Forget unconvincingly vowing to finally haul yourself to the gym every few days, or promising to give up beer for a month — the only New Year’s resolutions that truly matter are those related to gaming.
Is there a particular title that you’ve been putting off playing for weeks? Or perhaps a genre that you’ve always wanted to get into but never quite found the time? The New Year is the perfect opportunity to shape your gaming habits in the months to come.
I’m planning to finally beat the FOMO
2025 has been one heck of a year, from the unexpected success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, to the blockbuster launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. I’ve struggled to keep up, but as I look back on the past 12 months, there’s a whole stack of games and hardware that, in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have picked up in the first place.
The most expensive, and the most fruitless of these purchases was undoubtedly the Switch 2 itself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a brilliant successor to a console I sunk thousands of hours into over the years but I can’t quite justify having spent upwards of £450 on launch day given that, all in all, I’ve played a total of three games on it. It seems the FOMO was strong, and I was pulled in by the feeling that one simply had to play the new Mario Kart, and that yes, absolutely must play Tears of the Kingdom again in 60fps.
My partner has spent 80 hours playing Tears of the Kingdom on my Switch 2 (her first playthrough), so it’s not been a total waste of money for me. I do wish that I’d have held off on it, though, and simply ignored the fear of missing out on something my peers all seemed so excited about. Similarly, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 failed to click with me. I can absolutely see why it resonated with so many, but being neither a fan of turn-based combat or complex RPGs, I really should have known better.
Next year, I’ll be more selective with where I spend my time and money, by holding off on jumping on the hype train every time a shiny pre-order is dangled in front of me. I’ll remain curious about indie experiences however, and I plan to try a wider and more diverse array of smaller experiences, in lieu of forcing myself to play the biggest and most popular AAA titles. FOMO be damned.
Jake Green, Evergreen Editor
Backlog, your days are numbered
Every gamer probably tells themselves that this next year is going to be the one in which they finally tackle their growing backlog, but I’m being serious here.
Now, to be clear, I’m not actually talking about going through my entire 1,452 game Steam library, or the 600+ titles I have on Switch and PlayStation, to try and finish literally everything (a lot of it is random nonsense I picked up for pennies on discount or in big game bundles) but rather square away some of the biggest releases that I’ve been keeping on my backburner for whatever reason.
I’m already taking proactive steps. A few weeks ago, Nvidia sent me a lovely 5070 Ti-powered gaming PC from the retailer Scan to try out some of their latest hardware, and testing its graphical capabilities seems like the perfect excuse to finally go back and roll the credits of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I played a few hours back when I launched in March, but fell off pretty quickly with the arrival of Ghost of Yotei. Now the game has a fresh new DLC to explore in Claws of Awaji, which my colleague Jake swears is excellent, and even a limited-time collab with popular anime Attack on Titan to try.
Next on my list is Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I love what I’ve played of Remake Intergrade so far, with about 15 hours clocked in total, but it’s been very tricky to commit to a lengthy RPG when you have to frequently drop whatever you’re doing to play a new game for review.
With a few weeks booked off around the holidays and then in the new year, I’m optimistic that I’ll have it finished right at the start of 2026. This leads nicely on into Rebirth, the next chapter in the story, which I picked up when it came to PC this year and haven’t actually even launched yet. With both of these games sorted, I’ll be in pole position for when the next entry in the trilogy drops in the next few years.
What else is on the agenda? Well, I got three-quarters of the way through Stellar Blade, so I need to get that wrapped up – then I’ve got Lego Horizon Adventures and Borderlands 4 to catch up on. I also recently reinstalled my copy of Watch Dogs: Legion, a game that I must have played for more than fifty hours at this point, but never actually finished. Rather than just wandering the open-world to see if I can find a recreation of my real-life house (spoiler alert: it’s not there, the map cuts off a little too soon), I promise that I’m actually going to complete the story this time.
Dashiell Wood, Gaming Editor
I’m going to actually finish a Final Fantasy game
It’s something that’s been a pretty shameful blind spot for me: besides Final Fantasy 14 Online and its various expansions – and the excellent Final Fantasy 7 Remake – I’ve never fully finished a Final Fantasy title. I’m going to change that in 2026 with, perhaps foolishly, what is considered one of the most difficult and daunting (but nonetheless legendary) entries in the series.
I’ve picked none other than Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles to put this particular bugbear to bed. I’ve dabbled in the astounding Ivalice setting here and there, with Final Fantasy 14’s Return to Ivalice raid series, as well as a handful of hours in Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age and iconic PS1 title Vagrant Story. Yet I’ve never played the entry that introduced millions to the setting.
Tactics’ themes of class warfare and political intrigue are a huge influence on Final Fantasy 14, and as a regular patron of the critically-acclaimed MMORPG, I feel like seeing these inspirations at their source is long overdue.
But I’m a huge fan of turn-based strategy games, too, with the likes of the Fire Emblem series and titles like XCOM 2 being among my favorites. The diorama-like art style of Final Fantasy Tactics has always appealed to me, too, and with fantastic voice acting being added to The Ivalice Chronicles release, I’m more eager than ever to see this lauded story play out.
Rhys Wood, Hardware Editor
It’s time to commit to more PC gaming
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to call myself a ‘proper’ PC gamer – someone for whom the PC is their main platform – but I’ve always kept it within arm’s reach, despite being more console-focused.
However, it feels like 2026 should be my year to enjoy gaming more, and for a few reasons. Firstly, logistically, a home move to a new place with a dedicated gaming space will ease the habit of leaving behind my gaming PC after work is done for the day. It’ll just feel nicer to go back into a room for gaming, which can be on any platform, rather than returning to the seat I work in.
Secondly, now that I’ve been sent an excellent RTX 5070 rig by Acer, I have even less excuse to avoid PC gaming for technical reasons. Everything I throw at the PC I have now should be well rendered and a joy to play.
And thirdly, there are loads of very PC-centric games already out or on the horizon to dive into.
The likes of Anno 117: Pax Romana from the end of 2025 is one such example, and I could be swimming in Warhammer 40K-PC-game goodness in 2026 with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 and maybe Total War: Warhammer 40,000 coming to the party too – though the latter does feel a bit optimistic given it was only recently revealed.
Even away from those, I’ve still got to get back to more Frostpunk 2 and Crusader Kings 3 (I know), the arrival of 2026 should be the kick in the right direction I need.
Rob Dwiar, Managing Editor
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