As we roll into the holiday season, its not unusual for developers to get into the spirit of things and give us some festive twists on games that we know and love. So here are 5 games that really got into the holiday spirit…
Apex Legends – Winter Express
As part of the Holo-Day Bash event, 3 teams of 3 go head to head to take control of the Winter Express as it speeds across a festively decorated map. In this non-Battle Royale mode, each Legend starts with a pre-defined loadout allowing players to charge straight into the action without having to worry about looting gear first.
Control of the train can be taken in one of two ways – fill a capture meter by occupying the train without being interupted by oppostion players hopping on board, or just kill everyone else so there is no-one left to challenge you for possession of the train. Once the train has been successfully captured, all eliminated players respawn for another round of festive fun. The first team to secure the train 3 times are declared the winners.
Overwatch – Yeti Hunt
A regular inclusion in the annual Winter Wonderland event, Yeti Hunt sees a team of 5 Mei players (hunters) trying to capture a single Winston player (yeti). The team of hunters win by completely draining the yeti’s massive health bar but they have to do that before the yeti manages to get 5 hunter kills.
Mei’s abilities are nerfed to last for shorter periods of time, while her Ultimate is completely replaced with a steel trap that can immobilise the yeti if he should stumble into it.
Winston’s regular abilities, on the other hand, are unchanged but his Ultimate is a little different to normal. His Ult meter can only be charged by collecting pieces of meat that have been placed throughout the level. When he collects his fourth piece of meat, Primal Rage will automatically activate with increased power and duration than normal but no health recovery.
Borderlands 2 – How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day
Unlike the previous two entries in this list, How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day is not a timed event that only runs for the holiday period. Instead it is paid DLC that adds the wintery location of Frost Bottom to the fast travel list.
Everyone’s favourite merchant, Marcus, has instigated a festively-themed day named Mercenary Day. Of course, it is all just a scam to make some money by encouraging the towns people of Gingerton to buy lots of guns to gift to one another. There’s just one problem. Someone (spoiler alert – a giant snowman) has stolen the shipment of guns that Marcus was planning to sell and only a vaulthunter can get them back for thim. That’s where you come in…
Minecraft – Snowman Survival
Found on the CubeCraft Games server, Snowman is a seasonal variant on the classic infection game type. 8 players are gathered together in a festively themed room with one randomly being selected to be the dreaded snowman. The other 7 human survivors are given a short period to run for their lives before the snowman is unleashed to hunt them down.
The snowman can convert the fleeing survivors into more snowmen by hitting them with a well-aimed snowball. The survivors need to dodge the snowballs or just hide as best they can. For survivors that can survive long enough, power-ups will appear around the map that will aid them in escaping their persuers. The last player standing is the victor.
Street Fighter V
Not really an event or game mode, this one. But, year after year, Street Fighter V has done a good job of churning out festive-themed costumes and map variants. There are plenty of Santa Claus and Mrs Claus costumes to pick from, as well as the odd reindeer outfit.