Let me preface this with a disclaimer: I don’t hate Christmas. Nor am I a Christian. I admit that, in my house, the holiday has slipped into a somewhat gothic reflection of a dust-choked tradition that we like to call Cryptmas, but that doesn’t mean I’m not one for taking part in the festivities. And what better way to get in the mood for roast chestnuts and big, beardy blokes sneezing their way down my chimney than a yuletide gaming session? At least, that’s what I had in mind before my “Best Christmas Games” research hit a distinctly glittery wall.Seriously, why are there no good Christmas games out there? Take a look for yourself – there are countless YouTube videos outlining the so-called best Christmas games, but not a single one captures the true essence of what I want from a Christmas game… that is if you can call most of them Christmas games to begin with.Backlog burning merrily Festive fun If it ’tisn’t the season in gaming, how about watching one of the best Ch…

The FC 25 Winter Wildcards SBC calendar is underway – but EA is playing it more mysteriously than it did last year. Back then we got the full schedule ahead of time, whereas for EA FC 25, the publisher is drip feeding new puzzle rewards info day by day. The first player on it is Leroy Sane. Stay tuned for more releases as they happen, or scroll on down for the full FC 25 Winter Wildcards card list.What is the FC 25 Winter Wildcards promo? FC 25 Winter Wildcards is the big Christmas promo in Ultimate Team. It follows on from FC 25 Globetrotters, and delivers a monster stack of new items across the end of the old year, and beginning of the new one. Some players are granted cards in two different positions. For instance, Erling Haaland can be grabbed in his traditional ST slot – or, fascinatingly, as a CB. Icons, Hsports bettingeroes, and contemporary players are all included.Who is in FC 25 Winter Wildcards Team 1? FC 25 Win…

Almost two years after it was originally filed, an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft filed by a group of gamers has reportedly been dismissed for good.Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision faced a lot of pushback from the likes of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) when its plans were announced, but one group that didn’t give up even after the buyout went through was the team behind the so-called ‘gamers’ lawsuit,’ known officially as Dante DeMartini et al v. Microsoft Corporation. As its unofficial name suggests, this antitrust lawsuit was filed by a group of regular ol’ gamers, who sought to block the acquisition on the grounds that the merger could harm competition in the games industry – the same sort of concerns echoed by the FTC. Now though, The Hollywood Reporter reports that as of yesterday, the case has been settled, and reportedly dismissed permanently, so it can’t be filed again later down the line. It’s not been revealed what the terms of the agreement were, bu…

Sometimes, you just wanna toss an N64 cartridge in your trunk and drive cross-country to game with an old friend, and as unlikely a concept for a video game as that might seem, it’s exactly what you do in Keep Driving. This RPG’s offbeat approach to its unusual subject matter instantly charmed me, and while there are some rough edges in its Steam Next Fest demo, I can’t wait to see more.You start by naming your character and choosing a few character traits, like your current job status and how good your relationship with your parents is. From there, you load up your trunk with a bit of Resident Evil-style inventory Tetris, and select your next destination from a map. Your car starts up and gets moving without your input, leaving you to sit back and respond to the various events that unfold.The heart of the game is in random events, where you might get stuck behind a tractor, see a bit of roadkill, or have to deal with an argument between the hitchhikers you’ve picked up. These events t…

Manor Lords recently celebrated hitting 2.5 million sales with an update and a hefty discount, but it’s not the only strategy gem from publisher Hooded Horse that’s dominating the charts.Heading Hooded Horse’s sales for the year right behind Manor Lords with 1.2 copies sold is Against the Storm, another successful city builder with a stellar rating of “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam. Together, the two games could make up almost all of the publisher’s 4.5 million sales over the last 12 months – but they’re not the only smash-hit strategy titles from Hooded Horse proving to be successful this year.Empires of the Undergrowth, a personal favorite of mine in which you lead ant colonies, has sold almost half a million copies with over 450,000 sales to date. Norland, another medieval strategy game with more sex, drama, and Game of Thrones-style backstabbing, has managed to sell more than 300,000 copies since its early access debut this summer. It’s mind-boggling numbers all around, and it’…

It’s claimed that former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra wanted to bring about some massive changes to hero shooter Overwatch, as well as reduce microtransactions in action RPG Diablo 4 before his departure from the company earlier this year. PC Gamer reports that in Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier’s new book about Blizzard, it’s mentioned in the final chapter that Ybarra was planning to “reboot Overwatch,” which sounds like a pretty enormous deal. It’s not clear what form this might have taken – after all, Overwatch 2 has only been out for two years (less than that when Ybarra was still at Blizzard), and it straight-up replaced its predecessor. Attitudes about Overwatch 2 haven’t always been, uh, fantastic since its launch – the hero shooter is still tarnished with a ‘Mostly Negative’ rating on Steam after a rough start last summer – so perhaps a reboot could have helped give it a fresh start?Then there’s Diablo 4, and Ybarra’s supposed old plans to “cut d…

The Tomb Raider series has now sold more than 100 million copies over its three decade history, so three more Lara Croft adventures are getting a much-deserved, and much-needed, glow-up.This year, series stewards Crystal Dynamics and remasterers Aspyr Media updated Tomb Raider 1-3 with modern sensibilities. The pair are now giving more Lara Croft games the same treatment with Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered, which repackages the late PS1 games The Last Revelation and Chronicles, together with the series’ first PS2 outing Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The remastered pack gives each game a nice visual overhaul to beautify characters, environments, spiky traps, and ancient artefacts – the trailer below even boasts of some really nice looking shadow work. It also includes my favorite feature from the first set of remasters: the ability to toggle between the new and old graphics on-the-fly. 

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered – Announce Trailer – YouTube

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The Silent Hill 2 Grand Market keypad code can be found close to the locked door, but you won’t that know until you get it. Even then you won’t find a lock combination, just a note narrowing down your number options. If you want to open the door and get inside the Grand Market, which is an optional objective, here’s what to look for. After finding the Silent Hill 2 Auto Parts key to get into town, this is probably one of the first things you’ll find as you explore. Silent Hill 2 Grand Market Keypad code The Silent Hill 2 Grand Market Keypad code is 4444 and can be found by a blue truck not that far from the Market itself. The location of both the Silent Hill 2 Grand Market Keypad and code are here:  The keypad code for the Grand Market in Silent Hill 2 is only a little way away from the door, but with little to connect the lock with the location where you find the combination clue, it could be easy to miss. Head to the keypad code note location on the map  an…

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Best Tonic Upgrades

Act 1 Tonic Upgrades

You’ll get Destiny 2 Tonic Upgrades for Eido’s lab as you complete Major Fieldwork quests, but you’ll want to unlock the best ones first. These first five upgrades in Revenant Act 1 mainly focus on bolstering your ability to gather reagents, letting you get these crucial Destiny 2 brewing ingredients from things like bounties and dismantling weapons, but the most useful upgrade improves your chances of discovering new tonic recipes, which has many long-term benefits. With all that in mind, here are the best Destiny 2 Tonic Upgrades to get first as well as what they all do.Best Destiny 2 Tonic Upgrades If you just want to know which Major Destiny 2 Fieldwork quests to complete first to get the best Tonic Upgrades early, here’s the order I recommend:Extraordinary Tonics: Hugely useful for discovering more tonic recipes which will help you unlock Minor and Major Fieldwork quests faster.Blood Drive: S…

343 Industries has rebranded simply as Halo Studios to kickstart a “new chapter” in the iconic series’ long history, which includes multiple games in development.Announced at this weekend’s Halo World Championship Series 2024, the series steward unveiled its plan for Master Chief’s bright future. The entire team is now switching to Unreal Engine 5 and ditching its proprietary Slipspace tech. A research venture called Project Foundry is laying the groundwork for multiple Halo games. And, the studio’s rebrand is more of a turning page for the series as a whole.”If you really break Halo down, there have been two very distinct chapters,” studio head Pierre Hintze, who took over after Halo Infinite’s wonky launch, explains in an Xbox Wire blog. “Chapter 1 – Bungie. Chapter 2 – 343 Industries. Now, I think we have an audience which is hungry for more. So we’re not just going to try improve the efficiency of development, but change the recipe of how we make Halo games. S…