Games For Both Of Us?

Truist writes "My wife and I have started playing games together (side by side at the computer) recently, and we're having a hard time finding games that we both like. Specifically, I tend to like FPS games (Quake) and she tends to like puzzle games (Myst), but we're both happy to meet in the middle. She doesn't seem to like Worms, but Return to Castle Wolfenstein was a huge success for both of us. What are your suggestions for good games that we can play together, and that we'll both enjoy?"

Comments

my wife's preferences

[egomaniac]

Games that my wife and I have spent a lot of time playing together:

Diablo II
SimCity
The Sims
various Zeldas
Animal Crossing
Mario Kart: Double Dash

I'm not sure what it is about Diablo II -- it's certainly not a traditional female-friendly game -- but for some reason my wife really loved it and burned serious hours playing it. Now that I think about it, my girlfriend is even less of a gamer than my wife, but for some reason she too is a huge Diablo II fan. It might have to do with the collecting & accessorizing aspect of the game.

The co-op mode in Mario Kart: DD is GREAT for spousal involvement. My wife rides on the back of the cart, helping me dodge things and using items, so she feels very involved and will happily sit and play for hours. But because I'm doing the driving, and therefore most of the success/failure rests on me, she doesn't feel extremely pressured. With my wife, at least, her main turn-off when it comes to video games is pressure: if she gets flustered while playing a game, she won't touch it again. Every single game my wife has ever gotten into has been low pressure, and generally also low-conflict.

I would say that in general Nintendo makes the best gender-neutral games. Buy a GameCube if you don't already have one.