The holiday season is upon us, and PlayStation 3 owners and owner-hopefuls around the world are desperately trying to relate to their loved ones the sort of game titles they'd like to unwrap when their particular gift-giving festivity commences. Nothing says "I don't understand you" quite like a cold, unfeeling gift card, so let Kotaku be your guide to the best things to place inside your shiny Sony console. Whether you are giving or receiving, our 2008 PlayStation 3 Gift Guide is your source for festive holiday gaming.

The guide is split into four different sections. We've got your Bargains, for those of you who want to stretch their holiday dollar; essential titles that every PlayStation 3 owner has to play (it's the law); social titles to lure your friends and family around the console; and finally epic titles that will devour your very soul and spit it out in a slightly moist but terribly happy little holiday lump.

Nothing like the smell of freshly opened games on a cold winter morning...

Bargains
PixelJunk Monsters
Price: $9.99 via PlayStation Network
Rating: Everyone
Addictive tower defense gameplay meets quirky audio and visual style in Q-Games' PixelJunk Monsters. Defend your creatures from the approaching hordes by placing towers along their path. Simple and addicting. The Otograph music alone is worth the price of admission, having resulted in the soundtrack being released as the first audio album on the PlayStation Network.

PixelJunk Eden
Price: $9.99 via PlayStation Network
Rating: Everyone
Another in Q-Games' PixelJunk series, Eden is a game that is hard to put into words. Grip and swing your way through various gardens, collecting pollen to allow new plants to bloom, opening up new paths for you to explore. Challenging and relaxing, all at once.

WipeOut HD
Price: $19.99 via PlayStation Network
Rating: Everyone 10+
Take the classic gameplay of the original futuristic racing game Wipeout, crank things up to a blistering fast 60 frames per second running at full HD 1080p, tack on an excellent soundtrack in Dolby 5.1 surround and you're in for one hell of a sweet ride. With new tracks and vehicles promised by way of future DLC, WipeOut HD is the gift that keeps on giving.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord
Price: $14.99 via PlayStation Network
Rating: Everyone 10+
Ah, Puzzle Quest. We cannot escape you, nor would we want to. The PlayStation 3 version of the puzzle/RPG hybrid that originally took the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP by storm contains all the fun of the original game plus the Revenge of the Plague Lord expansion that was released on the Xbox 360 earlier this year.

Echochrome
Price: $9.99 via PlayStation Network
Rating: Everyone
Echochrome is an excellent example of the unique, creative games that are the hallmark of the PlayStation Network. In a world populated by Oscar Reutersvärd's impossible constructions, getting from point A to point B is entirely a matter of perception. Guide a wooden mannequin through bizarre pathways by rotating the shapes it walks upon. It's like an interactive brain teaser that forces you to take a new look at the way you play.

Essentials

LittleBigPlanet
Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
The game everyone is talking about. On the surface, LittleBigPlanet is a relatively simplistic yet challenging platformer, but once you roll up your sleeves and start realizing your own creations with its rich editing tools it becomes something altogether different. LittleBigPlanet could very well be the game that defines the PlayStation 3.

Resistance 2
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
The follow-up to the best launch title for the PS3, Insomniac's first-person shooter continues the epic tale of man versus mutant that started in Resistance: Fall of Man. While the story mode delivers action on a scale seldom seen in a first-person shooter, the 60-player online multiplayer and MMO-style online co-op promises to keep players running and gunning for years to come.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Price: $46.99
Rating: Mature
The game that launched a million PlayStation 3 consoles. If you own a PlayStation 3 and haven't experienced the final chapter in Hideo Kojima's epic Metal Gear series, then you simply aren't getting the most out of your console. You'll be hard pressed to find a more emotionally-charged game on any platform. Just beware - intense cravings for fried eggs may occur.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Price: $41.99
Rating: Everyone 10+
Insomniac takes their classic action platforming duo to a whole new level in Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction. Along with being one fine showcase for the graphical horse[power of the PlayStation 3, Tools of Destruction stays true to the series' roots, delivering solid action and top-notch platforming while still remaining as family-friendly as ever.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Price: $41.99
Rating: Teen
Developer Naughty Dog of Jak & Daxter and Crash Bandicoot fame show that they can work their magic on more realistic characters in Uncharted: Drakes' Fortune, an epic summer adventure movie you can play. It's got plenty of shooting, dizzying platforming elements, and some of the best-acted characters ever seen in a video game. It's Indiana Jones and the Lost Treasure of El Dorado, only without Indiana Jones.

Socializers

Rock Band 2
Price: $189.99
Rating: Teen
You can't get much more social than Rock Band 2. You can barely go to any large gathering of people these days without finding the game set up, and once you build it, the people will come. Almost as fun to watch as it is to play, Rock Band 2 snags a recommendation over the competition because of its massive song library. Still no "The Touch" by Stan Bush, but we remain hopeful.

SingStar Bundle
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Say what you will about your full band games, I contend that SingStar is an even better party game than either of the major guitar and drum touting franchises. Why? Because with those, people can escape singing. SingStar doesn't play that. It's all hideous embarrassment, all the time.

Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Not only does Buzz! Quiz TV provide hours of family-friendly entertainment plus the ability to create and share your own quizzes with the world, it also comes bundled with four wireless Buzz buzzers, perfect for forcefully throwing at friends and family members who are just too smart for their own damn good. They should really package this game with buzzer-proof helmets.

Eye Of Judgment
Price: $66.99
Rating: Teen
The perfect gift for the collectible card game addict in your life, Eye of Judgment comes packaged with the PlayStation Eye camera, which promotes a whole different kind of social interaction as well. As an added plus, card booster packs make excellent follow-up gifts, as do the high-powered movie set lighting you need to play the game at night.

Soul Calibur IV
Price: $56.99
Rating: Teen
Fighting games, once the cornerstone of the arcade social scene, still remain an excellent way to pass the time with a horde of slightly drunk friends. Soul Calibur IV not only has a ton of characters to beat on each other with, you can add to the humiliation by pwning your pals with your custom-created fighter - naked mohawk man wearing pink diaper.

Epics

Valkyria Chronicles
Price: $56.99
Rating: Teen
Sega's beautiful take on the strategy RPG couples an gorgeous hand-sketched graphics style with one of the most innovative combat system that integrates 3rd person action with turn-based tactics. The game features more than 100 customizable characters and an epic storyline sure to keep you playing through to the very end. As an added plus, Valkyria Chronicles is a PlayStation 3 exclusive, so you can always rub that in your Xbox-owning friends' faces.

Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice
Price: $39.99
Rating: Teen
When you are talking epics, you're talking Disgaea. NIS America has been creating turn-based strategy RPG shut-ins since the original Disgaea on the PlayStation, and the third installment is no different. Class world alone features 40 stages for each of the more than 270 characters, or 10,800 different stages. Add to that the story stages, item world, and an infinite number of randomly generated battle maps, and you could play Disgaea 3 for years.

BioShock
Price: $56.99
Rating: Mature
Last year's Xbox 360 epic is this year's PlayStation 3 epic as 2K's tale decadence, delirium, and death under the sea makes the leap to Sony's console. The PS3 version of the game adds a new difficulty mode to the title, along with console-exclusive downloadable content that'll be available in plenty of time for Christmas.

Fallout 3
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Bethesda has proven time and time again with their Elder Scrolls series that they know epic, and their take on the Fallout universe fits the bill quite nicely. You can spend days explore the wasteland surrounding the ruins of Washington D.C., doing battle, scavaging supplies to build new weapons, making friends, killing said friends, making new friends - the possibilities are endless.

Grand Theft Auto IV
Price: $53.99
Rating: Mature
Cars to steal, prostitutes to kill out of shame after they leave your car. The Liberty City presented in Grand Theft Auto IV is truly a massive playground at your fingertips. Not only has Rockstar given us all the tools we need for months of mindless destruction, they added in highly entertaining multiplayer modes so we can share the experience with random people over the internet.

One of Nintendo's most beloved franchises, Animal Crossing has seen millions of players around the world creating and maintaining their own tiny, cartoon animal inhabited towns since the original game's release seven years ago. Promising the same relaxed social simulation gameplay as the first two titles along with a city to explore and the introduction of Wii voice chat using a special microphone peripheral, Animal Crossing: City Folk looked to be the shining star of Nintendo's holiday lineup.

Now the game is out and the bus is pulling up to your stop. Should you hop out, or keep on riding? Read our review to find out.

Loved
Take Daily As Needed: By far, my favorite aspect of the Animal Crossing series is the way the game is meant to be played, in small chunks, day by day. It's still the perfect game to just switch on at the end of the day, just to check up on what's happening in your town, see who might be passing through, and check out special events that occur on specific days. Remember, Saturday night is KK Slider night.

Time Passages: As in the previous AC titles, City Folk works in real time according to your specific region, so the autumn leaves currently on my trees will soon give way to winter snow before coming back to life in the spring. This also allows for the celebration of holidays, which makes revisiting the game on special occasions a must.

Mii Crossing: It's just a silly little feature, but there is something neat about wandering around the town of Kotaku and interacting with my animal friends with my own Mii head attached to my body. I suppose it just feels better when it's me starting a letter propaganda campaign against Tom Nook than the regulation cute little guy.

Viral Visitors: While I didn't get to try out the microphone (the game arrived without one), sharing your city with friends is a pleasant change of pace from the everyday fruit-picking grind, especially now that your neighbors no longer hide from visitors as if they had the plague. The fact that your letters and notices get passed around your friends' towns makes for... well, makes for some really dirty letters I should probably apologize for beforehand.

Control Tweaks: One tiny change can make a whole world of difference. Being able to press the d-pad on the controller to switch between butterfly net, fishing rod, and shovel takes a lot of frustration out of the three major activities your town has to offer.

Hated
More of the Same: When it comes right down to it, Animal Crossing: City Folk is the same game we've already played on two other systems. It may be wide screen, and there may be integrated support for voice chat, a slightly new area, new dialog, and some extra collectibles, but other than that, the core game is completely unchanged.

This City Life: The city portion of the game is only interesting and new until you realize that a good chunk of what you find in the city is simply old content moved to a new location. The fortune teller, the hairdresser, and even Redd are simply transients from the DS game who have set up permanent shop. It was almost more exciting when they were limited to certain times of visit, giving the player something to look forward to.

Pausing at the Threshold: While not much was added in the way of gameplay, the folks at Nintendo did manage to add several seconds of load time between entering and leaving buildings and new areas. It might not seem like a lot, but bop around your town as much as I do and the frustration begins to build.

I'm not quite sure what Nintendo was thinking when they decided to release a new game in a franchise that has millions of devoted fans around the world without actually adding anything new for those fans. Despite a few tweaks, Animal Crossing: City Folk could almost pass for a port of the DS version rather than a completely new title. It's extremely disappointing, especially considering what could have been done had developers actually worked on innovating the title, such as integrating with the Wii Weather channel to mimic local conditions, or even just adding in some mini-games that made use of the Wii's unique control scheme. It's still an excellent game, but an excellent game fans have already played.

Animal Crossing: City Folk is a wonderful game for players who have never experienced the relaxing yet strangely addictive gameplay of the series, but the more AC savvy will find themselves treading all too familiar ground.

Animal Crossing: City Folk was developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo, released in North America on Nov. 16 for the Wii. Retails for $49.99. Played more that 24 non-consecutive hours, invited a couple of friends to visit, upgraded house twice, and at least one character says the word "flatus" at the end of every sentence.

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A friendly GameStop tipster just dropped what we're told is the game-sellers Black Friday sales catalog on us. The dozen-page circular is packed with borderline deals including Xbox 360 sales bundles, deep discounts on some games (.99 cents for Rock Band Track Pack Vol. 2 anyone?) and peripherals.

Highlights that I noticed:

DS and Wii
The under $20 Wii games
The free Nerf gun, with Nerf Blaster
$30 for Guitar Hero on Tour

PSP and PS3
Madden PSP Entertainment Pack or Ratchet and Clank Pack for $200
Guitar Hero Aerosmith for $30

Xbox 360
Several 360 bundles
Left 4 Dead for $50

PC
World of Warcraft Battle Chest for $20

What are you eyeing?

Having seen success with the first novel based on the Warhammer Online MMORPG, Empire In Chaos, Mythic Entertainment and Games Workshop publishing division The Black Library have gone ahead and announced a new novel in the Warhammer Online series, Dark Storm Gathering. Treachery blooms behind Imperial lines and only a hearty band of adventurers - an Archmage, White Lion, Witch Hunter, and Knight of the Blazing Sun - can uncover the corruption before it's too late.

The novel will be penned by Chris Wraight, whom I've never heard of but has to be better than Empire in Chaos writer Anthony Reynolds, who gifted readers of the last book with four of the most unlikeable characters I have ever encountered. Look for attempt number 2 in store come Spring 2009.

EA AND Black Library PUBLISHING ANNOUNCE DARK STORM GATHERING, AN ORIGINAL NOVEL BASED ON HIT MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Second Novel in Series Offers a Gripping Account of Four Heroes Embroiled in the Realm vs. Realm Conflict of WAR

FAIRFAX, Virginia – November 20, 2008 – Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, and The Black Library, a division of Games Workshop, today announced DARK STORM GATHERING, an original novel based on the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR). The second in a series of novels based on the hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game, DARK STORM GATHERING will be available in all major bookstores and on the Black Library website in Spring 2009.

DARK STORM GATHERING, by noted Black Library author Chris Wraight, provides a colorful and gripping account of the Realm vs. Realm™ battles that rage throughout WAR. In the novel, human and Elf adventurers are forced to form an uneasy alliance with the armies of the Empire to repel the forces of Chaos. Across the lands, the grim march of Tchar’zanek, dread Champion of the fell powers of Chaos, is underway. Throughout the Empire of Man, the toll from plague and mutation continues to grow, and hope begins to fade. Only the intervention of the High Elves offers respite, but they are beset by foes of their own, the murderous Dark Elves. When the prospect of treachery behind Imperial lines looms, four heroes based on careers in the game – Archmage, White Lion, Witch Hunter and Knight of the Blazing Sun – must work together to uncover the corruption before all is lost.

“The first novel based on our game, EMPIRE IN CHAOS, was a tremendous success, and we’re thrilled about next year’s release of DARK STORM GATHERING,” said Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of Mythic Entertainment. “Black Library has a track record of producing compelling creative works based on the Warhammer world, and they really made the Age of Reckoning shine with the first WAR novel. We can’t wait for players to read what Chris Wraight has in store for them in the second installment in the series.”

“Warhammer is one of the richest fantasy universes ever envisaged, and the Age of Reckoning is like a dream come true for a writer,” said Chris Wraight, the author of DARK STORM GATHERING. “There are so many iconic characters and locales to draw upon, and the team at Mythic has really captured the spirit of Warhammer so well. Writing this novel has been a joy, and I hope the final product is as immersive and engaging for readers as WAR is for gamers.”

Based on the popular tabletop war game from Games Workshop, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ conflict that will provide an engaging battleground for years to come. Available now for PC, WAR is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB.

For further information about the novel, DARK STORM GATHERING, visit www.blacklibrary.com.

By now it’s sadly common experience, hearing racist, homophobic, even anti-Semitic slurs during online games. Often it’s for no apparent reason other than as a term of abuse used against competitors, that packs more of a punch than your standard four-letter word. But a couple months back, I had a different experience, and I’m sure it’s no more uncommon for others, too. In a game of Castle Crashers — cooperative multiplayer — this guy I was playing with completely proffered some rather ugly opinions of African-Americans, and needlessly heaped racial slurs on the foes we were battling.

First off, the guy knew I was a weekend editor at Kotaku. Secondly, I’m not black. But what troubled me most was not his behavior but my reaction to it. It was worse than being told a racist joke at a party under the assumption you’d laugh along because you’re white. I continued to play a game with the guy, quite passively letting the comment go lest I be the one to make things too awkward. And I beat myself up about it later for not calling this guy out on the spot, or at minimum, quitting the game.

Turns out, according to a couple psychologists I spoke to, that would have been the wrong reaction.

“Ignore it completely,” was one of two suggestions of Dr. Stuart Twemlow, , professor of psychiatry at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry in Houston. The other was a more subtle call-out of the remark — interpret it and ask if the guy’s doing it to get an advantage. Since this is cooperative multiplayer, maybe something like “Does that help you play this game better?”

Because in a perverse way, that’s what you’re dealing with here. Psychologists call this behavior “paradoxing,” and it’s a classic attempt to gain the upper hand, to become dominant in certain settings. Competitively, it’s to frustrate and anger you and take you out of your game. Cooperatively, it’s to establish aggression and therefore take the decision-making and the leadership. As I recall, this guy had played Castle Crashers a lot longer than I had, and was taking it somewhat seriously.

“When you act very unexpectedly, and when that person is caught up in what you’re doing, they lose their orientation,” Twemlow said. “And in that little window, you can control their mind. It’s an intervention to unseat you,” Twemlow said, even in a cooperative environment, where the intent is more to establish control of how the game proceeds. “And one advantage they have is the anonymity of being online. It’s so open and yet a person feels anonymous enough to say the most outrageous things, practically to your face.

“And the reason for doing that is because it exposes your weakness. It means you really want to win.” Twemlow said. “And that means you’re not a good player, because an expert player would never say that winning is the be all and end all.”

Not every situation needs psychological hand-holding. It’s not uncommon to see some ad-hoc self-policing, or a collectively expressed rebuke — booting, often backed or preceded by their own swear words — when the worst offenders start ruining a multiplayer match. Strength in numbers there. This is more about dealing with a sociopath in a one-on-one setting.

“You’re not going to change the way this person thinks, so getting into a confrontation is not going to work,” said Sue Barnes, associate director of the Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology, who studies online behavior and social media.

So the key for anyone provoked by this kind of baiting would not be so much in the reaction as in the preparation. Know that it’s coming, and because, in my case, this was cooperative multiplayer where I was invited by the same person who ended up spewing the invective, my guard was down. But I’d be naive to think ugly language is new enough to be called a trend in online play. If anything, it’s getting worse, and we should expect to see it all the time, especially among those we truly don’t know. Part of the shock, the experts said, is that you feel because you share an interest in the game you know the person better than you actually do. He’s still no different from any other stranger in public of whom you have no expectations, and would gladly avoid.

If you do feel compelled to speak up — especially if you’re a person of color, or the actual object of hate speech’s intent — Barnes suggests another query. She notes that much of the racism and bigoted language, especially as expressed by much younger gamers, isn’t the product of a very self-aware person. And they’d be insecure about having a mirror held up to their behavior. “So, you could try asking, ‘What if I told you I was black?’ ”

It’s a valid question even if you’re not. And the person might get so caught up in wondering why you had said that, if you aren’t, that you’ve paradoxed him out of his offensive state.

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The second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours -- making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time, Blizzard says. The company also claims the previous record -- 2.4 million copies sold on the January 2007 launch day of The Burning Crusade, WoW's first expansion. Wrath of the Lich King received a simultaneous global launch in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia ...

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