Less that one week until Christmas morning, so I suggest you get moving on your shopping.  If my aunt is reading this, I mean people like you!  The days of shopping on December 24th are over; get to the store now!

That being said, here is part 2 of our Last Minute Shopping Guide to help you buy for the gamer(s) on your list. 

Last year, we published our gamer shopping guide, entitled "The Five Days of Gamer Xmas".  This year we dropped the fancy name in lieu of something a bit more practical.  We also added our two newest writers, FarmerDave and TheGirl to the mix.  Sorry, but SuperGuido is in the midst of making the long trip home for Christmas, so he'll be sitting this one out.

Regardless, with just eight shopping days left until Christmas, its time to get started with our five part, last minute shopping guide.

After the popularity of the drum kit pads we came up with, which have been dubbed "CigDangle's Quieter Drum Mod" in the Rock Band forums, we knew we needed to come up with something to quiet the thumping the bass pedal generates (also now in the forums CigDangle's Official Guide to Quieter Drums).  Not to mention, if I didn't come up with something quick, I could be facing eviction like some of my apartment-dwelling-Rock Band-playing brethren.

This one will not eliminate the noise or the vibration, but it will reduce it, and all for about a dollar.  It a very simple "mod" and you'll only need the following:

If you're like me and live in an apartment, you understand that playing the Rock Band drums can be difficult.  The noise made by beating the skins, requires one to turn up the volume of the game.  This can really be a problem if you have thin walls or its late at night.

I decided there must be a way to remedy the situation, and after much trial and error, my brother and I have come up with a solution. 

It never ceases to amaze me how disorganized Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all look when it comes to releasing games and content on their respective networks. None of them can manage to actually tell us what is going to be released until after it has been. It's like the people in the know don't actually know. So I did some hardcore research that included coercion, threats and good old-fashioned thumps on the back of the skull and disguises to find out what goes on when they select the content for the week.

I like some realism in my gaming experience but not at the cost of fun and visibility. From the looks of things Activision is seriously attempting to drown Guitar Hero III in piles and piles of logos this time around. They have created more strategic alliances than both World Wars combined and now stand to blot out the actual game.