Annual reviewWe look back at the ups, downs, surprises and special features in and around video games this year.Game resolutions? Well, I hope I can really do 4K all-in for … wait a minute. What’s this? Ah, my editor tells me that we more or less cracked this exact joke last year. And that it’s bad. And that I should feel bad (I regret nothing.)
New Year is usually a time of new beginnings and harmonized perspectives. “New Year, New You”, all that jazz. However, this year it is difficult to muster such optimistic pomp. Comprehensive resolutions – travel, hit the gym, find work-life balance, pretend you’re a tourist in your own town – are off the table right now. No one can say for sure when life as we know it will be again life as we know it, so such brazen explanations are fraught with problems to say the least. But video games are total Hm, fair play. (I still have no regrets.)
“I will play more games,” my colleague Ethan Gach tells me. “I say this every year, but this time I’m serious. This means that you’ll have to play fewer games to complete, especially large, padded open-world games, and spend less time doing the same missions over and over in endless looters like Fate 2. It also means limiting online multiplayer sessions to the times that I actually have friends to play with. How many super-short indie games could I have tried in the two hours it took me to lose places while playing Missile league Solo? But mostly this means less pointless scrolling on my phone. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are always a race as I try to catch up on all of the games that everyone has been telling all year round that they are wonderful and it sucks. The holidays should be a time to relax and get a perspective on life, rather than pulling out Finale-like cram sessions as I head out on an eggnog-dominated death march. I love games. I want to play more games. In 2021 I will finally do it. “
“I’d really like to spend less time reading about games and more time playing them,” says my colleague Alexandra Hall. “I find it so difficult to start things, but when I get over that initial hump I’ll be good. Somehow last week I managed to watch and enjoy five movies, invest 35 hours and count Demon souls. Maybe I have some momentum! I also want to try more short and indie games instead of letting them rot forever in my Steam Let’s Try ♥ category. “
“My resolution is to actually finish the games I play,” says my colleague Ash Parrish. “I really have the games too, Really I perceive I come to the end and stop for no reason to think about. Maybe I’m unconsciously afraid of my good times coming to an end, or I just play so much that I naturally get tired and move on just before the end. But in 2021 I will be crediting more games. “I am also plagued by this inexplicable curse and will try to play more games next year.
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I will start by finishing Mass effect 2 (for the first time), really, I promise and will play it through again when the Legendary edition rolls around as part of a wacky shot from the original plus trilogy Andromeda before the next Mass effect Drops. I would also like to play online with more of my friends. Outside of a rage Department 2 In the spring of this year, I didn’t do enough to curate a group of friends. If couch coop remains banned for much of the next year, as it has been for much of this year, these social connections would be very welcome. Anyway, please let me know if you want to play any Outrider in February!
I am impressed with too this Leigh Alexander column We came to the day a decade ago and examined some general resolutions for gaming. Some of the proper names date from that time (see: FarmVille) but the core advice is still good: don’t judge anyone’s tastes, live by the golden rule, diversify your interests, remember that games are human made, and most importantly, have fun with this stuff . I know I can handle some of these better – especially the last one. We all could to some extent.
Okay, your turn How do you hope to play, feel and think about games differently next year? When the clock strikes midnight, what goals – high or grounded, game related, or why not more generally – will you be pursuing through 2021?
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