Good games that make you use your brain?

[Skilletdude]

Right now I'm playing through the Ace Attorney games on the DS, which I love though they do get a bit frustrating at times (mostly cause they make such a huge leap from one thing to another sometimes or you're thinking about things so much, you find holes in the case but they're never addressed).

Anyway, I'm looking for more "thinking" games. I already have and played through the Professor Layton games as well as Hotel Dusk Room 213 and Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars. Anything else you'd recommend?

They need a story too... I don't like playing just a bunch of Brain Teasers and stuff...

 

[WadeWilson]

What do you mean by thinking games? Games that challenge knowledge and math skills? Or games that cause you to think about tactics and what not? Heavy rain is a good solve the mystery game. But I have to say Dragon Age surprised me a bit. Instead of rolling through each encounter with the same tactics, I had to devise new game plans based on the situation. (On the higher difficulty settings anywho)

 

[jamiejohn]

Half Life 2 maybe?

Resident Evil 4 has a lot of puzzles.

 

[JamesAH]

Portal

 

[WadeWilson]

Portal

I concur! Where is the cake?

 

[Thunder Peel]

Any Legend of Zelda game is great for puzzles and thinking.

 

[Skilletdude]

Oh yeah, I've played through just about every Zelda game. That's my favorite series with Link to the Past being my personal favorite.

Great suggestions. Portal seems interesting. I think I have that actually. I just never played it. I bought Team Fortress 2 a long time ago and I think that and Half Life 2 were on there as well. I'm not much of a gamer but every now and then I find a game I really like and I'll be on a game playing spree for a bit. I'll have to pull that out and find a computer it would play on. It wouldn't play on a mac I don't think.

My brother has Dragon Age but not a big RPGer myself. Can't stand grinding and leveling up and all that stuff. But if the game is more tactical, I can go with that. I loved this one game called Valkiria Chronicles or something like that and it was a really fun strategic RPG war game.

 

[WadeWilson]

Oh yeah, I've played through just about every Zelda game. That's my favorite series with Link to the Past being my personal favorite.

Great suggestions. Portal seems interesting. I think I have that actually. I just never played it. I bought Team Fortress 2 a long time ago and I think that and Half Life 2 were on there as well. I'm not much of a gamer but every now and then I find a game I really like and I'll be on a game playing spree for a bit. I'll have to pull that out and find a computer it would play on. It wouldn't play on a mac I don't think.

My brother has Dragon Age but not a big RPGer myself. Can't stand grinding and leveling up and all that stuff. But if the game is more tactical, I can go with that. I loved this one game called Valkiria Chronicles or something like that and it was a really fun strategic RPG war game.

Well in Dragon Age you can grind, but theres not really any point. Most of the encounters scale to be challenging no matter what level you are, which means thinking is much more important when you cant steamroll everything.

 

[Beechwell]

I think most adventure games would fit that description. For example the Atlantis series, The Longest Journey, Black Mirror, and of course the Myst series.

For strategical challanges, maybe Civilization, Galactic Civilizations (2), or the Paradox games (Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron, and their iterations - Victoria is said to be their most complicated game)

Or The Sims games to tease the creativity parts of your brain

 

[LeightonH]

I think most adventure games would fit that description. For example the Atlantis series, The Longest Journey, Black Mirror, and of course the Myst series.

For strategical challanges, maybe Civilization, Galactic Civilizations (2), or the Paradox games (Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron, and their iterations - Victoria is said to be their most complicated game)

Or The Sims games to tease the creativity parts of your brain

Yes, along with Civilization and Galactic Civilizations, some of my favorite strategy games are Sim City and the Total War series which provides an awesome mix of historically based Civilization style turn-based strategy and real-time tactical strategy.
Other favorite brain games of mine include X3 which is a space commerce simulation as much as (or more than) it is a space combat simulation, Stars 2.6 which is basically the forerunner to Galactic Civilizations and I still prefer it for it's depth, customization and flexibility especially when playing multi-player.
Another game I like which requires thinking of a different kind is Orbiter which is a free space-flight simulator which uses realistic physics and allows you to launch into orbit, rendezvous and dock with space stations, transfer to the moon or other planets, take off and land vertically or horizontally and is extensible and has many cool add-ons. It's not really a game as much as it is a very detailed simulator and requires you to become familiar with some basic orbital physics as well as atmospheric flight and you have to study the manual and learn how to read and use the control panels but when you do, it is far more satisfying than any space shooter I've ever played.

 

[derek W L]

//

 

[jamiejohn]

I'd also recommend Edge it's for mobile phones and the IPHONE, it's pretty trippy, best puzzle game I've played in years.

 

[Mela Monkey]

All RTS games

or most at least..

 

[Evenstar253]

Although WoW can be fairly mindless at times, if you get into theorycrafting, there's a ton of complicated stuff there.

 

[Ttery]

Any Legend of Zelda game is great for puzzles and thinking.

I agree
Same with, 3D Logic and 3D Logic 2

*Computer Games

 

[The-Doctor]

most defintely Portal from Half life 2 Orange box...kept me racking my brains for hours...though relatively short...this is extandable with the advanced and challenged levels making it tougher. A sense of achievement when you get through a level...the cake is a lie...assume the party position! By the way one of the balls you get of Glados recites the recipe for a cake!

 

[Skilletdude]

Yeah, I downloaded Portal a couple weeks ago cause they had it as a free download for the mac on the Steam website... so I finally got a chance to play it. It was fun but yes short... I think I beat it in like 5 hours. And the initial game was quite easy but I really like doing the challenges and advanced levels.

The song at the end was pretty great too... when's part 2 come out?!

 

[The-Doctor]

yeah i heard that too and it will be longer...though you can have fun with some of the levels...especially the ones with turrets in...collect a whole bunch of them together than throw your companion cube at em like skittles!

 

[FrequencyDX]

Portal, definetly. It's a pretty mind bending game. Looking forward to Portal 2 coming out this year

The cake is a lie.

 

[brinny]

chess...