Switch 2 and the Steam Deck, which has always had a huge curiosity factor for me.

It was the Deck for me in the end and it’s been a mostly-pleasant experience. It really helps during the frequent times I have to be away from my rig (which is the Enterprise, while the Deck is the Defiant, a tough little thing!). It feels nice in the hand. My hands seem to be about the ideal size for the layout. I thought I’d hate how the buttons are placed but it feels more natural to me than the Switch or even the DS ever did. The OLED screen is vibrant, and stunning if you like your 2D games and roguelikes like me, albeit it will definitely struggle on newer titles (and most online games are right out due to Linux not supporting the newer anti-cheat measures).

And it is really nice that I only have to pay for games once, given that I buy too many as it is. Deck has helped me try some new titles and given a new lease of life to some old favourites. Over Christmas I played through Trine 4 and Reignbreaker and they both felt smooth and responsive to play. The Deck will never be my daily driver but I couldn’t ask for more from a sidekick!

Dispatch

I want to get this out of the way, Hades II was my favourite game this year. We’re also far from done with it and I want to do a full write-up of it once I’ve drained the marrow from the game’s bones, but just know that I do love it even if I haven’t quite grasped it yet. I’ve gotten to Chronos and we’ll beat him but it’s going to take time. (wahey!)

If you know me, then you know I am firmly not a Critter (a fan of Critical Role). So when I heard of their involvement, I had some trepidation, which multiplied when I saw many of the main roles were played by streamers and YouTubers including Charles “MoistCr1TiKaL” White, Sean “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin and Alanan Pearce. (I’m a streamer too sometimes, I’m allowed to say this)

My doubts were not well founded. Everyone smashed it and I absolutely loved this game. You play Robert Robertson aka Mecha Man, who’s Iron Man-esque mech is destroyed in a fight with supervillains. With the suit beyond Robert’s repair, he’s approached by Blonde Blazer to work for SDN, the Superhero Dispatch Network. Specifically the Phoenix Program which is like the Suicide Squad with better PR, rehab for ex-villains who are given a chance to do some good.

On the surface the presentation has the tone of the “crass superheroes” media that has circulated on streaming TV of late. There’s bits of The Boys and Invincible in there for sure, especially in the swear-and-rude-gesture-happy dialogue. Underneath there’s the beating heart of a classic superhero story with torrid romance, teeth-clenched teamwork and gut-wrenching choices to be made along the way. It’s all wrapped up in slick presentation and with a surprisingly great soundtrack, especially “Radio”  by Bershy that plays during the housewarming party. Great game, strong recommend!

Vinyl and rediscovering old music favourites

Since I couldn’t do as many of my “active” pursuits this year, I ended up listening to even more music than usual, somehow. I have felt down on streaming music lately, like many people have, so I made a conscious choice to start buying some physical albums here and there. It’s intended to be a curated collection, just my favourites and albums that have resonated with me over the years.

So far, it’s looked a lot like Daft Punk. Discovery is my favourite album of all time so it was one of my first purchases. I was very much a metalhead teenager but Discovery gave me an appreciation not just for dance, but also funk and jazz and all that fun stuff. It encouraged me to track down where the samples originated from and from there my taste expanded exponentially. 

The Daft Punk Experience in Fortnite was my favourite of the game’s “live events” this year and it only sold me more on the fact that this band has had a legacy that will live for decades. And all this time later, Get Lucky might still be the song of the summer! 

My favourite new album of the year was Even In Arcadia by Sleep Token. I had heard of them but never listened to them before 2025. I believe my first exposure was on TikTok during an AMV of some sort. Incredible that I’m still discovering new music on those over twenty years since I first saw one. The old ways never truly die!

It was the soundtrack to my year. Mournful but unmistakably alive, dancing with tears in my eyes. I’m definitely a fan now and I look forward to whatever is next from Vessel and crew!

Hot Wheels

Not to talk too much politics here, since this is about the good stuff in 2025, but if you’re a collector like me then talk of tariffs has been inescapable. The price of action figures, especially mid-grade things aimed at collectors like Marvel Legends, have crept up to what is now beyond impulse price for me. It’s a bit of a downer, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that I have been priced out of a hobby I love.

Hot Wheels have filled that void for me. It started, as it often does, as a curiosity. My first purchase of 2025 was a Volkswagen Beetle styled to resemble Bumblebee from Transformers. If you’re going to hook me, Transformers is a good start! The price has been a huge help too. The majority of the line goes for around €2-6, with the more expensive Pop Culture lines hitting about a tenner, or cheaper on clearance. It feels a lot more responsible buying two cars and having change from a fiver than forking over €30+ for an action figure. (I’m very much grading on a curve here)

It’s also fed into me getting back into car culture as such. I have never been able to drive properly due to the medication I take, but I like lots of kids had a tub full of “dinkies”, and I’ve really reconnected with that part of me. It’s led me to pick up Rocket League again (since “car soccer” was my favourite recurring Top Gear segment), return to driving games like Forza Horizon, especially to clear my head when things get noisy, and even start watching some car creators on YouTube every now and then. Small cars but they’ve had a powerful impact on my year! 

Baking

One ever present thing in my life the last few years has been cooking courses. I’m always in search of new recipes and ways to expand my repertoire of dishes, as well as any way to make ingredients go farther and reduce waste along the way.

I completed another one fairly recently, albeit the end was called off due to weather. There was a ton of excellent food (I’ll add some pics if you missed them) but what I really loved about this course was the amount of baking. It was a joy, in particular I loved kneading dough. I felt like I processed a lot of frustration during that process. And as always, it’s great to be able to take the fruits of my labour home and feast!

One of my goals in 2026 is to do some baking live on Twitch. There’s some more steps we have to go through first but get your Bake Off memes ready for later in the year! No soggy bottoms here.

Alright, that’ll do it for 2025. A shorter line up than usual but it’s been a year that’s gone by too fast and too slow at the same time.

As far as my 2026 plans, my streaming goals are:
- 125 streams (my record in a calendar year is 121)
- Attend a convention or event (just as a punter for now!)
- A cooking or baking stream
- Set new PB for fundraising for the Irish Cancer Society
- Play a long game (over 30 hours) start-to-finish on stream

We’ll circle back to these in 12 months. Feel free to place yer bets on how many I can do!

I’m not sure if I have hope for 2026, because like it’s said in F1 The Movie, “Hope is not a strategy.” Instead, I choose to have a tiny bit of optimism for me and the people around me. It’s a hard world out there, but we can all choose to be better and do the right thing even one time every day. Sometimes it’s all you can do! Until next time, friends.

I’ve been SeanShards, and I can do this all day.