My 2010 Gaming Resolutions

Last year was purportedly a great gaming year for me; it felt like I made massive inroads into The List, knocking off tricky games left and right, and generally reducing the psychological weight of The List.

The problem is, that’s not really how the numbers played out.

Sixteen on, sixteen off. And that’s sixteen new games that got added to The List, as well as a whole bunch of Forgotten Games.

And that leaves The List at a bulging 71 at the turn of the decade. And, when I made a list of Gaming Resolutions for 2009, they were geared around containing the sprawl; let’s review how I did, shall we?

…to Complete at least two Zelda games. I want to play through them all in release chronological order, and (as I indicated last week) I’m getting close to wrapping up a 100% run on Ocarina of Time. But then what – do I go on to Majora’s Mask (which I’ve never played) or follow-up with the Ocarina Master Quest? Decisions, decisions.

Verdict: Success! Not only did I knock off both Ocarinas (three 100% playthroughs for the year!), but I managed a 100% run through Majora’s and two 100% runs through Wind Waker. And I’m also currently waiting on Lady Luck to deliver me a 100% complete Phantom Hourglass; so consider this Resolution resolved!

…to Complete at least two PS2 games. This scares me a little, really – of the eight games there, three are rhythm action games (which I’m notoriously bad at), the Katamaris are O/C collection nightmares, and Bujingai is as hard as nails on the higher skill levels.

Verdict: Oooooh… not so successful, this one. I started a pair of games with every intention of Completing them… but Katamari Damacy is reluctant to let me roll up all the countries of the world, and N2O proved to be a right bastard; I didn’t even attack the easy-ish Super Galdelic Hour. Fail.

…to Complete at least four(!) from the PC, Nuon, Dreamcast, and Jaguar groups. Holy shit!

Verdict: This started so well, with Full Throttle succumbing early, but GridRunner Revolution and Tempest 2000 both proved to be roadblocks. ChuChu Rocket! tempted but was sadly forgotten. Target of four, total of one? Fail.

…to keep on top of stuff obtained through the year. In 2008, I managed to Complete 11 of 18 new purchases – let’s aim for a similar target of 60%

Sixteen new additions; six of those were completed. 37.5% sounds like another Fail to me. I even toyed with the idea of including my handful of iPhone game purchases to help out with the target (four bought, four completed), but that seemed too much like cheating ;)

That all totals up to a pretty grim ledger, I reckon. So why not make up another set of Resolutions that are equally unrealistic, and have something to work with during the year?

And so, in 2010, I resolve…

  • …to leave 2010 with The List pared back to… oooh, let’s say 64. Because it’s a nice number :)
  • …to keep on top of stuff obtained through the year. Last year’s goal of 60% seemed reasonable at the time, but was hurt by a flurry of purchases late in the year; let’s aim for 50% in 2010.
  • …to not go overboard in the purchasing stakes. In retrospect, there’s a couple of titles that were picked up this year that… you know… were probably a little too retail therapy-ish. This year, I’ll just buy a cake instead. Or maybe put the money towards the mortgage ;)
  • …to make an impact on every platform. Sure, that leaves the Nuon looking a little dicey (Tempest 3000 is bound to be at least one thousand harder than Tempest 2000, and Ballistic is a Zuma-like – ie, shit – game), and the GameCube lineup is in the ninja-zone, but let’s give it a bash anyway.
  • …to not give up so soon. Ten games were started in anger (that’s what the spreadsheet column is called) and not Completed this year; blimey that’s soft. Time to cut that shit out.

Ooof. I don’t like the look of that lot already, and with a flurry of must-haves incoming (I’ve been looking forward to Bayonetta for eighteen months, and there’s at least two Suda51 releases in the first half of the year… not to mention Zelda: Spirit Tracks!), that means I’m going to have to really start cleaning up some of these older games. But the goal should be to push The List into modernity, thinning out older platforms, and I reckon these are pretty reasonable steps in that direction.

And finally, cut’n’pasting a line from last year’s post… What are your Gaming Resolutions for 2010?

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