Topic: Gaming Resolutions for the New Year of 2026

I'm going to stick with less ambitious, more manageable goals this year. So I actually... you know... hit them consistently.

Play Through Yakuza 0: Director's Cut, Yakuza Kiwami 2's Majima Saga, Yakuza Kiwami 3, and Kiwami 3's Side Game Campaign, Dark Ties.

2026 is the year I get serious about catching up with the Yakuza series. The best way to do that is to just play two of these games every year. I played through Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2 before, but left the Majima Saga side mode in Kiwami 2 because it connects heavily with the character's story arc in Yakuza 0. I'm already five chapters deep into Yakuza 0, so I have no worries about completing this goal.

I thought about ignoring Kiwami 3 and just playing the Remastered version of 3 I own on PC, but I am curious about the added side campaign, and based on what I've heard about Yakuza 3's annoying combat, I'll be happier overall just going with the remake.

Play Through Resident Evil 3 Remake, Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition, and Resident Evil Village Gold Edition. Also looking to get caught up on my Resident Evils with Requiem coming out. I'm not sure if I'll also grab Resident Evil 4 Remake at some point (I've played the original several times over, so it's not as important to me), but these games are fairly short and should be easy enough to play throughout the year.

Play Through At Least Twelve Indie Games. At least one per month, which seems very doable. I actually played through one game already on the first of the year, a newly released clicker game on Steam called A Game About Feeding a Black Hole, so January is already in the bag!

Play Through The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. For some reason, I just keep putting this game off! I won't commit to spending 100+ hours getting all the endings, but I want to get at least an ending, and I'll see where I go from there.

Play Through 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Another one I've admired from a distance for years, but allowed to rot in my backlog.

Play Through Stellar Blade. Bought this on sale for PC recently. I enjoyed the demo. Not a huge action game person, but I'm excited to properly experience this!

Play Through and Beat Any New Game I Buy This Year. Simple enough.

I'll be updating my progress throughout the year. And will see them through to completion this time.

A couple of my resolutions are very similar to those of @Ralizah coincidentally. Those being:

1. Continue with my bi-annual playthrough of the Yakuza series - with Yakuza Kiwami 3

2. Continue with my playthrough of the Resident Evil series - with Resident Evil 3 Remake and getting the final single player trophy I have left on Resident Evil: Revelations

That is where the coincidences end though:

3. Play through at least 4 Xbox studios games this year to celebrate their 25th Anniversary (1 per quarter) - starting with Gears of War: Reloaded which I started yesterday.

4. Tick off a few more PS3 plats towards #50 - currently on 44 PS3 platinums and will hopefully take that up to 47/48 by the end of the year.

5. Start the Metro series - with Metro 2033: Redux

6. Finish off the Dead Space series - with Dead Space 2 (yes I’ve played them in a goofy order)

7. Continue my playthrough of the Dragon Age series - with Dragon Age 2

8. Continue my playthrough of the Final Fantasy series - with FFII and FFXIII-3

9. Continue my playthrough of the Mass Effect series - with Mass Effect 3

10. Continue my playthrough of the Uncharted series - with Uncharted 3

11. Continue my playthrough of the Devil May Cry series - with Devil May Cry 2

The goal is to both start AND finish 30 games in 2026. I tend to fall off a lot of games due mainly to 1) life getting busy and 2) that next shiny game release... 'finish' may mean complete the story, it may mean go for the Platinum - depends on the game and how much I enjoy it. List is subject to change but this is where my head is at so far. There will be twists and turns I am sure, which is why the list is currently at 28.

Firstly, two I'm midway-through from the end of 2025, so I'm counting them towards this goal:
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Assassins Creed Shadows

Games from my backlog. A wide range of genres, lengths, difficulty levels:
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Alan Wake
Alan Wake II
Aliens: Dark Descent
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Blue Prince
Citizen Sleeper
Cocoon
Deaths Door
Dorfromantik
Gotham Knights (don't @ me!)
Hades
Hi-Fi Rush
John Wick Hex
Metaphor: ReFantazio (the BIG one)
Nier: Automata
Skate Story
Spiritfarer
The Alters
Tunic
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine II

2026 releases I like the look of:
007: First Light
Cairn
Control Resonant
Marathon
Saros

Comfort food for the journey, not counted in the 30 and to be played in moderation or I'll never get this done:
ARC Raiders
Civ VII

And finally, this is part of a wider and even more ambitious 2026 goal...

Learn 5 new songs (I haven't picked up a guitar properly in at least a year).
Watch 10 films - specifically in the cinema, I miss the experience! To hell with streaming, it's just not the same.
Read 20 books. Because, books.
(Start AND finish 30 games)
Complete 100 workouts.
Take 1000 photos. My real passion in life. Some might even be good.

Fairly straightforward this time around.

1. Nioh 3 - can't wait for this. I was already guaranteed to play it, so including this feels like cheating.

2. Silksong - bought it in the excitement of release so I need to play it before it gets a substantial discount, which would be almost as frustrating as the game itself (from what I've heard about it).

3. Plague Tale 1 & 2 - always meant to get around to these.

4. Dragon Age Veilguard - I love the Dragon Age series but I've had no desire to start this one. Let's see if I can do it this year.

5. But before all that... Nuka World! I completed Fallout 4's Far Harbour DLC not longer after the game came out, but despite owning the Nuka World add-on for ages, I've still not got around to it. I'm currently working on getting my character to level 30 (the recommended starting level for the DLC) - since I've completed the game before, this involves some gloriously freeform wandering about, doing whatever I like. It's a lot of fun so far.

EDIT: Hitman World of Assassination games. Had them on my list for ages but only played the first one.

1. Get XBOX machine (the Retro one).
2. Get Wii U Japan machine.

Still finalizing my goals and I’ll post later when I get a chance.

@graymamba @Ralizah I may need to join you on the Resident Evil crusade. I’ve been meaning to get through the series, at least the highlights. Trying to decide whether to jump from 4 straight to 7&8 or whether to play the less popular 5&6.

I also really like (and should probably borrow) Ral’s goal about playing any new game bought this year. I know I won’t stick to it though and will succumb to sale prices to pick up a couple games for the backlog. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Marquez What kind of books do you plan to read? Are you Canon or Nikon? and bring tissues for Spirtfarer, that game is rough, you'll see.

@Th3solution yeah I have to be honest, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it when I started but I’ve been properly sucked in to Resident Evil now. By all means skip 5 and 6 for now. If once I’ve played them, I feel that you’ve missed out… I’ll put on my best Dark Souls 2 suit and plead their case 😉

@GirlVersusGame So firstly I'm finally going to dive in to some Cormac McCarthy - my wife got me a six book set for Christmas including the obvious ones like No Country for Old Men and The Road. There are other books on the list (still putting it together) including REAMDE by Neal Stephenson which is going to be a gargantuan effort...

Camera-wise I'm super lucky and get to run with a Leica Q2. Mainly street, architectural and travel stuff.

And Spiritfarer, I've heard exactly this - but I'm ready.

@graymamba I really need to play some of Microsoft's more recent games. I snagged Forza Horizon 4 before it was delisted, but never touched it. Also kinda want to play Avowed at some point. I would've also said Hi-Fi Rush, but I guess that's not technically a Microsoft game anymore, is it?

@Th3solution It's a foolproof backlog expansion stopper if you can commit to the rule. Even if I only played games I bought this year, I wouldn't start 2027 with an even bigger backlog, y'know? Needless spending is something I need to be better about overall, tbh.

@Marquez 30 games is pretty ambitious. I always fail when I set that sort of goal, so I decided not to this year. It's definitely doable, though, if you have the free time. Good luck!

Some great games in that backlog btw. 😀 NieR: Automata in particular.

@Gremio108 Silksong is definitely one I need to get to myself. I'm also a little leary of how reportedly brutal it is. HK's difficulty curve was already on the tougher side, but not to the point where it made the game unfun.

@Anti-Matter Out of interest, why a Japanese Wii U specifically, Anti? Some Japanese-only game you're excited to play?

@Ralizah It definitely is and thank you! I am conscious of the bigger time sinks on the list in particular...

@Ralizah so I’m thinking Gears, Halo and Forza are definites… and then one other. I’m edging towards it being Indy atm… but could just as easily swap in the Oblivion remaster, or Hi-Fi Rush (I’d still class it as an Xbox studios game personally but I get what you’re saying) etc.

@graymamba It’s going to rile the obsessive-compulsive part of my brain but I’m leaning that way — toward skipping 5,6 and doing 7,8 and then being ready for 9 also.

I don’t know if I can get two RE games done this year, because I have a few other horror games on deck also and I will have to limit myself. They’re not very long games though, so we’ll see.

@Th3solution I’ve been surprised by how short the games actually are. Don’t get me wrong, I end up spending a decent amount of time with them anyway, as the platinum usually requires loads of playthroughs but it does seem like you can get through them in about 2 hours or so if you know the routes. Makes a nice change from the typical AAA games though, where a mainline time-to-beat probably lies at around 25 hours-ish.

@ZeroE yeah I agree… though if every game was like that, I’d probably then end up really appreciating a 200 hour slobberknocker.

I try to vary things up as much as possible to keep things fresh, so in addition to changing up genres from one game to the next… I find it can be good to alternate between long and short experiences too.

@ZeroE for sure 👍

@Ralizah If I'm being honest that's probably why I've not started it yet. Thing is, the complaints I've heard aren't just from newcomers who have arrived to the series fresh on the wave of hype. It's also people who have played and enjoyed the first one that are proclaiming it as incredibly difficult. So I'm a little apprehensive.

If I start it before you do, I'll report back with thoughts. Hoping to get to it in January.

@Marquez I didn't expect you to say architectural and I'll try not to go off on a crazy tangent but what kind of architecture? The majority of the site seems to be English so if you are, do you know Norman Foster's work? If you've photographed any modern buildings around London you'd have seen it. He's my favorite architect. He can take usable space, light and colour and blend all three into something really unique (The Gherkin for example) I love his work. Rogers and Stirk would be up there too, but he's in a class of his own. I tend to not get star struck, but I did when I met him. Talking about glass and steel probably sounds boring, I loved every minute of it. My favorite style would be Brutalism (boring yes) it's something most people don't like, it looks and feels oppressive but I've always been fascinated with it, there's a kind of structural honesty in Brutalism that you don't find anywhere else, it's solid and doesn't have to hide behind a facade. I also like Art Deco and something you probably haven't heard of called Mayan Revival. It's sort of Mesoamerican, if you know Frank Lloyd Wright's work you may have seen it. Or if you've seen Blade Runner you'd have seen subtle references to it.

I haven't read either of those and see no ticks beside any of his books on Goodreads but all of the fiction I do read is generally movie or game tie-in novels or based on, so I'll add those two to the list. I don't remember watching The Road. I did watch No Country for Old Men, it was excellent. I haven't read any of Neal Stephenson either but I see Snow Crash mentioned and I'm pretty sure that was recommended after I read William Gibson's books. I played Cyberpunk then saw there was a whole genre for it, I think FuriousMachine (from here) was the one who said I needed to read Neuromancer. I'm glad I did. Then I listened to the BBC radio drama, it's such a good book. I needed something after the game and after the CD ProjecktRed Cyberpunk tie-in novels.

Leica is the right answer. When I was involved in the imagery side live music (Metal) I encountered Canon versus Nikon. Even in the dark (high ISO no house lights) you could tell what someone was shooting on because the Canon lenses were light grey. We all used 24-70mm glass as standard but there was still that division, it was more of a joke, one people used often. I was Nikon. Canon always seemed to weigh more and if you are using two camera bodies you feel the weight fast, you can't switch out glass in that environment either. I had one strapped to each side. If you add a battery pack it's even more weight. I never saw anyone with Leica (even-though I like them) they are easier to damage. Especially if someone is flying over the barrier behind you. I cracked one or two lens filters, the glass itself was always fine. I see Leica as works of art, not big rugged camera bodies that are made to take some serious damage, but no one used them. Which is a shame because they take beautiful pictures. It's an interesting goal, one thousand, good luck with that.

Have you set aside any kind of restrictions like use of colour, black and white, day or night photography? It's worth considering night photography if you haven't tried it. There's something really unique to it, the sort of play between light and shadow that you just don't get when the sun is up.

Spiritfarer was the first and only game to ever make me shed tears, multiple times too. It should come with a warning, I thought it was a regular cosy Indie. I see also Dark Descent on there too. I don't know if you've played a game called Warhammer Mechanicus? It's similar. Dark Descent is a little more forgiving. You will die a lot at the start, but it gets more manageable as you get better gear and more marines. The trick is to balance roles, items (some items carry over between maps, if you run out you have to buy more before going back in) eventually you unlock more spawn points for the start of each drop too which makes it a lot less tedious. There was a lot of trial and error and I did almost gave up on it a couple of times but I'm glad I stuck with it. If you like the franchise you'll enjoy it even more, it does a very good job of faithfully representing Cameron's Aliens. I think they even used the original sound library. I waited a year to play it, I just didn't think anyone could pull it off. It's one of my favorite franchises and it doesn't always translate well over to console. That studio did such a good job.

My 2026 gaming resolutions are beating the first three mainline Neptunia games and buying a Switch 2, hopefully earlier on in the year.

@graymamba @ZeroE I’m finding that it takes me longer than average to beat games, so some of my game length issues are self-inflicted [he says as he checks his current playtime of Baldur’s Gate 3… 260 hours and still not completed…], but it is nice to have a game where even playing it slow and methodical will still keep things in the sub-50 hour mark.

As I’m pondering my official goals, I’m considering making a goal to speed myself up to keep my play times more in line with the howlongtobeat published averages. But I don’t know, I’m not sure how to do that and not taint my experience.