For 2 players, easy to learn, simple fun with a good amount of depth, try Carcassonne. It's a board game (Though you can get it on Xbox live arcade for $5, it's more fun in person). You take turns placing tiles, and claim cities, roads, and farms to earn as many points as possible. The game can be picked up in 10 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne_(board_game)



This game comes as my highest recommendation. It plays best with 2 people but up to 5 can play with no expansions. With more players, the outcomes are more random, but even in a 2 player game, a relatively inexperienced player has a reasonable chance at winning the game. There is some luck involved, but skill does play a greater part. In a 5 player game, it's almost all luck, but it's still very fun!

Here's another board game for 2 players. It plays very quickly, and is quite fun. It's called Saikoro, and boils down to being a box with a bunch of dice in it - you shake the dice up, and then move your pieces around. There are only a couple rules - you need to move the number of spaces on the die that you are moving to, you need to stay within six squares of your opponent, and when you move, you remove the die you were on. If you can't move, you lose.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/27813


If you want to try a deeper, more complicated game that takes longer to learn and longer to play, check out Agricola. It's a game about farming, and can even be played alone. It's a bit deep to get in to within the context of this post, but you might find it interesting. As it's more complex, this isn't a game that young children will really enjoy. It's also a lot more skill based, so a poor player will always lose to a good player.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricola_(boardgame)


None of these three games will be bad with only 2 players. Carcassone is best as a 2 player game, Saikoro *is* a 2 player game, and Agricola holds up well with any number of players, there's somewhat less interaction between people.





Chess, Go, and Backgammon are classics, of course. Do I need to go in to those?


If video games are more your preference, if you have a Wii, check out Mario Kart, a fun, light kart racing game, and Smash Brothers Brawl, a fighting game that's very easy to pick up, fun for two people, and a blast with four. If you have an Xbox360, there are three great board games on Xbox Live - Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and one which I forget and have not played, but is rated well (Lost Cities, I think).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_kart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros._Brawl


Magic: The Gathering is fun, but it is better if it's more of a hobby. If you get a couple preconstructed decks that are about even with each other, it can be fun, but if you want to get in to it more, it requires a sizable budget, and you need to spend a fair amount of time studying cards and decks. I have played it in the past and enjoyed it, but don't play it at this moment.

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