Game reccomendations for young gamer

[Sho'Nuff]

Unstoppable Gorg

10,000,000

Joe Danger 1 and 2

Magicka (might be too violent, but its cartoony)

Puzzle Quest 2

Star Wars Empire at War (basically civilization in the star wars universe - fun ship combat - involves shooting lasers at stuff so might still be too violent)

 

[blastingcap]

MYST

 

[datalink7]

https://www.wizard101.com/

Best kid friendly online game. You can try it free.

My 10 year old cousin loves this game. Plays it all the time.

 

[FalseChristian]

id software's Quake (1996) with the Darkplaces mod makes the game graphics incredibly incredible. This is still my favourite game of all time and their isn't a lot of blood and gore. Monster's will rip apart if you have Quad Damage on but it's more funny than violent. You can pick up Quake, Quake II and Quake III: Arena for $10 as a set at E.B.

 

[irishScott]

MYST

Couldn't hurt, but might be a little too much for an 8 year old. Some of those puzzles are really obscure.

That said, the GOG version of Myst: Masterpiece Edition finally runs on Windows 7 64 bit. Not sure how they did it, but they did.

http://www.gog.com/game/myst_masterpiece_edition

 

[Yreka]

Good list!

Steam account + Steam sale coming up tomorrow = great start

My boys are 10 and 7, we really enjoy playing Torchlight 2 together. It will likely be onsale over the week for less than $5 + grab the Synergies mod for free from the workshop.

They also enjoy:

Terraria
Trine 1&2
Gary's Mod (I got the 11yr old into Half-Life 2 also, which he inisists is " a gary's mod ripoff" )
Burnout Paradise
Little Inferno
Scribblnauts
Any of the "lego" games

(but they still mostly play Minecraft)

 

[magomago]

At this point if you can get him hooked on good educational games that don't really feel educational, but still cause his brain to be stimulated that will be great !

I'd throw SpaceChem on that list - I love it! No gore, no violence, but puzzle that will teach him a little chemistry even if he is not aware.

 

[Pheran]

id software's Quake (1996) with the Darkplaces mod makes the game graphics incredibly incredible. This is still my favourite game of all time and their isn't a lot of blood and gore. Monster's will rip apart if you have Quad Damage on but it's more funny than violent. You can pick up Quake, Quake II and Quake III: Arena for $10 as a set at E.B.

Did you seriously just claim that Quake isn't violent?

 

[Yreka]

Oh another one they like to play, Bully: Scholarship Edition.. Its kind of an innocent GTA sandbox-ey game.

On sale for $3.74 atm, which is what reminded me...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/12200/

 

[shortylickens]

Braid.

 

[Fulle]

I wanted my daughter (6) to stop playing Minecraft, and get into some "real" gaming, so I got her Bioshock Infinite. At first she'd cry and complain that the game was "giving her nightmares", but eventually she got pretty good with the Bird's Eye Sniper Rifle. Although, it's a bit creepy hearing her scream "Headshot! Mother****!" in her sweet little voice, her gaming skills have came along greatly, opening up new opportunities for us. Recently we've been working on her patience in Dark Souls.

/sarcasm

I really hope people aren't having their children play some of the suggested games....

Anyway, my daughter is 6, and I like the Trine 2 recommendation. We had a lot of fun with the local co op on that one, and the storybook inspired art style seemed perfect for kids.

 

[Ruptga]

He's 8, so that's about second grade. What works for him will depend a lot on his intelligence and his tastes, but I would definitely try the RTSs and racing games that have been mentioned. If he likes Minecraft he may like RPGs, but those are normally intended for people 14+. You could also try space sims. X3 is probably way over his head (and mine, honestly), but Freespace Open is a great option.

Whatever you do, just make sure he understands that "AngrySperms" is not a hilarious user name, nor is anything involving "poop" a sick burn.

 

[Savatar]

I wanted my daughter (6) to stop playing Minecraft, and get into some "real" gaming, so I got her Bioshock Infinite. At first she'd cry and complain that the game was "giving her nightmares", but eventually she got pretty good with the Bird's Eye Sniper Rifle. Although, it's a bit creepy hearing her scream "Headshot! Mother****!" in her sweet little voice, her gaming skills have came along greatly, opening up new opportunities for us. Recently we've been working on her patience in Dark Souls.

/sarcasm

I really hope people aren't having their children play some of the suggested games....

Anyway, my daughter is 6, and I like the Trine 2 recommendation. We had a lot of fun with the local co op on that one, and the storybook inspired art style seemed perfect for kids.

Which games, specifically... other than the obvious Quake troll... do you think are inappropriate? Nobody here recommended either BioShock Infinite or Dark Souls, that I could tell... without examples of which are inappropriate, your post does little to help parents who are genuinely interested in finding decent games (apart from the Trine 2 reference).

 

[irishScott]

He's 8, so that's about second grade. What works for him will depend a lot on his intelligence and his tastes, but I would definitely try the RTSs and racing games that have been mentioned. If he likes Minecraft he may like RPGs, but those are normally intended for people 14+. You could also try space sims. X3 is probably way over his head (and mine, honestly), but Freespace Open is a great option.

Whatever you do, just make sure he understands that "AngrySperms" is not a hilarious user name, nor is anything involving "poop" a sick burn.

At age 8 I'd strongly recommend against any game with public multiplayer, unless you want your 8 year old exposed to the most foul language from some of the most foul people on the planet.

 

[Via]

MYST

For an eight year old?

 

[Revolution 11]

At age 8 I'd strongly recommend against any game with public multiplayer, unless you want your 8 year old exposed to the most foul language from some of the most foul people on the planet.

Considering how much more foul today's multiplayer climate is, I would not encourage any child ever playing multiplayer.

Now if he/she was interested in a game, go ahead. But I would not be the one to push them into that.

For an eight year old?

That is the best time indeed. Nothing makes a game empowered and immortal with nostalgia like one that stumps you for weeks in your naive childhood.

 

[Albatross]

Zelda,Mario.

 

[irishScott]

That is the best time indeed. Nothing makes a game empowered and immortal with nostalgia like one that stumps you for weeks in your naive childhood.

Yeah, but there are developmental issues to consider. Maybe the OP's kid is an extraordinarily mentally mature 8 year old, but barring that Myst would probably stump him for years rather than weeks. There are major puzzles that his brain is likely too immature to comprehend, at which point he'll just get frustrated and look up a walkthrough on the internet.

I know this from attempting to play Myst as a 7 year old. I played for weeks when I first got it and past the early stages any progress was essentially luck. I was usually able to comprehend what happened after the fact, but that's a whole different process as opposed to figuring it out from scratch. I had multiple pages of physical notes, and not to sound arrogant but I don't think the average 8 year old would share my childhood obsessions.

 

[KidNiki1]

At age 8 I'd strongly recommend against any game with public multiplayer, unless you want your 8 year old exposed to the most foul language from some of the most foul people on the planet.

most online pc games allow for things like chat and such to be turned off.

it also is highly dependent on the type of game.

 

[akahoovy]

I feel bad for kids today who (probably) aren't going to get to play SNES classics. Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country, Contra 3, Yoshi's Island, Kirby Super Star, Link to the Past.

Oh nostalgia

edit: Actually, I guess you could always set him up with an emulator and a controller.

 

[Fulle]

Which games, specifically... other than the obvious Quake troll... do you think are inappropriate? Nobody here recommended either BioShock Infinite or Dark Souls, that I could tell... without examples of which are inappropriate, your post does little to help parents who are genuinely interested in finding decent games (apart from the Trine 2 reference).

I was making a joke, mostly making fun of the person who recommended several Quake games. But, there's been several other inappropriate suggestions.

For example: Starcraft 2, Half Life (an M rated first person shooter), Star Wars Battlefront II, and Bully.

If you're going to let your kid play Half Life, might as well let them play Bioshock, IMHO. It's not really any worse.

I wasn't trying to de-rail the thread or troll here. Just mocking the folks who think it's OK to suggest Teen and M rated games, for an 8 year old.

 

[irishScott]

most online pc games allow for things like chat and such to be turned off.

it also is highly dependent on the type of game.

Until the kid figures out how to turn it on when mommy and daddy aren't looking, and that won't stop text chat.

If the game in question is even remotely competitive there will likely be multiple "fucking noob"s and other, worse insults; many of them directed at said 8 year old who will not only be a noob, but an 8 year old noob who is likely just looking to have fun and is going to do dumb things that aren't even remotely competitive, and thus draw the ire of his asshole teammates.

If he's playing with people he knows or something that's one thing, but from what I've experienced I sure as hell wouldn't throw a 2nd grader into a public multiplayer match.


Even in noob friendly games like Mount & Blade, where you can suck and no one really cares, the chat box is filled with explicatives, racist terms, tons of stuff no 2nd grader should be exposed to in such concentrations.

 

[Fulle]

Does the OP looking for strictly PC games, or does his kid have access to any consoles as well?

 

[Patre]

At this point if you can get him hooked on good educational games that don't really feel educational, but still cause his brain to be stimulated that will be great !

I'd throw SpaceChem on that list - I love it! No gore, no violence, but puzzle that will teach him a little chemistry even if he is not aware.

I was reading a bit on Spacechem as I have a 7 yr. old girl that likes puzzle games, but it seems that even the adults who played this said it was very challenging/difficult.
I'm all for educational games/puzzle games and this might be a winner (just hoping it won't be too much for my little girl.....or even worse....for me )

 

[Fulle]

I just remembered about Scratch

http://scratch.mit.edu/

It's a site that helps introduce children to programming. My coworker's son is about 8 or 9, and thinks its fun to "play" it. May take a little bit of parental help to get him going though...