GamePro Gift Guide: 2003: For the Gamer Who Has?

Stumped trying to figure out what to buy for the gamer on your holiday shopping list who already has everything? We?ve got some ideas!

For the Gamer Who Has...
...All the Tony Hawk Games

Tony Hawk DVDs, or a Deck
In the Tony Hawk?s Trick Tips series of instructional videos, Tony and friends show you the basics of the sport and then some. If you pal already knows how to skate, they might like Tony Hawk?s Gigantic Skatepark Tour 2002 instead. And if you want to get your pal off the couch for good, you can get a complete high-quality, low-frills skateboard from CCS.com for about $70.

For the Gamer Who Has...
...Medal of Honor

Band of Brothers DVD
If nothing else, the recent wave of World War II games should give everyone a deeper appreciation of what that conflict was all about and how many people fought and died for the cause. No Hollywood production better or more completely illustrates the human side of the war better than the 10-hour HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers. Shipping on six DVDs, this collector?s set features the entire show (following its characters from boot camp to the end of the war) plus plenty of goodies like an 80-minute documentary and a making-of special. At $120 (less if you find it on sale), it?s a special gift, but it might be the one they thank you for the most.

For the Gamer Who Has...
...Halo

Sci-fi Novels
Halo?s action is great, but its story is just as engaging. If the war on the Covenant whetted your appetite for intergalactic intrigue, check out Ringworld by Larry Niven (which features similar, circular terrain). There?s also The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence and Expansion, the first and second jumping-off points for Peter F. Hamilton?s truly epic Night?s Dawn series; the books are full of fresh takes on tales of galactic conquest. If neither of those will do the trick, try Dan Simmons? Hyperion, also the start of a series, this time about a galaxy on the verge of Armageddon and the quests of seven people within it. This stuff?s all better read than explained, and each of these paperbacks will set you back only about $7.

For the Gamer Who Has...
...Grand Theft Auto

GTA: Vice City OriginalSoundtrack

Sure, you can buy your friends an automotive lockpick set as a joke, but face it: They?re stupid, and they?d use it. Do you want to visit them in jail? Of course not. The safer gift is the massive Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Soundtrack box set, which is rapidly becoming hard to find. You can track down the entire seven-disc collection on eBay for $40 or $50, or you can spring for the individual discs, organized by radio station (Wave 103, V-Rock, etc.), for $14 a pop. Each CD features the same 1980s-era music you hear in the game, plus extra chatter from the DJs that you won?t hear anywhere else.

For the Gamer Who Has...
...Final Fantasy

Fantasy Swords
While there is as of yet no official reproduction of Squall?s Gunblade, the fantasy sword market (catering to renaissance faire nerds, role-playing nerds, The Lord of the Rings nerds, and several other camps of nerds-um, all of whom work at GamePro) is actually a booming niche business. The fancier specimens at bladesbybrown.com can run you several hundred bucks, but people who actually use such stuff in combat shop at places like starfireswords.com, which will sell you excellent, hefty steel swords for as little as $100.

For the Gamer Who Has...
...Everything

Cash

Accepted at over a million retail outlets nationwide.
Gifts Under $10 | Gifts Under $20 | Gifts Under $30 | Gifts Under $50 | Gifts Under $100
Gifts Over $100 | The Gift of Broadband | Gifts for Gamers Who?ve Got Everything