Ask GamerDad 4/11/08
Posted on April 14th, 2008 by
Woah! I forgot to link Ask GamerDad last friday? Oops! Here you go. Topics this week include: Multiplayer Co-Op PC Games for 9-year olds? Games for 72-year olds? And a reader politely takes me to task over my “on-the-fence” answer regarding Call of Duty 4 and teenagers.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Very nice set of questions. Here are my thoughts:
– On the 9-year old: I don’t *necessarily* agree with Civ IV being “way out of reach for a nine year old”. As with everything else, I think it depends on the 9-year old. I was playing it with my kids at that age, One was very interested, the other not. But along those same lines I would recommend AD1701 (Anno 1701 in Europe) – it is a wonderful strategy game, but the focus is much more on civilization development and less on taking over the world (yes, I know Civ is about much more than that, just call me little Napoleon 😉 )
– As for the 72 year old, that is tough. Blazing Angels is a tough play on the Wii regardless of age, and definitely not a flight sim. Meridian4 just put out a bus-driving sim (for PC) … and it is very similar to what I think would work for this person. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything that was similar.
– Call of Duty 4. I am right with you on this one, and decided to test my thoughts with a thing I call “Ask the Wife”. She hates shooters in general, but gets particularly uncomfortable with killing people – and the more realistic in terms of setting and situation, the worse for her. I showed her Halo 2 on the PC. She didn’t really get the M-rating, but agreed with me that it was too old for our kids. She allows the Metroid Prime games, but doesn’t like them. But after some other stuff happened with a friend of our son’s getting himself into some trouble on the internet, she asked for further info. I showed her Battlefield 2142 and Call of Duty 4 (BF2142 was something that was played at a sleepover my older son went to). Call of Duty 4 struck a nerve unlike any of the others for her – it was real, looked like the place her cousin died, and just got to her. I think that is the big difference. She doesn’t like blood & gore, doesn’t like violence in general, but once it steps into the real world she is *really* done.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:32 am
There are a couple of other flight options on the Wii. Something called WWII Aces that came out last month to a couple of unimpressive reviews, and Heatseeker, which I think is more of an Afterburner-type arcade game. As far as sims go, obviously we all know there are none, really.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Heatseeker I had played on the PSP (thought I reviewed it for GamerDad in my MACH, Ace Combat flurry, but apparently not) and it is definitely even further away from simulation than Blazing Angels.
Apparently WWII Aces can be fun if you use an alternate control scheme, but still seems middling at best. But sometimes these things hit just the right spot.