Holiday Gift Guide 2008

The (drunken) festivities have come around once more, and while we would like to recommend sending packages of alcohol to random people in Belgium before we destroy it, we shall instead recommend that you spend your holiday bonus on the nominees for the GR's Best of the Year some very good video games.

Because even if the economy is in a recession and President-Elect Obama is calling for "cuts and sacrifices", you can't really let your video game entertainment go, can you?

Frugal shoppers who are trying to (finally) enter the next-gen scene will eye the Xbox 360's new price point. Though the $199.99 Xbox 360 Arcade model lacks storage, Microsoft at its main website is handing out free 512MB memory sticks as well as refurbished 20MB hard drives for $20. But even if you're not gung-ho about the Xbox 360, and are just family-friendly Wii goers, PS3 fans, or handheld junkies, what should you buy?

So in our 12th annual Holiday Gift Guide, we make your life a little easier. Similar to before, you can purchase most of our recommendations by clicking on the links: Amazon.com, Ebay.com, and Pricegrabber.com. All the games and tchotchkes that made it into the gift guide are affordable, have been released within the last year (hopefully, in the last few months), and are availaible at retail. All of our highest-rated titles, as well as a few others we felt were cool enough to include, are on the list. 

This guide will be continually updated until December 22nd, so be sure to check back often as new games are added. So you won't have to hear your lover complain about how that stripper was not a gift and... whatever, it's not a true story.