Let's Ignore Her Generous Bosom And Lack Of Proper Attire, Shall We?

[kv0925]

Since video games were such a great part of my own childhood, and something I still greatly enjoy (yet feel guilty spending too much time on, but that's another topic), I've been glad to inculcate an interest in them in my girls. We play Wii, they play on their computers, and we even fire up the venerable PS2 and Dreamcast now and then, not to mention the MAMEd arcade cabinet I have hiding upstairs. And they're pretty good, I must say! But mainly they play things like the LEGO games, girly dress-up games on the Internet, point-and-click type adventure games, etc. They see me playing first-person shooter type games now and then, and have seemed interested, but obviously I haven't wanted to just drop them into those since most are pretty tough, not to mention M-rated with murder and mayhem and language and blood and guts everywhere.

So it came to mind that maybe the Tomb Raider games would fit the bill, especially for Hallie with her love of Indiana Jones. I'd mentioned it but then dropped it, until this week when Hallie came to me asking me to put a game on her PC, but she couldn't tell me the name or even anything about it. I was thinking it was something she'd already played, but she said no to everything I named. Finally she said she thought it started with a T and was about a girl adventurer, and finally it clicked. So I took a look at the newest Tomb Raider game, but found that it too is rated M with the ultraviolence and adult language, so it's out. But then I thought, what about the old-school TR games? And I found that there's an updated (Anniversary) version of the first one, which is still rated T. So I installed that for her, and so far she's digging it (er, so to speak?). I was afraid that the controls and gameplay might be too much for her (she's only 7, after all), and indeed she doesn't quite grasp the WASD+mouse control setup yet. But she still does pretty well, and I think we can work up to getting both hands involved properly. The game itself is pretty cool--I'd never actually played any TR myself, but so far it's mostly just navigating the environment, jumping around cliffs and ledges and ropes, with the occasional beastie (bats and wolves so far) popping up. So I think it's a fine introduction to this sort of game. Thus far we've only jokingly mentioned the fact that Lara Croft is running around a snowy mountain cave wearing shorts and a skin-tight tank top, so I hope it's not warping their minds too much, you know? At least it's a strong female character so there's a Girl Power angle in there somewhere, I hope.

The only wrinkle so far is that Hermione wants to play it now too, so I installed it for her as well. But I'm using Steam with their family sharing feature, which means only one of them can play it at a time, which is kind of a bummer since they often like to be playing the same thing. I guess we'll see if that becomes enough of an issue to justify me finding a not-so-legal copy to install instead. :)

Do any of you gamers have suggestions for other games they might like, in this or any other genre? I'd considered the Half-Life games as another FPS they might dig, since the bad guys are monsters and mutants instead of people. Maybe the newer Fallout games for the same reason, though there are some human adversaries as well. I guess I'll just see how well TR holds their interest, and if they might want to explore more in that genre. I should find some things to install for LAN gaming, like Worms. Any other ideas?

While I'm on the subject, Amy's taken nicely to having her own PC as well. Though yesterday evening I had to run to the store to get her a new video card. Night before last she was playing and I started smelling a strange odor, which I finally determined was coming from her PC. So when I got home yesterday I popped the case open and found that it was coming from her video card--the fan on the heatsink had seized up, so it was overheating even at idle. Hopefully that also explains why some games would make her PC shut down after a few minutes. Slapped in a new card and so far so good.

Oh, and the other day there was a really good NewEgg deal on a mini desktop PC that should be great to replace the little nettop I've been using as my home theater PC. I like the old one from a size and power-usage perspective, but it's just clunky and underpowered as a PC, and it only has USB 2.0 ports which means the USB 3.0 external hard drive where my movies live doesn't work as well as it could. The new one was only $140 after rebate, and that's with Windows 8.1 included, so I couldn't pass it up. I was hoping it would arrive by Saturday so I could get it set up this weekend, but I guess that is not to be unless UPS is mistaken. Hopefully this one won't take a wrong turn to Abu Dhabi.

And speaking of games, we haven't played much D&D or other tabletop games lately. We've done Munchkin another time or two, and are getting the hang of it, though the last time we played I resolved to be more evil and never got the cards to do so. Maybe this weekend. I also signed on to the Kickstarter for Exploding Kittens, since that seems right up our admittedly-skewed alley. It won't be shipping for a while, but I am looking forward to it.

And that's the latest geeky news in the cp household!

Comments

[cinnamonbite.livejournal.com]

Portal for kids? I dunno if they'd ever figure it out.

[girlguitarist.livejournal.com]

I would argue that since their brains are still developing, they might learn the physics in it easier than an adult would.

Also this: http://kotaku.com/father-makes-son-play-through-video-game-history-chron-1669616589
:)

[cp.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried Portal myself, though I think I grok the basics. Still, I imagine they could do it. Especially after seeing them rock Tomb Raider--they really get the mechanics a lot better than I figured they would at their ages.