Recs for games that non-gaming females might prefer?

I've never played a modern video game and would love to try some but i don't want to play anything that is the most violent and bloody type of thing, but would still like to try action games and others.

I know every female is different, but maybe some of you have noticed females that don't usually game like a few games more than others? I did some searching and so far i've seen mentions of Civilization, and the Sims (of course), but couldn't find many articles on such a request.

For sure i like the Sims (although i heard sims 3 is not as good as 2, but that's fine). I'd be interested in similar games but also action games. I've never really been around many, any recs for games i should look into? Especially ones that are somewhat realistic, meaning, not the games where the person is a few pixels. Here are some themes that might work for me as well...


-Action games with a single person shooter is fine, violence is okay, but not super blood gore and not *too* scary, a little is fine.

-A game with a female main character would be great.

-Civilization building games would be fun.

-Would love some post-apocalyptic games (this is my favorite genre of books and movies).

(no war, no can do. No sports).

My computer would be capable of playing decent games, but not the absolute most demanding games, looks like i'll be working with an intel hd 4000 for now.

(oh, i also love movies about the future, anything about the future out there?)

 

Try Mirror's Edge, Beyond Good & Evil and the Portal series. They all have female lead characters and minimal violence

Slightly more violent (but certainly not bloody/gory/scary) are Tomb Raider series and Mass Effect series.

If you want to try out some Civilization building games then the Civilization and Anno series are the place to start. Also check out Sim City series as you say you like The Sims (which actually started off as a spin-off the the Sim City series).

EDIT: Try No One Lives Forever, both 1 & 2. Classic games, they are. Also Limbo, World of Goo, Audiosurf, Psychonauts, Oddworld Stranger's Wrath and Rayman Origins.

 

Yeah Tomb Raider are great action/adventure games with minimal violence with Lara Croft as main character.

 

These are all excellent suggestions.

I'll add that, in my little experience, while more recent Tomb Raider games preserve the cartoonish proportions of Lara's body, the character herself seems to have gained depth, dropping the series' chauvanism score by a decent bit.

Another genre worth considering is point-and-click adventures - they're essentially series of logic (and sometimes illogical) puzzles, typically set within interesting stories. I think of them as the computer game equivalent of reading a book. One of the benefits of the genre is that its heyday was really in the mid to late nineties, so most of the older adventure games still available are a) the cream of the crop, b) cheap, and c) will run on any modern hardware. If the adventure game suggestion sounds like I'm pandering to a stereotype that women like them, I'll add that it's probably my personal favorite gaming genre as a man who plays games across most genres (fps, rpg, platformer, adventure, etc.). I'd be more than happy to suggest games that are easily and cheaply purchased if you're interested.

 

Yes, suggestions for logic and puzzles and everything else (rpg/fps) would be great. One game i enjoyed on facebook was the Law and Order game (my other favorite tv/movie genre), but there weren't enough outfits, lol, and lacked the need for the player to use reason or logic, etc, just really underdeveloped. I'm so bummed out they don't make Amazing Race for PC, only on the Wii.. Fave tv show.

oh, and okay with female characters that might be boobs and barely clothed, love it. lol. My facebook sim wears her bikini half the time.

thanks all, putting a list of these together and going to google them to check them out. Great, looking forward to playing some games.

 

Angry Birds

 

I'd recommend trying an MMO as well. I'm not sure how well your graphics card will handle it, but MMOs are great as they allow you to completely customize your character and chose what you want to do (questing, leveling, crafting, etc...). Guild Wars 2 is one of the more beginner friendly, Star Wars The Old Republic just went free to play, and WoW has free trials so you can see if you like it.

 

They're also some of the most notorious time-sinks in modern culture - if you have even the slightest addictive personality, avoid them like the plague.

For adventure games, there are good games for every flavor - comedy, fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, suspense. Then there's the issue of technology - you've got text-only adventures, old low-res adventures, VGA adventures, 3D adventures from all generations, first person adventures (which tend to be prettier but more challenging as you don't usually get much feedback about what to do or whether you're succeeding), and so on. Some excellent recent ones I would recommend are Machinarium and Botanicula, both from the same studio. They're a little bit bizarre and include little to no dialogue, and the play style is different from most of the classic point-and-click play styles, but they're a lot of fun to play, and Botanicula is pretty much an instant cure for a sour mood.

 

If you want to try a game set in the future with a strong female lead and awesome story you might want to check out the Mass Effect games.
You get to select if you want to play as the male or female Commander Shepard but the male shepard usually gets the spotlight in the ads and trailers.



A trailer for Mass Effect 3 with FemShep

 

I enjoyed the Fallout games a lot - not too fast paced, you dont have to go in all guns blazing, some funny moments, and you can be a female character. Try Fallout 3 or 4.

The other one I really got into recently was Skyrim - again you dont have to be too macho, though ultimately it is a game about killing things, and again you can play as a female.

Ive never tried Sim City, but it does look fun and i might buy it next year when the new version came out. Civilisation i got free and dip into occasionally but It always seems to be more war and less building. Never tried the Sims, but I do have an account in Second Life which has almost limitless potential for building.

Hope this helps

Arabella

 

you can find plenty of free games to try out on nbr thread > http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...game-ask-about-game-recommendations-here.html

its an old thread but there are some classics on there as far as i can remember.

will post some more links when i get home as they are blocked at work.

 

You might like Geometry Wars (currently on sale for $1) or Audiosurf (on sale $2.50).
Save 75% on Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved on Steam
Save 75% on AudioSurf on Steam

 

imma be reccomending mostly indie games - your card is fairly low end and you might have trouble playing most games i would normally reccomend.

Braid, Audiosurf, Cthulhu saves the world, torchlight, World of goo, and of course, minecraft.

one i reccomend to everyone: League of legends - several NBR'rs play it, but i havent played with many of them... i need more people to play with....hard to pick up but super fun after you get the hang of it.

if you want a shooter i reccomend half life 2 for a story based one CS:S or CS:GO for a quick shooter.

if you get a better computer at any point get mirrors edge. fantastic game, fits almost all the descriptions (but civ builder) unfortunately will not run on a intel 4000.

lastly, as for civ builder go for age of empires 2 or empire earth - they are awesome. red alert 2 is also something i reccomend as well but it is more war-y (also funnier)

edited for great justice: also TROPICO. incredible civ builder. if you want to just build a civilization and not worry about the whole building an army thing - tropico is like the best game ever.

 

You mention liking both Civilization games and Space, so I'd recommend Galactic Civilizations 2. A short description would be Civilization IN SPACE, but it's actually got a lot more depth than that. If you get the Ultimate Edition (link below) which I recommend, that includes the expansions then you have 10 different civilizations to play with, each with their own appearance, strengths and weaknesses, ship designs etc. But it's also very customisable and easy to do. You can make your own Civs, design your own ships using the ship designer that is part of the game and it has a good AI which means you can have a gentle learning curve but also a very challenging game if you want one. Unusually for a Civ type game it also has a strong storyline, even when not playing the story campaigns.

Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition on Steam

And here's a link to the official site and forums: Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

Couple of last things to mention. While you will need to build a military for defence, it's quite possible to win the game through means other than conquest. Also, as you can rename your leader and change the leader portrait, you can have a female leader for any civilization (two of them already have female leaders in ultimate, including the humans. )

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Union Jack.

 

I second World of Goo, Half Life 2, Audiosurf and Tropico that has already been mentioned.

Also, try No One Lives Forever, both 1 & 2. Classic games, they are. And Psychonauts, Limbo, Rayman Origins and Oddworld Stranger's Wrath.

 

this is so great, just want to pipe in to say, thanks so much. : ).

 

Let me point out that the women I know usually end up surprising themselves with the games they actually like to play.

Most of the time, once the woman in question actually takes the time to get into a game they tend to like many of the same things guys do. (and often for similar reasons)

Take one friend... she is about as girly-girl as they get. She always thought video games were the picture of boredom... but give her a game where she can control every aspect of her characters looks and add a dash of social and cartoon violence (Guildwars2) and she actually makes time in her busy life every week to play with online friends giving cartoon-violence "makeovers" to virtual ogres. As it turns out, the game actually serves as a great way for her to let out her frustrations with her daily life. At first she thought she'd be the only female playing... as it turns out, games like GW2 have an impressive female customer base.

I encourage trying new things and just seeing what actually works for you. If you don't have a Steam account, I do encourage signing up for one. Being able to try some free demos with an open mind and no cost to you is a good deal.

 

My girlfriend is addicted to diablo 3.
She loves rpg games though.

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Also not really a typical game but second life has a lot of character creation and clothes to choose.

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I don't wanna be sexist, but most girls AT FIRST won't like a random game. Like Half life, it's a very bad idea to start with that; I don't know you but must of my female friends would never play that. That's why if you wanna play excellent games where a good part of the public is female (you can just check how many girls there are in the FB pages of these games !) I recommend the developer Bioware. If you watch Game of thrones, and if you enjoy this kind of fantasy, you could try Dragon Age. But the one I'd really suggest you to play is Mass Effect as previously stated; not only this game is a piece of art (go away potential trolls, but if you wanna play it DON'T LOOK FOR IT ON GOOGLE, because spoilers are everywhere) that is focused on an epic story - and I can assure you this game will bring you a lot of different emotions -, but also because, as somebody said it earlier, the developers have really thought about the female gamers.

 

this is actually a great point - and i would also reccomend dragon age. i loaned my copy to one of my female freinds who doesnt even play games and she loves it....wait...i need to get that back...