Quick gift guide: video games

With three popular consoles to choose from, as well as multiple portable and PC options, there are a lot of different games available for holiday shoppers. This holiday season has created an onslaught of games – nearly 50 games were released in one week in November – so how do you choose what’s best for the gamer in your family? Here are some game highlights for various age groups:

“E for everyone”

“LittleBigPlanet” for the PlayStation 3. Suggested retail price: $59.99.

“LittleBigPlanet” from Sony is one of the most buzzed-about games this holiday season. Gamers take control of Sackboy (or Sackgirl), an 8-cm-tall character resembling a stitched-up burlap sack, and explore and develop their environment.

Characters collect items by exploring, solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles in the 3-D landscape, and then use their imaginations to piece them together to build new objects or even entire levels in the game. Custom-made characters, vehicles and tools can be shared with friends.

“E10+ for everyone over 10″

“Shaun White Snowboarding” for the Wii. Suggested retail price: $49.99.

“Shaun White Snowboarding” takes advantage of the Wii Balance Board for an entirely new way to play snowboarding games. Shifting weight on the balance board steers and moves the snowboard in the game. It can also be played with the Wii remote. There’s no online multiplayer, but there is split-screen multiplayer.

“T for Teen”

Mirror’s Edge, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Suggested retail price: $59.99.