Games that remind me of Christmas #4

It’s better late than never!

The Christmas season has officially begun at Luvva Towers (and with only a week left to the big day – Cheers Luvva; or should I say Scrooge?!) and what better way to forward to the big day than by looking into the Christmas’ that have passed?

I will have content, pretty much every day this week for you in an effort to make up for a last quarter with less than 1/3 of our usual output! I know it won’t make up for that, but it will; hopefully begin to atone for it!

Our first post celebrating the most Jesus-y of days is of course a continuation of a series we started last year; talking about games that remind us of Christmas, even though they may have nothing to do with Christmas in content.

To refresh your memories; my first game was ‘Ridge Racer’ (you can read why here), I’ve covered ‘Tomb Raider’ and even Sherry has chatted about ‘Rock Band’! Which brings us bang up to date and the first reminiscing of this year; which is going to be ‘Assassin’s Creed’!

‘Assassin’s Creed’ has become my modern ‘Tomb Raider’, ir was released in the window where ‘Tomb Raider’ games were hard to come by and genuinely great ones just didn’t exist. I was left with a gap in my Christmas list, where TR used to reside. I needed a new Christmas tradition and in 2007 I was given it by MrsLuvva!

The original ‘Assassin’s Creed’ was a game that had ramped up its marketing throughout the entire calendar year and it did not go unnoticed by my friends and I. As history students in uni  the whole concept of AC was captivating and from that first trailer, I was sold on it! And do not get me started on those graphics – holy shit, I don’t think I had ever seen graphics like that before.

I needed this game.

Unfortunately for me it was released in the dreaded 3 months before Christmas (November to be exact) when it released I was fully under the MrsLuvva Christmas Embargo – a time when I am not allowed to buy anything for myself, just in case…

…this was also a period in the relationship were she would not ask me what I wanted for Christmas, rather she would ask family members and buy based on recommendations, this meant that I could not tell her that I wanted ‘Assassin’s Creed’.

When the big day came and I opened my gifts, I was pumped to see that she had bought me the game! I don’t think I have been so excited to play a game since the days of ‘Tomb Raider 2’. The time I spent with her and her family that Christmas day was undoubtedly special and very enjoyable; but I really wanted to play the game and soak up its historical atmosphere and weaving storyline.

When I returned home, I went straight for the 360 and popped in the disc and was whisked away to a Crusades torn, 12th century Acre, right in the middle of a siege and it was bloody brilliant. Then it happened…

…the massive twist, the good old bait’n’switch. This game had parallel storylines! One in the past and one the near future! Both storylines started off excellently, but the future storyline quickly lost its way and meandered needlessly – perhaps that’s why they didn’t even hint at this storyline during the massive marketing push!

‘Assassin’s Creed’ became an obsession for me throughout  the Christmas holiday and 2008; I think I played through the game 2 or 3 times and enjoyed it immensely. It was because of this that a new tradition was born; every year between 2007 and 2013 that saw a new entry into the series saw MrsLuvva buy me it for Christmas and me being obsessed with 100% completing it throughout the holidays and the following year.

I have played a hell of a lot of AC games (hell in 2010 I played TOO MUCH AC2 multiplayer); and the majority of my playtime occurs during the last week of December. It’s a series that elicits that feeling of Christmas no matter what month it is…

…this year in fact I am finally getting round to playing ‘Assassin’s Creed Unity’ – a game I bought in the January PSN sale; but it felt wrong to play it without Christmas in the picture.

My love for the series may have been pushed to the limits by Ubisoft saturating the market with pointless entries and with dwindling and uneven quality (AC2 will always be the best one), but the memories of playing them over the holiday period will always stay with me.

Do you have any Christmas Gaming Traditions?

Tell me about them in the comments!