Christmas is the season to be jolly, or so they say.
Personally, I reckon the cold weather and sudden influx of annoying family members makes it the perfect season to hide away and play videogames.
Thankfully, this year there are a ton of holiday-themed updates and events coming to a bunch of games, so while you’re shut away gaming you can at least pretend to get into the Christmas spirit – let’s take a look.
Destiny
BungieDestiny’s latest big update is called The Dawning, and just so happens to coincide with Christmas, combining festive fun with a number of important new additions.
Expect a huge variety of new (Christmas themed) items, as well as the return of the Sparrow Racing League and Strike scoring.
Overwatch
Obviously Overwatch was never gonna miss out on the chance to celebrate the holidays with its own big seasonal event.
Like the previous Halloween event, Blizzard have introduced a slew of new skins and cosmetic items, as well as special maps and loot boxes which contain festive emotes and victory poses.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare + Modern Warfare Remastered
Stop rolling your eyes, I can see you at the back there sneering. The latest Call of Duty is getting into the swing of Christmas (for some reason), with a decorated Genesis map.
Logging in between December 21 and January 1 will also net you special bonuses and winter-themed customization items.
Modern Warfare Remastered, meanwhile, will be decorating the Crash map with holiday lights and candy canes. Such seasonal joy.
Hitman
2016’s staggeringly brilliant first season of Hitman caps off a successful year with a special Christmas mission which decks out the Paris map in snow, trees, and other such decorations.
It’s called Holiday Hoarders, and your mission is to murder two thieves who are attempting to steal presents. The Grinch would have been a wildly different film if Agent 47 was involved.
Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V gets in on the action with it’s own sack of holiday joy this year. However, you need to pay for most of it, which isn’t really very Christmassy.
If you’ve got the money to spare, you can fork out a few quid to get Santa-style skins for characters, including Ken, Zangief, R. Mika, Laura, Karin, and Juri – although why would you bother if it’s not free?
World of Warcraft
BlizzardSanta is more likely to sit out Christmas than World of Warcraft – this year you can visit Greatfather Winter in Orgrimmar and Ironforge, where he’ll issue you special quests.
Rescue Metzen the Reindeer, drink special egg nog, and obtain a stolen present in an effort to obtain the coveted Merrymaker title.
Pokemon GO
This Pokemon GO event barely qualifies as a Christmas event, but you can catch yourself a Pikachu in a Santa hat, so it just about makes the grade.
That’s it though. Seriously, if you were expecting a ton of gen two Pokemon, you’re gonna have to wait till 2017.
The Elder Scrolls Online
BethesdaTamriel is getting all festive with its own series of quests and items. To join in with the New Life Festival, and a string of special daily quests, simply speak with NPC Breda outside of Windhelm.
Completing these quests rewards you with a heap of exclusive Christmas items, and a warm festive feeling in your tummy – you can’t put a price on that.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.