Winter is the perfect time for gaming, isn’t it?
Days are shorter, so the sun becomes less of a nuisance, the weather gets colder, so going outside isn’t as fun (for most folks, anyway). A great time to stay in and get some top-tier gaming time.
If you aren’t sure what to play this winter, we’ve got a few recommendations for you. The games below launched (or will launch, in some cases) during or close to winter, and are worth keeping your eyes on.
Yes, even the ones still upcoming. You wouldn’t miss out on a great game just because you overslept its launch, would you?
| Game | Release | Genre | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Frostpunk 2 | 2024-09-20 | Strategy | 11 bit studios |
 | Warhammer 40000 Space Marine 2 | 2024-09-09 | Action | Saber Interactive |
 | Silent Hill 2 | 2024-10-08 | Adventure Horror | Bloober Team |
 | Tekken 8 | 2024-01-26 | Fighting | Bandai Namco Studios |
 | Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door | 2024-05-23 | Adventure | Intelligent Systems |
 | Palworld | 2024-01-19 | Indie | PocketPair |
 | Little Kitty Big City | 2024-05-09 | Indie | Double Dagger Studio |
 | Duck Detective The Secret Salami | 2024-05-23 | Indie | Happy Broccoli Games |
 | Indika | 2024-05-02 | Adventure | Odd Meter |
 | Metaphor Refantazio | 2024-10-11 | RPG | Studio Zero |
 | Helldivers 2 | 2024-02-08 | Action | Arrowhead Game Studios |
 | Stalker 2 Heart Of Chornobyl | 2024-11-20 | RPG | GSC |
 | Selaco | 2024-05-31 | FPS | Altered Orbit Studios |
 | Neva | 2024-10-15 | Indie | Nomada Studio |
 | Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth | 2024-01-25 | RPG | Ryu ga Gotoku Studios |
 | Dragon Age The Veilguard | 2024-10-31 | RPG | BioWare |
 | Pacific Drive | 2024-02-22 | Indie | Ironwood Studios |
 | Hades II | 2024-05 | Hack'n'Slash | Supergiant Games |
 | Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown | 2024-01-15 | Action | Ubisoft Montpellier |
 | Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree | 2024-06-21 | RPG | FromSoftware |
 | Balatro | 2024-02-20 | Indie | LocalThunk |
 | Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Premium Edition | 2024-12-06 | Adventure | MachineGames |
 | Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver 1 2 Remastered | 2024-12-10 | Adventure | Aspyr |
 | Dynasty Warriors Origins | 2025-01-17 | RPG | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
| Release date: | 2024-11-20 |
| Genre: | RPG Shooter |
| Developer: | GSC Game World |
The long-awaited Stalker 2 finally arrived, and it turned out to be pretty much what fans of the series could have hoped for.
A large, open world full of dangers, factions to antagonize or befriend, and the unmistakable atmosphere of the science fiction version of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, which in Stalker’s universe became riddled with supernatural phenomena after another catastrophe.
You are playing as Skif, a soldier who returned home after deployment only to have his apartment destroyed by something that should happen: an Anomaly taking place out of the Zone.
With no place to stay and no cash to get one, all that’s left for you is to embark on a thrilling, and quite weird, first-person perspective adventure mixing a great survival horror with an exciting first-person shooter.
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
| Release date: | 2024-12-09 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | MachineGames |
It’s been a hot second since the previous Indiana Jones game, hasn’t it?
We got Uncharteds and Tomb Raiders in the meantime, but it’s time to return to the source. MachineGames, makers of the last few Wolfenstein games, clearly think so as well, which is why 2024 got the December 10 launch of Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle, a proper, pulpy adventure.
At the time of writing, the game is yet to launch for the general public, but what is known paints a quite intriguing picture.
The game has lots of first-person punching and whip-cracking, improvised weapons, and some stealth and puzzles for good measure. Sounds like an appropriate mix to this kind of license, doesn’t it?
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Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
| Release date: | 2024-12-10 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Aspyr Media, Crystal Dynamics |
Much like Indie above, this one is yet to release at the time of writing, but unlike Indie, these games have been out for over twenty years, and now are simply getting their retouched, technologically refreshed versions.
Soul Reaver 1 and 2 follow Raziel, once a mighty vampire and lieutenant of vampire lord Kain, now cast aside by his liege and turned into a revenant by a mysterious deity.
If you aren’t familiar with the Legacy of Kain series, you’re seriously missing out, and the remastered version of Soul Reaver games can be a great way to get started.
They are third-person action-adventure games, putting equal emphasis on combat, environmental puzzles and challenges, and plot. It’s a very story-driven series, and if you’re into Gothic horror and larger-than-life characters, you’ll love it.
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Dynasty Warriors: Origins
| Release date: | 2025-01-17 |
| Genre: | Hack and Slash |
| Developer: | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
In the longer run, early next year we can expect a Dynasty Warriors: Origins, a new game in the long-running series of hack and slash games inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
It’s the first mainline DW release since the contentious Dynasty Warriors 9, and it seems to both bring the series back to its iconic gameplay, and try something new, in this case: having a predefined protagonist.
Origins ditches DW9’s open world in favor of proper maps and missions, and its big gameplay appeal will come from expanded tactical elements, including more control over regular troops who usually are fully CPU-controlled while you run around fighting officers (duels are back!) and slaughtering hundreds of enemy mooks at a time. DW: Origins launches on January 17th, but the demo is already available.
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Spider-Man 2
| Release date: | 2025-01-30 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Insomniac Games |
Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man 2 has been out for a while, but so far its availability was limited to PlayStation 5.
If you’re a PC player, you could just look and be envious… well, come January 30th, 2025 your wait, and your envy, will be a thing of the past: Spider-Man 2 is coming to PC, following in the spider-footsteps of SM1 and Miles Morales.
This instalment of what is now clearly a series, involves the symbiotes, and not just Venom, either. There’s also Kraven the Hunter, just in case dealing with extraterrestrial goop monsters wasn’t enough.
You can switch between Pete and Miles pretty much at any time (outside of missions), and each Spidey has some unique tricks in their sleeve to keep things fresh and exciting.
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Gaming winter is about to begin
So there you have it, five games with release dates set for this December or January 2025. Of course, it’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as 2024 games go, but it’s a tip worth keeping in your field of view as you start planning your wintry gaming.