Whether you get your video games from some jolly old man in a red suit or you buy them with your own hard earned cash, the holiday season is usually when most of the big-named, high profile games come out to play. Too many of them, in fact, as it’s almost impossible to find enough time or money to even humor the idea of playing them all, even if you limit yourself just to the Playstation 3 exclusives. But with a keen eye and a taste for quality, the best of the best can be sorted out and put at the forefront of any Christmas list.

1. Resistance 2 – What if? This is the question that many great pieces of fiction and particularly most great video games ask. But this is also exactly the question that the alternate universed first-person shooter Resistance 2 is grounded in. What if World War 2 never happened and America and England were forced to fend off a monster-creating virus that had already mutated the rest of the world? What if you where an elite soldier endowed with the inventive and exotic weapons staple to the creators of Ratchet and Clank? Well the answer to these questions is simple, you get one of the most interesting and dynamic exclusives to the PS3 this entire year let alone this holiday season.

2. Little Big Planet – Taking on the role of the irresistibly cute Sackboy in a world constructed by the imaginations and dreams of the people living in ours will allow you the limitless creative freedom only endowed to us in those same imaginations and dreams. Technically a platformer but more encompassing as an unbridled level editor, Little Big planet pushes boundaries and
concepts that most gamers probably didn’t even know existed. Add this to the fact that you can play any of these levels cooperatively and share them online, and we have a game for those who are interested in making their own experiences as much as they are for having them.

3. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – While it’s true that MGS4 has been out since the summer and doesn’t technically classify as a holiday release, for many it was and arguably still is one of the major reasons to buy a PS3. Very few games graphically look this good or attempt to reach the epic heights that Solid Snake’s last mission does, and it’s hard to justify passing up a game which presents the maniacal mind of director Hideo Kojima
unhindered by creative boundaries or digital disk space.

4. Motor Storm: Pacific Rift – Ever wondered how a monster truck would fare in a race against a motorcycle, or an ATV against a dune buggy? Well, Pacific Rift tries to show you. The first game was one of the flagship titles for the PS3 when it launched almost two years ago. Its detailed graphics and its surprising in-game physics where truly excellent, but its lack of variety both in racing options and race courses made it feel more like a demo then an actual game. Pacific Rift fixes all those and touts itself as the game its predecessor should have been.

5. SOCOM: Confrontation – Though riddled with a number of launch bugs that have given it a bad buzz, software patches have been released that allow it to live up to the multiplayer glory of its notorious predecessors. The SOCOM series has always specialized in the more tactical side of shooters, rather then the twitch-reaction gameplay required in most others, and this game promises to be no different. Every well-planned move against enemy soldiers is threatened with a counter-move, and only the clever as well as the cautious have a hope of surviving.