So, Christmas is just round the corner and the retail market is gearing up for a massive sale of video games. There are titles being pushed out across the board for the consumer to spend their hard-earned money on, publishers all want you to buy their latest game from Gears of War 2 to Rock Band 2 and Prince of Persia. With the price of these titles, consoles and so forth across a wide array of products it can rapidly turn into a consumer based nightmare for the parent who has a video game obsessed child. They can either lock them in a room with a colouring book and some crayons or give in and buy a console from one of the many manufacturers.

This article isn't about any of that though; it's about Games Xtreme's 12 days of Xbox 360 Christmas. Microsoft and the Xbox 360 have been pretty good to us (thanks to all the publishers that do send us stuff) and many of our reviews have been on the 360, you might wonder why this is. Well, gentle reader, this is because we've received no games for review from Sony. We've got one or two from the third party publishers (thanks guys) and it's not that we hate Sony's console (far from it) but here at Games Xtreme we do this as gamers and that means we review games we're sent.

So in a kind of thanks for the support, I'm going to be taking a look at the 12 top Xbox 360 games of this Holiday Season as far as we're concerned. You might have a different bunch of games on your Christmas list, that's great, but these are the ones that we consider to be the top picks for Christmas 2008.

For the First day of Christmas my true love's game to me was: A prince and his new best buddy.

You can't go far wrong with the new Prince of Persia, if you have checked out our review you'll see why. The antics of the famous Persian hero have delighted us since its inception way back in 1989. Then came the superlative Sands of Time trilogy and we were wow'ed once more back into the mythical Persian tale. Ubisoft have gone one step further in defining free-running cinematic action with the newest prince and delivered a great stocking-filler packed with platform-jumping goodness, crisp characters and beautiful visuals. It's also great for newer gamers who might be intimidated by failing a jump or two, since there's no actual death in the game you're challenged by fiendish platforms and several puzzles instead. Elika, your sidekick is a good step forwards in that kind of AI, not quite as developed as Fable 2's dog, she is a helper character that will suit novice gamers.

For the Second day of Christmas my true love's game to me was: A cute, loveable game AI doggy.

Lionhead studios, who were once responsible (as Bullfrog Productions) for giving us games like Syndicate brought new life to the fantasy rpg, with Fable. Now for this Christmas it's time to return to Albion and cut a swathe across the land once again with a bigger, better game. Fable 2 takes place 500 years after the first game and is a bigger jaunt into the fantasy hack-slash rpg. It has a lot of choice under the hood and you can customize your character how you see fit. The biggest innovation of course is the dog, PM wouldn't shut up about the dog and after playing the game to completion - I can see why. You can hate the dog if you want, but we actually quite like the little bugger, it's a pretty slick simulation of an animal. Fable 2 is a perfect Christmas game for a household that has a few cooperative players in it, since you can play alongside a friend by importing your character as a henchman on the same screen. It also has a control system that's easy to learn for novice players and will appeal to the fantasy gamer mostly.

For the Third day of Christmas my true love's game to me was: a world on the brink of insanity.

I couldn't go far into our Christmas list of games and not mention: Fallout 3. Yes, Bethesda might have to fix a few gnarling bugs and it might not be a 2d isometric rpg-fest that Fallout 1 and 2 are, but, it's a fine game to have in your Christmas stocking. Fallout 3 does a great job of making an atmospheric post-apocalyptic world come to life, rich in detail and challenges. Fallout 3 has a real-time fps/3rd person shooter mechanic and a turn-based VATS system that allows people who might not be comfortable with shooters to play the game in a different way. The main story might be short but the world is a huge one with 100's of hours of play if you explore every nook and cranny. The moral choices aren't as black and white as Fable 2 and you can easily find yourself playing an anti-hero in the game even though you're striving to be a good guy. Custom character creation and an expansive skill list round off the perfect shooter-rpg package for this Christmas.

For the Fourth day of Christmas my true love's game to me was: A frag-fest in an underground city.

Epic games and Cliff Blezinski are capable of making gold out of lead, they did it with Gears of War and they have managed to deliver a pulse-pounding emotional-rollercoaster of a ride with Gears of War 2. Bigger and nastier than the first game, Marcus and Dom are back with vengeance and it's an all-out war against the Locust Horde with everything to play for. Gears of War 2 manages to push the Unreal Warfare (3) engine to new heights (and depths) with some solid visuals and great action, the frame-rate is solid throughout and the single player campaign is bigger and better than Gears. Gears 2 shines in terms of multiplayer and is the perfect Christmas game for a household of on and offline fraggers. You can play with some smart bots to round out missing team members or hook up with your friends and blast some meat-bags in a bunch of brand new game-types and variants on old favourites. Playing meatflag is an awesome spin on capture the flag and adding to that Horde mode, where you hold off increasingly difficult waves of Locust, it's hard to not recommend this as a top Christmas game for Santa to deliver.

For the Fifth day of Christmas my true love's game to me was: In space where no one can hear you scream!

Dead Space isn't really a scary game, it's a jumpy game. It tries to shock more than disturb and does a good job at providing thrills, spills and a DOOM-esque setting onboard the infested mining-ship that's in orbit around a strange planet. EA managed to succeed in providing a solid control system and a genuinely new IP that appealed to many System Shock fans waiting for a sequel. Graphically it's superb and the game deserves to be in someone's Christmas stocking. It's not one for the kids so it's clearly an adult's game, if you buy it for a kid and let that kid play it - on your own head be it, don't complain to us or EA that little Jimmy is running around the house scared of shadows and the family pet, Snoobles. Dead Space also has an excellent portrayal of zero-g and the best space vacuum effects that have been seen in a game to date. The old adage of 'In space no one can hear you scream' is extremely true in Dead Space and it's one of the highlights of the game. It comes highly recommended by us and is a great horror game for the sci-fi horror fan.

For the Sixth day of Christmas my true love's game to me was: A roof-run across a dystopian style-city.

You can love or hate this game, personally we loved it. Mirror's Edge is a bright-clean stark nightmare of a world in the grip of a totalitarian regime. It's George Orwell's wettest dream come true. Information is strictly controlled and every aspect of the citizen's life is monitored by computer and CCTV. There are those who live on the fringes of the society, known as Runners, they're hired to courier information from one place to another using free-running skills and acrobatic prowess. Mirror's Edge is like Assassin's Creed but from a first person perspective, one that has full body immersion. There are some quirky control issues and it's not a game for people who have vertigo or get motion sickness. It's perfect for the player that was fond of Assassin's Creed and loved Prince of Persia, it is a short game however and there are time trials to beat and hidden collectibles to find. You should get this one just because it's an experience and the ride is pretty hectic.