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2025 is already well underway, we’re already nearly a third of the way done. Well the team and I decided we will be doing quarterly updates in regards to our goals, so here they are.

Andrew

Playing Horror Games

I’m happy to say I have been able to work with this one a decent amount. It isn’t anything too crazy but I did recently beat and review Dead Space 2. I’m also playing an indie title named Dreamless on the Nintendo Switch. I have a couple of other titles I’m looking to play and review, but I’ll keep those underwraps for the moment.

Game Development

Unfortunately I have absolutely nothing to report for this. I haven’t had a clear chance to get any work done. Hopefully, our next update will be more interesting in this department.

Digimon World 4

Also another area I haven’t done anything about. I’m about to the point that I regret setting this goal, as I knew my space was limited and I had my doubts it would keep my interest long enough for me to get back when the chance finally did reveal itself.

Downs

My Gaming Goals This Year: A Chaotic Journey

Here’s a rundown of how my gaming resolutions are going so far:

1. Reorganize My Collection – A Work in Progress

I’ve made some small efforts here and there, but honestly, it feels like I’ve just shifted things around rather than attempting to enhance and reduce clutter out of my library. Ideally, I should either have fewer games or at least the same amount but stored more efficiently based on this reorganization. Right now, my best bet seems to be digitizing more of my collection and finding better storage solutions for stuff I want to keep. We’ll see how that plays out.

2. Finish Unfinished Games – Actively Making Progress

I’ve been revisiting a lot of older games, which has actually been pretty rewarding. Many of my childhood favorites were left unfinished for one reason or another, so going back and finally completing them has been a satisfying experience. That said, I’ve also been starting new games this year, only to drop them in favor of replays. I’ll need to fix that soon or else I’ll be in the same situation next year.

3. Complete a New Game Series – Complete Implosion

This has been the most challenging goal by far. I started with working towards getting into the Final Fantasy series. I started with Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster and even managed to platinum it, but momentum to start the next FF game died immediately. So I tried moving on to something shorter to commit to: Dead Space Remake which also has been tough. The issue has been less so personal issues such as not liking the game or getting burnt out, but more so a life issue. That issue is finding an hour to dedicate to a game outside of weekends is difficult, and the infrequent play sessions make it way too easy to lose momentum. Especially when you don’t remember what you last did and spend your game sessions trying to move forward, but there’s just too many gaps in your memory to properly play the game. This leads me into the trap of playing a casual slop game like MLB 25 rather than committing to finishing a complete game experience in my game time. As much as I enjoy the feeling of playing my slop games, I get nothing new out of the experience besides realizing how shallow slop games are. To help with this, I’ve been trying out visual novels since they require less time commitment to get a more fulfilling experience. Although they border on not being video games, they still provide me motivation to press on while still allowing me to complete games in my library. Right now, I’m reading Higurashi Chapter 1 (When They Cry) hopefully, this strategy works out.

By summer, I’m hoping to get my gaming habits back on track and finish more games. If I manage to pull it off, maybe I’ll have a success story to inspire you to do the same!

Charle

Gaming Goals quarterly check in progress report: How did I rank?

Intro:

At the beginning of the year, the staff was invited to set a couple of gaming goals this year to see how far we could get. I had a handful of personal goals in mind, but let’s see how they compare to where I should be.

Goal 1

Set Goal: The backlog has built up quite a bit during the COVID era. This first goal was to play as many games in this library as I could and complete some of them.

How did I fair vs. the initial goal start? Not great. I still have a handful of games I’m rotating out with, but I’ve yet to complete any games. I have gone through some old games that I haven’t touched in a while since I have settled in my most recent living space, but I can do better. I need to readjust this goal to visit at least five games per month through my backlog. Completing them would be best, but this is a better shift.

Goal 2

Set Goal: Record a list of all my Switch/ Xbox/PC games. The goal was to build a digital list of all the games I have in my collection. This would help me compare it to my wish list, as well as which games or genres I lean towards more and invest time in that.

How did I fair vs. the goal start? I haven’t started this one yet either. Life, work or other video games have taken my attention. I think the best way to tackle this goal is just start with one platform, and slowly go through everything I have and take a look at the full stock of every game I own, as well as every system. Since I last wrote, I’ve added an Oculus and a Nintendo 3DS to my variety of platforms, thanks to a dear friend of mine. This opens up new avenues for new games I wasn’t able to try before. Now, I can focus on finding the best games for each platform and seeing how they fair compared to their modern counterpart of console or platform of choice.

Goal 3

Completion-This overall goal was to go for completing as many games as I can within the time that has happened so far.

How I fair vs. the start? This one is not great too, if I’m being honest. I think I have to just grind and invest more time in one to two video games every week and slowly just grind into them until eventually I start completing more. I normally am not a full completionist, as I believe racing through a game is detrimental to the purity of exploring every aspect of a game, however, there is a difference between not moving forward in a game or plot vs. being stuck on a level. I’ll utilize game guides more openly if I am not able to solve a puzzle or boss fight within a given amount of time. 

Goal 4

This goal was focused on adding up to 5 new games to my recommendation list. 

How did I fair vs. the start of this? I have read here and there about some new games coming out soon, but I haven’t been as vigilant as I could be about expanding my library of newer games. Normally, when I stop by my local game store, I do like checking out the latest trade ins. If you count this aspect, I’ve added less than 5 new games, but they are in the process of being paid off. As fun as our hobby is, it can start to sink our pockets.

Goal 5

The classics. This goal was to go through the list of classic games I played as a kid and see if I can complete the series and play them all or get a hold of them for collecting purposes.

This one I’ll rate a little bit better than others. Have I been doing active research about how to acquire older games? Yes, but also no. I have searched the web at least a handful of times of other ways to get a hold of older games in a legal way. The problem is, companies or developers that had the rights to a specific IP of a game might be holding it close to their chest for the right time for a revitalization or being stubborn enough there is not other solution for them. The aspect of this goal that I have tanked is playing through these older games. They are looking at me in my living room, but I do have to take that next step and start playing through them. I only have so many hours in a day to play a significant amount of video game time. A fun kicker is a company called Night Dive Studios is working on preserving games of the X360 and PS5

Bonus Goal: Build online network of gaming friends again.

My earlier days made it much more convenient and easier to make friends through games. I would make many and random friends from different video games I tried out, like Halo, Dead Frontier, and others. I miss that spirit of camaraderie we all use to have together.

How did I fair vs. today? I’m average or okay. The real friend I picked up was at my local game shop and I’ve become a regular to them. Sometimes they show me some cool hauls they got in. It’s a great relationship I regret I did not start sooner. Some great people working there. This friendship will lead to great things. Overall, I just thought it was neat. I’ve learned a lot about them (the people that work there) and the discussions we’ve had over video game things. I will continue to evolve these friendships and see how they are put together.

Overall Ranking: C-

There is a lot to improve on my personal rank. If I want to objectively criticize how to get better, it all starts off with time. How long am I spending on each project? Am I retaining everything that plays out in a game or did it not click with me. The best way to amend this is set aside time every week, parallel this to the tariffs is bad thing, and save up a little at a time. Even if it’s not eating around you, so take it with you.

Stay tuned for the next article.