to try my (old!) hand at gaming?

[dejarderoncar]

I've always felt that gaming would not interest me very much, as all the most popular games seem to involving killing people and to have ultra macho protaganists and women with few clothes on, sometimes being sexually abused or worse.

But quite a few women on Mumsnet seem to be keen gamers, and often games are mentioned which I know nothing about.

Can MumsNetters help me with the following; what games don't involve too much killing and don't demean women? what's the best system to buy? will it take over the rest of my life?!!

I'm 70, love messing about with technology, have spare time but not too much spare cash at the moment for endlessly buying new games etc. Also don't think 'fantasy' would do it for me either.

[BadLad]

Wii Sports / Wii Fit are probably the most accessible games to non-gamers, although the latter involves balancing on the Wii Fit board and quite a bit of actual movement. Wii Sports, despite its name, can mostly be played just by flicking your wrist on the coach.

The Wii U also has the Mario games, which are tried and tested fun, and have been consistently excellent for decades. They involve rescuing the Princess, but the very little violence there is is of the cartoon sort. There are other non-violent games, like the party games on it.

Otherwise your options are PlayStation or Xbox. If you like motor racing, then the X-box is best, for its excellent Forza and Forza Horizon series.

Rare Replay is an unbelievably good value compilation of older games available for Xbox One.

Minecraft is now on all three consoles. Mine materials to create more and more complex items.

It depends how strict you are about not killing anything. It certainly cuts down on your options on PS4 and Xbox. The lego games might suit you.

[Missyaggravation]

If you have a laptop, give world of warcraft a go. Its free to try, I love it despite not being a big fantasy fan.

[Kerberos]

Excellent answer BadLad. We have Xbox one here and with Xbox live Gold and EA access you get free downloads and trial games so you can try a few.

It was only when I tried Assassins Creed I realised how much I enjoyed first person stuff up until then I was a fan of puzzle games like Broken Sword or strategy games like Age of Empires.

I'm now a massive Destiny fan which is a shooting aliens game but with a big online collaborative network element which I love.

[CatMilkMan]

I fall asleep most nights watching an older lady play skyrim, her name is Shirley curry and her YouTube skyrim series is awesome.

[BadLad]

Ah, Age of Empires. Loved the first two (and the DS ones), couldn't get into the third one at all. If you like that, you could try the Stronghold games, which are similar but more emphasis on designing your castle and storming the enemy castles.

Skyrim is a great game, but I think I probably killed over a thousand people before I tired of it, to say nothing of hundreds more animals, from dragons to bunny rabbits.

Many modern games will probably be very hard to get into for people who haven't played games before. Like equipping a new sword on Witcher 3 - it's instinctive to me to open the menu, select it and equip it, but I can see it being a massive pain in the arse if you don't know how these things usually work.

[toomuchtooold]

Also if you have a laptop try Minecraft? It's about building and exploring in a world made of blocks. And you can do it on a fairly bog standard laptop PC.

I also love Portal and Portal 2 - it's a bunch of puzzles that you solve by creating doorways - and it's got a very funny backstory.

In terms of the consoles, Wii has all the interesting controllers and lots of games that need balance and control. Playstation and Xbox have a lot more shooting games and the sort of fantasy roleplaying games - there are a few series that only come out on Xbox (Halo) and PS (Final Fantasy) but most stuff is available on both.

If you've never played anything at all you don't need to buy the latest console and games, so you could do pretty well out of e.g. an Xbox 360 (£71.99 on Amazon) or a PS3 or a first generation Wii. New games won't be released on them but there's a load of titles already out there and tons of stuff available second hand.

[buckingfrolicks]

I'm 52 almost, and i love playing Nancy Drew - HerInteractive has them. I wish I could find another series or type of game I enjoy but they're either too hard or too "shootemup". but if you like quests/problem solving Nancy's great

[Naoko]

If you have a laptop or desktop PC, you could download and install Steam - it is a program from the games developer and retailer Valve, which they use to sell their own and other companies' PC games. There are thousands and thousands of game on there, some amazing, some atrocious, but they're helpfully divided into categories and almost all have good descriptions, screenshots and videos so you can see what it's like. They also always do a Christmas sale which will likely start some time this week, and the discounts on those are very substantial. Just have a browse, click on some categories, see what appeals. And if you don't like it or it doesn't work on your PC, as long as you haven't played it for more than two hours and have owned it for less than two weeks they will automatically refund you if you ask.

[NeedMoreSleepOrSugar]

Do you know what type of game you'd like to play? And do you want to play with/against others, or just on your own?

Personally I'd recommend a computer/laptop over a console for gaming- better games (and lots of free ones), more communities to join in of you want the social aspect, and of course you can use it for lots of things besides gaming.

If you want casual solo game playing, perhaps check out games such as bejewelled,plants vs zombies or bookworm. If you fact something more immersive perhaps try out guild wars 2 or world of war craft both of which have good communities too (guild wars is the more casual in most cases)

[DraenorQueen]

OP I play World of Warcraft and I LOVE it. Once you get into it you realise how massively vast it is, and it's not something you're going to "complete" in 3 days flat. Beautiful scenery, generally friendly community....well worth the £9.99 a month subscription.

[TrionicLettuce]

Another vote for having a look on Steam if you have a laptop/PC. There's endless great games on there of pretty much every genre you could imagine.

From the same developer as World of Warcraft (which I also love!!) there's Hearthstone (a card based game you can play on PC/laptop/tablet/phone) and Heroes of the Storm (5v5 arena battles with the option to play against other players or AI) which are both free with the option to spend money to get extras if you want.

[halphalp]

I would suggest Journey. You will need a PS3 or a PS4, and the game costs approximately £12 (you can shell out approximately £30 for the collector's edition, but I wouldn't bother).

You play a little creature in a cloak. It wakes up alone and abandoned in a desert with no idea how it got there or what it has to do. It is surrounded by the ruins created by a once great people, its people, that are now being covered by the sands of the desert. It encounters strange flying creatures made from flying carpets and can use their magic to fly.

Then the creature finds out it has an important mission: to travel to the top of a mountain to seek forgiveness and redemption for the terrible things its people did to their world and the creatures that lived in it.

There is no shooting or fighting, although there is occasional mild peril. You meet other people playing the same game at the same time, but the only communication allowed is a musical note. There is no shouting or swearing, bangs or explosions. In fact, there is no speech at all: from other players or from creatures in the game.

The controls are simple as there are no complicated combinations of buttons to press.

The game is short as it is approximately an hour and a half long.

It is a wonderful meditation on what life is: do you rush through to the end to reach your goals as quickly as possible? Do you pause to help people reach their goals along the way? Do you pause to enjoy life itself, or are your duties and obligations more important? Is it possible to harness the power of nature to make technological advances in a way that does not destroy nature, or ourselves? Is redemption possible? What is more important - redemption of itself, or the act of seeking redemption?

[BadLad]

The Phoenix Wright / Ace Attorney games are some you might like. You play a lawyer, and you have to defend clients. The identity of the murderer is always one of the prosecution witnesses, and you have to find clues before the trial, then find contradictions in the testimony. They are absolutely brilliant, really funny as well as touching and immensely satisfying. No reflexes are required - just a good eye for making connections between details.

[toboldlygo]

Thirding the recommendation for Steam, they frequently have good deals on old strategy games like Civilisation, Age of Empires etc.

Going waaaay back - Riven is a brilliant exploratory puzzle-solving game, all point and click, no killing things (yet genuinely spine-tingling in places anyway).

[BrianButterfield]

I'm a super casual gamer and I like Facebook games of the Candy crush and Farm Heroes type. Don't be misled by the newspaper articles about people spending loads of money on them - you don't have to, it's clear when something costs money and I've never spent anything on them. You don't have to be on Facebook either.

[TheBunnyOfDoom]

I have an Xbox One and would recommend the following:

Gems of War: free to play. A bit like bejewelled but you have four characters and the object is to combine gems to beat your opponents characters. As you level up, you get more powerful characters and new combinations to use. Each character has a colour and a "spell" and if you combine lots of that colour gem, the spell can be used to attack your enemies.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Light/Osiris: top-down shooter game. No blood or gore. You play as Lara and team up with to defeat ancient Egyptian gods. Various levels to play and each has sets of challenges so you can play each level several times to complete different objectives.

Peggle - you have a screen full of coloured pegs and have to aim a shooter ball at them. The aim is to clear the screen. Some balls have special powers which help you clear pegs. There are different levels and different characters to use, each of whom have different powers.

Look for a second-hand console and don't be sucked into getting a 360 just because they're cheaper. There are no new games being released for it and the One has a feature where you can buy old 360 games and play them for no extra cost.

[TrionicLettuce]

If you fancy something really story driven then both Life is Strange and Wolf Among Us (both available on Steam) are really good.

[BadLad]

Might like Rollercoater Tycoon / Theme Park / Theme Hospital etc. All great fun. Design your own Alton Towers or Great Ormond Street. They all have brilliant tutorials, so you can learn how to play.

[PennyHasNoSurname]

What about The Sims? Id go for the PC version and personally preferred Sims 2 to 1 or 3 (not tried 4). I was very into it as a late teen / early 20s, however since work kids/marriage I have neither the tools or time for it any more.

One day I will return to it!! I adored it. Mainly for the building and creating a family, but developing and aging them is good too.

[Iwouldneverbotheryou]

I'm not a big gamer OP, but most of my family including my dp are.

You could try Big Fish games, available on the pc/laptop. I love those games, you solve mysteries to complete the storyline by exploring and playing puzzles. There's things like hidden object scenes, codes to crack, finding things to unlock/fix/ use other things etc

I really like them, no violence really and some are based on fairytales. I find I get really into them and can't wait to finish.

Mostly puzzle based, the good ones really get me hooked.

[Preciousxbane]

Go in to GAME and get a feel for the controllers. I have owned both
Play stations and XBoxes but prefer the feel of the Xbox controller. The PS4 has more frames per second and there are many in depth discussions about the differences but either is fine.

Look up all the games mentioned on here on YouTube to view the content and decide if you want online gaming to interact with others or if you want to go lone wolf.

I have become hooked on Destiny and play most days. as in life you will meet some annoying people if you decide to go co-op but you don't have to speak to anyone if you don't want to. I have made a few really nice friends via online gaming.

[Mrscog]

Can I recommend Don't Starve? A really good survival game - not many tutorials so you have to work out how to survive as you go along. It's really artistic too.

[WMittens]

halphalp
the game costs approximately £12 ... The game is short as it is approximately an hour and a half long.

£12 for an hour and a half! That's more than a cinema ticket! I'd feel seriously short-changed if I'd paid that much for that little, my current favourites are a little over £20 a piece and I'm about 30 hours in to each of them, and in terms of content I'm probably not even a tenth through either.

[pizzaeatingmonkey]

Another recommending Big Fish on the pc.

[BadLad]

Even though it's very short, Journey is an awesome game

www.gamespot.com/reviews/journey-ps4-review/1900-6416195/