And how we did in 2023.

This time last year, we sharedour gaming ambitions for 2023.

We looked at the road ahead, seemingly endless before us, and dreamed big.

A stock photo/illustration showing a straight road narrowing into a sunny distance, flanked on either side by dense forest. On the ground at the beginning of the road, nearest the viewer, are the numbers 2024, and an arrow in the middle pointing ahead.

There seemed to be nothing we couldn’t do.

Then a year went by and here we are.

Here we are again.

A photo of Bertie’s hand holding a thick black hardback book with the a monster’s shadow-covered face on the front, and the words “Teeth” on the spine.

So, how did we do?

Did anyone manage to achieve their ambitions from 2023?

This is our confessional.

Cover image for YouTube video

What will you do this year?

I didn’t manage to do it.

But it wasn’t a complete failure.

Full artwork for Dawntrail featuring character montage on orange background

Can you give me that?

Also, I did make loads of progress towards running a game.

No, I joke.

An illustration from Mediterranea Inferno showing a character, referred to as “Intriguing Smoker”, sat in an elegant smock and headscarf, and bathed in the pink glow of the setting evening sun. They are saying, “We’re just surrounded by ghosts from the past."

I’m still super-keen to make it happen!

If only to remove it from my tabletop list of things to do.

I’ve got a whole pile of other games I want to run, see.

A trio of pixelated game posters for the Pixel Pulps franchise - Mothmen 1966, Varney Lake, and Bahnsen Knights.

Anyway, running tabletop RPGs is absolutely still my intention (and maybe obsession) for 2024.

But there’s something else too, and it’s streaming.

There’s always urgent Hoovering to be done instead.

Screenshot from The Banished Vault showing the hand-drawn art popup for running out of turns, with a sketch of a star sinking into a black hole at the centre of a solar system

), so maybe that’s the incentive I need to follow through.

Hang on, that doesn’t sound right - you know what I mean.

Watch outTwitchhere I come?

I played games I would never have considered before, includingStreet Fighter 6.

Was I any good?

Don’t be silly!

But, gosh darnit, I did it.

In the last 12 months, I also took on smaller indie games I might have overlooked before.

As for this year, I have decided I am going to playThe Sims 4and not use cheats.

However, in 2024, I will be a more honest homeowner.

I will make my Sims get jobs and work for promotions.

I will earn that super-duper hot tub and maid service with some good hard graft.

And when I do, those bubbles will feel all the sweeter for it.

I also completed the original Duke Nukem on the Evercade and Alan Wake 2 as well.

So all in all, a pretty decent list of completed games!

Though, my list of uncompleted' games from last year is still way, way longer.

It’s a hard job but someone’s got to do it!

Liv

Although I didn’t write down my gaming goal for 2023, I did have one.

And it’s probably better that I didn’t write it down, because I definitely failed it.

I had decided 2023 would be the year I let my Like a Dragon hyperfixation take over.

And then Capcom released the Resident Evil 4 Remake.

I had no hope.

So, best that it wasn’t cemented in ink!

My first goal is quite broad but something I’m terrible at doing.

I want to ensure that each game I play, I finish.

Not necessarily to 100 percent completion, just the end of the story or the game’s natural conclusion.

My second goal is also quite broad but a bit of a hangover from last year.

My current candidates are Kingdom Hearts, Like a Dragon, Dark Souls, and Final Fantasy 13.

I only need to complete one to consider my goal achieved - just one!

Any others completed will be a bonus.

Ed

Hear me out.

Resolutions are made to be ignored, forgotten, and then repeated the following year, right?

At least that’s how I’ve always dealt with them.

It seems the past year has been no different.

What a seemingly impossible task.

And I am so ready for more.

But now, readers, this resolution has become more urgent.

And I have a plan.

Mouse and keyboard is out.

I refuse to be chained to my PC.

PlayStation and controller is the way forward (just send me your layouts!).

It’s going to happen this time.

Then I left my character in the Gold Saucer with its pink bean companion and never returned.

Big budget flashiness is hard to resist sometimes, but I miss my janky horror and weird puzzles.

Sorry Final Fantasy 14, I guess I’ll see you for the next weird crossover.

Donlan

My aim for last year was to get stuck into a new genre.

Reader, that did not happen.

Weirdly, though, there was one genre I unexpectedly clicked with.

From Paranormasight to the phenomenal Pixel Pulps, 2023 was the year I fell in love with visual novels.

I know, I took my time, right?

But it was a really excellent year for visual novels.

This year, my ambition is a bit different.

So this year I want to make some kind of headway into image-making in the context of video games.

But I have just received an eBay Game Boy Camera in the post.

How’s it going?

Well it’s certainly happening in some sense… Look, I’ve made a lot of notes.

Can we kindly move on?

So in 2024 I want to play more hidden gems.

Thanks to a variety of events (life, am I right?)

Chris

I missed this series last year because I was on a nice holiday.

This year, my ambition is to go on more nice holid- what’s that?

Serious hat on now: my ambition for 2024 is to fall in love with a game.

Plus, so often our new year’s resolutions are these self-flagellating things born of guilt or obligation.

To that I say: I don’t wanna!

Video games are there for us to love, not to work through.

This year I will love again.

Did I achieve it?

Which brings me onto my ambition for 2024.

There are plenty out there I’m itching to play.

I think it’s the guide writer in me, always having to quickly change games without completing them.

Therefore, I hope publicly announcing my goals will motivate me to actually do them this time.