I need some help finding some good games ( non violent or miminal stuff) for my son ( and nearly 6 year old daughter)
We have Zoo Tycoon, which is always fun.
The kids are Harry Potter nuts but I have never heard anything good or bad about the cd roms.
anything that teaches something along the way is paramount to just mindlessness.
However, any game that is mindless fun I shall take recommendations as well.
I take any recommendation, really.
Mucho Gracias.
If there is a site that reviews games, I would appreciate it.
Most of our games are preschool-1st grade and too young for one child now.
Not a CD, but if you want educational… why not download Google Earth and tell them to find your house or something? Personally I think anything designed to teach and “entertain” at the same time is pretty lame and not very fun OR educational. But I dunno, I played the Cluefinders as a kid and I found them fairly tolerable.
PS - kidsdomain.com has reviews and stuff for kids’ software.
This is a great idea! Have them look at places they’ve been on vacation, or places they haven’t been, or places that their favorite characters visit in movies. Obviously Hogwarts isn’t on the map, but England is. They could find King’s Cross station in London and try to figure out which track leads to Hogwarts (the smart kids will answer “but the Hogwarts track is hidden by magic!”).
Air Force bases and construction sites have lots of cool eye candy appeal.
There’s a Zoo Tycoon 2 and an expansion for it (Endangered Species). Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 is out, and it has two expansions (Soaked! and Wild). RCT may be a little hard to play, but most kids will probably catch on, and being able to ride your coasters is always great. (My dad saw me playing once and had a blast running around and popping the guests’ balloons.)
The Sims 2 is another great title, but it does include the option for adults to “woohoo” in bed (and hot tub and car if you get the Nightlife expansion). It’s nothing graphic, and they’re under the covers and mostly you just hear a lot of giggling and see the covers flying around and see a head or foot pop out (the game is rated T for Teen). If you want the original The Sims, I can mail you my copy (along with 6 of the 7–or is it 5 of the 6?–expansion packs). I’m never going to play the original any more, not when I have the sequel. Email me if you’re interested.
Released today was The Movies, another sim that lets you run a movie studio and even make your own movies. It’s also rated T for Teen, so the sex and violence shouldn’t be at all graphic (but does include fistfights and guns).
Can you tell I play a lot of sim titles?
I Spy has computer versions (my nephews have I SPY Fantasy, Haunted House & Treasure Island, I think) that are reasonably educational. Adults enjoy them almost as much as the boys (6 & 9) do. No violence or sex, helps with reading skills, following directions, cognitive skills, etc.
The boys and I also love the Harry Potter PC games. For the last 2 (which correspond to books 3 & 4 – I can’t remember the names), you need a pretty good videocard for them to run properly. My 'puter is borderline pathetic, so I don’t know anything about them. Grandma says they’re better than the first two, but I can’t tell you why she thinks so.
The first two may be a bit too hard for your youngest, but you can modify the difficulty level for her. Minimal violence, less than the books/movies, but the player is Harry, so that might be an issue, depending on the kid. They are lots of fun, but not particularly educational.