Well help is at hand to get you through the silly season. Relatives boring your arse off? To pissed up on booze to see the screen straight? Or perhaps, you just fancy a bit of shooting/platforming action for the pitifully few days you'll get off work? We've got games to fix everything. Our first two games are definitely in the lifestyle section. For that read: games to play with a group of mates for a laugh, or with relatives to make Christmas go more quickly.

Buzz: The Mega Quiz and Buzz: The Schools Quiz
PS2

First up is Buzz. Buzz is great, but at Christmas it's genius. Why? Because it keeps people you can't be arsed to talk to busy. Boring auntie? Cousin you only see at Christmas that you have NOTHING in common with? No probs. Stick Buzz on and the time will whizz by. For those not in the know, Buzz is a quiz game for up to four players and you each get a special Buzz controller that plugs into your PS2 or PS3. These controllers are especially useful for technophobe eldery relatives, as sporting only a red buzzer and four coloured buttons even they will be able to use them.

Buzz: The Mega Quiz has the usual mix of questions, movies, music general knowledge, y'know - pointless stuff. Some of the on-screen gags are very amusing and the host himself, Buzz, is good for plenty of laughs and isn't annoying at all (which is akin to rocket science bearing in mind he's voiced by Jason Donovan).

There are a few new levels - the true or false round really didn't work for me - but it's the new final round that really won me over. Your points get turned into time, and you gain time if you're the fastest with the correct answer or lose a chunk if you get the question wrong. It's not only a great leveller at the end of the game, but makes for some tense finales.

If you are feeling unseasonaly mean this December 25th Buzz: The Schools Quiz is the perfect thing to scare the living crap out of any snotty 15 year-old you're forced to share a day with by making them realise just how badly they're going to do at their GCSEs in the new year. All the questions are taken from the national curriculam, you can pick by year and by subject. It's great if you've got kids that age and hopefully they won't get the sneaky feeling I had that someone was trying to teach me stuff and disgusing it as a game, for this reason, I really didn't enjoy it - but hey - it's not aimed at me is it?

Buzz is quality family entertainment.

The Mega Quiz: 8/10
The Schools Quiz 6/10

Singstar
PS3

For those of you who don't frequent Central London, there is a little place just below Yo! Sushi in Poland Street called Lucky Voice; Private Karaoke. These things are all over Asia, they call them KTV. You do Karaoke in your own soundproof room with videos playing on a screen in front of you, whilst getting drunk on booze that you can get delivered at the press of a button. It's fantastic. All the fun of Karaoke without any of the embarrasment of having to sing in front of people. In Asia it costs about a fiver for a couple of hours, unfortunately in London it costs around £90. Handy then, that you can recreate the KTV experience with Sony's Singstar for the PS3.

The orignal PS2 version worked well enough.you ask, so what's the dilly-o with the PS3? Well Sony have added a bunch of new shiny online features. The most important for me is Singstore. Rather than just make do with the songs that come with the game, you download more from the online store. )

Part of the joy of drunken Karaoke is being able to pick a track that, in your booze-ridden deluded mind, you think you're going to be able to sing REALLY well, here you can do that for only a pound sterling a go (or one and a half Euros if you're a Johnny foriegner)

For the PS3 owner that isn't connected to the internet, the 30 tracks that come bundled with the game include Primal Scream, Supergrass and The Zutons (hey, there version is a lot easier to sing convincingly than Ms Winehouse's version, so be thankful), for the wanabee indie kid, Pussycat Dolls and Ne-Yo for RnB type people, and Outkast, which will be particularly fun at Christmas if you have any middle-aged relatives who are open to embrrasing themselves beyond reproach.

Oh and one top tip, make sure that your 6-axis controller is plugged in before you start the game, or like me, you'll have to sit through the opening sequence of incredibly good looking people who can sing well posing whilst playing the game. You're never going to look as good (or good at all) playing this game and you won't sing as well as them either and whilst I bet they're miserable in real life, they're annoying here, so press x quickly.

Top drunken fun with mates, and if you can handle the humanity of watching relatives play this at Christmas, good for a laugh.

8/10