Any Dads out there?

I've got a nephew aged 8 who's really into PC games. I loaned my brother and him my copy of SOF2, which they turned off the gore, and have been playing, until the other day. Seems the little tyke told his Mom that he wants to grow up to be a "soldier of Fortune 'cause then he could carry a gun. didn't matter what kind of gun, cause as long as you got a head shot they were going down!" Mom didn't take to that so well and we're looking for a calmer tamer shooter for him. Maybe something with critters rather than humans for targets. Anyone out there got some suggestions for a future gamer? Most of mine are a little too mature and he needs something more his speed. He likes Jedi Knight 2, but i thought that might be little too hard for him. suggestions please.

Im not a dad but halflife might be good...Mostly shooting aliens, but it might be too hard for him. Also reccomend tron 2.0 but again might be too hard for him.

mario teaches typing

natural-selection : half-life mod


its shooting aliens-- you work as a team

or day of defeat


day of defeat, has very little blood

does any body get shot in 'mario teaches typing?'

lol no. i was just joking.. you just type the letters that appear on the screen and mario runs through the level, you dont actually control him. its a really old game.

First off, not to be insulting, but I think that's the funniest thing I've heard all day!

But really... ok, well, I'm no Dad (I'm only 21), but you could probably let him play star wars: Jedi Academy. That's coming out in about 20 days or less. There's really no gore at all, being a LucasArts game and it shouldn't be TOO hard, since all you have to do is hit the left mouse button and whirl the mouse around a bit to swing your light saber(s).

Another good game would be a flight sim. Maybe something like Crimsons Skies. I really liked that one myself. NO GORE whatsoever, and not many people even die. They just eject. You're supposed to be in some parallel universe-type era, set in the 1920's, where there are air pirates, who hunt down zepplins and steal their cargo. There's a really engaging story line to it as well, so I'd definitely pick that one up if he doesn't like the games purely for their "shoot-em-up" factor.

Any sort of World War game or real-life situation type thing (IL Sturmovik, Counter-Strike) or even a fantasy FPS like Unreal Tournament 2003 maybe a little too violent for his age.

If he's anything like my girlfriend's little brother, Eddy (age 10), and likes building things and managing their progres, the SimCity series might be a winner. SimCity 2000 might be good since it's not too complicated. The later ones have A LOT of micro management and might be too hard for him to figure out. Roller Coaster tycoon is another one of Eddy's favorites.

There's really a plethora of good, non-violent, yet extremely fun games to play out there. Head over to your local Electronic's Boutique and ask the guy who works there. I'm sure he'll be able to help you out.

auh yes i forgot about rct, I used to play that game all the time. that would be a good one for a young person

Aliens vs predator?

I Forget if Blake Stone has blood or not. But its pretty old DOS game, kinda like Wolfenstein. I think all the enemies are either aliens or robots.. Maybe a human or two.

The original Unreal is good. Just turn off gore and red blood.

I am not a Dad but I work w/ kids aged 3-10 and I dont let them play violent video games. Things Like AvsP, SOF2, JEDI are off limits. Sims kind of games or resource management games are good. There are fun adventure games for kids out there but any game where the anouncer Yells "HeadShot"! Or "MultiKill"! is not a great game for a developing 8 year old. It is not so much the gore but the overall content. What do you want to teach your Kid (or in this case Nephew)? They are developing at that age and very easy to influence. I know studies have shown that video games dont make people violent but do you really think it is going to do a childs psyche any good to play SOF2? That game is strictly an adult game and in no way apropriate for a 8 year old. Any decent parent I know does not have games like that on their computer...however I do know of some not so decent parents that allow their kids to play violent video games but these parents dont participate in their childs development, often single parents or homes w/ a history of violence or on welfare. These children do not do as well as the other children I work w/ and you can tell it has to do w/ their home environment and the quality of their care. I admit this is a bit of a generalization and not true for all children..but I have 7 years experience working w/ children and their families and this is what I see.

See if you can get him to play an RTS game. Like Age of Empires or a Command and Conquer game. Sure those have some violence, but not nearly at the level of SOF2 or the Unreal series. You can protect a child from certain things, but not everything. We could get into a long debate about kids and computers, but the debates section got closed for a reason. To each their own.

ouch. SOF2 is pretty bad even with the gore taken out. Slide him a copy of any Sim City game or the sims. just dont include the nude patch

I am a proud parent of a 13 year old daughter and a 10 year old son (and a 1 year old boy but he dont quite qualify for playing video games yet). I cant believe that nobody has mentioned Serious Sam yet . Both Serious Sam 1 and 2 are great games that are pretty tuff to take seriously. (get it?) Other good games for young kids might be Diablo 2, Enclave, or even Quake or UT are pretty tuff to take seriously. I know that I dont let my kids play GTA or any games that would resemble things that you might think of doing in real life. I did let my 10 year old son play GTA for a night just to see how he would react and after awhile he was doing nothing but going around and running people over and going on riots and not doing any missions so I dont let him play that anymore just because from what I saw it was not something that he needed to be playing. Other good games that anybody new to computers can get a kick out of are Warcraft II, Starcraft and Motocross Madness 2 just to name a few.

What about House of the Dead 1 or 2 for PC? They're hard, but I believe you can put in unlimited continues. He could teach those zombies a lesson or two.

sim games and racing games should be right up the kids alley....but now that he has a taste for blood.....eh, lol.

Also, get the kid a console and buy some decent platformers, hehe, build up the kid's puzzle solving and hand-eye coordination. Consoles are more suited for children than are computers...at least, when it comes to games. I would definately want my kid to know how to use a computer well, but I don't want him playing computer games, just due to the fact that there are very few child-orientated games, at least recently....

Get him Starcraft it like $9.99 at "some" mart. Don't let the price fool you, it was game of the year back in it's day. See how he likes it. You build a army and manage resources and do battle. When he beats the game he can play online for free on Battlenet verses other people. He'll really like that. To this day it has a big following. If the company (Blizzard) was to announce their was a StarCraft II today would they would have no trouble selling it.

"The incredible Machine" by Sierra, is a pretty good game. Heck still keeps me occupied for hours on end.

Why not Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Just killing Nazis and zombies...