It’s the other way around. “new gamers” are putting off dedicated gamers from the scene because now the corps focus on making games that “hold your hand” through the game because of this new gamer audience.

I feel like a more well-rounded person now, and I’m forced to use my imagination instead of relying on others’ for mindless amusement.

If I had to watch someone play video games, or even go back and time and watch myself play video games at 14, I would not reach some unique “understanding” of this waste of time, only that I ALSO am now wasting time watching them.

Is it fun watching someone get drunk?
No, not for me – I just get annoyed at how stupid they’ve gotten and I can’t relate because I’m sober. This translates to video games directly.

Learning Super Mario Bros on the original NES is nothing but a piece of cake for a newbie like you. Dark/Demon’s Souls on the other hand will make you send the 18-function PS3 controller hurling towards the screen just trying to learn how to use your sword’s primary attack and how to get your shield up while not being killed by skinny but heavy hitting enemies.

BUT don’t fret about how complex this gen’s games are. You know that most mindless shooter game, Call of Duty? That game actually has one of the easiest control scheme. Mastering it’s controls will also make you master where the buttons are on your PS3 or Wii game pad. Carrying that knowledge over to other games will make that particular more complex game a bit more intuitive and thus lessens the learning curve. Other 7th gen games that have easy control scheme are kiddie and movie tie-up games like Toy Story 3 and the Lego series.

Take note that RPG’s are the games notorious for “twisted” control schemes that make them complicated. RPG shooters like Fallout 3 and Borderlands involves FPS’s like scheme BUT also a classic RPG’s complex item and abilities utilization scheme. Non shooter RPG’s like Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 scheme also differ from Dark/Demon’s Soul’s scheme so generally, RPG’s are where the learning curve for newbies are a bit too great.

When it comes to enemy A.I. fights (and boss fights), nothing is really too complex. All you need to do is learn their behaviours and how they react to your actions. However some games use “cheap” tactics just to amp their games’ difficulties and that makes the game seem more complex for newbies (and veteran gamers alike).

Collectibles are nothing new to video games. Mario collecting power up mushrooms and flowers is basically like Drake collecting treasures throughout the Uncharted universe. Nothing complex there man, again, just need to pick up one and the next one’s should be obvious as long as you know where to find.

And as a tip, never start your adventure to this gen on multiplayer games. You mentioned playing Red Dead which to me is a bit horrendous to play because of the third person style and the ultra immersive environment you play in. Learn the buttons, learn what they do, become an expert on the single player area and you’ll be all right on the multiplayer (which also involves memorizing where other players respawn and hide).

For you to learn and master a PS3 game pad’s buttons and functions, I suggest starting off on games on each genre i.e. God of War or Darksiders for action games, Uncharted or Red Dead for TPS’s, Call of Duty for FPS’s (Battlefield, Killzone and Resistance FPS’s are a bit complicated too) so on and so forth.

Good luck and have fun!

Controls? In many games before gameplay even starts you can see something like that http://hclaudelin.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/kaiju_screen03.png
If it’s not shown then it’s for sure in options. Options, options, where are options? Menu > options. Start button > options > controls (PS3 example)

Having trouble with finding buttons? Maybe you should get to know where they are BEFORE playing? Seriously, how you were even going to start playing when you don’t know that kind of stuff? If you have trouble with buttons during the game try pause the game to give you the time to find particular button on game pad.

About treasures in uncharted, in the beginning of the game you’re told to search for them and the treasure blink is shown as an example to remeber it. And that blink is really easily to see. What the game said: you have to look for them. Nothing more. There’s not any other magical way to find them unless you already remember all the maps from the game.

The newest games are easy as pie. Which is really annoying everyone who seeks some challenge but that players are rather more experienced.

Please, please, pleeeease don’t never ever suggest that any game is too complex for anyone. What if someone will take it seriously and we will have games which apes could even beat with no problem.

All you have to do is read, listen everything carefully and think what you’re supposed to do. That’s really not big deal.

So far the game I’ve had complex control with are Twisted Metal, Batman Arkham City.
The control just put me off those games