Look outside. Is it snowing? Well, it snows in video games, it doesn’t matter where. The winter months here are the place for frozen waste to reach the Northern Hemisphere, where goblins like me originate.
To celebrate the first glittering icebergs that flew out of the sky like God’s zero buckets, here’s a list of the best snowfalls in PC games. Put your hat on, for god’s sake.
Slope
As an extreme winter sports game, Steep is far from perfect. But as a snow skimming simulator, it is unmatched. The frugal visuals and sound effects as the cold powder compresses beneath your big boots make you just want to stop and stir in some hot choc. On the snowboard, it drifts away cleanly. On a skateboard, it creates a smooth double track as you descend into the Swiss Alps, as personified with strangely sexy voices. The actual races and the execution of the tricks have a wobbly feel, but as a snow scene, it deserves a lot of praise.
Snowrunner
Anyone who’s seen Ice Road Truckers will understand the nail-biting pressure of big wheels on a bad slide. Snowrunner is the winter alternative to the Mudrunner mountain bike, and a lot of the maps don’t actually have snow. But when it happens, the deposit actually increases. There is a mission that you have to do transport a rocket on the bed of your truck to a Russian spaceport, across rickety wooden platforms and up snow-covered ramps, with all the desperation of a wayward father trying to free himself. I pushed a sofa up the stairs. Don’t worry if expensive rockets are broken and damaged beyond repair. I’m sure Putin won’t mind.
Subnautica: Under Zero
“Imminent hypothermia” warns your computer friend in this sequel. You see, there’s a blizzard, and if you spend even 30 seconds on the water, you’ll catch your death. The first Subnautica keeps things domestic, even tropical. Here’s Zero that gives you icebergs to the bottom, frozen caverns to run through, and snowmobiles to glide through on a hoverbike. You can warm yourself up at large, hot flowers and collect snowballs to create water, depending on the needs of the survivor. And sometimes – just sometimes – you stumble across a snowman left behind by previous visitors to the planet. No one looked. Do your worst.
Red Dead Redemption 2
I gave up on Red Dead Redemption 2 because I lacked the 19 fingers needed to realistically open a can of tuna. But there’s no denying the snow’s excellence in this goddamn six-person shooter. It crumbles, it crumbles, it kicks the front of your boots into little clumps, it whips around your scarf like dust and makes your horse whine. The fact that the entire game is not dedicated to this one smooth and harsh environment is a clear power move by the giant of the open world genre, Rockstar, whose constant pursuit is not to make snow. perfect, but everything is perfect, so they can do better than their goal of turning reality into a disturbingly lifelike simulation for filthy drunks to get soaked yourself in a warm bath.
Journeys
The end of Journey’s metaphorical hikes takes you to a stormy mountaintop, where a furious blizzard pushes back your final push towards the game’s uber-fronie. It’s a lonely climb, rain and snowflakes harden your once crimson cloak into a glittering box with rigid folds, like a towel left on a washing line. until January. This snow is not you, but your betrayal. But what bells close behind? It was another player, struggling with the same bitter winds. Together, you can do this. You can beat the snow, right? RIGHT?
Gwent
I see you have some novice alchemists on the battlefield, a bunch of spearmen as well. It’s very good. OH, this? It’s just a little snow, if it were me, you shouldn’t be too worried. It will only destroy your weakest units. Relax, it’s just the weather. I mean, these climate change cards are so good. But they used to be better. Remember when a card that calls White frost used to cover all your lanes in that cold sparkle, and it’s going to last a long time, and everything you put down will – do you hear that? Oh, you’re dead.
Tom Clancy’s Separation
The Division 2 is a better game. But The Division 1 is a better apocalypse. New York in the gentle breeze of winter offers a much better end-of-day feeling than Washington’s wet summer. Christmas decorations hung lifelessly on the windows, garbage piled up in mounds of snow and mud. And then the fog fell and Snowflakes floating around in the swirls that fit under the streetlights, somehow still functioning amid the deadly noise of a city. It’s mostly decorative weather, unless you’ve also suffered from what is almost forgotten Outstanding Atmospheric Survival Mode, in which a megablizzard freezes between you, the loot, and the other players. If it’s you, a survivor, I know. I know. Breath. We don’t need to go back. No one can make us go back.
One Off The List from…the best pistols in the game
Last time we played a game of seashells and there was hiding under our cups 9 best pistols in PC games. Turns out you LOVE handguns so much. So sweet. But we still need to remove one of them from the list. Sad to say that…
Mozambique from Apex Legends
“I think including Mozambique has been played well,” list connoisseur ‘StropheCat’, said when checking weapon prices. “However, I still want it off the list: I actually had two or three lives with it in the eight or nine months I played, negating its purpose.”
Its purpose, in case you forgot, is to be a mid-range gun that makes others look good. And in this list, it has once again proven to be useful. Bless you, Mozambique, you’ve won another one for the team. A true martyr. We will not forget your sacrifice. Flash.
