2020 Christmas Buying Guide Gadget Review

It's that time of the year when we all get together and find out what cool toys, gadgets, and novelty socks we all got from our friends and family. Sure, this year may not see many of us have big family gatherings, but we can still share gifts with friends and family. With two kids of my own and a pretty large family overall, I know the pitfalls of gift shopping as well as anyone. This last month, I gathered a bunch of gadgets and gifts together that I've been toying around with every day to find a range of fun stuff that would make a great gift for any tech enthusiast. Amazingly, I'm avoiding the obvious in this one. No keyboards and mice, and certainly no graphics cards. But we've still got some gaming stuff, don't you worry! Furthermore, I've also aimed to keep most of the items reasonably affordable too. Bethesda Gifts Doom Eternal on Nintendo Switch! It always seemed to me that Nintendo meant child friendly, but clearly, that's not always true. Now you can raze hell on the go, or from the comfort of your bed with Doom Eternal on Switch. What amazed me is how well the game translates to the less powerful console. Honestly, it's a remarkable port of such a visually stunning game. It works well though, and it's great to really get stuck into a single-player focused shooter again. At least... what little I've had to play on it, what with the kids stealing their Switch back every five minutes. Alas, Doom Eternal is going to put a big grin on big kids and adult gamers alike this Christmas. Elder Scrolls Cookbook What's the matter? Someone steal your Sweetroll? Then go bake some more! With the Elder Scrolls Cookbook you can cook all kinds of Tamriel themed goods, create unique drinks and even some alcoholic delights too. It's a well presented book, fully illustrated, full colour and honestly, it's just a lovely table-top book to have. It's pretty fun, although does need some ingredients that may not be in your cupboard, but we found them easily enough on Amazon (culinary lavender for example). We... ok, my partner, has been baking a few of the things from the book and so far, they've been fantastic! Especially the lavender bread! Honey and Lavender bread Salt Rice Porridge Honey Nut Treats. Where to Buy For Doom Eternal, it's available on the eShop, currently sitting at £49.99. The Elder Scrolls Cook Book is available from Amazon, although stock and prices vary at multiple sellers right now, it should be around £15-20. MY ARCADE Micro Player Space Invaders The year is 1978, and Taito just unleashed this masterpiece on the world, Space Invaders. It's one of the most culturally significant games ever released. Will they still be talking about the games of today in 40+ years? With full-size arcade machines still costing a small fortune, why not go miniature? With this desktop version of the arcade classic, it's the perfect distraction between those Zoom meetings or online classes. That being said, I've been sitting on the couch with it for the last few nights. The kids have been playing on the mini version too, which really amazes me since we've got a full-size version I built earlier in the year 6ft away from where they're sitting! It's a to-life replica of the original. With the right dimensions, the right sound, and more. The coin control panel is the power switch. There's a little coin button next to that though. You get a headphone jack and volume control. It runs from 3 X AA batteries (not included) or any standard USB cable. You get an LED backlit marquee. You even get a reflected display, just like the original! There's a classic looking set of controls too, with a stick for left/right and a single fire button. It looks fantastic! Where to Buy The MY ARCADE Micro Player Space Invaders is available on Amazon for £56.95. However, they've got a range of other games available that are much cheaper too! Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S There’s no doubt that the new Xbox has some seriously advanced storage, rivalling the best that the PC market has to offer from the latest PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe drives. It’s all part of what Microsoft call the Xbox Velocity Architecture for “providing faster load times, richer environments, and more immersive gameplay.” In the past, secondary storage would be done via a USB drive of your own. However, this Seagate drive is 100% the same SSD that the console has built-in. That means it’ll support all the same fast loading times and quick resume features that the main console would. Features Xbox Velocity Architecture – Plugs in and works seamlessly with the Xbox Velocity Architecture – providing faster load times, richer environments, and more immersive gameplay from both the internal SSD and the storage expansion card.No Wasted Seconds – Quick Resume enables players to seamlessly switch between multiple titles and resumes instantly from where you last left off – always the same speed from the expansion card and the internal SSD.Level Up Your Legacy – Syncing with the ultra-powerful Xbox Velocity Architecture’s ground-breaking hardware, CPU, and deep software integration, every game that plays from the Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S plays at peak levels. That includes improving the overall performance of thousands of Original Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games. Check out my full review here. Where to Buy The Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S 1TB Solid State Drive - NVMe Expansion SSD for Xbox Series X|S is currently £219.99 on Amazon. Creative SoundBlasterX G6 Desktop Amplifier For those who love their movies, music and games, the Creative SoundBlasterX G6 Desktop Amplifier is a mighty tool. It's perfect for those who wear their headphones, as it'll provide powerful and clean amplification, as well as class-leading processing, hi-res audio support, surround sound and much more. Check out my full review here. Where to Buy The Sound BlasterX G6 7.1 HD Gaming DAC and External USB Sound Card with Xamp Headphone Amplifier for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC is available at Amazon for £129.99. However, some seasonal sales have it under £90, so keep an eye out for the deals. ASUS AI NC MIC I love a gadget that just gets the job done cleanly and simply, and the ASUS AI NC MIC is one of those things. It's a short cable with a USB-C header on one end and a 3.5mm female port on the other. Should you not have a USB-C port on your device, there's a handy USB-C to USB-A adapter included. It'll work on PC, Mac, Switch, Mobile, and PlayStation 5. Simply plug it in, plug in your desktop microphone or headset microphone cable and you're good to go. It may seem simple, but if you work from home (as many now do) or game a lot (as many always do) it's a great tool. It basically adds advanced ANC to any microphone! AI Noise‑Cancelling technology enhances headset microphones by eliminating background noise for crystal-clear online voice communication.USB-C and USB 2.0 connectors provide broad compatibility with mobile phones, PCs, Macs and Nintendo Switch.Exclusive ASUS Hyper-Grounding technology prevents electromagnetic interference and delivers pure audio, free of EMI noise.Lightweight and compact design is highly portable and easily storable in a pocket or bag. Where to Buy The ASUS AI NC MIC is available on Amazon for just £39.99. HyperX ChargePlay Clutch & Qi Battery life, it's one of the main concerns we all have with our mobile gadgets. Nintendo may have increased the battery life on the newer model Switch, but what if you're on a much longer journey and don't want to compromise on your marathon gaming session? You get the ChargePlay Clutch of course! If comes with a two part grip and a dock. They're all fully modular, and that's what makes it so interesting. This is the battery pack, which plugs into the bottom of the switch much like the main console dock. It contains a 6000mAh power bank, so you'll get a good 4-6 hours extra life on the go, depending on what you're playing. It has a power button, level checker and charging port on the rear too. Furthermore, it can be turned into a kickstand that's much more durable and stable than the Switch's built in one. If you're on a flight, this is going to stay upright in turbulence. You can add the grips on the end too, which does make the unit a bit larger, but it's actually quite comfortable too. The weight is increased, but honestly, it's not like the Switch was heavy to begin with. If I'm sat on a plane or train with this, it won't bother me. We're in lockdown though, so all I can honestly confirm is I can keep my ass on the couch for longer... no complaints there. What's neat is the controller grips can clip together to convert the Joy-Cons into a more fully-fledged controller. It's really comfortable and again, you still get to leave the Switch in the battery dock. Also, since I'm picking my phone up every couple of minutes, I never seem to have time to charge the damn thing. With this USB-C powered Qi charger, I can drop my phone on it, and it'll charge wirelessly. Of course, you need a compatible phone, but most decent phones have Qi these days. Even handier on your desk if you have a Qi charging headset, mouse, controller, etc. Where to Buy The HyperX ChargePlay Clutch is available now from Amazon for just £54.99, which the Bionik Chat Mixer Another gaming and audio gadget this time, but much like the ASUS AI MIC this augments your existing headsets with new features. Simply add this into the chain between your device and your headset cable and you can add a Bluetooth device to the mix! It's pretty simply, just a small controller and a USB charging cable. The battery life is huge anyway, as it's only a Bluetooth dongle really, so doesn't use much power. There a master control button on the front. Bluetooth audio volume on the right. Game audio volume on the left. And the headphone jack here. So what's it really for? Simple, just connect something like a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Controller or whatever you normally attach your headphones to into the Chat Mixer. Then you can take your Alexa, Mobile, or any other Bluetooth device and pair with it. You can then take calls, listen to music, use Discord and more with your headset. It's a really cool feature and a cheap way to add a premium headset feature to virtually any gaming headset. Where to Buy It's available directly from Bionic for just $24.99. UK stock is expected very soon, but at the time of writing, I couldn't find it. I'll keep checking, between Covid and Blackfriday, there's bound to be stock issues. You can check Amazon here though. Frontier Developments Switch Games I ended up testing a few gadgets here that required me to use the Nintendo Switch. Oh, woe is me, what a hard life. Fortunately, a friendly voice from Frontier Developments stepped up and offered a few games for me to test. I grew up playing RollerCoaster Tycoon on many of my first PCs. So to get a refreshed and rebuilt version specially made for the Switch, oh hell yes! It's a great time hole. Tired of theme parks? No!? Good! Jurassic World Evolution gives you all the thrills of a theme park but instead of having to kill them with dangerous coasters, you can watch the attractions escape and eat them. Ahhh what a relaxing weekend it has been. Struggling I had never heard of until recently, but the words "Physics-Based Platformer" will always get my attention. Plus, I need something less demanding than Getting Over It to play... damn that game. This co-op adventure is full of horrible things for you to overcome, and the one-arm-each co-op is utterly nuts! Where to Buy All are on the eShop, with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Deluxe Edition costing just £19.99! Struggling is just £11.99 and Jurassic World Evolution: Complete Edition is £49.99. Cable Guys Exquisite Gaming, not a name I'd heard of before actually, but I certainly HAVE heard of their range of Cable Guys. You've likely seen them in the wild before and thought "I really need to buy that!" well, now is your chance. They're basically just desktop stands for your mobile phone or game controller. Of course... that's selling them short. They're all fully licenced merch covering everything from Star Wars to Street Fighter. As you can see, I've got Clap Trap from Borderlands. And wow, these things are surprisingly huge too. Each comes with a micro-USB cable, but that's simply to charge your controller, the cable doesn't plug into the stand. As per the description though, they certainly do hold the controller. I know they're a simple thing, but let's be honest here, you love it too! The colours of them and the range of options you have is truly fantastic. Because these aren't some import knock-off moulds, they're really authentic looking and there's great attention to detail. Front and back! Master Chief looks sharper than ever There's absolutely loads of these to choose from and I fear I may end up collection quite a lot of them in the future, ha! Where to Buy You can order from a huge selection of Cable Guys on the EGX website. However, they're available from most major gaming stores, Amazon, and much more beyond. Prices range from around £15 for a Fallout Vault Boy up to £30+ for some of the larger Marvel models.