What are we all playing this Christmas holiday?

We made it! The winter solstice has passed and the days are growing longer. To celebrate this (plus some other, non-astronomical events), we’re taking a week off! I imagine many of you will too. Oh how happy we’ll all be, gathering at the window with our loved ones to count aloud the extra seconds of each day! This novelty will wear off in a week or so once we realise longer days don’t mean warmer days, so we here at RPS will return on Tuesday the second of January. We have a few more bits and pieces still to come this year, mind. Expect more of our favourite games and—I’m very sorry—Christmas cracker jokes. Before I send you away, please, do tell us all: what are you playing this holiday?

Alice Bee
Honestly, my plan this break is to try and read as many of the books on my to be read pile as possible (also accounting for the likelihood that I will receive more books). My TBR is approaching 60 books at this point, which is more than my to play list. But! I’m probably going to do some PowerWash Simulator at some point, and play more Alan Wake 2. I doubt I’ll finish it, but Sam Lake’s Comedy Cavalcade Of A Million Selfs bears more looking into, doesn’t it? But really, having edited all the RPS Selection Boxes this year, I think I’ll have a go at a lot of the staff recommendations. Alice0 has some great horror recommendations, James’s are surprisingly wholesome, Jeremy’s picked some very cool retro-ish bits… There’s a lot there to be going on with. Plus I’ve Sons Of Saturn to finish, too.

Alice0
Like Alice, I hope to read a lot. My to-read tower has grown tall enough that my kitten knocks it off my coffee table by pouncing at it, which seems a sign to crack on. I imagine I’ll also be playing a lot more Darktide, which is better now. While I’m bumming about the grim darkness of the far future, I might also start on Rogue Trader. And I believe Pip and I have an important job to hose down Michael J. Fox’s vest in PowerWash sim.

Ed
I always think I’ll have a load of time to clear a backlog, but I never up finding a way to over the Xmas break. Instead I’ll be a bit more realistic, so when I can, I think I’ll chip away at Persona 5 Royal. I know, I know – it’s the default answer for me. But it’s a huge game! And my motivation lies in not only seeing all the new bits, it’s to be in Atlus mode before they drop Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor: ReFantazio. Both of which I can’t wait for, and honestly, I think Metaphor is going to be an all-timer RPG. Not to mention I’ll have Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth from the RGG folks, too. Edders eating good in 2024.

Edwin
What I’m playing over the holiday depends a little on whether I give into the temptation to buy a secondhand Steam Deck in the next few hours. If I do, it’ll mean I can spend “time with family” playing busy 3D city-builders like Against The Storm, but I’m worried that if I do buy a Steam Deck it’ll get eaten, used as a weapon or flushed down the toilet, so I might try to make do with my under-muscled Thinkpad. Assuming I take the latter course of action, I’d like to catch up with The Banished Vault, having bounced off it over the summer. It’s kind of a Warhammer 40,000 adaptation, centring on a mobile interstellar monastery, but it’s far more sparing and austere than most Warhammer games. I’m not sure I have the patience to wrestle with The Banished Vault’s fiendish resource management and simulation of orbital physics, mind you, so perhaps I’ll play the full version of The Great Below, an occult mansion puzzler released in December, or start a new game of Dwarf Fortress. Both of those are difficult, but they feel a bit less like homework, and Dwarf Fortress, of course, makes a virtue of failure.

When I escape the family holiday experience between Xmas and New Year, I’ll have access to my work PC and all the wonders contained therein. In particular, I’d like to polish off Alan Wake 2 and maybe Baldur’s Gate 3. I’d also like to make some headway in Lies Of P and Marvel’s Midnight Suns, though I’m not sure I enjoy either enough to finish it. That’s plenty to be going on with, but hey, why not one more: Aliens: Dark Descent was an unexpected treat earlier this year, and I’d like to see how it stands with the benefit of post-launch updates.

James
I never spend more time away from my desk than I do over Christmas, so it will probably be whatever I can fit on a Steam Deck. Current ideas: Dave The Diver, trying Jusant again after maybe dismissing it too quickly before, and a Wavetale replay.

Jeremy
This Christmas I will be relaxing with family and my Steam Deck, which is loaded up with the greatest comfort food of all – Japanese roleplaying games. Legend Of Mana has been on my list of games to replay for quite some time, and the new remastered version that came out in 2021 on Steam deserves my attention, especially since a new entry in the series – Visions of Mana – was announced at The Game Awards. I forever maintain that Legend Of Mana is an underrated masterpiece that was unfairly maligned upon release, and its unusually fragmented plot, storybook visuals, and memorable cast (including my favourites, a travelling bunny salesman named Niccolo and a talking teapot named Teapo) remain some of the quirkiest things you’ll ever encounter in a video game. Also, I’m just glad that it got re-released on modern platforms 22 years later, which is something I’d love to see for more PS1-era JRPGs (I’m looking at you, The Legend Of Dragoon).

Katharine
So many games, good gravy. More Baldur’s Gate 3 is high on the list, as I never really found the time to play this properly since release. Final Fantasy 16, because goodness knows when it’s coming to PC. Relatedly, I never did play Final Fantasy 7 Remake‘s Intergrade DLC at the time, which I’d definitely like to get round to before Rebirth comes out in February. Then there’s finishing off Paranormasight, The Pale Beyond, Viewfinder, Chants Of Sennaar… and that’s not even starting on all the Switch games I’ve got piled up, like Super Mario Wonder, Fire Emblem Engage and Live A Live. But gosh darn it, I’m sure gonna try and get through as many as I can. Truly, a good gaming Christmas awaits.

Kiera
As 2023 draws to a close I’m thinking back on games that I wanted to play and didn’t have the time for. Over the holidays when I’m not indulging in the bucks fizz and watching my favourite Christmas movies (Jingle All The Way, if you’re interested) I’ll be tackling my huge backlog of games. I’ve heard fantastic things about Dredge but have only played the opening first few hours, so that’s on the list. I’m also hoping to play Bramble: The Mountain King, a curious story inspired by old Nordic folklore which immediately piqued my interest. Lastly, after gushing about it far too much, I’d like to polish off my Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough and perhaps get started on a second Dark Urge one – if I find the time!

Ollie
According to sense, I should probably spend this Christmas holiday resting my joints and my brain a bit by not playing many games. In actuality: I’ll be building factories. A recent multiplayer playthrough of Satisfactory has rekindled my deep, deep love of factory sims, and with the release of Dyson Sphere Program‘s Rise Of The Dark Fog update, which at last adds enemies to protect your factories against, it’s easy to imagine my family members, all donned with those paper hats you get out of Christmas crackers, wondering where I am and whether I’m still alive. I’m okay, family. I’m just automating.

But you, reader dear, what are you playing this holiday?