It’s funny to think how, just seven short years ago, we were sketching out our video game resolutions for 2021. Now we’re back at it, planning our hopes and dreams for how we’ll play and think about games in 2022.
Last year, I said I’d play more games with friends online, recouping some social connections that were lost to the perils of 2020. For the most part, I did that. In the spring, I sunk hours into Outriders. In the fall, I did the same with Back 4 Blood. My winter thus far has been defined by Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode, which has reinvigorated the Halo community. Its free-to-play model has no doubt turned newcomers onto the game, and I’ve found myself not just playing with old gaming pals but actually making new ones, too.
I also said I’d finish Mass Effect 2 for the first time. (I did, but messed it up, leaving half my squad dead.) I said I’d do it a second time, too, for its spruced up re-released as part of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. (I didn’t, and am still sitting on a save file ahead of the final mission, for fear of messing it up and killing half my squad.) The goal here, essentially, was to run through the trilogy, plus Mass Effect: Andromeda, before whatever the next Mass Effect is called comes out. Yes, that game is in development at BioWare, but there’s not even the barest hint of a release window — meaning I’ve…got some time.
So, besides me lazily recycling one of my resolutions from last year, what’s on the docket for next year?
“My gaming resolution is simply to play more, especially smaller indie games,” Kotaku staff editor Lisa Marie Segarra tells me. “I made much more time for games like Unpacking or Overboard! this year, and they were such a joy to break up longer titles.”
“My resolution is simple: finish more games!,” says Kotaku staff writer Jeremy Winslow. “I’ve got the longest backlog, with games dating back to, like, 2017 that I’d love to beat. My problem, though, is I quickly bounce off one game and land on another. So, for 2022, I just wanna actually finish the games I start.”
Personally, I’d like to KonMari my completionist mindset. That’s not to say I don’t want to see all a game has to offer, or hit the credits for every game I start. I do. But if I stop to sniff every single rose in, say, February’s Horizon Forbidden West, I’ll have no time for the truly mind-boggling lineup of cool-looking games also planned for February (not to mention the rest of the year). I’d also like to at least consider dabbling in PC games, an ecosystem of gaming I’m woefully unfamiliar with. Maybe the recently delayed Steam Deck is the easy way in?
At the end of the day, we should all be proud that, throughout this post, I didn’t once crack a silly, derivative one-liner about my resolution being 4K or 1440p or something. That’s what we call character progress — and is proof alone that we’re all capable of accomplishing our goals. So share yours!
Happy new year, Kotaku.
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