My Top 10 Games for Girls Over the Festive Season

Well it’s that time of year again – Christmas time. With busy shops and plenty of cheer. For us gamers it is an especially cheerful time of the year as publishers are releasing their latest and greatest games, hoping to get in just before Christmas by punting their titles (yes, I’m talking about you Activision.)
Well I’m going to give you a rundown of the top ten games I feel every gamer girl should have on their Christmas list.

10. Angry Birds

Angry Birds – highly addictive. Rovio Entertainment Ltd. have come out with many different versions, such as Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Rio and the latest Angry Birds Star Wars. Now I’m telling you, a person can spend hours and hours playing these games. I know of a person who played until they finished every one of them… took her a while. The fact that all the games are free to play is an added advantage for everyone that wants to play them all.

9. Machinarium

This is a point-and-click adventure game made by Amanita Design. Machinaruim is a cute game where you have to help a little robot in his quest to “save the world”. There is a free downloadable demo that lets you experience 10 percent of the game. The full game costs $10 which, in competition with games such as Black Ops 2, is really cheap.
The full game is a good way to kill time and have a lot of fun working out puzzles. It's available on PC and mobile, including Apple iPads and Android Tablets.

8. Scribblenauts Unlimited

This is an extremely addictive game where you have to create things to solve puzzles to get “Starites”. These “Starites” will help you save your sister from turning to stone. This game really tests you when it comes to imagination (and knowledge of the English language) – you can create objects and insert adjectives onto many different characters. Hints pop up if you take over a certain amount of time in the quest pieces so don’t worry if you are stuck, just wait a few minutes.
You can play Scribblenauts Unlimited on a range of platforms, including Nintendo 3DS, Apple products and PC.

7. osu!

osu! is a good way to listen to music while increasing your hand-eye coordination. You can play the game on different levels depending on your skill. Songs such as Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce are extremely difficult even on easy (but any guitar hero player would know this).
osu! is free to play. All you have to do to get songs is register on osu.ppy.sh and there you have it, you can start clicking to your favourite songs. You can even play in online mode where your scores are compared to those of other players and by playing well you get put in ranks.

Now that I’ve given you some of the less in-depth games I will give you the games I think most avid girl gamers should have.

6. Portal 2

This is game that has a very good single player and, for those of you that have someone to play with, a very good multiplayer. I really enjoyed playing the multiplayer where you have to be able to figure out puzzles for two people. My boyfriend and I sat for two days trying to figure the puzzles out together (he was better at it than I was!).
Portal 2 is rated for ages 10+ and costs $19.99 USD (R172.93) on Steam. It is said to be, “Brilliantly designed, innovative, witty and wonderfully devious… Absolute genius,” by Eurogamer.

5. Diablo III

Now the only reason this didn’t make my top three is because there are only so many times you can play Diablo III before it gets too repetitive. So what I suggest you do is play it until you’re bored then let it sit for a couple of months. When you play it again it will be almost as fun as the very first time you played it (I used to do the same with Diablo II). It is, however, quite nice that you can play each class as there are enough slots for this and more.

4. Guild Wars 2

This is quite a fun MMORPG, similar to World of Warcraft but so much easier to play. There are many different classes however you don’t get enough character slots to try them all, which in my opinion isn't all that great. The only reason this is above Diablo III is because there are many different stories – every time you choose a character you can choose their background information and this changes the in-game play.

Finally we are at the top three games for girls over the festive season and I must admit that two out of the three are shooter games (I like me some killing!).

3. The WarZ

Now I might get ragged for playing this and making it number three on my list but I honestly really enjoy it. I have seen many allegations online that this is just a money making scheme or a a scam but what game isn’t trying to get the most profit it can? Look at Diablo III for example, there was a special edition that didn’t come with much more than a couple of “trinkets” and then there were still keyboards, mice and other peripherals made with the Diablo graphics on them so that more money could be made off fans.
Yes you can buy stuff in The WarZ with real money but a little bit of looting and scavenging will show that you can actually pick up everything that is on sale for nothing in the game. And if you die you lose all the stuff you buy, which means that those who buy are being somewhat silly. Check out my review of The War Z here.

Toss-up for first and second

It's difficult for me to really put down my top two and these two switch around depending on my mood. If I feel like playing somewhat mindlessly then I play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. But if I feel like playing a strategy game where you have to watch every little piece of the map, work out statistics etc., I play League of Legends. For this article I've checked out how much time I've spent playing each of these titles over the past couple of weeks and based my decision on that.

2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

This is and will always be one of the classics and has several fun modes. Team death match (TDM) is very basic – shoot and kill as many noobs as you can and die as little as possible. Then there's search and destroy where you play either terrorist or counter-terrorist and have to defend or plant the bomb respectively. This is the mode that is played in the Do Gaming League (DGL).
To check out more on the Call of Duty 4 DGL and to sign up, go to the Do Gaming League page.

1. League of Legends

This is my favourite game at the moment. League of Legends is free-to-play and is an awesome game once you get the hang of it. If you know DotA, it's similar to that but is easier to play.
I used to be quite sceptical of League of Legends. Whenever I saw someone I know play it I would say, “are you seriously playing that again?”
But things changed when I actually tried it. I was hooked. You meet a lot of new people playing online that under normal circumstances you would have never met in your life. I play on the EU West region and I have friends from the UK, Germany, and I've made a friend from Spain that I otherwise would have never met.
Every time you play you learn. I've started to catch myself trying to read what different players would do based on the champion and summoner spells they choose, and nine times out of ten I get it right now.
I recommend League of Legends to people of all ages (my gran plays the game with me and is in my team for the Do Gaming League).
So come on girls, if my gran can play League of Legends I’m pretty sure you can! Check out the league here.

And that wraps up my top ten games for girls over the festive season. I hope you at least try some of the games I have on here. Have fun and play hard!