Topic: Gaming Resolutions for the New Year 2025

Didn't know if you were going to make a new thread for 2025 @Th3solution and I couldn't wait to write down my resolutions for the new year, so I decided to create one now.

Feel free to share your gaming resolutions and if you want, come back here every few months to update your progress through the year.

I'll start us off:

1) Finish 50 games (but it's okay to give up on some)

Pretty much the same as my resolution from last year, but with the key difference being that it doesn't have to be games from my backlog. I finished a couple of games on subscription services and I want those to count as well.

2) Finish 5 games that I've been wanting to play through for a long time

So there are some games that I've been wanting to play through for a long time but I've either had a hard time getting around to playing them or I've played a huge chunk of them but never finished them. So I figured I'd make a resolution in order to help motivate me to finally play them. The ones I want to play are:

• Skyrim
• Borderlands 2
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
• Metal Gear Solid 5
• Xenoblade Chronicles

In the case of MGS5 and Xenoblade, I've played them for 40 and 30 hours respectively. I lost my save file for MGS5 and I stopped playing Xenoblade on 3DS in favour of the Switch version.

3) Finish at least 10 games on PS+ Extra/Premium

So I bought a year of PS+ Premium during Black Friday and in order to feel like I got my money's worth from the purchase, I want to finish at least 10 games on the service this year.

4) Play more Souls-like games

Back in 2016, I played through Dark Souls and Bloodborne but ever since then, I haven't touched this subgenre. I really want to get into it for real. There are also so many titles I want to play in general, such as Dark Souls 3 and NiOh. So my goal is to play more games from this subgenre this year.

I finally completed my quest to get every Yakuza platinum last year, including some bonus ones because I got second Platinum Trophies for the PS4 versions of Like a Dragon, LAD Gaiden, and LAD Infinite Wealth.

So this year is going to be me finally doing my Final Fantasy playthrough where I play every Final Fantasy game. I got the Pixel Remaster thing for Christmas so I'm good to go. Perhaps I'll even Platinum every Final Fantasy, although I've already got VII, VIII, X, XII, and XV so that will take the edge off a bit. At least until I have to do the jump rope thing in IX.

Anyway, my resolutions I guess are...

1. Finish every single player Final Fantasy.
2. Get the platinum in Persona 4 Golden - I've done most of it, I just need to finish it.
3. Actually play some of the old games on the Switch Online thing.
4. Go back to Tears of the Kingdom and finish it.
5. Clear at least a few - let's say five - of the following games out of my backlog: Alien Isolation, Scarlet Nexus, Atelier Ryza, Nier Replicant, Cris Tales, Paper Mario Origami Whatever, Thousand Year Door Remake, Banishers Ghosts of New Eden, Forspoken, Shin Megami Tensei V, Tactics Ogre Reborn, or any of the other games I have still in their plastic wrapping that live in that drawer under my TV.

@LtSarge 👍🏼 Thanks for getting it going, I was busy over the last week and kept thinking about starting the new thread but continued to get distracted. Also I was needing to get my own resolutions in order, but haven’t firmed up my plan yet. I’ve got some ideas but I’ll post my official goals soon. 😄

I do like your goals —
50 games is way more than I could do in a year; in a good year I can get to about 20. Maybe I can stretch myself a little this year. 🤔

As for your 5 specific backlog games, 3 of those are among my all-time favorites: MGS5, Skyrim, and Borderlands 2. It’s been a long time since I played each of those, but I think they’ll all hold up. BL2 might be the only one that could be showing its age at this point, but I think it will still be enjoyable for you. And MGS5 is a bit controversial among fans, although I know you’ll find the gameplay to be very fun and engaging. The mission set-up and storytelling aspects are divisive, but I really liked the whole package, personally.

I also joined PS+ Premium this year and feel like I want to focus on getting the most out of it. Truth be told, in the last month that I’ve had it I think it’s already been well worth it, just for cloud streaming alone. I haven’t used it for any of the retro titles or timed trials yet, but the PS Portal streaming has been great. I have noticed a few more lags the last few days though, so I know they are still working out the kinks with the beta. It’s still been a very nice feature that I’ve used a lot.

And finally, I look forward to hearing about your venture into more Souls games. You could knock out two of your goals simultaneously by playing Demon’s Souls! 😅. It being on PS+ Extra means a low barrier to entry to try it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the BluePoint remake job is impeccable.

@johncalmc I assume you’re shooting for just the mainline numbered Final Fantasy games? There’s so many spin-offs and sub-sequels that it could become really daunting.

I’m playing Crisis Core Reunion right now and so that’s what prompted me to ask. I’m only 8 hours along but it feels almost like a mainline entry to me. I honestly wish I would have played it back on PSP because there’s important story bits I’m finding that I never knew.
Do you think you’ll try to knock out other single player FF games along the lines of Stranger of Paradise, or the sequels like X-2, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns, etc?

Congrats on getting to the Yakuza summit, by the way. And I seem to recall you’ve been working on that P4: Golden platinum for a couple years. I think you’ve already got Hardcore Risette Fan, right? If so, the rest should all be downhill from there.

1. Purchasing more PSP games after 2 years getting hiatus.
2. Getting more PS5 & Switch games.

@johncalmc I've also gotten back into Final Fantasy recently and it's made me want to check out the pixel remaster collection as I never finished FF4 and FF6. Playing through FF8 now has rekindled my love for this franchise. Although I might stick to playing through the main series during the Christmas period. But there are still a lot of other games I could be playing, such as Final Fantasy Type-0, World of Final Fantasy and Stranger of Paradise.

@Th3solution Looking forward to reading your goals, buddy!

I was really close to the end of MGS5 before I lost my save file, which sucks. But I'm still determined to finish it. As for Borderlands 2, you have no idea how many times I've started it up and quit within the first five hours lol. It's one of those cursed games for me that I just can't get through. So hopefully I'll be able to finish it (and its endless amount of DLCs) this year.

Demon's Souls is another one that I really want to play. In all honesty, I think I'll love this subgenre once I "git gud" lol. I just have to be in the right mood before starting one up.

I’ve been chipping away at certain game series the last few years, so I’ll be wanting to keep that up… hopefully I’ll get another couple of Assassins Creed games cleared, a couple of Final Fantasy’s, Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2 and Life is Strange: Before the Storm done. I’ve also been playing through Housemarque’s back-catalogue and will try and fit Alienation or Nex Machina in somewhere.

There are some other series I’d like to get started on too, namely Devil May Cry, Resident Evil and Darksiders… so will be looking to play through the first installments of those sometime in the year.

Fresh off the back of finishing Yakuza Kiwami 2, I may start doing one of them per year too. I’m just a little concerned that they’re so similar… and a huge time commitment, that I can’t help but feel a little more breathing room between each one might be the right way to go. If that is the way I end up feeling, I’ll play one every other year instead.

@colonelkilgore Probably a good idea to play one Yakuza game each year. They're largely the same experiences until Like a Dragon where it becomes a turn-based JRPG. But it doesn't make the games any less good, I still enjoyed all of them, even Dead Souls. As long as you experience them with long breaks in between each playthrough you'll probably enjoy all of them as well.

Never really one for gaming plans, really, but I know there's a couple of loose things worth noting.

Less sports games more RPG's. It's so obvious, RPG's are better, sports games are sh**. But still there is always a mild obligation to play social team sports games with some people, and get those shared dopamine hits. Blergh.

Okay, maybe that's the one main thing.

Finish more games this one is perennially eating at me. But I like to try new games, and the first 50% of games are usually much more rewarding as you're learning new things, exploring stuff for the first time etc and a lot of games that are good tend to be long, and I just don't have it in me to see a lot of games through unless they really win me over as an all time experience, or feature a theme I'm really into, or are a little bit shorter overall.

Play more Indies Indies are good, Indies need to be supported. I like Indies, but there's so many to choose from sometimes it's hard to know which to try. So maybe every time I'm in a slump I'll just try a few and see what sticks.

Nobody Wants to Die and Thank Goodness You're Here will be first, for sure.

Buy the games that I really want to see being made, and buy them at release at full price, even if I don't intend to play them right away the game industry has struggled, and it really annoys me how game pass etc have, on the whole, turned people off buying games in the hope they will be on a subscription. And when people say "I'll probably wait for a sale" even if its a game they want, because no b***er else is going to buy it either, and then companies won't continue to make these games in future if no one buys them.

2025 is going to be an expensive year as there's a bunch of top notch games, but I'm going to try and support the companies, devs and games that I want to see being made in 5 years time. And maybe sack off any subs, depending on how I use them this year.

Couldn’t agree more with this 👌

@colonelkilgore yeaah. It's something I've definitely become more aware of recently, and have already started to make a conscious effort to do this, it's a small thing and something that we can all do to some extent to support the industry in regards to our highest priority games, whatever they may be.

I know people have genuine concerns about games releasing in a less than optimum state. And a lot of people like to wait for DLC and all that stuff to be added. But honestly, I think a lot of people hide behind this and they just want as much as possible for as cheap as possible.

Honestly, all the major games I've bought on day one over the last few years I've been incredibly happy with anyway, and they have rekindled a love for the medium and the people that make these experiences for us. We owe them support any way we can. And it's better than just b*thching and moaning about every aspect of the industry

So treating our most desired games almost like an investment in the people making them seems a fair enough way to support the industry. And if something is genuinely busted, they will offer a refund anyway so there's little to no risk when it's something you definitely know you really want to play at some point.

I won't get started on how the future is clear to see with television and movie streaming being so spread thin across multiple services that now the value in having so many of these services just to watch the few quality things you actually want to watch has become pure insanity, propped up by cheap reality shows to fill the ever increasing void left by the need for "fresh new content" every week/month/year.

We don't want games to become like this. We really don't.

Never cared for new years resolutions but will do it for gaming goals.

1. Complete the main story of every new 2025 game purchase I buy this year unless I don't like the story/campaign.

2. Complete every game in the PS monthly game club.

3. Platinum Marvel Rivals, Ghost of Tsushima(halfway through the story), and any other game whose story I enjoy and it's not too time-consuming and repetitive in nature to obtain.

This is what I consider currently for my 2025 gaming.

@Th3solution Yes, it would be just 1-16 minus 11 and 14. That's the plan anyway.

I have been working on the Persona 4 Golden platinum since the day it came out on Vita. I failed on Vita because of Hardcore Risette. On PS4 I finally got Hardcore Risette, so after that yeah it's pretty plain sailing. Or it should be. Maybe 2025 will finally be the year.

1. Don't keep buying games from my Wishlist just because they are on sale. Games are ALWAYS going back on sale!! Pointlessly stockpiling games on my XSX led to choice paralysis, and I don't want that on my PS5 as well...
2. Start (and then finish!) the half dozen PS5 games I own that I'm yet to start (God of War, Cyberpunk 2077, Nathan Drake Collection, Red Dead 2, Yakuza LAD, Fallout 4)
3. I've played Mass Effect 1, not played 2 or 3. I was a very boring paragon Shep in that, so going to restart the legacy edition and play all 3 games as a renegade, as I hear that's fun

That's it for me...

Indies, lots of Indies.

One week into the new year but hopefully not too late to document my goals…

Usually when I make goals for the new year, I try to stretch myself in areas that haven’t come naturally. So based on my play patterns last year, these are my goals for 2025:

1) Play 4 newer games, defined as releases from 2024 or 2025.

I really fell short on keeping current with the newest releases. I’ve spent the last year mainly playing backlog games from years past. My favorite game I played last year was originally released in 2014.

There was a time when I would buy every new game and then neglect my backlog, but last year I went too far the other way and ignored the new releases. Playing older games is perfectly fine, of course, but I need to get a few up-to-date releases mixed in to strike a better balance.

2) Play at least 20 games total

I really wish I had experienced a bigger quantity of games this year. I only played 16 games in 2024. If I’m to get over 20 games played then I’ll have to get through games a little quicker, play a few shorter games, and also free up more time for gaming. Less work, more play.

3) Play 2 of the remaining first party AAA single player games that I have missed.

The Crown Jewels for the PlayStation gamer is the big first party single player releases. I usually prioritize these when they come out but I’ve missed a few over the last few years. These would be: Days Gone, GoW: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Astro Bot. I think I can do at least two of those this year.

4) Embrace a little impulsivity - Play 2 games that I currently don’t have plans to play

I have a rough outline for my gaming schedule for the next couple years, but in order to keep a little spontaneity I want to have some moments when I just boot up something random on a whim. It’s an odd goal, I know — ‘a plan to do something unplanned.’ But part of the enjoyment of gaming often lies in the delight of unexpected discovery.

5) Return to some games from the past: reattempt 2 games I never finished, and replay 2 favorites.

I’ve had similar goals to this before but haven’t done very well with returning to games after I’ve moved on. This goal encompasses two reasons for going back — to address unfinished business and to relive a former pleasure.

I started off strong last year and then COMPLETELY fell off with my goals lmao

Being modest this time with one resolution.

Start and play 50 new or unplayed games or long demos this year. That's all. No commitments to finishing or completing anything. I guess I'll set the limit at one hour before I'm allowed to just drop a game completely if I don't like it. 'Unplayed' can also means I started once, liked, then dropped completely after a single play session, for whatever reason, but in general, I'd really like to stick to completely unplayed ones.

I want to experience my library.

@Th3solution Nice goals! You should be able to achieve number 4 with relative ease thanks to Game Club. As for number 5, it's interesting you should mention replaying games as I have been thinking recently if I should do that. I try to avoid replaying games because I have so many games I still haven't played yet. However, if there's a game I really enjoyed, it would be fun to experience it again.

@LtSarge Yes, for #4 I was thinking about that - the Game Club games are usually of a variety where they aren’t previously on my radar, like this month with The Gardens Between, and I really enjoyed it!

With #5 and the revisit/replay thing, I already have a few that I’m planning which would satisfy that goal — for the ‘retry games I never completed’, I’m leaning toward Witcher 3 and RE4. Both have PS5 remake/remasters that might make the experience better this time around. I put somewhere around 5-10 hours into each of them on PS4 and never quite understood why they were so acclaimed and so ended up giving up on each of them in due time. I’m willing to give them both a try again. I have a lot of other games that I fell off before finishing but those are the two that come to mind.

As for the ‘replay a previous favorite’ I have been meaning to play the remasters of Uncharted and lead up to the PS5 Legacy of Thieves remake, which is supposed to be an excellent remake. I already replayed UC1 from the Nathan Drake collection remaster a couple years ago and just need to continue with the series in order. Also, I’ve been meaning to do a replay of Mass Effect 2 and 3, since I want to continue a FemShep Renegade run that I started with ME1 (my original ME2 & 3 playthrough on PS3 was Paragon BroShep)

So I have some loose plans already for #5. 😄