Help Make Uncle E a Hero for Christmas

[Enteleki]

My nephew is 10 years old and I'm looking for an age appropriate game (Xbox 360) for him for Christmas. Seems simple enough right?

Wrong.

The kid owns CoD: World at War. Great, I'll get him Black Ops and look like the hero. My sister-in-law, I'll call her The Waffle, will let him play Halo (he owns everything Halo) and CoD: W@W, but for some reason Black Ops is too violent. Huh?

The last time I visited their home, in October, I walked through a front yard that looked like a bloody battlefield--every type of weapon known to man, ancient to modern and even a couple of light sabres, was strewn across the lawn and front porch.

On his ninth birthday I was forbidden from buying him a copy of Halo 3. On his tenth, Halo Reach was OK. Really?

Well, this year I tried to go around The Waffle and deal directly with my brother, who on the kid's ninth birthday told me I should have just gotten him Halo 3 because his wife is crazy. Crazy is my word. He couched the criticism in typical husband-speak which I cannot remember.

So, last week I call my brother and tell him I'm picking-up Black Ops and want to make sure I'm not duplicating the gift. He says wait until he talks to The Waffle (my word again). Well, apparently The Waffle saw a demo of Black Ops and pronounced it too violent for my nephew.

Now, The Waffle may be correct about Black Ops being too violent, but there is no rhyme or reason to her apparently arbitrary decisions. Pick a policy and stand by it.

I'm not up on the desires of 10-year-old gamers. Anything Lego is out since he owns it already. Please help a Geezer out.

[Flu]

Playboy subscription?

[Enteleki]

Playboy subscription?

He already has Penthouse. Good idea though.

[rpmdds [sherpa]]

He already has Penthouse. Good idea though.

Heh Heh!!


How much you wanna spend?

[klyde99 {council}]

He already has Penthouse. Good idea though.

Hustler then? Talk about hardcore mode...

I do agree somewhat that Black Ops is pretty violent (especially the campaign, where in true Treyarch style you can blow limbs off) compared to Halo (more cartoonish violence in a way), but if he already played W@W then BO won't be much of a change. How about Gears 1 and/or 2? At least with those you can turn off some of the more violent animations. And you're killing alien life forms instead of other people... might be an easier sell.

[Bovine]

He has World At War... but Black Ops is not allowed? There are more F-bombs dropped in W@W... this is the main reason I won't let my kids play it. I would suggest something, but I will probably be wrong too... lol.

I am strict about letting my son only play certain games. I will let him play a few M rated titles (the Halos only) and he can play multi on the COD games with me, but everything else has to be rated T or under for him to play without my direct supervision (ie. watching over his shoulder).

This Christmas I got him:

Lost Planet
Raven Squad
Overlord (suggested by the GameStop personnel)

[cmdrmarkus74]

Dorito's Crash Course and Harm's Way.

Seriously... Some not-so-rough games that come to mind:
Red Dead Redemption (a little bloody, and yeah you shoot people but its not too bad)
Batman: AA (just a lot of fighting)
Transformers: War for Cybertron (robots)

Any band/guitar game is prolly a winner and of course, there are always MS Point or Subscription cards.

Hope that helps.

[klyde99 {council}]

Playboy subscription?

He already has Penthouse. Good idea though.

But does he have this?

[rpmdds [sherpa]]

But does he have this?

That's going on my wishlist!!!


Back to gift... Rock Band ?

[Enteleki]

This Christmas I got him:

Lost Planet
Rave Squad
Overlord (suggested by the GameStop personnel)

Good suggestions. Overlord would be a fun one for him.

Red Dead Redemption (a little bloody, and yeah you shoot people but its not too bad)
Batman: AA (just a lot of fighting)
Transformers: War for Cybertron (robots)

More good suggestions, but RDR...doesn't one of the achievements require that you kidnap a nun and place her on the train tracks to die? That's out.

Thanks guys!