subject: Buying Video Games For A Gaming Tot - A Quick How To [print this page] Visit any video game outlet and youre bound to get overwhelmed by the hundreds of choices available especially if youre new to gaming. Interestingly, children and teens seem to know their way around these places as if they were their second home. But for the adult, the typical video store looks like some sort of color paint explosion and sooner or later, all the games start to look the same. This guide is for the adult whos buying a game for a younger person perhaps as a birthday gift or as a bribe. Whatever the reason, youre going to appreciate the following tips.
1.Research this strange phenomenon before setting foot inside a video store. Theres plenty of information available about video games online, so to reduce frustration offline, fire up your web browser and do a little homework. Visit the website of the gaming outlet nearest you and then look for a link to the games section of the system that your youngster plays. Heres a helpful chart to explain what all those strange letters mean.
Wii = Nintendos Wii System
EA Sports = Entertainment Arts System
PS3 = Playstation 3 System
XBOX 360 = Microsofts XBOX 360 System
PC = Personal Computer
PS2 = Playstation 2 System
PSP = Playstation Portable System
DS = Nintendos DS System
The key is to locate the system on the stores website first. The system, its accessories, and all of the games that work on that system will follow. If not, you may need to use the websites internal search engine.
2.After locating the appropriate games section for your youngsters machine, check out the ratings of each game and create a temporary shopping list of age appropriate material. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) gives each game a rating in an effort to inform parents what their children are playing. Heres a handy reference to what the ratings mean:
C = Appropriate for Early childhood
E = Appropriate for Everyone
E 10+ = Appropriate for Everyone aged 10 and older
T = Appropriate for Teens
M = Appropriate for Mature Adults
3.Within your temporary shopping list, try find a game thats built from the latest movie release. Little people love the new animated movies put out by Disney and Pixar, and they really enjoy re-living precious moments in the movie in a video game. Thats why when these movies come out on DVD, their producers put a few games in the Special Features section of the CDs.
4.If you cant find a game thats built from a movie that the child likes, try to find a game that centers around a popular cartoon character or one that attempts to educate.
5.If you still cant find one that resembles something that youve heard this particular person rambling on about, first give yourself a slight slap on the hand. You should pay better attention. Then point your browser to the nearest Blockbuster or Hollywood Video website. Follow the same procedure outlined in steps 1 3 only this time, elect to rent 5 or 6 games that look appealing. This will give your tot a chance to play some games and select one to keep forever while you return the others.
6.If on the other hand, you did find a game in step 3 or 4, you can either check out online, or drive up to the store and buy it there.
They say you cant judge a book by its cover, but the illustrations on the both video and pc game cases do a pretty good job of representing the games content. So if you see an illustration of fighting warriors, chances are the game will be more violent than you prefer. If on the other hand, you see an illustration that resembles what youd see on the cover of an interesting childrens book, the game should be age appropriate.
