Games to train a non-gamer with?

[Zillar]

So, I'm friends with a couple. The guy loves video games and the girl doesn't, but she wants to get good at them. She's asking me to help her out so that she'll (eventually) be able to kick her boyfriend's ass.

I'd like to know what you all think would be some good games to get her started. I was thinking about starting with the first Halo and going through the Pillar of Autumn level, due to the fact that the tutorial is pretty basic and Halo is such an iconic game. That one "training" special ops mission in MW2 would be good as well, but those are pretty much all I can think of.

So the requirements are that they need to be shooters (not necessarily first person), available for the Xbox 360 and multiplayer, and not too artsy/unconventional/weird. Not games like Wet or Portal or Dragon Age. Hopefully I'll actually get to her to enjoy playing video games

 

[Zombie Shakespeare]

You have tutorials from first person shooters in mind, but that isn't all of gaming.

Try to expose her to a wide variety of games so she can decide for herself what she likes. Hopefully, wanting to beat her boyfriend isn't the only reason she wants to try them.

EDIT: Since I'm not really meeting the requirements with my suggestion, I should add a couple. Just hit all the shooter bases. Cover based third person shooters like Gears of War, run and guns like Serious Sam or Painkiller and tactical shooters like Rainbow Six Vegas would be good ones to try, I think.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Team Fortress 2? The Orange Box conveniently comes with Portal, which should always be advertised for being damn fun, regardless of what your goal is.

 

[Skitchy]

1) Lay out every generic FPS title made in the past 5 years in a cirle around you.
2) Spit upwards into the air.
3) Pick whichever game the spit lands on.
4) ???
5) Profit!

Games these days are marketed to casual players, so you could literally pick anything with guns in it that has been released in the past few years and she'll be fine.

 

[Sacman]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl master mode... if she can make it past this she can beat anything...

 

[hurfdurp]

Rainbow Six: Vegas is pretty starter friendly. Someone can work alongside the rusty person, and just show them the ropes, without depending on their aid so much. I'm pretty inept and yet I can play that game, and it's enjoyable without being too competitive.

 

[laststandman]

put in either Halo 2, Halo 3, COD4, WaW, or MW2
Then leave them alone with the game, giving them literally no instructions.
This may take some time.

 

[Amnestic]

and not too artsy/unconventional/weird. Not games like...Dragon Age.

what [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlatWhat]

Mass Effect. If you're fine with Halo you clearly don't have a problem with Sci-Fi and it's a shooter.

 

[migo]

Start her off on Kirby.

 

[Serenegoose]

The biggest problem I've ever noticed a new gamer having is not being able to manipulate the controls into doing what they want. Pick a game with simple and intuitive controls and go from there. Doom, or another old FPS game with very little vertical is a great place to start. Wait til they've got that before moving onto a full 3d game. Obviously, make sure that she gets a good taste of a wide variety of genres, but if she primarily just wants to game to paste her boyfriend, then no point loading up SC2 unless he plays, you know?

 

[MacManus99]

Portal?

 

[Zeetchmen]

Dont drag your friend into the depravity of being a gamer

 

[Winfrid]

Well you could alw...

So the requirements are that they need to be shooters (not necessarily first person), available for the Xbox 360 and multiplayer, and not too artsy/unconventional/weird

Oh... uh.... Gears of War? NRRGHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[Commissar Sae]

Give her Fable and watch as she wastes away the hours. Did that to my sister, and while she's hardly a gamer now she does enjoy the odd game.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Go with a Halo game, they're pretty simple

 

[Dango]

Recettear? That's a pretty easy game to get started with.

 

[10zack986]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl master mode... if she can make it past this she can beat anything...

Or tie her to a chair and force her to reach level 20 in Morrowind.

 

[Dravda]

Might want to watch for motion sickness, since that's a problem common with non-gamers. I've had problems giving people Portal. You might want to start with something that doesn't create the sensation of movement, like Advance Wars or a turn-based RPG.