Shoppers for PC gaming gifts are spoiled for choice this year. It's been a great 12 months and just about every major genre has seen outstanding releases. See the list below for this year's best and brightest. If you're not a regular purchaser of PC games, bear in mind that some games require a reliable Internet connection or newish machines to run. Check the box for details.
It's also worth spying ahead of time at the intended recipient's machine. Of course, if their PC isn't up to the job, a new graphics card would make a marvelous gift. Check our hardware gift ideas for more information, as well as other great options for PC shoppers.
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Seen too much of your loved ones recently? Give them this and watch them disappear from normal life for months. Better yet, get it for yourself and then you can do the vanishing instead. Like all three previous Civilization games, it's incredibly hard to resist staying up for just one more turn, which turns quick 10-minute sessions into 5AM marathons. A long list of smart changes, additions, and tweaks makes Civilization IV required playing for any PC gamer who's even remotely serious about their strategy.
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Battlefield 2
Supporting up to 64 players at once, Battlefield 2 is a first-person shooter with a difference. It's set in a (thankfully) fictional present day three-way conflict between US, China, and a newly formed Middle Eastern Coalition. Players pick their side, choose from a tremendous variety of vehicles and weapons, and then battle to the death across 12 huge maps. Although you can play it against computer-controlled opponents, the game is at its best in online play. It also requires a fairly new PC to keep up with the nigh photorealistic visuals. The franchise just saw an expansion pack released, titled Special Forces, so if you know someone who already plays the game, that could make the perfect surprise gift.
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World of Warcraft
Don't buy this for anyone. Seriously. With over one million people playing in North America alone, it's a pretty safe bet that anyone who's remotely interested in the genre has already picked up a copy or two. But if there's someone in your life who hasn't succumbed to the lure of Warcraft's addictive and immersive virtual world, don't hesitate to grab it for them. Bear in mind that that a subscription's required to play ($15/mo) and typically requires a credit card, but you can also pick up a pre-paid card at your favorite specialty store.
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F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon
Creepy little girls and top-rated first-person shooter gunplay combine to make this a perfect gift for any action or horror fan. What it does best isn't the scares, despite the title -- it's the outstanding sense of power and destruction the game's weapons create. It's helped along by some fantastically lifelike enemy opponents, who'll leap barriers, dive behind cover, and generally behave in a convincing way. There's no shortage of scary moments, violence, and gore, but gamers of sufficient age are bound to love it.
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Guild Wars
Looking for a massively-multiplayer online game but can't stomach the fees? You're not the only one, and Guild Wars will fit the bill perfectly. It's action-heavy, looks great, and has a strong focus on player-versus-player and (as you might have guessed from the title) guild-versus-guild fights. Without a monthly fee, Guild Wars players can drop into and out of the game whenever they feel like it, without the guilt of knowing you're paying for something you're not using -- perfect for someone who doesn't have the time to sink into a mainstream massively-multiplayer game.
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Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
Wannabe superheroes will love this good-natured parody of the Silver Age of 1960s comic books. The plot is an epic time traveling tale of a band of superheroes sent back to 1942 to conquer a new threat -- Nazi stormtroopers enhanced with the mysterious superpower-granting alien compound Energy X. The turn-based combat is easy to grasp, and the story is a masterpiece, piling up the comic book cliches to outstanding effect. If you have a family member with a penchant for wearing his underpants outside his trousers, your holiday gift hunt is at an end.
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Call of Duty 2
The best by far of the year's WWII shooters, Call of Duty 2 combines outstanding graphics with compelling (and sometimes grim) realistic combat. Taking in a variety of wartime locations across northern France, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia, the single-player game has some welcome wide-open, dynamic levels that play differently each time through. It's hard to go wrong with Call of Duty 2.
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Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard
Despite the Dungeons & Dragons license, this isn't a role-playing adventure but an action-heavy real-time strategy game. Well balanced and particularly strong in multiplayer, it makes managing your units on a small scale -- normally something that strategy games shy from -- just another part of the challenge. One of the year's best tactical titles and perfect for the fantasy gamer.
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The Movies
Unhappy with the range of entertainment on TV this holiday season? Here's your chance to do better. The Movies pairs a somewhat mediocre management game with an absolutely stellar set of tools for writing, filming, set-designing, and producing your own short movies. Once you're done with the visuals, you can use a microphone to add your own dialogue and export the movie to send to your friends. The possibilities are endless. And who knows? It might be the nudge the recipient needs to launch them into a star-studded Hollywood career!
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Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
If you caught the HBO series Band of Brothers, you'll have some idea what to expect from this fantastic World War II shooter. With the burden of a couple of squads of men under your command, Brothers in Arms requires more thought than most other shooters, and its realistic presentation is sure to impress any history buff.
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Silent Hunter III
Alarm! Although this isn't actually a licensed conversion of Wolfgang Petersen's claustrophobic WWII U-boat movie, it might as well be. Detail-packed and highly accurate, Silent Hunter III's biggest achievement is that most of the difficult work of running the sub can be automated. In other words, if you just want to tool around the Atlantic sinking Allied convoys and vanishing into the night, you can go right ahead. Superbly presented and wonderfully atmospheric, it's the perfect choice for the military history nut in your life.
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Dungeon Siege II
An action role-playing game rather like Blizzard's classic Diablo series, you control a team of characters (instead of just one), and a range of automation options let you take as much (or as little) of a role in the combat as you like. You even get baggage-carrying pets that can be fed excess items to allow them to develop combat abilities themselves. It's a lengthy game, so it's especially good value for money.
Editor's Choice
Budget Buys
The perfect stocking stuffers that don't compromise on quality.
Family Friendly
Recommendations with no blood, no gore, and no shortage on fun.
Hardware Hits
Gadgets and accessories that no gamer wants to be without.