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February 02, 2006

Video games

Tim's off school today. His teacher is striking. I took the day off work. Nathalie has to work this afternoon, and somebody needs to stay with Tim.

Nath gave in to Tim's request to go have a look at used video games. So the three of us went to the store together this morning. The used video games are generally much, much cheaper than the new ones.

Nath didn't want Tim to get anything scary or violent. That's a tall order, it seems. Most games are either scary, or violent, or both. In the end Tim got one that's a little bit scary and violent, one released as part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy marketing campaign. He's playing that now. It comes with clips from the movie to help situate the butchery in some sort of story, and plenty of dramatic music.

Tim also got one of the Gran Tourismo series. That's as close as you can get to not scary and not violent, plus he can play with his sisters. Trouble is none of them know how to drive. I tried to explain that you're not supposed to accelerate into a turn, but maybe they need their uncles to give them a clue.

Posted by Mark at February 2, 2006 12:49 PM

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Comments

Sonja's nephew had a cool game for PS2 that used a camera. It would insert the video of the player into the game and do some neat boundary recogition. There were several games where you use your body to do something in the virtual world, for example:

- Wipe windows clean (edu-tainment?)
- Pop balloons or bubbles
- Bounce a soccer ball on your head (my favorite)
- Kung-fu kick and hit things being thrown at
"you"

First, your kids (and you) get lots of exercise and body coordination, not just your thumbs. Secondly, the exercise is non-violent, never directed at "people." Finally, it is the best virtual reality I've ever seen, basic but it works really well.

Sorry, I don't know the name of it...

Posted by: Andy at February 2, 2006 11:12 PM