Beginner going into Xbox/vide games - where to start?

Hi,

I've recently started playing the Xbox and am really beginning to see what what all the fuss is about! (highly addictive gaming but a perfect way to let off some steam and/or lose yourself after a day's work). I am a bit lost as to what I should be looking for in games, however. I've only ever grown up in a family or sisters so we never bothered with Playstation's or the Xbox, so my knowledge is limited to (e.g. Mario Kart on the Wii/ Mario on Nintendo).

I have started playing a few of my boyfriends games but i am obviously struggling considering i have no real background in gaming. I really enjoy combat games such as Mortal Combat and Tekken. I've also completed missions (up to 11 with some help) and combats on my boyfriend's DMC Devil May Cry but as I'm getting further into gaming, I've f come to the realisation that i am in great need of practice for these complicated games :/ Any suggestions about what might be easy to start off on? I like something challenging but it might be best to start off easily.

I'd love some suggestions for either Xbox 360 games or even PC (I am a Bejwelled Blitz fanatic but I want something more challenging!!).

Portal will help you learn first-person controls in relaxed environment, and with scratch that puzzle fan itch. I'd suggest that. Just buy a copy of "The Orange Box" for the 360, and it's included in that. You should be able to find it fairly cheap. If you like it, you can try Portal 2, which is a much larger game.

@stephconnolly14 Welcome to the site and welcome to the wonderful world of gaming.

Viva Pinata is an excellent, charming, strategy, Sims-Pokemon style of game, complicated and challenging but you can totally do things at your own pace. I would recommend the first one first because the sequel (Trouble in Paradise) expands on some of the mechanics in the game and is even more complicated. I think both games even have a free, no stress mod with unlimited money and no enemies and stuff like that.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a charming open world platformer, with collect-parts-&-build-vehicles mechanic that is also super fun, colorful and rewarding. The most important thing for beginners is that there are always multiple levels opened and available, so if you get stuck on something, you can just go and mess with something else.

Braid closest thing to an "art game" you'll ever get on the 360, Braid is a mind melting, time bending, 2d puzzle game that I would totally recommend eveeeeeeerybody to play. Controls are simple and easy to understand and the puzzles are really intuitive and rewarding. DO IT!

Prince of Persia is a beautiful game with reaaally simple controls and basically no death penalty where you can slowly learn to use both analog sticks at the same time for character and camera control in third person games. My roommate never played video games and she was doing wall-jumps and wall-runs with ease in half an hour.

Rayman Origins starts of as a funny, colorful, charming, easy platformer, but by the later levels, I was pulling my hair in frustration. Later levels are really hard, so there's your challenge if you want one :D

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a pretty good choice I think for you too. It's a great looking game with a strong emphasis on characters and story and if you beat alot of DmC missions, this won't be a problem for you. Maybe check the Darksiders quicklook too.

If you want to get into first person shooters I think the Borderlands franchise is very good for that because the controls are made with the controller in mind and the action is sometimes frantic but never fast or out of control. And you can play co-op with your boyfriend.

If you want to get into role playing games I think Fable II is a great start. Simple controls, alot of great scenery and stories and the combat is pretty satisfying but rather easy. Would toootally recommend tho, love that game ^_^

All the games I listed have quicklook videos of them on their page, so make sure to check them out, that will tell you more than I ever can :D

Hope thats enough to get you started

@stephconnolly14: Welcome to the site. I'm interested to know how you found your way here as a non-gamer. Getting used to using the two analog sticks is the hardest thing for most people who didn't grow up playing these games. I'd say try something cheap like Geometry Wars for practice using them.

You just asked this yesterday.

@believer258: oops my bad! :P my laptop froze so when i went into it today, it said it hadn't sent!

@tread311 funny you should mention that, i was bored yesterday and on youtube and as with youtube i got fairly bored after about 5 hours of endless nonsense so i started looking for groups and here i am :D thank you for your suggestion, it really is where i am struggling especially when i start fighting *and cursing of course :D * i always manage to forget to move my analog so i don't end up seeing my enemies or even where i am :D

Thank you @spaceinsomniac for your suggestion, my friends *mostly the boys* tend to talk about Portal all the time but i always figured that it was really complicated since they spoke so much about about it and played it and other games for years but i will certainly look into it :D

WOW thank you @choi you have certainly given me quite a lot to go on! *Much appreciated* haha yes after some lengthy & painstakingly hard missions i am currently on DmC Mission 13.. finally! hasn't been easy, esp after 2 days (on & off) of trying to kill a succubus and other "fascinating" enemies.. the minor tasks of flying and even running sometimes is where i lag :D i am seemingly a terrible gaming flyer..

They all sopunds really good, i love how you state that Prince of Persia has basically no death penalty!

Fable sounds really good, as a lover of books and characters i think i would really enjoy games with an interesting backstory!

Portal, Braid, and the Prince of Persia game that came out in 2008 all basically have no death penalty. You can also download a free demo of Portal over Xbox Live Arcade, so I'd check them out there.

My Mom and my sister really like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. They play those a lot- I would suspect because of their focus on story.

I wouldn't say they're particularly advanced gamers or anything, so that may be something you could look into if you're into those kinds of games (They're both role playing/action games).

I've never really considered what games someone who has never really invested much time into games would play before (to get used to controls) as I got used to 3D controls in the late 90s (I think the first 3d game I played was Bug!) and I remember how daunting it felt at the time and I couldnt quite wrap my head around it yet (which was much worse then because they hadn't perfected controlling characters in a 3d space yet). So, anyway, that's kind of an interesting thing in my mind.

In Prince of Persia they actually have a really good narrative explanation why there is no death penalty and I say that only because it's never frustrating when difficult. It's just different difficulty. It's mostly figuring out environmental traversal puzzles or figuring how to beat different enemies and bosses.

You also kinda sound like you like grinding on all those hard levels in DmC and banging your head against hard opponents, levels and situations.

You're in luck because there is a whole genre of games that specialize in that kind of gameplay ^_^
Have a look at Super Meat Boy, Trials and Dark Souls ;)

Definitely recommend this. Fable (1&2) are really easy to get into and are a lot of fun.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX One of the best damn games ever, easy and mad fun.

@spaceinsomniac said:

I think she might do better in Portal 2 than Portal 1. Although she might miss some of the story, Portal 2 does not have puzzles that require timing, precision and speed (not in the single player campaign, at least). Some of the stages in Portal 1 can get demanding, specially for someone that is not used to playing FPS games with a controller.

Other than that, most of the suggestions here are pretty good. I will add some:

I would advice you to play Costume Quest, since its a pretty easy JRPG, which serves as a good introduction to the genre.

I find Burnout Paradise to be a good introduction to racing games. Just lay back, ignore the events and have fun running around the city.

Also, try The Walking Dead, in particular the new episode (400 days later). As far as point & click adventure games go, its fairly simple and not particularly difficult, but it has one of the best narratives of recent years.

No. No, no no. NO. Do not play Portal 2 before playing Portal 1.

The story in that game is so important, and so good. And the game doesn't require too much timing until near the end. Hopefully by that point you would already have somewhat of a feel for the controls, but no one should ruin the story of Portal by playing the sequel first. Have someone play any hard parts for you if need be, but do NOT skip the original Portal.

I totally support this ^_^

Far Cry 3

Metro Last Light

Tomb Raider -2013

GTA V