Ironically, there's a good chance the PlayStation3 gamer on your gift list already owns the best games. Check first, and if he or she is lacking the following, consider them essential gifts.




Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ($40)
This year, you won't find a more adventuresome action game than Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Its familiar gameplay mechanics of exploration and puzzle solving interspersed with car chases, fisticuffs, gun fights and the none-too-occasional climatic kaboom has never seen more polish. As if that weren't enough, Among Thieves is unmatched in its delivery of episodic treasure hunting adventures, interactive or otherwise, thanks to an unapologetically thin plot designed to deliver an unremitting string of death-defying escapades, triple-crossing intrigues, and many a nail-biting cliffhanger both literal and figurative. Characters are so well scripted and voiced that you'll sweat you're hanging out with real people in real situations, bantering and riposting their nonchalant way through scene after scene of derring-do and runaway don't.

Rated Teen (13+) for Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence


Little Big Planet Game of the Year Edition ($40)
Save for the brand cachet of Nintendo's Mario, Sony' exclusive Little Big Planet is far and away the most endearing all-ages console game out there. In part, it plays as a side-scrolling, puzzle-laden adventure featuring Sackboy, a completely customizable sock-puppet-like character in a simpatico world of cobbled household items - cardboard, buttons, nuts and bolts, and so on. But where Little Big Planet really shines is in its player creation tool set where users can make their own levels or games out of a wealth of tools and items. It's a tinkerer's dream environment - and a brilliant educational tool for the younger crowd (clever kids eat it up, anyway. Less clever, well, buy them a BBgun maybe). Indeed, among other things, Little Big Planet Game of the Year Edition comes complete with 18 of these user invented levels, hand picked as the best of the millions available for download, the lot of it offering enough new and inventive content to keep you busy for years to come. In short, this game has more longevity that the jar of mismatched buttons in the back of the junk drawer - i.e., a lifetime.

Rated Everyone (6+) Comic Mischief, Mild Cartoon Violence


God of War Collection ($40)
Reworking a pair of PlayStation staples to help hype a coming finale and PS3 debut, the God of War Collection features the first two games in the series originally released on PS2, now buffed and presented anew at 720p (think lipstick on a good looking ping). At just $40, this blood and guts extravaganza should not be missed by any PlayStation gamer - age 18 or over, of course. Though they may have been played in their original form, the buff job makes them worth playing again, especially at $20 a piece, which is the same price as the old PS2 games individually these days, minus the improved graphics and newly added, task specific "trophy" awards for those into that whole Nerd Badge thing.

Rated Mature (17+) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language