Waypoint Weeklies: Gaming Goals

[just_benj]

Hi all, welcome to another installment of Waypoint Weeklies where we present a question or prompt for everyone to discuss.

If you hadn’t heard, it’s now 2021! And usually with a new year, tends to come that “new year, new me” mindset. However, instead of getting into the standard new year’s resolutions fare, I want to change it up a bit. So this week, I’d like to know do you have any “gaming goals” for the year ahead? They can be simple, broad, hyper-specific, something you want to start doing, something you want to try to do less, anything goes!

Some examples could be wanting to play “x” game, making a conscientious effort to play more games by BIPOC creators, hosting a monthly virtual game night for family or friends, starting a games crit blog, etc.

[just_benj]

To start us off, here are mine:

My number one goal this year is simply to beat Resident Evil 7. I started it way back in March…2017 and have yet to finish it. The main reason it’s taking me so long is because I’ve committed myself to playing through the entire thing in VR (which I’m still absolutely determined to do). But between the hassle of VR setup, the sheer intensity of playing that game in virtual reality, and the slight VR sickness I experience when playing it for long stretches of time, this means I only tend to play it in short bursts
and usually with a multi-week break between sessions. But I’ve decided this is the year I’m going to go all in and finally finish it (and I’ve even told myself that I can’t touch the upcoming RE8) until I do. Wish me luck!

My second goal is a bit broader, and it’s to add another fighting game to my repertoire. The goal isn’t even really to get good at it, I just have a desire to invest myself in another one. Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the one fighting game I play semi-regularly and that I’d consider myself remotely “good” at. Despite loving the genre and owning quite a few other fighting games, whenever I pick up a new one, I tend not to stick with it for very long, even if I’m enjoying it. So this year, I’d like to pick one and try to stick with it like I do with Smash.

And finally a very niche bonus goal: In 2019, I got back into Dance Dance Revolution after a couple year hiatus, and in the few months leading up to coronavirus lockdowns in the US, I found myself improving quite significantly. So once it’s safe again to do so, I’d like to regularly hit up arcades again to up my DDR game and get myself to the point where I can comfortably take on level 16 songs!

[DarthTythus]

Covid permitting, I’d love to go to an in-person Yu-Gi-Oh tournament. Magic tournaments are cool and I hope to get back to those this year too, but I have some Magicians’ Souls that need a workout.

I’d like to play more PC games this year. I have a PC capable of handling things, but I so often default to my consoles that I miss out on the indie games that make such a splash with the Waypoint family writ large (Umurangi Generation I am looking at you).

[ricotta]

I have also become a Yu-Gi-Oh! person (GX might be my favourite anime now, oops), and if people could finally get those Covid rates down and we wore masks, I’d love to use it as an excuse to meet local game people - most of my friends live like 2 hours by transit from me, it’s a hassle.

On the other hand, I won’t be surprised if local and in-person are more 2022 goals, so another thing I’d like to do is play more indie TTRPGS with my spouse. Smaller games that can be played in only a few sessions, or GM-less games you can do with 2-3 people. Get Your Game On looks really neat, and I don’t say that just because of my aforementioned adoration of YGO GX. Trans themes and mini games are my jam.

But for video games, I would mostly like to try more of the games I got in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality last year. I added a hundred and change to a list on itchio to try, but then I got distracted by Hades and didn’t play anything else for two months.

[DarthTythus]

Oh no someone made a GX TTRPG oh no my free time (5Ds is my personal Yu-Gi-Oh jam but I like GX too)

I also should crack open that Bundle for Racial Justice sometime.

[Alveric]

Kind of a counter to @DarthTythus, Covid permitting, I would really like to go to a Magic tournament or some events at my local gaming store. The lockdown has seen me get back into Magic in a big way which is funny given I have no one to play with.

As to other goals, I would like to buy fewer games and clear out my backlog. I would also like to embrace that it is okay to simply stop a game when I have had enough and not try and force myself to finish it. If playing a game feels more like a chore than a joy that means I should stop playing it and not be a completionist if it is making me miserable.

[of_eidolons]

ive got two. one is, i really want to make my way through the zeldas from the start through ocarina of time. ocarina was my entry point as a kid, so i never really connected with the 2d games. i want to change that.

the other is, well, gaming related: i wanna try and make a game. it will probably be very, very tiny, needless to say, but thats okay! i want to make something that can be played and put it into the world. that seems cool

[Jkim]

Try out some of the ea sports titles coach career modes to see if they’re my thing or not. I know I enjoy season modes but I’m not emotionally tied down to a certain version of those systems

[Lastly]

Near the end of last year, after I had finished Yakuza 6 and was waiting for Like A Dragon to come out, I started working through my backlog of games and I decided that I’m going to keep up that energy this year. So a few days ago I went through all my various game launchers/storefronts and made a big ol’ list of games that I own that I haven’t played but would like to at least try and ended up with 144 games. According to HowLongToBeat, the full list would take me approximately 1,653 hours to complete. So I don’t expect to get through all of them but I’ve already knocked 6 of them off the list! (because they were all sub-1 hour long games)

[michiakig]

Glad other folks brought up some tabletop stuff so I don’t feel like I’m hijacking the thread

I wrote about this already in the “What games do you want to play this year” thread but really my number one goal is to get more comfortable playing Go and get to a place where I can just enjoy the game without being so nervous and anxious about playing well. I’d love to eventually play in person with folks locally since I know there are some clubs and stuff here but who knows about that this year…

On the video game side of things I definitely want to buy fewer games and play stuff in my library. At the same time I’m trying to branch out a little bit, and play games in some genres I’ve barely even dabbled in like JRPGs and city builders, so those two things are a little bit in conflict I guess

Also, during the winter Steam Sale I picked up three games with three different control schemes that I’m going to try to figure out how play hands-free: Paradise Killer (1st person), 11-11 Memories Retold (3rd person), and Carrion (platformer). If I don’t enjoy the experience of trying to make them work I’m going to really try to just focus on playing and enjoying games I can play with my current set up to avoid disappointment

[mufosta]

My life has been a bit of a roller coaster since I moved to the UK in September for my wife’s master’s degree, but I think once we’re back in the states I’m going to bust out a master’s in education from an online school and be a middle school teacher. That will be a very busy time for me. Since I busted my chops for the last 3 months to find a job and didn’t get really anything remotely close, I’m going to spend the rest of my time in the UK playing long games that I might not have a chance to play while working on my master’s, and may not really ever have this kind of unemployment sans responsibilities again (I mean, I cook and clean and shop and do laundry, but you know). Those games are:

Finish FFXII, play both Persona 2 games, and play SMT V if possible. Finish up most, if not all, of the games I bought on my switch, and check out some of the SNES Online titles I haven’t played.

I have had a huge hole in my heart since COVID of not being able to play fighting games. I left my hitbox in the US, and even if I didn’t none of the games I enjoy have good netcode. So, COVID permitting, I want to go to fighting game tournaments. I want to play with other people, make friends in my area outside (all my friends are from punk and hardcore, and while that’s fun, I want to diversify), and virtually punch some fools.

[youngliar]

uhhh get a ps5 without having to pay ludicrous scalper fees??? considering the completely dire stock situation over here in my country, that’s probably not gonna happen until maybe the holidays???

on the bright side, not getting a current-gen console might just force me to not buy new games without having cleared my entire backlog first, because i think i’d rather wait to play, say, hitman 3 on a ps5 with all the bells and whistles than on my crusty old basic ps4.

[Glorgu]

In the What Games Do You Want to Play This Year thread I posted 10 goals I had, I figured I can use this thread to elaborate or update on them!

Condensed because it takes up a lot of space otherwise

Finish Pathfinder: Kingmaker

lol

Learn how to actually play a Total War game

I’m slowly figuring out Total War: Three Kingdoms! Someone should have just told me these are Grand Strategy-lite games blended with RTS-lite(ish) battles. It’s good! I’m probably going to be buying more of em and tons of dlc I’ll never get around to on sale till the end of eternity now.

Win a run of The Swindle

I’ve played a bit since the start of 2021. I’m getting back into fighting form. For anyone curious, this is possibly the best heist game out there, marred by some loosey goosey platforming, but otherwise so damn smart.

Get under 10 min in Hades (current best clear 12 min 49 sec)

lol

Actually finish a game of Endless Space 2

Total War is my “build a society” game for the moment, maybe later.

Beat Ascension 15 with any class in Slay the Spire

We’ll get there. Currently highest ascension level is 11 with Ironclad. Love that fellow!

Replay a Dark Souls game (1 remaster or 2 SotFS)

This is cute, probably not happening. Ranged Touch’s series of rating every enemy in DS1 has me thinking though.

Play more of the too many Deck building roguelikes I own after the steam sale.

lol

Hit Mythic on Magic: Arena

lol

Play a fuck ton of Hitman

[epigraph]

There’s some really influential game series out there that I haven’t played yet, so I aim to get some of them in.

• Play a Yakuza game. Enough people whose opinions I trust like this series, but I have so far been turned off by the “wacky” elements that people post about. Might as well go to the source and form my own opinion.

• Play a Persona/SMT game. High School was a living hell. I have zero high school nostalgia or interest in high school media. But maybe I’ll like a series about bring actual hell to high school? Again, too many people whose taste I respect love these games, so 2021 is the time.

Other goals
Play the short games on my backlog. Short games are a treasure, but I tend to try and get the longer games out of the way first. I plan to get some more quick experiences in this year. Sorting games by shortest on howlongtobeat and will see what happens.

Spend more time in Unreal Engine and Blender. Making games is fun. I’ll try to actually finish one (lol) this year.

[Navster]

I’m trying not to put too many expectations on my game time this year, and just enjoy it as a hobby.

BUT

This is the year I finally finish Okami. Or at least get passed the boring opening hours and make an informed decision if I want to stick with it when it gets interesting. Also, I’m going to play the PS3 version because that’s the one I own and I refuse to pay money to play it on a modern console.

[DarthTythus]

Play Judgment! It’s

1. a great game in its own right
2. a good way to give you a taste of the wackiness without going eyeball deep in it

[aoanla]

As @Glorgu , I feel the best way to engage here is with reference to the What Games Do you Want to Play This Year thread, which sort of asks a very similar question. [I wrote more prolix responses there, so I will summarise the bullets here]

• Play more Itch.io Racial Justice Games like A Short Hike , 2064: Read Only Memories etc

In fact, I played (and greatly enjoyed) the first already this year, and am about (I think) 50% of the way into 2064, which I still have mixed feelings about [part of it is just that Turing has a very annoying voice, and they do speak quite a lot] but would like to finish before I finalise a position on.
More of the bundle to go, of course.

• At the moment, I’m also feeling a bit burned by Waypoint community recommends - I’ll try Umurangi Generation if and when it gets the mode that turns off that blasted timer;

I actually did play more Umurangi Generation - and will probably finish it. The timer [and time-dependant goals] are still awful though.

• Instead, I really want to try out more detectiving/“Ace Attorney” style games after Paradise Killer (I see that, once again, the Racial Justice bundle has at least one - Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle );

I still want to do this. Recommendations welcome!

• I have to make a note to try Crusader Kings 3 again now we’ve had enough patches to probably fix all my issues with it on launch.

I also still want to do this, it just needs a big chunk of time.

[Concrete]

Something I would like to do this year that is partially combining a creative endeavor I would like to take on is creating YouTube videos on roguelikes. I haven’t really made many videos at all, ever but would like to try my hand at it. I used to make comp wrestling YouTube videos that would eventually get taken down by now WWE employee Gabe Sapolsky and SamuraiTV. I love those games and would like to explore the genre more and think combining it with a “skill”/hobby I would like to pick up helps.

In general, my other goal is to take full advantage of Game Pass. Maybe I’ll buy the occasional Switch game since that is a different gaming use case but in general I don’t want to buy another game this year on PC. I think that’s a perfectly sustainable form of gaming (unless they take CK3 off which means I’ll need to buy the game + dlc).

[NotThePars]

I wrote generally about specific games I want to play but having thought about the question more broadly I’ve come to two (maybe three) ways I want to change how I play that are sorta intertwined.

1. Patrick spoke a bit today on the Hitman pod about quick saving and that’s a big problem of mine with immersive sims and stealth games. I’ve had Hitman, Dishonored and Prey for a few years now and despite multiple attempts I’ve never got more than a couple of levels in because I’m obsessed with a perfect run on my first attempt. I have no idea how I ever completed the MGS games because as soon as I get spotted I feel I’ve failed and have to reload. So one of my goals this year is to trust that these games are fun enough for multiple play throughs and that not everything is meant to be experienced on the first run. That means learning how to play the game, learn the level, and just have a blast and roll with that punches instead of getting one-two levels on with 75 saves and never playing it again.

2. Sorta related to this but I want to replay games I cruised through or see more post-game content. I blasted through the Kingdom Hearts games on beginner difficulty because I wanted to experience the story and didn’t have the energy to get stuck anywhere but, and this is something I have in a lot of games, I find the gameplay and the challenge interesting and fun but a lot of the time if I find the story enjoyable then I end up blasting through to the end under levelled because I can’t wait any longer. So my solution recently has generally been to err on the side of powering difficulty which makes playing the game less interesting. So I’m hoping to get back to replaying stuff instead of tossing it away when I’m done.

2(b?) Post-game content. Something in my head just switches off when I roll credits. Loads of games have great amounts of stuff to do and I don’t see as much cause I lose any desire to keep playing. Final Fantasy XIII is the most recent example of great combat encounters that I don’t have an interest in playing but I intend to change that this year.

3.Tying up the games challenge - I want to complete A soulsborne game. Any one. It’ll probably be Bloodborne cause the aesthetic of that is the one that appeals to me the most but I’ve owned one of those games in some capacity for what feels like a decade and I haven’t got any further than an hour into either because I just switch off when it becomes a challenge. I’m hoping to devote more time to working through a challenge instead of giving up.

[BlueHighwind]

I don’t really know if this is a “gaming” goal but I do want to write about video games more this year. I never even got around to writing about FFVII Remake last year and that was pretty important to me. (User name: Highwind, after all.)