Help! My Girlfriend Is A Noob!!

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

So my longtime girlfriend has seen me play Mass Effect a lot, and has expressed a desire to play it herself to get the whole experience. Unfortunately, she is beyond green concerning video games. She's good at DDR, but anything with more that foot buttons is too much.









She wants me to teach her how to use a PlayStation Dual Shock controller. Now, this is a hard enough challenge when she has none of the reflexes and dexterity that we all learned in childhood. I am up to this challenge I think, but the problem is finding a game to start with.

We would prefer a shooter, as those are the only skills she is interested in learning. It needs to be either a very easy, or a very slow game, so she can ease into the experience. SO! What I would appreciate from you gentle readers is a game that fits these criteria at a reasonable price. Because I honestly can't think of anything. Thanks in advance!

 

[Aerosteam]

The obvious solution to this is to play Mass Effect with a DDR pad.

So what platform are you playing on?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Portal is a good game to learn shooter skills. It teaches you movement as well as how to shoot while jumping and falling, and eases you in by starting easy with very simple concepts and controls and ramping up the difficulty each level. Of course that's an FPS and Mass Effect is a TPS, but Mass Effect isn't a particularly difficult game series so that shouldn't make too much of a difference.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Lego Star Wars. Or any Lego game, they're all the same. I started my sisters off with them, and now they do fine with games like CoD and Skyrim.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

The obvious solution to this is to play Mass Effect with a DDR pad.

So what platform are you playing on?

PS3. And it's fortunate that I'm not a PC gamer, that's twice as many buttons.

 

[tippy2k2]

Portal is a good game to learn shooter skills.

Better still, Portal 2 since then you can both play together. But Portal is a brilliant answer for a brand new FPS player.

I presume since you said Dualshock that you're exclusive to Sony, which is kind of unfortunate since the Playstation isn't a big FPS console.

I would argue that an older Call of Duty (specifically something like CoD 2, The Black Ops series, or CoD 4) would be another good choice. They're designed for the more casual audience and the single player for those particular games are good.

Borderlands/Borderlands 2 might also be acceptable choices depending on if she'd be fine with a bit more work. They're both entertaining games, are relatively simple FPS games, and you can play together.

 

[Aerosteam]

The obvious solution to this is to play Mass Effect with a DDR pad.

So what platform are you playing on?

PS3. And it's fortunate that I'm not a PC gamer, that's twice as many buttons.

Thought so, well, hate to recommend Call of Duty, but if it's anything that will ease someone to shooters, it's that because of how uncomplex it is.

And Portal, mechanically speaking.

 

[Asita]

It'd be a major time sink, and knowing nothing else about your girlfriend it really might not really be her cup of tea, but you might consider using a JRPG to get her used to the basic controls. Take Persona 4 as a case in point. The actual difficulty curve for the actual battles and 100% completion notwithstanding, it's pretty dang forgiving from a control standpoint. When running you only have to worry about starting an enemy encounter (rather than say...dodging gunfire), combat itself is turn based, and the 'confirm'/'cancel' buttons are generally applicable, and thus a potentially valuable starter tool. This is, of course, assuming that she's new to controlling a virtual avatar and/or just needs to get used to the general dualshock control scheme. The suggestion will naturally be less useful if, for instance, she's good with general controls but needs a crash course in shooters.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

The obvious solution to this is to play Mass Effect with a DDR pad.

So what platform are you playing on?

PS3. And it's fortunate that I'm not a PC gamer, that's twice as many buttons.

If she's a decent typist that wouldn't matter. Controls are controls so long as you don't need to take your eyes off the screen to find the right button.

Might actually be easier for someone more well versed in computers to game with a keyboard rather than the foreign concept of a controller.

More to the point, Portal is a good entry point, as is Mass Effect. That game is pretty forgiving at low difficulties.

Then have her play Dark Souls and learn true pain... In all honesty though, you might want to choose something that has 0 action elements just to familiarize her with the layout of the controller. I just don't really know what those are since I played a 360 before I made the jump to PC. Maybe Valkyria Chronicles so long as she doesn't mind anime bullshit?

 

[Lufia Erim]

Does it have to be a shooter? Just have her play Skyrim on easy. That should get her immersed into gaming. If you ABSOLUTELY want a shooter play a couple of rounds of left 4 dead. Nothig helps you learn quicker than zombies running after you.

Also don't make her play portal unless shes interested in puzzles. If she wants any kind of action/story portal will bore her to tears

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I don't think shooters are a good beginner course (except maybe for the early test chambers of the previously mentioned Portal 1 or 2 and possibly the 3D Fallouts, since you both are working towards an RPG with shooter elements), especially for the greenest of noobs. Maybe start her off with an hour or two in a 3rd person action game that has auto aim but gives the player control over the camera with the right stick. Something like Ratchet and Clank or maybe Jak 3 (not Jak 2 unless you both have taken anger management courses). When she gets a feel for the analogs, then give her an easier shooter, or go straight to Mass Effect.

 

[Asita]

More to the point, Portal is a good entry point, as is Mass Effect. That game is pretty forgiving at low difficulties.

Mass Effect 1? "Forgiving" is not the word I'd use there. Let's be honest, combat in that game was not exactly well implemented. The controls were clunky, allies were near useless, and pretty much every non-sniper liked to charge you (the snipers liked to drop you in one shot). The best strategy often boiled down to outdistancing exterior enemies and picking them off while strafing with a sniper rifle, and finding a good corridor to funnel internal enemies into.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Pfffft, all these suggestions like Portal and Lego games... Dark Souls is the way to go! Tie her into a chair and don't let her leave until she's beaten Ornstein and Smough. Tough love is the only real kind I say!

In all seriousness, Portal and Lego games are both good platforms to start on. 3rd person shooter controls are a bit more. There's some 3d person games with just walking sequences that'd be good for learning the basic 3rd person controls. Alan Wake's beginning comes to mind, as it features no combat, no tense atmosphere, no time limits and lets the player wander about at their own pace. Oh, and GTA free roaming might also be good for learning 3rd person controls.

 

[G00N3R7883]

I don't know if its available on Playstation, but Sanctum would be a good starter game. Its a hybrid FPS/tower defence game. Most of the enemies don't shoot back at the player (in the first game anyway - they do attack the player in the sequel), they just run to your base, so you can't really die. You've got towers there to help you kill stuff and there are 4 difficulty levels. And I believe there's a coop mode as well.

 

[MetalGenocide]

NEWB - someone completely new.
NOOB - someone who has still not acquired significant skill even after a while.

Without a doubt Portal/2. No "gross", "icky", "scary" and the like stuff that girls tend to not like. Extremely easy and forgiving. Helps develop relatively quick grasp of FPS control scheme.

 

[mysecondlife]

Any shooter at easiest setting. If I were her and I wanted to get into a particular videogame series, I'd just jump right in. I don't think I'd have patience for "practice run" by playing other games outside my interest.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

A shooter for a noob? Call of Duty is the obvious choice. Hardcore gamers like to shit on that franchise for a reason. But for people who don't know much about games and don't care much about games Call of Duty is a lot of fun. It's made for that.

 

[Phasmal]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to repeat the calls for Portal, though I would avoid Portal 2.

Apparently it can get quite frustrating for new players to be struggling with a controller and see someone breezing along with no difficulties.

I'm gonna echo the fact that if it doesn't have to be a shooter, try her out on Skyrim on the easiest settings. It'll teach the same skills, anyway.

As an aside, I find it so weird watching someone not be able to use a controller.

 

[Maximum Bert]

If she wants to play Mass Effect just let her play that its an extremely easy series especially on the lower settings I mean soldier in the first one is literally almost unkillable on insanity once you have the correct skills you can take a direct shot from a colossus without being dropped although for some reasons Husks can still hurt you and are the most dangerous enemies in the game to a soldier on Insanity.

Anyway just let her play what she wants to play odds are she will learn more if its playing something she actually wants to rather than something you feel she should. She may give up of course but I think its more likely she will do that if she is not playing what she wants to because it sounds like she wants to learn how to play that series and not games in general.