TotalPlayStation Holiday Buyer's Guide 2005
We spent all year cutting through the poo to get to the good stuff, and now we're passing along our knowledge to make sure you make someone's nice list this year.
Published: December 4, 2005
They're upon us again, those holidays, and this year is extra special. For one, we've seen two hardware launches, and it's going to be harder than ever to get your loved ones the games they want, but there's a silver lining to this credit card-maxing dark cloud: the games.
There were perhaps more awesome games for the PlayStation 2 than in the history of the console, and the PSP managed to gain some serious steam from stuff that wasn't just first-party software. It's made our job a little harder, but we do it because we love you.
Luckily, it also means we can list a couple games for each category, which we lovingly generalized for you. Should our top pick be something the person you're buying for already has or is getting, we've listed a couple extras that are just as good. In many cases, the games were all so good we just picked something that was either more obscure or a little older in the hopes that some of the gems from the beginning of the year don't get lost in the fourth quarter tidal wave of releases.
The games were picked using a handful of criteria, but mainly just our love of the game. A high score doesn't necessarily mean it'll get included, and likewise something that scored lower but was just too awesome to leave out will show up from time to time. Some games we played early, but never reviewed or will be reviewing shortly, and in that case we'll include them, but rarely as the top choice.
Lastly, all the games will be available through Amazon by way of us by clicking on the Buy Game link on the game pages (just click on the title of the game). If you can, please do buy your games that way, as it's how we'll be making the holidays a little brighter for our families. And now, the list:
There were perhaps more awesome games for the PlayStation 2 than in the history of the console, and the PSP managed to gain some serious steam from stuff that wasn't just first-party software. It's made our job a little harder, but we do it because we love you.
Luckily, it also means we can list a couple games for each category, which we lovingly generalized for you. Should our top pick be something the person you're buying for already has or is getting, we've listed a couple extras that are just as good. In many cases, the games were all so good we just picked something that was either more obscure or a little older in the hopes that some of the gems from the beginning of the year don't get lost in the fourth quarter tidal wave of releases.
The games were picked using a handful of criteria, but mainly just our love of the game. A high score doesn't necessarily mean it'll get included, and likewise something that scored lower but was just too awesome to leave out will show up from time to time. Some games we played early, but never reviewed or will be reviewing shortly, and in that case we'll include them, but rarely as the top choice.
Lastly, all the games will be available through Amazon by way of us by clicking on the Buy Game link on the game pages (just click on the title of the game). If you can, please do buy your games that way, as it's how we'll be making the holidays a little brighter for our families. And now, the list:
