Please recommend PC games for my son

[jeremymwilson]

Hi all, will soon be building my first PC and want to buy a couple of good games for my 6 year old son but have no idea what's good. 

 

Anyone have kids of a similar age? What do they like to play?

 

planning a high end PC so all games should play well and we're coming from an iMac so whatever I choose, he'll no doubt be blown away ?

 

Thanks

[Guest]

Games with big environments and lots of freedom where my favorite games when i was younger.

Would you be okey with him playing games targeted towards more mature people? 

 

Personal favorites when i was younger (older than 6 years old):

Minecraft

Spore

SimCity 4 (but i recommend Cities Skylines over that)

Any LEGO game

 

Other games that i would recommend now:

Kerbal Space Program

Edited May 27, 2016 by Guest
grammer corrections

[vanished]

Something I bet no one's heard of: MoonBase Commander.  Can't remember when I started playing this, but I still do to this day and it should be easy to pick up (the ai can be set to be incredibly dumb if necessary, so all skill levels are welcome)

 

Plus it ran just fine on a 200 MHz pentium with win 98, so you should be good for hardware

[comicsansms]

Minecraft. 

3D pinball on Windows XP. 

Watching the Windows 9x screensaver "3D Maze" 

 

I really don't have an idea what a 6YO should and could play other than Minecraft. 

[Loleo]

PC gaming and just gaming in general mostly comes down to what you enjoy, sort of like with movies genre's. Some like romance, sci-fi or action whilst others could prefer a sitcom instead. But me having played some games I can recommend you a few basic. Keep in mind that these games are just good in my opinion and isn't liked by all (even though most of them are popular).  None of these games contains nudity or any of the sort but they could contain ''bad'' language and most likely violence. Check the ESRB rating before and you make the judgement.

 

-Overwatch - an online class and team based fps game with a very lively art style with lot's of colours, cartoonish. Very kid friendly (released 3 days ago! and it is very well optimized so it doesn't require a beast pc or anything.) 40 euro 

 

-The elder scrolls V: Skyrim - A single player RPG(role playing game). You are a prisoner that just fled from your execution, you have nothing and you are no one. But soon you will discover that you are Dragonborn! A very fun and addicting game where you can choose your own play style weather it is sneaky assassin, mage, warrior, battlemage or archery! (and more!) Not quite that 6 year old friendly but it sure is fun and I played it when I was about 9 years old... 15 euro

 

-Minecraft - Of course. Having played this game since it's alpha I must say it's fun. Download a shaders pack to make it more beautiful since you are going to have a good pc. You will get many hours of playtime from this game, building, exploring, pvp, pve, minigames and everything else. Very kid friendly. 20 euro (or at least something similar to that) 

 

-Spore - As the other guy said it was one of my best memories. Actually got my old CD from a friend at the time, ahh the good old days' where you didn't have to log in on multiple online servers to install a game and product keys was nothing. In all seriousness though it's a good game, I myself bought all dlc's on steam. I've had very fun designing different new ''animal'' species. Very kid friendly. 15 euro

 

-Rocket league - It's a car racing game with a twist. Instead of racing on a racing track you play football with the cars, in a giant arena. It's very fun but can be a bit tricky to learn. Kid friendly price: 20 euro

 

-Portal 2 - Probably my fourth favorite game and it deserves that place since it's just so darn good. It's a single player campaign with puzzle solving. So I can see you and your son maybe playing it together and you helping him out on some levels. And I think it has a co-op campaign (so you both can help each other solve puzzles. but that could be exclusive to the console release. (I have both pc and console) price: 20 euro.

 

I hope this list helped and before you buy any of these games, check their ESRB rating and watch some video footage on them before you decide to let your son play. Other than that have fun gaming!

 

Also welcome to the PCMR /s.

[Paralectic]

Roller Coaster Tycoon Deluxe

[Allshevski]

30 minutes ago, Loleo said:

PC gaming and just gaming in general mostly comes down to what you enjoy, sort of like with movies genre's. Some like romance, sci-fi or action whilst others could prefer a sitcom instead. But me having played some games I can recommend you a few basic. Keep in mind that these games are just good in my opinion and isn't liked by all (even though most of them are popular).  None of these games contains nudity or any of the sort but they could contain ''bad'' language and most likely violence. Check the ESRB rating before and you make the judgement.

 

-Overwatch - an online class and team based fps game with a very lively art style with lot's of colours, cartoonish. Very kid friendly (released 3 days ago! and it is very well optimized so it doesn't require a beast pc or anything.) 40 euro 

 

-The elder scrolls V: Skyrim - A single player RPG(role playing game). You are a prisoner that just fled from your execution, you have nothing and you are no one. But soon you will discover that you are Dragonborn! A very fun and addicting game where you can choose your own play style weather it is sneaky assassin, mage, warrior, battlemage or archery! (and more!) Not quite that 6 year old friendly but it sure is fun and I played it when I was about 9 years old... 15 euro

 

-Minecraft - Of course. Having played this game since it's alpha I must say it's fun. Download a shaders pack to make it more beautiful since you are going to have a good pc. You will get many hours of playtime from this game, building, exploring, pvp, pve, minigames and everything else. Very kid friendly. 20 euro (or at least something similar to that) 

 

-Spore - As the other guy said it was one of my best memories. Actually got my old CD from a friend at the time, ahh the good old days' where you didn't have to log in on multiple online servers to install a game and product keys was nothing. In all seriousness though it's a good game, I myself bought all dlc's on steam. I've had very fun designing different new ''animal'' species. Very kid friendly. 15 euro

 

-Rocket league - It's a car racing game with a twist. Instead of racing on a racing track you play football with the cars, in a giant arena. It's very fun but can be a bit tricky to learn. Kid friendly price: 20 euro

 

-Portal 2 - Probably my fourth favorite game and it deserves that place since it's just so darn good. It's a single player campaign with puzzle solving. So I can see you and your son maybe playing it together and you helping him out on some levels. And I think it has a co-op campaign (so you both can help each other solve puzzles. but that could be exclusive to the console release. (I have both pc and console) price: 20 euro.

 

I hope this list helped and before you buy any of these games, check their ESRB rating and watch some video footage on them before you decide to let your son play. Other than that have fun gaming!

 

Also welcome to the PCMR /s.

I would throw out the overwatch (It's kinda competitive so 6 year old will be very bad at it and we don't want kids on servers) and Skyrim, as you said it's not 6 year old friendly.

[Loleo]

40 minutes ago, Allshevski said:

I would throw out the overwatch (It's kinda competitive so 6 year old will be very bad at it and we don't want kids on servers) and Skyrim, as you said it's not 6 year old friendly.

Yeah, you're right it's just that maybe the dad will enjoy them.  But at the same time the games that a 6 year old can play depends on his maturity and how used he is to gaming.

[jeremymwilson]

Fantastic responses guys, thanks so much. Going to take a look at Moon Base Alpha as my son is completely into rockets and spaceships. Rollercoaster Tycoon sounds like a good idea too. 

 

And dad will be having lots of fun too, can't wait (for gtx 1080 to be available to finish my build) ??

[Praesi]

6 years old kids should play with action figurs or outside. Not sitting infront the damn PC. Humankind is doomed.

[Kryptyx]

6 year old? Call of Duty sounds fitting.

[maria2244]

14 hours ago, Praesi said:

6 years old kids should play with action figurs or outside. Not sitting infront the damn PC. Humankind is doomed.

outside ?oh realy?

the house and playing video games is safer for a 6 years old kid than the (outside) world .

[Praesi]

2 hours ago, maria2244 said:

outside ?oh realy?

the house and playing video games is safer for a 6 years old kid than the (outside) world .

Maybe where you live. 6 Years old dont belong infront a Monitor.

[TheBestUserName]

3 hours ago, maria2244 said:

outside ?oh realy?

the house and playing video games is safer for a 6 years old kid than the (outside) world .

To be the devil's advocate, it's not unsafe when he's being supervised like a 6 year old should be. 

 

But back to the question -- Rayman games are great for kids. They have goofy sound effects, great visuals, fun platforming, and are fun for us adults, too.  There's Rayman Legends and Rayman Origins that he and you would very likely enjoy. 

[xentropa]

The incredible machine.

 

https://www.gog.com/game/the_incredible_machine_mega_pack

[jeremymwilson]

Thanks, more great gaming advice. As for the parenting advice, I know you mean well but this is not the place. 

[Arkzyw]

What about some older games ? Croc, Kao the Kangaroo, Captain Claw, Worms, Hype the time Quest, they all seem fitting, and I personally loved them as a kid.

Also maybe some emulation ? For example some N64 games like Mario 64, Mario Kart, Legend of Zelda series can bring a lot of fun.

[jeremymwilson]

Great shout, thanks