Recommend a game for 13 year old

[DaveV]

My son has a DS, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS2. He's 13, so not too much adult content please (e.g. GTA).

His favorite games:
Kingdom Hearts I & II
KoToR I & II
Halo I, II, & III
Half-Life I & II
Super Smash Brothers
Zelda games (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess)
Oblivion

Games he doesn't like:
Civilization
Final Fantasy XI (I think; he didn't like non-realtime combat)

He likes fast-paced games with a story; in RPG-style games, he likes games where combat is real time rather than turn based.

Thanks.

[Felch]

Mass Effect isn't on your list. It's M rated, but it's no worse than a James Bond movie.

Fallout 3. New downloadable content is coming out now.

I enjoyed Two Worlds, which is more traditional swords and sorcery RPG. It's kind of a flawed gem. You can find it now for 20 bucks probably.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a pretty fast paced shooter and has an awesome story. At 13 he should be fine with the violence.

I think these are all M rated, but none of them are as gratuitous as GTA. They're all more PG-13 than R.

[DarkCloud]

son has a DS, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS2.

...very spoiled.
You are a very generous father

What about Fable?

Call of Duty should be good.

I would have recommended Bioshock or Mass Effect, because he enjoyed KOTR, but it seems he enjoys action rather than story- so I will say shy away from them and Fallout 3.

Based on the games he likes I don't think he really enjoys involved storylines (I could be wrong) but it seems that he enjoys a game with a cohesive "reason" for blowing things up.

Call of Duty 4(?) Does a good job of this. Bioshock and Mass Effect lose a lot of their luster unless one can appreciate their allusions and storylines.

Fallout 3 is fairly slow paced (at least at the beginning).

[DrSpike]

On the 360 another vote for Mass Effect, and Call of Duty (4 or WaW) for a shooter. Fallout is great but quite adult - not sure where you are drawing the line.

[Whoha]

if the PS2 can play PS1 games Star Ocean 2 has a real time combat system for an rpg.

[Asher]

Star Ocean 4 ("The Last Hope") for the 360 also does.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Has he played Super Mario Galaxy? That's the best game I've played for the Wii. Metroid Prime would come a close second, but it has a steeper learning curve with using the Wiimote. Also, unless you have one of the ergonomic light-gun-style holsters for it, your hand may get tired constantly aiming that thing.

You can download Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD edition from XBox marketplace for about $10 now. It's a decent remake of one of the best iterations of 2D fighting ever.

I second Fable. It has some mildly adult elements to it (you can get married and conceive a child - if you married somebody of the opposite gender - but the screen just fades to black with a few amorous noises thrown in for comedy value) but all told it's a good free roam sort of game with a decent plot if you choose to pursue it.

Rock Band is really good. If your son has any friends who own it, you'll probably know by now whether he wants to buy it or not. If not, it's one of the most party-friendly games out there, and for a kid who's 13, it may be just the spark he needs to get into playing an instrument seriously for real. Plus if you're worried about him getting into "bad music", this game can turn his taste back towards quality stuff

[Maquiladora]

Games he doesn't like:
Civilization

Give him up for adoption?

Final Fantasy XI

No wait.

He likes fast-paced games with a story; in RPG-style games, he likes games where combat is real time rather than turn based.

He might like "The World Ends With You" for the DS. Lot of mandatory touch screen use though.

[SpencerH]

The Prince of Persia games are very good.

[Whoha]

Hold off on Warrior Within, good game, but excessively violent.

[Dinner]

NWN2 is a lot like Oblivion using the D&D game system plus they just released another expansion pack last December and now you can get one box set for $50 which has the original game, all three expansion packs, and you can freely download lots and lots of user made modules so he should get plenty of game time out of the game.

[DrSpike]

He didn't say he had a good PC.

[Andemagne]

Games he doesn't like:
Civilization

[Dis]

NWN2 is a lot like Oblivion using the D&D game system plus they just released another expansion pack last December and now you can get one box set for $50 which has the original game, all three expansion packs, and you can freely download lots and lots of user made modules so he should get plenty of game time out of the game.

D&D 3.5 system is pretty advanced. Main thing I don't like is it takes like 10 minutes of planning to create a character lol. You have to be real careful so you make sure you choose the right feats etc, so you can get the right prestige class.

I should check out the xp's. last one I got was mask of the betrayer. the first xp. A pretty good xp. I heard the second one was more hack n' slash though.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Yes, DnD is pretty bad for that. Or at least, has gotten to be pretty bad for that. I heard they retrenched from that "plan your entire damn character out hours before rolling him up" position for 4E but by this time I'd given up the entire system for irrevocably broken.

It's a shame Fallout ended up using SPECIAL system instead of GURPS. I have a high regard for GURPS, from a game design and mathematical viewpoint.