5 Top Locales.

When we think about games, sometimes it can be very easy to forget to appreciate the effort put into their setting. After all, games wouldn’t be what they are if their setting wasn’t fitting for the genre, think about it, what if Halo was set in a living room or if Call of Duty was set in the Hundred Acre Wood where you occasionally see piglet wielding a Kalashnikov. Not a pretty sight, which is why I’m taking a moment to look around me and think of some of the best locations for some great games.

5. Alan Wake – Bright Falls

Why is this local so good? It’s because it’s so damn creepy. Bright Falls is based on the town surrounding David Lynch’s masterpiece, Twin Peaks. If you watched the series, the feeling is obvious, it screams of it. In fact the whole game is lightly spritzed with ‘Eau D’Lynch’, a perfume that I just made up but I’m sure would smell of bonfires, owls and cherry pie. Bright Falls looks idyllic during the daylight hours but as soon as night falls on this picturesque landscape, we are shaking in our collective boots. Bright Falls with its mountains, forests and lakes takes number five.

4. Metro 2033 – The Subway

Metro 2033’s namesake location is based on the real subway system of mother Russia, which was in fact designed to shelter Russian citizens in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. Again this location is freaky freaky freaky and makes you feel like a rat in a maze, like a rat with a gun in a maze, like a rat with a gun in a maze that has other rats with guns and sometimes even the odd cat out to get you…yeah, that sounds more accurate. In fact that rat in  maze analogy is rather accurate as due to the heavily irradiated creatures that inhabit Metro 2033’s world, humans have fallen quite far down the food chain, maybe in this world the only animal that’s closer to a rat than humans is well…the rat.

3. Bioshock Infinite – Columbia

So I’ve got this idea for a place to set a game. Imagine a city, except it’s being carried in lots of little bits by balloons…it’s already been done? Okay I’ll talk about that then. The Bioshock series has given us some fantastic locations and Columbia is its latest offering, a city in the sky build to get away from the world after the abolishment of slavery. It’s a nice juxtaposition, a heavily religious city that floats, heaven-like, yet isn’t fond of blacks. It offers an interesting choice, take the heaven along with the racism or deny it and return to the world we know and live in. Oh and also, to burn an enemy with fire or to have him ‘Hitchcocked’ to death by a flock of crows? It’s a tough life up there in ol’ Columbia.

2. Fallout – The Wasteland

I apologise but yet again I’m going to rattle on about the Fallout universe. I just love it so…with all of its bugs and glitches and low-res scenery. In Fallout every time you stop moving and look out into the distance, it’s beautiful. The burned out trees, ruined countryside and crumbling structures somehow fill you with dread as you think that it could’ve happened while at the same time has you wishing it did happen so you can start spending those bottle caps you spent ages collecting as a kid. No? Nobody? Just me then. Okay. Well the wasteland is one of the reasons I love Fallout and I loved it even more so when it was rendered in 3D. The Wasteland takes number two.

1. Bioshock – Rapture

We’ve talked about its younger sister, Columbia, now it’s time for the original. Rapture is an underwater utopia that soon turned dystopia. Its 1920s art deco style of architecture coupled with the fact that it is slowly taking on water very cleverly reminds us of another 1920s creation that was deemed as perfect yet turned out to be somewhat flawed. Rapture’s downfall being linked to a desire for perfection and the civil war that resulted from it is interesting and an incredibly clever concept and a concept that I believe is more than deserving of the numero uno spot on this list. Well done 2K!

So now we have been able to take a break, brew a cuppa and look around at the scenery that surrounds us whenever we game. After this list I believe I may take a moment whenever I play to look at the beauty (or horror) that surrounds me.

I’ll see you in the distance.

My Favourite Card Games.

I talk a lot about video games…wait, let me rephrase that, I talk a LOT about video games, but sometimes I feel the need to play a game that’s a bit more tactile, I want something I can hold in my hand and feel like I have a degree of skill in handling. That’s why I love card games, nothing feels better than shuffling some cards without them flying everywhere and then dealing them out speedily and accurately.

Here are a few of my favourites.

Of course I’ll get the obvious one out of the way quickly; I talk about Magic: The Gathering a lot in these articles as well, but there’s a reason for that. I think the game is brilliant, as it’s a trading card game there are thousands of cards out there that you could potentially put in a deck. I find that wonderful that even if you decide to base your deck on someone else’s there will be tiny differences between them which completely changes the way your deck plays compared to the guy you took the idea from. Sure the rules take a while to get used to, the ‘stack’ mechanic can make cards interact with each other in ways you didn’t expect (but I think magic players will agree that the game is much simpler because of it), some of the keywords on cards take a little while to remember exactly how they affect your creatures and I still keep trying to destroy a blocker with an instant after it’s been announced, thinking that the damage will go through to the player (but it doesn’t, it’s been blocked). Yet I think this game is fantastic, a little hard for newbies to get used to but well worth the effort.

Now I said that the rules of Magic: The Gathering were confusing, however this next game has been criticised for having the most confusing rules in a card game ever. Game of Thrones: The Card Game is actually a lot easier than you’d first believe; one, the stages that make up a turn are listed on a card that represents your house, two, it’s basically just a game of Planeschase in MTG. There are some things that I find strange but that’s just because I’m not used to the game, such as different decks for different houses (Which I believe is an attempt to not accidentally give one player an overpowered deck with cards that don’t fit well in the lore), and how later on in the game it is so easy to have a board that’s chock-a-block with cards. Whether you believe the stigma or not this game is definitely worth playing at least once.

The final two games I’d like to talk about are nowhere near as huge and serious as the first two, these are stupid little games designed to make you laugh and the first is Gloom.

In Gloom, the objective is to make your family have the worst lives ever and kill them first; once a family is dead, the game is over. Why do I love this game? Because it’s all about the story you tell about your family. You have cards that you put on different family members which give negative points to them, when they die you can count these negative points towards your total score, let’s say you played a card that said someone was “Driven to Drink” and then wanted to play a card that said they were “Chastised by the Church”, the fun element of the game is telling the story of how one event let to the other. This game is so fun, though can leave the less creative players or players that aren’t confident with public speaking, a little stranded. Once you get into a flow however, the game soon picks up and is incredibly fun to get involved with. It can even make a great spectator sport.

The last game I’ll talk about is Fluxx, a really simple game. All each player needs to do is draw a card and then play a card. Simple right? Well yes and no. Cards played will change the game and how it’s played, cards will either denote what must be done to win the game; what the rules of the game are; what you have on the table to help you win; what you have on the table to stop you from winning or they may just be a cute one time action that can seriously brighten or darken someone’s day. That’s all that can really be said about Fluxx, it does require a bit of reading as some cards can make you do things you hadn’t thought about doing and it can get a bit overwhelming when you have ten new rules on the table, all of which need to be enforced. All in all it’s a really fun game that doesn’t require a lot of explaining in the early stages and because everyone learns new rules together it makes the group feel like they are on a level playing field even if it’s your first time playing the game.

I love card games, board games and video games, I just sometimes feel that card games are forgotten about a lot, and they shouldn’t be. Most are pocket sized so you can take them anywhere, they tend not to need a power source and they can sometimes be the most rewarding to play, especially when you get a great social experience from them. So let us take a moment to pay our respects to the humble card game, to thank it for being simple yet effective and for bringing people closer and closer with every game. Sometimes I wish I were more like a card game, creating friends and relationships in places where there were none or they were weak.

I’ll see you after dealing.