In the second half of December, Microsoft is giving you two more games to enjoy while you wait to unwrap your Christmas presents. Never Alone is an interesting platformer based on the Inuit tribe of Alaska and their myths. Stop the eternal blizzard from blighting the land from December 16th to January 15th.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a blast from the past – literally. Destroy cars, North Koreans and their entire cities in an action-packed sandbox game where your only aim is to get rich – by any means necessary! Mercenaries is available from December 16th to 31st.

If you missed the first half of December, you could still grab Q.U.B.E 2 if you're quick. It's a sci-fi first-person puzzle game with some beautiful graphics and clever puzzles. It's free to download until December 15th, and you can read the review for it here.

Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)

Available December 16th - January 15th

Never Alone is a platformer based on the myths and legends of the Inuit tribe – something that most people will have little knowledge about (myself included).

The game was created to spread this knowledge, in fact, and special “Insight” optional videos are unlocked as you progress in the game which helps to explain a lot of the Inuit lore. You can watch them whenever you like so you don't need to stop playing right away.

You play as two characters in the game. Nuna, who is an Inuit girl, and her white-fox companion. You'll need to use the strengths and skills of both to progress through the stages, and you can do this by switching between them in single player or having a friend play one of the other characters in co-op.

Nuna is able to climb ladders and ropes as well as move heavy obstacles like rocks and throw her weapon at enemies and objects. Her fox is able to fit through small areas, scramble up walls, jump to high places and summon the Inuit spirits that help Nuna along her way.

The game is based in Alaska, so you'll be seeing a lot of snow. Rocks with snow, icebergs with snow, and snow-covered dirt, covered by more snow! This “snowiness” is broken up by cave-interiors but if you have some kind of allergy to snow then I would stay away from this game...

Apart from that, I'd recommend giving Never Alone a try even if it's just to learn something about the Inuit. The games industry can always benefit from injections of new myths and legends, and it makes those games more interesting, in my opinion.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Available December 16th - 31st

In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, you pick one of three mercenaries to delve into North Korea and the war that's being fought between five factions. A military coup in North Korea has meant that the Allied Powers (Europe/USA), the Russian Mob, South Korea, and China have all invaded in order to make North Korea their puppet.

You'll be able to take jobs from any faction apart from North Korea, with your grand aim being taking out the head of the coup and netting yourself $100,000,000.

You'll be running around North Korea, shooting soldiers, stealing their vehicles, buying new weapons and taking out the deck of 52 most dangerous insurgents of North Korea (displayed as a deck of suits and a hierarchy).

Even though the game is pretty old, it still manages to give you more freedom than many more modern sandbox games. You can destroy pretty much anything in the game, from vehicles to buildings and even entire cities, if that's your thing (I'm sure it is...)

You'll also be able to mess around as Indiana Jones or Han Solo as part of the cheat code system, for those times when you've seen everything, done everything, and now want to completely mess around.

Mercenaries is one of the earlier sandbox games, and it plays a little like GTA. If that sounds fun to you, grab it now, for free!