WTF Happened November 2025
For those new to this series, welcome to the November 2025 edition of What The Fuck Happened, a series where we retroactively apply importance to a whole month of news. This is a retrospective series, so it's always late, sometimes later than other times, but it serves the purpose of letting you remind yourself of all the most important gossip of the month for a wide variety of topics. For return readers, welcome back! Nice to see you all again! For all others, this is where we show the banner:
We always start with...
Business, World, and Health News
Hurricane season was thankfully missed in the States
Okay, normally, hurricanes would be the news here, but in this case, the news is we didn't have to deal with yet another hurricane. By we, I mean the Atlantic coast of the United States. According to The Verge, we dodged a bullet because the storms of this hurricane season were some of the fiercest we've seen, but nothing big got close enough to shore to do any major damage. Had that happened, I doubt we would have seen any significant government relief in those areas, and we likely would be multiplying an already dangerous combination of severe weather damage and slow relief response. We caught a break, that's for sure! Unfortunately, that 'we' isn't everyone, and we should be concerned for those in Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.
2 U.S. National Guards Shot in D.C.
On November 26, two national guard members were admitted to a hospital in critical condition after being shot near the White House in Washington D.C. (Kentucky Lantern). One day later, one of those two guards, Sarah Beckstrom, died from her injuries (NPR) at the young age of 20. The other guard, Andrew Wolfe, age 24, is reportedly making a partial recovery but healing slowly. This incident was used as a convenient excuse for Trump's administration to increase troop presence at the capitol and to pause immigration applications from "high risk" countries (USA Today). One suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, age 29, was apprehended right after the incident after being shot by a nearby officer. The suspect has pleaded not guilty. It is unclear why the suspect was shot or why they identified him as a possible suspect. It seems rather suspicious that they'd even be able to catch him if he was really the shooter. He's a trained U.S. ally who properly immigrated to the States. The narrative right now seems to be that this suspect shot 2 guards because he snapped due to PTSD. Even if that's the case, that's less a sign that Biden's "Allies Welcome" program was wrong and more a sign that we, as a country, failed this man. He wasn't properly cared for by the country that benefited most from his assistance. He deserved better from us. That said, if we want to place blame on the system or programs within the system, let's first place blame on firearms and how easily they're obtained in the States.
The longest U.S. shutdown ended!
On November 12, the longest United States government shutdown ended. We broke the record by 8 days with this shutdown lasting 43 days (BBC) over the previous record of 35 days held since 2018's shutdown which was during Trump's first term, and it wasn't even the only shutdown that year with a previous shutdown in February for only a few hours. Basically, Trump's administration oversaw the 2 longest shutdowns and the shortest shutdown. During the recent shutdown, both the house and the senate were held mostly by Republicans, so this shutdown happened mostly because it was the one way Democrats had some leverage to get something they wanted. They ended up getting insurance tax credits extended. Yeah, that's pretty much all they managed. I would have aimed for more.
Japan Anti-Censorship Policy
They're really pushing a "no interference" policy for payment processing in Japan. (Automaton) I heard about this from an Asmongold reaction video, (yes, I know he's not a great reference...) and I haven't researched the headline very deeply, but at a glance, this feels like a win for Japan and should be helpful in pushing similar policies elsewhere. I don't know about you, but I don't like being told what I can or can't buy. This comes months after the same site (Automaton) covered a political party in Japan fighting for *more* censorship. The fight is never finished. Stay vigilant!
Celebrity News
Neil Young turned 80
Neil Young, a famous musician, turned 80 on November 12 (The Star) and a special celebration was held for him at Massey Hall in Toronto.
MrBeast Land Opened in Saudi Arabia
MrBeast AKA Jimmy Donaldson, one of if not the biggest YouTuber on... well, YouTube... has gotten increasingly rich and powerful with crazier and crazier video stunts every few months. On November 13 (MSN), MrBeast opened his first theme park and announced a contest to win money in the local currency because... well, of course he did. I don't really have a good grasp on how much money was on the line, but I really liked seeing a new theme park, even if it wasn't a place I would ever go. What do you think of this craziness? Would you go? Would you go if it was in your country? I'd probably go once when the hype was still strong if I was near enough to it.
I liked Bennett Melt's coverage of the opening day. The ninja warrior style obstacle course Bennett participated in looked so much like the Kids Place from my childhood. I also appreciated the first person view which was done with similar Meta smartglasses to what I got recently. Fun to see the meta glasses being used in YT content creation. I'm gonna start using my meta glasses more....
Many people seemed to be sore about the location Jimmy chose for this theme park, but I assume it was the best he could do at the time. Everyone has limits, even Jimmy. At the end of Jimmy's main channel video for the park's opening, he expressed interest in a park in the States, closer to home. It's not like he doesn't want that.
Fun side note, Mirror, a news site I referenced for part of this news, said Jimmy had only 450 subscribers. Their very understandable typo remained unfixed to this day. I find that funny as hell. They should put the "M" back in "450M". He's currently over 453M by the way. Crazy stats follow that man.
Web & Streaming News
Meme: Endorsed Andrew Cuomo
This month was the month of supervillains endorsing Andrew Cuomo.
Defunctland showcased Nemo vehicle
Defunctland, a channel/company most prominently known in YouTube circles for its coverage of past amusement park rides and technology, posted a short vertical clip of a Nemo vehicle that appeared to be like a motorized bike with tons of extra controls and an encasement that would trigger my claustrophobia.
Mozilla shifted focus to AI features
Mozilla, creators of the Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client, have recently been shifting their focus from security, accessibility, and you know, normal stuff, to AI support. They released an article on November 20 titled "Rewiring Mozilla: Doing for AI what we did for the web" (Mark Surman, Distilled) that stated that Mozilla was as focused on humanity as ever but the whole article was about steering AI in the right direction rather than what most of humanity truly wants: to ban generative AI slop altogether.
New & Returning Shows & Movies November 2025
We got the final trailer for Stranger Things season 5 part one and the first half of the 5th season was released soon after. The characters have aged, but the show still feels fresh. I'm excited to see the conclusion late into December and into the new year!
The Smashing Machine released to VOD on November 4. I didn't bother going to see this in a theater setting, unlike the big Marvel stuff, and I felt like a lot of others probably did the same, so I felt it was worth mentioning this movie is watchable at home.
Predator: Badlands had its theatrical release on November 7.
The Running Man released in theaters exclusively on November 14 with its VOD scheduled for a month later. This movie looks fun, and I plan on watching it very soon at home.
Wicked: For Good theatrically released on November 21. I only made it halfway into the previous Wicked movie before my family got tired of it, but now that we have a conclusion in this sequel, I might revisit them both soon with a back-to-back showing.
On the same day as the Wicked sequel, we saw Rental Family, which featured Brendan Fraser, one of my all-time favorite actors.
Zootopia 2 came out November 26, and it was pretty good!
Avatar: Fire and Ash comes out December 19. This is not related to Avatar: The Last Airbender! Still, it looks promising. I'll likely watch this one at homesimply because it is coming at a time when the budget is stretched paper thin.
Gaming News
WOW Housing!
Coming December 2 to World of Warcraft: housing! Player-owned houses. They'll probably be cool... but those still playing that game after all these years.
New Video Games November 2025
November 5, Street Fighter's Chun Li showed up in an update for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. (Steam)
I personally don't like this version of Chun Li. She looks off. The
trailer promo video for the character had cringe all over it, not just
in the dialogue but also in how she touches nips with her opponent. A
lot of low hanging fan service bullshit. That said, it's kind of cool
for Chun Li to be in this universe, and her move set will be fun for
fighting game enthusiasts. Fatal Fury is a staple franchise, though, and
it doesn't exactly innovate gameplay.
November 5 also saw the release of a free-to-play Sonic party game titled Sonic Rumble (Steam). This looks surprisingly good for a freebie. Might be worth checking out if you have friends.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment released November 6 on Switch 2. Forgive me if I don't jump with glee for this. It's not a mainline Zelda game, and it doesn't give Zelda fans what they truly want: puzzle dungeons. That said, it looks fun as a side thing, and I may get it on sale someday. :)
November 13 saw the release of ANNO 117: Pax Romana, which was a game my wife and I insta-bought, but apparently, it utilized generative AI art for some features, which was odd for such a game to do and such a shame, because it tarnishes an otherwise beautiful game that could have stood on its own with non-AI artists. Ubisoft claimed the AI art was meant to be placeholders but slipped into the release build. However, Ubisoft never fixed this, and they just left the AI art in there, easily visible. The game had a lot of art contests well before release, which makes me wonder if maybe Ubisoft knew they were low on artists in their staff and tried crowdsourcing the labor before relying on generative AI. There are many articles out there documenting the AI art.
Upcoming: Guild Wars Reforged
ArenaNet announced (link to YT announcement trailer) November 18 that Guild Wars 1 would be remastered as Guild Wars Reforged and has a scheduled release date of December 3. Players who already owned the original GW1 and its expansions would get this remaster as a free upgrade either via their own store and through Steam. That means it's basically the same game. No progression wipe. Just massive visual improvements and a few QOL features, like Steam Deck support.
Valve Announced New Hardware!
Valve
dropped an announcement video for their upcoming Steam Machine revival,
new Steam Controller 2.0 and new VR kit, the Steam Frame! You can check
out their official promo page for some details to drool over. There's no confirmed price yet, but the release date was confirmed to be 'early' next year.
The Steam Frame headset is definitely my VR upgrade path whenever it comes out. The controllers look surprisingly good, though I will want to get hand straps for them. I want that Valve Index feel, ya know! The headset has built-in eye tracking that may actually get utilized unlike all my previous eye tracking enabled headsets.
The revived Steam Machine
looks like a Gamecube, and that's a compliment. It's very compact and in a square-like shape. It also supports many custom configurations, including a recently promoted companion cube skin by dbrand.
I want to get one of these for my wife, because she's currently using a Legion Go as her daily driver, and it's starting to get on her nerves sometimes when she has to use it for a desktop experience. The Legion Go is powerful for a handheld, but once you start looking to play modern games on it, it gets a little limited and can lead to wishing you were on a dedicated GPU with a beefier cooler.
Virtual Reality News
New VR Games November 2025
Of Lies and Rain came out November 4. I mentioned this title last month, so I won't go into much detail, but this is a very highly anticipated title.
Forefront came out on November 6. This is yet another large scale multiplayer military shooter with support for 16 vs 16 player battles. Some will find it awesome, I'm sure, but I was done with military games after Standout and Onward. I've simply had my fill. I want Halo-like scifi shooters with the same focus on massive battles. Please and thank you.
Innkeeper VR came to Steam on November 14 and looks kind of like an asset flip but may be really fun.
Deadpool VR came out November 18 as a Meta exclusive. I was mildly interested in this game until I watched others play it and noticed it was kind of dull most of the time with some good moments sprinkled in. The visuals were definitely held back by the hardware, too. I will wait for a PCVR port.
Roboquest VR came to Steam on November 20! The non-VR version of this game was awesome, so I can't wait to try the VR port.
Upcoming VR Games
Deadly Delivery comes out December 4 on Steam! I got early access to this game but put off trying it to play it with friends who never got the game. I'll definitely try it solo if I must, but it seems like the type of game that's a ton more fun with friends. This is one title I'm excited to play!
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow also releases on December 4! We eatin' this Winter!
Cave Crave, a game previously released on Meta, makes its Steam debut on December 12. This could be a really great climbing experience, but I have doubts it will have much in terms of gameplay challenges.
Banners & Bastions comes out December 15 for Meta Quest 3/3S.
Zero Caliber is coming to PSVR2 on December 16.
Another sandbox social app experience akin to VRChat or Neos comes out December 19 titled PoligonVR. This one seems like it won't get a lot of attention but should be interesting for how its integration with Unity works.
HyperSkate doesn't have an exact date yet, but it still says "2025" on the Steam page.
VR Deal: Forewarned 70% Off
At time of writing this article, Forewarned is only $3.89 or 70% off on Steam. Great multiplayer survival horror experience with a unique setting. Grab it while it's on sale!
Tech News
Linux Kernel 6.18
Linux kernel version 6.18 released November 30. (LinuxAllDay) This version comes with major support enhancements for Apple products like the M2 series. Apple users looking to move to Linux should take notice.
New Comics Service/Reader: InkyPen
Check it out on Steam. It's a free desktop app. I thought it looked quite nice. I haven't tried to read any custom files on it yet, but there's a lot of free content included. Note that the manga selection is very limited but the comic selection is somewhat decent. I would not recommend the subscription to anyone in its current state, but it seems like a promising reader app. I hope the devs keep working on it and focus more on the reader app than the subscription service, because most of what I want to read is not going to be on their service, anyway.
Anycubic Photon P1
Anicubic launched a Kickstarter campaign for an upcoming resin printer that got funded to 900% of its goal within 3 days. The campaign launched with a giveaway as well that said if you backed in the first 48 hours, you'd automatically be entered in a drawing to win one of 2 $499 refunds, which would make the printer essentially free while allowing the winners to pay for the extras they want.
The printer itself looks promising with a dual-material system that lets you split the resin vat into two smaller vats to print using two different materials at the same time. This is pretty unique for a resin printer and something I think makes a ton of sense. However, it's also complete optional and can be ignored if you prefer to print large stuff. That said, it could help a ton with multi-material designs, and the clean-up system seems a lot easier than what I'm used to.
The advertising would also have you believe this printer is more reliable than most printers, though I would take that with a grain of salt.
The printer is scheduled to start shipping as soon as January of next year! That's only one month away, which would be a red flag if it was a lesser known company, but Anycubic has a phenomenal track record with both printers and crowdfunding campaigns.
Before the Kickstarter campaign, Anycubic had a deposit option through their website to reserve one of these printers for $10. The reservations have so far been honored and promise those who reserved with a deposit an ultra early deal of $450, $50 less than the super early bird deal. (Yahoo!)
Game Dev & Art Asset News
ShapeLab x Blender Art Contest!
One of my all-time favorite VR art tools, ShapeLab, hosted an art contest in November which ended its entry period on November 30. The theme and title was "Darkest Night of the Year," and the goal was to make something using both Blender and ShapeLab. I managed to devote a few hours to my own entry before the time was up. Thinking of a good project idea that fits this theme was tricky. I ended up sculpting a diorama scene which I took into Blender to do the lighting and rendering for.
Below is a screenshot of the prizes shown on the contest details page.
While I'm not super interested in the prizes, I still attempted to enter the contest because I like ShapeLab and Blender and wanted to participate for the fun of it! I didn't manage to get my entry done, so I won't be part of the prize drawing, but at least I tried, and by participating, I learned that ShapeLab's voxel tools are getting really reliable! I've decided to finally ditch Masterpiece VR's legacy app in favor of ShapeLab and will be using ShapeLab more frequently going forward.
Unity x Epic Games Partnership
Unity
and Epic Games, the owner of Unity's direct rival, Unreal, have
partnered to support advertising and publishing across ecosystems. Unity
devs will be able to use Unity to publish content to Fortnite. This was
never on my Unity bingo card.
Closing story?
The closing story last month was Halloween costumes... and Buddy the elf winning a pumpkin boat race... but this month, I'd like to change it up once more and focus on video game mods. Modders have always brought new life to old tales and old game engines. One game that has seen a lot more love from the modding community than I'd expect is Super Mario 64. I recall making custom levels for SM64 decades ago, but some modders are making entirely new games out of SM64 even today.
It's
honestly crazy how much work went into the Mario's Modules mod for
example. This mod is still in active development, but it's playable and
is even open source on GitHub. It's crazy to think this modder, Rovertronic,
is doing this instead of making their own game that they could actually
sell. Nintendo should hire this guy or at least license him to do
official work.
That's just the tip of the iceberg! SM64 has a huge modding community and a website dedicated to full game mods called SM64Games! Nintendo, make SM64 modding an official thing. It could help you in the long run to build good faith with an audience you lost touch with. Make amends for all the anti-piracy BS and fake physical games you put people through, Nintendo.
Winter
is here... but my watch shall not end. These articles will keep
coming on a monthly basis, and soon, we will be placing these articles
on their own website with some cool new features. If you like what I'm
doing and wish to
support my work, buy some merch or buy me a taco...
or buy something from Amazon through one of my referral links or just share the articles on social media. Every
little contribution adds up and helps keep me motivated to work on this
monthly recap and blog in general. I'm not going to quit if you don't pitch in, mind you. 
Leech away!
I'll see you all next year. Happy New Year in advance!
