I used to play Viva Pinata with my girlfriend for hours on end, she loved it. I used to play after she was gone too, it really is a great game
So I got my girlfriend gaming, but what can I have her play
- Thread starter Schlen
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I think oblivion would do the trick nicely. Other than that, try Halo, on the easier difficulties the shields will give her some room for error and it will teach her how to use dual thumbsticks. That's the game that introduced me to the dual-thumbstick and fps in general. There are a couple of third person games that would work well as a primer as well, like Tenchu or Rachet and Clank.Galimor said:Do you have a nintendo 64? If so, get her playing some games on that. (Only one thumbstick)
Maybe try TES oblivion?
You said LBP was boring, I agree that the first one is, but the second is awesome fun with more than one player. Me, my girlfriend, little brother and a friend of mine normally play the second one after a few bowls. Have you two tried the second one with her?
Take her to a game store and just buy a game she likes the look of. If she doesn't like it return it and get a different one.Schlen said:
What does she like outside of gaming? That's how most people pick their games to an extent.
ie. Like westerns? Try Red Dead.
Like Space and Horror/Frights? Try Dead Space.
Like Horses? Try Horsez on DS.
etc.
This approach works better than you might think when introducing people to gaming. If she is invested (or divested) in the subject matter it will impact how long she sticks with whatever game she's playing, meaning she'll have longer to learn how to play, and usually get better at the game making it more enjoyable.
The most important part of making someone enjoy a new activity is making them feel like they are good at it. Giving them an authentic (even if scaled down) and achievable task and letting them feel self-efficacy in the task.
How the...?! What the...?! Man... GTA 4 too hard? That's a pretty flailing difficulty curve you have there. So... let me think...Schlen said:
She's a girl, right? That means that the types of games she'll like are going to be quite different from most of the stuff you like, because, let's face it, she can be as tomboy-ish as they get, but she's still going to have a lot less testosteron than you do.
And Tekken and Assassin's Creed? Those are pretty much masculine affairs. If I were you I'd go with something more colourful, like perhaps the Paper Mario series? Mario usually goes down pretty well with any girl I've ever seen touch a console. Also Medevil/fantasy stuff seems to go down pretty well when it comes to women. On the subject of bright and colourful, how about you give Fable a shot? 2 & 3 even let you play as a female character.
That's the best I've got right now, but I wish you good luck. ^.^
Really? You're kidding, right? GTA 4, the game with the longest tutorial ever in a game, is too hard for her and you suggest Dead Space? 0.oStBishop said:
And on the matter of GTA 4, you also mentioned Red Dead Redemption? C'mon Bishop, focus man!
Course Red Dead Redemption does have a horse... That idea I do like. Things rarely go wrong when you bring women and horses together. So I guess your suggestion about Horsez might well be the best one. But then the OP says he himself is not very into stuff like Nintendogs. So, you know, oh well.
You should get her to play Halo 3, and then you can spend the night having a romantic candlelit teabagging session.
Or you could ask her, I'm probably not the best person to ask what games to get GF's to play because all my previous girlfriends enjoyed watching me play (no seriously).
Or you could ask her, I'm probably not the best person to ask what games to get GF's to play because all my previous girlfriends enjoyed watching me play (no seriously).
I just got my gf playing video games too. She absolutely loves Saints row 2, tons of customization and lot of shopping!
In fact she wants to get SR3 as well...think I've lucked out.
Edit: Also the cruise control helps out.
In fact she wants to get SR3 as well...think I've lucked out.
Edit: Also the cruise control helps out.
The Mass Effect Series for the love of God. It's got various difficulty levels, the story should keep her entranced for hours, and the auto aim feature could help a lot.Schlen said:
Also if she's having trouble with the double sticks, try getting her to play a flight sim game (you could probably get a good price with the Ace Combat series nowadays) the right stick is usually only used to look around from the cockpit.
Also recommended are Fable series (for ease of play), Portal games (double stick practice), and Oblivion (if she liked Fallout, this should be a nice spin on the idea)
From your list, OP, it sounds as though she likes gaming just fine but is very particular about the aesthetic and story as well as the gameplay mechanics. If she doesn't like NASCAR, you know not to suggest games that have a lot of driving (GTA IV controls probably freaked her out, huh?). Does she usually prefer fantasy to sci-fi? Go with TES IV: Oblivion. She'll recognize the Fallout 3 mechanics but might find the world itself more interesting. Dragon Age: Origins would be good, too, but tell her to play on easy if she doesn't want to mess around with tactics menus. The story doesn't change. If she likes Diablo 2, you can ask her about something like the God of War HD collection. Don't worry about the "male character" thing with GoW. Girl gamers don't usually care as long as the context/story is good and they aren't being asked to create a character. And what about something from the Tomb Raider series? Lara might be flashing a bit for for the male fans, but she's still a cool girl. Zelda and Okami are also great genre mash-up options if you have the right consoles: action, puzzles, a tiny little bit of character leveling, good music, good art design, nice story, etc.
What you want to look for is a game that lets you play together so nobody feels weird about sitting around and watching; in those regards, Halo: Reach is your game, because it is splitscreen heaven. My buddies and I use it as a go-to game for getting everybody sat down around the Xbox, and we never have a bad time unless we're all too thoroughly intoxicated to make heads or tails of what we're supposed to do (and even then, this hardly guarantees a bad time).
The majority of women I've introduced to games have had Halo as their gateway game, and the results have been uniformly great. I'd recommend playing campaign/firefight together on an intermediate difficulty, because it'll let you ease her into the game by allowing you to pick up the slack when she gets overwhelmed, and to provide an easily-observable example to follow when it comes to dealing with the very challenging stuff. Playing on split-screen encourages constant communication, cooperation, and a lot of interpersonal fun since you have to rely on each other, so even if you're stuck, you're stuck together (and if you're kicking ass, you're kicking ass together). This is one of those times when being better than your girlfriend at games isn't going to be alienating, because judicious application of your skill means that you can avoid having the game become unfairly difficult to the point of not being fun for her anymore... just don't be a cock if things spill over to a versus match.
If all goes well, it'll grow on her and the two of you will have a new staple of your gaming time for a very long while.
If you're going to dismiss Halo out-of-hand due to the resident snobbery, then hooey to you for evaluating games by extraneous criteria. Reach is probably the best co-op you'll ever find anywhere, ever, and it's probably your best option for playing with someone (which, itself, is also your best option). If she doesn't want to play Halo, well... nnnnnIdunno, dude, that's your battle, not mine.
EDIT: Oh, hey, nice PS3, didn't notice it sitting there until just now. Hope you've at least got access to a 360! If not, Left 4 Dead for PS3 is similarly co-op intensive, and probably works about as well for all the reasons listed above.
The majority of women I've introduced to games have had Halo as their gateway game, and the results have been uniformly great. I'd recommend playing campaign/firefight together on an intermediate difficulty, because it'll let you ease her into the game by allowing you to pick up the slack when she gets overwhelmed, and to provide an easily-observable example to follow when it comes to dealing with the very challenging stuff. Playing on split-screen encourages constant communication, cooperation, and a lot of interpersonal fun since you have to rely on each other, so even if you're stuck, you're stuck together (and if you're kicking ass, you're kicking ass together). This is one of those times when being better than your girlfriend at games isn't going to be alienating, because judicious application of your skill means that you can avoid having the game become unfairly difficult to the point of not being fun for her anymore... just don't be a cock if things spill over to a versus match.
If all goes well, it'll grow on her and the two of you will have a new staple of your gaming time for a very long while.
If you're going to dismiss Halo out-of-hand due to the resident snobbery, then hooey to you for evaluating games by extraneous criteria. Reach is probably the best co-op you'll ever find anywhere, ever, and it's probably your best option for playing with someone (which, itself, is also your best option). If she doesn't want to play Halo, well... nnnnnIdunno, dude, that's your battle, not mine.
EDIT: Oh, hey, nice PS3, didn't notice it sitting there until just now. Hope you've at least got access to a 360! If not, Left 4 Dead for PS3 is similarly co-op intensive, and probably works about as well for all the reasons listed above.
I have gotten my fiancée into gaming as well. When we met, the last game she had played was Mario Bros 3 for the nes back in -91.
Now on the other hand, she whoops my ass at both Pokémon and Castlevania. See I got my fiancée a DSi, that was step one. It was portable, fun and easy to use, so she got into it... really into it. As she took her first fledgling steps into the gaming world, she relied on me for consultation on purchases and sometimes for help during hard parts of games. Now-a-days she makes her own decisions and finishes off games at a pace which is quickly getting closer to mine.
My(and hers...now) goal was to get her into games we could play together. The problem here is that I'm kind of a hard-core PC-gamer. I haven't owned a console sin the snes. So the problems here are many, but the one thing she can't get over with PC games are the controls. So step two was obvious: get her a controller for the PC. Now we have started to make our way into co-op market. Trying out games that only require the buttons of a controller, one at a time.
So, I guess my tip would be to start small and go up.
Oh, and one question for everyone out there: Can you recommend a good co-op game for the PC? Local, LAN or internet.
Now on the other hand, she whoops my ass at both Pokémon and Castlevania. See I got my fiancée a DSi, that was step one. It was portable, fun and easy to use, so she got into it... really into it. As she took her first fledgling steps into the gaming world, she relied on me for consultation on purchases and sometimes for help during hard parts of games. Now-a-days she makes her own decisions and finishes off games at a pace which is quickly getting closer to mine.
My(and hers...now) goal was to get her into games we could play together. The problem here is that I'm kind of a hard-core PC-gamer. I haven't owned a console sin the snes. So the problems here are many, but the one thing she can't get over with PC games are the controls. So step two was obvious: get her a controller for the PC. Now we have started to make our way into co-op market. Trying out games that only require the buttons of a controller, one at a time.
So, I guess my tip would be to start small and go up.
Oh, and one question for everyone out there: Can you recommend a good co-op game for the PC? Local, LAN or internet.
The Dynasty Warriors games. Basically it's you versus entire armies of dudes while wielding ridiculous looking weapons while wearing even more ridiculous outfits. It's almost like a bad Hong Martial Arts film. It's great button mashing fun and you can play it co-op and enjoy the hamtastic dialogue and cut scenes and hilariously out of place heavy metal sound track.
If she's into anime they made a couple Gundam versions too. But don't go in expecting a Gundam Sim.
If she hates the Chinese they've also made Samurai Warriors.
The latest version that's out is Seven. The earliest versions for the 360 and PS3 is Dynasty Warriors 6. Make sure you don't get the ones with names after the title like Empires or Strike Force. Those add things like rts and rpg elements.
Also if you do decide to pick it up make sure you stay away from this guy if you see him.
Lu Bu will make you his ***** several times over.
If she's into anime they made a couple Gundam versions too. But don't go in expecting a Gundam Sim.
If she hates the Chinese they've also made Samurai Warriors.
The latest version that's out is Seven. The earliest versions for the 360 and PS3 is Dynasty Warriors 6. Make sure you don't get the ones with names after the title like Empires or Strike Force. Those add things like rts and rpg elements.
Also if you do decide to pick it up make sure you stay away from this guy if you see him.
Lu Bu will make you his ***** several times over.