My parents bought a 360... game recommendations?

[Acert93]

My parents picked up an Xbox 360 They bought a nice HDTV and wanted something to justify it, so they got a 360. Now the problem... they are not "gamers" in the console sense. They gave me a call last night to let me know about the purchase and are looking for some game advice. I need some help picking out some games for them seeing as I am a shooter/racer/sports fan... and they don't like those games! Some background.

My Mom: She would have preferred a Wii... she already leans when she plays games lol. Anyhow, she loves games like Dr. Mario, Marble Madness, Mario Kart, Mahjong, and the like.

My Dad: Big strategy game fan. Civilization, all three Warcrafts, C&C, Starcraft, Alpha-Centauri, Masters of Orion, and the like. He also likes MMOs like Asheron's Call. Old school PC gamers. He can tolerate shooters, but hates how twitchy they are and I cannot imagine him enjoying a gamepad for a shooter.

So I need some recommendations:

1/ Games they can play together that are (A) fun and (B) not too hard.

2/ Games that fit their specific tastes and are good but also have easy settings.

My mom is liking Joust and some XBLA Marble game. I recommended Uno. Puzzle Quest also sounds like something she would like. Anything else? Viva Pinata may fit her (sim like game, cute... the elusive VP demographic) My mom is like the perfect Wii canidate imo.

Not quite sure what to recommend to my dad. C&C:3, LotR, and Battlestation: Midway may be of interest but he has played those I believe. I am not quite sure what he would like to be quite honest... The 360, PS3, and Wii just don't seem to have games, off the top of my head, that would appeal to him (more strategy, HD, etc) A game like Gears of War, as a slower shooter, may appeal to him. He liked Doom and Duke Nukem, but Quake and such lost his attention. He is willing to try shooters, but it would have to be something very compelling to draw him in as well as reward "smart" gameplay over good accuracy and twitchy shooting.

So shoot your suggestions my way Ironically, they got Halo 3 so I could play with them someday They haven't even opened it and don't plan to until I pick up a 360 so I can play with them. They had heard my best friend who lives down the street from them got Halo 3 and is excited about playing with me so I guess they had the same idea hahaha

 

[Nesh]

For your mom: Gears of War or Bioshock

For your daddy: Viva Piniata

 

[valioso]

Puzzle Quest from xbox arcade is great.

 

[Gubbi]

Xbox Live Arcade:

Boom Boom Rockets and Marble Blast Ultra for your mum.

Catan and Carcasonne for your dad.

Cheers

 

[AlphaWolf]

Bioshock for anyone that might enjoy Gears although its only single player, Mass Effect isn't too far from MMO type play so he may enjoy that. There really aren't a lot of rts strategy games for any console but there's some stuff coming, Halo Wars is early next year and there's some Civilization game coming.

The orange box might be a win for them just for Portal.

 

[PARANOiA]

Viva Pinata is a fantastic game that even my girlfriend really enjoyed - and she hates gaming. I'd definitely recommend it, assuming they didn't get it packed in.

C+C3 was good and translated quite well to the console. In HD your dad should like it a lot more than other (SD) console RTS games since it's pretty. If he played it on PC though you may like to skip it, but there's something about sitting on the couch that appeals to lots of gamers.

Switchball (XBLA) is another good marble game, assuming you were talking about Marble Madness. I personally prefer Switchball.

Puzzle Quest is legendary!

Also try Band of Bugs - a SRPG-lite game.

Let me also tentatively suggest Bioshock for your dad. It's a very intelligent game that rewards a plodding pace and exploration of the universe, while favouring a well thought out attack over twitch gaming. I actually had a few friends over who asked to see what I was playing at that moment... so I booted up Bioshock and they actually insisted I keep playing for a couple of hours since they enjoyed simply watching the art style, the interaction with the various enemies (especially the tenseness of hearing a Big Daddy coming your way!) It's easily my GOTY... It's also (in my personal opinion) not a shooter in spirit, as much as it is mechanically.

Mass Effect is shootery in its own way, but it certainly rewards conversation and offers a bit of sci-fi drama. At one point in the game my girlfriend got a little upset, since she'd been in the same room whenever I'd boot up the game -

Spoiler

you have to choose which team mate you save, therefore letting effectively choosing another one to die.

It's a tough machine to recommend games for outside of the core "twenties male" audience. Remember, there's tonnes of demos on live. There are demos for all of the games I mentioned above, actually, including C+C, so if it's free you can't go too far wrong.

Nearly forgot - Uno cannot be played against each other on a single machine

 

[PARANOiA]

Of course I forgot Katamari! That would be perfect if they enjoy a giggle.

 

[kyetech]

For your mom: Gears of War or Bioshock

For your daddy: Viva Piniata

LOL, im drunk right now, that was funny...

 

[AlNom]

Honestly and simply? Have them browse Xbox Live Arcade and get them to download demos. There are several that are very good remakes such as Pac Man: Championship Edition or Bomberman or Tetris.

Your father may want to keep an eye out for Halo Wars next year (if he can stand RTS on console that is).

How about Guitar Hero? Or racing games (PGR4)?

 

[RobertR1]

As other have said. Xbox Live arcade and game demos.

 

[AzBat]

Live Arcade is their best bet. Have them download every title there is and have them play the demos. I'm sure there will be more than enough games there to hold their interest. I also suggest that either download full game demos, or buy a subscription to Official Xbox Magazine with the demo disk($25 for 12 issues & 12 disks). The disk will help give them a taste with the demos/videos and the magazine will help them decide on games out or coming that they should try. It's a great source for the person that doesn't read game news and reviews online. Another suggestion have them download Halo: Combat Evolved immediately off Xbox Originals ($15). Fuzion Frenzy and Fable are also great Original Xbox games. As for full version Xbox 360 games, I'd highly suggest Kameo(very Nintendo-esque), Viva Pinata, Viva Pinata Party Animals, Katamari, Tomb Raider Legends/Anniversary, Guitar Hero II(not 3) and Scene-It.

As for the Arcade games, if they're going for Uno, then I'd highly suggest the $70 Live Vision pack that comes with Uno, a camera and 12 months Gold service. Great value. Also, the Live Arcade Unplugged Vol.1 disk has Bejeweled 2, Geometry Wars, Wik: Fable of Souls, Outpost Kaloki X, Hardwood Backgammon and Texas Hold 'em for about $20, but if you know where to look online you can get it even cheaper. My wife picked it up for a $1 at a surplus store. Also, PopCap Games just released a Arcade disk that has Bejeweled 2, Astro Pop, Feeding Frenzy and Zuma Deluxe for about $25-$30.

That's a few that I can remember for now. I'm sure I could come up with some more if needed.

Tommy McClain

 

[woundingchaney]

Buy them the HD DVD add on for Christmas.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Borrow Guitar Hero with a guitar from somewhere and lend it to them. Odds are they get hooked...

 

[I.S.T.]

Your dad likes MMOs? Look into FFXI. IIRC, it's the only MMORPG available for the console right now.

 

[Heinrich4]

For mom -> Viva piñata
Father -> if like rpgs -> Elder IV:Oblivion,lost odyssey,blue dragoon,FF11,Mass Effect

 

[mrcorbo]

Looks like you have a pretty good consensus.

Bioshock, Orange Box, Catan (XBLA), and try out demos on XBLM especially the XBLA arcade stuff since it's cheaper and more convenient to just turn on and play. And point out the achievements, too. Nothing like a little competition for highest Gamerscore to get the ball rolling.

 

[expletive]

Maybe "scene it?" for fun with friends and family?

Borrow Guitar Hero with a guitar from somewhere and lend it to them. Odds are they get hooked...

Or just buy them rock band as a reward for their coolness. RB has the GH angle but also karaoke. THen of course theres that drum set thing....

 

[nintenho]

I second the tomb raider games. very enjoyable and not that hard to get into.

maybe they want to try Rainbow 6: Vegas? it's leans a lot more towards tactics than twitch shooting.

also of course try live arcade demos because anybody can find a few games they like there.

 

[Arwin]

At least half of all people like Lumines, typically. In my household, 100% ...

And yeah, follow up would be nice.

 

[Acert93]

Ok, the update.

Well, to show you how much out of the loop I am: They have had the 360 since October And they got it because they got a good deal ("a place was clearing out the old stock to make way for the new chips" according to my dad... he knew a lot more about this than I expected. Does he post here unbeknownst to me??!).

My mom has already tried a huge portion of the XBLA (arcade) games. She has always been into that sort of thing--Marble Madness, Dr. Mario, Tetris, Solitair, Hearts, etc. She is also playing Portal.

My dad already picked up three games. He bought Command & Conquer 3. His reason? He has played all the other C&Cs and loves RTS. He likes the game and noted how much he liked the graphics (better than his PC). They also picked up The Orange Box. Why? Maybe it is the Seattle influence and word-of-mouth, or the great reviews and value of the game. Anyhow, they like it. They haven't played TF2 (the whole competitive online thing), but like the The Orange Box. They also picked up... Halo 3. They haven't played it yet, though, and I think it is just the title to own if you buy a 360. They were shocked when I told them they can play the Single Player campaign together and not against eachother. They got really excited at that and said they would play it soon.

We chatted a little bit about the gamepad. It hasn't been an issue for them. My dad seemed to think it was more of an issue of training the muscles in his hands and he was picking it up pretty well. I always forget that console games NOW are a lot better designed, both in game design and user aids, than the ol' N64 games. Moving in 3D space on a console now is a lot more effecient and user friendly.

Anyhow, I did send each of them an email with a compilation of suggestions (thanks everyone) as well as links to their reviews (IGN and Gametrailers).

Yet... I don't think they need my help! They already knew about the marketplace and XBLA and were doing a lot of demos and trials (my number 1 suggestion). While I still think XBLA doesn't get enough exposure to its prime market, I was surprised how quickly my mom found it. It really is the perfect platform for people who like the quick, easy to pick up games that can be turned off at any time... like moms. Right now they are having a blast playing cooperative games, so it seems they are happy with their purchase.

I should add/clarify a few things. My dad is a big sci-fi fan. Babylon 5, Star Trek & STTNG, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, you name it he loves it. He reads some fantasy books as well as sci fi and as a teen played some pen/paper roll playing stuff. He is pretty picky on MMOs, so just any ol' MMO won't work for him (e.g. he is a huge Blizzard fan but never got into WoW and hasn't shown any interest in most on the market like Guild Wars, D&D Online, Everquest etc). Console pretty much have no substantial MMOs and there is no guarantee any console will offer an MMO he likes (good thing he has a gaming PC).

My dad does like shooters... but they aren't his #1 genre. My bias is probably he likes shooters... just not when playing with me or more specifically against me. His nickname for me is the 6-finger-man because of my coordination in shooters hehe. He is very much interested in coop and teamplay. When I lived at home we used to play a number of team oriented games and he would like to get back into that. He still picks up shooters on his own, like Doom 3, and really enjoys them. He picked up Battlefield 1942 and also enjoyed that some (although the competition scared him away). UT, SS, CS and the like are definately no-gos for him. Any anything uber competitive/trollish (like Halo 3 online matchmaking) would cause him to hunt down offending teen punks (I would pay to see this!) And I think he would be prone to toss a controller through the TV while playing a really twitchy shooter... of course I kind of forgot how modern console shooters are hardly what I would call twitchy. When we played Q2 and Unreal on our home lan, I guess that is a far cry from, say, Rainbow Six of Gears of War. It is funny how time and childhood bias can filter your memory! My dad was the one who got me into FPS... I guess I mistook his distaste from not being able to compete with me in uber twitchy games with dislike FPS. :Opps:

The more I thought about it, Mass Effect seems like a perfect game for him. Slower shooter combat (pause any time) with an epic sci-fi storyline. Great graphics and one of the top 10 games out this generation on any platform. Oblivion (Game of the Year Edition) also sounds like a title that would work well with his tastes. Rainbow Six Vegas, with the slower shooter mechanics, cover (better than Gears my friends tell me), and 4 player coop will appeal to his military background.

So I did ask him about these games. Mass Effect is already on his radar. Oblivion not so much... I think he is burned out on the setting. He doesn't get a lot of time to play--this was actually a gift for my mom (the TV was his)--but has enjoyed it so far.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Much appreciated. Now they are trying to convince me to get one and play with them online... peer pressure... from my parents