2025 was so stacked with great games I missed the free, ass-kicking Christmas update to its best singleplayer shooter

Cultic key art of man getting out of car with axe ominously positioned in foreground — (Image credit: 3D Realms)

The boomer shooter renaissance continues to ferment and flourish with great new games each year, and a particular highlight of last year was Cultic. PC Gamer associate editor Ted Litchfield called it "one of the best shooters of 2025" that, even among the Dusks and Turbo Overkills of the world, "distinguishes itself by executing everything at a very high level."

And there's been no better time to try it than right after Christmas—er, "Cultmas"—as the game's holiday update came with a host of changes and a bonus map called "I'll Be Home For Cultmas."

CULTIC - Home For Cultmas Release Trailer - YouTube

Watch On

As for the changes I mentioned, there's been a slew of optimization tweaks and changes to balance—burn damage has been totally reworked, for example, now dealing direct damage rather than requiring a hidden ignite meter to be depleted first. The patch notes state it should be easier to "hose enemies with damage while burning to melt them even faster." How Christmassy!

I fear I may never catch up on all the boomer shooters I've missed at this point, but maybe that's a good thing. Even if we all agreed to stop making videogames tomorrow, I'd probably still degrade into dust from old age before I run out of great games to play.

Cultic and Cultic: Complete Edition (the latter of which includes both chapters and constitutes the full game) are available to buy on Steam. The second chapter, released in 2025 as DLC, is not required to access the Cultmas map from the "new game" menu.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.