Asklemmy

Others have said it and I agree, Stardew Valley. Don't even need to buy a console.

Depending on your tolerance for low resolution graphics there are a literal lifetimes worth of games from NES to PS1 that can be emulated at better quality features available than the originals.

Evoquest 1-2 would be wild for you, the gameplay is designed to replicate the evolution from 8 bit to modern mobile gaming platforms. You'll get a chance to "catch up" on what games have been like with a coherent story tying it together.

If you want to get into multi-player stuff there are a lot of MMOs out there for mobile as well.

Considering you're already into card games, give Balatro a try. It's got it's basis in poker, but puts some extra spice on it that might interest you.

Chants of Sennar is also a strong recommend. It's a puzzle game based around intuitive language translation, but also has a really strong story that keeps it interesting.

I got my 75 year old father into video games.

With him, I started by getting him an xbox and an xbox live account (which allows playing multiplayer games online).

We play World of Tanks now together quite a bit.

Yes

Very much so. As people have mentioned there’s a lot of good advice here. A Nintendo Switch might be worth checking out as a starting point. It’s handheld and can also connect to your TV to play on a larger screen.

Yes, it is worth getting into video games. Mental quickness, friends, and less Alzheimers are some benefits.

People in this post are making excellent recommendations for quality commercial games.

I can recommend starting out in videogames, by getting into Free Software (Libre) games.

Libre Games cost nothing, have no spyware, and usually have positive, helpful, DIY focused communities.

Here is a post I made that lists a few of my favourite free games on desktop and mobile.

https://lemmy.world/post/20786563

If any on this list are too difficult or hard to set up, just skip.

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Historical note

The Fool's Errand game, from 1987, sold very well with women gamers. Over 50% IIRC.

It is a tricky puzzle game with Tarot Card theming and an excellent sense of humour.

Fool's Errand is not Free Software though, and way out of print. It could probably be emulated on a device that you have, PC or phone.

Game detail at Wikipedia

Play original Mac version online

PC version online

There are some decent to good video games available on Android & iPhone, of a wide variety of genres.

If you have the self discipline to not let gaming take over all your spare time (whistles innocently while totally not looking in mirror), it’s absolutely worth getting into.

Where to start? I recommend keeping it simple. If you don’t already own a desktop or laptop computer at home, it’s probably easiest to stick with games on your phone.

• ask friends & family what games they play, particularly those who fall on the same side of the Apple/Google divide as you.
• open your app store and look at lists of popular games by genre. Pick a free one, download it, and try it out. If you don’t like it, delete it and try another one.
• if there’s a news or culture site whose judgement you trust & like to follow, even if it’s not a technology or gaming related site, it’s worth spending a couple minutes to see if they have review articles or recommendation lists available. You can even find a related Lemmy community and ask there.

Personally, I play the following:

• an older logic puzzle game
• a free klondike solitaire game
• Egg, Inc - this is an idle incremental game available on both iOS & Android
• Leaf Blower Revolution - just started this one. It’s in the idle incremental genre as well. Available on iOS, Android, and through Steam. Supports cross platform play by way of cloud saves. I picked it up a week ago and it has been fun so far.

I don’t have the reflexes for active combat games. I like RPGs but prefer to play those on desktop.

I just realized that the most obvious choice for new players is Stardew Valley. I never really thought about it. Even newer Mario or Minecraft could be a barrier. Controlling cameras can be confusing and difficult for newer players. Stardew doesn't require you to be good at twin stick mechanics (although that is used for the slingshot if you want to do that). It gives you lots of encouragement and is very straightforward with missions. The screen is never cluttered with junk or pop-ups. It gets more complex as you progress but you'll never be "stuck". The fishing and fighting games teaches how to use button control and timing. Everything feels rewarding like you are making progress. Not to mention it's pretty universally loved and will run on almost any PC and is available on all consoles or tablet or mobile devices

Heck yeah, my wife didn't play video games before she met me. Now she's obsessed with Assassins Creed, and Stardew Valley. Like others have said, there's something for everyone out there. You just gotta try stuff and see what you like.

Depends on what you want to achieve.

Video games are an easy way of losing yourself in a hobby for an afternoon. Can become addictive and you may lose the entire weekend.

Do you want games that focus on the social aspect and make friends? The story? Quick reactions and precise timing? Building something? Compete? Challenge yourself and improve (at ultimately a pointless task in a video game)? Simulate something accurately?

Before you start, as a gamer what do you non gamers do to spend your free time on anyway?

Absolutely!!

There are video games that work like card games, you'd love Balatro or Magic the Gathering.

If you like puzzles, Tetris is the perfect start, its the greatest puzzle game of all time. Tetris Effect and Tetris 99 are good recent games for that.

If you want to graduate from Puzzles to something more gamey, I'd recommend any Mario or Zelda game, and to develop a game mind, Metroid and metroid-like games are excellent.

Many games work like movies too, so if you like movies those are nice.

If you like books, there is a genre of game called a visual novel, (most of those are from Japan though, but many have an English option for text)

If you like puzzle games, Tetris effect is the greatest puzzle game I have ever played. I love horror games but Tetris is still fun as fuck. Never to old to get into gaming. Good luck!

Video Games are a broad medium, akin to reading. Asking "should I get into books?" would be similarly difficult to answer.

Also, be mindful of sturgeon's law. 90% of everything is crap. For every "Taylor Swift" that was widely popular and successful, there's 9 meh bands no one remembers.

All of that said, it's a wide and deep medium with a lot of experiences.

If you like card games, there're related genres. Deck builders are popular. Slay the Spire is popular. Cobalt Core is fun and not as hard. Monster Train is pretty good.

Those are all also "rogue lites", so you could make the leap from there to something like FTL.

Lots of options.

Probably don't spend a lot of money up front. Stuff goes on sale on Steam pretty often.

Probably avoid "gacha" games that are free to play or have "loot box" stuff. Those tend to be exploitive and bad.

Video games are great and there is something for everyone.

But without more info, it is hard to advise.

Got an ex Nintendo Switch and Zelda breath of the wild. It was beautiful seeing her get into it.

https://g.co/kgs/9BWGKjZ This for a game called belatro. I hear it has the rules of poker but it’s a very replayable game that every time you play it is new and different.

There are many games that have great stories and have game modes that make it very easy or hard to die so you can just really enjoy the story.

Switch is the most user friendly PlayStation has some of the best single player story based game X box is mainly for online play These are all just very general statements

Try a little bit of everything.

I would only recommend short games. Ive been gaming my whole life and basically quit recently, because I was playing grindy games that were so exhausting mentally.

Even great games like Terraria, Minecraft and dont starve leave me exhausted. Such huge time sinks. Ive moved onto hobbies that are much more satisfying.

Where would I even start.

There's a lot of good information provided video game reviewers. I tend to start there, when looking for something new.

In particular, I've learned about entire genres such as "cozy games" and "couch co-op", that way. Then, once I know what the genre I'm in the mood for is called I can search for "best cozy games of 2020", to find ideas of what I might like to try.

In order to not worry about whether each game will run, I feel that the SteamDeck is the current nicest all around game console available, followed by the Nintendo Switch.

maybe something like Minecraft or terraria? I'd recommend starting with the classics, no shooter games or stuff like that.

Get an emulation handheld and play some great retro games

yes it is

If you want to try an FPS, the original Half-Life is amazing (if visually dated), and was designed to ease the player into the experience as opposed to something like Doom or Dusk that throws you into the action without any tutorials. I'm biased though, Half-Life is my favorite FPS of all time lol.

It goes on sale for around $2 regularly, which is a nice bonus. I second the Portal and Stardew recommendations of others too.

Get a Nintendo console. Nintendo Games are absolutely a gateway drug. They're high quality and generally very easy to get into.

Yes,

There is a concern about accesability and hidden gamer slang.

First person 3d games can make you motion sick.

There you would need to learn to control a camera.

Red is health, Blue is mana, Yellow is for climbing.

There will be countless stuff that are build upon years of gaming culture.

Try to start with co-op so someone can guide you.

Make a post it note on the monitor with button mappings especially if you play on gamepad.

There are lots of different kinds of games out there. If you're new to games and like puzzles, here are a few I can recommend.

Portal is humorous and has fun puzzles, pretty easy to get into. Viewfinder is another similar type of game, also The Stanley Parable

Baba Is You is a creative puzzle game.

Planet of Lana, and Limbo, and Somerville are neat puzzle/platformer games.

Torchlight us a good example of an action RPG genre, Children of Morta is another.

FTL is a neat roguelike game.

Faeria is a card deck building game.

Turn based tactics games can be pretty fun, and are easy to get into. Triangle Strategy is a good one to try.

I also find narrative driven games really fun. For example, The Wolf Among Us is really excellent. Afterparty is pretty entertaining.

All of these should be fairly easy to get into if you're just starting gaming.

Yes. It's a scalable hobby, and can run from virtually no cost to why-are-you-burning-money. But you can do a lot in gaming with little monetary investment.

There are lots of budget indie games that are lots of fun, and if you find out you like gaming and want to try more fancy titles, you can always upgrade hardware.

Minimal entry: your current pc. Install steam, and buy/try what you like, returning it if it's too slow/doesn't work.

Light entry: get familiar with your pc's ram size, hd/ssd size, cpu speed/type, and graphics card. Use that to ensure your pc can handle the game by looking at the game's minimum requirements.

Medium-heavy entry: Upgrade things.

• ssd if you don't have one. The difference between that and spinning disks is night and day. If you wished things loaded faster, get this.
• 8 gb graphics card in the $150 range, amd or nvidia-based. Get this if you want a smoother experience / if you can notice individual frames happening. You don't need the most expensive tech to play most games that are out there.
• Genuine XBox or PS4/5 controller. These standard controllers are generally pretty solid and durable. $60ish
• new cpu ($$$, and may not even be an option): most games won't be processor-bound. But some are cpu-heavy. Get this if you really want to upgrade overall, or have a particular title in mind that needs it. Or..
• Low-mid range gaming computer ($900 ($600-$1500)): wait until you want to do a pc upgrade, and get a low-end gaming computer. I recommend Lenovo LOQ or Legion. Lenovo in general has provided laptops that don't fall apart on me, and that's not something I can say about most computer manufacturers. That said, keep them long enough and you'll have to replace the keyboard - but that's every laptop out there that I've run across.
• or: go crazy and buy everything all the time at the moment it his the market because it is a game or has "game" written on, near, or associated with it (not recommended)

Steam would be a great place to start. Tons of games, many of them free. If you're willing to buy some hardware, getting a Switch would be a good bet. Lots of excellent games, many of them are beginner-friendly.

If you like phone puzzle games, have you tried Monument Valley?

I started recently after a 15 year hiatus.

I chose steamworld dig 2. It's a fun game