Games to play on winter vacation

[noiseredux]

I played some more Arkham Origins last night, and I WAS loving everything about it. I got onto Penguin's ship and the inclusion of Christmas music was such a nice seasonal touch. And then I got to the boss fight against Deathstroke and I'm sad to say that much of the fun of the game was sucked out for me. This boss fight is brutal. It's long as hell and it's all about countering his attacks, sometimes with long stretches between. And if you don't counter perfectly - and if you don't find his openings perfectly - he will destroy you. He hits so hard.

I ended up replaying this battle over and over again. I attempted it easily six or more times. Now, if each of those attempts were five to ten minutes, that time adds up. And when I don't have the kind of gaming time I used to, then that time feels wasted to me. Granted, I'm on vacation this week. But still, I don't want to use up all of my gaming time on ONE boss fight. It's frustrating.

I took to the Googles and found that I wasn't alone. There were countless threads and blog posts and guides saying that this is the most difficult and annoying part of the entire game. I saw many folks saying that they ended up bailing on the game at this point. Which is a bummer given that this battle happens relatively early in the game. I'm about four hours in myself - playing at a leisurely vacation pace. But man. I'm bummed. Part of me wants to just rage-quit right now, even though the other part of me was loving everything else about this game.

[TheEagleXIII]

I shoulda remembered Arkham Origins! I haven't actually played/owned it yet myself, but a few Christmases ago it was stupid cheap, brand new on Xbox 360 and I thought it'd be a good pre-Christmas game. But... I was put off by several reviews saying the game was very buggy and quite a few of those had their save games deleted/corrupted and that it didn't live up to the standards Arkham City set.

I remembered a couple more wintery games - not quite so old this time

Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox 360/One, PS4)

I played on 360, can't say how it compares to current gen. From what I remember most, if not all, of the game takes place on a snowy mountain - so its plenty wintery. I was given this for Christmas and it definitely felt right for the time of year.

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy (PS2, Xbox)

Again, another game with a wintery setting I got one Christmas - weird, maybe it isn't coincidence It takes place in NYC during one of the coldest winters ever. It's mood is literally the complete opposite of Christmas though (aside from the plot, the characters literally have a depression meter in lieu of a health bar), which is worth bearing in mind, but I remember getting immersed into this 'game/interactive movie' and it felt cold

[opa]

I marathoned mgs1 over the weekend. Made it to the Metal Gear fight. I'll probably knock it out this evening. I have the HD collection on standby for mgs2. I still have yet to beat mgs3... maybe I can get to it before the holidays begin.

[Jagosaurus]

There's XP bonuses on Master Chief Collection for beating the snow levels right now

Assault on Control Room in original Halo CE is one of my favorites. The levels are selectable from the beginning in MCC if you don't have original save files to jump to middle of game.

Friggin high school nostalgia in this for me...

[Ziggy]

Diddy Kong Racing has a snow themed set of levels, and you can play it now that you have an N64! Not to mention, it's actually better than Mario Kart 64. The snow themed levels can be reached fairly quickly. Some of them even have some very holiday sounding music tracks. Not to mention, overall the music in this game is really good (composed by David Wise, after all).







Et cetera, et cetera...

[SpaceBooger]

I played some more Arkham Origins last night, and I WAS loving everything about it. I got onto Penguin's ship and the inclusion of Christmas music was such a nice seasonal touch. And then I got to the boss fight against Deathstroke and I'm sad to say that much of the fun of the game was sucked out for me. This boss fight is brutal. It's long as hell and it's all about countering his attacks, sometimes with long stretches between. And if you don't counter perfectly - and if you don't find his openings perfectly - he will destroy you. He hits so hard.

I ended up replaying this battle over and over again. I attempted it easily six or more times. Now, if each of those attempts were five to ten minutes, that time adds up. And when I don't have the kind of gaming time I used to, then that time feels wasted to me. Granted, I'm on vacation this week. But still, I don't want to use up all of my gaming time on ONE boss fight. It's frustrating.

I took to the Googles and found that I wasn't alone. There were countless threads and blog posts and guides saying that this is the most difficult and annoying part of the entire game. I saw many folks saying that they ended up bailing on the game at this point. Which is a bummer given that this battle happens relatively early in the game. I'm about four hours in myself - playing at a leisurely vacation pace. But man. I'm bummed. Part of me wants to just rage-quit right now, even though the other part of me was loving everything else about this game.

That is the hardest part of the whole game. I remember taking multiple times to beat him as well. It was crazy. I couldn't believe that something that hard was that early in the game... but once I beat it I thought I could take on anything with the Dark Knight. I remember being confused by the following bosses and how easy they seemed, but to this day I have never played a game where the final boss level fight was at the end of the first quarter of the game. That is something I will always remember about that game and what makes it stand out in a sea of "God of War" clones.
Don't give up, that is the hardest boss and it's quite unique and well worth it when you beat Slade.

I should also mention that the Heart of Ice DLC is sweet. It's the best Batman Arkham DLC I have played.

[Ziggy]

Kirby's Epic Yarn has a snow world with "a heavy dose of Christmas."

https://youtu.be/X_WGUfx2G6k?t=754