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Blogs Games to play with your children

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 3 Sep 2009.

  1. Sifter3000

    Sifter3000 I used to be somebody

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  2. Blademrk

    Blademrk Why so serious?

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    My nephew (5) loves Castle Crashers on the 360, 4 players and great fun (the Forest level has a lot of toilet humour, and it cracks him up everytime he plays it).
     
  3. Bauul

    Bauul Sir Bongaminge

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    There are plenty of games we all fondly remember as children that weren't "designed" for kids. Doom, for instance, was the first PC game I ever played, and I didn't even notice it was violent, it was just cool.

    Prior to that, the first game I ever saw being played was Dizzy on the Commodore 64, and the first game I ever did play was Toki on the Amiga 1500. In all cases, the games I enjoyed the most were the ones I played with my parents (well, my Dad) and my brothers. I remember running into the garden yelling to my Dad when my older brother first defeated the penultimate boss on Toki.

    Growing up, games are about shared experiences, and I think regardless of the game, doing it with people is absolutely vital.
     
  4. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Agreed. You wouldn't believe how much time my brother, Dad and I spent playing Dune, Bloodwych and Monkey Island back in the day. Back then, when games like Bloodwych (a massive, multi-level, FPS grid-based dungeon RPG) didn't have a map feature then it was essential to have two young children and a supply of squared paper nearby.
     
  5. Bauul

    Bauul Sir Bongaminge

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    Lol, I remember you telling us about how your dad used to copy out the dungeon designs onto reems and reems of squared paper.

    In some respects, that aspect of discovery and the unknown is something many modern games are somewhat lacking. I got a moment, the tiniest of moments, of it playing Braid (thanks to the 2D perspective), but that's been it. I blame modern graphics personally. Being able to see everything in perfect detail may make things look pretty, but it doesn't leave much room for your imagination does it?
     
  6. mooseguy

    mooseguy Crazy Moose

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    My little brother (8) seems to want to play anything that I do... He's recently started on Deus Ex :D
     
  7. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    I can adopt him?
     
  8. Zero_UK

    Zero_UK What's a Dremel?

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    Me, my brother and my dad used to play Tekken 2 when I was very young and sometimes Duke 3D - I used to always hide in the camera rooms on the first level because I was scared of a the pig cops lol. Then we were allowed to watch him play shooters like Max Payne and Half-Life and do a few racing games.. then when my and my brother got PC's from spare parts we'd all do lan Half life death match.
     
  9. TSR2

    TSR2 What's a Dremel?

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    Why not some kind of RTS? Maybe one of the less-violent kind. I used to play Pharoh.
     
  10. mooseguy

    mooseguy Crazy Moose

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    You wouldn't want the mess.
     
  11. Aracos

    Aracos What's a Dremel?

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    Bah just give em manhunt uncut and lock them in a room till they're killing machines ^_^

    Anyway I don't really think violent games at a young age are a bad thing, I was playing RE and tenchu (I still remember the spitting blood :p) and stuff like that at around 8 and I've never even thought a person in real life nevermind trying to blow peope's brains out of take a katana to someone's jugular lol

    What I'd do is get them on the real games, the good games that sell consoles, Metroid, Zelda, Mario, those kind of things. FF is also a good choice if they have high attention spans :)
     
    Last edited: 3 Sep 2009
  12. capnPedro

    capnPedro Hacker. Maker. Engineer.

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    I played through Duke Nukem 3D with my dad. It's the game that got me into gaming, computers and hence modding/overclocking/programming etc. Cheers, 3D realms!
     
  13. roblikesbeer

    roblikesbeer Bindi's sex slave.

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    I'm not allowed to play with kids any more...
     
  14. thehippoz

    thehippoz What's a Dremel?

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    imagination is much more powerful than detail I think.. I still remember playing alternate reality and having the dungeon mapped out on grid paper too.. colored in spots and made a legend for each color.. even though the graphics were crappy- you could close your eyes and envision what it would be like to be there.. like even a mindblaster (looked like a stick with a purple thing on it's head on-screen) in your mind was full featured :D

    think this generation of gamers will miss out on that.. and there's not much else to say about wolf3d/doom/duke- even the original gta.. you could lan, buddies could bring over their rigs and you still had the token ring network (where you could hog the token).. playing on different screens in the same space was new
     
  15. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    For some reason, I wouldn't mind teaching my nephew how to play SimCity 3000.
     
  16. Combinho

    Combinho Ten kinds of awesome

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    I used to play Duke Nukem 3D with my dad when I was 7 or 8, and it never did me any harm *mutters to self with crazy look in eye*. I think it's about what is suitable for your own children. If you know what is in the game, then you can make an informed decision about whether it is suitable for your kids. I mean, is GTA 3 really that unsuitable for a 13/14 year old. I played it at that age because it was fun, not ZOMG hookers and killings!!!11oneone. But the best game for kids has to be head over heels, now remade and available for PC here.
     
  17. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Agreed - very much about what is suitable for your children based on your judgement, but if you don't know enough to make an informed decision then you have to start somewhere. I figured the games I mentioned would be universally suitable and be a lot better than the usual over-sentimentilised, pandering arse-deposits that most kids games are.
     
  18. Combinho

    Combinho Ten kinds of awesome

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    Also, Mario Kart Wii is excellent for kids. I play it a lot with my cousins who are 6/9, and they love it. The good thing is that you never fall too far behind, as you get the stronger powerups, but the game can also be challenging to win races. Win-win.
     
  19. Ryu_ookami

    Ryu_ookami I write therefore I suffer.

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    QFT

    Bloodwych rocked all the up to the part where the gate locked behind you and you had to fall down the hole and click on a brick as you fall to removet he pillow it ALWAYS glitched for me on that part :(
     
  20. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

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    i sat with my dad and played through monkey island on the atari st, one of my earliest memories
     
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