Splitgate Arena Reloaded is described as Halo with portals, plus a community that keeps calling it dead.
1. Active Reload episode 119 counts down the hosts' favorite video games played in 2025, recorded in January 2026.
2. The hosts, unnamed in the transcript, trade picks and compare top-five games with several outside-looking-in choices, or “OLIs.”
3. The episode asks which 2025 releases stuck long enough to deserve a top-five place and which ones just missed.
4. Ark Raiders appears as an OLI because one host says it is “a solid game” but not his kind of game for “hours and hours and hours.”
5. The same discussion credits Ark Raiders with doing “the impossible” by making an extraction shooter feel casual.
6. Ninja Gaiden Black 2 is described as a remaster of Ninja Gaiden 2 that “hit everything perfectly.”
7. The hosts say Ninja Gaiden Black 2 keeps a very unique anime-style action feel while still carrying some camera wonkiness from the original era.
8. Skate Story gets praise for its vibe, music, skating sound, and anti-corporate tone.
9. Holdfast is framed as a Napoleonic Wars game that becomes funny because of proximity chat and 50-versus-50 social chaos.
10. Hades is called a roguelite where the host had a “come to Zeus moment” and then hit walls that forced real improvement.
11. Specter Divide is treated as a near-favorite because it was a three-on-three shooter where each player controlled two people.
12. The hosts say Specter Divide launched undercooked on PC, later improved as Flashpoint, and still died within about 30 days.
13. Battlefield 6 divides the hosts because one says it is “eons ahead of 2042” while another says the bloom, tighter maps, and battle royale hurt it.
14. Splitgate Arena Reloaded becomes a longer debate about naming confusion, portal movement, low player counts, and whether arena shooters feel dated.
15. One host argues that Splitgate’s value comes from being “Halo with portals,” plus a community that accepts a smaller player base.
16. Rise of the Tomb Raider nearly makes the top five because the host likes the remade Tomb Raider trilogy but thinks Shadow hurt the series’ momentum.
17. The tone stays conversational and argumentative, with trailer reactions, rapid-fire game judgments, and a lot of genre comparison.
18. The format is a ranking show with back-and-forth interruptions, quick explanations, and recurring debate over what counts as a good multiplayer game.
19. Listeners who follow 2025 shooters, co-op games, and action RPGs will get the most from this episode.
20. Listeners who want a tightly edited, spoiler-free game essay may skip it.
