When I brought 2024’s entertainment round-up to a close, I told myself that I wouldn’t have a whole lot of bold new plans for the subsequent year – maybe some new hardware would be purchased, but I wasn’t pointing at notable 2025 videogames and films as things that I would be eager to check out. Subsequently, as I write the inaugural Qazi’s Disposable 2025 draft, I realise that the last twelve months have been as much about tackling my bucket list as they’ve been about following current news – however, I feel like there have still been some notable things worth talking about.
Qazi’s Disposable 2025: Watching
My film-watching time this year has admittedly been taken up with a number of rewatches; my long-standing admiration for the Robocop and Back to The Future films will inevitably make me postpone any “new” viewings to a later date. However, I still managed to make time for some first-time viewings; I watched a TV broadcast of Top Gun: Maverick that delivered on emotive relationships as effectively as it showcased hi-octane dogfights – whilst not the most cerebral movie, it was a fitting follow-up to the original, and impressed me enough to buy the two-film box set about a month later. (It also has a sizeable runtime stretching over two hours, but uses the time well.) Similarly, I watched the recent Naked Gun reboot in late November, and admired the rapid-fire nature of its continuous gags and punchlines. Neeson adopted the role of Drebin better than I could have imagined, and whilst some jokes were a bit weak, the standouts more than made up for any lapse in entertainment. (Five words: “did you get all that?”)
Another first-time viewing that I caught on Prime Video was 2008’s Wanted, or “what happens when a director watches Jeff Lew’s Killer Bean animations and has access to Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy.” It was delightfully absurd but impressive in its spectacle – with bullets deflecting one another and bending around corners, it could have seemed so phony and fantastical. However, the fact that the story plays it straight means that you remain engaged in the nonsense. Elsewhere, perhaps one of the most curious films I watched for the first time was Lost In Translation. Following the lives of two individuals (played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson) who cross paths and slowly develop an unexpected bond, the story is very loose – it could almost be a montage of short films that someone decided to stitch together into a full movie – but it manages to remain touching and bittersweet. Every conversation and chance meeting was interesting, and I enjoyed following the pair; wondering where the events of the day would take them. I totally understand the criticisms of there being “no story”, but I still think that it has compelling characters and emotions that are capable of drawing you in.
(I’d also like to give an honourable mention to Ballerina – the spin-off movie from the John Wick universe – which I only got around to watching shortly before submitting this article. I had already watched the four main movies in the series with mixed admiration for them, and even though Ballerina cast the spotlight on a new protagonist, it offered a compelling revenge tale that was every bit as engaging as the mainline Wick movies. I’d definitely be keen to see more movies with de Armas as the lead…)
Qazi’s Disposable 2025: Listening
In 2025 I cancelled my Tidal subscription in an effort to reduce the amount of monthly digital services I’m paying for online, and instead I’ve just been following accounts of artists, DJs and labels on social media – as well as visiting my favourite specialist channels on YouTube. Generally speaking, it hasn’t been a huge loss for me; I guess I miss the high quality output of Tidal in comparison to playing tracks from YouTube, but in terms of discovery I’ve still been able to find lots of new music without being subscribed to a streaming platform. (Also, the better YouTube videos tend to link to Bandcamp and Soundcloud URLs in the description, so it’s not like I’ve had to tolerate YouTube quality and adverts all of the time.) In my round-up for last year I mentioned Vision Radio – the radio show available on the Vision Recordings YouTube channel – and the show has continued to be a great resource for discovering new bass music. The channel for Fokuz Recordings has also offered lots of chilled drum ‘n’ bass music – but I’ll admit that when I’m trying to catch up with all of their uploads in one sitting it can be hard for a single track to really stand out and make an impression.
I listened to a few albums with varying results – Flava D’s Here & Now had plenty of fun vibes with genuinely great vocals on the tracks; in contrast, Royksopp’s True Electric was a bit forgettable – that being said, I listened to way more EPs and singles. In particular, Vodkah and Dr. Khan released some excellent drum ‘n’ bass tunes with After Midnight and Habanera; the combined efforts of Mitekiss, Subten and Charlotte X dropped a gorgeous vocal D&B offering with Golden Hour, and Phil:osophy evoked the Chrono Trigger soundtrack with its dreamy Xanadu. I would never have imagined that the forest music from Square’s RPG would complement a D&B rhythm so well, but it’s incredibly effective. And whilst these aren’t technically albums, I’ll offer honourable mentions to a couple of other releases. For one, we had 3RMX82 – this followed the Machinedrum album 3FOR82 and includes brilliant instrumentals of tracks such as Zoom and Rise. (When I think about how desperate I used to be for instrumental versions of those two songs, I’ll consider this a win.) I’ll also give props to Planet Mu 30, a compilation of music from artists on the Planet Mu label, containing various tunes from 1995 to 2025 and releasing on physical media as well as MP3 – so I was fortunate enough to pick this up on CD. All of my listening has been possible with the same tech I mentioned in my 2024 round-up, but there’s nothing that I really consider old or broken enough to change at the moment.
Qazi’s Disposable 2025: Playing
At the end of 2024, my round-up of the year in gaming covered a few fresh new RPGs as well as some older classics – this year, my main focus has been drawn solely towards the classics. There hasn’t really been a massive hit game from 2025 that has caught my attention (I still struggle with Hades 1 too much to justify considering the sequel, and I have this irrational fear that I just won’t vibe with whatever Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has to offer) – I played Shinobi: Art of Vengeance for a while, but even that got a bit tiresome thanks to some lengthy boss sequences and a move away from the classic linear levels. Instead, I’ve been making up for lost time by getting around to some older hits, and it’s generally helped me to enjoy the year at my own pace. You know, instead of chasing the latest trends at launch day prices so that I can throw meaningless contributions into The Discourse. Ahem.
If nothing else, I’m pleased that I’ve removed a few more games from my lifetime bucket list. I bought Final Fantasy IX in a sale after seeing some excellent retrospectives, and I was immediately captivated by the charming characters, the fantasy setting and the way that equipment can unlock abilities. The difficulty was generally perfect for my own pace, and the music had some standout tracks such as the brash Iifa Tree theme. I finally experienced Earthbound – I’ve wanted to play through this ever since I’ve been able to emulate SNES games, and over June I ultimately faced Giygas and watched the credits. (I honestly found some elements of the game a struggle, such as the inventory limit and a few of the status ailments, but pushing enemies into the instant-kill threshold makes progress smoother.) And in December I managed to squeeze in a first playthrough of Transistor – it had some tough encounters, but the narration, soundtrack and presentation kept drawing me back.
And of course, there was Dark Souls Remastered. This was a game that had been built up by fans for over a decade, and even though I disliked some of the runs from bonfire to boss – that, and I generally prefer the vibe of something like Bloodborne – I’ll admit that there is something to enjoy in this game. I still find the repeat trips through the Undead zones kind of fatiguing at the start of the game, but eventually the pacing and variety improves… even if it does peak early at Anor Londo. It’s telling that I’m already considering yet another playthrough in 2026 – the more you play the game, the more you get to know the boss battles… and so challenges that seemed insurmountable become mere formalities as you enjoy the journey.
Bonus content: Streaming in 2025
With Twitch imposing its 100hr limit for highlights, I haven’t really been keen to stream long games over the year. I know that last year I set up the streaming bit of “Qazi’s Disposable 2025” by hinting at ambitious plans – I wanted to do a full livestream of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, even though I know that the game can be a bit grindy in places – but these were duly cancelled. I have been considering YouTube as a home for streaming, but I would want to set up a dedicated channel rather than stream to an existing one. I’ve also been trying to think of other games that would be short enough to justify streaming, but I haven’t made any definite plans for the moment. (Aside: my streaming setup has generally been well-behaved this year; my bitrate and quality settings have prevented any dropped frame catastrophes, and I’m happy with the current solution for audio offset. Of course, part of the setup will inevitably break for no reason in the future, but I just want to enjoy this while it lasts.)
2026 in entertainment
With the ceremonies for Qazi’s Disposable 2025 drawing to a close, I have a few things that I’d like to do over the next twelve months. For starters, I want to try and have another relatively cheap year, so I may continue to look at older games and films. I’d like to play some “7 out of 10”s such as Sonic Frontiers and Stranger of Paradise, my usual group of music channels on YouTube will continue to receive regular visits, and I may consider the Blu-Ray releases of the Nobody and M3GAN sequels. At the same time, I’ll still want to follow current news (the more Persona 4 Revival media is revealed, the better) so I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the new and the… slightly old, in 2026. Until then, thanks for any time you’ve spent reading our articles, and make sure that you check out Dan’s Disposable 2025 as well.