Parent Play: Games The Whole

Family Can Play Together on Xbox.

Massive Xbox Games List: “It’s Good To Play Together” These Holidays!

A nice new section that we will be exploring in 2009 is family gaming.  As well as looking at the games we as parents can share with our children, we will also explore issues relating to online behaviour and how to navigate the increasingly adult-focused game world with our children.

We believe that being involved in video games with your child is not only the bonding fun experience of playing together and relating to their interest, but also the best way to educate yourself to better understand the content of the games they play.  Just as with the Internet, film, or TV, being involved allows you to make the decisions you believe are in the interests of your child more accurately.

With “Parent Play” we hope to open up a dialogue between the young and ‘older’ with various articles, personal stories, and views on the role of government agencies, hopefully from both the perspective of the parent and the child.

Plus, with all the negative press gaming gets, it can be easy for parents to see their children’s gaming as something negative.  In fact, gaming can bring the whole family together to share laughter and fun in an age where precious family time is often stolen away by busy life and there sometimes seems to be a divide between adults and kids.

This holidays why not spend some time together gaming?  Children, ask you parents; parents, ask your children. Someone has to start the ball rolling…

At OXCGN we know that it can be confusing for parents and kids to work out which games are best suited for family gameplay, so we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of 360 titles from both full disc-based retail and Xbox Live Arcade titles.

Think the Wii is the only console with good family fun?  Wrong!  We have two of our staff give you some suggestions with pros and cons and a family friendly rating, though you can get a full review by clicking on the title.   At the end we have some suggestions for Microsoft and retailers for some “game packs” we’d like to see.

But for now, let’s just have some fun and enjoy some games together this Christmas holidays . . .

Happy gaming this holiday season, from OXCGN.

TWODOGSz’s Picks:

by TWODOGSz

© 2008 Aaron Bertinetti

TITLE: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
GENRE: Platform Adventure
PRICE: RRP $70
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 8 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 10
PROS: Lego without the mess, colourful, funny, parents will love it, cheap, intuitive, open ended, encourages creativity and design.
CONS: Small text on SDTVs

TITLE: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
GENRE: Gardening Simulation
PRICE: RRP $70
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 4 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 9
PROS: Colourful, funny, cute, engaging, open ended, teaches time and money management.
CONS: Addictive as candy, themes of life cycle (birth, death, mating, etc), original Viva Pinata game is only $30

TITLE: Kameo: Elements of Power
GENRE: Action Adventure
PRICE: RRP $30
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: Colourful, story orientated, bargain
CONS: Minor animated violence

TITLE: Lips
GENRE: Music (Singing)
PRICE: RRP $100
PLAYERS: 1-2 Singing + up to four controllers
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: Casual approach, easily accessible, plug in MP3 player and sing along, great for parties/sleepovers, great for non-gamers
CONS: Low difficulty, some songs contain mild language

TITLE: Scene It? Box Office Smash
GENRE: Party Game (Quiz)
PRICE: RRP $100
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: Fun for all family, great for non-gamers, Mum & Dad will play, Avatars, get to press buzzers
CONS: Some mature themes in film clips, Some questions appear more than once

TITLE: FIFA 09
GENRE: Sports (Soccer)
PRICE: RRP $100 (Or $60 when you buy another EA title @ GAME: limited time only)
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 16 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 10
PROS: Easy to learn, Single screen multiplayer, The best football game out there, Looks fantastic,
CONS: Dad loves soccer… but Mum may hate it!

TITLE: Rockstar Presents Table Tennis
GENRE: Sports (Table Tennis)
PRICE: RRP A$30
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 1-2 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 10
PROS: Easy to learn, cheap, looks great, sounds great, single screen multiplayer
CONS: Impossible to master

TITLE: Forza 2
GENRE: Racing
PRICE: RRP A$30
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 8 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 10 (Offline), 7 (Online)
PROS: Split screen multiplayer, caters to all difficulties, bargain price, great community, endless gaming hours
CONS: occasionally adult images on online car marketplace

TITLE: Rock Band
GENRE: Music (Instruments and Singing)
PRICE: RRP $200
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 1-4 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: Three games in one (Drums, Guitar/Bass, Vocals), Whole family can play together, great spread of songs, everyone will find something they love, friendly difficulty curve
CONS: Expensive, durability of drum kit’s pedal

TITLE: Fable 2
GENRE: Adventure
PRICE: RRP $100
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 1-2 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 7
PROS: Very accessible, Casual gameplay with hardcore depth, Local Co-op campaign, One button combat, Beautiful production values, A game that anyone can enjoy and be and do what they please (eg. fighting, exploring, levelling, trading, the Sims like socialising, Tycoon like economic simulations, etc), cute dog you can train and interact with.
CONS: Adult themes such as sex, relationships, death, etc but not core to gameplay.

© 2008 Aaron Bertinetti

dkpatriarch’s Picks:

by dkpatriarch

© 2008 David Hilton

TITLE: Age of Booty
GENRE: Xbox Live Arcade: Party Game (Board)
PRICE: RRP 800 Microsoft Points (Around $14)
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 1-8 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 10
PROS: Easy to understand basic strategy game, kids love being pirates and sinking ships, lots of maps and an easy to use map editor, 4 players can play together on the same screen and even play in teams, cute and colourful, worth every penny of the cheap price
CONS: Someone has to win and kids hate losing, like a board game it can get repetitive

TITLE: Halo 3
GENRE: Shooter
PRICE: RRP $69
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 1-16 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 7
PROS: Top shooter with co-op missions as well as 4 player multiplayer, great variety of multiplayer games, can film and save matches to watch and laugh at later, not as violent as most other shooters and space theme makes it more Star Wars than realistic Black Hawk Down-type shooting
CONS: Those unused to controllers may find it difficult, split-screen games can feel empty with only 4 players, younger (or newer) players will get sick of being last all the time

TITLE: Perfect Dark Zero
GENRE: Shooter
PRICE: RRP $49.95 (or less)
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 1-32 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 9
PROS:Fun shooter with co-op missions as well as 4 player multiplayer, great variety of multiplayer games including the super fun infection mode, variety of maps, cartoony look, not as violent as most other shooters, has bots (AI controlled characters) which really makes for fast frantic gameplay and allows the whole family to be a team against the baddie bots, very cheap older title
CONS: Those unused to controllers may find it difficult

TITLE: Lego Games: Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman
GENRE: Action Adventure
PRICE: RRP $69.95 – $89.95
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: Explore popular franchises like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman in legoland, great fun co-operating with another person, colourful and funny, drop in drop out so if someone wants to keep going they can with the computer AI taking over one character
CONS: Puzzles can stump some, camera angle can frustrate, only 2 players, some get frustrated when other player doesn’t keep up

TITLE: Burnout Revenge
GENRE: Racing/ Crashing
PRICE: RRP $49.95
PLAYERS: 1-2, / 1-6 Offline, 1-6 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 9
PROS: Unrealistic fun arcade racing where crashing is part of the fun, variety of locations and tracks, not just racing but a 1-6 player crashing mode where players swap the controller and take turns trying to build a huge crash score, kids like cars (so do big kids)
CONS: Some kids don’t like cars (some big kids too), hard to find this game these days, not good for sore losers

TITLE: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
GENRE: Action Adventure
PRICE: RRP $89.95
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 1-2 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: A movie game that is actually fun! Great co-op game that looks and plays well, can switch and play as a variety of characters from the movie, drop in drop out so if someone wants to keep going they can, swashbuckling and arrow shooting in a variety of locations from the film
CONS: Some players may get frustrated when someone doesn’t keep up, only 2 players, fighting gets repetitive

TITLE: NHL 08/ 09
GENRE: Sports
PRICE: RRP $69.95- 99.95 (Or $60 when you buy another EA title @ GAME: limited time only))
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 1-12 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 9
PROS: Fun easy to work out game that even has a shootout mode to keep things different, feels like you are there with commentary and great sound, looks amazing
CONS: If you don’t like sports, 2 players only on same screen

TITLE: Guitar Hero titles, including World Tour
GENRE: Music
PRICE: RRP $69.95- 329.95 (including the bundle with drums, mic, guitar and game)
PLAYERS: 1-2 Offline, 1-2 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 8
PROS: Be a family band!  Kids love playing with music (so do big kids), variety of songs
CONS: Some drum pads are reported faulty and don’t last, expense of full kit, need some co-ordination

TITLE: Worms
GENRE: Xbox Live Arcade Turn based strategy
PRICE: RRP 400 Microsoft Points (around $7)
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 1-4 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 10
PROS: Cute, colourful and fun, variety of funny weapons and locations, a classic from way back looking good on 360, cheap as chips
CONS: Some younger kids and newer gamers may initially have trouble working out buttons to press to change weapons, aim, and shoot, nobody likes to lose

TITLE: Carcassonne
GENRE: Xbox Live Arcade Turn based strategy board game
PRICE: RRP 800 Microsoft Points (around $14)
PLAYERS: 1-4 Offline, 1-5 Online
FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING: 9
PROS: Cute, colourful and fun, this unique game brings the medieval tile game to the 360 perfectly, simple to get the hand of, easy controls, cheap
CONS: Some younger kids may not get the strategy element of it but still enjoy building castles, roads, and abbeys, nobody likes to lose

© 2008 David Hilton

FUN XBOX 360 CONSOLE PACKS WE’D LIKE TO SEE:

The Rare Box: Banjo, Viva:TiP, Kameo, PDZ, and NXE

The EA Box: Two EA Sports + 1 other (Bad Company, Mirror’s Edge, Army of Two, Dead Space, Red Alert 3, Mercs 2, Fight Night 3)

The Family Fun Box: Lips + Scene It? BOS or You’re in the Movies + Banjo or Viva:TiP

The Music Box: Rock Band 2 + Lips (+songs from Rock Band 1?)

The RPG Box: Fable 2, Mass Effect + 1 Other (Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Oblivion GOTY, Fallout 3, Sacred 2, Rise of the Argonauts) – could do Eastern & Western versions?

The Shooters Box: Halo 3, Gears 2 + 1 Other (Left 4 Dead, Frontlines, Far Cry 2, Gears 1, FEAR, The Club, Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty series, Orange Box, Shadowrun, etc)

The Racing Box: Forza 2, PGR4 + 1 Other (Midnight Club, GRID, SEGA Rally, Pure, MX v ATV, DIRT)

The Strategy Box: Halo Wars + 2 Others (Red Alert 3, BFME2, EndWar, Universe at War, Supreme Commander, Civ Rev)

The Rockstar Box: GTAIV, Midnight Club 3, Bully, Table Tennis

The Platinum Box: 4 titles of gamer’s choosing.

The Microsoft Games Studios Box: Rare, Lionhead, Bungie, Turn10, Bizarre, Epic, etc… (Pick three)

All goes to show the diversity of games on the 360 console, doesn’t it?

© 2008 Aaron Bertinetti

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Filed under: 1st Party Titles, 3rd Party Games, Console gaming, Events, Microsoft Games, New Game Information, Parental Gaming, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News, XboxLive Marketplace Tagged: | "Forza 2", Age of Booty, Banjo Kazooie Nuts and bolts, Batman Lego, Burnout Revenge, Carcassonne, Chronoicles of Narnia Prince Caspian; Guitar Hero world tour, Fable 2, Fable II, fifa 09, Halo 3, Indiana Jones Lego, Kameo Elements of power, LIPS, NHL 08, NHL 09, Perfect Dark Zero, Rockband, Rockstar Table Tennis, Scene it?, Star Wars lego, Viva pinata, Worms 3d, XBLA