Gaming gift guide: The best Christmas gifts for gamers that aren’t video games

Looking for the champion Christmas gifts for the gamer successful your life? It tin beryllium hard to cognize what to bargain your gamer friends if you’re not a gamer yourself; with services similar Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, the chances that they’ve played the crippled you privation to get them are apt precocious – and arsenic we determination into a post-ownership satellite of gaming, you’ll find that a batch of players aren’t that fussed astir really owning carnal copies of games immoderate more.

So if you’re uncovering it hard to navigate the seemingly endless oversea of consoles, games, collectibles, accessories and – let’s beryllium honorable – jargon that’s retired determination successful the gaming world, fto VG247 beryllium your guide. It’s a pugnacious satellite retired there, but hopefully connected this page, you volition spot thing that volition entreaty to the gamer successful your life; whether they’re sat successful the mediate of the funky lightshow that is their RGB PC, oregon glued to the TV connected their Xbox, you’re definite to find thing that volition entreaty successful this broad guide.

Read connected to spot VG247’s database of indispensable gifts for non-gamers for Christmas 2022.

An Xbox Series S makes a slayer contiguous if idiosyncratic you emotion does not person 1 yet.

Assassin’s Creed Whiskey

Nothing is true, and everything is fermented.

In my idiosyncratic experience, gamers similar to drink. Make of that what you will, but it’s undeniable that unleashing immoderate Assassin’s Creed whiskey onto the market, then, was the close call.

I’ve tried immoderate of this, and spot me; it’s truly really rather nice. There are notes of rye, spice, honey, and saccharine flavours cutting done the full thing, and it’s a pleasant capable portion that you tin person it straight/on the rocks and not marque the ‘disgusted otter’ look that you sometimes reflexively propulsion erstwhile you’re downing inexpensive liquor. Yes, this is simply a spot pricey – but the vessel is nice, and it’s a large summation to the postulation of anyone into Assassin’s Creed.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 15th Anniversary Straight Bourbon Whisky volition tally you $69 for a 750 ml bottle, and is disposable online and through Tennessee Legend’s stores.

Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip for PC

Trust me, successful enactment it's unbelievable.

For a batch of gamers, immersion is the achromatic whale that they’ll beryllium chasing everlastingly successful arsenic they sit, hunched implicit their PC setup, delving heavy into their settings. But for each the tinkering you bash with graphics settings, show optimisation, and keybinding, there’s lone ever going to beryllium 1 constituent of your mounting that tin alteration a batch with precise small effort: lighting.

To enactment it simply, the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip is simply a multicolored airy for your show that sets the mood, and syncs to on-screen enactment to amended gully you into immoderate crippled satellite you’re enjoying astatine the moment. With settings dedicated to Games, Music, and Video, you tin usage lights to upgrade the acquisition of beauteous overmuch thing you’re doing connected your desktop.

I person the PC Lightstrip, and (the much expensive) Play Sync box, excessively – I usage this for immersive airy connected my console games via the ‘big TV’ successful the surviving room. Ambient lighting is simply a truly underrated mode to amended your gaming setup, and determination truly is nary worthwhile alternate connected the marketplace compared to Philips – I person Philips bulb successful each room, now, and I find it truly helps get maine (and support me) successful the temper for gaming. Of each the worldly connected this page, I urge this the most; I’ve adjacent fixed Lightstrips arsenic gifts to friends successful the past.

You tin prime up a Philips Lightstrip from PC for £130 on the Philips website.

Gaming LEGO & The Mighty Bowser

Blocking your progress.

The LEGO Group has undergone thing of a translation successful caller years, the institution having identified adults tin bask the amusive and originative benefits of their toys conscionable arsenic overmuch arsenic children. That's resulted successful a batch of changes including slick caller 'for adults' boxes for larger and much analyzable sets... and a full batch much video crippled tie-ins.

We're not talking astir LEGO Super Mario here, either – though those interactive kids' sets are cool. Alongside that, LEGO has released a scope of gaming sets aimed astatine prickling the nostalgia of adults including a replica NES and Atari 2600, a elephantine Mario bid Question Mark block with an intricate diorama hidden inside, and adjacent a Horizon Zero Dawn Tallneck. There's besides a Sonic acceptable that's brilliant, customizable, and conscionable arsenic accessible for kids arsenic it is nostalgia-hungry adults.

There's a caller King successful town, however. Newly released is 'The Mighty Bowser', an perfectly tremendous 2807-piece acceptable that's a exemplary of the Mushroom Kingdom's Koopa nemesis - recreated with startling clarity retired of thousands of small bricks.

It's an highly cool-looking set, and adjacent has immoderate large play features - helium spits (plastic) fire, and has airy interactive compatibility with the digitial LEGO Mario figure! Though, with the size and complexity of the set, he's evidently designed for the large kids, alternatively than the existent kids - and that's fine.

Honestly, immoderate of the LEGO and video crippled crossovers are a worthy outcry for a gamers' vacation gift, but having built each of them - yep, I'm that feline - The Mighty Bowser is decidedly 1 of the astir striking and notable of the bunch.

ROCCAT VULCAN II Max Keyboard

If you’re speechmaking this guide, the likelihood is precocious that you don’t truly cognize wherefore customized keycaps are good, oregon wherefore mechanical keyboards are preferred for gamers. And that’s fine! You don’t request to cognize that sort-of thing; conscionable judge it’s existent and determination on. If you cognize idiosyncratic that values ocular aeshtetics and show combined, you cannot bash amended than the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max.

This over-the-top (but decidedly impressive) keyboard combines flash RGB lighting, a translucent wrist rest, and 24 dual-LED astute keys with programmable secondary functions. If that means thing to you, deliberation of it successful these terms: it looks good, it feels good, and it tin beryllium customised to your heart’s desire. Yes, astatine astir £200, it’s pricey – but the currency you pump into this keyboard is future-proof: this is durable, solid, well-made, and volition suit beauteous overmuch immoderate PC gaming setup connected the market, too.

For immoderate people, aesthetic and representation is much important than currency outlay. And to that end, Roccat's quite-expensive Vulcan II Max keyboard delivers an RGB airy amusement similar nary different – and beyond the Vegas-like lights and shine, there’s a full suite of functionality and powerfulness there, too. Just beryllium alert it’s a wired-only thing.

…or the ROCCAT VULCAN II Mini

Alternatively, possibly times are a small tighter and your target’s table size a small smaller. No worries, the folks astatine ROCCAT person you covered there, too. The ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini volition acceptable you backmost little – £130-ish astatine RRP – but the aforesaid physique prime is there, it’s lightweight and compact, and it’s conscionable arsenic customisable arsenic its (much) bigger brother.

Better yet, this crunched-down powerhouse of a instrumentality is simply a cleanable acquisition for typists oregon media types, too; this is the keyboard I person been utilizing to constitute features and articles connected this website for implicit the past fewer months, and I genuinely deliberation it’s improved my productivity. And, acknowledgment to the information that each 1 of its 67 keys uses a super-fast optical switch, it’s a beauteous small thing, too. Awh.

There are 2 ROCCAT items successful this list, yes. But from each the keyboard hardware I’ve utilized implicit my 10+ years arsenic a nonrecreational successful this industry, I can’t assistance but deliberation they’re the best. You wage implicit the likelihood for the items connected offer, but the prime and longevity of them is undeniable. Your mileage whitethorn vary, of course, but for my wealth these are the astir stylish and functional keyboards around.

Thrustmaster T128 Racing Wheel

The Thrustmaster T128 is simply a cracking small sim instrumentality that’s a small spot cheaper than its entry-level rivals, but crucially, is highly compact and ace casual to clamp onto (and much crucially: unclamp from) your desk.

This means, successful stark opposition to beauteous overmuch each different sim instrumentality retired determination with unit feedback, 900-degree rotation, flappy-paddle cogwheel shifting and an included pedal set, it’s casual to conscionable store successful a cupboard erstwhile you request your enactment aboveground back, and re-rig it erstwhile you get that bi-annual compulsion to descend a fewer hours into Euro Truck Simulator 2.

It’s by nary means the champion sim instrumentality connected the market, but it is simply a monolithic upgrade connected trying to play driving games with a controller, and it’s precise nicely designed to not person to instrumentality up a imperishable abstraction successful your life. The cleanable christmastide acquisition for a loved 1 who rather likes the thought of owning a sim instrumentality but has nary tendency to give immoderate level abstraction to a due racing seat. A sim instrumentality for the remainder of us. A whim wheel, if you will.

Read our afloat review if being the arrogant proprietor of a nippy compact takes your fancy.

Boss Fight Books

If you similar speechmaking websites astir video games, you're going to perfectly crap yourself erstwhile you perceive astir different spot you tin work astir them: successful books! On paper! Or connected an e-reader, I suppose, which is rather akin to speechmaking connected a website. But, books! They're lovely.

Who doesn't emotion a publication astatine Christmas? There's a batch of gaming books retired there, from classics similar Masters of DOOM to immoderate fantabulous much caller releases similar Console Wars, which uses an intricate bid of interviews to archer the communicative of the brutal Sega-vs-Nintendo slugfest of the nineties. That second 1 was adjacent optioned for a Hollywood movie – but arsenic good arsenic each of these much publicised releases, there's 1 statement doing softly fantabulous work.

Enter Boss Fight Books. This is simply a unsocial steadfast wherever scope publication is based astir a circumstantial crippled – sometimes charting their creation, sometimes analysing their contents, and sometimes conscionable talking astir however awesome and culturally important they are. Usually, immoderate fixed publication is really a substance of each three.

Some of the top names successful games media and respective from extracurricular it person worked connected immoderate of the twenty-eight books successful the bid truthful acold – and they're earnestly excellent. An perfect stocking filler.

Titan EVO 2022 Series gaming chair

Yes, I cognize what you’re thinking: “a chair, really?” But our ain Kelsey Raynor reckons it damn adjacent fixed her inability to beryllium usually – and that’s nary mean feat!

The Titan EVO 2022 Series blends unneurotic the champion components of Secretlab’s Titan and Omega chairs, resulting successful thing that feels similar the champion of some worlds. There’s nary uncertainty successful your caput erstwhile you’re taking the seat retired of the container that you’ve got thing of high-quality, with the odor of Premium Neo Hybrid Leatherette worldly permeating your nostrils.

Says Kelsey successful our reappraisal of the Secretlab Titan EVO 2022 Series gaming chair: “For context, I’m 23 with a backmost that’s possibly 20 years older than me; I’m perpetually twisting and cracking, and my backmost hurts much often than not. It’s decidedly my ain responsibility (see: sitting similar a gargoyle), but the Secretlab Titan EVO 2022 Series has somewhat got my posture successful check. I don’t deliberation my refusal to beryllium decently volition ever beryllium fixed, but the firmness of the 2022 Series has surely got maine sitting straighter than ever before."