GamesRadar Holiday Buyer's Guide 2007

…For the gamer sick of shooters: Assassin's Creed
Life in the Middle East in the year 600 AD didn't sound all that great to us at first - you know, poverty, rats, the dudes from the Crusades constantly turning up and waving their swords at you. However, what if you could spend that life as a sort of robe-clad cross between a ninja, a pirate and Spider-Man, always free-running and stabbing holes in evil men? It turns out, that sweetens the pot quite a bit.

Second option: Puzzle Quest
Forget the hokey, generic fantasy storyline. This is Bejeweled with the one thing it lacked: a point. You'll match rows of colored gems for hours upon hours because that freaking two-headed ogre has it coming. The bastard.

…For the young and innocent: Eternal Sonata
We had two thoughts immediately upon seeing this glorious Japanese-style fantasy RPG for the first time. One was, "Wow! Those graphics are so artistic, so colorful, so beautiful." The second was, "Hey, that harmless looking coconut just turned into a very big, very mean tree and stomped on that dude's head.” And we were hooked. Despite the violent dispositions of the native flora and fauna, it's nearly impossible not to get swept up in Eternal Sonata's charisma and unabashed enthusiasm.

Second option: Beautiful Katamari
What's that? You like colorful and enthusiastic but you'd rather not hit magic fish and bats in the face for 30 hours to get it? Look no further than this quirky story about a tiny character who rolls up giant, sticky balls of lovable odditude.