I need a girlfriend game

[babinro]

Without really knowing anything about either of your personalities or tastes...

-> The Walking Dead: Season 1&2 - An excellent experience with multiple people regardless of whose at the controls. If you've played before then let her make the decisions.

-> Hearthstone - Simple to pick up and play allowing for plenty of creativity and co-operation.

-> Portal - A great introduction to FPS style games and their controls with a very friendly 'tutorial'. Obviously Portal 2 is a great follow up for the co-op experience.

Basically any game that doesn't require twitch based reflexes and really eases you into the experience. There are plenty of games out there that offer insanely forgiving difficulties as well. Games like Mass Effect 2 or Diablo 3 might seem overwhelming but mechanically they build up slowly. This isn't like teaching your parent how to use new technology they've never seen. Your girlfriend is likely to pick up these things quickly if it interests her.

 

[FuzzyRaccoon]

Honestly I'd say Skyrim. All my nongaming friends loved the heck out of it. So much so that I couldn't even play it, one of them was always playing it.

 

[Ticklefist]

I think Borderlands 2 is a good choice. She has two female playable characters to pick from and it's a pretty simple game to wrap your head around. You laugh at jokes, hate Jack's guts, laugh at more jokes.

 

[templar1138a]

Fable 3 is an excellent co-op game. I was in a relationship with someone who also wasn't a gamer, but was interested. We had a lot of fun playing that together.

Just let her be the central hero and let her fight the battles on her own unless she asks for help. And you can enjoy watching your heroes make out and dance with each other.

 

[blazearmoru]

Recently, my girlfriend started inquire a bit more about my gaming hobby. In fact to the point where she is starting to want to play some games. However, most of what I have are some pretty complex and dark games. Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Deus Ex: Human revolution, Skyrim. That kind of thing. Now, of course, these games are not particularly dark or complex by our standards, but to my girlfriend I am fairly certain it would be different. I mean, an Xbox controller is deeply foreign to her.

So, I know that this is a horrible stereo type, but I need a girlfriend game. Something simple and fun to introduce her to the hobby. I have an xbox and a pretty boss PC, so some games that can run on those, please.

Thanks in advance.

Here's a few off the top of my head... Try the one with the genre that matches her interest.

Terraria : Very basic Minecraft-type exploration RPG building discovering peaceful multiplayer fun.
Starbound is like a better terraria that is only like 10% complete...

Castle Crashers : Very basic silly beat-emup fighting game for up to 4 players. Cartoony and cute.

Final Fantasy 9/10 : Very basic simple single player story based tear jerker game. It's basically like watching a film together but having her play.
To the Moon : 110% story based game. Pretty good tear jerker too.


Dungeon Defenders Original : Cute hero (and/or) tower defense game. Short but fun. Power creeping is dumb so it's short.
Sanctum 2 : Basic(?) Hero + Tower defense game.

Hammerwatch, Unepic, Splenky : Roguelike exploration growth type silly game. Plenty of dying, and also much silly.

South Park The stick of truth : Self explanitory... It's south park so if that's her thing then it's 10/10, if not then it's 0/10.

Legend of Fae : Puzzle game intended for the female audience(I think), puzzles are not my thing but puzzles IS a thing.

Magical Diary : Imagine harry potter but for girls... yup. Also 120% story based. You "raise" a mage girl at a school and do mage girl things. Definately for the female audience.

Recettear an item shop's tale : Shop management + dungeon diving + rpg + story + very fucking cute, too cute... so cute some people might find it nauseating.

I heard spore was good... Yea... I am completely missing the sims series and genre... good luck \o/


Edit : Battleblock Theatre is... weird but is designed to be silly. A game for 2 players(?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QZjnGIxvmc

Another trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv1ZoHt6poI


Edit2 : If you have +1~2 friends for whatever stupid scenario, there's also DungeonLand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKFGw51hkAA Designed to be cute and silly, it's basically up to 3 players trying to work together and get through a VERY basic dungeon that is controlled by a 4th player if you have a 4th which can be your grilly.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Just give her like whatever and get her to start from the beginning. Most games have tutorials, introductory levels and pretty basic learning curves initially. None of the games you listed are very hard. And I don't care how many controllers she hasn't touched, they're not complex and dark either.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Can't really go wrong with Bastion. Pretty easy depending on how you play (Just keep her away from the Idols). Also the Portal games could work.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I don't know, my girlfriend gets bored of open worlds pretty quickly. She likes linearity and instant gratification (in games!).

And every girl I know gets instant gratification from mowing down pedestrians

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

I'd say if she's curious about your gaming hobby based on the games she's seeing you playing currently, introduce her to those first. Sure they may be complex and dark, but maye she share an interest in such things.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

The hate train didn't take long to arrive. He's looking for a casual introductory game for someone who doesn't play videogames, no he's not calling his girlfriend an idiot.

I'd suggest Bastion, Dust, I hear Trine is good, Defense Grid for the best Tower Defense game in history (adjustable difficulty levels too), FPSs can be hard for some people, but to choose one I'd go Portal.

I hear The Last of Us is also a pretty good engaging RPG.

If you want to try simple little arcade games, you can always find Diner Dash and it's thousand sequels.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

The hate train didn't take long to arrive. He's looking for a casual introductory game for someone who doesn't play videogames, no he's not calling his girlfriend an idiot.

Then he really, really shouldn't have called this topic "I need a girlfriend game". He should have called it "I need a videogame for someone who doesn't know videogames".

"Girlfriend game" is such a horrible word.

Well it's two words...

And doesn't that mean exactly the same thing? Apart from your example not specifying he's in a relationship with this person and trying to force Dark Souls on them would likely make him single?

 

[PH3NOmenon]

My GF loved the Stanley Parable. After finishing the game once, I encouraged her to play it again and try different choices. She adored it and played it to completion after that and a lot of interesting discussions sprouted from it.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Eh, why is everyone saying Portal? You really look at someone who's not used to holding a controller and think, yup, first person platforming puzzles are the thing she needs!

Anyway, I know a lot of girls who don't really game much but they like Skyrim. Turn the difficulty down and its super easy to just mash everything to death with a sword, and it gives you plenty of freedom to just wander around doing what you want and learning it at your own pace.

 

[Batou667]

In my experience, girls like games that have action but aren't unrelenting adrenaline rushes; have a driving narrative (even if it's self-generated); and require grinding, memorisation and leveling-up more than brute technical skill. I'm positive exceptions exist, but I'm generalising here. So, stuff like:

- The Sims franchise
- Many RPGs, particularly lighter ones like Fable
- Platform games
- Minecraft
- Puzzle and simulations: Bejewelled, Farmville, etc
- The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us

Some co-op games are pretty good to play with your partner too. Lara Croft: Guardian of Light is a good example.

 

[KenAri]

Portal and then Portal 2 are what I used to get my girlfriend into gaming. Then I introduced her to my childhood favourites- the things that got me into gaming, like Ocarina of Time. Now she's enjoying Kingdoms of Amalur, Assassins's Creed and experimenting with MMOs; WoW trial, Rift and GW2.

She also liked Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 (1 was a struggle).

Little Big Planet is another go-to for non-gamers. =)

That said, the very first game I bought her was Dark Souls. After many hours and much tuition, she beat the Asylum Demon and said it felt incredibly rewarding.

 

[elvor0]

I'd just go for whatever you enjoy. I tried the same thing with my Mum when she was finding herself in gaming, going for less complex, "casual" games, and she didn't enjoy them(I REALLY tried with Bastion and Portal, just wasn't her thing). If she likes what she likes, she'll pressure through the complexities, there will be fustration (for both of you), her because she's having difficulties with the controls, you because what seems complex for her is pedestrian for you("What do you mean you still haven't picked up that white platforms are the grabable edges in TR by the third game?!". Game pattern recognition actually seems to be harder to absorb than you'd think.

Frankly, the most difficult ones I'd gather for a non/first time gamer are FPS, that first person perspective may come naturally to all of us, but despite my mum adoring and having played the Assassins Creed series, Tomb Raider series GTA5 and Red Dead Redemption to 100% completion plus others, she can still NOT get the hang of first person movement as it really messes with her sense of perspective and direction. She's still a bit naff at them sometimes, but y'know what? She still really enjoys the games BECAUSE of their complexity and depth, complexity won't your girlfriend off, the fact that she doesn't like the game will.

Eh, why is everyone saying Portal? You really look at someone who's not used to holding a controller and think, yup, first person platforming puzzles are the thing she needs!

Anyway, I know a lot of girls who don't really game much but they like Skyrim. Turn the difficulty down and its super easy to just mash everything to death with a sword, and it gives you plenty of freedom to just wander around doing what you want and learning it at your own pace.

Yeah I came to that realisation after trying to broaden my mums game library. Portal is a terrible choice for a new gamer. The puzzles in those games are hard, let alone when they start relying on very good coordination and speed, which are severly diminished on consoles as it is, let alone for someone whos still trying to understand the concept of FPS.

 

[Random Fella]

[complex and dark games. Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Deus Ex: Human revolution, Skyrim.]

Sorry, what?
Are you scared your girlfriend is too simple for the extensive complexity of Skyrim?
Is she, challenged?

But seriously, I can't speak for Deus Ex as I haven't played it, but the three other titles are extremely simple and easy to play, also in games like Skyrim and Fallout it's such an open world that if you get lost it doesn't really matter due to fast travels and extensive side questing, giving a gaming experience better for people who just want to chill out and fill some random objectives. Also past 'learning the buttons' the difficulty settings make the games extremely easy, my flatmates girlfriend got into playing some video games through playing Skyrim I'm pretty sure.

Just, don't show her any MOBA's, and maybe not any RTS (Then again it's console so I doubt you would)

 

[elvor0]

[complex and dark games. Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Deus Ex: Human revolution, Skyrim.]

Sorry, what?
Are you scared your girlfriend is too simple for the extensive complexity of Skyrim?
Is she, challenged?

But seriously, I can't speak for Deus Ex as I haven't played it, but the three other titles are extremely simple and easy to play,

Lets think about this from the perspective of someone who has never played a video game before, or any form of table top RPG. It wouldn't be about her being "challenged" it's literally that she would've never played that type of game before. Skyrim doesn't exactly do much in the tutorial department, there's a lot to take in for someone who's never played a game before. It's simple for us, but that's because we've got 15 plus of gaming under our belts. Everything in Skyrim is old hat mechanics wise.

Those games are by NO means "extremely simple" even by a gamers standards. Pacman is "extremely simple", Mario is "extremely simple". Skyrim, Assassins Creed and Deus Ex? No, not by a long shot, especially as the OP stated, for someone who DOES NOT GAME. Now that I'm a master, Metal Gear RIsing is "simple" for me even on the hardest difficulty, does that make it a simple game? Of course it doesn't.

 

[viscomica]

I think Borderlands 2 is a good choice. She has two female playable characters to pick from and it's a pretty simple game to wrap your head around. You laugh at jokes, hate Jack's guts, laugh at more jokes.

As a girlfriend having been introduced just last year to gaming I have to say.... no. I love Borderlands, I really do, and for a while I was obsessed about it! But it's hard to get into it at first. It wasn't the first game I played and I doubt I would / could have played it as my first game ever.

 

[Schadrach]

I think Borderlands 2 is a good choice. She has two female playable characters to pick from and it's a pretty simple game to wrap your head around. You laugh at jokes, hate Jack's guts, laugh at more jokes.

As a girlfriend having been introduced just last year to gaming I have to say.... no. I love Borderlands, I really do, and for a while I was obsessed about it! But it's hard to get into it at first. It wasn't the first game I played and I doubt I would / could have played it as my first game ever.

Butbutbut...It even has a "girlfriend mode" tree on one of the female characters! =p

To be fair, I play Gaige with my points put primarily in Ordered Chaos, then Best Friends Forever (the aforementioned "girlfriend mode") and just a couple in that middle tree. Honestly, if you wanted to start her out with Borderlands 2, strongly suggest playing Gaige and investing in BFF. As she gets better, respeccing to either of the other trees is a significant power boost, but requires significantly better performance to be viable at all -- Gaige is both the easy mode and the "crazy trick shots with lightning shotguns while at -1000% accuracy" characters at the same time, depending on how she's specced.

More importantly, whatever you pick, make absolutely sure it's something that supports two player co-op. That is by far the most important point.