Black Friday has been and gone and whilst many of you probably have your Christmas shopping done and dusted, I’m sure there are still a few stragglers out there who are waiting until Christmas Eve to finish things up. If that is the case then here’s a little gift guide to suggest some items that might be worth looking at for the gamer/tech lover in your life.
Collectible or Custom Item
A collectible like a gaming character bobblehead may not be something your gamer can use, but it will encourage them to begin growing a lineup of action figures (if they haven’t started yet). To make it more personal you can customize it by ordering a bobblehead that looks like the gamer you are giving it to. Visit this website for more info on how you can order a custom bobblehead.
Games
There have been so many great games out this year on all formats, both free-to-play and pay-to-play titles, but which titles offer more bang for your buck?
One way of working out which games offer you the best experience is to look at which titles mopped up at the Game Awards 2018. God of War is a definite standout title, having won Game of the Year as well as two other accolades, with Red Dead Redemption 2 also doing well taking home four trophies for Best Narrative, Best Score/Music, Best Audio Design and also Best Performance which went to Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan.
But it’s not always the big AAA titles that you pay big bucks for that offer the best experience, with the likes of the hugely popular free-to-play title Fortnite being awarded Best Ongoing Game, and indie titles like Celeste and Dead Cells also taking their fair share of praise.
Here’s a few suggestions from some of our own:
Josh
There have been a few games I have enjoyed this year, from the nostalgic embrace of Spyro Reignited Trilogy to the free-to-play title that I’ve been trying so desperately to go Pro at, Paladins. A few other titles that I like the look of, one of which I’ll be getting for Christmas, are Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, both now out on the Nintendo Switch.
Chris
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Peripherals
To make sure you’re being the best possible you in game, it helps having the equipment that can help take you to that next level. If you’re not sure what to look for in your peripherals, we put together a small guide of what to consider HERE. But to offer a little more direct help here’s some suggestions of what’s out there to buy.
If you or a family member/friend have spawned a young gamer, make sure you give them the best start in life. One way to do that if you’re trying to get them to join the master race is getting them the Sandberg Gaming Starter kit, which provides them with a gaming keyboard, mouse, headset and mouse mat, all for the reasonable price of £51.07 from Stuff-uk.net.
Rather than buying a bundle though maybe you’re looking for something more specific. Something like a headset? Well, we’ve a few that we can offer some advice on like the LS25 or LS31 gaming headsets from Lucid Sound. The LS25 is a wired headset that comes in at around £79.99 and has been designed specifically for a PC audience, focusing only on the essentials: great audio quality, ease of use, clear chat and comfort. Whereas the LS31 which retails at around £149.99 is the ideal wireless gaming headset for multi format gamers.
Looking at something more down the budget end? You need worry, because Snakebyte has you covered with their Head range, available for between £19.99 – £24.99 depending on whether you want their PS4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch version.
If you’re looking at replacing your mouse sometime soon, then you might be interested to know that the once popular Mad Catz are back, and they’ve released a whole new range of amazing looking bits of kit that could be worth looking at. But you may want something a little more tried and tested such as the Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum which was voted as the best mouse of 2018 by Games Radar, or if you’re more into your MMOs then something like the Razer Naga Chroma with all those wonderful buttons.
As for keyboards, I personally use a Razer Blackwidow X Chroma and it is AMAZING. Not only does it make the perfect clicking sound and do the job I want it to it also feels like it could be used as a weapon in a backstage brawl at a WWE event and come away unscathed. But there are many other keyboards available too, with HyperX in particular becoming quite popular on the eSports scene having seen there stuff being used by a few teams. Otherwise, I’d keep an eye out for anything from Corsair or Logitech as both offer some great alternatives.
Here are some other accessories that may be worth looking out for suggested by our top streamer:
ISeeZombieszz
A Logitech C920 webcam, Streamdeck both full size or mini depending on desk space, monitor lighting – like LED lights to make your setup look cool, a desk ring light for natural lighting to improve webcam quality, for which I recommend my mic cos it’s amazing the Samson C01U pro.
Tech
When it comes to other tech, there is a lot out there to look at. And one piece that has caught my eye is the NEOGEO Mini. Designed by SNK,
the NEOGEO Mini is a portable arcade console with 40 classic NEOGEO games from legendary franchises such as King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury and many more. Ideal for anyone you want to send on a nostalgia trip.
Some other bits we’ve liked from this year which we highly recommend if you’re in the market for something like them are the beautiful Edifier S350DB speakers we reviewed back in September, and the awesome LESHP budget projector we put to the test which gave my Epson TW5100 a run for its money. And who can forget the Element Gaming 27″ Gaming Monitor available from Ebuyer? Which has been improved on since our review, now featuring the VESA mount which was essentially the biggest flaw of the original design.
And to wrap things up, a final recommendation from our good friends at VR Here:
Bryan Field
Oculus Go VR would be good for people to start experiencing VR on a budget.
And that is pretty much it, we couldn’t cover everything, there is so much out there and everything in the end comes down to personal taste. But at least we’ve managed to give you a few ideas of what to buy the gamer in your life if you get stuck this festive holiday.
Merry Christmas y’all!