7 great games to play over the holidays from 2024

For many of us, the upcoming holiday break means spending a lot of time on our hands.

With family, we're off work or school, and we can stand alone with more Christmas movies, more cookies, and more time with our beloved family members.

Instead of finding a million little ways to distract ourselves or scroll through our phones, why wouldn't we need a game to pass the time?

Each of the following games will give you dozens of hours of fun, and the only thing you'll regret is spending less time with them.

Editor's Note: All games on this list are traditional “Web2” games without crypto or blockchain integration. But you can enjoy them anyway!

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

Have you ever watched one of the famous “Indiana Jones” movies and wondered what it would be like to step into the catacombs full of bones, put on the boots, the hat and the leather jacket?

If so, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is your game.

This game gives you so many secrets and locations, and against the critical community's anxiety before release – it's okay But Now an unknown remake with Indiana Jones characters.

As Indy, you'll blend in with the crowd while pretending to be smart, using your social stealth skills to crack mysteries.

Head underground, and it's all classic indie vibes—hats, whips, and spells—solving puzzles, outsmarting fascist goons and delivering punches with any melee weapon. A gun? Actually a last resort.

It feels like a real Indiana Jones adventure that lets you role play in every way you can think of.

Like a dragon: infinite wealth

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

The Like Dragon series started in the early 2000s (when it was originally called Yakuza) and has a canon history of 10 games. But you can start all over with Infinite Wealth, the most recent mainstream game in the series.

As Ichiban Kasuga, you've been fired from your job and are on your way to Hawaii to find your long-lost mother. What seems like a paradise vacation quickly turns into a reservoir of barracudas, sharks and more.

You'll go on an amazing adventure, make awesome friends, beat Danny Trejo and save Hawaii – you'll go on the road delivering pizzas, filling your social media and singing karaoke.

Infinite Wealth is equal parts heartfelt, deadly serious, and ridiculously fun, and it all works together.

Dragon's Dogma 2

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a strange game, and even the developers must have been surprised that it got a sequel.

This game will make you want to reclaim your rightful place on the throne, but it's really the journey, not the destination. Trips can be long and tiring, and you have to prepare for them.

You can't take everything with you, but the more damage you get, the less you can save. You choose a room for yourself and your AI-controlled friend and borrow a pair from other players.

Dragon's Dogma is a strange, beautiful game, and there's nothing else quite like it.

Astro Bot

Platform: PlayStation 5

Role playing games are fun, but they are a big draw. Sometimes, you just need a little fun. Astro Bot is probably the closest anyone outside of Nintendo has come to replicating the simple joy of a Mario game.

As Astro Bot, you visit themed planets saving other bots inspired by new and old PlayStation franchises.

This game sports an incredible amount of variety; You can get some monkey hands to climb a level and fight. In other cases, water becomes viscous and spongy as it interacts with the environment.

The game is full of surprises at every turn, features great music and provides an especially satisfying experience for older gamers with fond PlayStation memories. It offers a complete and engaging experience for anyone who can get hold of a controller.

Balatro

Platforms: Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, iOS, Android, PC, Mac

If you have the power of a mighty warrior, you can play Balatron for half an hour. Or they can forget to bathe and feed and play day and night as they try one more round.

Balatro, developed by one man, combines poker, solitaire and roguelike game mechanics.

Each game starts with 52 cards, and you build your deck, adding special cards – and most importantly, special tricks that improve your deck, multiplying a few hundred points with the right combination into tens of millions.

When you score enough points, your score meter will light up. That's all we have to say.

Style: ReFantasia

Platforms: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Style: ReFantazio might be a weird title, but stick with it.

This is the new series from the developer of the popular Persona series. It carries many elements of those games into a new virtual world – the chance to get on the ground.

Metaphor tells a thoughtful story about democracy and religion, features fantastic casual gameplay, and repeats classic mechanics from Persona in a familiar and refreshing way.

It has some of the most memorable music of the year and retains the studio's high visual design in both characters and user interface. Extra points for haters inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's “Garden of Earthly Delights.”

Satisfactory

Platforms: PC (Consoles soon)

Here in the real world, we should strive to leave a minimal environmental impact on the world around us. But in video games, why not do the opposite?

Take the living daylights out of a beautiful alien planet, from an unspoiled natural world to a sprawling complex of machines that spew smoke and create chaos, all for the benefit of… the company you work for.

That is satisfactory.

FICSIT, Inc. It drops you on an empty planet and you have to build a space elevator and an orbital space station. When you're done, you'll have nuclear power plants, multiple railroads, and hundreds of machines spread across countless installations.

You can play this in multiplayer or solo if you want. You can do a lot of math, or you can wing it. You can work hard to keep all your machines looking beautiful, or you can create a disturbing web of noodly conveyor belts. That's the FICSIT way.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair