What Shacknews is Playing this Winter Holiday

Steve Watts

I usually go into long breaks with the best of intentions. Why, I'm going to conquer my backlog and start the new year fresh! But then there's family obligations and games turn out much longer than I realized and oh hey I should probably get all these collectibles in Far Cry! So I fully expect I'll make much less progress than I want to, but if I finish a single game, I'll be happy.

Far Cry 4 is definitely on the docket, and I'll keep plugging away at Dragon Age Inquisition. I'm also planning to catch up on some of the Halo 5 beta, while it lasts. Plus, since I'll be traveling to visit family, I have a full mobile queue that includes The Banner Saga and Monument Valley. That is, for the moments I pull myself away from Hearthstone. Put this apple on yer head!

Steven Wong

I never really left Kyrat, so I'll most likely be spending many more hours playing Far Cry 4. There's still a lot of endangered species to hunt, especially those stupid eagles. Once I get tired of that, I'm certain that I'll be playing more Dragon Age: Inquisition to hit those side missions I initially missed out on.

If I manage to pry myself from these epic mega-sized games, there are tons of games sitting in my library that I need to finish. I'm looking squarely at The Tesla Effect. I'll also be getting together with family, so I'll be getting some nice Gauntlet parties going.

Ozzie Mejia

'Tis the season to start a whole lot of new games. For me, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor are sitting in my stocking, waiting to be played. But more than anything, I'd like to make room for the Halo 5 multiplayer beta that's running through the holiday. So I'll probably be playing no less than half a dozen games while we're out. We've worked really hard on the staff and it's time to finally catch up on what I've missed.

Daniel Perez

This holiday I'll be spending a lot of time catching up with games that I briefly got into over the past few weeks. Far Cry 4 has been eating up a lot of my time lately, so I'm hoping I can complete its main story line and from time to time, jump back in to handle some side missions and activities since those have always been fun to do as well.

I'll also be playing Dragon Age: Inquisition as its story and combat mechanics have really got me hooked. Even though my mage character feels kind of under powered compared to previous Dragon Age titles, but I'm still getting by with what BioWare has offered.

I need to also spend some time with my growing Steam library. I picked up all three recently released Batman games, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and a ton of other games that I want to replay on my Alienware Alpha.

Oh! And Hearthstone. Lots of lots of Hearthstone.

Joe Tirado

Over the break I will be most likely dealing out double kills in Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta. When I get tired of that, I will be continuing to avoid all of the creatures in Far Cry 4. Did I mention there are an absurd amount of creatures in Far Cry 4? And since I chose Wasteland 2 as my #1 in GOTY, I will most likely try to start a new game with a new party and character. I googled how to put in custom character portraits, so I think my starting party might consist of Sulik from Fallout 2, Duke Nukem, Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz , and Leon the Professional.

Andrew Zucosky

My Christmas break is going to look a lot like my Thanksgiving break, since I have yet to beat Dragon Age: Inquisition. That's kind of my fault, but I'm in no rush. Other than that, I'm probably going to be playing a lot of Super Smash Bros for the Wii U. I really want to work on my Ness game, and pick up some new characters like Sheik and Samus. Then it's on to League of Legends until 4 o'clock in the morning

Sam Leichtamer

For Christmas this year I’ll be building myself a PC, so I’ll be playing all the games I missed out on for the past couple years. The first game I’ll probably buy is Killing Floor. I’m also going to pick up a few of those strange simulator games like I am Bread and Eurotruck Simulator. I hear Chatty does a weekend convoy, maybe I can join!

Joe Stasio

This coming holiday break, I’ll be building my MyTeam in NBA2K15. After a small hiatus, I recently rediscovered how addicting it can be to collect your team as you grind through the terrible teams in the league (the East) and make your way through battling the best teams the league has to offer (the West). Here’s my current starting lineup: Marc Gasol (C) Andre Drummond (PF) Paul Millsap (SF) Monta Ellis (SG) Brandon Jennings (PG) - as you can see my starting line up is both gigantic and super tiny, simultaneously. If you’d like to play, find me @juicehawk on Xbox ONE. I’m looking to acquire a ruby ’04-’05 Pau Gasol (Grizzlies era) so most of my starting five is up for grabs in exchange. Offers welcome! Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy new year, and go Knicks.

Josh Hawkins

My holiday season is going to be filled with digging deeper into Endless Legends and Elite Dangerous, as well as a little This War of Mine and NeoScavenger. I'm also moving along in both Dragon Age: Inquisition and Far Cry 4, but there are just so many games and so little time to play them all.

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.