So here we are in the new year. How do you feel? Excited? Hungover? Ready to face the challenges that lie ahead? You’ve probably already picked a good whole-hearted New Year resolution to pursue like quitting smoking (yes, vaping still counts as smoking, as I keep telling myself), hitting the gym, or, dare we even whisper it, spending less time playing video games, and while we sincerely wish you well in those endeavours, we don’t want to hear about them.
What we really want to know is: what gaming-related resolutions are you shooting for this year? Cutting down on that backlog? Only buying games you actually want to play? Not indulging in the tribal stupidity of the console wars? Here are the New Year gaming resolutions we at DualShockers are going to solemnly pursue. What are yours?
Elijah Beahm – Features Editor
If there’s one thing 2022 has taught me, it’s to have no expectations going into 2023. Every game I thought was going to be a sure bet turned out to be a mess, one way or another. So I’m going to embrace the unexpected surprises lurking in my backlog.
I was gifted a few curiosities, and I finally have a homebrewed OG Xbox begging to be explored. Yet by the same turn, I’m going to waste far less time on titles that can’t consistently maintain their luster. Curse: The Eye of Isis might’ve been an interesting experiment, but did I really need to spend hours backtracking through that museum? There are enough hidden gems out in the world that beg to be uncovered, and not enough sunk-cost fallacies to buoy the severely tarnished ones.
Robert Zak – Lead Features Editor
My New Year Resolution is quite possibly the inverse of the typical one. Looking at my own GOTY list for 2022, I’ve come to the realisation that I, Robert Zak, am an indie wanker. With a few exceptions, I gravitate towards the indie, the strange, and the obscure (Game Pass has been a major enabler of that habit). It’s great to give worthy lesser-known games coverage of course, but it means I’ve almost entirely forgotten about playing those blockbuster Sony games that an editor on a site named after a PlayStation controller really should be playing. So more big triple-A releases for me; need to put in those hours!
Beyond that, for years I’ve had a semi-rational fear of JRPGs (ever since I bought Vagrant Story for PS1 thinking it was going to be a ‘Baldur’s Gate’ style RPG). So I’ve decided that 2023 is the year I give JRPGs another shot. I don’t know what my entrypoint will be – maybe a much-loved Final Fantasy entry, maybe Persona 5 (even though its trailers make me recoil) – but I want to get over my instinctive aversion and understand.
Hello, Robert. Your boss here. You’re now under mandate to play and beat Final Fantasy Tactics this year, I’ll accept no excuses.
Jack Coleman – Lead News Editor
Much like the right honourable Robert Zak, I too have an issue with not playing blockbuster triple-A’s as they arrive. Take one peek at my GOTY list, and you’ll find a lot of glaring omissions. I do tend to enjoy indies, but I have a separate issue, and it’s called League of Legends. I have a long history with the game, and it keeps me coming back. It’s time-consuming, with each individual game including draft lasting about 40 minutes, hampering the time I have to play other games. I won’t be dropping it by any means, but I am going to make a more concerted effort to play more games as they release. I’ve taken note of previously announced 2023 releases I may be interested in, and I plan on taking them as they come.
I’m always looking to fill out my repertoire of classic-styled RPGs in the new year. I’ve played quite a few, Pillars of Eternity, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Divinity: Original Sin, Tyranny, and more. However, there is always more to explore in this beloved genre, and I’m determined to play them all.
In my house, I’ve got three VR headsets (well, four if you count the broken OG PSVR). There’s the PSVR version 2, the original Oculus Quest, and the Quest 2. Do you know how many VR games I’ve played this year? Not nearly enough to warrant having so many bloody face goggles cluttering the shelves.
So for 2023 – and this is handy with the upcoming PSVR 2 – I’m going to play as many VR games as possible. It’s a medium I’m a big fan of; I was one of the PSVR’s most ardent supporters during its earlier days. I need to get back into my VR gaming, and hopefully it’ll tie in with my yearly new year resolution of ‘exercise more,’ which I normally fail from the morning of January 1st.
Matthew Schomer – News Editor
When I first learned that I’d landed the coolest job in the world — bringing the latest and greatest in gaming news to you, dear readers — I rewarded myself with a brand new $70 copy of Saints Row (the one that came out this year, not the good one). And then I had to play it, because I am as masochistic as I am cheap.
So, in 2023, there’ll be no more leaping before I look. The last time I subscribed to a gaming service, it was GameFly, a company that mails you a physical copy of a rental game, and then you play it, and then you send it back and order another one. It sounds ridiculous today that you’d actually have to leave your living room to get the latest game, but I really wanted to try out Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, which I ended up just buying from GameFly, keeping it, and canceling my subscription. The times, they are a changin’, and I’m getting left behind, so I think it’s finally time to finally take that leap forward, lay down a monthly fee, and walk boldly into 2017.
Jeff Brooks – Evergreen Editor
Having been a huge fan of the three mainline Witcher games, I was thrilled to check out Cyberpunk 2077 when it first launched back in 2020. I had it pre-ordered and everything! Well, with the game being the buggy mess that it was, I figured I’d just wait it out.
Fast-forward to today, just over two years later, and I hear the game is in pretty good shape now. It’s even got an enticing new DLC launching next year! Despite having a newborn and much less time for sprawling open-world games in general, I’m determined to finally boot up Cyberpunk 2077 in 2023 and see what all the fuss is about.
Kyle Knight – News Editor
I love games, obviously. I have a small addiction to buying new video games and only playing about an hour of them before buying more games, just to rinse and repeat the same process. But, can you really blame me? There are so many good games – past, present, and future.
I’m trying to stick with The Callisto Protocol, despite it being a little lacklustre. I’ve also never played The Witcher, so I was going to jump into The Witcher 3’s next-gen update as it felt like the most appropriate time. I also recently discovered Cuphead, so I’m a little bit addicted to that. But you might be thinking, okay, what’s your problem? Well, I just won’t complete any of them… that’s the problem. So, for 2023, my gaming resolution is to actually complete the games I start. Who knows, maybe in 2024 I’ll start trophy hunting and 100%-ing games too!
Damien Lykins – Managing Editor
“Play more games” is, flatly, just the biggest milquetoast answer imaginable, isn’t it? But I think it ties into a root issue that’s a bit more tolerable — I’m talking about time management, friends, readers, and fellow milquetoasts. You see, I share many of the above-mentioned groans, plus some extras: I should play more AAA titles, I should play more indie titles, I should work on my egregious time capsule of a backlog, I should finish more of the games that I start… and all of that stems for proper planning preventing my piss-poor gaming performance, doesn’t it?
It’s not as if I’m entirely divorced from my coveted multi-hour RPG marathons — I did somehow find a way to offload 500 hours of my precious life into Elden Ring this year, after all. But lately, it feels as if hot ticket items like Pentiment have eluded my allotted playtimes in favor of session-based titles I know I can get in and get out of in an hour’s time, and I’m doing myself a disservice in repeatedly falling into that trap, obviously!
