Koku Gamer Holiday Games Buying Gift Guide

The last couple of years have been phenomenal in the gaming industry, from the Triple AAA titles in 2007 to their sequels in 2009, so if you’re a gamer all your wishes have been answered as three years later and all our favorite 2007 releases have had their second counter parts released.  No matter what genre you’re into there is something for you this year.  This guide will go genre by genre to give you the best possible solution for the gift to give your loved one.  So let’s begin.

First Person Shooters:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

The recently released sequel to the best selling first-person shooter Modern Warfare has been released.  This time the game brings a lot more.  If you were one of the 16 million people to buy a copy, which if your gift recipient is a FPS fan he’s sure have played the first game, this one will come at no surprise.  Modern Warfare 2 is more of the old but with plenty of news.  The game introduces brand new perks, customizable kill streaks, new game modes like third-person shooter and capture the flag and even a good new feature that is as closest to co-op, SpecOps, where you and a friend online or local can tackle up to 22 missions.  Not only does it have the addictive multiplayer, but now you and your friend can take on the poor Russians together.

Borderlands

If Modern Warfare 2 is too little to wet your appetite, than you’ll definitely want to go with Borderlands.  The game features 4 player co-op that spans across a huge sandbox style world and offers more guns than you can keep count of.  Borderlands let you get your hands on over 500,000 guns which you can use to take out other foes online, or tackle single player with your buddies to complete some missions and gain money to get one of other half million weapons.  Anything from shotguns, assault rifles to rocket launchers is available in different styles.  The game is quite addictive and offers more hours of gameplay than you can handle.  This game is definitely a must buy if you are into blowing shit up with friends while having fun.  Even  your every day family can enjoy this blastfest.

Racing:

Forza Motorsport 3

Do you have a teen that is nagging you to let them drive to get their license? Do you have a hunger for fast cars and beautiful tracks?  Have you ever dreamed of being in an Enzo Ferrari? The answer to all these questions is Forza 3.  Sequel to the best Racing Sim Forza 2, the game offers more than 350 vehicles, new tracks and updated visuals.  While the game doesn’t offer anything new but a re-designed menu and more cars, it does retain the sim aspect of the previous installment and gives you a whole lot of racing in beautifully detailed cars.  The game can be a bit difficult for the casual, which is why Turn 10 has decided to add a rewind feature in case you constantly run into walls and need a re-do, you know, for those teenage drivers.  I highly recommend this title for those who are into something more real, other wise please move to my next pick.

DiRT 2

The list continues with yet another sequel, this time it’s DiRT 2.  We all know how much we loved the first game, with its dirty, faced-paced, beautiful rendered environments.  Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, our friends at Codemasters release DiRT 2, which has you in more countries than all racing games combined.  This time around you’ll go from United States, Asia to even Europe as you compete in different tournaments.  No matter what kind of environment you’re into, DiRT 2 features it all.  The beautiful Croatia tracks give you a true time trial challenge, while Baja can be a true hassle to place in first.  Utah offers some great scenery and Japan brings the party in you.  Most racing games tend to be tough and cater to the hardcore audience, but DiRT 2 does a great job at catering to the casual crowd with its different difficulty settings, even your girlfriend will pick up the controller for this one.  This is a must buy because of its long single-player campaign, variety of tracks and a huge selection of cars.  The game easily features some of the best presentation in a video game.

RPG:

Dragon Age: Origins

Bioware is back with yet another Role Playing Game, this time Dragon Age: Origins comes around with a deep story, amazing battles and some of the most epic music.  Like with the past Bioware titles, this one doesn’t fall short of anything but a hit.  You’ll easily get 40 plus hours of gameplay, while forming the best party in your guild.  With a deep narrative and unmatched combat, this should keep you busy to next year as it offer plenty of quests, with twists depending on your choices.  If you liked Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins should make you feel right at home.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

One of 2008′s best games, if not the best game of last year, Fallout 3, is back and better than ever.  Fallout 3 already gave you an exceptional story, massive open world set in the unique and wonderfully crafted Fallout universe, solid gameplay, and an absolutely unbelievable amount of things to do, along with a humongous replay value.  If you didn’t pick the game up last year though, there’s not a better time to buy it than now.  The Game of the Year Edition for Fallout 3 is available on Xbox 360 and PS3 for $60 but in addition to the main game, it gives you all five pieces of downloadable content that were released earlier this year and nearly doubles the size of the already massive game.  The first, Operation: Anchorage, has you in a simulation fighting the Chinese in Alaska in the  Sino-American War that is pivotal to the Fallout universe.  The second, The Pitt, has you journeying to the industrial remains of Pittsburgh to help out a group of slaves.  The third, Broken Steel, raises the level cap and allows you to continue on after the end of the main game.  The fourth, Point Lookout, gives you a massive open area to explore in the radiated swamplands community of Point Lookout and a great story to boot.  Finally, the fifth, Mothership Zeta, has the player abducted by aliens, where he or she must work together with other captives to get back to Earth.  While some of the DLC is better than others (as in Broken Steel and Point Lookout blow all the others out of the water), the $60 value for the main game and all five DLCs makes the package well worth it.  Although if you buy the GOTY Edition on PC, it’s only $50 and you also get access to the G.E.C.K modding software and all the awesomeness that it brings to the game.

Action/Adventure:

*Honorable mention to the God of War Collection

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

If you own a PS3 and don’t own Uncharted 2 yet, you have no better reason to pick it up than the holidays. If not for you, any PS3 owner, hell any gamer, should experience one of the best games of the year. With Uncharted 2′s breathtaking graphics and thrilling gameplay it is a must buy.  That’s not to mention its excellently told story and the fantastic voice acting by the characters.  Naughty Dog really has a winner with this one; it is superior to the first in every way and the multiplayer and co-op offerings will keep you coming back for more.  You may want to pick up the original Uncharted first by at some point or another, every PS3 owner should have this game in their collection.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum was definitely the sleeper hit of 2009; it looked promising but no one knew how good it was until it came out.  Possibly one of the only good Batman games, Batman: Arkham Asylum features a compelling story fit for any comic nerd, solid gameplay that emphasizes both Batman’s combat and detectve abilities, and a rendering of Arkham Asylum that graphically looks fantastic.  Developer Rocksteady definitely nailed everything with this game to the point that you’ll really feel as if your controlling Batman.  Plus, the game features voice talent from the equally highly-acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, with Kevin Conroy reprising his role as Batman, Mark Hamill as The Joker (yeah, Luke Skywalker voiced The Joker, go figure), and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn.  The rest of the cast who voices Batman’s other iconic allies and villains does a great job as well, which definitely adds to the atmosphere.  Couple all this with a wide range of features, such as challenge mode (which you can play through as The Joker if you buy the game on PS3), and you have one of the best comic book games of all time, and a definite buy in the action/adventure category for 2009

Sanbox:

Assassin’s Creed II

The first Assassin’s Creed was pretty good.  The sequel, Assassin’s Creed II, is better in every single way by a substantial amount.  Ubisoft went to great lengths in order to address all criticisms leveled with the first game and the result was a sequel with an original story, fantastic setting, and a slew of solid gameplay between the best mechanics from the original, improvements on criticized aspects of gameplay, and several new features that really change up the game.  If you had any premonitions after playing the original Assassin’s Creed, know that you have nothing to fear from the sequel.  Assassin’s Creed II is one of the best and most expansive games of the year and a definite addition to the list.

inFamous

One of this year’s earlier release, inFamous may have been seemingly swallowed up by some of the bigger games of the year but that doesn’t detract from how good a game it is.  inFamous features an open-world setting where you can run around with your electricity-based superpowers and do as you please, but it also features a unique and intriguing story that is as well written as the gameplay is solid and the city is designed.  If you own a PS3 and missed this awesome title earlier this year, be sure to pick it up this holiday season.  If you don’t own a PS3 however, then Prototype is your next best bet (or Madworld on the Wii)

Music:

DJ Hero

Ever since Guitar Hero was first introduced, we were able to live out our dream of being rockstars finally.  It brought us the hardware to make us feel like we are there and experiencing what only a few can in the world.  It’s been a long way since Guitar Hero, recently we saw Rock Band make its way on the stage and offered gamers a chance to play as a band and enjoy what Metallica and so many others have had minus the groupies.  It’s 2009 and DJ Hero finally arrives, those hip-hop, techno-loving freaks can finally have their game and it’s more fun than any of the recent titles.  Equipped with a turn table and a game that offers more than 40 tracks, DJ Hero is one of the greatest music experiences to date.  No matter who in the family plays it, the game can be fun and with no way of failing a song, mom and dad can feel cool to and share the great weekends with their kids.

The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles are undoubtedly the most influential band in history and Harmonix has taken great care to show you why with The Beatles: Rock Band.  This isn’t just your run-of-the-mill music game, The Beatles: Rock Band is something much different.  When you play some song, you’ll enter trippy dream sequences that are not only awesome to look at, but show the imagery of the song brilliantly.  Of course, Rock Band’s gameplay is solid as ever, and the new addition of vocal harmonies is awesome.  Add in the awesome music of The Beatles with confirmed DLC in the form of Beatles albums like Abbey Road and you have one of the best music games of the year and a definite buy for Beatles fans and music gamers alike.

Sports:

NHL 10

NHL 10 is a great sports title to bring home to your console, with its improved graphics, additional modes, and a fight mode that will make the afternoon game with your brother that much more fun, it’s worth a look.  There are now more modes than ever and this time you have different styles as well to playing the game.  There’s casual, default, normal and hardcore styles. They change the hits you’ll see, they change the speed of the game significantly, they change passing accuracy and how often penalties will be called. You can go past the preset styles that are offered and create your own through the use of sliders, but the default provides for a good starting point to craft your own brand of hockey.  If you’ve been following the titles over the last three or so years, NHL 10 will make you feel right at home.

FIFA 10

Football games are plenty of fun.  No, I’m not talking about Madden Football, but FIFA Fútbol.  Every year we are treated to the same old football from EA with their FIFA franchise.  FIFA 10 has improved over the last few years.  This year EA also included Virtual Pro which should honestly make its way on every EA Sports game in the future. The mode is very similar to Be a Pro, which EA held on to for this year’s installment. You start out by creating a player, design all his attributes to fit your play style and sculpt his body and facial features to match your own or anything else you want him to look like. There is even a feature titled GameFace to upload a photo of yourself into the game.  The game packs everything a football game has to offer and is a definite purchase if you’re into the sport.

Downloadable Content:

Fallout 3 DLC: Broken Steel/Point Lookout

If you own Fallout 3 already, want to only buy the best Fallout 3 DLC, own an Xbox 360 or PC and aren’t connected to Xbox Live or Windows Live, and don’t want to buy the Game of the Year Edition (well that’s a mouthful), then go with the Broken Steel/Point Lookout bundle pack.  This pack will give you the best two pieces of DLC released for Fallout 3.  Broken Steel and Point Lookout are yards ahead of the rest.  Broken Steel raises the level cap and allows you to continue past the main game’s ending while Point Lookout gives you a massive open area to explore akin to the one in the main game.  Both are feature-rich and highlight Fallout 3′s already solid gameplay at its finest and overall, these two expansions add the most to the game in terms of content and thus, will expand your playtime the most.  If you own a PS3 though, you’re out of luck for getting the retail version.  However, all the DLC is availiable on online and so you’re connected to any online service like PSN or XBL (or not and own a 360 or PC), these would be the DLC add-ons to get if you can’t get them all.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City

Grand Theft Auto IV was one of 2008′s best games and its DLC was no exception to its high-quality standard.  However, GTA IV’s DLC was different than anything before because the two episodes, “The Lost and Damned” and “The Ballad of Gay Tony,” were by themselves bigger than many standard retail games.  The two DLC episodes featured a massive amount of content along with great new stories, GTA IV’s solid gameplay, and the same great open world of Liberty City to explore.  Now, you can get both pieces of DLC if you haven’t already in retail form through Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City or download them if you wish (it’s the same thing though).  Don’t let the fact that the episodes are DLC fool you, Episodes from Liberty City is as full a game as any, perhaps even fuller.  So if you’re a fan of GTA IV, make sure you pick this up.  It’s only available on Xbox 360, though.

There you have it ladies and gentleman.  We have put together our list here at Koku Gamer on which games you should get your friend, son, daughter, grandma or whomever you love enough to spend $60 on.  Our list features a diverse amount of titles from FPS, RPGs, Action-Adventure to Sports Games.  Please leave us any questions you may have on any games we didn’t talk about and we’ll answer all we can.

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