What's your favorite holiday PC game? Here's mine

December 27th, 2011

Long time readers of this site know I have a fettish for really good adventure games. And one of my favorite adventure games for PC was played over Christmas break more than 15 years ago. 

The year: 1995. I was browsing the Best Buy store in Douglasville, Georgia with my mom, looking for last minute Christmas gifts. Instead of giving, however, I spotted a deal I had to have for myself: A discounted PC port of a game that was previously exclusive to CD-i (you know, that $800 VCD console that never caught on). 

Its name: Burn: Cycle. The premise: You're a data thief who inadvertantly downloads a virus that will fry your brain in a game-ending two hours unless you unlock the mystery by exploring a Blade Running like world, in addition to a fictional Internet looking for answers. 

In short, the game is simple to play but difficult to master (a mark of all great games). It's live action (aka digitized) graphics haven't particularly aged well. But the characters, environment, writing, and puzzles are all worth writing home about. Definitly seek out a copy if you haven't already played it. 

All told, it's probably the most memorable holiday PC game I've ever played. I don't know if that's because PC releases slow during the holidays, or I bought all the good games on release and didn't wait to play until Christmas. In any case, it was pure gaming bliss. 

So did you play Burn: Cycle? Either way, what's your favorite holiday PC game?

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