This weekend was Fathers’ Day in the US – and I have three loving children (and a wife) who know that their daddy is an avid gamer. So, I thought I would share what I got for Fathers’ Day as an XboxDad. I did get some of the standard Fathers’ Day fare – clothes, including some Xbox pajama pants. But I also got some great games that I had wanted to play myself, as well as with my kids.
Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion (Game of the Year Edition) – I am a huge RPG fan, and one of the definitive titles for console role-playing in this generation or ever has to be Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion. It’s an expansive world roaming title, where you can grow your character as a fighter, magician, thief or assassin (or all of the above) – along with an array of other skills – through numerous side quests along a great storyline. One of my favorite aspects of this title, that I originally committed over 160 hours into, is that unlike many RPG’s where you simply choose to increase your skills as you level-up through the game, in Oblivion (like a few other new games that learned from Oblivion), your skills grow as you continually use them. The more you use a type of magic, the more powerful that magic becomes – or lockpicking, or swordplay, or stealth activities, etc. I had traded my copy to a gaming buddy a while back, so I was excited to receive the Game of the Year (GOTY) edition, which includes not only the original title but two expansions as a two-disc set:
Knights of the Nine — an additional quest line outside of the original four character quests
Shivering Isles — a true expansion with 30+ hours of additional play that was originally available as downloadable content from Xbox Live that I just never got around to purchasing.
I loved this title so much that its main character is the picture for my gamertag and I haven’t found a game I have loved more since – so my gamer picture hasn’t changed. However, as rated-M and rightfully so for violence, don’t look for a review of it in on Xbox Dad. Instead, check back here on my blog — next month after I return from the Shivering Isles.
Chessmaster – I had recently purchased Chessmaster Live from Xbox Live for my sons and I to play in single-player mode, when we couldn’t play each other (read the review from Duncan in an earlier Xbox Dad column). But since I travel a lot and my Xbox 360™ doesn’t work at 30,000 feet, my kids bought me the same title for use on my Nintendo DS.
This particular title is also nice since it allows the game to be played multi-player from one game card, wirelessly beaming the game one of my kids’ gaming units. We already can play chess together as a board game or on our game console, and the Xbox Live version lets us also play when we are alone. Now, for longer car rides this summer or waiting for our dinner in a restaurant, we can play yet another way.
Crash of the Titans – This title has been out for a while for Xbox 360, but my 7-year old, who is a big Crash fan from games played previously, had been wanting it – and I have been wanting another family-friendly co-operative title. This is a two-player co-op that will keep him and I busy, since we have all but wrapped up Fantastic Four (see Xbox Dad review) as well as the LEGO™ series from Star Wars and Indiana Jones that Duncan has covered for Xbox Dad. Look for a review from me of Crash of the Titans in an upcoming Xbox Dad article (cross-posted here).
Open Season – we only recently watched the DVD as a family. And as a 4-player family game, look for this review in an upcoming Xbox Dad article, as well.
So, this finishes another Fathers’ Day holiday. I got some games, some game gear, and some other mementos and cards. It was a really nice day that will keep me active as an XboxDad recommender into the summer.
If you are a gaming dad, I hope you had a Happy Fathers Day, too…
As always, thanks for reading…