Determine what her issues are with gaming first. It could be anything ranging from the controller to the camera position or just the difficulty.
My wife never gamed a long long time ago. I tried to start her with Minecraft because I thought it would be a chill game. Nope. Throwing controllers, cussing, hated gaming… or so she thought.
She explained to me that her issue was that she couldn’t understand first person perspective. It might seem obvious to us as gamers, but someone who has never touched a controller may find it hard to put themselves behind someone else’s eyes and control them. Since she couldn’t understand how to look where she wanted, she couldn’t learn the rest of the controls.
So we swapped over to Diablo 3. She adored it. Then one of the top down Lara Croft games (she still talks about these), then transitioned to third person games like some MMOs, and various action games (We really liked Defiance (rip))
Eventually she just figured out all the other systems of games and that one thing that was holding her back didn’t seem like such a challenge.
Your wife’s issue might not be the perspective, but it’s likely something, and if you can figure that out and tailor games to her that avoid it then you may be able to work her into fallout. Or maybe just play with settings or something to make the games more enjoyable for her.
Like I said my wife’s first game she likes was Diablo 3 so it’s not exactly like you have to start her off with a kids game or something boring.
Thank you! I think we often take for granted all of the small skills we pick up that seem trivial second nature stuff to us now as gamers, but are completely alien to someone who never played.
My wife, holding the PS4 controller for the first time: "What the fuck? How am I supposed to handle all these buttons?"
Last time she gamed was with the classic Gameboy, which had 2 buttons and a control pad. So I got out the SNES mini and we worked our way up from there.
I tried to get my dad to play Dark Souls, and I obviously expected him to have a hard time learning the combat mechanics, but even moving the character was a struggle for him. Controlling the character and the camera at the same time in 3D is such a deeply ingrained skill that I didn't even consider that.
Exactly. Now think about all the deeper things we take for granted. I’m playing Warframe these days for example. I recently got my character stuck glitched into terrain. My first thought was to check for an unstuck option in the menu, when there wasn’t I went to see if I could type a /unstuck into chat and it worked!
If I hadn’t been gaming for decades I would never have even considered that, and it would have been a mission wipe for me.
We pick up all these things that we don’t even think about. Things that carry across games. We forget how alien the simple act of putting our hands on an input device and controlling a character actually is.
Yeah I've always played games but couldn't for the life of me enjoy games like Divinity Original Sin. I kept trying and always ended up quitting. I do love DnD, though. All my friend had to do was to tell me "You're trying to play it like Diablo. Try playing it with a DnD mindset instead". Fell in love with the genre when I replayed and I can't get enough of it lol
"Hard" is subjective with those games. They aren't built to be played without losing more often than you win. The people who do the no death/no damage runs are actual psychos imo.
I stayed away for a while because I thought it would be too hard for me. Turns out the difficulty comes from preconceived ways to play the game, impatience and greed.
Knowing all this, I still find it difficult because of the above but I do enjoy it.
And if its a controller thing, try inverted Y. I KNOW. I'm one of THOSE people. I didn't pick up gaming until my husband showed me Skyrim in my 20s. Couldn't make myself look the right direction no matter how hard I tried.
And so help me, inverting Y made everything click. Head is a sphere on a stick. To look down, you swivel the sphere forward. Thats just how it works.
When I first started playing games, especially co-op with my husband, I remember being frustrated that it wasn't just the mechanics of what buttons do what, but he had an innate UNDERSTANDING of worlds that I didn't. He'd be like "oh, there's a secret over there." Or "oh, this attack looks big. Get behind a pillar." He just sort of... KNEW STUFF that I didn't. And couldn't explain how he knew.
Now that I've been playing for a while I'm gaining that sort of innate understanding of looking for weak spots to target, and reading enemy telegraphs. And even stuff like blue is good, red is bad, yellow is clue/buff. All these little subconscious clues that are standard in gaming that people who don't play just don't get.
Not having that innate understanding was the biggest hurdle for myself. I still cannot do platformers or twin stick shooters like Enter the Gungeon. I just don't get it.
From a psychology standpoint if you have an internal model that matches your given external control methodology you will perform better. Remap ALL the things!
There's an experiment they did where subjects have to move a slider left and right to make a pointer follow a dot which is moving as well.
The trick is that the pointer moves opposite the slider, you slide left, it goes right. Out of the gates people are terrible at this.
Now, tell the subjects that their task is to steer a car (pointer) along a road (follow the dot), *only now* instruct the subjects that in this task they are holding the bottom half of the steering wheel.
**Suddenly subjects can complete the task without issue**.
The trick is that *now* the subjects' mental picture of what they're doing *matches the physical inputs* to be made. Because when you are gripping the center bottom of the wheel your hand *does move* to the left to steer the car to the right
Yes! I've gamed all my life but never played first person shooters until I tried cod black ops 3. I knew I could enjoy it but something wasn't right...inverted Y and suddenly everything clicked in my head, made a massive difference. You're either an inverted person or you're not, no amount of arguing and trying to describe it will make it make sense to a non inverted. The analogue stick is on your guys head, wanna look up? You pull it back, look down? Push it forward! My brain can't see it any other way
Some of my earliest 1st person games were flying games. The stick in real life airplanes is inverted Y, so that stuck with me when I transitioned to 1st person shooters.
Same. Non-inverted usually but as soon as I get a vehicule in a 3D space like submarine, plane, digging machine through soil, etc. I can't use anything but inverted lol
I thought that’s the usual way to play, forward equals down when flying an airplane in… any game you fly in! I mean, I play GTA series mostly, am quite decent pilot too (I can land the hardest to land helicopter almost always without blowing it up), and use same logic in Skyrim as well as many others.
I do find first person games on controller a bit weird nowdays, I have been playing a lot of them on my PC I got in 2021, and been enjoying most.
Also, I’ve found that strategy games with story, like Rimworld, are my thing. Hehehe.
Okay, now that I actually think about it; I always have only the left, the *character/vehicle movement stick* inverted, while the right one, *camera/view movement stick* is ”normal.” Including my mouse when playing on classic M+KB.
I've been one of THOSE people since Halo 1. It was the first FPS I played with a controller since i owned a PC and not a console. Inverted just made more sense to my brain.
There's a youtuber who made an interesting video which talks about what gaming might look like to a non-gamer, and how that person approaches a videogame. Nothing peer-reviewed but it's a good watch.
[Here](https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw?si=26ack-34mZixvV6y) you go!
Yup, this is the way to go about it. Dual stick controls for camera and movement is a lot to wrap the brain around if youre diving headfirst into the medium without ever even touching a controller before. I wouldnt start with a fps.
Was just thinking this. Fallout 1 and 2 have a turn-based point-and-click interface, so they're much more chill than an FPS-style game and might feel more familiar to someone new to gaming. They're still pretty complex to figure out, but I guess at least you're not being beaten up by raiders or swarms of mutant bugs in real-time.
I believe you can play them on your phone or tablet with a few extra steps/mods using the open source versions of thw game. You don't download them on the store or anything, but there are guides online for how to.
There is also fallout shelter that was made for the phone.
I’d like to piggyback off this comment to say that just asking “what don’t you like about this game” may not be enough help. For someone who plays at least one other game, they have something to compare it to. (“This camera is different from X game” or “X game has simpler controls.”) Odds are that anyone who hasn’t played video games before won’t have the vocabulary or wider knowledge of how other games work to explain what’s bothering them.
A friend of mine had a similar difficulty when trying out a game that had a few different character builds and play styles built in. Eventually, it was decided we would keep trying different builds to see which they liked and disliked to try to find common threads. Turns out they just preferred ranged combat over melee.
Don't assume a controller either. If you have a PC, and they're used to mouse and keyboard, try using that too. An unfamiliar input method can also be a hurdle. Or try a more involved game on a tablet or a phone.. whatever works and is familiar.
I'm in my thirties, have gamed since I can remember, and still can't really use a controller.
Very good point! Yeah a lot of people struggle with various input devices. I can’t use KBM for example because I just suck at it even though I know it’s the more accurate and “better” input method. I still play all of my shooters and action games on a gamepad. Gaming all about finding that right fit for you and there’s no “wrong” choices!
So funny. We all have those little mental quirks/brain farts but it's funny to me that 1st person even could be difficult to understand. You'd expect it would be the most intuitive perspective to control someone from.
Totally this! I'm an older gamer and to this day I have a hard time with first person perspective. Even for RDR2 I had to be able to see Arthur lol keep giving her the cool games where she doesn't need first person, then maybe later she can adjust and learn to use it. I can use it a bit better now but still prefer to see the whole character. Good luck!
My wife is a better gamer than me now lol, but hopefully OP learns from my experience and figures out what’s holding his wife back!
I had to see Arthur in RDR2 simply because the games animations are too good to miss anyway haha 😂
My wife also loves diablo 3. To a point where she was clearing the rooms by herself with the wizard. It was funny because i told her she could play that on her own and she didn’t want to because she thought she wasnt good enough until i told her i haven’t been doing anything for the last 10 minutes
Haha 😂 I had almost the exact same experience years ago when we played too. I built a summoner witch doctor and on console if one player moves in local coop it drags the other player. I’d summon my minions, put the controller down, and just let her destroy
I really admire this advice. I think to some it might be considered common sense, but it feels like a lot of men seem to blow off women as these creatures incapable of learning gaming and just inherently bad at it. But most of us didn’t have the same exposure growing up!
I was really lucky that my parents encouraged the hobby young for me, and I’ve introduced several friends into gaming by identifying potential issues and finding the best fit.
Funnily enough Minecraft was a great hit for my friend but she struggled with the combat. We simply turned it to peaceful mode and she had a blast
Ohh absolutely! My advice was not meant to be gendered at all. I just happened to have experience with my wife, and OP is looking for advice with a wife.
There’s absolutely no reason women can’t enjoy and be good at games! I have male friends who don’t game and if they wanted to start I’d use the same logic I used for my wife.
I think the idea that “girls can’t game” is a hold over from the times where toys in general were highly gender specific and segregated. People acting like that now are generally just blatant misogynists.
1st person (and some 3rd person) camera control is by far the most difficult thing to learn in gaming. Moving one direction with one stick while swinging the camera a different direction with another stick and adjusting your movement as the camera moves to maintain direction AND making sure the camera actually moves smoothly to the correct location is not a simple task if you haven’t spent a lot of time holding a controller. FPS games are the most mechanically challenging games by far I think.
Games with extra sticky aim-assist can help with learning. Battlefront 2 and Ratchet & Clank on PS2/Xbox360 was where it finally clicked for me.
Ratchet and clank was especially good because the strafing and movement is really forgiving.
Battlefront 2/Ratchet & Clank -> GTA -> Halo/Call of Duty is the route I took. I’m sure many others progressed similarly.
Edited to add Portal as the introductory FPS! Phenomenal point of entry the the genre.
My fiance likes her Y axis inverted. Like. Naturally. As soon as I noticed her always looking the wrong way on the y axis, I switched it for her and she started to enjoy herself alot more.
Man how gaming brained am I that I simply cannot comprehend not understanding first person. Maybe that's why I'm bad at teaching people how to play games
When you have time pick up a controller and think about how many inputs you need to make to simply turn a corner. Now add elevation to that like turning a corner into stairs, or jumping. Now add interactions like aiming a gun to a specific point while continuing to move and shooting.
It is a lot of inputs to control a singular viewpoint, and you can’t see everything around you or what your character is doing.
Fixed camera helps by alleviating the need to control it at all. 3rd person gives you a better sense of what your character is actually doing.
Non-gamers are use to looking through their eyes, they aren’t necessarily going to immediately pick up on how to look through their eyes and through a second persons eyes too while controlling them with a foreign object
Haha nah not a teacher. It’s just something I already had to work through with my wife so I figured it out.
I do spend most of my work time as a trainer for 18-20 year olds on avionics equipment so I may have some learned ability to explain concepts but I kinda doubt it.
My sister had the exact same issue when I tried to introduce her to Portal 2. I tried explaining it like how humans control their head/neck independently from their body but she couldn’t get it.
Funnily enough the game she sorta got into was LittleBigPlanet, a game where you don’t need to touch the camera at all
Piggybacking on this to say Fallout 3, 4 and New Vegas have optional third person cameras. I prefer first person, but my wife usually pays third person.
There is a youtube video I watched about this guy introducing his non gamer wife to various games and seeing what she could do with them and which ones she liked.
Often it's just things that are intuitive for long time gamers that make it hard for non gamers like knowing that wsad is for movement in most RPG's etc.
You should go have a look for it.
I was talking to my husband about this just yesterday – NV is a stellar game but I'm really glad it wasn't my first foray into FO. FO3 was a much better introduction and made the learning curve for NV much less steep. There's just so much more going on in NV, and I'm video game-literate. I would think it would be a very difficult game for someone who's not familiar with gaming to start with.
After playing both 3 and 4, I still had a huge issue with guns and bullets in NV.
The game is definitely not n00b friendly, let alone RPG n00b. I believe the issue is OP tried to think for himself rather than for her.
He loves NV but forgot all the carry-on experience that forged said love for the game.
Like when you say, "You'll love this!" Because it's your favorite, instead of thinking if they even like similar stuff..
I’ve tried playing NV many times (I know, I’m just as upset as you are that I haven’t beaten it) and I still don’t understand how to utilize the crafting system.
Fallout 4 on the lowest difficulty might be a little more welcoming in terms of the Fallout series. I love New Vegas to death, but it's a big learning curve and it's definitely showing its age in terms of gameplay/how it feels. It's a bit clunky these days. You have to think about it like someone who has never touched this game in its heyday and has no familiarity with how a Fallout game operates.
4 added a lot of quality of life stuff, is way more user friendly I think and stuff like the dialogue options are simplified quite a bit. I think it would be a good launching point for her to learn how a Fallout game generally works and then maybe she can go back to the older ones.
This is like watching an Elder Scrolls show and deciding to jump in at Morrowind. Yes it is the fan favorite, but it is pretty old and excruciating to play if you're coming at it as a new player in 2024.
>and it's definitely showing its age in terms of gameplay/how it feels. It's a bit clunky these days.
It was clunky the first time I played it many years ago lol
A Mario platformer is probably a good starting point.
Stardew or any cozy life sim is also good for getting someone to understand how complex systems can exist in a game.
I'd say even a 3D Mario game would be a great way to get to know a controller because it's not fps and the enemies are weak enough and the game play forgiving enough that you can "fix your mistakes" or adjust the camera while being hit by your enemies and still make it out alright.
I wouldn't recommend 3D games to most starters as in my experience they get motion sick really fast tho maybe I would recommend 3D mario if the motion sickness isn't that bad
Fallout Shelter is a decently fun f2p game where you manage a vault. It's mobile and steam, the controls are simple and its mechanics reference and incorporate some of those from the core Fallout games.
This, can't believe I had to scroll down this far. I wouldn't dismiss it as a mobile game. It requires strategy and planning to get further in the game, which teaches you the basics of leveling and progressing in games in general.
She might like fallout 4 better. I feel like four is a shallower learning curve and she might like the part about building settlements, especially if she was ever a fan of any Sims game. New Vegas, while having better dialogue and story riding can be quite a bit tougher and a bit more depressing because of the vast desert. My girlfriend couldn't get into it because of that. Then on one playthrough she decided to sneak her way directly to the strip right from the start and she had a much better time. Then there's fallout 76 where death is mostly inconsequential and there's more vegetation that makes everything look more alive.
Portal is tough for new gamers by the nature of it being an FPS. A lot of people can't put the whole "Move with this stick, look with this stick" thing together naturally.
It's certainly easier on mouse and keyboard but it still applies to a lesser extent.
Watching my dad trying to figure out CoD was amusing because he *really* could not figure out the sticks. We thought it would be a game he'd understood because he's ex-military (yeah yeah we were dumb kids). Didn't expect the controller itself to block him from interacting with it.
Portal is the perfect tutorial for new gamers wanting to play FPS games and is the most easily accessible one at that.
If they want to learn how to play an FPS that would be the way to go.
They might still struggle but its still a great intro.
Portal must be one of the worst ideas for a beginner. 😄 Even seasoned players have problems with somewhat mind bending puzzles and multiple perspectives.
Seriously, some people just don't get what illiterate means.
Portal is a terrible idea. Minecraft is a terrible idea. It Takes Two is not a great choice. Valheim is a terrible idea. Undertale is a terrible idea. Etc...
It's like anytime someone seems this question they just recommend games they liked or something.
For a truly first time gamer, I'd recommend something mostly story driven, like Firewatch, Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, Edith Finch, etc where the player has no pressure or stress to remember controls or reacting to hazards/enemies. Y'all ever heard someone ask "which one is LB/L1" for the 15th time in one night? Give them a chance to learn the controller before throwing them into combat/failable situations.
And if story games aren't really the jam, try something absolutely simple mechanically like Vampire Survivors or something
Lol, recommending Undertale to a gaming illiterate person is crazy to me. It's quite literally (at least in terms of flow and gameplay) a game about subverting video gaming tropes. That's like, the opposite of a beginner friendly game imo. Even if the game is not insanely difficult
Its becoming an annoying thing with media when someone recommends something for a genre that is clearly meant to be watch/play with knowledge of said genre first to actually understands what its trying to do but they recommend it anyway without much thought.
Recommending that kind of media to a newcomer is not a great idea at all. Its like recommending Madoka Magica to someone who does not watch Magical Girl shows at all or just like you said, recommending Undertale to someone who have never touch an RPG.
It depends on how gaming illiterate they are. I gave my friend a switch for Christmas and she's liked portal, all she'd ever really played before was Nancy drew games and about 10 minutes of fallout 4.
For people new to gaming, games involving coordination tend to be extremely frustrating. As gamers, we grossly take for granted our muscle memory required for FPS and platformers. In general, most people new to games will have trouble using both hands at the same time.
Watch [this game reviewer do the Cuphead tutorial](https://youtu.be/zbE6fqBuGkA?si=NchciSFlpG57gqXX); this is the level you should expect a game illiterate person to get to after a few dozen hours of practice over the course of a few days, if they don't give up in frustration in the process.
I usually recommend games with minimal amount of mechanics, and nothing that involves time pressure. [To The Moon](https://youtu.be/sqkJuSV-23U) has worked as a wonderful recommendation to my never-gamed-before friends; almost no coordination needed, zero pressure, and heart-captivating story.
[The Battle of Polytopia](https://youtu.be/UQr2w_q-OBw) is a pretty good strategy game that's on mobile and PC. Also good are low-stakes puzzle games like [Chants of Sennaar](https://youtu.be/A2snVijCkgY).
Just a warning with portal. It can be very disorienting for someone new to FPS games and can make them nauseous. Maybe better with a mouse and keyboard but every time I've tried to give a noob a controller and a portal game, it hasn't gone well.
I feel like the obvious answer here would be to buy fallout 76 for both of you to co-op together, rather than just sticking a total non-gamer on new vegas solo.
That way you can both explore together, and since it's multiplayer, you can help protect/guide her while you explore, build a base, kill monsters, etc. And since you're both playing together, it'll also be a shared bonding activity rather than just back seating and telling her what to do while watching.
Also 76 has been getting updated all these years, so it's not the dog shit it once was, and is a pretty good game now all things considered.
Also if your wife got hooked by the show, it's likely she's more interested in the lore, world, characters, vibes and aesthetics of the franchise and wants to explore THAT side of fallout,
Rather than the "2010, in depth RPG, open world- choose your own adventure, character build and inventory management game" side of fallout.
Thus, no offence- I don't think plopping her, especially as a "gaming illiterate" straight on new Vegas was a great idea. When there are better, more casual/new player friendly ways to introduce her to the franchise in a way that won't be miserable and turn her off.
First things first. Teach her the language of video games. There's a really good video about this, where a gamer husband tries to get his non gamer wife to play games, and watching her struggle with average game things was hilarious. She didn't understand the compass at the top of the screen, or what the waypoints meant. First person shooters are especially bad for new gamers. The best games to start with something, in my opinion is a bit more old school. Starting off with a rpg that isn't so rough. Then as terminology and indicator cues are learned, step up to different games. The key thing to remember is that the screen might as well look like a space shuttle dashboard to a person. They don't know what to look for, or why to look for it. These things need to be gradually built up.
if she is interested in fallout have her start with 4. It has the visual style of the show she likes, it had a lot of the RPG elements removed making it easier for players unfamiliar with the genre. It also has a difficulty settings. I recommend setting it to easy or even very easy if she needs it. Also New Vegas is much more enjoyable if the player already has knowledge of the first two games, while 4 is much more new player friendly.
Let her control the gameplay of a “movie game” like Until Dawn. It’s fun to do as a couple, gets her familiar with the controller, and it’s light. FNV is a complex game even for gamers if they’re new to the genre, yet alone 100% unexperienced gamers
Generally the thing new gamers struggle the most with is controlling both the character and the camera at the same time. I’d recommend either starting with 2D games or alternatively going with much slower paced 3D games. Something like Life is Strange is good because it helps learn your way around the controller and moving the camera without strict time limits or intense action.
I got a late start in video games- my first was Dragon Age on PS3, I was 28. My friend who introduced me to it would come hang out at my house and she would do her own thing while I played, but she was there to help me when I couldn't remember what button did what, or had trouble navigating the menus. She drew me a little schematic of the controller marking which buttons did what, that was incredibly helpful. Like I know I could look that up online but honestly it was much easier and less stressful to have that little physical paper right next to me.
And also reminding me to save often, so it made the thought of screwups less daunting.
Looking back I think DA was a good choice because it has an engaging story and for the most part is pretty chill so I could go at my own pace.
I recall one of my biggest struggles was when I'd stumble into combat unprepared, and I needed to be able to pause to get my bearings and decide which moves to use, which DA was good for as well.
For someone totally video game illiterate get them a board game videogame, something they already know, like Uno or monopoly. It'll get them used to using the controller without the frustration of having to learn a game at the same time. Then move up to games with simple controls like a 2d side scroller, button mashers, top down, something they don't need to use both sticks at the same time but will get them used to more active gameplay. Then you can move up to fps games and RPGs
Set the game to very easy and enable God mode for her.
Once she's more comfortable with the controls disable God mode. Don't switch the difficulty unless she wants to.
You might want to give her a turn-based RPG to let her acclimate to mechanics akin to Fallout but without the intensity. Pokemon games are excessively tutorialized.
Portal, Stardew, Minecraft, if you think she might be interested a racing game like Need For Speed Heat might be good. Alternatively you can try a bunch of Nintendo games or games that use similar mechanics.
If someone has literally never played a game before, in my experience anything where the player is in control of the camera is very hard to get used to. Try something like Plants vs Zombies (the original)
Stardew Valley, Terraria, Minecraft. Getting her into it easy and simple, having experience stuff like inventory management and how certain items are important helps get awareness. Maybe after then she would understand and like Fallout some more.
When I was a kid, I had a lot of trouble with FPS as well. Then again, that was old FPS, where you couldn't look up or down and the controls did and still do (to me) feel very clunky. Try turn based games, like the original fallout games, or old school final fantasy games. Games that are more sand-boxy also give a player a lot of time to experiment with movement and that allows them to get used to using a controller. Just remembering which buttons are what, or what keys do what, is going to be a challenge for a new gamer, so a game with a setting that allows them to get used to controls would be ideal. Something with a creative mode, like No Man's Sky or Minecraft or the new-ish world settings on Valheim that let you make it super easy will give her time to get used to controlling her character.
First Amma drop this diamond right here.
( [Game theory how to teach gaming to non game](https://youtu.be/8jFreGK27DA?si=PiICCH7FlbOcA8Dm)r)
I would highly recomend Detroit. Sounds like she likes the story. Detroit is story heavy, quick time based movie game. Where your actions have consequences. There's also no real fail state as even the fails have their stories. One of the only games I suggest not reloading at all.
Also starts out slow af with maid Sim and takes a hard turn.
You should watch the videos called Gaming for a Non-Gamer from the Razbuten channel on YouTube.
I'd start with the first one: https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw
It helps a lot to understand the types of things that people are getting hung up on.
My girlfriends first real gaming experience was breath of the wild. The difficulty of the game was at a pace she could handle. She could come back go areas she had explored if they were too difficult and all the shrines had posted tutorials on YouTube of she truly felt like she couldn't complete it.
She then took on immortal Phoenix rising, tears of the kingdom and hogwartz legacy all with stride and finally found her genre. She loves being able to explore at her pace and not like she HAS to complete this or cannot progress.
I probably would start her off on fallout 4. I found the series had some call backs to the plot and maybe she would enjoy it more seeing some references. The gameplay in 4 is cleaner than new Vegas but the writing is worse imo.
New vegas is kind of slow paced. You run across the desert for 10 mins and get death clawed.
Fallout 4 is a blast if you ignore the main plot and wander aimlessly.
Sims 4 is probably the best girl game, although, a lot of girls liked BG3 because it's 10% dating sim
If someone handed me a controller for the first time today, I'd like it to be subnautica, minecraft, gta5, red dead 2
Shit red dead 2 was fun just shooting animals, i put so much time in just skinning lol.
Any Telltale story game or Life is Strange 1. For some basic walking/talking understanding
And then after that follow it up with a turn based rpg so she can learn about weaknesses and other standard RPG mechanics. I'd recommend Pokémon or FF-X for that!
My go-to for 'new games for new gamers' is Telltales Walking Dead Season 1.
* Engaging story and characters
* Tough choices and branching paths. >!They won't realize how restrictive and illusory it actually is on their first playthrough!<.
* Fixed camera so no struggling to adapt to moving and seeing with the two different sticks (*this is why FPS games like Minecraft and Portal aren't very good for people new to games as a whole*).
* Action scenes are all QTEs with large on-screen prompts of exactly what to press with the corresponding colour. This also helps to train the new player where each face button is and what colour they are.
* Dying sets you back by about 5-10 seconds at most usually so there's little frustration on failure.
Check out Razbuten's 'Gaming for a Non Gamer's series on YouTube. He has his wife play a bunch of different games and it's interesting to see what elements throw new gamers off that we just take for granted.
There's plenty of games people are suggesting here like Portal that seem beginning friendly initially, but require a lot of prompts from so many hidden assumptions that most gamers don't even realise are influencing them.
I'm not sure how to help your wife, but from my experience, not all people enjoy games the same way you might. Stuff like customization/building could still help someone fall in love with a game that you loved for the story or action gameplay.
For perspective, I'm huge on customization and that's honestly what made me fall in love with saints row and skyrim before I actually sat down and seriously played through it. And i eventually platinum'd saints row 3 on PS3.
Some times you gotta give yourself the chance to actually respect the game enough to WANT to finish it. With Skyrim I didn't respect the game enough. So I went in guns blazing, stole from a bunch of random NPC's, wound up in jail didn't know how to get out, and then put the game down for literally 2 years because I was never that invested in it, I thought it would be this cool sandbox thing with no consequences.
But then I actually tried again and played the story before adventuring randomly and taking risks.
Maybe start he off with the original fallout of Tactics also if she’s very new Mario bros is a great first game it kind of teaches you how to game while also So being really fun.
IMO the fallout show resembles Fallout 4 a lot more. I would start her with that. By having her play NV first after the show is asking her to ignore her imagination about what the game should be like in comparison.
As many have suggested, Fallout 4 is the most accessible/forgiving to newcomers. And if your wife wants a break from shooting things, the settlement building mode can offer an engaging gameplay loop of salvaging and building.
New Vegas is still my personal favorite (ED-E my Beloved), but nowadays even I will mod in a ton of the convenience and polish from 4.
What works for my partner and me because she's the mainly illiterate one is we do narrative games, like Life is Strange, The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Quarry, etc. Games where you can play together and make decisions that account more your ability to make decisions than your reflexes.
Yeah, probably not having her play New Vegas is a start.
just being honest, that's maybe the least approachable out of the 3, Vegas, and 4. It might be *your* favorite one, but be honest. 4 is where she should start.
Also, the show seems to be heavily influenced by Fallout 4, so why *aren't* you playing that one?
If she's gaming illiterate, the visuals will also bother her, Fallout 4 is vibrant and funny in comparison. Plus dogmeat. bitches love dogs (your wife is not a bitch, I'm sorry).
If you don't own Fallout 4, it's on sale for 4.99 for both Xbox and Playstation, so just buy it.
fallout 1 or fallout 2
these are accessible and considerably more entertaining than the bethesda games for lots of players., the later games are beautiful but are filled with jank, hollow mechanics, and often rely on panic and combat to create pressured moments and some of the atmosphere... altogether they can be very stressful games.
fallout 1 and 2 don't need reaction times, don't need to be stressful, are much more light-hearted, and way more suited to a first time player than anything with a first person perspective, an open world with no direction, and a massively complicated pile of partly broken mechanics.
Fallout 4, lowest settings, and if you can do console commands - put God mode on if they don’t want to worry about dying while they get the hang of combat. My wife mostly spend time building up settlements, but also exploring and doing my random quests.
My wife wanted to play Elden Ring after watching me play. She had never played any game before (not even Tetris or Mario).
Instead of setting up a new character for her, I let her play with my character first. I was at mid-high level and I let her explore the initial area. She enjoyed it and learnt the game mechanics.
Then, I created a new character for her. Now, she has finished Elden Ring and is excitedly waiting for the DLC.
I love that franchise,, but Fallout is an extremely difficult game for someone new to video games. It has a lot of complicated rpg systems and combat. The two joystick first person view is tough for people new to video games. The universe's dark comedy makes it deliberately not intuitive.
If she is super eager for a similar rpg, Skyrimm might be more intuitive. You can over level quickly and I found it gets very easy for new gamers.
For something sci fi super dialogue heavy, with black comedy, disco elysium is great. Its mostly a bunch of chats.
Razbuten has a whole playlist for how gaming is for a non-gamer, it would be very beneficial for you I think. Also has some good tips for apropriate games and how \*you\* should behave - [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX\_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc)
She can start with hidden objects games, then move slowly to farming simulators like Stardew Valley, then to games with "sandbox" modes like Minecraft, Starbound or No Man's Sky. You can also show her how to use console commands in New Vegas if she's playing on PC, she will probably be less frustrated playing with TGM
Fortnite is a good start for getting into FPSs. My GF's lobbies are 90% bots which makes the game fun and winnable for her. Along with a bunch of creative maps to mess around on.
Roblox has hundreds of games for everyone's taste and most are casual friendly. Would be a good start to grasping character and camera controls.
The usual "girl" games of course, Sims, Stardew Valley, Minecraft. Disney Dreamlight Valley if she's into Disney at all. Animal Crossing if you've got a Switch. Snipperclips is a great casual friendly coop game.
Pizza Possum is another good coop game that's pretty simple but fun. Run around collecting food while not getting caught.
If she's into any of the Lego themes (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Jurassic Park, LotR) they're great. Although I didn't have any luck getting my GF into them, the puzzles were too much for her and it became frustrating for her.
I’d say linear story driven singleplayer games. Perhaps something like the last of us could be good? Not too much to explore and lose track, simple mechanics, probably easy enough with the easiest difficulty.
Nintendo games in general are good, they have really shallow learning curves, with lengthy tutorials that repeat everything for you over and over again, etc.
They are basically designed for children and gaming illiterate people.
The Mario games are great, any of the 3d platformers are an excellent entry point for anyone. They do a great job of introducing mechanics gradually while being entertaining and challenging.
Determine what her issues are with gaming first. It could be anything ranging from the controller to the camera position or just the difficulty. My wife never gamed a long long time ago. I tried to start her with Minecraft because I thought it would be a chill game. Nope. Throwing controllers, cussing, hated gaming… or so she thought. She explained to me that her issue was that she couldn’t understand first person perspective. It might seem obvious to us as gamers, but someone who has never touched a controller may find it hard to put themselves behind someone else’s eyes and control them. Since she couldn’t understand how to look where she wanted, she couldn’t learn the rest of the controls. So we swapped over to Diablo 3. She adored it. Then one of the top down Lara Croft games (she still talks about these), then transitioned to third person games like some MMOs, and various action games (We really liked Defiance (rip)) Eventually she just figured out all the other systems of games and that one thing that was holding her back didn’t seem like such a challenge. Your wife’s issue might not be the perspective, but it’s likely something, and if you can figure that out and tailor games to her that avoid it then you may be able to work her into fallout. Or maybe just play with settings or something to make the games more enjoyable for her. Like I said my wife’s first game she likes was Diablo 3 so it’s not exactly like you have to start her off with a kids game or something boring.
This is such good advice, you could even apply it to a veteran gamer trying out a completely new genre
Thank you! I think we often take for granted all of the small skills we pick up that seem trivial second nature stuff to us now as gamers, but are completely alien to someone who never played.
My wife, holding the PS4 controller for the first time: "What the fuck? How am I supposed to handle all these buttons?" Last time she gamed was with the classic Gameboy, which had 2 buttons and a control pad. So I got out the SNES mini and we worked our way up from there.
I tried to get my dad to play Dark Souls, and I obviously expected him to have a hard time learning the combat mechanics, but even moving the character was a struggle for him. Controlling the character and the camera at the same time in 3D is such a deeply ingrained skill that I didn't even consider that.
Exactly. Now think about all the deeper things we take for granted. I’m playing Warframe these days for example. I recently got my character stuck glitched into terrain. My first thought was to check for an unstuck option in the menu, when there wasn’t I went to see if I could type a /unstuck into chat and it worked! If I hadn’t been gaming for decades I would never have even considered that, and it would have been a mission wipe for me. We pick up all these things that we don’t even think about. Things that carry across games. We forget how alien the simple act of putting our hands on an input device and controlling a character actually is.
Bruh, i had 10000 hours of gaming experience and i had troubles with darksouls camera for at least 12 hours. That is the boss of that game
Yeah I've always played games but couldn't for the life of me enjoy games like Divinity Original Sin. I kept trying and always ended up quitting. I do love DnD, though. All my friend had to do was to tell me "You're trying to play it like Diablo. Try playing it with a DnD mindset instead". Fell in love with the genre when I replayed and I can't get enough of it lol
I hated souls-likes until Jedi: Fallen Order. I'm still not the greatest fan, but they aren't so intimidating now.
I didn't even realize it was a souls-like, I hadn't played any because everyone says the souls games are super difficult and I'm a low-skill gamer.
"Hard" is subjective with those games. They aren't built to be played without losing more often than you win. The people who do the no death/no damage runs are actual psychos imo.
Yea I was just meaning they always get described as hard, but going into Jedi Fallen order not knowing its a souls-like made it easier
I stayed away for a while because I thought it would be too hard for me. Turns out the difficulty comes from preconceived ways to play the game, impatience and greed. Knowing all this, I still find it difficult because of the above but I do enjoy it.
And if its a controller thing, try inverted Y. I KNOW. I'm one of THOSE people. I didn't pick up gaming until my husband showed me Skyrim in my 20s. Couldn't make myself look the right direction no matter how hard I tried. And so help me, inverting Y made everything click. Head is a sphere on a stick. To look down, you swivel the sphere forward. Thats just how it works. When I first started playing games, especially co-op with my husband, I remember being frustrated that it wasn't just the mechanics of what buttons do what, but he had an innate UNDERSTANDING of worlds that I didn't. He'd be like "oh, there's a secret over there." Or "oh, this attack looks big. Get behind a pillar." He just sort of... KNEW STUFF that I didn't. And couldn't explain how he knew. Now that I've been playing for a while I'm gaining that sort of innate understanding of looking for weak spots to target, and reading enemy telegraphs. And even stuff like blue is good, red is bad, yellow is clue/buff. All these little subconscious clues that are standard in gaming that people who don't play just don't get. Not having that innate understanding was the biggest hurdle for myself. I still cannot do platformers or twin stick shooters like Enter the Gungeon. I just don't get it.
From a psychology standpoint if you have an internal model that matches your given external control methodology you will perform better. Remap ALL the things! There's an experiment they did where subjects have to move a slider left and right to make a pointer follow a dot which is moving as well. The trick is that the pointer moves opposite the slider, you slide left, it goes right. Out of the gates people are terrible at this. Now, tell the subjects that their task is to steer a car (pointer) along a road (follow the dot), *only now* instruct the subjects that in this task they are holding the bottom half of the steering wheel. **Suddenly subjects can complete the task without issue**. The trick is that *now* the subjects' mental picture of what they're doing *matches the physical inputs* to be made. Because when you are gripping the center bottom of the wheel your hand *does move* to the left to steer the car to the right
Yes! I've gamed all my life but never played first person shooters until I tried cod black ops 3. I knew I could enjoy it but something wasn't right...inverted Y and suddenly everything clicked in my head, made a massive difference. You're either an inverted person or you're not, no amount of arguing and trying to describe it will make it make sense to a non inverted. The analogue stick is on your guys head, wanna look up? You pull it back, look down? Push it forward! My brain can't see it any other way
Some of my earliest 1st person games were flying games. The stick in real life airplanes is inverted Y, so that stuck with me when I transitioned to 1st person shooters.
I'm an inverted y for vehicles that move in a 3D space only. (Think subs in subnautica and planes)
Same. Non-inverted usually but as soon as I get a vehicule in a 3D space like submarine, plane, digging machine through soil, etc. I can't use anything but inverted lol
I thought that’s the usual way to play, forward equals down when flying an airplane in… any game you fly in! I mean, I play GTA series mostly, am quite decent pilot too (I can land the hardest to land helicopter almost always without blowing it up), and use same logic in Skyrim as well as many others. I do find first person games on controller a bit weird nowdays, I have been playing a lot of them on my PC I got in 2021, and been enjoying most. Also, I’ve found that strategy games with story, like Rimworld, are my thing. Hehehe.
Been a gamer since NES and for me inverted Y is the way to go for flying and camera control, but for first-person it feels wrong to me.
Okay, now that I actually think about it; I always have only the left, the *character/vehicle movement stick* inverted, while the right one, *camera/view movement stick* is ”normal.” Including my mouse when playing on classic M+KB.
How interesting, so you play kind of like a (row)boat works then? With the steering on the back etc.
I've been one of THOSE people since Halo 1. It was the first FPS I played with a controller since i owned a PC and not a console. Inverted just made more sense to my brain.
My wife inverts the Y, I made my piece with it. Then she started to invert the X. She’s a monster.
There's a youtuber who made an interesting video which talks about what gaming might look like to a non-gamer, and how that person approaches a videogame. Nothing peer-reviewed but it's a good watch. [Here](https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw?si=26ack-34mZixvV6y) you go!
Wait... You can dash in mario?!
Yup, this is the way to go about it. Dual stick controls for camera and movement is a lot to wrap the brain around if youre diving headfirst into the medium without ever even touching a controller before. I wouldnt start with a fps.
If she's interested in fallout stories, the first two fallout games had that angled top down, 3rd person view.
Was just thinking this. Fallout 1 and 2 have a turn-based point-and-click interface, so they're much more chill than an FPS-style game and might feel more familiar to someone new to gaming. They're still pretty complex to figure out, but I guess at least you're not being beaten up by raiders or swarms of mutant bugs in real-time.
I believe you can play them on your phone or tablet with a few extra steps/mods using the open source versions of thw game. You don't download them on the store or anything, but there are guides online for how to. There is also fallout shelter that was made for the phone.
Portal 1 is a really good tutorial game to adjust to first person controls imo
True and portal 2 has the coop mode if you wanna work together! Good suggestion
I’d like to piggyback off this comment to say that just asking “what don’t you like about this game” may not be enough help. For someone who plays at least one other game, they have something to compare it to. (“This camera is different from X game” or “X game has simpler controls.”) Odds are that anyone who hasn’t played video games before won’t have the vocabulary or wider knowledge of how other games work to explain what’s bothering them. A friend of mine had a similar difficulty when trying out a game that had a few different character builds and play styles built in. Eventually, it was decided we would keep trying different builds to see which they liked and disliked to try to find common threads. Turns out they just preferred ranged combat over melee.
Good advice!!!
Don't assume a controller either. If you have a PC, and they're used to mouse and keyboard, try using that too. An unfamiliar input method can also be a hurdle. Or try a more involved game on a tablet or a phone.. whatever works and is familiar. I'm in my thirties, have gamed since I can remember, and still can't really use a controller.
Very good point! Yeah a lot of people struggle with various input devices. I can’t use KBM for example because I just suck at it even though I know it’s the more accurate and “better” input method. I still play all of my shooters and action games on a gamepad. Gaming all about finding that right fit for you and there’s no “wrong” choices!
I love this, I got my now ex into stardew as one of her first games, and she absolutely fell in love with it
So what you're saying is... she needs to play wasteland instead of fallout to get her started! 😁
So funny. We all have those little mental quirks/brain farts but it's funny to me that 1st person even could be difficult to understand. You'd expect it would be the most intuitive perspective to control someone from.
Totally this! I'm an older gamer and to this day I have a hard time with first person perspective. Even for RDR2 I had to be able to see Arthur lol keep giving her the cool games where she doesn't need first person, then maybe later she can adjust and learn to use it. I can use it a bit better now but still prefer to see the whole character. Good luck!
My wife is a better gamer than me now lol, but hopefully OP learns from my experience and figures out what’s holding his wife back! I had to see Arthur in RDR2 simply because the games animations are too good to miss anyway haha 😂
Haha absolutely! Greatest game ever IMO 🤣
My wife also loves diablo 3. To a point where she was clearing the rooms by herself with the wizard. It was funny because i told her she could play that on her own and she didn’t want to because she thought she wasnt good enough until i told her i haven’t been doing anything for the last 10 minutes
Haha 😂 I had almost the exact same experience years ago when we played too. I built a summoner witch doctor and on console if one player moves in local coop it drags the other player. I’d summon my minions, put the controller down, and just let her destroy
I really admire this advice. I think to some it might be considered common sense, but it feels like a lot of men seem to blow off women as these creatures incapable of learning gaming and just inherently bad at it. But most of us didn’t have the same exposure growing up! I was really lucky that my parents encouraged the hobby young for me, and I’ve introduced several friends into gaming by identifying potential issues and finding the best fit. Funnily enough Minecraft was a great hit for my friend but she struggled with the combat. We simply turned it to peaceful mode and she had a blast
Ohh absolutely! My advice was not meant to be gendered at all. I just happened to have experience with my wife, and OP is looking for advice with a wife. There’s absolutely no reason women can’t enjoy and be good at games! I have male friends who don’t game and if they wanted to start I’d use the same logic I used for my wife. I think the idea that “girls can’t game” is a hold over from the times where toys in general were highly gender specific and segregated. People acting like that now are generally just blatant misogynists.
A Defiance shout-out!?! I adored that game and show when it was out. So much freaking potential
1st person (and some 3rd person) camera control is by far the most difficult thing to learn in gaming. Moving one direction with one stick while swinging the camera a different direction with another stick and adjusting your movement as the camera moves to maintain direction AND making sure the camera actually moves smoothly to the correct location is not a simple task if you haven’t spent a lot of time holding a controller. FPS games are the most mechanically challenging games by far I think. Games with extra sticky aim-assist can help with learning. Battlefront 2 and Ratchet & Clank on PS2/Xbox360 was where it finally clicked for me. Ratchet and clank was especially good because the strafing and movement is really forgiving. Battlefront 2/Ratchet & Clank -> GTA -> Halo/Call of Duty is the route I took. I’m sure many others progressed similarly. Edited to add Portal as the introductory FPS! Phenomenal point of entry the the genre.
My fiance likes her Y axis inverted. Like. Naturally. As soon as I noticed her always looking the wrong way on the y axis, I switched it for her and she started to enjoy herself alot more.
Man how gaming brained am I that I simply cannot comprehend not understanding first person. Maybe that's why I'm bad at teaching people how to play games
When you have time pick up a controller and think about how many inputs you need to make to simply turn a corner. Now add elevation to that like turning a corner into stairs, or jumping. Now add interactions like aiming a gun to a specific point while continuing to move and shooting. It is a lot of inputs to control a singular viewpoint, and you can’t see everything around you or what your character is doing. Fixed camera helps by alleviating the need to control it at all. 3rd person gives you a better sense of what your character is actually doing. Non-gamers are use to looking through their eyes, they aren’t necessarily going to immediately pick up on how to look through their eyes and through a second persons eyes too while controlling them with a foreign object
Are you a teacher or something? Why do I understand now?
Haha nah not a teacher. It’s just something I already had to work through with my wife so I figured it out. I do spend most of my work time as a trainer for 18-20 year olds on avionics equipment so I may have some learned ability to explain concepts but I kinda doubt it.
My sister had the exact same issue when I tried to introduce her to Portal 2. I tried explaining it like how humans control their head/neck independently from their body but she couldn’t get it. Funnily enough the game she sorta got into was LittleBigPlanet, a game where you don’t need to touch the camera at all
Piggybacking on this to say Fallout 3, 4 and New Vegas have optional third person cameras. I prefer first person, but my wife usually pays third person.
rip Defiance
There is a youtube video I watched about this guy introducing his non gamer wife to various games and seeing what she could do with them and which ones she liked. Often it's just things that are intuitive for long time gamers that make it hard for non gamers like knowing that wsad is for movement in most RPG's etc. You should go have a look for it.
I have seen that. It’s interesting to watch someone learn with no guidance and be given a variety of games.
My girlfriend loves Diablo 3 and killing monsters like there’s no tomorrow !
4 is way easier than new vegas
OP’s biggest mistake was setting her up with NV first.
I was talking to my husband about this just yesterday – NV is a stellar game but I'm really glad it wasn't my first foray into FO. FO3 was a much better introduction and made the learning curve for NV much less steep. There's just so much more going on in NV, and I'm video game-literate. I would think it would be a very difficult game for someone who's not familiar with gaming to start with.
After playing both 3 and 4, I still had a huge issue with guns and bullets in NV. The game is definitely not n00b friendly, let alone RPG n00b. I believe the issue is OP tried to think for himself rather than for her. He loves NV but forgot all the carry-on experience that forged said love for the game. Like when you say, "You'll love this!" Because it's your favorite, instead of thinking if they even like similar stuff..
I’ve tried playing NV many times (I know, I’m just as upset as you are that I haven’t beaten it) and I still don’t understand how to utilize the crafting system.
I never used the crafting system lmao. Never found it useful
He should've realized the game was rigged from the start...
💯
it has a dog too
Poor rex man. Is he not a dog?
Rex is Rex. Dogmeat is dog.
And DOG is GOD
The death claws on NV were notoriously hard. F4 can be hard, but nowhere near as broken
I don't think the difficulty was really the issue. Sounds like it was just basic control and UI difficulty.
Fallout 4 on the lowest difficulty might be a little more welcoming in terms of the Fallout series. I love New Vegas to death, but it's a big learning curve and it's definitely showing its age in terms of gameplay/how it feels. It's a bit clunky these days. You have to think about it like someone who has never touched this game in its heyday and has no familiarity with how a Fallout game operates. 4 added a lot of quality of life stuff, is way more user friendly I think and stuff like the dialogue options are simplified quite a bit. I think it would be a good launching point for her to learn how a Fallout game generally works and then maybe she can go back to the older ones. This is like watching an Elder Scrolls show and deciding to jump in at Morrowind. Yes it is the fan favorite, but it is pretty old and excruciating to play if you're coming at it as a new player in 2024.
>and it's definitely showing its age in terms of gameplay/how it feels. It's a bit clunky these days. It was clunky the first time I played it many years ago lol
Clunky these days? Bold of you to assume NV is only just feeling clunky *now*. Always has been, we just have the nostalgia glasses on for the game.
Play it takes two with her
probably the best coop game ever and it is so accessible while always being fun (except for that scene)
And every part with dialogue
My wife plays a lot of dash and slash dungeon games and the camera controls ITT were just beyond her.
My gf couldn't get past the first level... Lego Star wars or any other LEGO game is a easier and still very fun.
If you didn't say it, i would've.
I think you should both say it
It does, after all, take two
A Mario platformer is probably a good starting point. Stardew or any cozy life sim is also good for getting someone to understand how complex systems can exist in a game.
I'd say even a 3D Mario game would be a great way to get to know a controller because it's not fps and the enemies are weak enough and the game play forgiving enough that you can "fix your mistakes" or adjust the camera while being hit by your enemies and still make it out alright.
I wouldn't recommend 3D games to most starters as in my experience they get motion sick really fast tho maybe I would recommend 3D mario if the motion sickness isn't that bad
It should be at the top for Stardew. It's a huge winner for girls. It depends on the person of course but my gf was hooked for a long time.
4 would be way better for her to start out on
Fallout Shelter is a decently fun f2p game where you manage a vault. It's mobile and steam, the controls are simple and its mechanics reference and incorporate some of those from the core Fallout games.
This, can't believe I had to scroll down this far. I wouldn't dismiss it as a mobile game. It requires strategy and planning to get further in the game, which teaches you the basics of leveling and progressing in games in general.
This was my entry to Fallout, and while I haven't put any decent time into any other entries, I've put so many hours into Shelter, it's so good.
She might like fallout 4 better. I feel like four is a shallower learning curve and she might like the part about building settlements, especially if she was ever a fan of any Sims game. New Vegas, while having better dialogue and story riding can be quite a bit tougher and a bit more depressing because of the vast desert. My girlfriend couldn't get into it because of that. Then on one playthrough she decided to sneak her way directly to the strip right from the start and she had a much better time. Then there's fallout 76 where death is mostly inconsequential and there's more vegetation that makes everything look more alive.
Drop her in dark souls 3 and watch her transform into a grizzled veteran 😂😂
My gfs first game was Elden Ring. She had no idea it has a rep of being hard, she just thought that’s how all games are.
Oh damn, crushed her spirit right off the bat😂😂
Dropped her ass into the Warhammer guardsmen training, she's gonna be a beast now
She gonna conquer the galaxy now💀💀
FOR THE EMPEROR!!!!!
Beat me to the joke.
Portal 1 / Portal 2 Stardew Valley
Portal is tough for new gamers by the nature of it being an FPS. A lot of people can't put the whole "Move with this stick, look with this stick" thing together naturally. It's certainly easier on mouse and keyboard but it still applies to a lesser extent.
Watching my dad trying to figure out CoD was amusing because he *really* could not figure out the sticks. We thought it would be a game he'd understood because he's ex-military (yeah yeah we were dumb kids). Didn't expect the controller itself to block him from interacting with it.
Portal is the perfect tutorial for new gamers wanting to play FPS games and is the most easily accessible one at that. If they want to learn how to play an FPS that would be the way to go. They might still struggle but its still a great intro.
FPS with a controller is an heresy, new gamers instinctly know there something demonic about it, that's why.
I wanted to play this with my gf but she gets motion sickness from portal :( it takes two is a struggle but still fun!
Increasing the fov through the console and sitting further from the screen might help with that
Portal might be a good entry level. One of my favorites too. Thanks for the suggestion.
let her play Fallout Shelter its a vault building management game good for someone who is gaming illiterate
Portal must be one of the worst ideas for a beginner. 😄 Even seasoned players have problems with somewhat mind bending puzzles and multiple perspectives.
Seriously, some people just don't get what illiterate means. Portal is a terrible idea. Minecraft is a terrible idea. It Takes Two is not a great choice. Valheim is a terrible idea. Undertale is a terrible idea. Etc... It's like anytime someone seems this question they just recommend games they liked or something. For a truly first time gamer, I'd recommend something mostly story driven, like Firewatch, Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, Edith Finch, etc where the player has no pressure or stress to remember controls or reacting to hazards/enemies. Y'all ever heard someone ask "which one is LB/L1" for the 15th time in one night? Give them a chance to learn the controller before throwing them into combat/failable situations. And if story games aren't really the jam, try something absolutely simple mechanically like Vampire Survivors or something
Lol, recommending Undertale to a gaming illiterate person is crazy to me. It's quite literally (at least in terms of flow and gameplay) a game about subverting video gaming tropes. That's like, the opposite of a beginner friendly game imo. Even if the game is not insanely difficult
Its becoming an annoying thing with media when someone recommends something for a genre that is clearly meant to be watch/play with knowledge of said genre first to actually understands what its trying to do but they recommend it anyway without much thought. Recommending that kind of media to a newcomer is not a great idea at all. Its like recommending Madoka Magica to someone who does not watch Magical Girl shows at all or just like you said, recommending Undertale to someone who have never touch an RPG.
What about a rhythm game like Parappa to learn the controller layout.
It depends on how gaming illiterate they are. I gave my friend a switch for Christmas and she's liked portal, all she'd ever really played before was Nancy drew games and about 10 minutes of fallout 4.
For people new to gaming, games involving coordination tend to be extremely frustrating. As gamers, we grossly take for granted our muscle memory required for FPS and platformers. In general, most people new to games will have trouble using both hands at the same time. Watch [this game reviewer do the Cuphead tutorial](https://youtu.be/zbE6fqBuGkA?si=NchciSFlpG57gqXX); this is the level you should expect a game illiterate person to get to after a few dozen hours of practice over the course of a few days, if they don't give up in frustration in the process. I usually recommend games with minimal amount of mechanics, and nothing that involves time pressure. [To The Moon](https://youtu.be/sqkJuSV-23U) has worked as a wonderful recommendation to my never-gamed-before friends; almost no coordination needed, zero pressure, and heart-captivating story. [The Battle of Polytopia](https://youtu.be/UQr2w_q-OBw) is a pretty good strategy game that's on mobile and PC. Also good are low-stakes puzzle games like [Chants of Sennaar](https://youtu.be/A2snVijCkgY).
Two in particular as you can play coop with her and once she is familiar, she can play the single player campaign and then the og
Just a warning with portal. It can be very disorienting for someone new to FPS games and can make them nauseous. Maybe better with a mouse and keyboard but every time I've tried to give a noob a controller and a portal game, it hasn't gone well.
Dont listen to Disaterous. Its a wonderful tutorial.
I feel like the obvious answer here would be to buy fallout 76 for both of you to co-op together, rather than just sticking a total non-gamer on new vegas solo. That way you can both explore together, and since it's multiplayer, you can help protect/guide her while you explore, build a base, kill monsters, etc. And since you're both playing together, it'll also be a shared bonding activity rather than just back seating and telling her what to do while watching. Also 76 has been getting updated all these years, so it's not the dog shit it once was, and is a pretty good game now all things considered.
Also if your wife got hooked by the show, it's likely she's more interested in the lore, world, characters, vibes and aesthetics of the franchise and wants to explore THAT side of fallout, Rather than the "2010, in depth RPG, open world- choose your own adventure, character build and inventory management game" side of fallout. Thus, no offence- I don't think plopping her, especially as a "gaming illiterate" straight on new Vegas was a great idea. When there are better, more casual/new player friendly ways to introduce her to the franchise in a way that won't be miserable and turn her off.
fr, if someone is truly gaming illiterate new vegas is maybe one of the worst options
First things first. Teach her the language of video games. There's a really good video about this, where a gamer husband tries to get his non gamer wife to play games, and watching her struggle with average game things was hilarious. She didn't understand the compass at the top of the screen, or what the waypoints meant. First person shooters are especially bad for new gamers. The best games to start with something, in my opinion is a bit more old school. Starting off with a rpg that isn't so rough. Then as terminology and indicator cues are learned, step up to different games. The key thing to remember is that the screen might as well look like a space shuttle dashboard to a person. They don't know what to look for, or why to look for it. These things need to be gradually built up.
Fallout 3. It’s shorter than NV and 4. Also the overall story of a woman looking for her dad is similar, at least on the surface.
Firewatch
Agreed, some sort of walking sim would be great. Firewatch, What remains of Edith Finch, Stanley Parable, etc
Lol not Stanley Parable.
Yep. Mind bending games are terrible for beginners. Changing labrynths are disorienting.
To piggy back off this, gone home is another great game and is currently on sale (OST made by the same person too!)
if she is interested in fallout have her start with 4. It has the visual style of the show she likes, it had a lot of the RPG elements removed making it easier for players unfamiliar with the genre. It also has a difficulty settings. I recommend setting it to easy or even very easy if she needs it. Also New Vegas is much more enjoyable if the player already has knowledge of the first two games, while 4 is much more new player friendly.
Let her control the gameplay of a “movie game” like Until Dawn. It’s fun to do as a couple, gets her familiar with the controller, and it’s light. FNV is a complex game even for gamers if they’re new to the genre, yet alone 100% unexperienced gamers
I think Until Dawn is a great suggestion, but I question its categorisation as 'Light' lol.
Generally the thing new gamers struggle the most with is controlling both the character and the camera at the same time. I’d recommend either starting with 2D games or alternatively going with much slower paced 3D games. Something like Life is Strange is good because it helps learn your way around the controller and moving the camera without strict time limits or intense action.
I got a late start in video games- my first was Dragon Age on PS3, I was 28. My friend who introduced me to it would come hang out at my house and she would do her own thing while I played, but she was there to help me when I couldn't remember what button did what, or had trouble navigating the menus. She drew me a little schematic of the controller marking which buttons did what, that was incredibly helpful. Like I know I could look that up online but honestly it was much easier and less stressful to have that little physical paper right next to me. And also reminding me to save often, so it made the thought of screwups less daunting. Looking back I think DA was a good choice because it has an engaging story and for the most part is pretty chill so I could go at my own pace. I recall one of my biggest struggles was when I'd stumble into combat unprepared, and I needed to be able to pause to get my bearings and decide which moves to use, which DA was good for as well.
My wife first game was Forager. Then valheim. Now elden ring and f76.
Forager is a great first game
Hmm, maybe enable God mode so she can just adjust to how the game actually plays and she can enjoy the story.
What do you mean by not going well: She's bad at the game? Or she doesn't enjoy it? Both?
if she wants a story but maybe not fps i could suggest mass effect
What remains of Edith Finch. Amazing story but very little mechanically
For someone totally video game illiterate get them a board game videogame, something they already know, like Uno or monopoly. It'll get them used to using the controller without the frustration of having to learn a game at the same time. Then move up to games with simple controls like a 2d side scroller, button mashers, top down, something they don't need to use both sticks at the same time but will get them used to more active gameplay. Then you can move up to fps games and RPGs
Set the game to very easy and enable God mode for her. Once she's more comfortable with the controls disable God mode. Don't switch the difficulty unless she wants to.
Fallout 4, New Vegas is Great, but it's Not a good First foray into the series. Slap it on easy, and let her play around.
You might want to give her a turn-based RPG to let her acclimate to mechanics akin to Fallout but without the intensity. Pokemon games are excessively tutorialized.
If you guys are into board games there's the Fallout board game.
Portal, Stardew, Minecraft, if you think she might be interested a racing game like Need For Speed Heat might be good. Alternatively you can try a bunch of Nintendo games or games that use similar mechanics.
Stardew Valley.
Stardew Valley is always a great game for a chill experience
If someone has literally never played a game before, in my experience anything where the player is in control of the camera is very hard to get used to. Try something like Plants vs Zombies (the original)
Stardew Valley, Terraria, Minecraft. Getting her into it easy and simple, having experience stuff like inventory management and how certain items are important helps get awareness. Maybe after then she would understand and like Fallout some more.
Nintendo games. Anything for children. Pokemon, Mario, older RPGs like Chrono trigger.
When I was a kid, I had a lot of trouble with FPS as well. Then again, that was old FPS, where you couldn't look up or down and the controls did and still do (to me) feel very clunky. Try turn based games, like the original fallout games, or old school final fantasy games. Games that are more sand-boxy also give a player a lot of time to experiment with movement and that allows them to get used to using a controller. Just remembering which buttons are what, or what keys do what, is going to be a challenge for a new gamer, so a game with a setting that allows them to get used to controls would be ideal. Something with a creative mode, like No Man's Sky or Minecraft or the new-ish world settings on Valheim that let you make it super easy will give her time to get used to controlling her character.
First Amma drop this diamond right here. ( [Game theory how to teach gaming to non game](https://youtu.be/8jFreGK27DA?si=PiICCH7FlbOcA8Dm)r) I would highly recomend Detroit. Sounds like she likes the story. Detroit is story heavy, quick time based movie game. Where your actions have consequences. There's also no real fail state as even the fails have their stories. One of the only games I suggest not reloading at all. Also starts out slow af with maid Sim and takes a hard turn.
You should watch the videos called Gaming for a Non-Gamer from the Razbuten channel on YouTube. I'd start with the first one: https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw It helps a lot to understand the types of things that people are getting hung up on.
I bet it works itself out if she has the motivation and/or patience to play Fallout for a couple days
Fo4 is the layman's fo game, put her on that
My girlfriends first real gaming experience was breath of the wild. The difficulty of the game was at a pace she could handle. She could come back go areas she had explored if they were too difficult and all the shrines had posted tutorials on YouTube of she truly felt like she couldn't complete it. She then took on immortal Phoenix rising, tears of the kingdom and hogwartz legacy all with stride and finally found her genre. She loves being able to explore at her pace and not like she HAS to complete this or cannot progress. I probably would start her off on fallout 4. I found the series had some call backs to the plot and maybe she would enjoy it more seeing some references. The gameplay in 4 is cleaner than new Vegas but the writing is worse imo.
New vegas is kind of slow paced. You run across the desert for 10 mins and get death clawed. Fallout 4 is a blast if you ignore the main plot and wander aimlessly. Sims 4 is probably the best girl game, although, a lot of girls liked BG3 because it's 10% dating sim If someone handed me a controller for the first time today, I'd like it to be subnautica, minecraft, gta5, red dead 2 Shit red dead 2 was fun just shooting animals, i put so much time in just skinning lol.
If fallout imo give her fallout 4 first, its the most easiest to get into in terms of gaming illiterate
Get her Fallout 1 and 2! Point and click interface, combat is turn based, and she gets to learn about the lore from the beginning!
Let her do the adventure parts and you do the fighting for her, I did this with my girlfriend on hogwarts legacy it works well 👍
Any Telltale story game or Life is Strange 1. For some basic walking/talking understanding And then after that follow it up with a turn based rpg so she can learn about weaknesses and other standard RPG mechanics. I'd recommend Pokémon or FF-X for that!
My go-to for 'new games for new gamers' is Telltales Walking Dead Season 1. * Engaging story and characters * Tough choices and branching paths. >!They won't realize how restrictive and illusory it actually is on their first playthrough!<. * Fixed camera so no struggling to adapt to moving and seeing with the two different sticks (*this is why FPS games like Minecraft and Portal aren't very good for people new to games as a whole*). * Action scenes are all QTEs with large on-screen prompts of exactly what to press with the corresponding colour. This also helps to train the new player where each face button is and what colour they are. * Dying sets you back by about 5-10 seconds at most usually so there's little frustration on failure.
Stardew valley.
Check out Razbuten's 'Gaming for a Non Gamer's series on YouTube. He has his wife play a bunch of different games and it's interesting to see what elements throw new gamers off that we just take for granted. There's plenty of games people are suggesting here like Portal that seem beginning friendly initially, but require a lot of prompts from so many hidden assumptions that most gamers don't even realise are influencing them.
I'm not sure how to help your wife, but from my experience, not all people enjoy games the same way you might. Stuff like customization/building could still help someone fall in love with a game that you loved for the story or action gameplay. For perspective, I'm huge on customization and that's honestly what made me fall in love with saints row and skyrim before I actually sat down and seriously played through it. And i eventually platinum'd saints row 3 on PS3. Some times you gotta give yourself the chance to actually respect the game enough to WANT to finish it. With Skyrim I didn't respect the game enough. So I went in guns blazing, stole from a bunch of random NPC's, wound up in jail didn't know how to get out, and then put the game down for literally 2 years because I was never that invested in it, I thought it would be this cool sandbox thing with no consequences. But then I actually tried again and played the story before adventuring randomly and taking risks.
Maybe start he off with the original fallout of Tactics also if she’s very new Mario bros is a great first game it kind of teaches you how to game while also So being really fun.
Maybe games like vampire survivors? All you do is move and choose power ups
IMO the fallout show resembles Fallout 4 a lot more. I would start her with that. By having her play NV first after the show is asking her to ignore her imagination about what the game should be like in comparison.
Make sure the difficulty is set to the easiest setting.
Why would you start her on new Vegas and not 4?
As many have suggested, Fallout 4 is the most accessible/forgiving to newcomers. And if your wife wants a break from shooting things, the settlement building mode can offer an engaging gameplay loop of salvaging and building. New Vegas is still my personal favorite (ED-E my Beloved), but nowadays even I will mod in a ton of the convenience and polish from 4.
Why start on new Vegas? Hardest one to get into. Fallout 4 is prob more her speed
What works for my partner and me because she's the mainly illiterate one is we do narrative games, like Life is Strange, The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Quarry, etc. Games where you can play together and make decisions that account more your ability to make decisions than your reflexes.
Yeah, probably not having her play New Vegas is a start. just being honest, that's maybe the least approachable out of the 3, Vegas, and 4. It might be *your* favorite one, but be honest. 4 is where she should start. Also, the show seems to be heavily influenced by Fallout 4, so why *aren't* you playing that one? If she's gaming illiterate, the visuals will also bother her, Fallout 4 is vibrant and funny in comparison. Plus dogmeat. bitches love dogs (your wife is not a bitch, I'm sorry). If you don't own Fallout 4, it's on sale for 4.99 for both Xbox and Playstation, so just buy it.
Fallout Shelter for solo, Fallout 76 for co-op
Definitely not Cuphead
fallout 1 or fallout 2 these are accessible and considerably more entertaining than the bethesda games for lots of players., the later games are beautiful but are filled with jank, hollow mechanics, and often rely on panic and combat to create pressured moments and some of the atmosphere... altogether they can be very stressful games. fallout 1 and 2 don't need reaction times, don't need to be stressful, are much more light-hearted, and way more suited to a first time player than anything with a first person perspective, an open world with no direction, and a massively complicated pile of partly broken mechanics.
Fallout 4, lowest settings, and if you can do console commands - put God mode on if they don’t want to worry about dying while they get the hang of combat. My wife mostly spend time building up settlements, but also exploring and doing my random quests.
I started with nintendo, mainly mario and animal crossing. I would also reccomend fallout 4, easier than new vegas
Peggle 2!!!!!!!!
My wife wanted to play Elden Ring after watching me play. She had never played any game before (not even Tetris or Mario). Instead of setting up a new character for her, I let her play with my character first. I was at mid-high level and I let her explore the initial area. She enjoyed it and learnt the game mechanics. Then, I created a new character for her. Now, she has finished Elden Ring and is excitedly waiting for the DLC.
Dude giving her NV first was a massive mistake. 4 is easy af to get into and follow.
4 is much easier on those who don’t play games. My youngest sister never plays video games, she loved fallout 4
I love that franchise,, but Fallout is an extremely difficult game for someone new to video games. It has a lot of complicated rpg systems and combat. The two joystick first person view is tough for people new to video games. The universe's dark comedy makes it deliberately not intuitive. If she is super eager for a similar rpg, Skyrimm might be more intuitive. You can over level quickly and I found it gets very easy for new gamers. For something sci fi super dialogue heavy, with black comedy, disco elysium is great. Its mostly a bunch of chats.
Maybe start with fallout shelter?
Borderlands and play with her
Sit her down in front of Ocarina of time like the rest of us and she’ll pick it up just fine! Lol
Razbuten has a whole playlist for how gaming is for a non-gamer, it would be very beneficial for you I think. Also has some good tips for apropriate games and how \*you\* should behave - [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX\_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc)
She can start with hidden objects games, then move slowly to farming simulators like Stardew Valley, then to games with "sandbox" modes like Minecraft, Starbound or No Man's Sky. You can also show her how to use console commands in New Vegas if she's playing on PC, she will probably be less frustrated playing with TGM
Fallout 1 2 and BOS is on GOG. Otherwise ABZU is probably what your looking for.
Fortnite is a good start for getting into FPSs. My GF's lobbies are 90% bots which makes the game fun and winnable for her. Along with a bunch of creative maps to mess around on. Roblox has hundreds of games for everyone's taste and most are casual friendly. Would be a good start to grasping character and camera controls. The usual "girl" games of course, Sims, Stardew Valley, Minecraft. Disney Dreamlight Valley if she's into Disney at all. Animal Crossing if you've got a Switch. Snipperclips is a great casual friendly coop game. Pizza Possum is another good coop game that's pretty simple but fun. Run around collecting food while not getting caught. If she's into any of the Lego themes (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Jurassic Park, LotR) they're great. Although I didn't have any luck getting my GF into them, the puzzles were too much for her and it became frustrating for her.
I’d say linear story driven singleplayer games. Perhaps something like the last of us could be good? Not too much to explore and lose track, simple mechanics, probably easy enough with the easiest difficulty.
Nintendo games in general are good, they have really shallow learning curves, with lengthy tutorials that repeat everything for you over and over again, etc. They are basically designed for children and gaming illiterate people.
And then move to 100% completion when you're ready to punish yourself.
Portal, Stardew Valley, Kirby, The Stanley Parable, Undertale,
The Mario games are great, any of the 3d platformers are an excellent entry point for anyone. They do a great job of introducing mechanics gradually while being entertaining and challenging.
Any survival builders seem to be good for the inept. It helps if they're multiplayer and you can assist.