Y'all, where did 2025 go? I remember sitting here at this same desk, telling everybody how I couldn't wait to get Grand Theft Auto 6 in my hands. That's just one indicator of how the year often unfolds way differently than we planned. In December, App Trigger is taking a look back at the stories that defined the year in gaming. Longtime readers will probably remember some of these, while others are hearing about them for the first time. Either way, join us as we walk down memory lane, won't you?
The internet's worst citizens are as predictable as they are sad. Once Assassin's Creed Shadows revealed that its main characters were a woman and a Black man, suddenly, hundreds of people got their doctorate in Japanese history. This game would go woke and go broke, but that's not what happened at all.
It was always ridiculous to begin calling for rigorous historical accuracy in a franchise that has assassins and templars fighting over alien technology, while one of their descendants uses a device that reads his DNA allowing him to relive their adventures.
Shadows currently sits at a Metacritic rating of 81, or generally favorable. It garnered a million players on launch day, second only to the juggernaut that was AC Valhalla. Considering all the numerous problems going on Ubisoft, these numbers are nothing short of miraculous.
The game has continued to get great content, including a crossover with Attack on Titan and the well-received Claws of Awaji expansion. It's another great installment at a time when publisher Ubisoft desperately needed it.