The concept of a ‘Christmas game’ is one I’ve enjoyed since my teenage years. A game that you’ve reserved for the Christmas holidays, to fully dive into during the downtime that you (hopefully) get. Maybe you’re enjoying it in front of the fire with some delicious food and drink while it’s cold and miserable outside (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least).
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a festive-themed game in itself – though choosing a game filled with snowy landscapes would only enhance the experience, I think – but something you’ve been waiting to sink into without distraction for a week or two.
While in previous years, I’ve reserved a release from the same year to sink hours into, that doesn’t really need to be the case – something I can personally attest to, below – as a good game to play over Christmas is just going to be a good game that you enjoy, regardless of when it came out.
I’ve asked the team what’s going to be their go-to game for the holidays this year, too, and they’ve shared their choices and some reasons behind their decisions below.
Unbeatable
Now here’s a game that I’ve had my eyes on for over a year and can’t wait to finally dive into come the Christmas break, now that it’s finally out. Unbeatable looks like pretty much all I could ever want from an indie game, and I don’t say that lightly. Set in 1999, it’s a musical adventure with anime-inspired visuals that are bathed in stunning pastel colors and nostalgic retro charm.
You play as Beat, a pink-haired musician trying to navigate an oppressive world where music is illegal. The story takes around eight hours with plenty of characters to chat to and unique environments to explore, but the real star of the show is its rhythm sections, which have you frantically mashing buttons in time with the beat to smash up your surroundings.
It looks wonderfully cathartic, and I can imagine it being the perfect wind-down after a long day of eating festive snacks. There’s also an expansive arcade mode that I’m keen to chip away at over the next couple of weeks – letting you perfect your skills with highly repeatable tracks to unlock a wealth of cute customization items.
Dashiell Wood, Gaming Editor
Octopath Traveler 0
To me, a Christmas game is something that I can easily take away from the home office and down onto the living room armchair. Preferably surrounded by a king’s feast of Maltesers, Cheeselets, pork pies, and those little cocktail sausages that are just awful but weirdly impossible to stop eating.
Enter Octopath Traveler 0, which is now available on Nintendo Switch 2, and frankly, ideal for my annual Christmas decadence. I always love getting stuck into a longer game over the Holiday season, as I have done with Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in years gone by.
Having recently played Octopath Traveler 0’s demo, I’m loving the mixture of turn-based RPG team building and the whole concept of restoring a destroyed village from scratch – populating it with townsfolk and warriors eager to join the restoration effort and bring peace back to the land.
If the previous two Octopath Traveler games are anything to go by, I’m in for an experience that’ll last me anywhere between 80 to 100 hours, and that’s precisely what I’m after over the upcoming break. Well, provided I don’t get sucked back into the relic weapon grinding mines of Final Fantasy 14 Online. Which is almost definitely going to happen.
Rhys Wood, Hardware Editor
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
It’s a little early, but I’ve started my Christmas game already, and it’s a replay of one of my favorite games of all time. I poured more than 200 hours into Geralt’s adventure on PS4, but it’s been nearly 10 years since I did so, and so I have long yearned for a good reason to go back and do another full playthrough.
The native PS5 release from a couple of years back has waited patiently in my backlog, and now is its time to shine. Inspired by loving The Witcher in Concert I attended in London this October, and diving into the Netflix series, which I have delayed watching for some reason, I began my fresh playthrough in early December. And I have zero regrets.
It’s just such a fantastic world to jump back into, and I think I’ve timed it perfectly, balancing the amount of muscle memory I have of the game in order to get back into it seamlessly, while also having waited long enough to have pleasantly forgotten a bunch of stuff that I can now relive.
The main story is an epic with so many branching narratives to get stuck into and enjoy, like the Bloody Baron’s deep and dark tale, and an exploration of the world that takes you on from White Orchard to Skellige via Velen, Novigrad, and Kaer Morhen. Oh, and the side quests! They are absolutely brilliant – in fact, I played one this time around which I just have no memory of from my first playthroughs, which is a joy to experience.
And, of course, it does have some Christmassy landscapes filled with snowcapped mountains and whatnot that make it perfectly fit the bill too – I can have Geralt stand among the snow and enjoy the cold, wintry sights and weather. Nice.
If I somehow manage to get through a vast amount of The Witcher 3 again, then I am still committed to playing Control once more on PS5, as that is long overdue for a replay, and will be even better the second time around on the PS5 Pro.
All in, it’s already proving a wonderful time of year for gaming for me, and I’m already getting plenty of enjoyment out of my Holiday picks.
Rob Dwiar, Managing Editor
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
I kicked the tires on Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 a month ago, and was simply blown away by the five hours or so I played. It’s clear, however, that this is a very meaty RPG indeed, and I plan to give it the time it deserves over Christmas.
So far, I’ve mostly been doing menial labour in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, spending a few hours crafting and selling potions, and putting in shifts as a blacksmith to earn some coin. The endgame? Some nicer clothes, maybe even a bath, so that people will stop smelling me from afar while I’m trying to sneak up and ambush them. It’s clear to me that this is not a game to be rushed, and I can already see it completely taking over my time over the Holiday break.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is unlike anything I’ve ever played before, and I can’t wait to see how its deep and complex RPG systems intertwine as the story unfolds. I’m absolutely terrible at combat, no one is buying my lies, and I’ve even managed to get caught trying to steal some food from a back-alley vendor, and accrued a bounty as a result. This Christmas, I’ll clear my name, buy some new shoes, hopefully get a bit more time in the training ring, and learn some advanced sword techniques. I cannot wait.
Jake Green, Evergreen Editor
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rob.dwiar@futurenet.com (Rob Dwiar)
