Merry Christmas one and all. My tree is up, my family are threatening to come visit, so I may as well throw the turkey in the oven and call it a day. Eat, sleep, game, repeat, and so on. But I ain’t here to talk about normal festive traditions, but to run down the best games and gadgets of a given year and why you’d be gagging to have them under your tree. Let’s-a-go!
Halo 2
Video games didn’t get much bigger than this in 2004. With the Xbox 360 still roughly a year from launch, Bungie came out with the second chapter in Master Chief’s original trilogy that promptly took over the world. Halo 2 sold millions within its first day of release and put Xbox Live on the map as the future of console multiplayer.
It was also the perfect Christmas present, released during the golden era of couch co-op where the majority of first-person shooters allowed you to plug a bunch of controllers in to play with your friends until the grunts came home. I fondly remember my brother getting a copy for Christmas only for us to spend the next week progressing through the campaign, and after we went to bed my older siblings created a drinking game where whenever you got killed in Slayer, you had to take a shot. They got very drunk…
Def Jam: Fight For NY
Speaking of fighting with my siblings, we had a trampoline in the back garden we would use to have WWE-inspired wrestling matches, both with giant teddy bears and each other. Once my older brother hit me with a dropkick and immediately caused a massive nosebleed. I was fine, but the sheer amount of blood had him panicking that my mum was going to show up to ground him for the next several years. What video game was I talking about again? Oh yes!
Def Jam: Fight For NY is an incredibly unique fighter where you can pick from a roster of famous hip-hop artists of the day and make them beat the crap out of each other. Some of my older siblings tried so hard to be cool and loved so many of these artists, so it was only natural they got the game on Christmas morning and threw a controller at me.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
I was nine in 2004, but the seeds of my emo phase were already being planted. It was only a matter of time until all I listened to was Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance, then tried (and failed) to dye my hair jet black. Thinking back, I like to believe Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was part of that journey when I first played it at Christmas.
This game is so edgy. Sands of Time feels like a Disney movie in comparison, as the sequel is dark, gothic, and even has the Prince call someone a b**tch in the first ten minutes. There is also plenty of sexual energy and bloody violence I definitely shouldn’t have been exposed to at such an age. But my parents didn’t care, so I finished it before New Year’s Eve.
The Sims 2
What better way to celebrate the festive season than to make your family in The Sims 2, only to trap them in a doorless room with an oven, a fridge, and accidentally forget to teach any of them how to cook? Cue a desire to cook to satiate their hunger and burn to death when a fire emerges amidst the ashen remnants of an overcooked Christmas dinner. Oopsy daisy.
Homicidal fantasies aside, The Sims 2 is such an amazing Christmas game because it’s something everyone can get involved in. Make nan and train her to be a master chef before trapping your uncle in a pool by deleting the ladder and letting him drown. Sorry I’m talking about killing my family again, I’ll try to rein it in. Anyway, The Sims 2 is great!
World of Warcraft
This isn’t the sort of game I’d play at Christmas if I was with family and friends, but if you’re alone, what better place to spend the festive season than Azeroth?
Half-Life 2
Yet another PC classic, this was the sort of game you’d watch your Dad play in his office rather than find a boxed copy under your Christmas tree. I remember watching Doom 3, and a few point and click classics in the same way, only playing Half-Life for myself when Valve brought out the Orange Box and changed my perspective on gaming forever.
Fable
Peter Molyneux has been filling my head with lies for decades now, and it all started with the brilliance of the original Fable. This Xbox exclusive was pretty spectacular at the time. Yes, it was limited when it came to moral choices if you bothered to look beneath the hood, but for a kid like me, it was the most versatile fantasy game I’d ever experienced.
I could do good, evil, or anything in between and bend the world to my very whims however I liked. My brother and I went through multiple playthroughs together carving out heroes in our own image, exploring Oakvale, Bowerstone, and every other town that Albion had to offer. I love what Lionhead did with the sequel and have a soft spot for Fable 3, but I don’t think any of the other games match the unexpected magic of the original.
Burnout 3: Takedown
The best racing gamer ever made. I don’t need to say anything else. Nothing says Christmas like a 15 car pile-up.