The Escapist Holiday Buyers' Guide: The Connoisseur

You've played all the other games on this list already. You're looking for something that shows your friends you really know the unique and special games. Have yourself a merry little Christmas and pluck one of these 2008 gems off the shelf.

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I really didn't expect to see X-Com on that list, but applause for doing so! I still have the second copy of the game I bought... (on CD, after the 3.5" floppy version died) if it'd had a multiplayer mode, Korea might have been enslaved by this instead of Starcraft.

-- Steve

X-Com is just a stonkingly good game. :)

OR for $20, you could pick up Okami on the PS2 and get a much less frustrating version of the game.

Very awesome list, and I finally figured out what to get my roommate. (X-COM Shhh) Also, it made me hookup my old SNES and play my old copy of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

Fun times. But video games are cool and all, but not cool enough to make it to my Christmas lists.

Lvl 64 Klutz:
OR for $20, you could pick up Okami on the PS2 and get a much less frustrating version of the game.

Valid point, but we tried to stick with games that were released (or re-released, as in the case of X-Com and Super Mario RPG) this year.

Susan Arendt:

Lvl 64 Klutz:
OR for $20, you could pick up Okami on the PS2 and get a much less frustrating version of the game.

Valid point, but we tried to stick with games that were released (or re-released, as in the case of X-Com and Super Mario RPG) this year.

Oh, no. I know that. I was just mentioning it as a suggestion for people who might be interested in the game.

EDIT: Which should be everyone with a soul, by the way. Amazing, and quite touching, game.

Lvl 64 Klutz:

EDIT: Which should be everyone with a soul, by the way. Amazing, and quite touching, game.

Except for some ridiculously annoying flaws which have thus far prevented me from finishing the game (left Amaterasu somewhere in the frozen north).

Fantastic game (on the PS2, no Wii experience), wholeheartedly recommend it, couldn't bear to keep playing it (and I really wish they had fixed some of the common complaints in the Wii-port).

The write-up of Rez is bizarre. It seems to suggest that techno, trance and acid house are the same thing. I can assure you that nothing in Rez sounds anything like "the Hacienda circa 1989".

Nice list.

So am I slightly 'in' with the connoisseur crowd having played The World Ends With You?

Let's see, I've played three of those games (SMRPG, TWEWY, and Okami). I think I'm pretty set as a connoisseur, especially considering that I've on more than one occasion referred to Okami as my "Personal videogame messiah".

X-Com is an undoubtedly stunning game. A must buy for any gamer.
I intended to get Okami on the PS2 before my sister sold hers and never got around to it, will check it out at some point.
Deffo would like to get The World Ends With You at some point also.

SMRPG Was and Still is one of my favorite RPG's.
I suffer bouts of chronic nostalgia from time to time,
that and Earthbound are two SNES titles I find myself
crawling back to.