Our New Year 2026 gaming resolutions – “I want to see how close I can get to 100 percenting the game in 24 hours”
January is the month that, where I live, in the south of England, everyone gets serious again. All the paraphernalia of Christmas – all the merriment and cheer and colourful lighting – is cleared away in favour of sobering goals for the year ahead. It’s never something that’s appealed strongly to me, making goals, but I do feel the allure of wiping a slate clean and starting again. It’s like a run in a roguelike game, I like to think. Time for a new me.
With that spirit in mind, but without being all LinkedIn about it, we’re going to set some gaming goals for 2026. You might remember we did this at the beginning of 2025, so there’s a horrifying record there every year to remind us of what we probably didn’t achieve – or did we? This article is a chance to look back, reflect, then look forwards again. And we’d like you to join in and do the same.
The question is simple: what would you like to achieve, in a gaming sense, this year? Perhaps you feel now is the time to get into speedrunning, or maybe you’ve got an eye on streaming, or perhaps you’re going to make a game. Whatever it is – even if it’s simply clearing a backlog (which is anything but simple) – tell us about it. Pitch in. Pipe up. Bonus points will be awarded for outrageous ambition.
Play a game in every genre
Last year I pledged to beat five bosses in Elden Ring. I kept the task simple to avoid overwhelm and failure, but I failed all the same. I started enthusiastically but something caught my eye and I turned away and I forgot all about Elden Ring. Once I’ve turned I find it hard to go back, especially if I haven’t already gelled with a game-series’ quirky way of doing things, which in this case I hadn’t. I want to go back, I want to try again, but I’m not putting any pressure on it.
One small gaming win from last year: I did run a tabletop role-playing game which I’ve been talking about doing for years. I ran Eat the Reich, a wonderfully approachable and action-packed game by Rowan, Rook and Decard, which has some of the most striking art I’ve ever seen in a TTRPG.
This year I’m trying something different. I want to expand my palette a bit more and challenge myself to play games I wouldn’t normally. I usually end up enjoying whatever I play but I often convince myself I won’t before I begin, meaning I miss wonderful stuff. So, sports games, racing games, shooters, gacha games: this year I’m going to taste it all. Promise.
-Bertie
Properly move to Linux
There’s a meme in computer nerd circles that this year is always “the year of Linux on the desktop”. After all, Linux is always improving as an operating system, it’s free, and it already runs most of the servers in the world, so surely Linux is going to dethrone Windows and become the default choice for desktop PCs too, right?
When I first heard the phrase, it was the early 2000s, and I was ordering free Ubuntu Linux CDs – because I was still on dial-up internet and I couldn’t afford a Windows license. I heard it a lot more at uni from 2007 to 2011 too, where Linux is the de facto choice for coding and even the game we built ran on Linux (Descent meets the tunnels of The Matrix with three player co-op, since you asked). Now, nearly 20 years later (!!), it’s with great pleasure that I say to you that, for real this time, 2026 is going to be the year of (Will Judd using) Linux on the desktop.
After all, it’s never been easier – Valve’s efforts with the Linux-based Steam OS and the Proton compatibility layer have meant that a huge proportion of Steam games run on Linux with no user configuration required, and that’s like 99 percent of what I want to do with a computer. That’s true across multiple devices and flavours of Linux too, from handheld PCs (like the Ayaneo 2S I’m running Bazzite on) to laptops (an old Tuxedo InfinityBook 16 RTX 3060 laptop running Tuxedo OS) and full-fat desktop PCs (a small form factor AMD-based PC made to look like a shipping container that runs CachyOS). And with Windows 11 continuing to load up on telemetry and AI features I don’t want, Linux is looking increasingly attractive.
With three Linux machines easily accessible, my goal is to turn to them first – and only resort to gaming on Windows if I really can’t avoid it. I already know games with anti-cheat don’t work (though Valve wants to change that), but will there be any other challenges? How will the release of the Steam Machine change things? Can I become a bona fide Linux zealot? I aim to find out – and, if you’re interested, I’ll take you along for the ride.
–Will
Play more big games through to completion
“What do you mean you don’t finish games? Aren’t you a games journalist?” asks GitGud2004. Good question. Well, yes, I do finish games, but in recent times these have almost always been games I’ve played for work. It’s a little sad to lay it out like this, but for games I want to play just because I fancy playing them I have about 3-4 hours a week, split over four days. The big problem with this is that I find it really hard to properly get into a new game if I have to put it down after 40 minutes, so I’ve developed a bad habit. I’ve found myself either giving up and moving on to something else or returning to an old game I know I can just play without any need for a commitment.
This must change in 2026. No longer will I be put off by a playtime of 20+ hours. My gaming won’t be ruled by quick-fire experiences I can finish in a week. I’m sorry, Rematch, but I think it’s time I moved on (mostly). Alan Wake 2, I will finish you, finally! Star Wars Outlaws, this is your year (maybe).
-Tom
Spend more time playing games with friends (no but really this time)
I am currently in the exact opposite moment to the boom-bust cycle of “I can finish big games that I’m not reviewing” optimism to my colleague Tom, above. For so many reasons right now, I just can’t do it. There will be a time in the future, but that time is not now.
Anyway, my solution to this has mostly been playing smaller, more snackable games – either ones I can finish in single-digit hours, like the wonderful Despelote, or ones I can play for a while in shorter chunks, like the also-wonderful Sektori, and almost always ones I can play on something handheld. The issue is, wonderful as they really are, a lot of these games tend to be single-player. There’s nothing wrong with that on its own, but over time it can, I’ve found, build up to be a little isolating. Over the holidays I played some Dawn of War: Definitive Edition games with old friends and it was glorious.
Which makes sense actually, because – oops! – turns out this was the exact resolution I had last year, which I have only just been reminded of now. Shows how well I stick to these…
Anyway, long ago, playing the original with those same friends was how I went from liking video games to becoming infatuated with them. Today – and this is hardly unique to me – it’s how I catch up with people I can’t see in-person as much as I’d like. Last year I still didn’t do enough of it. This year, I promise, it’ll be how I fall in love with games all over again.
-Chris
Complete all of the Lego games
Last year my resolution was to return to more games that bring me joy, like Rollercoaster Tycoon and The Sims. For once, I achieved my goal without thinking too hard about it! Can I do the same this year?
As my half-finished Game Boy Lego set judges me from my desk, and with a new Lego Batman game coming out midway through the year, my resolution is quite literally staring me in the face. I’ve always enjoyed Lego sets and games alike – I could say so much about why but I’ll summarise it by saying their specific brand of humour always tickles me.
My resolution is to complete more Lego games, including the new Lego Batman due out in May. I’ve already completed a few games over the years, such as Marvel Super Heroes and Indiana Jones, but there are many more sitting on my Switch waiting to be finished. The first one on my list may very well be the Jurassic World I abandoned a year ago…
-Marie
Get my money’s worth from subscription services
OK, this year, I am going to actually try and get my money’s worth from subscription services. While this is not limited to games – I have a Now TV account I have hardly touched since The Last of Us Season Two wrapped up – my game-based subscriptions account for a chunk of my outgoings and I don’t think I’ve ever used them enough to truly feel like they’re giving me a better deal. I have both PS Plus Premium and Game Pass Ultimate. I probably use Game Pass more than PS Plus, but even so, I don’t think I am using it enough. That is for both the number of games I play as well as hours I play any particular game overall.
But that changes this year! This year, those subscriptions will be worth every penny. If not, I should really think about cancelling them…
-Victoria
Have a 24-hour Majora’s Mask marathon
Every year I complete a ritual of replaying Majora’s Mask. Not only is it my favourite Zelda game thanks to its supreme surreal and creepy vibes, but it’s my second favourite game ever. (The first is Okami if you’re interested.) This year, however, I want to do the traditional replay a little differently. Rather than taking the reasonable path and spreading it out over a couple of weeks, I want to see how close I can get to 100 percenting the game in 24 hours.
We’re talking starting at midnight, ending at midnight. 1440 minutes – that’s 86,400 seconds – of straight, non-stop, Majora’s Mask. The game which used to give me night terrors every time I played it as a child! What could go wrong? (I will be taking toilet breaks. I’m not an animal.)
It’s a fitting challenge for a game based around a time loop and, considering how many times I’ve completed it, I really think I’ve got a good shot at doing it! Hopefully. The main stumbling block I foresee is the Goron Hide and Seek Dungeon. I haven’t mastered it yet…
-Lottie
Be a speedrunner again
Once upon a time, I was a speedrunner. Thank you, ADHD. I love the Crash Bandicoot series, and something about the momentum and slickness of Crash 3: Warped, in particular, appealed so much to my teenage brain that I basically memorised the platinum relic routes in a matter of weeks. Fast-forward to my university days, and to my introduction to speedrunning, and I found my niche. Here it is, the game I wanted to master. Over the course of a couple of months, I learned the routes and started clearing the 105 percent category in under five hours. That’s not that impressive by today’s leaderboard standards, but I promise it was pretty lofty a goal back then!
Watching AGDQ this week has lit the fire in me again, and now I’m keen to edge back into the world of speedrunning with something else – maybe something shorter. I think my reflexes are too shot for a platformer like Crash, but I’ve been eyeing up Inside and Limbo as maybe my next challenge. I could even go for something longer like Pentiment or Citizen Sleeper… Let’s see what my schedule looks like when the start-of-year melee settles down.
-Dom