TOP 15 games and add-ons with a New Year's mood: Red Dead Online, Hitman, Borderlands and others

The New Year is already knocking on the window. It's time to create a festive mood: light the garlands, peel the tangerines, uncover the fireworks — and play the appropriate games, of course. In this collection we will tell you about the best projects on the New Year theme.

Borderlands 2 is a crazy game in a good way, the developers of which do not forget about plot additions associated with events such as Thanksgiving, Halloween and, of course, New Year. The How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day supplement from the Headhunter series will help you prepare for the holiday.

According to the plot, we will have to go to the Frozen Hole, which is full of discharged Christmas trees, deep snowdrifts and deadly snowmen. It is the huge snowman who will become the main boss on our way — and it would be better to get to him in full combat readiness! Well, this is exactly what New Years should be like in the crazy world of Borderlands.

Bully turned out to be very bold, and it is filled not only with a hooligan rebellious spirit, but also with a New Year's atmosphere. Part of the game is dedicated to winter: the school is decorated with festive decorations, a Christmas play is being rehearsed in the assembly hall, and decorated Christmas trees are freezing outside.

The main character can create a New Year's mood for himself by beating a dwarf leprechaun, breaking other people's snowmen and throwing snowballs at passers-by. In reality, we don't recommend such hooliganism, but why not let off steam for all the suffering of the past year in a great video game?

If you are a connoisseur of the most old-fashioned projects, then we have something for you. Daze Before Christmas is a wonderful New Year's game that was released back in 1994. According to the plot, the villains Snowman and Clockmaker not only scared away all Santa's helpers, but also stole all the gifts. To save the holiday, we will have to, in the role of Santa Claus, deal with the hooligans and throw gifts into the chimneys of children waiting for a miracle.

Although the game was released twenty-six years ago, its level of diversity surpasses some modern projects: here you have an exciting platformer with a variety of locations and enemies, bosses, each of which you need to find your own approach to, and bonus levels where you have to fly on a sleigh. So it makes sense to get acquainted with Daze Before Christmas today.

Many gamers love to kill helpless zombies in packs, which is why the Dead Rising series has such a solid number of sequels. And the action of the fourth part just covers the New Year holidays.

You can eliminate crowds of the walking dead in sophisticated ways against the backdrop of a decorated pine tree, in a Santa suit, and even using gifts as weapons. Don't forget to check out the New Year's DLC Stocking Stuffer Holiday: there's even more New Year's atmosphere, and zombies try on elf and gingerbread man costumes.

Here is another project for fans of old games, because the legendary Duke Nukem had to save Christmas back in 1997. The coolest hero was already preparing for the holidays, but suddenly received a telegram: the half-dead aliens and the feminist elves who joined them kidnapped Santa Claus, brainwashed him and now want to use him in their villainous plans to take over the world. This problem needs to be dealt with quickly!

You'll have to give out branded kicks not only to annoying aliens, but also to elves, snowmen and other New Year's riffraff. The final boss will be the mighty Santa bot.

Agent 47 never had to pretend to be anything: a drummer, an artist, a massage therapist... So why not become Santa Claus if it helps you get to your goal? This is precisely the opportunity that the Holiday Hoarders mission offers.

During the task, we will have to sneak into a closed party in Paris and stop unsuspecting villains. Don't forget to try «explosive snowballs» and «celebratory shuriken» as weapons. And don't miss the festive fireworks — it's worth it!

Another game from the early 90s, but even today every Nintendo Switch owner can play it comfortably. Of course, the price tag of 1,125 rubles will scare off many, but what can you do, this is the policy of the «Big N». Moreover, the game does not get worse from this.

The main villain of the series, Doctor Mabey, captured Santa's village on the eve of the holidays. The cute penguins were already preparing to throw a holiday for all of humanity when trouble fell on their heads. It's up to fish secret agent James Pond to save the day again. Perhaps the project is outdated in many ways, but it still conveys the Christmas spirit perfectly.

The co-op shooter Killing Floor 2 has always had cool additions. For example, Twisted Christmas and Krampus Christmas will help create a New Year's mood.

With a Badass Santa themed costume, exclusive New Year's weapons and themed enemies, you'll have a great time listening to metal covers of the most famous New Year's tunes. And the most important thing is that you can go through the add-ons in the company of friends.

If the New Year for you is not about Christmas trees and garlands, but primarily about snow and frost, then it's time to go to a large-scale add-on for Monster Hunter World called Iceborn. The impressive DLC opens up a huge snowy location and more than thirty new monsters for hunting.

The world is shaking even through the screen: frozen lakes, snowdrifts and ice caves are everywhere — this is how a real New Year should be. The DLC is so large that it can only be compared with Blood and Wine for The Witcher 3. A complete playthrough will easily take more than fifty hours. Even during the long holidays, you may not have time to reach the final.

Service games always keep their finger on the pulse of time, so every significant event in the big world is necessarily reflected in virtual worlds. In Red Dead Online and Grand Theft Auto the festive winter season has also arrived.

In addition to visual changes, gamers also receive gifts from developers. Take a look at Red Dead Online, there's a sizable chest waiting for you. You can find a lot of goodies in it: from a double-barreled shotgun to a treasure map. If you prefer other online games, then don't worry — they hardly forgot about the New Year there either.

As you can see, a variety of heroes had to save Christmas. So why are the Saints worse? In the DLC dedicated to the holiday, the developers did not forget about the trademark madness of the series, nor about all the New Year's cliches: gingerbread men as enemies, shooting elves from a dubstep gun and a jet sled as a vehicle — everything is in place.

The plot is also very good: we will have to defend the holiday not from typical villains, but from Santa himself, who intends to add the entire universe to the list of naughty children. Well, we can't allow this! We uncover our guns and prepare to give Klaus a real rebuff.

Sometimes you just want to put serious projects aside and relax your brain in some exciting casual toy. Santa Rockstar is one of those things. It talks about a cool Santa who is ready not only to deliver gifts to obedient children, but also to rock a rock concert.

In fact, the entire game is Santa's ongoing tour, where he and his gang will perform metal covers of New Year's tunes written specifically for the game. If after Guitar Hero you still have a guitar controller, then the game will definitely be able to entertain you with driving versions of Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

For those on the go and during the New Year holidays, there is a very good mobile game. Of course, at its core, Santa's Village is a typical donation farm, but a very decent one: it has 3D graphics, a funny plot and a pleasant setting.

We will have to take control of the whole village and make sure that the elves diligently prepare gifts, and Santa does not forget to separate the obedient children from the naughty ones. The project is definitely worth evaluating, just try to avoid insidious microtransactions.

Not everyone likes the traditional New Year's feast with the chimes and the president's congratulations. Some people prefer snow-capped mountains in the company of snowboards, skis, paragliders and other wingsuits. It is for such extreme sports fans that Ubisoft developed Steep.

Every landscape here is just asking for a screenshot, and the competitions are full of drive. Riding in Steep is very pleasant, even if the local entertainment can get boring after a while. However, by the time you master all the disciplines, the holidays will just come to an end. There are very few analogues — we recommend it.

Yakuza 5 is considered by many to be the best part of the series. But the setting there is quite New Year's: in the breaks between battles and carrying out strange assignments, we trample on the December snow. And in one of the quests we even dress up as Santa Claus and save Christmas.

Of course, our good Santa will be with his fists. Not exactly typical, but beating up a dozen hooligans to please the kids on the eve of the holiday is a noble cause.

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As you can see, there are a lot of good games about New Year and Christmas. We hope that you will not miss the opportunity to plunge into the festive atmosphere and choose a project to your liking. With coming!