Having abjectly failed my ‘Year of YouTube’ challenge last year (where I was supposed to post a new video every month), I decided to set myself a different challenge for 2025. (I do have more YouTube videos planned – subscribe here! – but I don’t want to just rush them out for the sake of it!)
This year, I’ve decided to do something about the backlog of games in my Steam library.
If you’re a PC gamer, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m always buying games in Steam sales. “It’s 90% off!” I’ll cry as I add a game to my basket that I know I don’t have any time to play! Apparently, I own 251 games, but Gabe only knows what percentage of those I’ve actually played.
So, it’s time to do something about it!
Getting Back into Gaming
A while ago, I sorted through my library and created a ‘To Do list’ of games that I own and want to play but haven’t yet. And for at least a year, I’ve been ignoring this list and playing things like Stormgate as soon as it was released! I would also find myself firing up games like Cities Skylines 2 rather than playing new stuff – comfort games that I can fiddle around and lose myself in while listening to Podcasts. But I think it’s time to take a break from the city builders. It’s not really the kind of gaming I want to be doing the whole time, and not like the gaming I used to love. (Of course, being a father doesn’t leave as much time for gaming as I used to have, but now my son is at school, so I should have a bit more time to fit things in – famous last words, perhaps?).
Over Christmas, I spent some time playing demos of Spiritfarer, Tiny Glade, Tavern Keeper and Cryptmaster, all of which I really enjoyed, and that has got me excited to play some ‘new’ games again.
Year of Gaming 2025
And so, I’m setting myself a challenge. The aim is this:
Every month, I am going to play a new game from my backlog that I haven’t played before. I’m going to give each game a fair chance, playing a few hours a week for several weeks, and then at the end of the month, I will write up my impressions up to whatever point I’ve reached.
Once I’ve finished “reviewing” a game, I will decide whether I want to stop or continue playing. However, I must then start playing a different game and post another review the following month.
It might not seem particularly challenging, but with everything else going on in my life, and having failed my 2024 challenge, I thought I’d go for something a bit more realistic.
Final Thoughts
So, that’s it! I just had to announce it to make sure I actually went through with it!
Every month for the rest of 2025, I will be playing and reviewing a new game. Some of these will be brand new, others will be a bit older, but they’re all ones that I haven’t played before. Starting with (drumroll, please!) Star Trek: Resurgence.
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