Recommend me something for the Wife !

[Prester John]

I open myself to suggestions from the collective hivemind.... i m looking for suggestions as to a game i can obtain for my wife:

Likes Building
Likes Collecting
Likes Crafting
Slow Pace
No Combat
Likes Puzzles
Not difficult

sounds like a facebook game, but lets not go there.

So any suggestions? I think she might have liked something like Terraria but too many monsters. I once built her a world (well a house in forest) using Neverwinters Nights which she enjoyed. Sidescollers and adventure games maybe. Really outside my knowledge base for games. Graphics are not a priority as it will be played on a laptop without a graphics card (gasp!)

thanks!!

[gundato]

Minecraft is most of those things. In fact, if you turn off combat (so explore mode?) you have no combat (or gameplay at all :p).

[Nalano]

Minecraft?

Edit: Beat by seconds.

[Bleekill]

Children of the Nile (city builder)

Machinarium (puzzle/point & click)

Braid (platformer/puzzle) Has "combat" in the Mario sense of jumping on enemies though.

[Prester John]

Children of the Nile (city builder)

Machinarium (puzzle/point & click)

Braid (platformer/puzzle) Has "combat" in the Mario sense of jumping on enemies though.

thanks...Mario "combat" is ok

[gundato]

I would NOT recommend Braid as many of the levels can be quite frustrating and REALLY finicky.

[Prester John]

Thank you, obvious (minecraft) but i've not tried it myself so didn't think of it. One good suggestion in the bag!

[Pertusaria]

Civilization IV on easiest mode? Combat (except possibly against wild animals) is unlikely as far as I can tell, and it's kind of fun to build an empire against no opposition, at least for a while.

Waking Mars may provide some of the satisfaction of building, as you're "improving" each room as you go along. It's only hard if you want the most complete ending. Combat pretty much consists of avoiding hazards.

[NathanH]

Working on the principle of Stuff My Mother Likes: Puzzle Quest, Towns. Terraria may also turn out to be acceptable---you can play multiplayer with her for a bit until she gets the hang of dealing with the basic monsters, and there's plenty of fun for builder-types without venturing beyond basic monsters. For puzzle games I can also recommend Puzzle Dimension, Tidalis, and Faerie Solitaire.

[Feldspar]

I can throw you the usual suspects:

Roller Coaster Tycoon (loved 1 and 2, never played 3)
Machinarium
Botanicula
To The Moon

None of which are expensive or use much system power.

[Drake Sigar]

Somebody say The Sims damnit.

Oh. Good job me.

Botanicula

Boxed collector's edition hits Amazon soon.

[Chongx3]

Any Tycoon game titles will do (personally loved Roller Coaster Tycoon 2).
..or maybe The Sims 3? (There you go Drake)

[sopabuena]

The Cave, yeah

[duff]

Dead Island: Riptide, collector's edition boxset?

[Blackice]

Dead Island: Riptide, collector's edition boxset?

If you want to get divorced this year, go with this suggestion...

[corbain]

I would like to add Defense Grid the tower defense game.

It is a puzzle game essentially, with a good story. It doesn't really include crafting, but requires skilled building and upgrading.

While it nominally contains combat, it's not of the shoot/slash variety, rather more cerebral. It has a slow pace, you have some degree of control over how fast/slow the game runs.

It also doesn't require huge investment of time, which i have found a big selling point when suggesting games to the missus.

[peacebringer7]

adventure-wise I think both botanicula and to the moon are great..very heart-warming and not difficult..both have a retail edition with soundtracks and stuff..If you wanna get all physical...:D

[RakeShark]

Hrm...

Little Inferno/World of Goo
Adventure Games (Sam & Max, Indy4, The Dig, various indie adventure games)
Stacking
Splice/Space Chem
SCRIBBLENAUTS!
Solar 2
Trine
Fate of the World

Once she gets the hang of things:
Prince of Persia 2008 (the combat is VERY light, no failure)
Endless Space
FTL
Recettear
Sid Meier's Pirates!

[Velko]

My girlfriend absolutely loves Portal. Also she has enjoyed Botanicula (which is, frankly, just wonderful game) and World of Goo.

Other suggestions: Tropico (1, 3, or 4, and easy settings), Stacking

[Oshada]

Scribblenauts Unlimited, Machinarium, Botanicula. Sam and Max.

...all prior mentions. But good ones.