Whelp, The Game Awards 2024 just happened and there's a lot of titles planned for release in 2025.
So after watching all the major announcements, I thought it appropriate to ask these annual questions:
1. What are your overall gaming goals for 2025?
2. What particular titles are you most interested in playing next year?
My backlog is nuts at the moment, but for replays I'll still be rocking Baldur's Gate 3, WoW: The War Within, and now HELLDIVERS 2 just sucked me back in with their Illuminate reveal.
As for next year, I want to finally get around to Jedi Survivor, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and to finally complete Homeworld after 2 decades.
Newly announced titles, I'm thrilled for - The Witcher 4 (I'm predicting a delay), DAVE THE DIVER: In the Jungle, and Citizen Sleeper 2.
Dragon Age: Veilguard and Civilization VII aren't gong anywhere anytime soon, so I'll get around to those when a big sale hits.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how I approach things like my backlog, making gaming goals, and how I approach the hobby as a whole.
One of the best things for my mental health I did in the last year or two was delete all my wishlists across Steam, GOG, and other digital storefronts. The FOMO it created was stressing me out, and it essentially because a secondary backlog that I felt like I could never surmount. The actual backlog is something I'll likely never surmount, so having yet another just felt like unnecessary and unhelpful stress.
One of my big 2024 goals was to finish the Kingdom Hearts series, which I've been plinking away at for the last 3 years. This month I started Kingdom Hearts 3, and while I suspect I won't finish before 2025 rolls around, I'm close enough that I feel satisfied that I met the spirit of the goal, if not the letter.
I started thinking about what my 2025 goal should be, and considered making it a point to finally get around to playing Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate 3, and Elden Ring. But I've also committed to playing several very long games for my tiny streaming community, which will probably make it difficult to fit all three of those games in on top of everything else. After Kingdom Hearts I was considering trying to get caught up on the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. It's also unlikely I'll be able to fit more than one or two of those games in next year on top of everything else, and the devs are rudely putting out one or two more every year at this point.
I've considered deleting the idea of a backlog from my gaming life, but I do struggle with that idea a lot. It feels supremely wasteful to have spent money on those games and to simply remove any sense of obligation to actually play them. Calling that a sunk cost fallacy doesn't remove my discomfort. I may end up doing it in the end, but mentally I'm not there yet 
So, what's my overall gaming goal for 2025? Other than the games I committed to playing for stream, I think the goal is to not have a goal. Just go with what I'm in the mood for, and try not to let the fomo get to me.
What particular titles am I most interested in next year? Civ 7 and Death Stranding 2 are standouts. Naughty Dog's Intergalactic if it comes out within the year (lol). Possibly Path of Exile 2 once it leaves early access. But otherwise there isn't too much that will definitely be a day one purchase for me. Which feels like a relief!
When it comes to backlogs, I treat it as if I was a billionaire collecting art and then just storing it. I'll pick the titles I want to play but no longer feel any obligation to play them. There's simply too many titles at this point and my time is increasingly finite.
Goal: Play what I want when I want to for as long as I want to. Don't fret about it.
My usual annual goal is to beat more games than I buy, which continues to be achievable, but I've slowed down on gaming a lot in the back half of the year, to a point that I feel my spark/drive to game waning. Part of this has been driven by putting my leisure energy elsewhere (namely M:tG), but it's saddened me all the same.
With that said, my biggest gaming goal for 2025 is have fun without abandon. No slogging through things out of self-imposed obligations, just a pursuit of what scratches my itches. Secondary goal is to beat more than buy, but with my current catalog, I want to believe that will occur organically as I try to skrimp & save through the year.
My 2025 goal is more of a list of games I own that I want to see finished. My only real goal is to get all achievements on Persona 3 Reload. This is only 3 achievements and I will want to reply the game so this is a doable goal.
No particular goals really, maybe hold off on Path of Exile 2 until it's out of early access. As far as games to play in 2025 I am looking forward to Civilization VII and have hopes for Avowed being a solid game.
Play more games while spending less money on games
This is a list of games I feel like I fell off prematurely or that I have unfinished business with. I’d like to dig into them next year.
Returnal
Sekiro
Shadow of the Erdtree (final boss)
Cult of the lamb
Disco Elysium
Sifu
I’d also like to let a good number of new games slide to 2026. I used to do that a lot but have been buying some early recently and I don’t think it improves my enjoyment.
Buy less and play more already owned games. Between GOG, Epic, & Amazon Prime Gaming, I have more free games that I can play and complete in 3 lifetimes.
Might as well put some on the list:
1. Finish Witcher 3 before Witcher 4 comes out.
2. Beat Baldur’s Gate 3 when new subclasses launch.
3. Master Civilization 7 (by master I mean beat it on King or higher).
4. Play all the strategy titles chosen by strategy club since I am the organizer. 
5. Play more multiplayer with friends, whether that’s MMOs or games like Helldivers.
Might as well put some on the list:
1. Finish Witcher 3 before Witcher 4 comes out.
2. Beat Baldur’s Gate 3 when new subclasses launch.
Like wise with number 1. I’d also like to play The Long Dark before The Long Dark II comes out. They look incredible in a grimly, atmospheric kind of a way but maybe I should pick my battles.
I haven’t purchased Baldur’s Gate 3 yet. Next year was gonna be the year but I can see it slipping to 2026 at this rate. I quite like having a guaranteed phenomenon, already out and patched, to pick up on any time I fancy.
Goals are similar to a few other folks here:
- Buy as few games as possible
- Play the games I already own
To be fair, these are my goals almost every year, and I usually fail (especially this year, where I spent more on games that I did the previous one).
Out of the announced games that are coming out, I'm planning to get very few:
- Freedom Wars Remaster
- Tomb Raider IV-V-VI remaster (fingers crossed the developers can turn Angel of Darkness into something playable)
- Monster Hunter Wilds (already preordered on Steam)
I'm not putting together a priority list. I tried that a few times in the past and it went off the rails almost immediately. I expect I will just pick something I'm in the mood for, and play it until I either decide to drop it or to finish it, and then move on to the next.
Baldurs gate 3 has a standing spot in my game rotation.
I beat the game with a drow rogue before the ending patch. I know I missed a bunch of stuff.
This year I got my half elf vengeance paladin to the middle of act 3. I am trying to role-play what quests I leave unfinished because I the player know about them, but my paladin has a bit if a one track mind. They ended up falling in love with shadowheart which is very funny. I have found several quests I missed on my first run.
After they add the new subclass I want to do a bard run.
This game could be replayed once every year and be different each time for a long time
Main goal for the year is to play more and buy less. There's been a decent number of games on the wishlist that have gone on sale recently (both PC and Switch) that I've snapped up, so the backlog is nice and high. I want to make a point to play through more of them next year, and also be more willing to pull the plug if I'm not having fun. Got less time now than before, so that time is precious.
To support that, I've also done a pretty big purge of what's left of the various wishlists - the Steam/isthereanydeal lists are down to about 10-12 or so, and the Switch one is maybe 15 but those seldom go on sale to a point that would make me want to spend. That way, less FOMO sets in, or I'm less likely to buy the marginal game that sort of looks interesting that I buy and play only a couple of times.
I'm looking forward to replaying Fallout New Vegas and to try to get the final achievements on it this year (it's modded and ready to go), and maybe do a run of the Mass Effect trilogy again, since I've got it all together in the Legendary edition. I also want to revisit Breath of the Wild and maybe Xenoblade 1 this year as well. That's already a lot of gaming time, and it's all replays.
I also want to find one good coop game (could be Monster Hunter Wilds) to play with friends.
I have just bought Cyberpunk 2077, I have stopped playing Hades II until it's out of early access, with Metaphor ReFantazio and Monster Hunter Wilds I think I'll be set until 2026...
Three related goals, with two being similar to as TheMostRad's:
1) Buy considerably fewer games in 2025.
FOMO on physical copies of games has led me to buy perhaps a dozen games this year that remain in their shrink wrap. This is madness, because it is very likely that I will never open even half of them.
2) Complete the majority of games that I start
I actually do this quite consistently already, but I need to keep it going.
3) Abandon games more quickly, and resist feeling bad about doing so
Abandoned games sit at the back of my mind, nagging away at me. On occasion, I have returned to the scene of crime, and tried to hate-play my way through to the end. At 53, I have more gaming sessions behind me than ahead of me, and I need to respect this time better. I need to learn to make my peace with games that I don't want to continue.
I made some good changes for me this year.
I accepted I’m never going to play everything that looks interesting. And I looked at how much time I actually want to spend gaming versus other hobbies and activities. It was a bit sobering. It has mostly cured me buying games except when I intend to play them. Participating in sales only led me to spend more money ultimately.
I jettisoned my backlog and replaced it with a much, much smaller priority list of games I really would like to play. I add to the list very selectively.
I’ve made gaming less of a priority in my life overall. I’d guard my gaming time a bit too much in the past. Now I “hold” on to that time much more loosely and put more things higher on the priority list than gaming. Other hobbies and interests, I mean.
So for 2025, the plan is to continue on with these changes.
Well, my main gaming goal is to start documenting my backlog completion and new game acquisition in video review/essay form. Will this be published somewhere? I'm mulling that over. I have a few things to figure out, but this is very much a project to just have some creative output outside of what I already do with my writing and other mixed projects. A relatively low-effort, low-stress endeavor.
Hello guys.
For me is simple
keep working on my blacklog (making progress btw)
More VR. I really have to justify this Quest 3 purchase I made last summer. So far I've only played through Fire Escape, lots of Google Earth VR, rode a few rollercoasters, and played one stage of ReZ HD. Especially looking forward to Moss 2, HL: Alyx, Metal: Hellsinger and more ReZ.
Finally hunker down, really get into, and finish *a* Yakuza game. I've so far only made it about 3 hours into Yakuza 0. Twice.
Play a few more games that require fast reflexes, because probably I won't have them that much longer (second half of my 40's). I still do pretty well in Quake: Champions, with my rail shot probably being the best it has been my entire life, so I know they are not gone yet.
Work on my ps1 backlog - Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve II, and others are calling. The PS1 is a console I skipped entirely, and didn't really play any of its titles (aside from Final Fantasy VII on PC) until I got a PS2 in 2002.
Start and finish another Silent Hill game. I've bought 1-4 and Shattered Memories, but only finished the first in 2009, and SH 2 took me about a decade of playing it on-again off-again to push through.
Others that are in the "definitely want to get to" category: Mafia III, Alan Wake 2, *a* STALKER game (I just bought 2 at full price, but also have the older ones mostly untouched), and Witcher 2.
EDIT: I guess I need to get around to Okami (/Okamiden), as the Okami 2 announcement was the most exciting thing I saw from the game awards aside from Witcher 4.
I'd like to play less, but be more intentional about when I play.
Don't get me wrong, I had a great time with the games I played this year. But I know that it can be very easy for me to turn to gaming as a stress reliever, and then to have gaming squeeze out the time or mental energy to do things that would actually be good for me. Like I often get up earlier than my wife, and when it's too early for me to get ready for work or to start doing something else around the house, it's easy for me to brew some coffee and spend a little time in a game world, first thing. But morning is also my peak time for creativity and mental energy, and starting the day off this way probably leaves me feeling less focused and more scattered -- especially over time.
Also: play more indies, and play more short games. For me, big, long games have dominated my schedule this year, but I notice I sometimes have more fun with short experiences, and with indies that are trying something new. I'd like to try more of these.
Get my backlog down further. Under 15 would be great; it's sitting at 25 right now. I use it a little differently than some: the number doesn't bother me too much, and I don't get too much of an itch in my brain about unfinished games, it's more like a list of "play this or decide you're done with it." Thinking about the backlog that way has been working for me, but as I've winnowed it over the past few years, now I've gotten it down to games I really want to play. I know it would take me forever to get through those 21, though, because I'll also keep adding new games as they strike me.
I'd like to play less, but be more intentional about when I play.
Very similar to where I am at. I don’t want to stop gaming but I want to keep it in balance with other uses of my free time.
Wrong thread.
LastSurprise wrote:I'd like to play less, but be more intentional about when I play.
Very similar to where I am at. I don’t want to stop gaming but I want to keep it in balance with other uses of my free time.
Just posting a quick update here on something that has worked for me, so far, in the new year. Of course, we're only six days in!
I'm a big fan of James Clear's Atomic Habits, and having reread part of the book over Christmas, I was thinking about my gaming habits. One that's especially become prominent, over since the pandemic, is to sneak in some game time early in the morning, right after I wake up and before work. Atomic Habits talks about how one of the keys to habit formation is to make it easy, and a combination of technology and my schedule allowed that. I am an early riser; I'm almost always awake earlier than my wife, and I have free time in the morning. It became easy for me to decide "I'm going to play games for half an hour," which could then become an hour. I'd also feel like playing games early would lead to me being a bit overstimulated, and unfocused, through the rest of the day. It would be the beginning of my workday, or the weekend, and I'd already be thinking about all the stuff I'd just done and anticipating a return to it. Early gaming sometimes felt like it crowded out brainpower that I needed to use on other things.
I've known this was a problem for a while, but didn't always have the will or capacity to act on it. The habit of wake up / brew coffee / grab the Switch (or DualSense) was pretty ingrained. And, once I started, I was wired to continue, and just keep playing for one more turn, or 5 more minutes, to finish the next thing. But there was always a next thing. So the critical moment was to try to break the habit of starting in the first place.
So I figured I needed to disrupt this with something else to do in the morning -- my mind craves something to occupy itself, early, and to ease into the day -- and needed to turn to reading. When I get in the groove I can be a voracious reader, but I had fallen out of the groove. Partly, that was business, partly stress, and partly that I wasn't making it easy. I used to read on my Kindle all the time, and (until a couple weeks ago) had a 2014 Paperwhite -- first generation, I think! -- which was past its useful life. It took forever to boot up, and was very slow in turning pages, and didn't hold a charge as well any more. Reading on it wasn't fun, and was kind of annoying, and so, I did that less. And, as I read less, early gaming became more cemented as a habit.
I realized I needed two things: a new Kindle that I wanted to read, and to always have a book I really want to read in the queue (no "aspirational" book backlogs -- only stuff I'm truly driven to read). And I told myself that after I wake up and brew coffee, I'll read for 15 minutes. That's been really good for me, so far, and I've noticed that reading first thing in the morning doesn't consume the same kind of brain space that games do. I'm much more ready to do other things, and to have the attention to focus on other things, after reading than gaming.
Thanks for sharing!
For most of 2024, I kept track of how much time I spent gaming each week. At first I just kept track and then I started keeping it under a certain amount per week.
For the past couple months I’ve tried to write for equal or more hours to those spent gaming. Writing is my morning activity.
Whatever free time left is for Japanese study and reading, usually. In 2025, I might cut back gaming even a little bit more for these other activities. I could also do with a bit more socialization and I’d like to incorporate some volunteering in some fashion.
All of this has made me be more selective about the games I play. 100 hours to beat? Okay, if I play that exclusively, it will probably take me over three months to finish. Needs to be worth it.
There’s still a part of me that wants to play as much and as many games as possible. But I’ve found that if I attempt to indulge that desire, the satisfaction provided is transient. I’ve had to accept that there’s dozens of games that look good that I’ll never touch. It seems a little sad at first, but ultimately accepting this fact makes me happier overall.
My main gaming goal for 2025 is to either finish games that I start or drop them. I hate having loose threads. I've already jumped on that with two games that I started in 2024: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake and Tetris Effect: Connected. Echoes of Wisdom is next.
I also would like to write about games when I finish them more. It would help when writing my GotY list at the end of the year and it's just fun to reflect a little.
I have my constant delusion that I will catch up on the Yakuza series so I've played Y7 in the past week. And I promised a friend that I'd finally get into Baldur's Gate 3 when they introduce crossplay early this year.
Metroid Prime 4 is probably my only garunteed purchase. Hopefully it will be cross platform so I'm not tempted to buy a new console. I'll probably pick up the MGS3 remake if that gets released. Ghost of Yotei looks really cool so I might try to get through Tsushima first.
I will come here now and say that my goal for 2025 is to play all the games from 2024 that I didn't get to: Infinite Wealth, Case of the Golden Idol, Dragon Age Veilguard, Frostpunk 2, STALKER 2, STEAMWORLD Heist II, UFO 50, Animal Well, Astro Bot, etc etc
However when Civ VII comes out in February, my true goal will be to win as every Civ.
I will come here now and say that my goal for 2025 is to play all the games from 2024 that I didn't get to: Infinite Wealth, Case of the Golden Idol, Dragon Age Veilguard, Frostpunk 2, STALKER 2, STEAMWORLD Heist II, UFO 50, Animal Well, Astro Bot, etc etc
However when Civ VII comes out in February, my true goal will be to win as every Civ.
Same except also 2023, 2022, 2021, ...
My goal is to just stop playing endless sandbox time wasters and finish some games with real stories like Control and Firewatch and Night in the Woods. And buy a new PC so I can finally play Factorio at a decent rate.
And 2020, 2019, 2018...
I think my goal is just to enjoy it. Not worry about beating games or fear of missing out. I would like to beat the Trails series but those are a couple hundred hours a piece.
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