Before I start this I hope everybody had a fantastic Christmas, and has a great new year!

So, as you may, or may not know I work in retail, and we get a lot of people in over Christmas who have bags from shops like Game, HMV, that kind of thing, and this year with the release of the PS4 and Xbox One it was obvious that one of the two consoles was going to be on a lot of people’s lists, and this got me thinking, if you could have just one console with one game for Christmas what would it be?
The rules to this scenario are simple, one console, new or old, and one game from that console, BUT that game would have to last you until next Christmas, put simply, for the next 12 months you can only play one console, and one game.
Now, I’ve been mulling over this for a few days and for me there are a few contenders, but first of all, what are the most important things you should take into account when choosing the console and game?
I think without doubt the most important thing has to be the longevity of the game, it’s replayability, if you are going to play one game for 12 months it has to be something that can keep you interested.
Secondly should you go old or new? I think both have good sides whether it be the better technology of the new, or the pure simplicity of the old.
Finally, multiplayer, I think the game has to have some form of multiplayer, if’s rare that a game is going to keep you hooked for 12 months on single player alone, not in this day and age where online gaming is such a routine thing, this obviously lends an advantage to some of the more modern games, however the good old fashioned split screen shouldn’t been written off, to this day I still play split screen games, and they are as fun today as they ever were.
So my first contender is an obvious one, Call Of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360, put simply my favourite FPS of all time, now, I should say firstly that i suck at shooting games, especially online, I get humiliated by 12 year olds whenever I go on, so I always think its the sign of an excellent game that despite being crapped on throughout most of my COD 4 lifespan, I still really enjoyed it, I enjoyed it so much that I was determined to get better and better, which I did, only marginally, but better. Not only is the online fantastic, but the single player is nothing to be sniffed at either, though it may not be as fun as the online aspect, it still offers a great experience, and as I’d be playing the game for 12 months I’m sure there would come a point that I’d get a bit fed up of being killed by pre pubescent children and want to vent my frustrations towards the AI on single player. Like I said, COD 4 is an obvious one, but it’s obvious for a reason, because it’s so damn good! The only downside to this that I can see is the potential temperamental nature of the Xbox 360, don’t get me wrong, it’s probably my favourite console to date, you would have access to Netflix, Sky, and all the other major TV catchup services, but, if it broke, you’d be stuffed.

Contender number two, Rainbow Six 3 for the original Xbox, now this was a great game, the single player was fantastic, the online was to me incredible, particularly as it was one of my first experiences of gaming online, and the original Xbox was such a solid console too, you knew it wasn’t going to break down on you, it was big, it was heavy but that doesn’t matter, it was brilliant, and Rainbow Six 3 is, in my opinion a real testament too how far ahead of its time it was. One of my fondest memories of this game is being blown away by the fact that you could tell your men where to go using the headset, something you don’t see in so e games today, never mind nearly a decade ago. Similarly to COD the online was well balanced, there is a lot of game mode choice, and enough to keep you busy for a very long time. I actually think Infinity Ward to took a lot of inspiration for Call Of Duty from the early Rainbow Six game, the online was so well balanced, the maps were fantastic, but whether it stacks up to COD 4 I don’t know.

Third on my list is Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2, now this may not be many people’s favourite Final Fantasy, and the fact that it has no multiplayer elements to it contradicts what i said at the start, many of you may be wondering why it’s even a viable option at all, but to me, this is the absolute pinnacle of all RPGs, I don’t think to this day we have had anything that has come close, the one thing I can say to defend it for this scenario is that it’s a big game, it takes a lot of time to finish, and the story is fantastic, I used to love most the Final Fantasy games when I was younger, but I do think they’ve not been anywhere near as good as the earlier titles over the last few years, and I think this one was the high point, I could play it over and over again, i love the look of the game, I think the level design, although linear at times is great, and I could happily play this game for a long, long time.
My last choice is going to have to be a FIFA game of some description, I love football and I think almost any FIFA could keep my attention for a whole year, I’m going to choose last years instalment, FIFA 13, and on the Xbox 360, most FIFAs are pretty similar at the core, and I’d usually just choose the latest instalment, but I don’t think FIFA 14 is as well balanced as its predecessor, yes it had a couple of flaws, but nothing like what you see on the newer version. You have a host of game modes to choose from, Ultimate Team, Career mode, and Clubs being my personal favourites, but this choice is a very individual one, because to play it for so long, as I tend to do, you have to love football, so I understand that this choice may not appeal to everyone.
So with those options put on the table which would you choose? Or would you go for something completely different? This has been really interesting me over the last few days so it’d be great to hear what you think!
Have a fantastic new year, it promises to be a great one for us gamers, and who knows, maybe next year there may just be a game that I’d add to my list!