This year differs from the past couple in that there aren’t any big gaming systems being released just before the holiday buying season. Instead, gamers’ lists are filled with the games they want to play. Here are a few of the choicest titles.

Prices for most home console games are between $50 and $90, while games for the portable units are between $20 and $40. Remember to pay attention to the ESRB rating, which gives you the appropriate age range for the game in question.

Thanks to next-gen gaming and always-online connectivity, there are a host of games that you can download directly to your game console. Everyday Shooter (Sony; PC, PS3; everyone), created by Toronto indie-developer Jonathan Mak, is a beautiful and compelling shooter game. Think of Asteroids on LSD and with a kicking guitar soundtrack.

The battle of the bands takes on new meaning with the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Activision; PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360; teen) and Rock Band (EA; PS2, PS3, Xbox 360; teen). Guitar Hero is the fourth game that lets you be, well, a guitar hero. The latest edition of the game includes a wealth of music to play from a diverse list of artists such as the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, the Sex Pistols and The Killers. Rock Band ups the ante for the music game genre by allowing players to take up the guitar, bass guitar, drums or vocals. You can create an entire band with your friends and embark on a virtual world tour covering songs by the likes of the Pixies, the Police, Black Sabbath and Bowie.

The funny lombax and his robot sidekick are back in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Sony; PS3; everyone 10+). It’s a freewheeling platformer in which you navigate through various alien worlds and make use of wild and crazy weapons, such as the shock ravager (an electric whip) and the negotiator (a rocket launcher).

Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo; Wii; everyone) sends the lovable plumber into space. His mission hasn’t changed; he’s still trying to rescue the buxom Princess Peach from the dastardly Bowser. Only this time, Mario will be visiting galaxies to collect the power stars he needs to operate his ship. The environments are playful with such physical principles as gravity, which lends a topsy-turvy feel to the game.

Skate (EA; PS3, Xbox 360; teen) is a reinvention of skateboarding video games that comes from a group of Vancouver video game developers who decided that the best control scheme for a skateboarding game was to use the two thumbsticks — the left controls your virtual skater’s body, the right controls your feet on the board.

Sega Rally Revo (Sega; PC, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360; everyone) lets you get behind the wheels of rally cars, tearing up various tracks like mountain passes, jungle valleys and beachfront property. It’s a forgiving kind of racing game, too, which means more fun, fewer restarts.

The games in EA Playground (EA; Wii; everyone) are fun variations on the ones that kids play after school. These excellent and expressive characters get into all sorts of fun. From tetherball to kicks (a riff on soccer) to paper racers (think paper airplanes), EA Playground is a playful game for the entire family to enjoy.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Sony; PS3; teen) puts you in the role of Nathan Drake, descendent of English explorer Sir Francis Drake. You’ll battle past pirates and treasure hunters as you search for El Dorado, the legendary South American city of gold. This game boasts both platforming and shoot-’em-up sequences with an admittedly macho sensibility.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure (Capcom; Wii; everyone) makes clever use of the Wii remote as you help Zack find all of the body parts of the pirate Barbaros. It’s a game that is more about problem solving than fighting enemies and is wonderfully engaging.

In addition to the excellent science fiction games BioShock, Halo 3 and Mass Effect is The Orange Box (Valve; PS3, Xbox 360; teen and mature), which is actually five games in one. It includes the three games that — so far — make up Half-Life 2, and in which you are Gordan Freeman, fighting the oppression of an extradimensional alien race that has taken over Earth and imprisoned and enslaved humanity. Also on the disc are Team Fortress 2 and Portal, which may be the best of them all.

BlackSite: Area 51 (Midway; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; teen) is set in and around the town of Rachel, Nevada and the nearby top-secret military base that conspiracy theorists insist has evidence of alien life forms. In this story, the aliens have broken loose, and you have to contain them.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; mature) sees the popular first-person shooter leaving the Second World War behind in favour of a contemporary setting, storyline and weaponry. What hasn’t changed is the rush that you’ll feel while in the midst of all-out warfare.

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War (Koei; PS3, Xbox 360; teen) puts players on the battlefield upon which the English and the French once fought over France. It’s a medieval setting, and you take on the role of a mercenary, fighting for either side, often alternating between the two.

In Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; mature) you are cleaning up the streets of the Holy Land during the Third Crusade. As an assassin, your master sends you on assignments to Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre, and you have complete freedom to explore these ancient cities re-created in this virtual environment.

Stranglehold (Midway; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; mature) gives you the chance to take on the persona of Inspector Tequila, the hard-boiled Hong Kong cop created by John Woo and embodied by Chow Yun-Fat. You’ll never need to reload your guns in this game, and in true Tequila fashion, you’ll move into slow-motion when a target is in your sights.

Blaine Kyllo is a writer and pop culture critic specializing in video games and technology. He is a freelance writer and a CBC Radio contributor.