There’s always old-fashioned Counter-Strike, too.
Is that still free? Can he and I play this on two separate computers for no charge? My 2012 laptop could probably run it as well, couldn’t it?
Just for clarification, since it isn’t explicitly described, and will influence the suggestions:
What, exactly, does your son enjoy in watching? The story of the game, like watching a movie? Or the action of the game, like watching a sporting event?
Give Halflife 2 a try. Yes, there may be some jumpscares, but once he notices he can afford to have some damage on easy, I guess it would be fine. My son in into Subnautica now.
Halo: Master Chief Collection is available on Steam.
I am interested in Halo, a series of games I have never played.
What about Crysis? I would up for one of those. Are they way too “adult”? Way to difficult?
I just realized Crysis 2 is in my Steam library. I know it pre-dates my timerange I mentioned, but is that a good one to start with?
Halo isn’t too bad, I would say the mature elements are the shooting, mild blood (mostly alien blood), some swearing (no F-bombs), and… how do I say this without spoiling? Some of the enemies look like zombies, not the cartoony kind, and sometimes these particular enemies lose limbs or “burst” when you fight them. So there’s a little gore.
~Max
I don’t think Crysis gets too violent and I don’t remember too much cursing. Difficulty is another story, I felt playing even on normal I had to restart from check point a number of times during the stealth sections.
Crysis 1 is definitely the best one and playing Crysis 2 without playing Crysis 1 the story might make absolutely no sense.
Different type of FPS (First Person Swimmer) but Subnautica is a treat both to play and to watch. It’s beautiful and immersive but still intense. It has some genuinely scary (but not gory) moments but it’s easy to avoid those while he’s watching.
Would you be willing to expand to third person games? I presume the main draw of FPS games is that they’re constant action to amuse a spectator, but I can think of some that would fit your criteria and would be entertaining to watch. A few that come to mind:
Just Cause for wacky explosions and mayhem. Horizon Zero Dawn for gorgeous landscapes and huge robot dinosaurs. Star Wars Force Unleashed for force mayhem. That one is a bit older but I remember it being a lot of fun, and the most recent SW game is a more sedate affair with lots of exploration.
I’m planning to play this one this coming summer. I still haven’t seen an amazing sale. However, I can’t wait to get it for summer vacation.
HZD is absolutely terrific. One of my favorite games of recent years. It has a very polished, near-sandbox-y set of mechanics that allows great variability in how you play. Want to be a sneaky sniper, taking things slow and careful and strategic? Got you covered. Want to barrel in with fast-paced run-and-gun action? No problem.
Also, it’s the (very!) rare game where the lore and worldbuilding behind the gameplay is just as interesting and compelling as the gameplay itself. There are some late-game revelations that function beautifully from a pure storytelling standpoint.
It’s not perfect, but despite the flaws it’s still intensely satisfying.
I can’t wait. I believe they have released multiple patches to improve its performance on PC, which is what I was waiting for as well.
Okay here’s another one then: Advent Rising.
It was atrocious on Xbox as it was released with buggy controls and so unfortunately it got a bad rap. That was all fixed on PC.
It fools you into believing it’s a Halo clone at the start but then blows your mind with a twist. Toward the end you are wielding powers which put Yoda to shame.
The graphics are a little rough vs today’s games but if you can get past that the story and gameplay are fantastic. You many mourn at the end when you realize it was supposed to be a trilogy but the project was dropped.
I’m just about to finish the game (no spoilers, please), an I agree completely. HZD is one of the few games whose main story could have been a perfectly decent hard science fiction novel - New Wave, maybe Brian Aldiss. I’m having a wonderful time playing it.
HZD would make an amazing pen and paper RPG setting
You mention you have an Ubisoft library but can’t show it.
I’ll just note that I’ve enjoyed the original Ghost Recon and the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare games forever. My friend enjoyed those plus the Rainbow Six stuff (and I’ve never played them so I have no opinion). The GR Future Soldier and subsequent offerings got some mixed reviews and I haven’t gotten around to buying them. What I like most about them is the cohesive story line and Future Soldier bought into the MMORPG and pay-for-special-tech fads of their times while I hear Wildlands bought into the GTA-style unbounded environment and interact-with-every-blade-of-grass-if-you-wish technologies. Those might be great, but I just haven’t gotten around to them.
–G!
You can try PUBG, Fortnite, or COD: Warzone. If you are looking for an offline solo game it might be the COD: Modern Warfare series, with an amazing plot and coll playstyle!