KEY POINTS:
PC gamers are having one of their best Christmas' for years with a fantastic feast of games.
I've rated highly The Orange Box, Crysis, The Witcher and Hellgate: London - all among the best. The only thing to check if it's a gift for Christmas is that their machine will meet the minimum specs.
Microsoft has been especially instrumental in promoting PC gaming under its "Games for Windows" moniker.
Among other ones I haven't mentioned this Christmas:
Gears of War (Microsoft: rated R16) is the much-awaited port of one of Xbox 360's best. It is a frantic, brutal, close-combat shooter as the world battles for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.
Even if you did clock it on the 360, you'll enjoy being able to have fluid control with the mouse and keyboard - and besides single-player, there is a multiplayer mode, extra maps, a map editor and the impressive graphics.
Zoo Tycoon 2 (Microsoft: rated PG)was a surprise hit for many people who weren't usually over-excited about tycoon-strategy games. The animals stole the show with a mind of their own - especially cheeky monkeys - as you battled to make the zoo experience work.
Extinct animals (PG) is the latest expansion pack and is a fun twist. You dig up the fossils, take them to the research lab, construct exhibits for the dinosaurs and thankfully have a tranquilizer gun to settle them back down!
Flight Simulator fans have their own world where they live, breathe and dream being a pilot and love any expansion packs. So for them this Christmas comes a new must-have pack called Acceleration (Microsoft: rated G) with three new aircraft, more than 30 new single-player missions, and 19 multiplayer missions/races. It requires Flight Simulator X to play and don't underestimate the flight training required if you are new to the virtual cockpit. Microsoft's Flight Simulator has got more and more sophisticated and realistic to the point you could almost step from your PC into the real pilot's seat!
On the fun side, there is lots of family fun in Viva Pinata (Microsoft: rated G), the quirky party game about an evolving paradise teeming with fantastic, living creatures and vibrant plant life - all determined by the player's choices and actions. If you sampled the Xbox 360 version, you'll have already experienced its charm.
By the way, there's also a new 360 version, Viva Pinata Party Animals (G) turning the characters into party animals with more than 50 party games and racing fun.
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (Microsoft: PG) is the second expansion pack for Age of Empires III focusing on Asia this time, and enabling you to command the civilisations of Japan, China and India to become an empire and fight to keep it. What do you fancy using - the skills of the Chinese army, the Samurai or Shogun? The expansion contains a single-player campaign.
Sim City also has a huge following but updates have been missing-in-action lately. A couple of interesting look-alikes such as City Life fill in the gap but now SimCity Societies (EA: rated G) emerges but has divided fans. It's not from the original developers - which isn't always a bad thing, since - after all these years - it could be worthwhile having some new approaches to the game.
This time it's not so much about the usual construction of a city with strategic placing of buildings to ensure minimal problems and that the population is growing happy. Instead, the emphasis is on more politically correct things - "managing societal energies" - ideals produced by the different buildings such as balancing the competing needs of "prosperity" and "spirituality."
