This is it - 2023 is the time to try something new!
We thought we’d share our personal gaming ambitions for the year ahead.
What does that mean?
Or, maybe you’re ready to get serious about competitive Pokemon.
Or maybe you want to make that game you’ve always been talking about.
These ambitions can be anything; dream big.
He didn’t mean, when was the last time you learned a fact?
He meant, when was the last time you learned to actually do something new?
I didn’t have an answer.
Actually - even as I throw in all this, the answer is clear.
2023 should be the year I learn how to playDwarf Fortress.
The crossovers are many and obvious.
I would look at the person doing it as if they were performing a miracle before me.
I’ve been on the receiving end of games for as long as I can remember.
How much am I not seeing?
How much have I been taking for granted?
If you have any advice, hey let me know!
But I’m going to anyway because I’m a terrible person.
My laptop’s charging port also happened to stop working at the exact same time as my launcher woes.
I never went back.
It’s not that I haven’t played Final Fantasy 14, I just haven’t played it enough.
And there’s no better time to catch up.
Can I get up to date in the next six months?
Now there’s a challenge.
How could I not?
Plus, it combines three of my favourite things - books, puzzles and murder.
I was very much born to be mild in that sense.
New genres - why not?
A different class - sure!
It’s the sixth one.
It’s Street Fighter 6.
I’m old enough to have played every Street Fighter game upon release.
Yes, even the first one, although my memory of it is hazy.
And that’s the problem, isn’t it?
Memories fade, people grow, free time becomes less disposable.
It was a great time!
I held my own online.
Whenever I saw the game out and about, I was confident enough to give anyone a match.
I’d win more than I’d lose.
I got married, had a couple of kids.
To be clear, I love what my free time has become, but…
I miss the lab.
I have a craving for it.
Dear reader, Street Fighter 6 feels amazing, and I have high hopes for its release.
I am resolved to it: I will head back into the lab.
But how to do it?
I have a plan: I will not play harder, but smarter.
I will lean on the fighting game community more than I have ever done before.
I believe, even after all these years, that my fighting game foundations are rock solid.
I need to build upon them in targeted ways.
Nail that and move on.
What are the key mechanics I need to learn to counter?
I will be ready for it.
This is the Lionel Messi approach to fighting games.
Messi is still good enough to have won the World Cup.
Perhaps this year I’ll finally win Evo?
The lab awaits…
-Wesley Yin-Poole
