My circa 2005 PC finally dies, so I just had built a new Win10 machine that is gaming worthy. I don't have any consoles in the house...so the PC is the only gaming outlet aside from their hand-held phone aps. I'm pretty much out of the loop in this area--never really got into gaming at all.
I downloaded War Thunder tonight. My 14 y/o likes that...his buddies play too.
Looking for shoot-em-up, action type game for a 10 y/o. I'm OK with a "teen" rating...but don't want to go into anything "M".
Is there anything worth considering?
I'd consider TeamFortress 2.
mndsm
MegaDork
3/10/16 9:58 p.m.
Download steam. Lots of good there.
Tribes arena is supposed to be fun, but I haven't played it yet.
The old Dooms come to mind. I also have just recently redisvocered "Chex Quest". It was a version of Doom(basically) that came with chex cereal in the 90s. You're a breakfast hero, trying to save the cereal from a soggy milk monster. Apparently they made 3. A little weird, but a lot of fun as a FPS and intended for children. The older versions of Quake are pretty good too, and well supported. If they aren't afraid of monsters (kids are weird) they would be awesome, and compared to a lot of things these days, not nearly as brutal as it was considered when new.
Unreal Tournament if that's still around is another great one, but I'm not sure if the series continued or not.
Most of these are older, and not exactly gorgeous, but fun, have HUGE customization bases, and I'm pretty sure are available as freeware.
Kick em outdoors.. they can learn how much fun some dirt, a stick, and some rocks can be..
In reply to novaderrik:
Or with some nerf cannons
Learn the ways of emulators and classic gaming. Never be bored again! Some are even browser based now.
SilverFleet wrote:
Learn the ways of emulators and classic gaming. Never be bored again! Some are even browser based now.
This times a kabillion! My family Mac Mini is set up to play everything from NES to Gamecube. A knockoff USB PS2 controller can be configured to play almost anything. I hear XBOX controllers work great as well. I've got real Gamecube controllers plugged into a WiiU Smash Brothers USB adapter, plus two PS2 controllers plugged into PS2-USB adapters.
If you want to know more about emulators, just ask. I don't want to go off on a tangent.
+1 for installing Steam and playing Team Fortress. Holy crap I love some Mann VS Machine. There are a few "Free to Play" games that are good, just don't get sucked into buying the add-ons and you will be fine.
Free shoot-em-up?
TF2... Warframe is fun as long as you resist spending real cash on it.
It's not free but GoG.com sells a lot of old games (from before the time of DLC and "Freemium") DRM-free for cheap.
In reply to Beer Baron:
Yep, these are great free games. I just started playing Warframe and you really don't need to spend money to get upgrades. I have like 4 or 5 hours in and already have a TON of mods and have purchased two new weapons with the in-game XP cash thingie. There is something so satisfying about sticking a robot (cyborg?) dude to a wall 20 ft off the ground with the bow. Also, the story is actually kind of interesting.
In reply to GameboyRMH:
Yes, GOG is awesome. There are thousands of games available on there for less than $5 that are totally worth playing. If you want one that is a little more expensive, wait a bit as they have sales all the time.
<--- old grumpy
TF2 used to be a great game. Its been destroyed with hats, item crafting, 412351512345125 extra weapons/items/etc. 
Open Arena and Quake Live are great.
ProDarwin wrote:
<--- old grumpy
TF2 *used* to be a great game. Its been destroyed with hats, item crafting, 412351512345125 extra weapons/items/etc.
Open Arena and Quake Live are great.
TF2 is still fun if you don't care about all that extra crap. I can still school people with all their extra $$$ crap while I'm just a bone stock demo man (on offense!). You can buy upgrades, you can't buy experience. Pipe bombs away! I don't even use team speak or chat, most people I play with assume I don't speak English or I'm deaf.
Open Arena is a frickn' hoot.
I can still school people too, but the game isn't as fun anymore to me. Rarely do I find people playing as a team with the intent of winning. Its usually people taunting each other in the corner, trying to get some stupid achievement, playing with items and whatnot, or using some of the newer abilities to simply annoy the E36 M3 out of people (scouts can jump 4 times now!??!)
'Vanilla' was really fun. Every bit of DLC since then other than new maps has made the game worse IMO.
Shattered Horizon suffered the same fate.
http://fantasticcontraption.com/
Huckleberry wrote:
http://fantasticcontraption.com/
I hate you. Here I was trying to be productive today and you bring that back up. Just one more level....
Here's the direct link to play: http://fantasticcontraption.com/original/
In reply to Bumboclaat:
This E36 M3 looks a little bloody for kids.
singleslammer wrote:
In reply to Beer Baron:
Yep, these are great free games. I just started playing Warframe and you really don't need to spend money to get upgrades. I have like 4 or 5 hours in and already have a TON of mods and have purchased two new weapons with the in-game XP cash thingie. There is something so satisfying about sticking a robot (cyborg?) dude to a wall 20 ft off the ground with the bow. Also, the story is actually kind of interesting.
Yup. My friends and I have developed a pact that whenever someone gets a 75% off platinum (cash purchased game currency) they buy a whole bunch of it, and then everyone can kick in a couple bucks if they need to buy some stuff.
I paid $2 to have more slots for Frames and Weapons. I'm quite fond of my Nyx Prime. I am goddess of Chaos.
Another vote for Open Arena.
Look into MOBAs, like Smite. There is a bit of asshattery in the form of trash talking among the players, but I think most of that is from pre-teens and teens. That sort of thing is unavoidable in any public gaming arena.
I play Smite and League of Legends off and on; both free and pretty fun. Some asshattery as Brett mentioned, but you can have chat filters on. I enjoy competing against live opponents who never do the same thing, but couldn't take Halo and Call of Duty games anymore - the players got really immature (or maybe I got older? 
)
Cross shop war thunder with World of Tanks & World of Warships. Paying real money isn't required for either.
