Celebrate The Holidays The Way Saint Nick Intended, By Blasting...

How does the Doom Slayer open his presents? He rips and tears until it is done.

Christmas, it is said, is a time for giving. Unless you happen to live in my house, in which case Christmas is a time for gibbing. What better way to celebrate the holiday season than by blasting two barrels of buckshot into a rampaging demon's chest? Red is the most festive colour, after all.

Sadly, festive first-person shooters are thin on the ground for some inexplicable reason. But as is so often the case, the FPS community has filled this smoking bullet-hole left by developers, decking PC gaming's gore-spattered halls with boughs of holly through the power of mods.

To help fellow FPS-heads get into the Christmas spirit, I've put together a roundup of the best Christmas-themed mods for PC gaming's most renowned shooters (plus one additional stocking filler that I think should be brought to your attention). I've also assigned them a festivity rating (scored, appropriately, out of twelve) to give you some sense of just how much Yuletide cheer they cram down the barrel.

Doom Christmas is a simple yet effective texture pack for Doom 2, introducing a medley of festive sprites to id's shooter sequel. The mod ties a little bow on your shotgun, plonks Santa hats on the imps and shotgun soldiers, transforms the Cacodemons into giant, glinting baubles, and adds holly wreaths to the exit doors.

My favourite part of the pack is the gun-toting Santas that replace the standard possessed human, mainly thanks to their impressively gnarly death animation. If you ever wanted to see jolly Saint Nick crumble like an overcooked Christmas turkey after being blasted by a rocket launcher, this is the mod for you.

This rapid-fire level pack is like a fortifying shot of sherry on a frosty Christmas eve. The Twelve Days of Doommas comprises 15 short, sharp levels, each of which was designed in honour of the Twelve Days of Christmas by including the following:

The result is a motley collection of furious gunfights boasting names like "Deck the underhalls" and "O, Tannenboom". Fair warning, this is a challenging wad—mainly because of all the cyberdemons lumbering about. But as Christmassy Doom wads go, this is one of the best.

Twisted Christmas is something of a holiday classic. Released way back in 1998, it sees you navigating an abandoned shopping mall, tramping up escalators and blasting through bookshops while avoiding nailgun-toting snowmen and hordes of Santa's horrible little helpers. It

Source: PC Gamer