Video Games for a 10-Year-old Boy

Minecraft. Hands down one of the best video games my kid plays. He plays on xbox live with friends, on his own, with his sister, etc etc. They build castles, create villages - they love it. No killing (although their might be zombies that come out at night, if so it's not bloody, more like killing a lego guy).

Minecraft. Definitely. My boys have built a whole world in minecraft. I really don't get it, but they love it.

I went to www.gamestop.com and did a search based on ratings and system ... they are mostly "cutesy" games quite frankly. One of my reasons for not going Xbox is that most of the games are more adult geared.

Here are some that I saw but I suggest you do your own search and have a discussion with a gamestop employee ... they really know their stuff.

Dirt Showdown
Rayman Legends
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Burnout: Paradise
Thrillville Off The Rails
Sports games of all kinds
Sid Meir's Civilization Revolution (personal favorite of mine)
Greg Hastings Paintball 2
Rock Band collection

I am going to be honest, if your child understands the difference between real life and video games it may be time to introduce Halo or other selections. Dynasty Warriors is a good game series that includes actual events during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is plenty of fabrication along with actual facts, it got me interested in the era and history of China as an adult. Halo is played by youth in Christian churches, Assassin's Creed also includes actual history mixed with a fabricated story. Often kids find a world in a video game and find out about the real world aspects of it too. Do not be afraid to play video games WITH your kids too!

I am not too picky when it comes to games, my kids do play things like Halo and modern warfare, even grand theft auto from time to time, but I get the feeling you are trying to stick to "rated E" games. The one that comes to mind that the kids have been asking for recently is "castle crashers" but I have not seen the game so I cant say for sure it is kid friendly, they play it at their friends house all the time.

I have 2 girls, 7 & 10 that have an old x-box that was given to us. They love to play Tony Hawk skateboarding. They also enjoy Burnout (lots of hi speed racing in different environments, even 1 mode where you rack up points for creating the most destructive crashes.), & The Star Wars based games. We don't have MineCraft, but that also looks like a great game.
Main thing to remember is to use the ratings as a guideline, & read the description on the back. Check out write-ups & customer ratings. You can also check out YouTube & other video sites to check out real-time videos of the games in play before you buy.

Spyro Dawn of the Dragon (There are actually 3 games but this is the only one I've played)

Rayman Origins

Both of these are pretty challenging with a lot of extra things to do.

I agree with some of the others below. My son still digs the cutesy lego stuff and smurfs and things like that but he's kind of at that in between stage (he's 8) and he LOVES minecraft. I admit that I'm a nerdy geeky gamer mom but that is one game I just don't quite get! lol All if his older friends love it also.

Your son sounds like mine did at 10 and I was still trying to mindful of not buying shooting games...but...I did get him Infamous and then Infamous 2.
Also, Arkham Asylum may be good but Infamous is sort of shooting but my son's friend and myself let them play this one.
Also, try to get him into sport games like fifa soccer , baseball or wwe wrestling.

MineCraft

Or sorry, you already have that.

Suggestion: go to a GameStop store, with your son, and ask them.
Because, at least here in my city, they are VERY helpful and VERY knowledgeable about stuff like this.
And they are very aware of kid appropriate games, and with their parent.
I ask them stuff all the time when I am there with my kids.