I’m not really one for New Years Resolutions to be honest. Sure, I’ll set the odd goal, but I find them one of those silly practices that most of the time don’t accomplish much as most resolutions get broken well before the year is over. However, in the interests of rebooting the writing machine to make up for the Christmas break, here are my Gaming New Years Resolutions for 2010.

I will play more games with my son – Oldest Son has been more and more playing games by himself, whether they be a Cars-based racer, Lego Indy 2 on DS, or Lego Batman Wii, they’ve been mostly solo efforts. While I know he isn’t getting his hands on inappropriate games, I need to have more oversight on what he does play. Whether it’s co-oping Lego Batman (which is silly fun, BTW, as usual, Lego titles deliver, and this one’s bargain priced now if you haven’t picked it up yet), or getting that elusive 100% in Lego Indy, or finding a way to double up with the DS playing, or perhaps introducing him to the PS3 or Xbox 360, as a responsible gaming parent, I must be more involved in his gaming.

I will not be a fanboi – I received my long-awaited Xbox 360 for Christmas. This means I now have all three current-gen consoles at my disposal. I also write for a gaming website, so I must keep my impartiality in the interests of fairness. Will the PS3 still be my platform of choice? Probably, simply because that’s the console that I run up my trophies/achievements on, and splitting between consoles is inefficient. But for exclusives, or games that are markedly better on the 360 (Bayonetta, for example, according to pretty much everybody), I will not shy from the 360. In fact, I got my first Gamerscore points the other day (15 in Castle Crashers, for those who care), and I just put in time on both consoles tonight, so the PS3-bias is already getting chipped away. I’m loaded up on Microsoft Points, got my one-year Live Gold membership, and I’m good to go.

I will write more for GamerPops – This one’s a no-brainer. GamerPops Burlington is finished. And it’s sweet. Football season is over. The dead of winter is upon us. No more excuses.

I will focus more on titles that are appropriate for children, but still remember I’m a gamer too – You come to us for perspective on what’s good for the kids to play without the “all video games are evil” attitude.  This is what I need to give you. You can get general gaming news and opinion anywhere, but we try to give you a nice balance of games that both parents and kids can enjoy, whether together, separately, or both. I can play Lego Batman with Oldest Son during the day and Bayonetta, Uncharted 2, or Assassin’s Creed 2 at night, and I can give perspectives on both experiences. And I will.

I will not be a gaming snob – I will not scoff at every piece of apparent shovelware, cash-in attempt, movie tie-in, or other non-hardcorez game I come across. Will I be skeptical of games, publishers, sub-genres, etc. that have burned gamers in the past? Of course, but everything deserves a fair chance.

I will be better about staying up late to play games – Well, you can’t hit ‘em all, can you?