Windows What games do 14yo girls play?

I'm thinking of building a pc for my family, and am not sure of the specs that'd suit.

Dad: Office, movies, music, web.
Mum: The occassional letter.
Sister: Web and games.

Now then, what type of games do you reckon the average 14 year old girl would play on the pc (serious answers if possible ) and what specs would they require?

(System i'm thinking of so far is an integrated mobo with 1.2gh amd cpu, 128meg 2100, onboard graphics@32meg)

Need to know as building this rig as cheap as possible, but want it to be adequate for what it will be used for. These specs are plenty for everything but games imho

 

No offense or anything but that title looked really pedophile'ish. Anyway, why don't you ask her?

 

I thought it might (note the 'serious answers please' bit)

Anyway, i can't ask as it'll probably be a christmas present

 

LOL at title...

I shouldn't think they would really be all that graphic intensive so the onboard graphics should be fine, an extra 128 might be nice (and not very expensive at all) to keep things running along smoothly...

 

yeah, extra ram was something i was thinkin about, 128 with 32 shared is a bit dodgy i guess...

does no-one has any suggestions of actual games in particular though? it'd be nice to bundle a game or two with it for her, else it'll mainly be a present for my dad alone.

i've priced the system up, and reckon i can build it for less than £150 inc vat, which is reasonable as a shared present for the three, but i think it's unfair to have it as a shared prezzie if they dont all have a use for it.

// tries hard to think of a way to get mum into 'puters

So yeah, any actual suggestions? I have loads of games i could bundle, but doubt my li'l sis'd be into gta3, moh, q3, rtcws, flashpoint, splinter cell, battlefield, sof, halo, hl, ut2k3 etc (well, gta3 maybe... or tony hawks?)

Any girl gamers here with tastes ranging further afield from fps's? Or peeved parents tired of finding girly games installed on their machine because 'princess' wanted to play online with her school-friends?

 

Well (this is a shot in the dark) I don't think she will be too much into FPS's (although she might). Perhaps you could throw in fun little games like Pocket Tanks or maybe one of the 2D Worms games. Possibly some board games, maybe even an RTS (StarCraft, WarCraft, C&C). Maybe you can give her a variety of games and let her decide and then you know what kind of games to get her next year .

 

A friend of mine recently bought a few games for his little sis, she's quite a bit younger though (about 10) but from what I can remember, she liked the new Harry Potter game (some sort of sports game) and the Finding Nemo game.

However, don't be fooled by the titles, both games are very 3D intensive, so think twice about the onboard graphics. All-In-Wonder's are great for family computers.

Oh, and no offence mate, but she's your little sis. Pay attention and find out what she's into.

 

I guess that's a pretty good idea astrum. Was thinking of installing a mame and genesis emulator along with a bunch of games she would probably enjoy (I know she likes (or did a couple of year ago...) your average platformer, micro machines style racers, bust-a-move etc)

Does anyone know of any real pc games in the vein of maybe crash bandicoot etc? I dont play this kinda thing, so am not up-to-date, but i remember her hogging my psx one christmas when i got it bundled with that game, and she still plays it now.

A 'real' pc game or two would be good as it's better than a bunch of cd-rs with back-ups on them (nice for unwrapping xmas mornin ya see )

// ps : i assume that its ok for me to talk about backups since i will be sharing games that i own with my sister, who if i lived with could simply borrow the real cd.

 

only game I can think of may be "the sims"

 

Cheers, i know she likes the harry potter books, so that's a great suggestion.

No offence taken, but i live away from home, and have done for two years. I see my family about once every two months, and my sister even less as she's busy getting on with her own life these days, and is barely ever in when i get the chance to go home

As i said, no offence taken, but me knowing that she likes the books etc would suggest that i may have some idea of her interests. I just don't hang around when she's on the pc (which is a good thing as according to my dad he's found some rather amusing (pretty harmless) pics in the cache of half-naked men after she's been browsing the net... and, no before anyone says it it wasn't my mum, i doubt she knows what the intarweb is )

Nice suggestion, thanks

//wonders if li'l sis will end up starting fires just to watch her sim people suffer and die horribly like i used to... or jusdging by the internet cache maybe try to find a 'naked' patch

edit:slightly fubar'd formatting

 

First harry potter game (sorcerors stone) required specs:

*Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, or Windows 95 (Windows 2000 not supported)
*266 MHz processor
*64 MB RAM
*4x CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
*500 MB free hard disk space
*8 MB video card with DirectX 8.0 compatible driver
*DirectX 8.0 compatible sound card

available for a tenner too

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sims + sims livin' it up:

*Windows 95/98/XP operating system
*233 MHz Intel Pentium II processor or better
*64 MB RAM memory
*1.4 GB hard drive
*4 speed CD-DVD
*DirectX 7.0 sound card compatible

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rayman

*CPU: 486/33
*Memory: 4 MB
*OS: Windows 3.1
*CD ROM: 2X speed
*Video mode: VGA
*No. of players: 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic CD

*CPU: 486/100
*Memory: 8 MB
*OS: Windows 95
*CD ROM: 2X speed
*Video mode: SVGA
*No. of players: 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lemmings Revolution

*Pentium 266 or faster
*Microsoft Windows 95 or 98
*64 MB RAM
*4x or faster CD-ROM drive
*DirectX compatible 3-D accelerator
*DirectX compatible sound card
*Microsoft compatible mouse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things are looking up

Problem is a lot of these games probably won't run on XP I was planning on installing XP SP1 as it'd be the perfect os for my dad, and has a nice simple interface to make it easier for my mum to get into th swing of things.

Anyone know of a way to get non-xp games to run on xp? (and no, setting emulated 98 mode won't work... i tried installing 'nuclear strike' on my main rig and it just wont work )

edit:
Do you reckon the onboard gfx will be ok with dx8 drivers? doubt this games need high dx hardware architechture right?

 

My 10 year old daughter is learning to frag in Quake 3...rather well I might add. Her 6 year old little brother is learning as well...when he puts Zelda down on the N64.

But she also plays one of those dumb detective games...Nancy Drew...which is a real ***** to get running on XP. If your sister reads the Nancy Drew mystery books she might like the games. They are like Mist.

You need to play your family against each other. Ask mom what sis is into...ask sis what mom is into, etc.

 

Ahh. That, I didn't know. Anyway, I got the full name of that Harry Potter game, it's called Quidditch World Cup. Apparently it's all the rage with the kiddies these days.

 

thanks for all the replies (never knew the gaming forum was this busy!) i'm looking into all the suggestions as i type (well, kinda, in another window )

Might install unreal (1st ed probably as low spec) for my dad, maybe my sister'll get into it and i can frag her online

// or, after an hour or two she might be better than me!

Any ideas on stuff my mum might like?

Oh and keep the sister style game suggestions coming

 

RollerCoaster Tycoon (1 and 2) was quite popular in my little relative's comp... And the requirements shouldn't be very high

And other relative's mum and dad play Lines (couldn't find it right now, made by russians i think, the idea was to get 5 same-coloured dots in a line) and nothing more (well almost, occasional Baldur's Gate or NWN for the dad)

 

The Sims
GTA 3 Vice City
The Sims some more

Bout all my sister plays but she's 11

 

My sister plays c/s 24/7 when she isnt in school and she is 14

 

some game from the Abe's series...like Abe's oddysse(spelling)
i had some cousins that were really into that and rayman.
And the sims seems to attract the girls, so that s a must(somethin' stupid about raising a familly and living happy ever after seeme to appeal to them...)

 

Sims is a definite one. Also, almost all younger kids seem to like zoo tycoon. Another that the younger audience likes are racing games, especially if you grab a cheap $30 wheel or something. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 is a good one.

 

my sister just plays Vice City all day long