The holidays are here and Christmas day is all so near.
It's that time of year again, when we all like to spend quality time with friends and loved ones, exchanging gifts, eating good food, being merry and playing video games!
And to that end I've compiled a list, and I've checked it twice, of 5 Christmas themed games that are fun, interesting and/or utterly bonkers. These games are sure to put just about anybody in the holiday spirit.
So, without further adieu and in no particular order.
#1- Christmas Nights (Sega Saturn)
A bit of an oldie but a no- brainer for those who've played it, Christmas Nights is a two-level expansion on the original platformer Nights into Dreams for the Sega Saturn.
The great thing about this game is, depending upon the time of year, environmental elements of the game change. Meaning that during December players are treated to not one, but two festive, Christmas themed levels!
Not only do the environments of these two levels take on a Christmas theme, but so too do the NPCs, some even appearing as little elves in costume. But it doesn't stop there, the background music also gets replaced with an instrumental of ‘Jingle Bells.’
While there are many who may have missed out on this wonderfully Christmas themed experience, those gamers who did get to experience Christmas Knights remember it quite fondly.
#2 - Elf Bowling (PC)
I'm not quite sure what it is about Elf Bowling that makes it so enjoyable, maybe it's the fact that you get to roll a huge heavy ball into a bunch of idling elves. No wait, that's exactly it!
Released for the PC in 1998, Elf Bowling pits Santa Claus against elves who have gone on strike. Being the great diplomat Santa Clause is known to be, he decides the best cause of action is to use them all for target practice by bowling huge, heavy balls at them, while they stand at the other end taunting and mooning him.
I really don't know what else to say here, while being a very out dated looking game, Elf Bowling is just so stupidly fun not to like. You won't find many other Christmas themed bowling games, and the fact that this one is so fun and cheeky makes it a must play.
#3- Santa Jetpack: Magic Sleigh (Android)
Developed by PimPum Games, Santa Jetpack: Magic Sleigh is a simple but fun, mobile game to put you in the holiday spirit. And best of all, it's free to play.
The game puts you in control of Santa Clause piloting his jet-powered slay (Evidently the reindeer are on strike now too) you'll need to avoid crashing into floating ice blocks and penguins, while trying to collect the many gold coins scattered through out the levels, as well as 3 illusive gold stars.
Santa Jetpack: Magic Sleigh may look like a simple retro style, side scrolling, collect 'em up, but it has a lot of charm. The fact that it's also a Christmas themed games is just icing on the Christmas pud.
So, if you're in need of some light, Christmas themed entertainment to tide you over till Christmas day, you can't go far wrong with Santa Jetpack: Magic Sleigh.
#4- Santa's Rampage (PC)
By far the most demented Christmas themed game on the list. Developed by RuneStorm and released in December 2013, Santa's Rampage is a FPC (First person cleaner) game, where you play the part of a cleaner who is tasked with cleaning up the visceral after carnage of Santa Clause's violent rampage.
"Tragedy! Santa; the toy giving folk-hero, and purveyor of fine Christmas goods, has had enough. Endless requests from greedy children wanting more and more every year, tax increases, pressure from elf unions, bills, reindeer!"
None of the carnage is ever shown, but it looks to be that the Elves at Santa's work shop where getting a little tired of their inhumane work conditions, and gave Santa an ultimatum "Meet our demand or we quit." This seems to have been the straw that broke the reindeers back, as Santa instead looses his mind and goes on a murderous killing spree, butchering all of the Elves and Rainder leaving quite a bloody mess behind.
So it's the players task to collect, and dispose of all the body parts, mop up all the blood and generally tidy up the place (presumably while Santa does some hard time)
Honestly, Santa's Rampage premise is ridiculous, but it is also incredibly interesting from a (what if) point of view. And while it may not be the best game to get you in the holiday spirit, it is fun and certainly one of the most unique and original Christmas themed games available.
#5- Borderlands 2 “How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day” (DLC (XBLA/PSN/PC)
We all know by now that nothing ever goes well for the inhabitants of Borderlands, but it turns out they can't even enjoy the holidays in peace.
Snowmen are causing problems and as if that wasn't enough, the Abominable Mister Tinder Snowflake is also spreading the winter time blues. So, it's up to Marcus to spread some warm holiday cheer with a little help from his arsenal of large, fire spreading weapons.
This Borderlands 2 Christmas themed DLC is well worth checking out, if you're looking to get yourself in the holiday mood. It offers players a bunch of new festive collectables, heads and skins, and is a great way to share in some holiday cheer with a friend.
Well, there you have it. 5 fun Christmas themed games to put you in the holiday spirit. Whether you're looking for something fun, interesting or absolutely bonkers you'll find something in this list to keep you entertained over the holidays.
Thanks for checking out my blog, while you're hear why not let me know what your favourite Christmas themed video game is by sharing it in the comments section.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays everyone!
A number of leaks have popped up that reference Pokemon Black and White remakes in some way. Are they all coincidences or real in 2024?
The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth combat director has expressed that he wants the final part in the trilogy to offer players "even more freedom".
Well its not an action game.
Even Elden Ring added jumping as an evolution of the combat system since Dark Souls did not feature jumping.
I want jumping as much as the next action game fan but this isnt that type of game.
I love the game so far but please don’t make the final part a mini game fest
Everytime I get to a new part in Rebirth it’s “mini game time”
Hope ya don't mind me asking since it seems like you've played it, did it feel like a decent step up from the last game or was it more like the best from the last but more polished?
It makes Remake feel like a demo.
9.5/10 imo. And I think the “mini games” did a great job of adding variety to the gameplay. Purely optional as well.
Here's my thoughts
I think it's a big step up from the first instalment, I'm enjoying it way more.
I thought keeping it just in Midgar was silly, it felt dragged out and it didn't have much variation in terms of the scenery.
However with Rebirth, as soon as you get out of Kalm you have a big world to explore and it's great to just wander round and explore.
Now that I'm half way in though, despite still liking what I'm playing, the gameplay loop is now starting to slow down on me. I've got to a new region and I'm like "Yaaay...need to go and find those towers again, oh look another special beast marker, is that a bird I see in the distance? Better follow it to another Mako Crystal"
It's like....you know how Peter Jackson was only supposed to have two Hobbit films then Warner Bros wanted a third film so he stretched the second film out as much as he could so he could keep stuff for the third film making a trilogy? Yeah it feels like that, so these mini games are a part of that overall gameplay loop to keep us going and stretch the game out overall so they have something for the third and final game.
I personally think you could have had the first instalment get you out of Midgar and through to Grasslands / Junon and the second game finishes things off.
I had a weird cycle of love/hate for all the mini games as I played through. At first I really hated the seeming need to check all these boxes while exploring the grasslands. I didn't enjoy the Gilgamesh quest initially, and thought Queen's blood was fine but didn't want to commit to it. The side quests didn't really grab me either.
Then for some reason everything in Junon region changed my mind and I did pretty much everything. I liked most of the side quests, I actually liked playing fort condor (didn't care for it in the intergrade dlc). And my interest for completing these quests stayed pretty much through to Cosmo Canyon.
Then they added that horrible Lifestream memory/battle mini game and I started getting so burnt out of it all. I just wanted to do the story. I didn't do any side quests in neibleheim and beyond except for the summon. I abandoned Gilgamesh.
So what I'm saying is I would like the third part to go back to the focused progression from remake. Keep the mini games to the gold saucer. Start the game snowboarding if you want, but from there keep the story rolling.
That's funny you say that because I did everything in the Grasslands but once in Junon I started to slow down a little until Corel where by the end I was burnt out. I'm still currently going but I'm just doing what I can while things keep getting thrown at me.
I would have preferred half of these mini game side fillers / collectibles for some really beefy side quests that really adds onto the world of FFVII.
Sounds like they hadn't really figured out what they wanted to do with Remake and this one is more of what they thought of doing which is probably why they're dragging it out to make a trilogy. Disappointed to hear it has towers cause man do i hate towers lol. It's been a while since I've played the first and it'll be a while longer to play the sequel, but it sounds like I'll enjoy it. 7 really impressed me especially after being disappointed with 15, felt like Square finally realized that FF was THEIR big franchise again.
How many hours are you into it at this point?
My friend got like 20-30 in and pretty much quit because of its mini game era. He loved and basically binged through Gran Blue compared to Rebirth
As long as it comes out on PS5 to have the entire series on one platform, do whatever you want
The combat is my favorite thing about Rebirth. Would be really cool if they can improve it even more.
I hope after FF7 Square will either give a new FF game the remake treatment. Or give some of their older titles a remake treatment like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, even Xenogears.
Wccf tech writes: "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's scope was impacted by the Xbox Series S hardware limitations, as developers could only make a game that was 25% bigger than its predecessor."
This is the issue with things like this
Xbox Series X is apparently to MS the worlds most powerful console
However the Series S is obviously a limitation because it’s underpowered and developers have to go for parity.
So what’s the point of the world’s most powerful console if you are holding third party developers back? They aren’t going to push themselves if they have to think about the weakest console.
The issue wouldn’t be as bad if it was just Xbox but you are also affecting the PS version aswell
I think developers need to start just taking advantage of a console and if one of them can’t do X Y and Z then f*** them…why should the others suffer. What’s MS going to do? The bigger the franchise the least chance MS are going to tell them to f*** off. Baulders Gate 3 seemed to have stood their ground and suddenly their “strict” parity rule didn’t really matter. We suddenly got super optimisation efforts for the Series S that got things sorted.
I agree, and the sad part is use normal folk saw it the second they announced their plans.
Agree 100% this is why I didn’t want the M$ Monopoly, now PS5 version will be held back too.
If PS5 Pro comes out and Series S is still a thing it’ll be interesting what differences and what devs choose to do. Really hoping Rockstar pushes the PS5 pro with GTA6 and we get the best version possible.
Good ole S indeed. Everyone knew this all along. S was holding games back...Now where the hell is Orchard i want a word with him.
More info from the author of the article, I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/ki...
Quote:
"1) I was told this info from the producer of the game Martin Klíma.
2) He specifically said the game will have only one mode.
3) And this mode is 4K 30 on PS5/XSX and 1440p 30 on XSS.
4) He said that the game is already running north of the 30 FPS cap so the performance should be stable on launch, much better than KCD1.
5) The limitation was XSS because of the 10GB memory. He said that's why they wanted to make the game 25% larger.
6) Speculation on my part: the output resolution is probably upscaled and the reason why there won't be a 60 FPS mode is because it'll most likely be very CPU heavy, like Dragon's Dogma 2 for example."
Doesn't seem like they're adding a 40fps mode on PS5/Series X for launch even if they can handle it.
I'd much rather have 1440p/60fps or even 45fps. Having just one, even with the Series S in mind, is disappointing.
Remember when xbots were adamant that the series s won’t hold back the gen?
Microsoft just needs to let go of the mandatory parity. Who cares if your grandma doesn’t understand that a game cannot be played on the S. It’s not like it she can buy you a physical game for it anyway. Before buying the game put up a notice that it only works on series X. If you’re buying for a friend-allow for a refund.
Bam. Everyone is happy. Most series s owners are for casuals that want Game Pass anyway and most likely don’t purchase most games.
If the developers want it to run on S, let them figure it out.
If it were Series X only then they'd only be selling to 25% of the Xbox Series userbase, and that's certainly not worth the time and effort into doing a port. Could just do PS5 & PC instead. No compromises needed.
“During the event, the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 producer also revealed that on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the game will run at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second“
Another “creative decision” right? 🤦♂️
Since you're not an amateur and clearly know more than them, can you over there and help get the game running on the S without having to sacrifice their true vision. Us gamers would really appreciate you using your wisdom for good 🙏
Thousands of games run just fine on S.
But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!
Thousands of games run on PS4 and on Switch. If developers want them to run on those systems. Fine. Those two platforms still get new games. Sony isn’t making studios also make a ps4 pro version, or Nintendo a wiiu version. Microsoft technically is.
If games like Alan Wake 2, GTA6, COD, hellblade all run on S, no excuse for this 100x smaller and 100x worse looking game to be held back.
"Thousands of games run just fine on S.
But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!"
Kingdom come 2 runs just fine alright. Its the SCOPE that they want. They had to cut it because of the stupid S series. Hellblade2 ran just fine too..but im pretty confident if it was just the X in mind, the scope of the game would have been much bigger.
Those are interesting games to get into the mood for Christmas. Man the year passed fast didn't it?
Merry Christmas!