Hi wildrosegirl,
I'm not too sure what to recommend. Black Ops is a great game but there's some problems avid shooters have with it (although most shooter-fans still love it, they just enjoy whining as a group
), and Assassin's Creed recently had it's sequel released so I'm not sure if you are talking about the original. If you are talking about Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, than I would recommend it above Black Ops -- Brotherhood has had some of the most consistent high scores from critics and gamers alike that I've seen in a very long time. The original Assassin's Creed is about on par with Black Ops for recommendation, but if he's played the original than definitely get it's sequel, in my opinion.
Black Ops is part of a very long running series of games which have been successful over the past few years, and because of that any name which comes out from Call of Duty tends to be a big hit because of the name attached. The game series does deserve it's status, mind. Has your son or daughter played a lot of Call of Duty titles previous to this? Also keep in mind that Black Ops is not only new, but has a MASSIVE online scene, so if your son or daughter is into gameplay online or plays shooters online (or even just multiplays a lot in the house with other people) then they will get a LOT more mileage out of Black Ops.
So to summarize, in my opinion, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (if s/he's played the prequel), Black Ops (if s/he's into online play or multiplays with friends a lot), then the original Assassin's Creed (tied if they don't play online a lot with Black Ops).
I'm hesitant to go into too many details on either title either, because otherwise we begin going into information overload. Personally, I'd prefer Assassin's Creed but that's more due to my own tastes (I'm not an avid shooter fan).
With the PS3, you're dealing with a very difficult platform for "multi-player for everyone" games. The PS3 and 360 were both marketed for a more adult, high-end gaming market, while the Wii focused on a market which included stuff more for kids. It's not impossible to find stuff, but given how large the action market is, how many games which are multi-player are action-oriented, and how action stuff tends to have accidents, it can be rough to find a title which fits that criteria.
One of the best options I can think of for multi-player games is DiRT, which is E for everyone, and the aforementioned Gran Turismo. You can crash in DiRT, but damage is not exactly horrid, morbid, and the car still runs afterwards most of the time. I'm not sure where you'd run a line. Other popular racing games, like Race Driver: Grid, go along these sort of lines, while others have more... fantastic scenes of car wreckage, like MotorStorm. The below is a video from DiRT.
Another possibility makes use of the backwards-compatibility features of the PS3. This is a bit of a... um... a bit of a mind-fuck of a game. It has one of the most demented plots I have ever seen (probably out of Japan, hence -- gamers understand why I say this), but is horribly unique and does have an unlockable multi-player mode.
It's called Katamari Damacy and all of it's related sequels. Essentially, in a time limit, you have to make a Katamari of a specific size. A katamari... well, here's a video of the first level for you to have a look-see:
One very popular possibility is called "LittleBigPlanet." This is a platformer (you jump and run around levels doing things) which won Game of the Year, and won a great deal of critical acclaim. It also contains a co-op mode which is both offline and online, depending on how you want to play. The below is a Game Trailer for it.
There's a few other games out there which were quite popular. The FIFA series got a few fans from the PES series because it was an excellent soccer game, for example, and got quite good ratings. I'm not too sure if it's E you want, where a game has absolutely nothing offensive, or games like T, for Teen, where we can have some minor blood, or some minor innuendo, or some minor swearing.
Stuff with gore in it usually manages M -- and there's an entire set of AO. I've stuck to E with those recommendations and typically E is where all is good, but if you're willing to go T I MIGHT be able to find some other stuff. Is it just shooting and killing you'd prefer not to have in the game, or do you wish to avoid all adult topics?
I wish you'd said one player -- if we go T and one-player, I have few more recommendations, but multi-player severely limits down a bit what I can recommend.
I don't play a ton of multi-player games right now. In any case, all of the games mentioned are at the top of their respective genres on the PS3, except Katamari Damacy -- it's just off on it's own.
Here's a link to a
PS3 games search. On the side are the filters to set it to specific search parameters. Hope this post helps! All of those games are good picks, though.
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