A new year has finally dawned and its coming marks a great chance to look back and reassess our gaming habits over the last 12 months. Whether it’s looking for better ways to find pleasure in games or cleaning out the closet, here are five ways we’re looking to improve our gaming in the coming year.
Gaming New Year’s Resolutions 2019
1. Finish our back catalogue
It’s a common guilt of gamers that they’ll continue to buy new games as their pile of unplayed or unfinished releases climbs every higher. No matter how many excellent games we have waiting for us to open them, it’s hard to resist the new and exciting game that’s the talk of the town (or Twitter at least). What better time, then, to return to these overlooked games than a fresh new year?
Look, we know we said we’d do this last year, but this time we really mean it. It can’t be that hard to sit down and just play some games. This year round we think it’s a fair rule to only include games from the last year that we didn’t play and/or finish. That way we should definitely be able to get through them, This year we’ve only got to complete Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, God of War, Spider-Man and... Is that the Resident Evil 2 remake on the way? Oh dear…
2. Leave our comfort zone
It’s easy to find ourselves a niche in gaming and stick with it — we’re a sucker for FPS and western RPGs — but that means missing out on so many exciting titles. 2017 saw the gaming world go mad for visual novels with Doki Doki Literature Club, while 2018 had Dragon Quest 11 receive universal praise. While we’re not sure we’ve got 100+ hours for an epic JRPG, the range of excellent indie games from all genres hitting platforms like the Switch means we have no excuses not to expand our gaming horizons.
3. Relax a bit more
If Red Dead Redemption 2 has taught us anything, it’s that it’s okay to just chill for a bit. In a world of endless action and icon-filled world maps, RDR2’s slow pace was a breath of fresh air. Hunting, robbing and exploring, it all takes patience and attention in Red Dead. While that was understandably off-putting to many, it has reminded us to kick back once in a while and actually devote our time and attention to a single task. It’s a cathartic activity, and if we’re feeling particularly relaxed then those long mission rides in the cinematic camera are the perfect chance for a quick kip.
4. Get good at Smash again
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate helped close out 2018 in style, breathing new life into the best fighting game series around (yeah, we said it). We’ve been fans of Smash for a long time and even got pretty decent at Melee many moons ago. With Ultimate’s step up in pace from Smash 4 there’s no better time to get those GameCube controllers clacking once more and shape up our competitive skills. Now if only Nintendo would fix the online matchmaking...
5. Finally finish The Witcher 3
Yes, it came out in 2015. Yes, we’re still playing it. The Witcher 3 is a truly spectacular game, easily deserving of the many GOTY awards it won. Despite that we’ve somehow never quite managed to commit to it fully. In the final months of 2018 we finally reached Toussaint and the final, Blood & Wine DLC, and we’re pretty sure it’s time to put this one to bed. We’ve got this. We hope.
How are you planning to change in 2019? Let us know your gaming New Year’s Resolutions in the comments below. We’ll see you in a year’s time for a check up!
