Speaking of Civ4, what are the best PC games for thinking kids/teens?

[funflower]

[FM Arouet666]

1. Try Age of Empires III

Nothing objectionable, as far as I can tell, and loads of fun. Mostly strategy, thinking about how to best conquer your fellow man. I am not much for moral purism in video games, take out your aggression on the screen, rather than in society.

Quake 4 is interesting, but I keep getting my butt fragged in multiplay. Again, as far as I can tell, nothing too objectionable in the single player mode, unless gore is a concern.

[funflower]

2. Thanks. Can you give me the thumbnail on Quake4?

[FM Arouet666]

5. Try these

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/quake4/
http://www.quake4game.com/

I have been playing Quake since the original, some have condemned the series as excessively violent or anti-religious. I disagree, just good clean online fun. Q4 is the latest version, but the series is getting old, for the newbie it would be a blast, for the veteran I wish online multiplay would develop new facets.

A brief on these games, two modes, single player, you follow along in a scripted story line, meeting objectives, most of a military origin, and multiplay, basically on-line kill the other player and rack up points. Multiplay is interesting, you have several modes, capture the flag, death match etc and can converse online with your enemy.

Probably not the best game for very young children, but a hit for teens.

[Az]

3. RPGs and Tactical games

They put more emphasis on thinking and planning. Games like Quake and Doom are a lot of fun but are mostly about who can twitch their mouse the fastest.

Roll playing games (RPGs) and tacticals (Civilization, Age Of Empires) let you plan out your moves. Civ in particular is about planning things out. You can even play the game with someone else via email.

There are also the puzzle games such as Myst. Definately cerebrial in nature. But may not be to everyone's taste. Very little action in them.

[funflower]

4. Do you think Myst is too difficult for a "cerebral" preteen?

He's definitely not an action addict. Loves the Civ games.

[Az]

9. It should be cool

A bit more difficult than spelling.

It can get a bit frustrating at times though when the puzzles get tough. So if patience is a problem ... you may want to stick to the more active games live Civ and AoE.

[Sin]

6. another good game that just came out.

Black and White 2
it requires some high end equipment to get the most out of it but if ya have it I would get it.basically it's the choice to be a Good God or a Bad God this one is real time strategy if you don't start wars with your group of people that are your followers and do good things for them the world changes around you making it look at nice and happy and people flock to your greatness/niceness.

If your evil every thing dies looks black and wasted that comes about from killing your own people and forcing them to battle to rule the world by the sword on top of your cruel punishments.

On top of all that you get a fairly intelligent pet that grows over time and you must train it to do good or evil, such things as what to eat this ranges from grain from farm fields to the villagers them self.

It is another great game I must say that on is a weee bit buggy still :( and it has issues with some graphics cards.

Go to www.bwgame.com to check out more info on it

I'm still playing Civ4 been wrapped up by it :)

[PinkUnicorn]

7. Some...

Hmm, a bit tricky as a lot of the more recent games are thinly veiled shoot em ups or have fair elements of it. The folding of Sierra was a massive blow. But from memory (after eliminating RPG's et - at work so I cant check the disks)...

Kids level:
Inherit The Earth
King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride
Egypt 1,2 and 3 by mindscape (very educational on ancient egypt)

Teen Level
Pharaoh, Cleopatra, Caesar etc - similar to Civ.
Sherlock Holmes - Case of the Rose Tattoo
The Gabriel Knight Series

The Gabriel Knight series (Sins of the Father, Beast Within, Blood of the Sacred Blood of the Damned) was by best the far I have played. I learned more about the history of New Orleans and the French Quarter, History of Ludwig II in Germany and the legends of Rene's Le Chateau playing these than other sources.

The caveat is that these are late 90's-early 2000 level games so super eye candy isnt their forte. Thats all of the top of my head. Will check the disks later...

Edit: Fixed Links

[enlightenment]

10. I agree about these teen games

The Pharaoh, Cleopatra, Caesar (and Zeus/Posiedon) games require some thought and planning and are not so graphically overblown that they cause non-gaming computers to crash and burn. But they still look great and perform fine.

The "Tycoon" games are kinda fun, too -- perhaps for younger teens (or middle aged women . . .) -- things like Zoo Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon, etc.

[progressoid]

12. Egypt huh. I have a 6th grader with a growing interest in ancient Egypt!

[Taxloss]

8. Sim City 4. Absolutely no contest.

Finest game ever made. I spend hours playing the damn thing.

Get the Deluxe edition.

[ozone_man]

11. Magic School Bus.

Just kidding, but that's where my kids started, quickly progressing to Pharoahs, Caesar III, and the Age of Empire series.

Then they left simulations to the dark side, platform gaming. Some great RPG titles, Final Fantasy X, Baldurs Gate, Prince of Persia, God of War.

They were at the wrong age to get into Civ, grew up too fast. but I wooed them back with Sid Meiers Pirates, and Rome Total War with expansion pack Barbarian Invasion. Pirates is a great combination of role playing, simulation, and real time pirate naval and land battles. You take on the most infamous pirates in history of the Caribean, as well as the colonial powers of France, England, Spain and the Dutch.

Rome Total War is a simpler version of Civilization, but with massive real time battles, involving battle strategy and tactics, seige weapons, castles. A remarkable game. The kids love it. Its the blend of Civilization with Age of Empires, combining some of the best of both series. Civ doesn't always have the Wow factor to get kids and their friends into it, but show them RTW and their jaws will drop. Or Pirates will spark their sense of adventure on the high seas and quest for pirate treasure.

Life is too short to play bad games. :-)

[EvolveOrConvolve]

13. Check out Incredible Machine

It's almost impossible to describe, but for kids/teens interested in a game that takes brains, this is it.

AFAIK, there are quite a few versions of Incredible Machine, but I don't think they've made one in a while.

If you're looking to buy, Amazon has a pretty good selection of the different versions of the game, both new and used.

[ozone_man]

14. One of the all time greats

probably preteen though. Beyond Magic School Bus and before Age of Empires, my kids played Incredible Machine 3. But any age can enjoy that game, if you like inventing incredible machines. :loveya:

[funflower]

15. Thanks. I'm making great progress on my Solstice Shopping List!