Games for an 11 year old?

[DarkSable]

Hey there Tom's!

I have an 11 year old cousin (male), who I'd like to get a bunch of cheap second hand games for Christmas.

I'm looking for games that I enjoyed as a kid, but that he'd enjoy as well. He's intelligent, but doesn't have that great of an attention span.

What I have so far are:

Civilization III
Age of Mythology
Robot Arena 2
Titan Quest

Terraria / Minecraft
Trine

Any thoughts on other games a kid of this age would enjoy? His parents don't approve of gory games, and I know the hardware he has isn't amazing. (It's also on dial-up, so single-player games are a must.)

Thanks!

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

The Trine series are lots of fun (even for an adult). Pick 'em up on Steam or where ever you can get a discount.

Edited: They're both on 50% Off on Steam right now.

 

[13thmonkey]

seriously look at steam, you can even gift them to him so that his account is separate from yours.

many many things on sale. Some may not be appropriate now, but they grow up so so quick at that age that they'll be appropriate in another 6 and 12 months.

 

[voiidwulf]

Minecraft is good. My sister has been playing that since she was 10. If you stick to single player there is nothing inappropriate. On multiplayer people swear sometimes and make sexual remarks, but as you stated, that isn't going to happen with a dial-up connection.

EDIT: I just realized everything I wrote is fairly obvious, but whatever.

 

[13thmonkey]

sorry, didn't spot the dial up issue.

avoid anything from valve (portal is great unfortunately) as they will insist on a massive update.

 

[voiidwulf]

Yeah. Downloading a full game from Steam on a dial-up would take like a week.

Quick calculation:
7GB game at 56Kbps = 277:46:40

277 hours, 46 minutes and 40 seconds.

Divided by 24 = ~11 days for a single 7GB game.

EDIT: And even 7GB isn't that big. A lot of games are over double that these days. I'm downloading the first Witcher right now and it is 16GB. That would take almost a month per game.

 

[DarkSable]

The Trine series are lots of fun (even for an adult). Pick 'em up on Steam or where ever you can get a discount.

Edited: They're both on 50% Off on Steam right now.

I've looked at Trine in the past, but only for myself. Would you say they're a good pick for that age group? (I've only seen them as a mediocre Semi-3d plat former.)

 

[DarkSable]

sorry, didn't spot the dial up issue.

avoid anything from valve (portal is great unfortunately) as they will insist on a massive update.

Yeah, that's the biggest problem. (Though I love valve games to death, but then again, I don't have to deal with slow internet.)


Just throwing it out there, because a lot of you seem to have missed it... I'm a hardcore pc gamer.

The reason I'm asking for help is because the games I play now are NOT appropriate for young'uns, due to difficulty or gore.


So I need games that:

1) Are appropriate for an 11 year old boy, and will capture his interest.

2) Are completely single-player due to crappy and expensive internet.

3) Are fairly old, due both to his not having a nice computer to use and due to price.

Thanks!

 

[voiidwulf]

Terraria is good too.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

I've looked at Trine in the past, but only for myself. Would you say they're a good pick for that age group? (I've only seen them as a mediocre Semi-3d plat former.)

I'd say the game was design for that age group. I've enjoyed the game myself (though I was playing on a 3D Screen). The storyline blends well for pre-teen to mid-teen IMO. It's also got same screen local multiplayer (if you ever wanna play with your kid).

 

[DarkSable]

Terraria is good too.

Haven't looked at that much. 2D minecraft, right?

Oh, and his internet is even worse than your calculations - they're on dial-up, or satellite, or something like that. (They live way out in the back woods.)

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Plant vs Zombies ?

 

[voiidwulf]

Haven't looked at that much. 2D minecraft, right?

Oh, and his internet is even worse than your calculations - they're on dial-up, or satellite, or something like that. (They live way out in the back woods.)

Oh, I see. Lol.

Yeah, Terraria kind of started out as a 2D Minecraft, but at this point the games have pretty much evolved separately and play completely differently. Terraria is more exploration and combat based, while in Minecraft it's more about building an oasis from the hostile mobs and farming, building, etc. In Terraria there are a ton of different weapons and you have to explore large dungeons to get the best ones. There are a lot more creatures/enemies in Terraria too. If your cousins more of a creative type, Minecraft would be better though. Terraria doesn't have the best building mechanics as you are limited to a 2D plane. (Geometric plane, not aircraft. )

 

[DarkSable]

He's the type, who, when put in front of a racing sim, crashed the car over and over while laughing riotously for hours.

I'm thinking Terraria might be right up his alley, but it's meant to be mostly multi-player, right? Would it still work as single-player?

Also, I run emulators, but it's been a while since I've dealt with setting one up. How well do you think an average box from Costco that's been upgraded with a low-end graphics card would handle something like, say, Dolphin?

 

[bystander]

Dirt 2 and 3 would be great fun, if he likes racing games.

 

[DarkSable]

Dirt 2 and 3 would be great fun, if he likes racing games.

I think his dad owns dirt 2, but is there a place that I could find dirt 3 for cheap? (I'll also have to check the system requirements of it.)

 

[Jan3s]

Need for Speed Most Wanted 2

 

[voiidwulf]

He's the type, who, when put in front of a racing sim, crashed the car over and over while laughing riotously for hours.

I'm thinking Terraria might be right up his alley, but it's meant to be mostly multi-player, right? Would it still work as single-player?

Also, I run emulators, but it's been a while since I've dealt with setting one up. How well do you think an average box from Costco that's been upgraded with a low-end graphics card would handle something like, say, Dolphin?

Yeah. The singleplayer is fairly fun. Multiplayer just makes it easier as you basically have twice the offensive power when doing dungeons and stuff.

 

[tinyE]

If he is playing Civ III at eleven don't get him any more games. He is going to need all of his free time for studying when he gets to Harvard in two years.

 

[casualcolors]

Torchlight 2. Fun for all ages, and quality that should make Blizzard feel ashamed. Check out trailers to decide if it's too gory.

 

[tinyE]

Torchlight 2. Fun for all ages, and quality that should make Blizzard feel ashamed. Check out trailers to decide if it's too gory.

Torchlight 1 and 2 are made by most of the same designers who made Diablo 1 & 2 and then jumped ship over at Blizzard. Thats why the music is almost identicle, and did you ever notice a lot of the baddies have similar names and characteristics? Either way, it's a great suggestion by you. They are big, colorful, play fast and most importantly can be maxed out on pretty much anything bigger than a pocket calculator.

Good call casualcolors

 

[casualcolors]

Torchlight 1 and 2 are made by most of the same designers who made Diablo 1 & 2 and then jumped ship over at Blizzard. Thats why the music is almost identicle, and did you ever notice a lot of the baddies have similar names and characteristics? Either way, it's a great suggestion by you. They are big, colorful, play fast and most importantly can be maxed out on pretty much anything bigger than a pocket calculator.

Good call casualcolors

Oh I know the history of Blizzard-North, and I have to admit I feel like there is a fair amount of karmatic justice in Torchlight 2 being such a great success for them now as Runic Games.

 

[Commandermadi]

The Sims 3.

 

[Blue cheese gamer]

Ya I gotta say terraria is a good game except it kind of gets boring after about 6 weeks of playing because once you have all the items you become way to OP. But still you should check it out!
Also would his parents approve of Fable? Look into that one and then ask them because Fable is pretty cool

So ya.
Check them out!

 

[bigLARRY]

I love the games spore, Starbound, nidhogg, guns of icurus ( not real guns just ships with launchers and try to shoot others down), minecraft, and cookie clicker and I am 11 years old.