Gaming With Wife

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tyn0mite

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Yo! Let's get down to business! I've got a massive fish on the line and need to reel it in before it's too late!

On Black Friday I picked up an extra Xbox One controller due to necessity and hanging onto the sliver of hope that my wife, whom I've been married to for two months and been with for six years, may one day pick up this other controller and participate in some form of gaming with me. She has never been largely into gaming and has only played a video game with me maybe four or five times within the last six years we've known each other. She doesn't have any problem with me having gaming as a hobby and I love her all the same regardless of her lack of interest.

However… upon the arrival of the second controller I made another pass at her suggesting that we play a game. To my surprise she agreed even without knowing which game I was referencing. I hustled to my Xbox and purchased Overcooked based off of what I had seen on the Giant Bomb videos and mentally prepared myself for another failure in peaking her interest. To my great surprise when we played she became almost instantly hooked and his sense suggested every night that we play again. We recently moved into our first home together so I am assuming there is something stuck in the paint that has her acting strangely even though I'm pretty sure a house built in 1998 does not have any remnants of asbestos or lead.

Having said all this I feel like I am ready to introduce her to more games that she may enjoy. This is where I turn to the Giant Bomb community and all of its wisdom. My question is what games do you feel that she would also enjoy? Her pedigree of gaming is that of a late 20-year-old who enjoyed dabbling in video games as a child but never took the interest with them into adulthood.

I'm thinking a type of couch co-op with simple controls and mechanics would fit best. I have and Xbox One available and possibly a very mild graphic intensive game that can be run on a laptop with an integrated graphics card.

Go ahead and hit me with your best answers!

TLDR; I got a second Xbox One controller, played a couch co-op game with my wife who has zero interest in video games, she loved it, what are some other games I can play with her?

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paulmako

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#2  Edited By paulmako

I think Diablo 3 is one that comes up a lot for this question.

Also playing through modern adventure games like any of the Telltale ones (walking dead, game of thrones etc) or Life is Strange is also fun to do with someone.

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SpaceInsomniac

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#3  Edited By SpaceInsomniac

I love reading stories like this.

If the Orange Box is backwards compatible with the Xbox One, I STRONGLY recommend the original Portal, when it comes to learning first-person controls. That can be one of the hardest things to learn for a new gaming enthusiast, though, so maybe keep things a bit more simple until then.

If she's interested in History or puzzle games, Valiant Hearts would make a good choice, IMO.

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nightriff

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You're lucky, been married almost 5 years and I've practically given up trying to enjoy games with the wife. She's never really been hooked on anything so maybe I'm playing the wrong ones with her but I've just accepted that her path and video games will probably not pass anytime soon

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csl316

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Shame that Mount Your Friends isn't backwards compatible. Carcassone is, however, and it's a pretty fun board game. Maybe Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise? Not co-op but you can put a thing together together. I'd say Castle Crashers but I don't know if that's too intense (not sure if there are difficulty settings there).

I feel like I lucked out that my girlfriend's first suggestion was "hey, let's play Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir."

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avantegardener

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#6  Edited By avantegardener

Easy tiger, you don't want to spook her! I suspect of course, she is just trying to make effort to share something with you. What I might suggest are maybe some digital board games, I played a lot Risk Factions with a girl who was not really into videos games, and we both enjoyed it.

Games you can play with a group is another great way to foster interest, Keep Talking and no one Explodes has gone down really well with gamers and non gamers alike, pretty low overheads too, just need your laptop and access to a printer. Jackbox series might be cool too.

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redwing42

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I try to seek out video games to play with my wife, and we've had fun with You Don't Know Jack (and Jackbox in group situations). Generally we have more of an "I drive, she advises" gaming relationship, so we've enjoyed LA Noire and A Wolf Among Us, and I just picked up a PS4 so we can play Until Dawn. Actually, I picked it up to play Persona 5, but details...

I'd maybe suggest Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime also. Haven't played that one yet, but that seems like it would line up well with Overcooked.

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dannyglover

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I've been playing Rayman Legends on my Wii U co-op and there's an xbox one version available.

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yorick

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I've been in a similar situation with my wife. She loved Guacamelee.

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haxdax

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I've found the following games to be best with SO;

Diablo 3, Skyrim, Portal 2, and the only game she really liked watching me play was MGS V. Idk

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mrroach

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Pac-Man 256 is surprisingly great for 2 (and even 3) person gaming. The powerups are fun, you can revive teammates rapidly so no one is stuck sitting there for too long, and the pace is generally not super stressful.

I'll echo the recommendation for lovers in a dangerous spacetime too. I had a hard time with it (I think it was my colorblindness), but my wife and son played a bunch and had a great time.

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Barrock

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My girlfriend enjoys the Lego games. Lately we've been pouring hours into The Witcher 3 together. Also she really loved The Witness.

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DharmaBum

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#13  Edited By DharmaBum

Life is Strange might be a good option - very easy to control and the story is engrossing. I played it with my sister (who rarely touches games these days) over the holiday and it was fun making decisions together in a couch co-op sorta way.

Some other options: Halo MCC co-op campaigns, Rayman Origins/Legends, Splosion Man, Portal 2

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deactivated-5e6e407163fd7

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Rayman might be pretty good. I always meant to try and play Rayman Orgins with my girlfriend, but we broke up before then. Telltale games would be good too. Maybe Until Dawn.

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Giantstalker

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Gears 4, the ultimate litmus test.

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HolyHackZack

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Rayman is my go to "hey baby wanna game?" game

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Colony024

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Chariot is a great little 2d physics-puzzle co-op platformer.

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Rebel_Scum

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Played Brothers with the missus sharing a controller. It's still on the pile of shame for her lol but she did like it.

My wife is not really into games but she did like playing Wii Sports/Resort back in the day.

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dagas

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My wife plays Facebook games but I've read and failed to make her play anything else. She is just interested in candy crush and such. But I don't mind much as long as she lets me play.

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johnnyspectre

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Really just backing up what @paulmako, @haxdax and @barrock have already said. Diablo III is a great shout. Great, easy fun where everyone feels like they're contributing. Lego games too - we've had good times playing through Lego Avengers recently. And the Witness made us infuriated and delighted in equal measure.

Loved playing co-op through the original Gears trilogy back in the day too, though that took a little more practice time.

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TobbRobb

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Diablo III is a great shout. Great, easy fun where everyone feels like they're contributing.

Just don't be the guy that farms when she's gone and just starts running through enemies trying to "boost" her. Let me tell you, that's how people kill interest in Diablo for their friends real quick. Contributing is pretty key to enjoyment it turns out!

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Arabes

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I don't think Diablo III is a good coop game to play with someone who doesn't play games. That lady is still learning how to use a controller so things like stat driven progression and loot grinds are way off down the line somewhere. A lot of gamers take that kind of knowledge for granted but it is really obscure to someone with zero experience. And I'd say you can forget about anything that requires dual stick movement, so there goes Gears and FPS's.

Go for something like Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime on the easiest setting. It takes place on a 2D plane which will minimise controller issues and the game is more about being organised (like Overcooked) than it is about esoteric knowledge. Also, the lovers dance when they pass each other which is fucking adorable.

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Dr_Unorthadox

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Hello, my girlfriend seemed to like rayman legends and battleblock theatre as the two introesque platforming games. I would go for battleblock theatre over rayman. It is requires less precision and reactions so is less frustrating at bosses or harder jumps. Her story and firewatch are good story based games together.especially her story as one of you can be sitting with a notepad while the other types...

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big_denim

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My wife and I prefer these coop games:

Diablo 3

Civ5/6 hot seat

Gears of War 4

Divinity Original Sin EE

Tower fall Ascension

Helldivers

Good luck! It's great when you and the partner can not enjoy a hobby together.

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pompouspizza

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My fiancée and I don't really play multiplayer games together but she loves to watch me play horror games. We played through Until Dawn, Layers Of Fear, Gone Home and Outlast together. We're currently playing Amnesia on PS4.

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Lambii

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#27  Edited By Lambii

I recently got my girlfriend of six and a half years hooked onto Castle Crashers. There's also Battleblock Theater. The games by Behemoth are amazing for some classic couch co-op fun. I'm not entirely sure what's available on XBone, but if you guys have smart phone(s) or a computer I also got her addicted, to the point where she's better than me now, to Hearthstone. She also really enjoyed Huniecam Studio, but I believe that was a PC exclusive. I personally didn't care for the game, but she 100% it on my Steam, the game also has a certain taste and it isn't a game that can be played co-op. If anything, you can fall back onto games like Minecraft or Terraria, assuming you haven't suggested them yet.

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cornfed40

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My gal likes to play games, but ones with simple controls and not too much fucking around with cameras and whatnot. Biggest hits have been the Lego games for co-op, and any of the TellTale games where it can be fun for one person to "steer" and one person to make the decisions.

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mrroach

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@giantstalker: Did this one last weekend. She got mad at me because I kept dying trying to run past the lightning.

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BSw

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A few that worked for us are

- Rayman Legends & Origins - she even't played those without me

- Sherlock Holmes (the one that came out a few years ago, we haven't tried the new one yet)

- Diablo III

- Tetris

- Tricky towers

- Trials

- The wolf among us

I tried to play games like Gone home, The witness, Everybody's gone to the rapture and The Talos principle with her, which she would have liked were it not for the fact that has simulator sickness and can't watch/play first person games. But for the extent that we were able to play The witness and The Talos principle, they worked really well.

@mrroach: I just bought Pacman 256 yesterday for this reason as well, glad to hear that you've had some positive experience with it.

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DharmaBum

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#33  Edited By DharmaBum

Oxenfree is another one I haven't seen mentioned. I don't know how well it works when 2 people are making the dialogue decisions, but it's definitely a more casual experience.

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jadegl

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#34  Edited By jadegl

Ahhhh, this is my jam. My husband and I game together a lot, and also game by ourselves a lot. I can give some ideas for fun experiences based on what we have done together.

  • Chariot (XBox One) - fun puzzley type game. We played it and found the controls to be pretty simple and the co-op was fun and led to some laugh out loud moments. We didn't finish it, but I enjoyed playing it a lot.
  • Castle Crashers (backwards compatible XBox 360 game or Remastered XBox One version)- I find beat-em-ups to be very easy to get into. Yes sometimes being triple-teamed by bad guys and dying isn't fun, but when you have a friend (or spouse) to play with, it makes it that much easier! This is an all time co-op favorite of mine.
  • Never Alone (XBox One) - platformer, very cute and has a very different aesthetic and protagonist. I only played a little with my husband (he was the main character, I was the fox) but he has played through the whole thing and enjoyed it. I liked what I played, maybe not as much as something like Chariot though.
  • Telltale games ie Batman, Tales from the Bordlands, Walking Dead - While these are single player games, my husband and I play them as a team. What we did is we decided that we would each "drive" a chapter, so with Walking Dead Season 1 he was the driver during chapters 1, 3, and 5, while I drove the game in chapters 2, 5, and the 400 days DLC. We would help each other with finding elements in the environment to complete puzzles or progress conversations, but we stayed out of the decisions for the most part. It was fun to see the story play out and try to keep up with how we would play it, while also being supportive of our spouse's decisions and triumphs, or failures in some cases. Also, the controls are pretty straight forward. I had issues with a spare few action sequences, but that's probably my user error! :D
  • Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed (backwards compatible XBox 360 game) - super fun cart racing game and probably the best thing Sonic has been in since, well, maybe the Dreamcast days. It's more competitive than co-op, but I really had a ton of fun with it, and I had no real affection for Sega properties so I didn't come to it wearing nostalgia goggles. :D
  • Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition (XBox One) - I love love love the Diablo series, and the third game is still something I go back to frequently. I play on PC, but I have tried the console version and it's great, and in some ways even better. My husband doesn't play this as much as I do, but he enjoys it when we do, as long as he can play as a Crusader.

You mentioned having a laptop, so here is my one PC option -

  • Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Windows PC game) - Super fun isometric puzzle game with combat. You will have to play this one on PC, but the sequel Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is on XBox One. I had a lot of fun with this game, and I don't remember it being very graphic intensive.

If you ever both upgrade to more intense co-op experiences (not that you have to, just saying!) my husband and I love playing Gears of War, Halo, Destiny, The Division, Borderlands and Borderlands 2 together. We have 2 XBox Ones (one upstairs and one downstairs) so we play a lot that way with headsets. I actually really love Destiny but he has fallen so out of love with it, it's not even funny! We're about to start Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Gears of War 4, and he's been trying to get me to play co-op Far Cry 4 with him. We used to play Saints Row IV and Crackdown on XBox 360 together too.

I know that's a big info dump, but we really love playing a lot of different games together, so I keep thinking of things to mention. :D