Games For My Wife

Here are some games I thought my wife might enjoy, that might get her into gaming:

Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (2006) PC Gamer: 85% Get from telltalegames.com

From NYTimes review: Wandering grimy streets under a yellow sky, the duo find a client at a local “inconvenience” store whose greenish coffee prompts Max to note, “I take my coffee green, like my men.” Soon, with the help of a psychic turned psychiatrist, they are on the trail of an organ-playing villain.

The puzzles in Culture Shock are only moderately challenging for the most part, but they are entertainingly offbeat. One of the cleverest involves manipulating a dream sequence to persuade a psychiatrist that Sam suffers from a specific psychiatric disorder.

With sardonic humor, a cool jazz score and engaging 3-D graphics, Culture Shock has even more style and wit than the original game. Unfortunately, the fun ends far too soon. This is not a full game but simply the first of six chapters, and you can finish the whole thing in four or five hours.

Sam & Max Hit The Road (1993)

Jeff Smith heartily reccomends.

The Sims: Life Stories (2007). PC Gamer: 91% in April 2007

Regular Sims games are “sandbox” type open ended games, but this is a story based game. PC Gamer: “The Sims: Life Stories gives you the opportunity to play out a soap opera filled with freestyle Sims elements (which makes it a bit like last year’s Desperate Housewives adventure game.)” See below for Desperate Housewives.

Desperate Housewives (2006) PC Gamer: 85%

“The TV-watching hausfrau demographic is the target market for this adventure/life sim based on the sultry TV series. … Desperate Housewives is a cleverly designed tongue-in-cheek conversion of the show”

World Of Warcraft PC Gamer: 95% | GameTab: 93%

Seems to be the most effective “gateway” game.

The Sims 2 (2004) GameTab: 89%

Beyond Good and Evil (2003) GameTab: 86% | PC Gamer: 73%

Psychonauts (2005) GameTab: 91% | PC Gamer: 90%

City of Heroes/Villains

From “How to get your girlfriend playing video games,” PC Gamer Magazine May 2006: “is a great beginning MMO, since there are a lot of safe areas and it’s easy to meet up with groups.”

The Longest Journey (2000) PC Gamer: 90%

In 2005, PC Gamer called it the best Adventure game of all time. However, the puzzles are the standard illogical adventure game fare, and the setting is some fantasy/sci-fi thing that won’t appeal to non-gamers.

Ghost Master (2003) GameTab: 82% | PC Gamer: 90%

Joy and I tried the tutorial, but the learning curve (simple 3D camera control) was too steep for her. I tried it later, and it seems puzzle based, where the puzzles can get pretty obscure.

Sim City IV (2003) GameTab: 85% | PC Gamer: 83%

The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)

Tried this (on our honeymoon), but Joy became less and less interested, and I ended up playing it by myself.