UK Christmas Gift Guide 2012

Mass Effect Cards

• Buy from Forbidden Planet for £4.49.

As a galaxy-saving, alien-bedding hero, Shepard probably doesn't have much time to play cards. If he did, though, he'd almost certainly be the first to say "I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite deck of playing cards in the galaxy." All of the aces and royal cards feature different characters; Miranda is Shepard's queen of spades, Jack is a jack, Joker is a joker… you get the idea.

8-Bit Sunglasses

• Buy from ASOS Marketplace for £15.

Ever wondered what your family and friends would look like as 8-bit characters? Well, keep on wondering; donning these sunglasses won't make folks look like videogame characters at all. It'll make a small portion of your own face look like something out of a retro game, but the people and places around you will just look darker. That's what sunglasses do.

Spelunky Minis

• Buy from Spelunky website for $5.00 (plus international shipping).

Much like the characters in Spelunky that they're based on, these diminutive figurines are best kept away from fire, explosions, mammoths, and bottomless pits. If none of these potential hazards are prevalent in your home, Spelunky Minis will thrive there and, assuming you're not looking to them for companionship, they make great pets. That's assuming your blind box doesn't contain the snake.

Olly Moss Book

• Buy from Amazon for £9.09

Remember that cool Resistance 3 box art that cleverly incorporated New York's skyline into the dental work of a Chimera skull? Olly Moss did that. He also put together this book titled Silhouettes from Popular Culture that features exactly what you think it does. Images aren't labeled and there are no answers pages at the back, so if you don't recognize someone, you're out of luck.

Skylanders

• Buy from Play.com from £6.49.

The enjoyment that can be derived from toys is often proportionate to the quality of your imagination. For some, bedrooms and backyards can become battlegrounds beyond compare; for others, there are Skylanders. Give your imagination a rest with toys that, once placed on the portal of power, come to life inside a videogame world that's already been imagined for you.