GR's Holiday Gift Guide '06

Xbox Live! isn't just how you play online anymore, especially since November 22nd, when the service began selling individual television episodes and feature length films. While the service isn't as robust as On Demand cable, it's only been active for three weeks, and remember, Microsoft has more money than God. Not to mention all the demos, arcade games and other random things a person can buy on Xbox Live! Twenty bucks can either buy your friend/nephew a fraction of a game (Thanks a lot), or a few games and maybe a TV show or movie. The future of unimaginative gifts is now.

Same basic idea as the Live Marketplace Points, except their conversion actually makes sense (100 Wii points = 1 dollar), and instead of spending them on episodes of Jericho, you can buy classic NES, SNES, N64, Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 games through Nintendo's Virtual Console service, including the original Legend of Zelda, Altered Beast, Bonk's Adventure, Gunstar Heroes, F-Zero and Mario 64, for between 500 to 1200 points. Clap if you like VC!

Perfect for the WoW fan in your life, provided you can pry their cold, claw-like hands from the mouse and keyboard long enough to actually check a stocking. When they do, they'll be pleasantly surprised to find not only a great CCG (collectible card game), but several cards that can be redeemed for actual in-game items, such as the sleek and desirable turtle mount. Trust us, it's faster than it looks, and guys pretending to be chics dig it.