Red Dead Online gets festive, Santa Claus comes to the Lands Between, and Grand Theft Auto Online has been invaded by the… Grooch?
Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to all. Since you’ve no doubt been spending time with family for most of the day, I’m pretty sure that you’ve gotten behind on everything that’s been going on in the world of gaming. I sure hope that you got some good gaming gifts, by the way. In any case, let’s get you back up to speed on the biggest gaming stories of the day, delivered in the form of a handy dandy news roundup. Today, we heard that Red Dead Redemption 2 players have been celebrating Christmas with cosplay, Grand Theft Auto 5 has fallen prey to the Grinch, and Elden Ring has just gotten a lot more festive thanks to Santa Claus. These are just our top stories and so a lot like last time, you really should read on for the rest.
Red Dead Online players have been celebrating their last Christmas with Santa cosplay. “This is the type of shit that makes me come back to this game over and over,” a user on Reddit remarked about the ongoing festivities. The developer behind the game, Rockstar, is apparently going to be dropping support at some point in the very near future.
GTA Online was recently invaded by someone who totally isn’t the Grinch. I’m of course talking about the Grooch. Yes, you read that right. I’m sure the matter at hand is related to copyright infringement, but if you jump into the game at some point over the course of the next couple of days, watch out for the, well, Grooch.
Read Dead Online players aren’t the only people celebrating right now, Santa being brought into the Lands Between over in Elden Ring. The culprits are of course modders. “Time to take the piss,” Next-Plastic-190 for example said on Reddit. “After a successful Santa Creation, I decided to try and do a snowman, even complete with an orange kinda nose. Feel free to rip into me, I'm ready for the jokes. It's a work in progress.”
The voice actor who played Ash Ketchum for 17 years recently revealed her favorite Pokemon. “Pikachu is my best friend,” Sarah Natochenny noted. “Pikachu is the name of my cat. Pikachu is the cutest. Pikachu is universal and Pikachu is evergreen. Pikachu is the cutest character to ever have been drawn and animated.”
Someone going by the name of Savok managed to merge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge with Streets of Rage 2, creating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Re-Revenge. The reception has been extremely positive, a recent review calling the mod a “beautiful hack with interesting game changes.” According to the reviewer, “the sprites from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge work very well in the Streets of Rage 2 engine. I like that the stages are basically the same, but they still made some creative changes.” The reviewer in question, Peacefighter, went on to describe how “these kinds of little changes help to make this hack feel like something ‘new’ rather than just a reskin like most other Streets of Rage 2 hacks.”
Justin is a news editor at TheGamer. He specializes in labor relations, intellectual property law, and game development. You can find his work in EGM, Vice, Unwinnable, Heterotopias, and more.
