The Holiday season is upon us already in 2011! We’ve decided to revive our Holiday Buyer’s Guide since there are just so many great titles and products available this year. We’ve listed our favorite games and gadgets below for you to read about. Everything on this list is here because we have personally bought them, played them, and recommended them — if it’s not on the list, we don’t recommend it! You’ll find links to our reviews, impressions, video footage, and a quick synopsis of each title.
If you have any questions about an item in our Holiday Buyer’s Guide, don’t hesitate to ask!
NOTE: We will be updating this guide with our thoughts on newly released titles. Consider it a constant work in progress.
Games
Star Wars: The Old Republic
SWTOR is a themepark through and through. If you hate WoW for the kind of game that it is, don’t bother with SWTOR; however, if you simply hate WoW because it’s cool to hate WoW or you’re simply tired of playing in Azeroth, then you might want to give SWTOR a chance.
As a new game being released, SWTOR does nothing to change what we’re all familiar with in games. It’s the same RPG story-telling we expect from Bioware and it’s the same WoW-clone we expect from MMO’s. SWTOR does it well, though, and that’s where I justify wanting to play.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – PC, Xbox 360 (We recommend both!)
Skyrim is 10/10 greatness. The world, the story, and the tried and true method Bethesda employs to create a dynamic, open world experience are all top notch. We’ve both put in countless hours already and have each taken a different approach to the game.
Keen is playing on the PC as a heavy-armor wearing Nord with axe and shield. Interestingly, he has chosen to use the Xbox 360 controller with the PC version and it integrates automatically.
Graev is on the Xbox 360 wielding spells as a pure mage.
We both highly recommend the game for both Xbox 360 and PC! We’ll link to more in-depth thoughts as we progress further into the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Skyward Sword thoughts are coming soon! We’ve tried enough to recommend it for our buyer’s guide.
Super Mario 3D Land
Graev is working his way through Mario 3D and loving it! It just came out yesterday (11/13) and we had to add it right away. If you don’t own a 3DS, this is yet another reason to buy one.
Currently playing through Uncharted 3. Will update with impressions soon! All that I’ll say now is that I definitely recommend it.
War in the North
The storyline runs parallel with the movies, but you do not play any of the familiar characters. War in the North tells a story previous untold — one with a lot of action.
You can find more of our thoughts and video of gameplay streamed live by us here.
Dungeon Defenders – Download Only (Steam/Amazon)
This very affordable game is available only by download, which might not be ideal for gifting. However, Dungeon Defenders is a highly addictive game. You take control of one of four characters each with unique and distinctive abilities. The goal is to stop waves of enemies from reaching and destroying your crystal.
The customization is great for this type of game. Items with unique/random stats drop, you gain levels and can customize where you spend points, and you can even choose which towers or abilities to make stronger.
Playing with friends is key. We’ve played all our levels in full 4-player games and often did not even realized the number of hours that just blew past us.
Batman: Arkham City
They kept everything that was good about the first game, improved upon it, and added even more. There’s a lot of content available, and tons of collectibles scattered around the city, not to mention, several challenge maps and a new game plus mode.
We have video footage available here.
One of the best graphical presentations on the Xbox 360 (the version we played), Rage
Rage is pretty story driven. It feels open but the game is more linear than, for example, Fallout. There’s plenty of quests to go on and fun thing to do like drive vehicles and shoot hordes of bad guys. We highly recommend it.
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure Starter Pack – Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation, 3DS, PC (Note: All Skylanders are compatible with all platforms! Play on your Wii and bring it to your friends house who owns a 360 and your Skylanders will sync right up.)
Whether you’re a kid or simply a kid at heart, Skylanders offers a brand new way of enjoying toys and video games together. Summon your Skylander, an action figure toy, into your video game and watch him come to life. Use all of your Skylanders to solve puzzles, beat bad guys, and work through the campaign. The Skylanders Starter Pack has everything you need to begin your adventure. You can see watch us play Skylanders and read more right here on our blog.
Additional characters and content
Battlefield 3 – PC
We recommend Battlefield 3
The ‘Back to Karkand’ map pack, just announced to come out in December, adds the most popular maps from the Battlefield series.
Dark Souls – PS3 | Xbox 360
Dark Souls is solid for both PS3 and 360, but we recommend the PS3 version because there are more people playing.
Dark Souls is praised for its down to earth difficulty as an Action-RPG. This is the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls
Gears 3 is no different than its predecessors. Continuing with the story of Marcus and Dom, Gears 3 provides plenty of fresh ways to enjoy an already very familiar gameplay model.
The gameplay feels smoother, the graphics are much sharper, and the new guns are amazing!
The story is definitely one of the best told yet and we both highly recommend Gears 3 as a solo or co-op title. It plays really well online-coop and Couch-coop.
Space Marine is a third-person action-rpg set in the famous 40k universe. Using the same engine as the Dawn of War series, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
The combat is truly what makes Space Marine fun. It’s all about slaughtering Orks with melee attacks and cool weapons — and when we say Orks we mean TONS of Orks!. The singleplayer campaign is well done and kept us interested the whole way through.
They don’t make many games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution
There are several different ways that you can go about playing levels: guns blazing and sneaking, for example.  My first play-through I went non-lethal as best I could but now I’m playing through a second time going rambo and much as I can on top of being a ‘jerk’ at every opportunity.
This shooter laced with RPG elements is one I highly recommend. -Graev
Gear & Gadgets
Sennheiser Headsets
Keen has used Sennheiser headsets for seven years. These are our absolute favorite headsets because they’re comfortable, highly functional, and very high quality — and perhaps most importantly, they’re affordable!
USB Soundcard Adapter
You can read our full review as well as find a price comparison here.
Razer Onza Tournament Edition
If you’re like Graev, you prefer the feel of the Xbox 360 controller over mouse and keyboard. The Razer Onza tournament edition
The Razer Onza Tournament edition joysticks can be adjusted to add more resistance and has buttons that can be programmed however you like. The Razer Onza is also one of the higher quality controllers you’ll buy for the Xbox 360 console. (Comes in regular, as pictured, as well as Dragon Age 2 and BF3 skins)
Nintendo 3DS
Both of us bought a 3DS when they first came out. For a few months there weren’t too many reasons to own one. However, with the release of Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 3D, and now Super Mario 3D Land, owning a 3DS is a no-brainer.
The 3DS’ version of the virtual store sells many fantastic games from the past and is frequently updated with no titles.
 
  
Games We Want
Below are games that we have not tried. However, we have done enough research to know that we want them once we scrounge up enough money.
Saint’s Row 3
We enjoy the Saint’s Row way more than Grand Theft Auto. They’re more zany and have kept the ‘fun’ at the forefront of the crazy gameplay.
Kinect Disneyland Adventures
The Kinect is really hit and miss … well, mostly miss … with games, but Kinect Disneyland Adventures looks like a fantastic use of the devices. You get to walk around the park and see all of the attractions as if you were in the park. We grew up only 30 minutes from Disneyland (and live closer now) so the park has always been a part of our childhood. We both have memories of getting signatures from the characters, eating at the restaurants, and riding the rides.
From what it looks like in all the videos, it’s like doing it all from your living room.
Disney Universe
When we first saw Disney Universe we thought it looked a lot like Little Big Planet. You control these little kid-like creatures dressed up as Disney characters while romping around and solving puzzles and beating bad guys.
Rayman Origins
We saw Rayman Origins at E3 this year and both thought it was the best game shown. It looks like Donkey Kong style platforming. These types of games really shine as couch-coop adventures and, from what the reviews say, Rayman looks to be like great platforming fun.
If I had been preparing a guide like this mine would have been practically identical barring Skylanders.
The cream rises to the top as it were.
No Saints Row the Third? Even though it might not be everyones cup of tea, its wicked fun. Mindless WHAT HAPPENED THERE :D? fun.
Saints Row 3 will be on the list soon. Still a work in progress! 😀 We’ve actually played everything on the list here.
On Skyrim, do you recommend it on the 360 over the PS3 ?
@Rumbarr: We have not played the PS3 version, but we have done research into it and found people complain about FPS drops and unresponsive controls. If you have a 360, play it safe and go that route or get it on PC if you have a good rig.
After just this weekend SW:ToR is suddenly on my holiday buyers guide as well…Time for that nda to drop!
I don’t know, I’ve now heard some pretty heavy criticism of Saints 3, especially in comparison with Saints 2. I’ll be interested to see what you guys think of it.
We’re getting saints row 3 for Christmas and have some fun stuff planned for our readers/viewers.