Gamer girl (12) - help!

[Friendsoftheearth]

I have a 12 year old girl who loves gaming! She really likes driving cars - real ones - the junior lessons, so I think driving games etc she would really enjoy in the winter.

So I am thinking to buy her some kind of gaming things for christmas, but I have NO IDEA where to start. She loves Roblox and that kind of thing too, was massively into Minecraft when she was younger. She likes building things. I was looking at the Nintendo Switch, but that is because everyone else talks about it.

Can anyone recommend the best ones?

[liaun]

Definitely involve her in this decision, she'll be more grateful for that than any surprise element. It's a lot of money to get the wrong one

[Gertie75]

We've got an x box and two Switches and have used the xbox less than 10x, the games are mainly racing or fighting and none of us are into those.
The Nintendo are more family friendly, my two girls love Splatoon 2, Minecraft, Animal Crossing and the Mario series.
Games can be expensive but they always have offers online which include the main titles and are between 50 and 80% off. Or you can buy a physical copy then sell it on Ebay once she's completed it, they fetch great prices.

Could you bring the subject up with your daughter and find out what she likes the idea of without telling or even ask her outright, at that age she won't be expecting Santa to turn up and might really enjoy researching and choosing which console and games she wants.

[RozHuntleysStump]

At her age I recommend the switch but I would really try and find out what she would actually like. The switch is awesome though and you can take it out. Also Animal Crossing!

[MsEllany]

Xbox and Forza are the latest and best racing games (someone mentioned Gran Turismo up thread which is good, but I found really hard to play).

I agree on game pass and sounding out friends if you can.

The Need for Speed games are really fun and should be cheap - there is one in particular called Hot Pursuit which is really good.

[Swayo]

Can I check if she can do Scratch on Xbox is this something different? And Python?
On the pc for those.

[MilesToGoBeforeISleep]

Scratch is an amazing resource and is completely free online on a laptop or PC. It has its own tutorials and there are endless you tube tutorials too. She needs to get confident in Scratch first I would say before moving to Python!

[yetmorecomplaining]

Very much depends what games you play and what you’d term ‘half decent’. If you consider the price of console + wheel(s?) + £50-80 a game you’d have a fair amount to spend on a machine that can be used for much more than roblox

[Hingeandbracket]

Can't advise on coding but DD (12) has been given an old Xbox by DSD and is loving Forza - which we bought for £3 in CEX. We don't have steering wheels etc, but we can race each other (2 player).

We are not a gaming household so this happened by accident really.

She also plays minecraft on every device known to man - but you can play 2 player minecraft on xbox.

[Janevaljane]

My half decent laptop wouldn't run most new pc games. You need a good graphics card.

[yetmorecomplaining]

You don’t need an expensive gaming pc. Even a half decent laptop is enough - plus it’s of far more use than just a console

[yetmorecomplaining]

Scratch, Python, Kodu etc all really for pc

[yetmorecomplaining]

Leave python and unity for now til she has more confidence, both are great but unity especially has a v steep learning curve.
Scratch is great to start, as is Kodu - both introduce coding concepts without actually jumping straight into code. Both suitable for making own games and both have good tutorials + decent free online resources

[MahaliaJ]

Or she might just enjoy playing Mario Kart!

[MsStillwell]

Are you generally academic in terms of family background?

[Friendsoftheearth]

Thank you all! Amazingly helpful advice on here. Can I check if she can do Scratch on Xbox is this something different? And Python?
Raspberry Pi etc. She is very different to all of us, much more of a natural engineer/innovator in a way I find hard to channel or to know what to do with to be honest... trying to adapt to her and offer her something that suits her, but have no idea where to start!!

[MsStillwell]

I'm not great for advising on programming/coding for that age but I think it's worth looking in to a Raspberry Pi. It would be a great field for her to get in to in terms of opportunities and there's a great community of female pioneer.

[bungaloid]

For programming try Scratch (MIT). If she gets the hang of that she can move onto Python. If she really wants to focus on developing games then perhaps have a look at Unity.
For consoles, I'd wait for the next generation in mid November.

[EmmaWithTheGreatHair]

Many of the racing games just allow you to ‘free roam’ so you can just drive around the locations.

[Friendsoftheearth]

How do I get her into programming? She is very much into stuff like this, even with a mother like me.

She likes coding, and has tried it at school. I am sure she would love to make her own games etc, she is very creative like that.

She would like driving rather rather than racing, but maybe she will like racing as well! I am into hobbycraft and crafting, so this is all very confusing to me.

[MsStillwell]

Heck, get her in to programming!

[EmmaWithTheGreatHair]

DS also loved Burnout Paradise and Dirt Rally.

Google - best driving games for Xbox One and you’ll see a selection that come up. Check them out on YouTube to see if they’re suitable and then search eBay for bargains.

[EmmaWithTheGreatHair]

DS loved all the driving games, Forza etc on the Xbox. Never needed a wheel though.

You could look on eBay for second hand driving games too or as a pp suggested, you can get Xbox game pass but you don’t actually own the games, if you cancel the pass your games will go with it.

[Icancelledthecheque]

Big gaming household here.

Agree with @Bunnybigears that she will want to play with her friends online so worth trying to find out what they play. Some games don’t allow cross platform so if she has an Xbox and her friend has a PS4 they might not be able to play together.

The switch is the least powered console and is years behind anything else graphically. Most games for switch you could play on a mobile phone. However it does have animal crossing which she will get hours of fun out of, particularly if she likes minecraft and building games. You can only get this on switch but there are other games like Mario Kart that are fun. However the downside to switch is the games are INSANELY expensive. One game I got for £5 on the PC is still £50 on switch, and the prices don’t really come down. It’s not worth it IMO.

I prefer PS4 and PC. Gaming PCs are extremely expensive though and the PS5 is coming out soon so I wouldn’t go down the PS route. However the PS4 does have a reasonably priced virtual reality system for a future present...

Xbox is probably a good fit. I’d recommend getting the Xbox game pass - you pay less than £10 a month for access to a huge number of games. It’s saved me a fortune over having to buy them individually! The game pass is also available for PC if you went down that route. Not sure if there’s anything like this for PS4 as I’ve largely ignored it lately lol.

[Friendsoftheearth]

I am hoping to keep this is as a surprise, so maybe I will text the parents of her friends.

[Branleuse]

youre better off getting a gaming PC so she can use it for schoolwork and other stuff too