Looking for Really Good Video Games?
Latest review: Shadow of Colossus See the review here at The Game Guide
If you are looking for a site that delves into middle of video games finding the cream of the crop.. then I have a blog for you!
Written by the famous (at least 'round these parts) gaming and writing team of my two sons, it will give their honest opinion of some of their favorite games.
Of course when you read reviews, you must take into account the bias of the writer. And my boys do have their biases, too.
Their taste runs to deep characters, logic/thinking/depth and room to explore. They also enjoy well done race and battle games. They are huge RPG fans. They also love laid back games, fun for all ages such as Harvest Moon where you run a farm and raise a family. Hopefully they will hit upon the needs of many ages groups and tastes.
They do a lot of reading and research before renting or buying a game and will look beyond the ESRB rating to discover how worthy (or unworthy) a game might be, avoiding too much violence and sex.
Give it a look! They would love to help you and your kids find games you would enjoy. My boys enjoy the research and would feel flattered if they could help others.
They decided to just post reviews when it fit things around here, so please check back often as they will be adding reviews as time permits.
I did some research on the value of video games and found quite a lot of things. (Google video games educational) I ended up with a list of subjects and skills that we have seen in all the games they play. Yes, ALL. Not that video games should be the only vehicle for learning, but it sure is a good one to add to the table. My thought was to add a list of these at the end of each review so readers could know what value the game might have.
As long as I'm at it, here is the list quickly compiled thus far:
Video Games
Skills
Cooperation
Creativitty and imagining
Goal setting/completion
Hand/eye coordination
Logical thinking
Manipluating variables and seeing affects
Maps- creating, reading, interpreting
Observance of system behavior over time
Observation
Organization and note taking
Problem solving
Reading, comprehension, application
Strategy planning
Visualizing a plan, compare results
Vocabulary development/spelling
Subjects:
Archeology
Biology
Business management
City planning
Culture
Economics
History
Math
Politics
Relationships
Science
Sociology... etc.
Son no. 1 says that he doesn't want to kill the fun of the game by labeling it as 'educational'. And I see his point. I have seen some games that have the first purpose to 'teach' and they end up rather stifling. So, we will ease into this gently. However, this has opened up a lot of discussion around here about the value in games.
Humm... me adding to their reviews reminds me of Alison McKee's attempt to formalize her son's habitat study in Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves. Maybe I will step back a bit more.... lol
We must stay 'real' though. Real play, real life, real learning.
I hope you can visit their blog soon! Thank you!
The Game Guide
If you are looking for a site that delves into middle of video games finding the cream of the crop.. then I have a blog for you!
Written by the famous (at least 'round these parts) gaming and writing team of my two sons, it will give their honest opinion of some of their favorite games.
Of course when you read reviews, you must take into account the bias of the writer. And my boys do have their biases, too.
Their taste runs to deep characters, logic/thinking/depth and room to explore. They also enjoy well done race and battle games. They are huge RPG fans. They also love laid back games, fun for all ages such as Harvest Moon where you run a farm and raise a family. Hopefully they will hit upon the needs of many ages groups and tastes.
They do a lot of reading and research before renting or buying a game and will look beyond the ESRB rating to discover how worthy (or unworthy) a game might be, avoiding too much violence and sex.
Give it a look! They would love to help you and your kids find games you would enjoy. My boys enjoy the research and would feel flattered if they could help others.
They decided to just post reviews when it fit things around here, so please check back often as they will be adding reviews as time permits.
I did some research on the value of video games and found quite a lot of things. (Google video games educational) I ended up with a list of subjects and skills that we have seen in all the games they play. Yes, ALL. Not that video games should be the only vehicle for learning, but it sure is a good one to add to the table. My thought was to add a list of these at the end of each review so readers could know what value the game might have.
As long as I'm at it, here is the list quickly compiled thus far:
Video Games
Skills
Cooperation
Creativitty and imagining
Goal setting/completion
Hand/eye coordination
Logical thinking
Manipluating variables and seeing affects
Maps- creating, reading, interpreting
Observance of system behavior over time
Observation
Organization and note taking
Problem solving
Reading, comprehension, application
Strategy planning
Visualizing a plan, compare results
Vocabulary development/spelling
Subjects:
Archeology
Biology
Business management
City planning
Culture
Economics
History
Math
Politics
Relationships
Science
Sociology... etc.
Son no. 1 says that he doesn't want to kill the fun of the game by labeling it as 'educational'. And I see his point. I have seen some games that have the first purpose to 'teach' and they end up rather stifling. So, we will ease into this gently. However, this has opened up a lot of discussion around here about the value in games.
Humm... me adding to their reviews reminds me of Alison McKee's attempt to formalize her son's habitat study in Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves. Maybe I will step back a bit more.... lol
We must stay 'real' though. Real play, real life, real learning.
I hope you can visit their blog soon! Thank you!
The Game Guide
posted by Cindy at 8:59 AM
2 Comments:
Okay, *this* is an awesome idea! We've done a lot of gaming over our homeschooling years (dude, Age of Empire s is too history class! ;) ) and we are also computer geeks, so this was great to see.
Hey, we also run the carnival of unschooling at http://atypicalhomeschool.net . Please consider submitting this or a similar post. :)
Thanks, Andrea!
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