MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Let's talk video games now. We are only in July, and already there have been some great game releases this year. So we've asked some of our NPR colleagues to share their favorites. First game up, an indie puzzle game called Blue Prince.
GRAHAM REBHUN, BYLINE: My name is Graham Rebhun, and I am a software engineer on the publishing team at NPR. It's one of those crazy puzzle games that always seems to have another thread that you haven't pulled on yet. You're basically exploring this huge mansion that your rich uncle left to you, and each room you open has unique activities, resources to grab and hints and clues about how everything in the house works and how you fit into the story that's being told through all of the letters and notes and things around the house. By the time I finished the first part of the game - and yes, there are many layers to Blue Prince - I had several notebook pages filled with notes and diagrams, which, for me, is the sign of a good puzzle game.
KELLY: Next, we're going to hear about a highly anticipated sequel from gaming legend Hideo Kojima.
ANGEL CARRERAS, BYLINE: Death Stranding 2 is a very stupid game, and I mean that in the most endearing way possible.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH")
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: (As character) This is the cargo you need to deliver. Be sure to get it to its destination in one piece. It's an excellent idea to place the most important cargo in your backpack.
CARRERAS: My name is Angel Carreras. I'm a assistant producer at NPR. This whole game, people call it a walking simulator - derogatory. This is actually a positive thing. I think it's - what game is going to have you think about terrain and the lives of people and the things you're bringing them? Never before have I been like, oh, my God, I got to get this medicine to these people, or I got to deliver this pizza to this poor guy. And on top of that, you're fighting these, like, beings that are crossing from death into our world. And it's just - I don't know, man. You just have to play it yourself. That's really all I can say.
KELLY: OK. So if you are maybe looking for a game with a more epic storyline, you can try Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
KAITY KLINE, BYLINE: I'm Kaity Kline. I'm an associate producer with Morning Edition and Up First. It's like, when people say, like, video games are art, I think that they specifically mean games like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33")
BILLIE FULFORD-BROWN: (As Sophie) You're fighting to change things.
KLINE: There's not one thing about the game that I can pinpoint as my absolute favorite because I think it's just, like, perfection across the board. I think the characters are so well developed. I think the writing is so good. The art, the fighting, the - just, like, everything - the story, the plot. And, like, I almost never restart a game as soon as I finish it. But for this one, I wiped my tears and just immediately started over because I think there's so many things that you didn't notice your first playthrough that suddenly have so much meaning the second go around, and I wanted to just see every little thing that I missed. Yeah. It's like, just wherever you think the story is going to go, you're wrong.
KELLY: We have got tons more video game recommendations from our staff and some tabletop games, too. You can check out our full mid-2025 games roundup at npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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