You’ve worked your fingers boneward all year to be able to have a week off with your family over the holidays and you’ve only just remembered: your family are boring. What are you to do? Get some games in.
We’ve rounded up 10 of the best downloadable games on offer for a multitude of platforms, in a bid to help you through the next week of turkey and arguments.
1. Machinarium
iPad, Mac App Store
A beautiful hand drawn adventure that could have come straight out of pixar. Guide your little robotic avatar through the steampunk world via a series of Professor Layton-esque puzzles.
2. GTA III Mobile
£2.99, iPhone 4/4S and selected Android handsets
The reason many people bought a PS2 is now, unbelievably, available for your phone in full. At this price it’s a complete no-brainer – the GTA 3 story missions will last you the holiday but it’s the idle carnage that’ll really make time fly.
3. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
£35, Steam
If it’s a time-destroyer you’re looking for, you can’t really do better than the epic Skyrim, which thrusts you into a medieval Scandinavian-style country with a bow and arrow and then says ‘fill yer boots’. The possible play time numbers in the hundreds of hours.
4. Galaxy On Fire 2 THD
£10.49, Android Honeycomb tablets
New Android tablet? Get lost in space for several days with one of the platform’s deepest games. There’s a myriad solar systems to explore, ships to upgrade to and hundreds of missions to complete.
5. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
£0.69, iPhone, Android
If Gran Turismo and Burnout had a baby, it would be Asphalt. The 6th in the series is a serious life-sapper, with 42 cars to work your way through and an absorbing career mode. Bored of that? The WiFi multiplayer is seamless.
6. Minecraft
PC, £16.95
If you let yourself get lost in it, we guarantee you’ll struggle to find a more addictive, life-consuming game. The enormous, randomly generated worlds are yours to cultivate. Want to built a fort? Do it. Want to build a 1:1 scale model of the Star Ship Enterprise? Do that. Just make sure you’re indoors come nightfall…
7. Bastion
XBLA, 1200 Xbox points
Proper old school shooting and hacking gameplay with a unique visual and audio style. Trust us: the husky-voiced narrator is worth the asking price alone.
8. Payday: The Heist
£14, PSN
It’s a bit rough around the edges, but Payday is probably the most fun you’ll have online this Christmas. You and your friends (or strangers from Texas, more likely) are plonked into a slew of varied bank robberies that require teamwork, shooting, strategy and a bit more shooting.
9. FIFA 12
£3.99 on Android, iPhone, £5.99 on iPad
EA Mobile’s on the verge of brilliance this time round, but even if it’s not quite there, FIFA 12 is still the best football experience to be had on a phone or tablet. Start playing the football league and you’ll be back to work before you know it.
10. Half an hour of anything
Free, OnLive
We’re big fans of OnLive here. Even if money’s a bit tight after your present buying you can still get involved. Download the OnLive PC app and you’ll be able to play the first 30 minutes of any game in their library for free. As many times as you like.
Into gaming? Read these:
- Will HTC sell you your next console?
- What the Wii has done for gaming
- Is Firefox about to become a gaming web browser?
- All you need to know about the PS Vita
- How Kinect will change computing forever
