From hair straighteners to Cod 4

Something a bit different today, Mrs _Manager has been playing (all-be-it forced) a few games. It’s a bit of an experiment in 2 things really.

1. How accommodating todays games are to new players
2. How much a none gamer will enjoy games designed primarily for the hardcore.

So, I loaded up Call of Duty 4 first, (Game of the Year Edition out 22/8 BTW)then after playing that put her on Portal. Bear in mind she hasn’t played a FPS since Timesplitters 2, and never on a mouse and keyboard. And now, I’ll hand over to her to report the findings.

* * *

Just happily straightening my hair, listening to the frustrating grunts and moans of  Mr _manager playing Test Drive, when I get called into the ‘games room’. Pending doom…..Why did I agree to this?!
I don’t mind the odd game, Mario Kart, Super Mario, for the SNES of course! I am unbeaten on gameboy Tetris and Bejewelled – the only PC game I ever play. Oh, that and spore!! Thats mucho fun making random creatures and making them dance! But as for ‘hardcore games’, really not my thing.

I’ll start with Call of Duty 4. Well, I tried my best, opened minded and ready to give it a go. Titters start from behind me when I struggle to even move. Yes, I’m a ‘noob’ or whatever and have never played anything with mouse and keyboard. I soon (sort of) get the hang of it though and continue with my mission. It starts with some basic training, some much needed basic training in-fact. More titters from Waste_manager leering over my shoulder when I fail to even notice where the targets are, let alone hit them!

For me the training didn’t last long enough and I was soon into the game which I found very fast paced. Especially when still having a little difficulty with the mouse and keyboard controls, I couldn’t keep up. It took at least 5 attempts to one little section! ‘ you were too slow’ it kept winging at me. Being a girl I obviously kept getting lost. The navigation compass – useless! Wasn’t a fan of being shouted at either by some mustachioed idiot. I am constantly being told games are escapism and a way to relax, but this was aggressive and not much fun.
The graphics were pretty impressive, and it all ran smoothly. I suppose compared to Timesplitters 2 graphics – anything would be amazing! I see why this is important though, makes it more believable and real.

Portal was better, and on Waste_managers hindsight should of started a novice on this, not a fast paced hardcore game like COD4. It took me quite a while *blushes* to understand what was going on. The training stage of the game was good though, you took it at your own pace, giving me chance to figure out what on earth was going on and to play with the controls a bit. I don’t want to admit to this, but i think given a chance i could get into portal. It appeals to my liking of puzzle games. I don’t like not being able to figure something like this out, which would inevitably lead to much frustration, and a need to continue to the next stage.

There you are then. Apparently Call of Duty is too hard and aggressive, while Portal is nicer but a bit complicated. Maybe starting her on COD4 was a little harsh, but at least the balance was found with Portal.

It was quite interesting watching her play, especially Portal. It was a testament to the game design how it slowly lured her into the mechanics of putting a box on a button, then using a portal to get a box to put on a button.

I think Guns and Violence are a little too ‘male’ for her to really get into, maybe I should see how she gets on with an RPG or something. That or I’ll just give her Medieval II: Total War and watch her suffer. I might even video it…