Backlog goals
The first week of January is always one of my favourite times of the year. It’s a time for making plans, setting goals, thinking about all the cool new games I’ll be playing over the next 12 months (while also looking nervously at the pile of games I missed over thelast12 months and placing them very, very gingerly on the teetering and totteringly tall pile of my backlog). And, of course, making some new year’s resolutions. Traditionally, I don’t often set myself too many resolutions - I always give myself a reading goal (35 books is what I’m aiming for this year), for example, but the rest I usually play pretty fast and loose with - more ‘nice to haves’ rather than ‘musts’, I’d say.
Alice Bee:I want to play more small, bitesize, weird games – basically, to become Alice0. Last year I was on the Big Games beat, so I played and reviewed a bunch of huge games, and then spent the free time I had playing PowerWash Sim because it calms me. So, games that I can play in a few hours – even under an hour? Yes pls.
I’d also like to play more non-violent games that are non-violent in ways beyond the ‘wholesome’ array of growing and making pastel things. I don’t really know what it means, but I suppose I’ll know it when I see it. And finally, I might try to understand deckbuilders. I’m not a greatstrategy gameplayer because I play for instant wins, i.e. make damage number go up (which is why I am okay atRPGs, because playing DPS is an allowed-for role). Is it a valid tactic in deckbuilders? I don’t know! It doesn’t seem to be in the way I play. I need to Dr. Kawashima this shit to avoid FOMO around the next Slay The Spire.
Ollie:This year, I want to get extremely good at any game that isnotaFPSorSoulslike. This is my year for unlocking every squad in Into The Breach, for reaching the end of Baldur’s Gate 3, for beating my brother at Age Of Empires II. At the very least, I shall try to not spendallmy free time playingElden RingorHunt: Showdown.
Katharine:It may surprise you to learn that I’ve never actually played a GTA game before, so one of my resolutions this year is to completeGTA 5in the run-up to the inevitable hype aroundGTA 6. Other games on my homework pile also includeDragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and finally,finallyplayFinal Fantasy 16. Relatedly, another idea I have kicking around is trying to make a more concerted effort to tackle my backlog, which may or may not result in a new column of some kind depending on how successful I am at, err, building up a backlog of things to write about. Funny how these things come around, isn’t it?
If anything, I’d like to bring my gaming habits back to the days of Xbox 360, where I’d mainline something for aeons, and where I’d spend quality time with games on a machine which didn’t have an enormous library of tabs and distractions. If I miss something, I miss something, but hey, at least I might give one or two games a real go. Wish me luck.
It’s a tricky line to walk for specialist press, of course, because we rely on the volume of interest those mega-productions generate for our livelihoods (and the games in question may be interesting and well-made). I guess my personal victory objective as a writer in this space is to get to a point where something like Starfield rocks up and we can say “eh, we don’t need to write about that”, without any particular animosity. Beyond that, I’m always trying to develop my understanding of how production conditions are reflected in the thing you play. I want to be better at identifying symptoms of overwork, for example, in the make-up of any given open world game. I’d like to better understand the relationship between video games and the military. Oh, and to chuck in something a bit less Worthy: I’m always keen to try out outlandish approaches to RPG combat and dungeons. Stuff likeCataphract OI.
