Category: Life Simulation

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New Year’s gaming resolutions we’re definitely going to stick to

Like the frost on the cars and ground this morning – and the inside of my single-glazed windows in my flat! – a new year has arrived. It’s a time to take stock and look ahead and think what might be, and then run back into bed and hide under the duvet covers and refuse to come out. It’s a time to plan and to begin aspirational journals you’ll put down and forget about and never find again. A time to tackle the gaming backlog you keep talking about, fully in the knowledge you’ll probably double it this year. It’s fresh-slate time, promise time, all done in the hope you’ll look back next year and discover you did something you intended to do. So, what do you want to do, from a gaming perspective?

Here, we look back at our gaming resolutions from last year to see how we did, and then we set some anew. Are you brave enough to commit yours to writing?

Jessica

I wanted to pay more attention to indie games last year, and while I certainly played more of them than I did in 2023, I apparently had a secret ambition to start more massive RPGs than ever before. It was hard to squeeze in time for those indie horrors and puzzlers when games like Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Metaphor: Refantazio, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard were all stealing 100-hour playtimes from me.

13 horror games we’re looking forward to being scared by this year.Watch on YouTube

This year, I want to dial back the inventory management and take a bit of a breather, immersing myself in more peaceful landscapes. Spending so much time exploring Infinity Nikki‘s cutesy, fairytale-esque world has made me realise that whether it’s a four-hour indie, or another 100-hour monstrosity, the time I spend feeling relaxed in one game is far more valuable than trying to work my way through a list – even if I am still looking forward to playing those games eventually.

Is this my way of giving myself a pass to just play Infinity Nikki this year? Maybe. But as long as it keeps its silly, mellow vibes that keep me feeling happy, I don’t really mind if I’m missing out on the latest Game of the Year contender.

Tom

My new year’s resolution is to become less of a completionist. I think it’s becoming a problem. When I play games, I like to finish everything I can before moving on to the next area. I’m playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle right now, for example, and I’m really keen to get out of the Vatican and back to the jungles and deserts that await. But I can’t. Something inside me is making me hunt down photos of cats, and finish side quests and eat all of the biscotti I can get before I go. And that’s great – it’s a sign I’m enjoying a game that I want to be completionist – but the longer I linger, the more frustrating it can get that I’m not somewhere else already.

As I look to February and a likely 100 hours sneaking around feudal Japan in Assassin’s Creed Shadows – a game that will probably be stuffed to the brim with distractions and collectibles, and whatever the feudal Japanese equivalent of biscotti is – it’s a resolution worth making, I think. Ignore your bulging quest log, stop scouring for that last little thing. It’s time to move on and get to more of the good stuff.

Marie

My resolution for last year was to complete the main story of at least three games I’ve not completed yet. Did I reach that goal? Technically no I didn’t, but I’ll give myself credit for coming close with two stories completed.

This year I’ll be less strict, and less ambitious, with my resolution. I’d like to find myself returning to games that have previously brought me joy, specifically time-management or life simulators like The Sims 4. I spend most of my time on consoles with bigger games, mainly live services and RPGs, so it’d be nice to get back to the kind of PC gaming I used to love in games like The Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon. There’s something I find infinitely relaxing about managing the smaller details in those games (my parks are usually free with very expensive merchandise…).

Does this count as a resolution if it’s so vague? I’d like to think so.

Chris

This year I’d like to play more games with other people. Specifically with my friends (my partner couldn’t give two hoots about gaming and frankly I love that – it’s nice to have our own hobbies!). But as my old group of friends has got older and busier and more spread out, gaming has been the best way to keep in touch with them. I fell out of the habit a bit in 2024 with all the usual, cloying tendrils of modern life getting in the way. This year, I’m going to reserve a little window of time, even if it’s every other week, to check in with mates and play something together. That something will probably be one of the games we’ve been playing together, over and over, since we were spotty little teenagers, rather than anything new or exciting. But that’s kind of the point.

Victoria

Last year I resolved to play The Sims more honestly, with no cheats greasing my hypothetical wheels to the top. Did I manage it? Well, not exactly. I tried. Hand on heart I really did. But the allure of spamming that money code is just too dang strong. I like being rich in The Sims, with all the hot tubs and space rockets that come with it. I don’t like waiting for my characters to come home from work, for them to then watch shows on a crap TV which is always at risk of breaking. So while things started off well enough, I soon gave into temptation and deployed the motherlode code. I have no regrets.

Nine open world games we’re excited about that are coming in 2025.Watch on YouTube

As for this year, I am actually still a tad undecided. Since starting at Eurogamer, I have broadened my video game horizons tenfold, and in the last couple of years I have played more indies and other games than I ever would have. Last year, my personal Game of the Year was actually I Am Your Beast, and there is no way I would have given it even a glance a few years ago. But I absolutely loved it.

So I guess I’ll do a similar thing again: resolve to keep trying games that may not initially sound like my cup of tea. Perhaps like last year, I will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Katharine

I made a resolution last year to finally play GTA 5. Did I play GTA 5 last year? Did I heck. There’s probably not much point in trying to do so now ahead of GTA 6 coming out if I’m being honest, but the GTA series as a whole has always been a bit of a blindspot for me, as have Rockstar games more generally. I just never quite have the time to dedicate myself to them properly, you know!? Maybe I’ll resolve to finally play Red Dead Redemption 2 instead this year – the setting and tone of it is much more appealing to me as a concept than GTA, and I’ve always admired the horses in it as well. Honestly, nobody does horses quite like RDR2 does.

Bertie

I did it; I can’t believe I actually stuck to a resolution. Last year I said I’d start streaming and I did. I joined a Dungeons & Dragons group called Chaotic Questers and began streaming roughly once a week on Twitch. We even went to a castle on the Scottish border for a weekend, to record there, which was fun, especially when our car broke down for good on the way back. It’s been quite an adventure getting to know and understand the world of streaming from the inside, and it has increased my respect tenfold for the people who do it. Standing beside the M6 near a gang of cows – they were threatening, actually – while waiting for the RAC to appear was quite an experience too.

Oh, and while I didn’t manage to start my own personal video game stream, my partner did, so that’s probably worth half a point? I also didn’t manage to run a tabletop RPG, though D&D formed a central part of my gaming year. I’m still reading TTRPG books, though, and tinkering away on my own campaign, so I came close. Another half-point?

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This year, I’m being more specific. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but I’ve never properly played through a From Software game. I’ve dabbled in them – in Demon’s Souls (the original!) and Dark Souls and Bloodborne and Elden Ring – but I’ve never persevered for fear of being too aggravated by a game late at night. But I realise – Path of Exile 2 helped me realise – that I actually relish a combat challenge, so this year I’m seeking to change things. I promise to beat five bosses in Elden Ring, and you can hold me to that. And I’m phrasing it that way so I don’t baulk at the prospect of beating the entire game, though that is my eventual goal, of course. I’m determined to do this – so determined I’m going to start tonight before my determination wanders, which it has an annoying habit of doing.

That’s it. Nice and simple. Beyond that, I’m going to challenge myself to play games in genres I don’t normally, but that’s a much more vague thing to pin down.

Lottie

I’ve been playing RuneScape for more than half my life, which makes it my most successful relationship outside of my family. Considering this, you’d expect I’d have long maxed out my character’s levels. Well this isn’t the case. See, I’ve been sitting at Level 88 Herblore for the last seven years. In fact I don’t think I’ve gained more than 10,000 XP in the skill during this time.

The issue is I just detest training Herblore. Outside of mini-games, the process is so tedious. Get herb, clean herb (yes, you have to clean it first), get second ingredient, buy vials, fill vials with water, put ingredients in, most likely empty vials so you can do the process over and over again. It just takes forever.

Yet, that Level 88 has been burning a hole in my eyes over the past year so, in the grand year of 2025, I shall attempt to reach Level 89 Herblore despite the pain. (And no. I won’t use XP lamps. Don’t bring such nonsense into my house.)

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Cattle Country could be my new cosy comfort

Imagine this – rain is lashing against the window, the outside world is murky, grey and cold – you’ve just gotten soaking wet running to the shop to get some essentials you completely forgot you ran out of. Your bones are cold and you’re starting to believe that bears have the right idea when it comes to hibernation. What would work very well now would be a cup of tea and a cosy game containing welcome surprises to keep you on your toes – the Cattle Country Steam demo could very well be the one to tick these boxes.

You’d be forgiven for looking at Cattle Country and wondering just how its blend of pioneer farming differs from Stardew Valley, if at all. But in the short time I played, it became quite apparent that it’s developing a personality all its own and finding a space to nestle itself into.

First of all, I spent far too much time with the character creator, which is by no means a negative – there were so many choices for hairstyles, clothing styles and other customisable elements that let you make the character feel like your own without having to grind away in-game for a single shirt. However, there also weren’t so many choices that customising my character became overwhelming at any point. There seemed to be a delicate balance there of just enough and not too much. There’s even the option to choose your own pronouns, and NPCs throughout the demo used the correct ones I’d allocated to my character.

Watch on YouTube

Eventually I let my purple-haired hero venture away from customisation and into Cattle Country. This is where the comparisons to Stardew Valley are arguably the strongest, as instead of a farm, you own a ranch that you can build from the ground up with crops, cattle and various enterprises to make sure you’ve got a place to call home. Your progress is saved at night when you sleep in your bed, but mercifully, there’s a fast travel system, so if you don’t feel like walking all the way into town you can teleport there instead thanks to the handy Archibald, who pretty much always seems to hang around on the edge of your farm (which is not at all concerning in the slightest).

Running your ranch in Cattle Country isn’t just about collecting the crops, freshly laid eggs and milking your cattle, though. There’s a bit more depth to it, and additional steps to consider for certain processes. There’s a drying rack, for example, for creating animal hides, a keg for brewing beer, and a fire for cooking various dishes to keep yourself fed. You can customise your home, too, by crafting furniture, floors, lighting, decor and other homely items one needs on a ranch, such as a scarecrow to keep those pesky birds from stealing your seeds. Also, and most importantly, you can pet your dog.

Cattle Country demo the player's ranch
Image credit: Eurogamer/Castle Pixel, LLC

Your character’s skills can be upgraded as you spend more time tending to your ranch as well, often by participating in adventures that are flung your way. These seem to be mostly doled out by the local residents in the nearby town – after all, the key to having a successful ranch life depends on the people you know! – and when I finally headed into town to see exactly what kind of place I’d moved into, it definitely had a kind of ‘Stardew Valley needs Red Dead Redemption 2‘ vibe. Well, the lifestyle side of Red Dead, anyway, not so much the dramatic cowboy backstory side. The town acts as the social hub for all residents, including a saloon where most townsfolk hang out and a carpenter if you need, well, help with wood. There’s a banker if you need advice, a sheriff in case there’s trouble, and even a small school you can assist at among plenty of other things.

The in-game calendar already suggests there will be several seasonal events and villager birthdays to break up the weeks and months, and there are active missions you can go on during the day, as well as train heists if you want to liven up your adventure. But if you just want to have a quiet ranch life then you can do that too.

Cattle Country demo speaking to samuel at carpenter's shop about soap box racing
Cattle Country Demo character skills and inventory menu
Cattle Country demo character creator menu
Image credit: Eurogamer/Castle Pixel, LLC

Kindly, in the demo, the spring hoedown celebration is moved to mark your arrival. Held in the heart of the town, the hoedown is a dance contest that lets you pick your partner, then you dance the best you can to win the hoedown champion trophy. You don’t just sit back and watch it happen, oh no – there are mini-games to complete if you want a chance at winning. You need to press the corresponding directional keys shown at the bottom of the screen when they hit the line on the bar, and they’ll gradually get faster. A particularly lovely detail I saw was how your character’s steps will either be in or out of time with the music depending on how many keys you miss. I couldn’t help but smile during all this – there’s joy to be found even in failing miserably at getting your two left feet together.

This brings me to something which was without a doubt my favourite part of my time with Cattle Country – the fishing. If you’ve played a lot of cosy games such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, you know that fishing can be something that’s tricky to get right – make it too easy and there’s no thrill in getting a catch, but make it too difficult and you’re ready to throw your rod in the water and walk away. As I strode to a little stream near the town centre, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be another rage-inducing venture? Absolutely not.

Cattle Country demo fishing in the river
Image credit: Eurogamer/Castle Pixel, LLC

When you’ve got a bite, a small bar appears above your head as a green rectangle with a fish in it. You need to click at just the right time so the hook icon going left to right lands in that green patch (or the yellow boundary at a push). It’s not so simple it’s boring, but it’s also not so hard that you decide that fishing simply isn’t worth it.

Now yes, I can see you rolling your eyes going, ‘How is that all not Stardew Valley?’ But I think the answer comes down to those finer activity details, and the sense of personality in the town and its people. Some of them are quite unforgettable, and it feels distinctly its own thing by comparison. The current demo is only short, but it’s made me cautiously optimistic about the full release. Going on adventures like train heists to tackle bandits disturbing your fair town and then returning to pull up carrots at my ranch sounds like just the right amount of action and cosy for me.

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Citizen Sleeper, Two Point Campus, Frostpunk and more up for grabs in Jingle Jam’s stellar 2024 charity bundle

With the season of giving now officially upon us, Jingle Jam has unveiled its latest PC charity bundle – this year featuring the stellar likes of Citizen Sleeper, Shadows of Doubt, and Frostpunk, which can all be snapped up in support of a bunch of good causes. In total, the Jingle Jam 2024 Games Collection feature 18 titles (all supplied as Steam codes), and there’s a lot of good stuff to be found. For the most part we’re in the realm of indies, although Sega and Two Point Studios’ enormously enjoyable Two Point Campus sneaks in too. Also up for grabs are ColePowered Games’ wildly ambitious procedurally generated detective noir Shadows of Doubt (which we gave three stars back in October), superb sci-fi narrative adventure Citizen Sleeper (Recommended), survival city builder Frostpunk (also Recommended), and minimalist puzzler Patrick’s Parabox (four stars!). The Jingle Jam 2024 Games Collection official trailer.Watch on YouTube But there’s more: roguelike card battler Widlfrost is in there (this one made Bertie’s Games of 2023 list), as is wonderfully engaging sci-fi construction sim Mars First Logistics, sticker store management game Sticky Business, crustacean-themed Souls-like Another Crab’s Treasure, and the sequel to acclaimed 2018 tabletop-style RPG adventure, For the King 2. Also included is the well-received blackjack roguelike adventure Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, Geiger-esque horror Scorn, action-tower defense game Orcs Must Die 3, dystopian racer Death Sprint 66, dating sim action-RPG Eternights, card-battling rogue-like Hadean Tactics, hand-drawn puzzle adventure Submachine: Legacy, and Fight in Tight Spaces – a “stylish blend of deck-building, turn-based tactics, and thrilling animated fight sequences in classic action-movie settings”. And if you prefer you lists in bullet point form: Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers Wildfrost Two Point Camps Shadows of Doubt Patrick’s Parabox For the King 2 Citizen Sleeper Another Crab’s Treasure Mars First Logistics Sticky Business Hadean Tactics Submachine: Legacy Scorn Orcs Must Die! 3 Fights in Tight Spaces Death Sprint 66 Eternights Frostpunk The Jingle Jam 2024 Games Collection is a bit of corker, then, and if you’re sufficiently swayed, all the above can be acquired for a very reasonable donation of £35. Or rather, for a minimum donation of £35 – with more appreciated if you’re able, seeing as organisers are hoping to raise as much money as possible for this year’s eight selected charities. More specifically, money accrued though Jingle Jam 2024’s charity bundle will go to Autistica, Campaign Against Living Miserably, Cool Earth, Sarcoma UK, The Trevor Project, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and War Child. You can read more about each charity – and purchase this year’s games bundle – over on the Jingle Jam website. At the time of writing, it’s successfully raised £1,277,979.

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We’re discounting our annual membership, and we’ve got Citizen Sleeper to give away with it

We’ve got a double-whammy for you today: a Black Friday discount for yearly Eurogamer subscriptions and a game giveaway for yearly subscribers. And the game is a good one: Citizen Sleeper.

Applying the Black Friday 20 percent-off discount is simple. Click through to our “Support Us” section and then click to subscribe for a yearly membership. Then, on the payment screen, click to add a promotional code and enter EGBF24. The price should drop from £30/€30/$30 to £24/€24/$24. That works out at £2/€2/$2 a month, in case you’re wondering; a regular monthly subscription costs £3/€3/$3. This discount code will expire on Tuesday, 3rd December, at midnight UTC.

The benefit of being a yearly subscriber – in addition to the standard membership benefits of ad-free viewing and exclusive articles and content – means access to game key giveaways, and we’ve got a brand new one for the occasion. We’ve got 100 keys for Citizen Sleeper, split across PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, to give away. These are redeemable in Europe only. (Citizen Sleeper is on GamePass on PC and Xbox if you want to play it there.)

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To claim a key, go to the “My account” section of the website (top-right on desktop, three-lined menu on mobile) and find the Codes tab there. Then, scroll down and find the Citizen Sleeper giveaway and select the version of the game you want. You’ll probably also see codes for other games there – feel free to claim them.

Citizen Sleeper, if you don’t know, is the warm-hearted sci-fi story of a remote-controlled body (a Sleeper) finding their place and way on a somewhat lawless and forgotten space station known as The Eye. It’s a game about friendships and self-discovery, and the mystery of what lies within – both inside you and on the space station itself, right down in its wiry veins and programming bones. It’s gentle and relaxing, thoughtful and deep. Chris Tapsell Recommended Citizen Sleeper in his review (before we changed to a star-rating system).

Excitingly, we’re also on the cusp of a sequel. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is due early 2025 and, based on a recent demo, seems to be in fabulous shape. There have been significant changes – improvements – to how the game works. The heart and warmth is all still there but there’s now a more palpable sense of tension and jeopardy to go with it, which makes it more exciting. The RPG systems are more nuanced and developed; there’s just more to chew on in every regard. I can’t wait.

If you have any problems redeeming any of the above, please mention it in the comments below, or email me on [email protected]. Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported us this far – it means a lot.