What are we all playing this Christmas holiday?

Well? Do tell!

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 BeeHonestly, 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 somePowerWash Simulatorat some point, and play moreAlan 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 theRPS Selection Boxesthis 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.

Alice0Like 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 moreDarktide, which is better now. While I’m bumming about the grim darkness of the far future, I might also start onRogue Trader. And I believe Pip and I have an important job to hose down Michael J. Fox’s vest in PowerWash sim.

EdwinWhat 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 likeAgainst 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 withThe 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 ofThe Great Below, an occult mansion puzzler released in December, or start a new game ofDwarf 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 maybeBaldur’s Gate 3. I’d also like to make some headway inLies Of PandMarvel’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 Descentwas an unexpected treat earlier this year, and I’d like to see how it stands with the benefit of post-launch updates.

JamesI 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, tryingJusantagain after maybe dismissing it too quickly before, and aWavetalereplay.

KatharineSo 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 playFinal 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 offParanormasight,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.

OllieAccording 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 ofSatisfactoryhas rekindled my deep, deep love of factory sims, and with the release ofDyson 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?