Le Journal

InsomniacThere aren’t a whole lot of holiday-themed video games. A medium with experiences that can last several weeks doesn’t lend itself well to the fleeting nature of the season in the same way a movie can.But that doesn’t mean there aren’t games that are perfect to boot up around this time of year, even if they weren’t always designed with the holiday in mind. The few that do offer a unique way to celebrate, and are perfect for annual revisits in the years to come. Let’s look at the games that best capture the quiet and cozy spirit of the season.Batman: Arkham OriginsBatman: Arkham Origins has an atmosphere unlike any other in the series. | WB MontrealThe most overlooked game in the Arkham series is also its most festive. Taking place on Christmas Eve, a young Batman finds himself the target of eight trained assassins hoping to end the Dark Knight for a $50 million reward. Batman: Arkham Origins is a more intimate Batman game that focuses on the Caped Crusader’s relatively grounded villains, like Black Mask and Deathstroke, and also features the series' best boss fights. The Christmas setting does a great job of setting a distinct tone, as the lonely, snowy streets of Gotham before the holidays are an ever-present reminder of Bruce Wayne’s dedication to fighting crime.Spider-Man: Miles MoralesSpider-Man: Miles Morales is both a Christmas game and on of the hero’s best video games. | Insomniac GamesNot to be outdone by his DC counterpart, Spider-Man has his own holiday adventure set days before Christmas. Spider-Man: Miles Morales also happens to be one of the character’s best games ever. From its opening scene, Miles Morales is rife with the holiday spirit. Festive lights and snow line the streets and rooftops of this open-world New York City, and swinging through city blocks as light snow falls from the sky is unlike any other Spider-Man game. The short six-hour runtime also means you can actually beat this one before the seasonal vibes subside at the start of the new year.BullyBully isn’t a holiday game in the same way that Batman and Spider-Man are, as it begins at the start of the school year. But when the in-game school year reaches winter a few hours into this lighthearted story of adolescence, it hits hard. Bully’s winter section is probably the most memorable recreation of the holiday season in gaming. The entire town gets blanketed in snow, which you can use to make snowballs to throw at fellow students and townspeople. Buildings get holiday-appropriate decorations, stores have festive items to buy and wear, and everyone in the open world is bundled up. The game’s story even takes an emotional turn, as protagonist Jimmy feels the loneliness of being a kid away from home for the holidays. Bully is an incredible game that absolutely nails both the woes and the wonders of wintertime.Saints Row IVSaints Row 4 is one of the few major games with a Christmas-themed expansion. | VolitionWhile Saints Row IV represents the moment the series jumped the shark, it does one thing better than any other game in the series: Christmas. The game’s free downloadable mission, How The Saints Saved Christmas, is every bit as charming as the name implies. In it, your character reveals that they’re a Scrooge: they hate the songs, the gift-giving, and even the very concept of Santa. But when Santa Claus is kidnapped, you become responsible for saving the holiday. It’s a sweet little adventure that references holiday staples like It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. And while it's not the longest DLC in the world, it's enough to make you wonder why more games don’t do this sort of thing.Hitman: World of AssassinationHitman’s annual holiday mission is worth revisiting. | IO InteractiveHitman might not be the first franchise that comes to mind when you think of holiday games, but the series has a surprising track record when it comes to celebrating the occasion. The iconic assassin’s most recent game, Hitman: World of Assassination,…

New World PicturesAs showcased in apocalyptic spectacles like Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012, Roland Emmerich famously carved out an overblown, senses-assaulting style very much his own. But before making it big in the States, the German filmmaker had ambitions to ape two very different blockbuster auteurs.Emmerich likely took it as a compliment rather than the insult it was intended as when critics back home responded to his second feature film, Joey, with the term “Spielbergle” (little Spielberg). The director had freely admitted that his goal was to kickstart a new wave of German cinema by replicating the success of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ popcorn fare, saying, “Entertaining the masses is the foundation, and that has been neglected here for a long time.”Arriving a year after politically charged sci-fi The Noah’s Ark Principle, Emmerich’s English-language debut certainly didn’t try to hide his influences. From the Lucas camp, there’s a sentient R2-D2-esque robot named Charlie, enough Star Wars merchandise to fill a Toys “R” Us aisle, and a climactic battle sequence involving Darth Vader (presumably, Joey flew under the radar of licensing lawyers). From Spielberg, the telekinetic child plot borrows heavily from Poltergeist, the music was blatantly modeled on John Williams’ score for E.T., while the absence of a father figure leaned into the auteur’s penchant for broken families.Released under the title Making Contact in the United States, Joey doesn’t waste any time putting its eponymous nine-year-old lead (Joshua Morrell) through the emotional wringer. The opening shot is at his dad’s funeral, and his first words are spoken during an imaginary (or is it?!) conversation with his pop via a glowing red telephone. Is this simply a coping mechanism from a youngster in the early stages of the grieving process? Or do his ESP abilities extend to communicating with the dead?The film throws in another bonkers possibility when Joey stumbles across a ventriloquist’s doll in a neglected next-door property that looks eerily similar to the Bates’ home in Psycho. Upon springing to life, the sharp-suited, monocled figure named Fletcher claims he’s behind the beyond-the-grave chats, although his motive remains a mystery. Even an origin story handily played out on a black-and-white TV that reveals he was created by a 1920s magician who dealt in the dark arts fails to shed any light on the matter.Joshua Morrell’s Joey and his monocled ventriloquist doll. | New World PicturesThis aversion to rhyme or reason runs throughout the slim 79-minute knock-off (European viewers were “treated” to an additional 19 that somehow only made things even more incomprehensible). Emmerich seemed so preoccupied with Americanizing the story that he forgot to complete it. Plot points are introduced and then immediately cast aside, conversations appear to end mid-sentence, and there’s a whole host of non-sequiturs that defy logic. In perhaps the film’s most WTF scene, mom Laura (Eva Kryll) stops visiting schoolteacher Martin (Jan Zierold) from soothing his burned hand under the tap, and instead forces it into a nearby fish bowl.This is a film where the world’s most preeminent scientists descend upon Joey’s family home on the basis of one vague phone call. Then there’s the fever dream of a finale in which Joey, his pigtailed best friend Sally (Tammy Shields), and his school tormentors are attacked in an underground maze by everything from gigantic hamburgers to sentient boulders.Still, you have to admire Emmerich for his resourcefulness, if nothing else. Determined to make an Amblin-esque picture for a fraction of the price, he fixed up an abandoned factory to make his own effects studio. Although the floating anthropomorphic toys now look hilariously outdated, ‘80s Hollywood served up far worse.The worlds of ventriloquism and Star Wars collide. | New World PicturesTo further cut costs, Emmerich also sourced most of Joey’s cast from an…

Some of Hollywood's biggest stars fronted new films in 2025, but just as many have been conspicuous by their absence. These actors released nothing in 2025.

...

The Upside Down in "Stranger Things" is one of the show's most famous locations - and now, we know the truth about its origins.