Hello and welcome to my Christmas blog for N4G. I am here to talk about Christmas theme being integral to certain video games like Batman Arkham Origin, and if it did any effect on the games' plots overall or not. Let us start, shall we?
Christmas is a great tradition of the year in our lives on Earth. Many parents pretend to be Santa Clause to get gifts for their children with their hard earned money out of love until the children discover that Santa Clause is fake, but who cares? Children care about gifts only these days, not the one who supposedly gifts them with presents.
I have played games like Kingdom Hearts 2, and Batman Arkham Origins which had some elements for the very well known holiday which supposedly made an effect on games. Did they really do affect the games though? I don't think so.
Kingdom Hearts 2's Christmas theme was from the Halloween Town world that was based on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was just there as a single world that had no relation to the main plot. That doesn't mean that it wasn't fun though since I loved the Christmas portion of Halloween Town when I was playing the game as a child. The good thing is that the developers weren't pushing on Christmas portion of Kingdom Hearts 2 as a selling point or it would have been a disappointment. What was the other game that was set on Christmas eve? It was Batman Arkham Origins.
Batman Arkham Origins was set at the night of the Christmas eve. We were supposed to see laughing children making snow men and throwing snow balls towards each other while parents are shopping to bring gifts for their loved ones. That is until the criminals decided to kill Batman at that night so there is no significance about Christmas in this game. If you just put the game's setting in warm night of Gotham City, it would be exactly the same without the snow, nor the references for Christmas. I would have been kind of disappointed if I focused on the game just by the Christmas portion but I was just being Batman beating up goons and villains in the game so I didn't care since I didn't look well enough for Christmas related stuff. It was just a long, dark night.
Now, let's talk about games that have Christmas stuff that doesn't affect the plot at all. Many games like Counter Strike Global Offensive and Payday 2 have made updates to add features like Christmas hats, decorations, and more stuff to celebrate the great tradition every year which brings smiles to the fans who are playing the following the games. Robbing banks in Payday 2 that have Christmas trees can immerse you thinking that the game has a life since it changes when it comes to the seasons. Maybe you see exaggerated stuff like seeing chickens with reindeer's antlers in Counter Strike Global Offensive which would make your death cam more satisfying as the camera would show that special chicken.
I just love how MMOs, and other similar types of games celebrate Christmas every year, and I appreciate how some games are trying to put Christmas eve in the integral plot. Whether it was a good idea or not, it was a nice gesture from developers to respect the tradition for many people.
I hope that all of you enjoyed the blog, and I wish you all a merry Christmas!
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I really enjoyed the Christmas themed section in Kingdom Hearts 2's Halloween Town :)
As for whether or not Christmas themes in games breaks Immersion in general, I personally think it really depends on the game and how much focus is placed on it.
Having a Christmas theme as DLC or a timed event during the holidays is OK IMO, even more so if the games story is based during the holidays. But when Christmas is shoehorned into a game for no other reason other than for it to be there, then I would consider it a problem and worry it may effect immersion.
For example, a Christmas event in a game like Mass Effect would be cool as DLC, but it wouldn't work well as a main story point given the premise of the game.
I'm a sucker for the season as well. I installed a bunch of Christmas mods and skins for L4D2. I even open Pandora in the background and let some old holiday tunes play during the match. It's heartwarming and ironic at the same time.
Christmas in Batman: Arkham Origins is a reference to Batman Returns.
Christmas is great isn't it? :D
-CharlesThaddrekPiedierIV
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