Games for idiots

I would like to be more of a gamer, but alas I am hampered by (a) lack of time and (b) lack of hand eye coordination. In addition, I really hate killing off my poor avatars. Too many years watching "ReBoot" back in the nineties. I just don't see why the poor sprites should suffer for my entertainment.

However, I've just gotten started on Mass Effect 2 last night and was really impressed. In the game you play Commander Shepard (who can be either a boy or a girl, depending on your preference). After the events of Mass Effect 1, you're the intergalactic hero - which you promptly waste by dying in the first minute of the game. But never fear, the mysterious Cerberus organization, led by the mysterious Illusive Martin Sheen, has spent two years bringing you back. Human colonies are vanishing (mysteriously) and for (mysterious) reasons, Illusive Martin Sheen has decided you are humanity's only chance of salvation.

What always hangs me up on games is mastering the controls. When the game is throwing key combinations at me left and right, I just don't remember them all. Eventually I just get frustrated and give up. But playing Mass Effect 2 on the "casual" level I was actually able to keep moving and feel like I was doing reasonably well. The story is vast, as is the galaxy you get to move around in, and when I shut down it was because I was tired, not because I was bored.

For the real gamers, my Supportive Unit (the gaming expert of the family) is playing on the advanced level and having just as much fun.