Video Games: A Labour of Love or an Abuse of Labour?

I’ll preface this by saying I have no idea about the state of labour practices at Playground Games. It just so happens that I’m playing Forza Horizon 4 at the minute and so it is this game that frames the piece.

Forza Horizon 4 is an absolutely beautiful game, the Forza series always have been. For a long time, racing games with their puddles on tarmac, brake lights in the night and the sun bouncing of exotic chassis have been an excellent show piece to illustrate just how powerful new hardware has become but also to show a studios mastery of the software they use to create these games. In Forza Horizon 4, I often find myself thinking just how photorealistic those puddles are, how good those brake lights look in the dark and marvel at how shiny those cars look.

The sun, the tarmac, it looks so crisp

As I drove through the games depiction of the North East, I had a moment where I noticed just how perfect the light and shadows bounced of my Ford Focus RS as I glided past a ridiculously accurate model of Bamborough Castle. That’s when it hit me. In a sudden epiphanic moment I realised that people had created all of this.

Now obviously I didn't think video games are plucked from trees, I’m fully aware games are created by people. However this was the first time whilst playing a game I thought ‘what about the devs, this is a striking amount of detail for people to create, it can’t have been easy’. I’m also not naive of the awful labour conditions within the industry, however this was the first time I had a ‘what if?’ type of suspicion whilst playing. Maybe this is because of the current climate I found myself in, Uber were taking part in a national strike, I had recently read pieces by Seva and Heather Alexandria about Assassin's Creed Odyssey and worker conditions and I have been wrestling with myself over the upcoming release of Red Dead Redemption 2, a game from a studio with a history of alleged terrible labour conditions.

Forza Horizon 4 is a painstakingly detailed world, one with an eye for ridiculous accuracy, be that in the form of perfectly modelled cars, with dashboards and engine sounds identical to the real life versions or accurate in a mechanical sense, with cars handling differently depending on their specifications or the environment they are driving in (Hitting big stagnant pools of water in the spring feels so good in this game, I don't know how they have managed it but there's a huge momentum shift and a drag that is portrayed through the controllers triggers and onscreen speed reduction, it feels amazing).

The lighting is really good

But it doesn’t stop there, not only is the world ridiculously detailed, there's an almost overwhelming amount of events for players to take part in, and that’s even before the game fully opens up and introduces you to the persistent seasonal world which adds weekly and daily challenges and also Forzathons, big cooperative group activities that happen each hour. All this detail, and all these things for us to do is directly the result of developers labour, their time, talent and creativity.

Oooo shiny

The realisation of how these games are created combined with the scope of them is what led me to become apprehensive. After spending the majority of my adult life so far working in hospitality and currently working somewhere where HR openly laughed at the suggestion of a union, I’m fully aware companies will happily take advantage and wring everything they possibly can out of their employees. Exploiting the need to provide for yourself, your family and your passion.

This has been a common occurrence and can be seen consistently throughout the game industry. There seems to be stories each month breaking about the abhorrent labour conditions in the form of unpaid overtime, 12+ hour working days and studios justifying crunch as the status quo. Add to that the rise of the gig economy with workers having temporary contracts until games are made and are then let go.  On top of these awful conditions there is then the saddening studio closures that have plagued 2018. Capcom Vancouver, Visceral and arguably the most egregious Telltale (Whilst studio closures are awful news in any circumstance, the shocking treatment of Telltale staff being kept in the dark and having no severance is absolutely repulsive).

So to be clear, I’m not accusing Playground Games of participating in these exploitations of labour, but it’s hard to play a game as big and detailed as Forza Horizon 4 and not think about the conditions the game was made in. The hours of labour that go into making a game with such scope and the fact that crunch is such an ingrained part of the culture makes it almost impossible to imagine the game hasn’t been crunched on given the opportunity that these companies have to exploit an already vulnerable workforce.

Take Red Dead Redemption 2 for example, Rockstar already has an alleged history of poor labour conditions. Pair this with the massively detailed world they are advertising for Red Dead Redemption 2 and it seems to be a logical conclusion to imagine 12+ hour days as developers face mounting pressure to ensure everything is ready for release at the end of the month.

Horse Balls.

So if companies are exploiting their workers and adopting poor working conditions, what is our personal responsibility as the people who buy and play these games? I have some ideas but I’m genuinely conflicted as most suggestions seem to ask more questions than give any answers.

For argument's sake, let's say Playground Games, Rockstar and Ubisoft all have terrible labour conditions and take advantage of their workers passion by forcing mandatory overtime on them because ‘they’re so lucky they get paid to make games’. Knowing this, it makes sense to conclude that buying games from these studios not only directly endorses the practices that creates these poor labour conditions but encourages them to continue to do so. Thus continuing the practice of poor working conditions, arguably this is why crunch and these conditions are seen as ‘just how it is’ in the industry.

So, should we boycott these games? If these companies are treating workers poorly, should we all ‘vote with our wallets’ and hit developers and publishers where it hurts and demand they make a change? After all, this is one of the few redeeming features of capitalism, the market can be dictated by the consumer (sometimes at least). We witnessed this with Star Wars Battlefront 2, fans were upset with the games pay to win marketplace and planned to boycott the game, because of this EA launched the game with no micro transactions (even if it was just to save face and they were later reinstated to a lesser extent). So can we do this to studios to ensure they improve their standard of labour conditions?

My fear is that by boycotting games from these studios, we could be punishing the already exploited devs. Does not buying these games mean that the devs who create them miss out on sales based bonuses? (if they are implemented) Taken to the nth degree, could it mean studios decreasing in size or even dissolving altogether? Thats certainly not the intended outcome. Granted this is the extreme, but it is not outside the realm of the possible. By demanding better of these companies and the industry as a whole, if things get significantly worse before they get better is it worth it?

Is being aware of the poor conditions and the context which games are made enough? or are we kidding ourselves? hoping that one day it will get better. What can I do? what can we do as people outside of the industry but with direct influence? Is tweeting about these awful conditions enough? By sharing articles and being labour conscious is this enough? What about showing solidarity with those who are trying to unionise?

Take the recent strikes by workers at Uber, TGI, McDonalds and Weatherspoons for example. I fully support those workers and hope they reach the deals that provide them with the best working conditions possible. To do so I can choose not to cross the picket line, to show solidarity. My worry is that until the games industry unionises, then boycotts and industrial action would have a detrimental effect on the very people we wish to help. At a complete loss, I contacted Game Workers Unite UK to find out if there is anything we can do at all.

Game Workers Unite is currently an ‘organisation that seeks to connect pro union activists, exploited workers and allies… in the name of building a unionised games industry.” In the UK, they seem to have found some success, as they are to become a legal trade union this winter as a branch of IWGB (Independent Workers Union of Great Britain).

After reaching out to GWU they suggested that players support would be crucial when they are legally formed into trade union. The idea of boycotts, though not rejected, would be taken as a complete last resort only if workers had voted and agreed on such a decision. What GWU did advocate for those who want to get involved was the organisation of socials and benefit events, for allies to attend demos and rallies and of course for us to share their material.

Another idea suggested was for people to continue creating content about the cause, be that writing articles about labour conditions, making videos and podcasts, or even going as far to create games exploring the problem. GWU’s big target was to be able to challenge some of the unfair work practices in court so it goes without saying that fundraising for legal teams will play a big part of what we can do as allies.

The conclusion I came to was that until the industry pulls together and unionises it is vital for us players to ensure we continue the conversation about the conditions the games we enjoy are created in. By continuing the discussion and raising awareness we help games workers get closer to the goal of unionising, thus ensuring fairer working conditions for all. The GWU UK has achieved some success in preparing to become a legal trade union, but that's just one drop in the ocean, there's still a long way to go.

How Into the Breach turned me onto Mechs

I want to preface this by saying my only experience with mechs is through my enjoyment of Pacific Rim and the few series of Power Rangers I watched as a kid. Other than that, I know absolutely nothing about mechs, are Gundam mechs? Are Zords mechs? What about Titanfall? I honestly have no idea.

A couple week ago I heard Waypoints, Austin Walker smitten with a game from the creators of FTL (Subset Games). I couldn’t help but be suckered in by his passion and enthusiasm as he spoke about his team of mechs working together to save people from big bugs, however I was left disappointed and pretty deflated when a quick search revealed it was a turn based strategy game.

I’ve had a spotty history with strategy games, I adore the historical Total War series and they are the only strategy games I’ve spent a stupid amount of time learning, I also dabbled in Advanced Wars on my DS as a kid when my dad bought it for cheap from a guy in a pub not having a clue what it was. I absolutely love the concept of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but in practice it didn’t click with me.

However, hours before Into the Breach released, I came across some reviews on Reddit that done nothing but sing the games praises. With a Steam voucher I had saved from Christmas for Fire Pro Wrestling’s management mode (which has been delayed) I decided I would dive into the breach take the plunge, and it has got me hooked.

Into the Breach is an 8x8 turn based strategy game where you command a squad of 3 mechs and fight the Vek (a giant insect species/army). However, what makes it special is its ability to make me feel like a Kaiju killing mastermind. One of the first major things that I noticed was that the game allows you to undo movement before you commit, letting you test out potential moves, it even allows you to reset one full turn once a round. In doing so it is a perfect learning tool to show how to use individual units as a team, and even acts as a great first strategy game to find your feet in the genre.

However, there has been claims that the game is falsely labelled as a strategy game, and that it is closer to a puzzle game. Whilst I understand the arguments I don’t necessarily agree. Into the Breach can feel like a puzzle game at times, as it is completely transparent and gives you all the information you need to solve each scenario and often feels like there’s an optimized move each turn. However the decisions you make, the strategy you execute all matter. One false move and you can doom your pilots, lose vital power from your grid and fail objectives.

For me, the stand out features of Into the Breach are its tiny story beats. These minuscule, brief flavours of story really created a more human world one that completely immersed me, but blink and you’ll miss them. The majority of these are delivered through speech bubbles appearing from buildings you are tasked to defend, the rest come from your pilots as action develops on the battlefield.

Picture this, your mechs drop into the map from the sky and crash into the ground with a ground shaking thud, they activate ready to fight the Vek and defend the city. Then, from a skyscraper somebody cries “Look, they’ve arrived, we’re saved”. You realise there’s people in the buildings, people who are scared for their lives, people who thought they were doomed. Those poor people could see the Vek approaching from emergence holes, and there was no sign of any help. That is until now. Hope has been restored.

Somehow these tiny speech bubbles manage to convey pure elation, hopelessness, and unadulterated fear. More often than not I pictured a child, face pressed against the window, wide eyed watching in awe as he witnesses my mechs dash, roll and fly into a ballet with the Vek.

Similarly, when a building is encased in a web, in preparation for an attack, its occupants cry out in terror “It’s attacking us”. I can’t even begin to imagine the panic and hopelessness inside, people looking for a way out, others cowering in corners, comforting their loved ones, those who turn to their Gods an begin to pray, the people who are at peace and have accepted the inevitable.

Into the Breach features pretty decent customisation options, you get to choose a pilot and one of the ready built squads each time you start a playthrough (providing you have unlocked them), on top of that there is an abundance of skills and weapons to discover which I’m still finding after 15 hours in. Aesthetically, the only choice you have is a pre-set colour scheme for your mechs which is a little bit disappointing, I wish it was a bit deeper but that’s just me nit picking.

Into the Breach is fun, there’s no question about that. I love that if I find myself stuck I can walk away, make myself a cuppa and come back with a fresh mind to hopefully make the right call and minimise damage the best I can. More importantly though, after playing Into the Breach I had an epiphany, I realised exactly what it is about Into the Breach that made it stick with me.

I started thinking about the mechs I had seen in Pacific Rim and Power Rangers, I started thinking about all those people who must have been so relieved to see the Megazord arrive in Angel Grove and those who watched as Gypsy Danger went toe to toe with numerous Kaiju from the safety of their skyscrapers, only to then be massacred as the enemy crashes into their building as a direct result of the heroic mechs actions. It is here where Into the Breach is different, I have the power to ensure I don’t send the enemy crashing into occupied buildings, I can attempt to save those people who are scared for their lives, and I can prevent collateral damage. But if I fail to do so, I can always warp into another timeline, start fresh and save the world.

Games of the Year 2017

2017 has been a hell of a year, arguably one of the best for video game releases in close to a decade. Meanwhile there has been a load of shite happening elsewhere in the world so as one Vincent Caravella is said to say ‘there has been no better time to play video games’. 

I will start this list by saying I have not played many peoples top games of the year, I weren’t able to play Mario, Zelda as I don’t have a Switch and I never got around to playing NieR: Automata.


There are also some games that deserve a mention that didn’t make it onto this list, games such as Resident Evil 7 which massively rebooted the franchise and had me feeling how I did when I first explored the mansion in the original Resident Evil. Another game that narrowly missed out on the list is Everything, a game which allows you to simulate… everything. It is a weird existential screensaver that even plays itself if you put the controller down. You want to be a microbe? So be it. You want to be a planet? Well go on then, Everything has you covered. 


Well here we go, in no particular order, here is the list of my favourite games which I think are worth checking out.

Assassins Creed Origins

Assassins Creed Origins was a game I originally played reluctantly. I have played every major title in the series and fell off each and every one at some point since Assassins Creed 3 (Granted some quicker than others). So after Ubisoft took a year off and hearing positives from the media I decided I should probably jump in and test the waters myself.  For the record, I enjoy Assassins Creed, I think the balance of ‘not quite history’, magic & myth is fascinating. However the previous games are filled with so much busy work that it takes away from the experience so it is always just a matter of time before I call it a day. Origins was different. 

 

Part of the process of purchasing the game was that I decided I was going to complete it 100%, it was a deal I was making to myself to justify buying it when it was on sale. I was going to make it my game to play in my ‘killing time’ time since I abstained from PES and FIFA this year. 

The thing that grabbed my attention first was the combat overhaul. No longer did I find myself waiting to counter enemies and therefore insta-kill them. I had choice, a choice of light and heavy attacks and I could block… with a shield… in Assassins Creed. The combat feels deliberate, similar to that of a Dark Souls, each attack has to be timed to land because there is no backing out once you’ve committed. I found myself locking onto enemies, circling them with my shield up either waiting for the right time to strike or attempting to parry or evade to then get my attack in. I played on hard and I think that added to the combat but even on normal, prepare to die, there is definitely a learning curve from old titles. 

Then, after a short tutorial the world and story open up and it’s this which really pulled me into Origins. I will avoid story specific spoilers where I can here but the story is built on revenge, when it began I thought ‘Here we go again’. But I had made that deal with myself, I was sticking with it and thank god I did. Assassins Creed Origins is the most human feeling title in the franchise since Ezios storyline. The main characters Bayek and his wife Aya feel like actual human people, the ones you encounter in the real world, they aren’t snarky pirate dickheads, they aren’t the naive child from AC3, and they aren’t the forgettable one from Unity. These feel like characters with feeling that develop and learn as you progress.

Bayeks personality and development (you barely play or see Aya, but she plays a big part still) comes mostly from side missions, where you get to see him do his actual job. Prior to devoting his life to murder for revenge, Bayek was a medjay, an ancient Egyptian policeman of sorts. His interactions with people who are suffering under greedy abusive overlords, people who have had things stolen, and people who simply need help show him as an actual person not fully engulfed in seeking revenge. He can deal with more than one thing at a time, the side quests show a side to Bayek not seen in any of the other Assassins creed games, he actually wants to use his abilities to help people. 

The couples struggle with grief is also one of the themes that gripped me. Bayek and Aya are two very different people and it’s within the context of this grief that you see this really play out. Both decide to busy themselves and throw themselves fully into different tasks with similar aims. This is another way that makes them feel human and it is because of this I wanted to see where both Bayek and Aya would be at the end of Origins. 

Origins ends strongly, it left enough unanswered to keep me interested and bring me back when story dlc is available. In the meanwhile though, I have been riding around Egypt helping its people, freeing rebels, fighting in roman arenas, hunting, and racing chariots. Oh and defeating Gods. As of writing, I have completed roughly 99% of the game. All I have left to do is the arena fights (which in a recent update added a horde mode), I have completed all side quests (even the one added in the latest update), and all locations. So for now, Bayek is wandering around Egypt looking for trinkets to loot in order to get the final achievement. 

Assassins Creed Origins is my biggest surprise of the year, I thought I would be returning to familiar waters but I was wrong. This is an Assassins Creed with no stalking missions, no double hidden blade, no flags, feathers or sheet music to collect, a dedicated crouch button, shields, spears, bows, interesting characters and camels.

  

Bomber Crew

A month before release, Bomber Crew appeared on my radar….. I hate myself. After stumbling on a couple of articles on the game on twitter I gave the developers a follow. Bomber Crew is a strategic sim where you command a WW2 British Lancaster bomber in a series of missions over the channel and Europe. Think Dambusters meets FTL. 

Don’t let the games simple look lower your guard, it gets difficult quickly. After learning the basics of take-off, landing, navigating, targeting and maintenance you are thrown straight into the deep end with a fresh full crew and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The game has you moving different members of your crew to complete tasks to meet the mission objectives. Sounds nice and simple when you say it like that doesn’t it. 

One of my first memories took place on a mission to drop off supplies in the Channel to a downed fighter pilot. With my plane in the air and my course navigated, I positioned a crew member in the bombing bay, opened the hatch and readied the supplies to be dropped. Only then I was notified about the enemies that just appeared on our radar. Three of them, all heading straight for me. I mark them as targets which allows for my gunners to pre-emptively attack. We open fire and the three enemies split up. Shit, in the panic I just flew over the downed pilot I was trying to help. 

We adjust our course to sweep around and try again. The rear gunner lands a stream of rounds that takes out an enemy on our tail. There’s two left. As we turn to make a second pass we open ourselves up to fire. Its then our top gunner is hit, close to death he needs first aid. I send my bomber to assist him. But now there’s nobody manning the bombing bay, and thus the supplies. We miss the target again. Altering the course we try again. The other two enemies are incapacitated in quick time. The rear gunner has proved himself today. There’s not much fuel left, but it should be enough. My bomber takes his place in the bay as we anxiously make our third pass. We make the drop and we are notified ‘return to base’. Spirits are high, everyone’s alive, we are on our way home. 

It’s a short lived success. Somewhere over Dover we lose our hydraulics, which means we lose our landing gear. The engineer is quick to get to work but repairs take time. But time is something we don’t have since we have 2 minutes worth of fuel left. Fuck it. With not enough fuel to keep us up until the issue is fixed and no landing gear yet, we aim for the tarmac. The mechanic is working as fast as he can, but we are coming in fast. I’m certain I’ve doomed my crew to a humiliating fate. 

It is when I have started to pray for my crew that the mechanic gets the job done, we have our hydraulics back. I lower the landing gears as we rapidly descent, maybe it’s too late, maybe there’s a chance. I have done all I could, It’s out of my hands. 

Mission Success. We pulled it out of the bag and it was absolutely exhilarating. We got everyone home safe, the rear gunner got a promotion along with the mechanic and the navigator. Back at base as we heal and repair the plane you get a chance to customise your crew and your bomber. The options for customising the plane can get pretty deep, there’s a lot to choose from as every part affects something else, usually negatively. Then there is the same decisions to be made with your crew’s equipment and skills they earn which adds to the relationship you have with the crew. 

Bomber Crew is a tense game, the management of the plane is stressful enough, but add in combat and you have yourself an adrenaline ride. The reason it is all so stressful is because you care about your crew, you recruited them, you flew with them on their debut mission, you seen them get promoted, you seen them at their happiest completing a mission, you see them terrified when it looks like they don’t have long left, you grieved with them for the crew that didn’t make it. 

Fire Pro Wrestling World

I love professional wrestling. I have always wanted a good wrestling game. Until earlier this year I had never heard of Fire Pro. Fire Pro Wrestling World is my first game in the Fire Pro series. After hearing Spike Chunsoft was using Steams early access I knew I couldn’t pass up on the offer. As a massive wrestling fan, I have been disappointed year after year in my search for a quality wrestling game. In my opinion, the 2K games fail to recognise wrestling’s ‘worked’ nature and take place in a world where kayfabe never died, feeling more like a bad sports game than a wrestling game. It’s here Fire Pro World succeeds.

What make FPWW feel like a true wrestling game is that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, all’s that matters is working a good match for the crowd. At the moment there is no career mode or ‘Universe mode’ (though there is a management mode scheduled for release early 2018) so the only thing that measures any level of success is each individual match rating. Whist actually playing the game and controlling a wrestler is great as you can direct where the match is going the real fun for me comes from simming matches. 

Utilising Steam Workshop, Fire Pro allows players to upload created wrestlers or ‘edits’ to be downloaded by anybody. This provides infinite value as the only limit is your imagination. On the workshop you have edits of wrestlers from all throughout history, from across the globe, from the biggest names to the smallest indie talent, which allows for you to create your dream matches; Ric Flair vs Shinsuke Nakamura, Shaun Michaels vs AJ Styles, John Cena vs Hulk Hogan, and the Bullet Club vs NWO. 

Along with a massive creation tool to make edits look like their real life counterparts, each edit comes with their own customisable AI and logic. Mastering the AI and logic settings of each edit takes some time to master, but doing so allows them to wrestle just as they do in real life which gives you realistic feeling matches that have you on the edge of your seat. 

I’m aware Fire Pro Wrestling World is a niche game. Generally speaking you have to like wrestling, you then have to be happy with a 2D game, and on top of that one of its main draws is its ridiculously deep creation suite and AI editor which may feel overly complicated and pretty cryptic to some (me included, I had to seek help from the community as the game doesn’t make much clear in terms of its editing). Nevertheless, if you want to just download some of your favourite wrestlers, boxers, pop culture icons and see them fight it out in a landmine death match, then this is the game for you. 

PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds 

Beyond a doubt my horror game of the year has to be Player Unknowns Battlegrounds. Only Arma has provided me with this same tense fear that makes me question my every single move, which is no surprise considering PUBG’s lineage. Whilst this isn’t the first battle royale game to exist, it is definitely the first to grab so much attention. 

The premise of PUBG isn’t original either, Battle Royale, The Condemned and I guess The Hunger Games all use the idea of numerous people fighting to the death until there remains only one survivor. However it is this premise that is so simple which lends itself to video games so easily. On paper, it’s a massive free for all death match where players search for loot to increase their chances of survival on an ever shrinking battlefield. 

It’s the survival element of the game that makes it so scary, and in turn makes it such a good game. Every decision you make effects your chances of survival on the battlefield. Do you run through the open field to move quickly from the deadly blue wall or do you crawl to avoid any potential sharpshooters. Do you stay camped in a bathroom because you heard a creek from downstairs, or do you move and try and get the drop on them? Do you shoot and give away your position or do you wait patiently and let him pass? 

But what makes PUBG stand out so much is that it allows players to create their own moments, moments they talk about in work, with friends, in the pub. Everybody who plays a game of PUBG has a story to tell. Every player has an experience that is uniquely theirs, and this is what makes PUBG so special. Add to this that you can play as a duo or in a squad of four, then you end up creating stories with friends. 

However there is a downside, PUBG is a janky mess. With its 1.0 release on PC it has improved massively and most problems have been ironed out, but the Xbox version has a long way to go. Yet, with that being said, when it first entered Early Access on PC, PUBG was still fantastic. Some people honestly can’t play a game if there is a frame rate drop or any late texture pop in and that is completely fine, but if you can look past the technical hiccups and see what lies at the core of battlegrounds, then you can have yourself an amazing time.   

Doki Doki Literature Club 

Ok, so the less said about this game the better. It is a visual novel but there I so much more to it. The premise? You are a school kid who agrees to join your friend’s literature club, from there you meet new people and write some poetry to appease different members of the club. After launching the game, it makes you aware of the serious themes the game handles. Often I found myself thinking I knew where the story was going to go next but it somehow managed to stay fresh (maybe this is because I hadn’t played a visual novel/dating sim before).

Anyway, Doki Doki Literature Club is free on steam and will probably run on a calculator. I recommend you do no research on the game and just dive in. 

 

Yakuza 0

The Yakuza series is one I have always wanted to jump into but I never quite knew where to start. Thankfully Yakuza 0 came out this year and after watching the first few episodes of Giant Bombs playthrough I knew I should stop and dive in myself. I bought a PS4 for this game out of sheer excitement. 

I don’t think I have ever played a game that evokes such a strong sense of time and place. The 80s Tokyo setting is absolutely astonishing, the handcrafted open world is full of atmosphere whether it is day or night and it feels huge even though it is relatively small, part of this is because there is just so much to do. This is most evident when you can finish the main game and rack up just 13% completion. Whether it is pocket circuit racing, karaoke, or visiting the arcades there Yakuza manages to present the illusion of a full city to explore and take part in when you aren’t punching yakuza in the face. 

In addition to its world and atmosphere, Yakuza 0 manages to be the funniest game of the year and also the most dramatic. Somehow it balances absurdist comedy with it tough gangland story. You go from fighting to get free from the yakuza to defending an off brand Michael Jackson from ‘zombies’ for a Thriller music video. And let’s not get started on the Karaoke scenes, as soon as they become available, do it. 

 

Kingdoms and Castles

In trying to escape the shithole of a year 2017 has been, I stumbled across Kingdoms and Castles, a city planning game with a massively welcomed ‘non-combat mode’. When I started playing, I never (and still haven’t) attempted a playthrough with combat, it is something I simply have no interest in so I’ll admit I can’t speak for that side of the game. 

This is one of those city builders that allows the player to choose their desired level of depth, you can make this as complicated as you want you, and this is why it stuck with me this year. In the beginning, I spent hours looking after a tiny hamlet with just 50 citizens in making sure I could provide enough resources and entertainment to keep them healthy and happy. 

Eventually I expanded, creating houses for new settlers to stay, districts for entertainment and industry, religious and academic districts, I even found myself building a bridge to another small island to create a mini village on the outskirts of my now growing city (I think the word I’m looking for is suburb). There isn’t much more I can say about Kingdoms and Castles, it has a nice style it allowed me to live out my dream of being a benevolent dictator, I can’t ask for more than that.