Games to Play with Wife Watching

I would like to find some games that would be good to play with my wife (a non-gamer) watching. I have an Xbox One and a fairly sizeable Steam library (with a Steam Link on the main TV), so I am looking for recommendations that might be enjoyable for her to watch while I play. I'm thinking more story-heavy than FPS, but I am open to all suggestions.

Thank you!

Catherine.

Kidding, kinda. I was going to say Until Dawn, but it doesn't sound like you have ps4? Any game that involves choices goes well with others. I'm drawing a blank right now, but I'd start with something she can engage in along with you.

Portal?

My gf loved Alan Wake, Limbo, and The Walking Dead season one.

Telltale games

ABZU

Grow Home/Up

Life is Strange

Oxenfree

Firewatch

Sam & Max

Puzzle Agent

Stick of Truth

Rise of the Tomb Raider

The Wolf Among Us

LEGO Movie game

-Firewatch
-If any telltale story setting interests her than that's probably a good pick. There's sooo many to pick from
-Oxenfree was a fun one my gf just played while I watched
-If she likes horror there are a lot of options like RE7, Outlast, Alien etc.
-A puzzle game might be fun like @armoes just suggested but maybe Portal 2? Feel like that has more of a story up front, otherwise The Witness might be a fun one if she gets into solving puzzles with you
-Some random games: Inside, D4, Valiant Hearts, Hitman?

Or any similar games, such as Life is Strange or Until Dawn (just buy a PS4 for this one)

Journey can be surprisingly engrossing for a spectator.

I played Portal with my mother a while back, with me controlling the game and taking directions from her. She loved it.

Just started Oxenfree and it's a big hit.

Life Is Strange and Until Dawn are both favorites (we actually played the latter twice: once making our own choices, then making typical "slasher movie character" choices. Both fun)

Just about any narrative games that explore more emotional subjects and don't have a ton of filler.

We actually had a screaming argument about one choice in Walking Dead Season 1. That's how ya know it's good.

Edit: The Zero Escape games, especially 999 if you get it on tablet (takes out the puzzles which can be...roadblocks).

I'm playing The Witcher 2 right now and it's mostly dialog. Highly entertaining, very well-written dialog. If your wife doesn't mind expletives (and lots of talk of 'ploughing') then she might be into it.

Yandere Simulator

Life is Strange. Anything like that or Telltale games where you're watching a story unfold. Firewatch too.

Life is Strange is really great so you should just play it anyone.

XCOM 2. Recreate your wife as a soldier. Use her to scout and say you need someone to draw fire.

Mirrors edge, might seem like an odd choice, it was one of few games an ex of mine enjoyed watching, its got a female protagonist, kinetic mechanics and a striking art direction.

The most success I've had with non-gamers and watching/playing games is when I do as little as possible to pick for them. Even if it's a game I'm 99% sure someone would enjoy, it gets shut down unless they find it themselves. So my method is softly expose people to gaming media and see if anything catches their eye. An example of what I'm talking about was when I showed my sister Catherine, and she rejected it pretty off-handedly. Yeeeears later she saw a youtube video of it and asked if I owned the damn thing so she could marathon it in like 2 days, which she did, and loved it. Sometimes you can't do anything yourself, you just gotta let things be what they wanna be.

Basically what I'm saying is, you know her better than we do, so I'm not even going to suggest an example. But I'd keep an eye out if anything piques her interest, you might want to indulge that even if it isn't what you wanna do right that second.

Though having user generated characters or dynamic games like civ where she could give her input on how to form the squad/army/city is a really good idea. If you both have some say in what's happening it can be a lot more engaging. She might think assassinating a 4 year old in Crusader Kings to conquer Germany is a much better idea than you do. XD

LIFE IS STRANGE

FIREWATCH

How are we supposed to know your wife better than you do? What kind of stuff does she like in other entertainment?

There are a ton of variables here, so asking the question generally without anyone having any insight into your wife's tastes will result in pretty general answers. Does your spouse have any issues with motion sickness? Queasiness in terms of violence, gore, subject matter? Interests in certain time periods, subjects, genres? Experience with games?

For me, my wife and I have enjoyed games such as the Telltale Walking Dead & Wolf Among Among Us games and Life is Strange. My wife gets motion sickness immediately from anything with first person perspective or games with fast-moving scenes, so its impossible to share anything that's not third-person (so Firewatch is a no-go); and a challenge for even third-person games that have sequences with quick disorienting action or cinematic sequences.

Anything with a decent story, especially if it has decisions you guys can talk about. Puzzle games might be good too.

• Life is Strange
• Until Dawn
• Telltale Games
• Zero Escape series (when that comes to PC/consoles (if she might be into Saw and likes sci fi stuff))
• The Last of Us
• Bioshock Infinite
• The Witness

If she likes anime/she doesn't and you want to laugh, playing JRPG's ironically has been a good time for me and some of my friends who aren't into video games (and I love JRPG's). Persona 4 has a good blend of anime/JRPG craziness and serious storytelling. Plenty of things to riff on in that game (see the Endurance Run) and I'm sure P5 will be similar.

In my freshman year of college, people with all sorts of backgrounds used to come into my room to watch me play Skyrim, and that was always a good time as well.

If you guys like horror, Amnesia is always good happy fun times.

Gal Gun

I've actually been doing this for a few months now. My wife actually does like playing games once in awhile, it all depends on the content. Mainly, she will post any lego based game and usually give a game a shot if it has some kind of horse you can ride (she loves horses). So her game pedigree is real weird in that she has played about all the lego games and has played to completion 2 or 3 assains creed games, the witcher 3 and red dead.

Anyway, she tends to not like watching games but I recently got Until Dawn a few months ago and despite her hating horror movies, she really liked watching that. It was more of a movie than game so maybe that's why. We also played firewatch together and was a little less engaging to her until the end when things started to pick up but overall she enjoyed it. And currently we are playing The Last Guardian because again, she loves animals.

If I had to give you or anyone a piece of advice it's this: find a game that has something for her to grab onto. If she likes movies maybe try the vast library of lego games, they are a little boring to be but it's fun playing together. But if your wife likes animals, get a game with a dog companion or another animal. If she likes zombies then get something in that direction. Even if the game isn't up your alley, just give it a shot and eventually you may be open to browsing her horizon.

I've found horror games to be pretty good for playing with a significant other watching. A good spooky time can be had even for the person watching and puzzle solving can be a nice "cooperative" experience as well depending of the game. We have been playing Resident Evil 7 together and it has proven a good time for both player and watcher. This is all dependent on both of you enjoying scary stuff of course.

@mezza said:

Depending on the type of relationship the OP has with his wife, I actually support this if the two can have a scene of humor when it comes to the decision making of picking Catherine or Katherine. ...or go true neutral and get the 'bitches leave' endings.

Gal Gun Double Peace :)

Yakuza 0 phone club minigame.

You can thank me later.

I didn't see them mentioned on the list but SOMA and Resident Evil 7 are good watchers if she's into darker mysteries. Not being in control also means she can hide behind pillows if needed.

Just have to add - my wife wasn't a gamer either until I coaxed her into playing Borderlands with me. I noticed she liked that universe and the character designs a lot so I convinced her to pick up the controller and give it a go. She felt awkward at first but I kept encouraging her and helping (me playing Roland basically meant she could mess up all she wanted while I was a nurse).

Now she's got me beat in most games, outdoing me in Overwatch and Warframe and it's really awesome to see how she's come to excel at something she once thought was unintelligible.

Agreed, its actually a pretty fun game to play with someone as long as both involved are cool with what its going to be.

@seriousbug:

My wife has really dug:

• Witcher 3
• Resident Evil 7
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• HITMAN
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Oxenfree
• Sleeping Dogs

Anything with a good story or emergent gameplay are her favorite since it lets her enjoy a story or at least help make crazy gameplay choices with me.

Interact With Your Wife Simulator 3 is getting good reviews on steam. You can play board games with eWife, do puzzles with eWife, or even talk to your eWife. The text to speech is a little unnerving though. Kinda lifeless.

I'm in a similar situation, except PS4 instead of XBONE.

My wife has enjoyed watching

• Bioshock Infinite
• Final Fantasy XV
• South Park : The Stick of Truth
• Metal Gear Solid , though she enjoyed 2 more than 1.
• The Witcher 3
• Wolfenstein : The New Order

Sounds like most people have already covered most my suggestions. But yeah something that has a good story might be the best bet. That way if she doesn't wanna watch the hole time, but just listen in, she can still enjoy you playing the game because shes getting to hear the story part. I know from experience as a fellow married person that it's the best route to go.

Is Stardew on XBO? If so, this has been a winner with my GF. Gameplay and music hit the feelers for her.

@seriousbug:

Dark souls!!!

Just kidding.

Perhaps RE7. Lots of people I know who are too afraid to play it themselves have their significant other do the "dirty work" lol. I can see how the game would be better than any of the others in the series in terms of someone else watching it due to the fact that there is an engaging narrative sprinkled throughout, so it has that going for it.

-HAPPY WIFE HAPPY LIFE NINJA APPROVED-

Wow! Thank you all so much for the amazing responses! I understand that it was something of a general assessment, but I really appreciate the ideas. If anyone has other ideas, I'll take them as well!

Side note, we started season 1 of the Telltale Walking Dead game and she seems to really enjoy it!

Mileage may vary, but my girlfriend got super into the recent King's Quest while I was playing it.

Obviously I don't know your wife, but my now ex-girlfriend really enjoyed watching me play things like Octodad. I would go for more arcady, funny games that are fun to watch. It is hard to ask someone watching you play to get invested in any sort of deep story lines, especially in a long game where they might not be there for every minute.

If we are going to list games on other platforms despite OP saying he has an Xbox, my girlfriend would actually ask me to play The Last Guardian. Surprised it hasn't come up yet.

I played the Witness with my gf watching and it was great.

May i suggest Bloody Boobs and Ruction: The Golden Tablet you can´t go wrong with those.

I kid, I´m of no help at all.

Honestly, this is a question that you can not ask strangers to answer. You know her better than any of us and in my experience these types of things vary for different people and can be hard to predict. My ex girlfriend and I used to play a lot of Minecraft together. We also played through all of Earthbound. I though Telltales the Walking Dead would be a good game to play together since she could make a lot of the decisions but she ended up hating it. Meanwhile she loved watching me play Dark Souls which I never would have guessed would be fun to spectate.

These are the games that I watched my husband play and enjoyed for the story -

• The Rocksteady Batman games, especially Asylum and City.
• Assassin's Creed franchise (best bet is 2-Revelations since Ezio is the most fun and interesting protagonist)
• Uncharted (unfortunately PS3-4 exclusives, but I really liked watching the entire story of that franchise)
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (other short indie type games are pretty fun to watch. Inside might be good too)

Now, flip it, games I played that he enjoyed watching

• Bioshock 1,2 and Infinite
• Fallout 3 and 4
• Skyrim
• Dragon Age franchise
• Until Dawn (again, PS4 exclusive, sad face)

All the other games with interesting stories, that I wouldn't mind watching, like Gears of War and Telltale games were ones that we played together.

Pretty much this, but I can see where he is coming from. Not necessarily wanting specific recommendations that we whole-heartedly think she would like, but threads like this are great ways to remind a person of whats out there. Believe it or not, I completely forgot The Witness released when I was looking stuff up for my wife. I stumbled upon one of these threads that mentioned it and I was surprised I forgot all about it.

Firewatch for now and wait for Mass Effect Andromeda, it's cinematic and has lots of player choice.

Abzu is a great choice.

I might have some gripes with the plot, but Read Only Memories might be a good choice.

Why not ask her what kind of media she currently likes and then make game selections based on that?

Though, I tend to think that more aesthetic games, as well as narrative-driven stuff is more enjoyable to watch, regardless of a hard genre.

My girl really loved to watch me play Resident Evil (the old ones). If your GF likes to participate (discuss strategies and such) those are great. The REmake Remake is on Steam right?