Again this year I was a contributor to the Globe & Mail’s technology gift guide.

• 12 cool cases and accessories
• 7 great gadgets for kids

This week’s Georgia Straight is the annual gift guide, and included in there are my suggestions for the video games you should be getting for the gamer on your list.

There’s been something of a bumper crop in the video-game industry this year, so you shouldn’t have difficulty finding the right title for the gamer in your life. In fact, we might as well consider this year’s gift guide a “best of the year” selection.

A bunch of other reviews have appeared in the past couple of weeks, too.

I look at Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 in the Globe & Mail.

The two latest Mario games – Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 – get compared in the Straight.

And in Fast Forward I review Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

My reviews of three big games published in the Straight last week: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Three of the biggest franchises in video games made their return this month, and gamers everywhere should be overjoyed. Each of these titles is something special.

Also last week, I compared Kinect Sports: Season Two and Motionsports Adrenaline.

And finally, a standalone review of Professor Layton and the Last Specter.

In last week’s Straight were my reviews of some key fall video games, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, Forza Motorsport 4, The Gunstringer, and Sideway: New York.

After you speak to the dragons, you can play with the monsters. Then slip behind the wheel of your favourite speedster, slap leather in a bid for retribution, and tag your way through the alleys as you look for an escape.