GR’s Holiday Gift Guide ’05

The number one question on everyone's mind right now isn't whether or not Brad and Jen will ever get back together (a pox on your soul, Ms. Jolie!), but whether or not they should drop the hefty bag of coin required to take home a new Xbox 360.

Our answer?

No. Or yes. How about maybe!

Okay, here's the deal. The $300 version comes without a hard drive, which means no backwards compatibility, not to mention the fact that if you want to save any games you'll need to spring an extra 40 bucks on a memory card. It also fails to come with wireless controllers, which are resoundingly cool. So join us as we toss this half-assed idea out the proverbial window.

Now then, if you already own an HDTV, you might as well suck it up and go for broke, literally, by buying the $400 'real' version of the 360. We have heard no official word yet from Sony or Nintendo regarding the release of their next-gen systems, so assume you've got some time to enjoy the 360 before getting jealous of another console and mindlessly joining the console wars. Plus, those graphics do indeed r0x0r your b0x0r.

If you don't own an HD TV, it's a much harder sell. The games look and play just fine on regular televisions, but by and large the differences are quite notable. You'll constantly wonder if a game would look better on another TV, obsessively questioning your purchase until you slowly go mad. That's unhealthy. We advise against that.

Then there's the matter of the games themselves, which at this point are a little underwhelming. The graphics routinely rock, but the number of ports is astounding (12 out of 18) and the number of brand new gameplay modes and styles suspiciously low. If you judge your hardware on the software that accompanies it, you might want to wait a bit. Remember the PSP and DS launches? You probably have a good three or four months before more serious 360 games start demanding your attention.

All that being said, if you're one of the lucky 400,000 who happen to own a 360 already, then here's our current list of games worth buying. Don't say we didn't warn you.

That old thing? Yup, that old thing.

Still the most addictive game for the PSP, Lumines is the best of the early launch games and remains a key ingredient in any respectable PSP library.

How cool is the DS version of this Game Boy Advance classic? Cool enough to be our hands-down top choice for a great DS buy. Deeper than an ocean and smarter than most gamers, this is what war is good for.

It has become increasing clear that there is no stopping Mario, and so long as he stars in games this good, we're cool with that. Plenty of tracks and WiFi play make it impossible to resist this thoroughly enjoyable racer.

Hardcore gamers know the value of a sweet Castlevania game, which is precisely the way to describe this doozie. Staying true to its roots with beautiful graphics and robust item and soul collection, this is one vampire that doesn't suck.

No, it's not a condom for your games. Well, actually, yeah, it sort of is. These innovative little plastic covers attach to any disc, be it a DVD movie, audio CD or a video game, and effectively protect the data side from being mercilessly scratched by your annoying kid brother. The cool part is that discs run just fine with the D Skins attached, meaning you don't have to swap 'em on and off. And if a skin gets scratched up, you can just replace it with another one, which costs a helluva lot less than replacing, say, a $60 Xbox 360 game. At essentially a buck a pop it's not the cheapest way to go, but since when is insurance cheap?