Christmaaas!

Christmas is a time for tuning out the ones you love by playing lots of games.

Ah no, just kidding. But it is normally a work-free zone where you get to catch up on your gaming, and this year was no exception. I kept myself busy playing the below games near-constantly.

Civ V

I still haven't gotten the Brave New World expansion, but I'm still exploring (and enjoying) the Gods & Kings expansion, which definitely fixes a lot of Civ V's problems. I'll crush those cursed English bastards under the boot of my Roman empire!

Stanley Parable

After hearing so much about this game I was excited to give it a go, and it didn't disappoint! Funny, smart, subtle and polished. I really, really enjoyed it. The sharp humour brought me in and the sense of biting satire kept me happy.

The Novelist

This is a touching and gentle experience, so much so that I found it hard to play while others were in the room. It's a little like listening to a delicate and emotive piece of music; you want to lose yourself in it without any sense of vanity. I really loved the well-judged stealth mechanic, and the work put into the characters and narrative. The developer Kent Hudson worked on Bioshock 2 at 2K Marin, much like the staff of The Fullbright Company who released Gone Home earlier this year, so the polish and finish shouldn't be any surprise, but the originality and creative merit of the ideas explored is a very pleasant one.

FTL

I found myself unable to escape family commitments a few times, so I gave this quick-playing gem a revisit ahead of the imminent update.

Arkham City

Having played, loved and finished Arkham Asylum on Xbox 360, I picked up this sequel for the console when it came out, but never managed to finish it. Spotting it in a Humble Bundle a couple of months ago, I installed it on my Mac and have been having a blast playing through it again. I've managed to pass the point I was stuck on and am consistently blown away by the sheer quality of this title. The animations, art style, engine, environments, gameplay, controls, puzzles, narrative, dialogue etc., etc., etc. It's all just so, so good, and so much fun.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director's Cut

Phew! What a mouthful of a title! It was one of my favourite games of 2011, but having gotten through this first boss battle on Christmas Day, I can say with certainty that this update to the game definitely addresses some serious flaws with the original. Instead of forcing you into head-on battles, you can now take the cowardly way out and pick off your stupidly-well-armed foes from air vents and NPC-inaccessible ladders. Brilliant (really).

Papers, Please

A little like The Novelist, but for different reasons, I found it hard to play this game in shared spaces. The grim tone and occasionally wacky humour isn't a problem, but the toll of trawling through people's documents can be stressful in an environment with any distractions.