Slashdot Mirror
Two-Player Games for Mixed Skill Level Players?
koreth asks: "What are some good two-player games that a newbie can successfully play with a more seasoned gamer? I want to find a good console or PC game I can play with my girlfriend, who has only recently started gaming. Something cooperative would be great, but head-to-head is fine too. All the games we've tried are made for players of roughly the same skill level -- so either I end up dumbing my gameplay way down (no fun for me) or blowing her out of the water without much effort (no fun for her). Is there any game out there that gives two players tasks of varying difficulty to keep both of them engrossed, at the same time?"
You're probably best off going coop games. If you're going PC games, any MMOG would probably do the trick. There's a decently steep learning curve, but you can help each other out quite effectively. WoW is a really easy game to teach newbies: as a very casual gamer, my wife picked up on it pretty quickly.
If you're not limiting yourself to PC, a Gamecube would be a good place to go. There are plenty of games for the veteran and the hardcore alike. Of course all I can think of is the NES days with coop games like Guerrilla War, the Double Dragon series, TMNT games, etc etc. Classic NES games are hard to beat. Easy to learn, but still a whole lot of fun! When I game with my wife, the NES probably gets used the most.
Look for games that allow handicaps to be set. Like the latest AoE, if you are both into RTS.. Handicap yourself to death..challenging for you and ultimately brings you both to approximately the same level of skill after playing around with the handicap values a bit..
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
Theres this game I play with my girlfriend, but it's not a video game.... try it
Purple, because ice cream has no bones.
I can't stress enough the sheer multiplayer bliss that can be found in the first Super Monkey Ball. It's a game that gets played a lot whenever my family gets together.
Particularly the minigame "Monkey Target." No matter your skill level, you can have loads of fun; the game is competitive, but in a way that doesn't make it less fun if you get completely obliterated by your opponent. The sounds, colors, and animations make it easy to laugh about doing poorly, to the point where you don't even care who wins or loses. It's a lot of fun, either way.
Plus, the cute graphics will probably make it easy for your girlfriend to get into.
My wife and I are currently playing Dungeon Siege together. It is simple enough that any one with point and click experience and basic math skills can excel at it, but entertaining enough to keep you clicking forward.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
'Cause if it does, I feel I should quote C-3P0:
I suggest a new strategy, R2: let the wookie win.
Seriously though, if you are up for 'lets work together', and don't mind sharing the controller/keyboard, I would recommend something more puzzle & adventure oriented. Could be a point 'n click, but it doesn't have to be. I mean, some of the older Tomb Raiders were good in this respect (puzzles); just remember to look at other parts of the screen once in a while or your plan may backfire. Let's face it, FPS' are more reaction time and fine motor control -- which can be fun -- but I have a sneaking suspicion your better half will appreciate something more cerebral.
If you really do want a truly 2 player game, I would recommend something coop. If you have Half Life and more than one computer (and what self-respecting geek doesn't?), then give Sven Co-op a try. Play through Half Life co-operatively. There is also a huge map pack avaliable with decent maps; not all of which are quick-blast-everything-that-moves. Other choices include other coop games, such as Halo 2. I'm sure you can think of others without too much effort; eg sports games, racing games usually have > 1 player mode built-in, at least for consoles.
Personally, I'd go for the one that gets you the most thanks-for-thinking-of-me-honey... points.
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
hell, I've played games with a 27 handicap! Believe me, it makes a difference :)
Although by that stage you're better off switching to a smaller board...
need a free COBOL editor for Windows?
You know, there's really NO POINT to play a game that pits you against
your girlfriend. Really, relationships are about cooperation, and there's
a lot to benefit from an adrenaline experience if you're both on the
same side. Show her things and help her up, stay away from
the smack-down.
Anyway, a few games from different genres...
Katamari Damacy 1 is a really fun off-kilter game, but the 2-player mode is
not that fun. I don't know about We Love Katamari (the 2nd in the series), but
I think they fixed the multiplayer. It's quirky, simple to pick up and addictive.
I think Dungeon Siege & DS2 are pretty good cooperative games for RPG-type
games. Fighting is relatively easy and you can help each other. It's an
attractive game too. Go out of your way to share the loot.
For shooter games, Serious Sam and Serious Sam 2 are really
fun cooperative games. They might be more guy games. I've
had lots of fun attacking 300-foot-tall monsters with my friends.
It doesn't matter about skill, because the better players just help protect
the beginners and there is plenty of work to go around. Weapons
and ammo that appear always have multiple copies, so there's no
fighting over stuff.
It's too bad that cooperative games are not as popular as they should
be. I think it's because it requires extra effort and tweaking that most
publishers don't bother with.
Maybe if review sites put "cooperative play" or "family play" on their
checklists, it might help with the situation.
Why not play a card or board game or something else altogether?
It is very easy to "mod" a RL game so that you can even the playing field. Examples follow:
- "Risk" like games: Different distribution levels of armies.
- "Go" like games: One player starts with more pieces on the board.
- "Monopoly" like games: Start one player with a few properties.
I could go on, but you get the point (I hope.)There are also some games that lend themselves better to n00bs like Cribbage... I can't count the number of times I've been beaten by people who just started playing, and I've been playing it for almost 20 years.
There are two types of people in the world: those who divide people into two types and those who don't.
I can't believe no one had mentioned final fantasy III/VI! It'd be perfect! It has a great storyline, Edgar owns in the beginning just long enough to get over the learning curve, and you guys can pick which characters are controlled by whom and customize to your liking.
This is what I read slashdot for. Thank you.
Title says it all!
My wife (a game newbie) and I love it, and have given it as a gift to other sets of mismatched friends. Seriously, spend the $20 or whatever and give it a shot. She'll love you for it!
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I think you might want to reconsider your premise: your girlfriend, if she is unwilling to immerse herself in the games, might just not be that interested in video games. You may also ask yourself whether your girlfriend really wants to play, or if she is just acquiescing to your hobbies. If the latter is the case, you might find that her ardor wears off and the games become a burden on your relationship. Finding activities that are genuinely, mutually enjoyable would be a better bet if this is the case. Note that I'm not saying it is: you're the one in the relationship and you must trust your own judgment.
As another alternative, you could try something like Go, a board game with a natural way of leveling the skill barrier by giving one side a handicap. Otherwise, I you could be on a quest for something that doesn't exist.
That's not true at all, especially if you get into higher ranks... You could argue that 20k is always going to destroy a 30k, no matter what the handicap -- but that's only because 30k has very little knowledge of the game.
A 5k and 10k can play a fairly even game with a 5 stone handicap, while the 10k will always win an 8-9 handicap game.
I have to agree that "no matter how wide the difference" statement is reaching.. but some fairly wide differences can be evened out with handicap stones.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
You don't have to stick with the co-op mode forever in Halo 2, either. The multiplayer has a pretty effective handicap function. It's especially useful since the steepest part of the learning curve for most new gamers is mastering orientation and sorting through your options. But if she can kill you in four shots while it takes you seven, it won't matter if she's slower at making decisions and taking shots.
John Hancock wuz here.
I completely disagree with the MMORPG idea. First off, if shes not a gamer, theres no way shell be interested in that. Honestly, there are 2 types that i would suggest: 1. Party Games. All of the mario party games, or Fuzion Frenzy for the XBOX are perfect. My friends gf played that with me, him, and another "girl." my friends GF won one of the minigames >70% of the time, though a few minutes later we learned that she didnt know to use the directional pad as was only using a and b. 2. Oldschool. The NES has 2 buttons. Plus the games are non-gory, which should help. What can i say, Mario's a pimp. Even if you go newer (n64) Nintendo is the way to go. Games like mariokart and waverage offer amamzing gameplay, and waverace's handicap really evens the playing field (too much so for my tastes). My experience with playing games with traditional girls is that they dont mind loosing or coming in second. They dont see it as a competition, but rather just having fun.
even with a nine stone handicap, an expert can probably beat a newbie
GuildWars is nice but some of the very 'pros' of it act as cons for many. For example, the in game 'community' lacks. People ditch parties without warning. You'll also never meet other players while you're exploring or in journey. The game plays more like a MOG. You have a glorified lobby (town/cities) to meet in, but after that it's very limited multiplayer. It plays down social interaction more than I'd like.
Some people like that and I understand why, but many MMO players will find it seriously lacking. I do like that I don't have to grind levels and pay a monthly fee though.
...are both compulsive gamers. When I say compulsive I say it in the lightest possible meaning of the word, but we still tend to sit down in front of our two high-end computers and play computer games once we both get home from work. It is not the only thing we do, but it is the only thing that is relevant to this discussion, and your imaginations can fill in the blanks elsewhere - thank you.
I turned her almost accidentally to gaming and she only recently started a blog with the intent of chronicling her gaming, except she is too wrapped up in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind at the moment to actually make any updates to the blog. Go figure.
Our favorite genre is RPGs, for Role Playing Games. I prefer games with a deep, rich story and plenty of character development choices. She prefers games that are beautiful. Marriage is like that, you will like different things and you should just roll with it and get along on what you can get along on. That is also where it gets tricky.
Because we are both gamers, and because we love many of the same games we have tried to play them cooperatively. Here are the ones we have tried so far:
Neverwinter Nights (Wintel/Linux)
This was the game that really turned my wife onto gaming, and it was even her first ever contact with the "Dungeons and Dragons" franchise, imagine that. She has played this game and all of its expansions through at least twice, and four times for some. I have not even completed the original campaign. In this game, she is the master and I am the apprentice and my incessant questions about "Who was that?" and "Did you get that quest item?" or "Where does that road go?" became too much for her. We have completely different playing styles and couldn't cooperate.
System Shock 2 (Wintel)
This futuristic first-person RPG has an atmosphere thicker than custard pie and the 2.09 patch introduces a cooperative campaign mode for up to four players. We both love it, we've both played it through, but when we tried to play it together, we ran in different directions. When she was ambushed by a Hybrid from an angle she thought I had covered, I had actually wandered off in search of upgrade modules. It is a tense experience, but it is probably best experienced on your lonesome in a darkened room.
Guild Wars (Wintel)
We had great expectations for the cooperative possibilities in this game, and played through the entire "pre-searing" part of the game together. In this game we did not have the problem of running in different directions, but we were two different player classes. I was the tank warrior and she was the bow-equipped ranger/elementalist mage. She hit targets from a distance while I had to run up to them to attack. This meant she stood still and I ran ahead, and though I never ran far she still got the impression that I was leading the way instead of the ranger.
Icewind Dale II (Wintel)
Another Dungeons and Dragons franchise RPG, but this one was still in 2D art. She liked the 2D art, but decided that the characters "look like LEGOs" and refused to play on account of their miniscule modular ugliness.
Civilization IV (Wintel/?)
My wife not only made first aquaintance with gaming since she met me, but after her introduction to Civilization III, she also made the aquaintance of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. CivIII was her drug of choice and the first time she kept me up all night with a game, it was CivIII. So naturally we were both excited and frightened of the CivIV release. Carpal is painful and fixing it is not exactly free or pleasant. But! The turn-based nature of Civilization IV made this game the best possible cooperative game we have ever tried. Regardless of whether you play simultaneous or individual turns, you always have time to do what you want to and if your partner is ready with his/her turn before you are, you can zoom around the cities you have for some micromanagement.
Just make sure you divide the world between each other before you start. You do not want to get into a diplomatic border dispute with your spouse. And send reinforcements! / Per
/ Per