7 Signs You’re Ready To Be A DM

As a dungeon master I’m constantly on the lookout for those who look like they may be suited for The Path. I’ve introduced dozens of people to tabletop games and I would say only 1 or 2 have shown all these signs, but that doesn’t mean that anyone can’t be a DM either. It’s no mystical art that you’re born with – you can indeed learn this power. And, if you find yourself nodding to any of these 7 signs, maybe just grab a starter adventure, some friends and give it a go. Here’s 7 signs you’re ready to be a DM.

You organise the sessions

A DM trying to arrange a session.

It’s not always the dungeon master’s job to do all the organisation, but since they’re regularly the most enthusiastic member of the group, they tend to want to get the sessions organised, planned and ready so they know when it’s coming up. They also want to know how long they have to prepare for the session. Therefore if you’re the one grabbing all your friends, bringing them around to your house, getting the snacks and making them stick to a regular weekly slot, you’d probably do a better job than whoever your current DM is.

You’ve learnt the rules and bought the books

“Why do you even have a DM guide, Greg?”

Similar to the previous point, your enthusiasm for the game has made you buy the books, absorb them into your brain until you know not just the rules for your character, but the core rules, and the rules for your fellow players’ characters. You want to learn more about the lore of the world, you want to find out about your class or race, or you want to remember all the mechanics available to you. If one of my players comes to a session and wants to use the ‘Dodge’ ability on their turn, or wants to ‘Grapple’ and knows how it works, I’m so very happily surprised. If you really want to engage with the lore and mechanics of the game, it’ll make you a great DM.

You want to play more characters

You want to play ALL these guys.

Have you ever thought “you know it’s fun playing my human cleric, but sometimes I wish I could have a gnome wizard too.” Maybe your ranger has an animal companion and you keep a track of them as a character along with their motivations and goals and catnip rations. This is a good sign for DM-hood. We play numerous characters – some for months and others for minutes, but every one should have a name, a voice, a visual description, a goal and personality. As someone who likes to do voice impressions I love getting to play someone new every session, even if they don’t get to be the hero. I always like the villains anyway.

You think about the game a lot

“They’ll never expect TWO traps.”

Brushing your teeth? You’re thinking about your next session. On the train to work? Wondering how to further your character’s goal. In a boring meeting that won’t end? You’re perfecting the nuances of your character’s speech patterns. You think about DnD a lot, it gets you excited and you want to do it all the time. It sucks having to wait so long to play. This is what it was like for me, to the point where I was running 3 games at once to get my fill. I was spending weekends in cafes planning campaigns and reading adventure books. I pestered players about their characters endlessly to get them integrated into the story. As a DM, you take control of your hobby rather than waiting for someone else to let you play it. If you’re the one obsessing about RPGs, that’s what’s needed to fuel a successful roleplaying group.

“This would be cool in DnD.”

They’re already in a tavern for god’s sake.

Okay so you may not be thinking about DnD all the time, but perhaps you do so when you’re reading a book, watching Game of Thrones, or playing a game. You think “this would be cool in DnD”. I used to do this all the time, I couldn’t watch a tv show without spotting plot hooks, cool NPCs or encounters. Especially adventure shows like BBC’s Robin Hood or Three Musketeers, where there’s a new adventure for the main characters every episode, with an overarching plot each season. It’s basically how a DnD campaign is run. I’ve even made adventures that were pretty much lifted from that show, copying the characters into NPCs and just changing the names (I may not have even changed the names) and changed the french soldiers into gnolls. BOOM instant adventure.

You don’t want to take control

Pictured: Not a DM.

A lot of the above points are about thinking of story and characters and ways to influence your game, and this is an integral part of being a dungeon master. However, campaigns tend to be 40-70% coming from you, and the rest is coming from the players. This can vary a lot depending on the DM, or the type of game you’re playing, but relinquishing control is such an important turning point for a DM. I think every DM should do 1 session with absolutely no prep, and just ask questions to the players. You’d be surprised at how much you can rely on them to add and create the story, and that’s actually how it should be. The DM isn’t on a stage presenting to an audience in the stalls, you’re all on the stage together. If the idea of enabling your group to come up with an awesome story together appeals to you, then you’re already a long way to being a great DM.

You listen more than you speak

A man mistaking himself for a good listener.

If you ever see a good chat show host, or panel moderator, they’ll ask a question or say something that’ll kick-start a conversation amongst the others. They’ll gently keep people on topic, introduce counterpoints and involve people who are being quiet, and then draw it to a close and move onto the next question. This is pretty much what DMs are doing. If you think you can do that, then pick up that DM screen. Don’t think of being a DM as a one-man show with all eyes on you, where you have to constantly deliver material. If I need 5 minutes to check my notes I just ask the players an open question and let them roleplay a little scene amongst themselves. It’s not my job to tell them exactly what’s happening, I just tell them how the world reacts to them. The most fun I’ve had is when the players do the completely unexpected (murdering the quest giver is NOT completely unexpected).

So if you’re showing any of these signs, maybe speak to your DM about potentially having a go. And if you show none of these signs, but feel like it might be something for you, try to think more about DnD, extract plot hooks from Tyrion Lannister, and imagine the amusing NPC Bronn would make during a session, especially if you’re not even playing a tabletop RPG right now. The easiest way is to grab the DnD starter adventure (it costs about £15, or 1.5 coffees in London), a bunch of your friends and have a blast.

Why Bethesda should look to Fallout: New Vegas for Fallout 76 inspiration

Fallout 76 is coming and it’s definitely confirmed to be a multiplayer-focused survival RPG set in Virginia. It feels likely that the game will take the construction from Fallout 4, combine it with survival mechanics, and expand upon them in a wider multiplayer environment. What hasn’t been made clear, however, is the story side of the game; how will you fit into the world, will there even be a wider story, and what will there be to keep us playing past simply constructing a home?

Instead of theorising blindly about what might be to come, let’s take a look back at the time when modern Fallouts got storytelling right. A time in the desert – in Fallout: New Vegas and hope that even though Fallout 76 is a fundamentally different game it’ll take some cues from the sandiest of Fallouts.

The Motivation

Fallout: New Vegas differs from all the other Fallout games right off the bat by giving you a fairly-low-stakes (at least, compared to the others) reason to be out in the Wasteland looking for trouble. Let’s look at the protagonists:

  • Fallout – The Vault Dweller – Find the water chip and save Vault 13
  • Fallout 2 – The Chosen One – Find the GECK and save your village
  • Fallout Tactics – Warrior – Help the Brotherhood of Steel provide stability to the Midwest
  • Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel – Cain, Cyrus or Nadia – Find the missing Brotherhood of Steel knights
  • Fallout 3 – The Lone Wanderer – Find your dad
  • Fallout 4 – Sole Survivor – Find your son

Compare those to

  • Fallout: New Vegas – The Courier – Find out who shot you in the head and make them pay

It gives you enough of a guiding impetus for your quest in the Wasteland without being too ‘save the world’ (Fallout and Fallout 2), without being too weak (Fallout 3), or without making you feel bad for going off investigating in your own direction (Fallout 4). It’s the Goldilocks goal, it’s just right in that you want to find out what the hell happened but you won’t feel like you have to rush to complete it, nor will you feel bad running about helping Ghouls take off into space.

We know that Fallout 76 will take place in a period where you’re being let out of the titular vault for the first time and it’s up to you and other players to repopulate the Wasteland, but past that we don’t know if there’s a personal reason for you being out there, some mystery to solve. Fallout: New Vegas gives us an excellent example of how to give a motivation to a protagonist in an open world game whilst still giving you enough leeway to explore the world.

Speaking of:

The World

If the main character in Fallout: New Vegas is the Courier, then the second main character is the Mojave Desert. It’s big and barren and because of that it feels like a real place. If you look at the earlier Fallouts set in California, settlements are sparsely placed and have huge, dangerous distances between them. Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 abandon this somewhat to have something interesting, fun, or heartbreaking every five paces. Which is great if you’re building a videogame.

Fallout: New Vegas, however, is set in a world. A wide open and empty world, but a world that feels like one where people can live.

Imagine living in the world of Fallout 3, you can’t move for super mutants, every time you go to the toilet you fall down into a cave and have to deal with a group of humans who think they’re vampires or a robot that’s wearing a wig. It’s interesting and great to play, but it lets you down on the side of roleplaying.

Fallout: New Vegas has a big empty world with few settlements all spread out, and as a result it’s probably not as interesting to play through if all you want is a dungeon crawl or a bit of shooting. Instead you spend a lot of time travelling between settlements and this gives you this immense feeling of existing in a world. There are sights to see along the way, but they’re fundamentally more mundane, and instead of hurting the game this helps it have a sense of place.

Given that we’ve learned that Fallout 76 will have a huge map, it’s hoped that they’ll take a leaf out of Fallout: New Vegas’ worldbuilding and give Virginia some space to breath in and resist filling it with sights and attractions.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be empty, and what better to fill it with than:

The Factions

Factions have always been a part of the Fallout series, especially Fallout 4 where juggling faction reputations is key to exploring the game’s plot. In Fallout: New Vegas they take a step further than in any other Fallout game, simply because at a fundamental level, they’re all wrong and they’re all right.

Each faction has a compelling reason to join them and to help them gain control of the Hoover Dam and its surrounding area. Even Caesar’s Legion, a terrifying Romanesque tribal army that thrives on brutality, has a reason behind its madness. Let’s look at the factions who can take over the New Vegas region:

The NCR

The New California Republic is an old friend if you’ve played the first two Fallouts. Starting out from the village Shady Sands and being wrangled into a huge republic by President Tandi, it’s an organisation that is now finding that idealism doesn’t work in the face of the horrors it’s encountering as it expands Eastwards. It’s also becoming bloated, corrupt, and everything that real nations are. It’s compromised, but does that mean it won’t do right by the Mojave Desert and New Vegas?

Mr. House

Mr. House is the person who hired you, and has been directing events in New Vegas since the bombs fell. Kept alive by arcane arts of technology, he plans to lead New Vegas into the future as a mini-dictatorship. You might inherently rebel against this idea, but he’s been running it for a long time already and it seems to be working out alright, the gangs have an uneasy truce, there’s money pouring into the city and into the pockets of its casinos. Maybe he’s right to take control permanently?

Caesar’s Legion

Brutal, sexist, racist, and worse. Caesar’s Legion is founded on the idea that in this new world, the only word anyone will hear will be the one spoken while carrying a big stick. It’s leader, Caesar, found the idea in old history books and has enslaved, destroyed, and killed his way to a huge army that speaks with one voice; his. He’s undoubtedly twisted and evil, but in this harsh Wasteland maybe that’s what’s needed, maybe the olive branch has had its time and now it’s time for a strong fist to lead New Vegas?

New Vegas

The last option is to grant New Vegas independence, it can stand alone in the Mojave Desert as a bastion of freedom and maybe it deserves to. Its population has laboured for years under the iron yoke of Mr. House, and always eyed with envy by the NCR and Caesar’s Legion. Maybe it deserves to stand by itself for once and make its own way in the world. Will that mean a bright future, or one where it is caught between the twin empires who war over it and ground to a pulp between these iron juggernauts?

Each faction is as multifaceted as a fly’s eye, giving the eventual choice that you must make depth and weight. In Fallout 4 factions are again present and they are well written, but some are more obviously right or wrong in their approach. In New Vegas it’s only Caesar’s Legion which is outright evil, and even then there’s a reason for its evil.

In Fallout 76 factions may make a return, as it’d give players something to war over and to ally with other than resources. If they do return, taking a look back at Fallout: New Vegas may be a good way to guide Bethesda’s development teams.

That brings us to the last reason why Fallout: New Vegas should be looked into for inspiration, and that’s:

The Small Stories

Every Fallout game is made up of a larger mission that’s interwoven with smaller side missions, quests, and narrative beats. Fallout: New Vegas excels in giving you not only missions that give you something to do outside of the main questline but also missions that let you roleplay your character, inhabit the world, and soak up the small stories that make up the tapestry of the Mojave Desert.

For an example, let’s look at Novac and the quest ‘One for My Baby’.

When you arrive at Novac you hear that it’s protected by two snipers who watch from the nearby dinosaur statue’s mouth at the Dino Dee-Lite Motel. One of them, Boone, is a bitter ex-NCR serviceman whose wife Carla went missing. Using the skills he learned as an NCR Recon sharpshooter he tracked her down only to discover she’d been sold into slavery, discovering her just as she was forced into a Caesar’s Legion auction. Taking his rifle, he sighted her and to spare her the misery of a life enslaved, he ended her life.

Now he has nothing to live for and is a suicidal figure who watches over Novac not for its inhabits, but for a chance to shoot Legionnaires. The Courier convinces Boone to let them look into his missing wife, and proceeds to ask questions all about the small town of Novac. Eventually you can find out that the kindly Motel owner, Jeannie May Crawford, was behind it all as she was jealous over Carla, who she viewed as gutter-trash. Leading her out front of the dinosaur, you signal to Boone that you’ve found the culprit and he again takes sight and ends a life, this time in vengeance.

This quest not only tells you exactly what kind of world you’re in, the brutality of it, the desperation to survive, it also gives you that rare thing in videogames. It lets you be wrong. Much like the best quest in the original Witcher, you can gather information, look into clues, and still come up with the wrong solution. In this case it can lead to someone who sold a woman and her unborn child to slavers going free and the potential death of an innocent.

We don’t as yet know if quests and missions will make their way into Fallout 76, but as all others have used these as tools to frame and direct the player, we expect that they’ll make at least some appearance in the game. Whether or not they’ll be up to the standard of quests like ‘One for My Baby’ we’ll have yet to see.

The world of Fallout is one of moral ambiguity and compromise. From the first game until the latest, the player is tested as to what they believe is right and what they believe they can compromise on. This is never more clear than in Fallout: New Vegas, a game which constantly reminds you with the motivation for the protagonist, the world, the factions you encounter, and small stories that weave together the larger world. Fallout 76 isn’t out yet, but it could do much worse than to look back to Fallout: New Vegas, and remember what makes it so beloved amongst fans of the series.

The Crew 2 Vehicles

Most racing games have a roster of licensed cars – you know, everyday hatchbacks to exotic hypercars, with a few retro classics and oddities thrown in for good measure. But how many of them also have a boat list, or a plane list?

This is The Crew 2’s raison d’être: to provide an open world that can be explored by land, water, and air. And in order to do that, you’re going to need quite the varied garage. Here are all the included vehicles at launch.

The Crew 2 cars and motorcycles list

  • 2017 Abarth 124 Rally
  • 2017 Abarth 124 Spider
  • 2008 Abarth 500
  • 2008 Abarth 500 Monster Truck Edition
  • 2017 Acura NSX
  • 2013 Alfa Romeo 4C
  • 2007 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione
  • 2007 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione Touring Car Edition
  • 2012 Aston Martin V12 Zagato
  • 2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage S
  • 2012 Aston Martin Vanquish
  • 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan
  • 2016 Audi R8 Coupé V10 plus
  • 2017 Audi TT RS Coupé
  • 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports
  • 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports Touring Car Edition
  • 2014 BMW M Performance M4 Racing
  • 2017 BMW M2
  • 2014 BMW M4
  • 2011 BMW M5
  • 2011 BMW M5 Drift Edition
  • 2014 BMW R1200GS Adventure
  • 2014 BMW R1200GS Adventure Rally Raid Edition
  • 2015 BMW S1000RR
  • 2010 BMW X6M
  • 2011 BMW Z4 GT3
  • 2011 BMW Z4 sDrive35is
  • 2011 BMW Z4 sDrive35is Drift Edition
  • 2011 BMW Z4 sDrive35is Rally Raid Edition
  • 2012 Cadillac Escalade
  • 2012 Cadillac Escalade Rally Raid Edition
  • 2012 Cadillac Escalade Touring Car Edition
  • 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham
  • 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS
  • 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS Rally Raid Edition
  • 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS Rally Cross Edition
  • 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS Touring Car Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Drift Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Rally Raid Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Rally Cross Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Monster Truck Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Touring Car Edition
  • 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28
  • 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
  • 1963 Chevrolet Corvette C2
  • 1968 Chevrolet Corvette C3
  • 2005 Chevrolet Corvette C6R
  • 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
  • 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Drift Edition
  • 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Drag Race Edition
  • 1967 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan
  • 1967 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan Touring Car Edition
  • 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Touring Car Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
  • 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Monster Truck Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Evo 1 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Evo 2 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2013 Chrysler 300 SRT-8
  • 2017 Citroen C3 Racing
  • 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Drift Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Drag Race Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Rally Cross Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Monster Truck Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Touring Car Edition
  • 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
  • 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi
  • 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi Drift Edition
  • 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi Rally Cross Edition
  • 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi Touring Car Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Charger SRT-8
  • 2012 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Rally Cross Edition
  • 2012 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Touring Car Edition
  • 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS
  • 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Drift Edition
  • 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Drag Edition
  • 2003 Dodge Viper Competition Coupe
  • 2010 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe
  • 2015 Ducati Diavel
  • 2015 Ducati Hypermotard
  • 2015 Ducati Hypermotard Rally Raid Edition
  • 2015 Ducati Monster 1200 S
  • 2015 Ducati Monster 1200 S Rally Raid Edition
  • 2015 Ducati Panigale R
  • 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB4 Competizione
  • 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2
  • 2014 Ferrari 458 Speciale
  • 2016 Ferrari 488 GT3
  • 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
  • 1987 Ferrari F40
  • 1989 Ferrari F40 LM
  • 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari
  • 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor Race Truck
  • 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
  • 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Monster Truck
  • 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Touring Car Edition
  • 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Evo 2 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2010 Ford Focus RS
  • 2010 Ford Focus RS Drift Edition
  • 2010 Ford Focus RS Drag Race Edition
  • 2010 Ford Focus RS Rally Raid Edition
  • 2010 Ford Focus RS Rally Cross Edition
  • 2010 Ford Focus RS Touring Car Edition
  • 2016 Ford Focus RS
  • 2016 Ford Focus RS RX
  • 2005 Ford GT
  • 2005 Ford GT Drift Edition
  • 2005 Ford GT Touring Car Edition
  • 2017 Ford GT
  • 2011 Ford Mustang GT
  • 2011 Ford Mustang GT Drift Edition
  • 2011 Ford Mustang GT Drag Race Edition
  • 2011 Ford Mustang GT Rally Raid Edition
  • 2011 Ford Mustang GT Monster Truck Edition
  • 2011 Ford Mustang GT Touring Car Edition
  • 2015 Ford Mustang GT Fastback
  • 2015 Ford Mustang GT Fastback Drift Edition
  • 2013 Ford Shelby GT500
  • Harley-Davidson (2)
  • 2017 Harley-Davidson Iron 883
  • 2017 Harley-Davidson Street Glide
  • 2016 Honda Civic Type R
  • 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha
  • 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha Evo 1 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha Evo 2 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2015 Indian Chief Dark Horse
  • 2015 Indian Scout
  • 2013 Jaguar C-X75 Concept
  • 2017 Jaguar F-Type SVR Coupe
  • 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT 8
  • 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT 8 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT 8 Monster Truck Edition
  • 2012 Jeep Wrangler
  • 2012 Jeep Wrangler Evo 1 Rally Raid Edition
  • 2012 Jeep Wrangler Evo 2 Rally Raid Edition
  • 1984 Kawasaki GPZ 900 R “Ninja”
  • 2015 Kawasaki KX450F
  • 2015 Kawasaki KX450F Street Race Edition
  • 2015 Kawasaki KX450F Rally Raid Edition
  • 2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2
  • 2015 Kawasaki Z1000 ABS
  • 2012 Koenigsegg Agera R
  • 2015 Koenigsegg Regera
  • 2015 KTM 1190 RC8 R
  • 2015 KTM 1920 Super Duke R ABS
  • 2015 KTM 450 EXC
  • 2015 KTM 450 EXC Street Race Edition
  • 2015 KTM 450 EXC Red Bull Edition
  • 2015 KTM 450 Rally
  • 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4
  • 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Drift Edition
  • 2013 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo
  • 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera
  • 2015 Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4
  • 2015 Lamborghini Huracán LP620-2 Super Trofeo
  • 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV
  • 2006 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640
  • 2006 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Drift Edition
  • 2003 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT
  • 2013 Lamborghini Veneno
  • 1985 Lancia Delta S4
  • 1982 Lancia Rally 037
  • 2012 Lotus Evora GTE
  • 2013 Lotus Exige S
  • 2013 Lotus Exige S Rally Cross Edition
  • 2009 Maserati Gran Turismo S
  • 2009 Maserati Gran Turismo S Touring Car Edition
  • 2004 Maserati MC12
  • 2006 Maserati MC12 Versione Corse
  • 2016 Mazda MX-5
  • 2016 Mazda MX-5 Touring Car Edition
  • 2002 Mazda RX7
  • 2002 Mazda RX7 Drift Edition
  • 2013 McLaren 12C
  • 2014 McLaren 12C GT3
  • 1993 McLaren F1
  • 2013 McLaren P1
  • 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe (W196)
  • 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe (W196) Touring Car Edition
  • 2012 Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Coupé Black Series
  • 2016 Mercedes-AMG C 63 Touring Car
  • 2012 Mercedes-AMG C-Coupé Touring Car
  • 2015 Mercedes-AMG GT
  • 2015 Mercedes-AMG GT3
  • 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL 63 AMG (R230)
  • 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL 63 AMG (R230) Touring Car Edition
  • 2007 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition
  • 2007 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT
  • 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (C197)
  • 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
  • 2017 Mercedes-Benz X-Class Rally Raid Edition
  • 2010 MINI Cooper S
  • 2010 MINI Cooper S Rally Cross Edition
  • 2010 MINI Cooper S Touring Car Edition
  • 2013 MINI Cooper S Countryman ALL4
  • 2013 MINI Cooper S Countryman ALL4 Rally Cross Edition
  • 2017 MV Agusta F4 RR
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34)
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34) Drift Edition
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34) Drag Race Edition
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34) Rally Raid Edition
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34) Rally Cross Edition
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34) Monster Truck Edition
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z (Z34) Touring Car Edition
  • 2016 Nissan 370Z Nismo
  • 2016 Nissan 370Z Nismo Drift Edition
  • 1970 Nissan Fairlady Z 432 (PS30)
  • 1970 Nissan Fairlady Z 432 (PS30) Rally Cross Edition
  • 2015 Nissan GT-R
  • 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
  • 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Drag Race Edition
  • 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Rally Raid Edition
  • 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Rally Cross Edition
  • 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Monster Truck Edition
  • 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Touring Car Edition
  • 2012 Pagani Huayra
  • 2005 Pagani Zonda F
  • 2008 Pagani Zonda R
  • 2018 Peugeot 3008 DKR Maxi
  • 2017 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
  • 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
  • 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder
  • 1985 Porsche 959 Raid
  • 2018 Proto Alpha Mark II
  • 2017 Proto Buggy
  • 1930 Proto HuP One
  • 1930 Proto HuP One Touring Car Edition
  • 2017 Red Bull Racing RB13
  • 2018 Renault Megane R.S.
  • 2007 RUF 3400 K
  • 2007 RUF 3400 K Drag Race Edition
  • 2007 RUF 3400 K Rally Raid Edition
  • 2007 RUF CTR-3
  • 2007 RUF CTR-3 Drag Race Edition
  • 2005 Saleen S7 Twin-Turbo
  • 2000 Saleen S7R
  • 1967 Shelby GT500
  • 1967 Shelby GT500 Drift Edition
  • 1967 Shelby GT500 Touring Car Edition
  • 2016 Suzuki RM-Z450
  • 2004 TVR Sagaris
  • 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI
  • 2011 Volkswagen Race Touareg 3
  • 2011 Volkswagen Touareg NF

The Crew 2 planes list

  • 2016 Frauscher 1414 Demon
  • 1934 Granville Brothers Aircraft Gee Bee R-1
  • 1934 Granville Brothers Aircraft Gee Bee R-1 Aerobatics Edition
  • 2018 Harmon Rocket HR III
  • 2018 Harmon Rocket HR III Aerobatics Edition
  • 1945 North American P-51 Mustang Strega
  • 1945 North American P-51 Mustang Strega Aerobatics Edition
  • 2002 Pilatus PC-21
  • 2002 Pilatus PC-21 Aerobatics Edition
  • 2016 Proto A500
  • 2017 Slick Aircraft Slick 360HP
  • 2017 Slick Aircraft Slick 360HP Aerobatics Edition
  • 1942 Supermarine Spitfire MK IX
  • 2018 WACO YMF-5D Super
  • 2018 WACO YMF-5D Super Aerobatics Edition
  • 2016 Zivko Edge 540 V3
  • 2016 Zivko Edge 540 V3 Aerobatics Edition

The Crew 2 boats list

  • 2018 DCB M31 Widebody
  • 2017 Proto Brawler
  • 2017 Proto Hornet
  • 2017 Proto Leopard
  • 2017 Proto Offshore Mk1
  • 2018 Proto Offshore Mk2
  • 2017 Proto Sportsman NZ Edition
  • 2018 Proto XT3
  • 2018 Vector V40R

How 90s Computer Class Shaped A Generation of Young Adults

When I started kindergarten, there was a single computer in our classroom. We were only allowed on in the early mornings, and in short, practical lessons where we learned skills such as problem solving, numeracy and typing. Our classroom learned to read with Arthur’s Reading Race, and to type with Kid’s Typing, which featured a ghost named Spooky.

Video games have always been part of children’s lives, but it was in the period between the early 80s and the mid 90s when their use as educational tools became mainstream and accepted in schooling. Introducing computers to young children was regularly frowned upon, and continues to be doubted, but this idea fundamentally shaped an entire generation of young adults and their later, working lives.

As I grew older, my experiences with computers changed along with my classrooms. The development of structured computer classes, where students would play educational games such as Granny’s Garden, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and Bugdom built skills that were imperative for adulthood. Many of these games taught the basis of STEM skills, teaching children how to practically apply pattern-making, basic maths and engineering fundamentals to problems across key skill areas.

Gaming and education have long had a symbiotic relationship, and a variety of studies have proven its effectiveness in instilling life-long, practical skills. In 2018, computer games have undergone near complete integration within schooling, and many institutions require students to own a personal computer or laptop for various projects, including game-based learning. In countries such as Australia, around 50% of schools have experimented with or implemented game-based practical teaching in order to create a more engaging learning environment for children. This learning also extends to preschool learners, who are similarly exposed to game-based simulations and apps in order to teach STEM-related skills.

While the idea of video games becoming essential tools for the future may have seemed unfathomable 30 years ago, the reality is gaming has shaped, and is currently shaping the minds of the future. In fact, educational video games are now no longer limited to classrooms. Many influential, large-scale companies now utilise gamification as a tool for teaching job-based skills, including PWC, McDonald’s and KPMG, who have crafted their own learning programs based on video game technologies. The same young adults who grew up playing Carmen Sandiego are now being inducted into a workforce that allows them to use familiar tools to engage in and develop new skills.

The dismissal of video games as learning tools is often deeply rooted in technophobia and overblown fears of video game addiction. Recent media coverage of games such as Fortnite have refused to acknowledge the teamwork and communication that the game encourages, dismissing the notion that even fun video games can teach children highly needed skills.

Gaming has shaped the millennial future in many ways, establishing a system that allows for engaging and practical learning across a variety of contexts. Given the increasing popularity of video games both in schools and outside of them, it’s time to rethink how video games are perceived, and consider the practical and worthwhile skills they can teach.

The Crew 2 Release Information – PC Requirements – Release Date & More

Everyone loves a road trip. The horizon beckoning you forwards, the wind in your face, a sub-standard burger you paid more than double the usual price for sitting uneasily in your stomach… Actually, real-life road trips are a mixed bag. The Crew 2’s virtual road trip does away with the grim realities like service station coffee, squirming children in booster seats and contraflow systems between junctions 24 and 25 on the M5. In their place is a beautifully realised map of America to explore by road, by sea, or up in the clouds. Heaven.

Full co-op functionality means it’s also a travel adventure you can enjoy with friends, whether taking on organised race events together or just setting a waypoint and exploring the roads. That’s The Crew 2’s big picture – here are the details.

The Crew 2 release date

The Crew 2 officially launches on 29 June, following an open beta which begins June 21st from 8am UTC / 10am CEST / 4am EDT and runs until June 25th at 8am UTC / 10am CEST / 4am EDT. The crew 2’s open beta allows access to the full world map and vehicles, but there is a content lock at ‘Famous’ driver level. You’ll be able to take part in all events before that tier.

For those looking to start playing right away when the game drops, preloading is available right now as of June 11th. Owners of the Gold and Motor Edition (see below) get access three days early.

The Crew 2 PC Requirements

Here’s what you need under the hood in order to run the game at 30fps on low graphics settings at 1080p. Note that these are Ubisoft’s stated minimum specs:

  • OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
  • PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-2400s @ 2.5 GHz or AMD FX-6100 @ 3.3 GHz or equivalent*
  • VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD HD 7870 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better)
  • SYSTEM RAM: 8GB

And if you want 30fps at the high graphics preset at 1080p, here are the specs:

  • OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
  • PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-3470 @ 3.2 GHz or AMD FX 6350 @ 3.9 GHz or equivalent*
  • VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 or AMD R9 270X (4GB / 2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better)
  • SYSTEM RAM: 8GB

Finally, the recommended specs for 60fps at high settings and 1080p:

  • OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
  • PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-4690k @ 3.5 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.2 GHz or equivalent*
  • VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) or GTX 970 (4GB) or AMD RX 470 (4GB / 8GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better)
  • SYSTEM RAM: 8GB

The Crew 2 on PC supports 4K and ultra-wide 21:9 resolutions, in addition to multi-monitor displays.

The Crew 2 editions

Four different editions are available, so strap in while we outline what’s available in each.

Standard Edition:

  • Legendary Motors Pack* including the following vehicles:
    • MERCEDES-AMG C 63 Touring Car 2016
    • HARLEY-DAVIDSON IRON 883TM 2017

Deluxe Edition:

  • Legendary Motors Pack including the following vehicles:
    • MERCEDES-AMG C 63 Touring Car 2016
    • HARLEY-DAVIDSON IRON 883TM 2017
  • The Crew® 2 Deluxe Edition also features the Motorsports Deluxe Pack which includes:
    • FORD F-150 RAPTOR RACE TRUCK 2017
    • BARTH 500 2008 MONSTER TRUCK EDITION
    • PILATUS PC-21
    • Three outfits to customize your avatar

Gold Edition:

  • Pre-order now and get it 3 days early
  • Legendary Motors Pack includes the following vehicles:
    • MERCEDES-AMG C 63 Touring Car 2016
    • HARLEY-DAVIDSON IRON 883TM 2017
  • Gold Edition also features:
    • Season Pass
    • Motorsports Deluxe Pack, which includes:
    • FORD F-150 RAPTOR RACE TRUCK 2017
    • ABARTH 500 2008 MONSTER TRUCK EDITION
    • PILATUS PC-21
    • Three outfits to customise your avatar

Motor Edition:

  • The American License Plate to feel the spirit of Motornation.
  • The Steelbook® that will let you feel the passion of the US Motorsports scene.
  • The official Roadmap of the game to discover the entire USA, full of activities and hidden surprises.
  • Four original Stickers to choose your own style between 4 motorsport families.
  • Includes The Crew® 2 Season Pass: Early access to new vehicles, VIP contents and much more.

Best Dogs in Videogames

Dogs are four legged creatures full of love and joy and everything good. It’s no surprise that our furry friends have been a mainstay of videogames almost from inception, so in honour of Take your Dog to Work Day, we’re looking back over the history of videogames and we’re going to call out the absolute best puppers, pupperinos, and pupsters in videogames.

Strap your collar on, this’ll be a bark-filled ride.

Dogmeat – Fallout Series

Dogmeat’s been in every single main series Fallout game since the first one. Appearing as a reference to Mad Max, he joins you after noticing that you wear a leather jacket with one arm, just like Dogmeat’s former master. In the second game Dogmeat appears as an Easter Egg in the Cafe of Broken Dreams (but the chances of ending up there are pretty much 100%), but in Fallout 3 and 4 Dogmeat takes more prominence, helping you find out what the heck happened to your son in the fourth instalment.

Known for being, shall we say ‘inconsistent’ in combat usefulness, and even having a canon death in the original Fallout due to ‘walking into-laser-walls-itis’, Dogmeat has risen above all this to become a series regular and poster-child for post-apocalyptic-pupperinos.

D-Dog – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

One eyed but armed with a full and rich smile, D-Dog joins Snake and the Diamond Dogs and grows from a tiny child-dog to a roaring defender of Snake. Able to be customised and fitted out with the top dog fashions and equipped with the latest in ‘biting people’ technology, D-Dog’s one of the most useful companions in Metal Gear Solid V.

Also D-Dog doesn’t shit in the road like D-Horse, so that’s good.

Barkspawn – Dragon Age: Origins

There are few dogs in games as powerful as the Barkspawn from Dragon Age: Origins. Accompanying you on your adventures across Thedas, the Barkspawn is a strong and wise companion full of rich and powerful muscle. If you want some darkspawn ripped in half, Barkspawn is your dog.

Barkspawn also specialises in wonderful happy noises if give them a bone or some delicious attention. Try not to have your heart warmed in camp, I dare you.

Pomeranian – Tokyo Jungle

This is the game that taught us one important and salient fact about Pomeranians: they can fuck up a lion.

You might look at a little puffy Pom and think ‘what a beautiful cloud of a creature’, but no, they’re actually savage lion-murderers who will stop at nothing to feed, breed, and take down anything in their way.

They’re just waiting for humanity to decline, and once we’re gone the wild streets of the world are theirs. Cross Poms are your peril.

Dinky Di – Mad Max

No-one really knew what to expect from the Mad Max game from Avalanche, but what we got was a mechanically exciting and utterly beautiful open world car smashing adventure.

But more than that, Mad Max features one of the best dogs in videogame history. Dinky Di joins you early on, and helps you find water to stay alive, going on to stick with you throughout the game. Helping you find mines and also just to bark gleefully from the back of a car, Dinky Di is a breath of fresh air in the misery-filled wasteland that is post-apocalyptic Australia.

Angelo – Final Fantasy VIII

Angelo, or rather Sant’ Angelo di Roma to give her their full name, is Rinoa’s pet dog from Final Fantasy VIII. She accompanies you throughout the game, and also helps out mid-battle with a range of stunning and brutal attacks. Well they’re not that brutal, but it’s brilliant anyway to see Angelo bark her way onto the screen to take out some enemies.

Even though Angelo might not be a tide-turner in battle, she makes every fight where she appears much better, and you too can help by shouting out ‘Angelooooooo’ when she runs on screen. Top pup.

General Pepper – Star Fox Series

The general of the Cornerian Army, this is a dog with  responsibility. Your dog might be good at getting the paper, rolling over, playing dead, but can your dog guide a system-spanning space armada?

Well to be honest you probably haven’t tried it out, maybe if you gave them more responsibility they’d pick up the slack and help out more.

Anyway General Pepper helps protect the Lylat System from outsider invaders, and does so even though in the end it costs him his health. Rest well General Pepper, you earned it.

Missile – Ghost Trick

The second Pomeranian on this list, Missile belongs to Kamila and is based on the real-life Missile, a Pom owned by Ghost Trick writer Shu Takumi. Like many videogame dogs, Missile isn’t just a dog, he’s able to possess objects, talk to other ghosts, swap object locations, and rewind time.

But the most important thing about Missile is that he’s absolutely the cutest and most wonderful cartoon Pom on the planet. Wow, what a dog.

K.K. Slider – Animal Crossing Series

If you’re wanting some hot tunes, K.K. Slider is your pup. Working as a musician, they play their guitar and just want you to chill out and listen to some tunes. Why not take a load off, put your feet up, and fill your ears with some top guitar music.

Found in all the Animal Crossing games so far, he’ll sell you some songs for a pittance and as such his tunes and attitude will live with you as you build a life in each Animal Crossing game.

Barbas – The Elder Scrolls Series

Whilst not technically a dog, Barbas the daedra at least looks like a dog and acts in that role for their master, Clavicus Vile. Whilst he’s a shapeshifter and can take on any form, you’ll find them most often in dog form at their masters heel.

Throughout The Elder Scrolls games you’ll find Barbas wanting to please their master, from trying to invade the Clockwork City in The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind to just trying to be reunited with Clavicus Vile in Skyrim. Barbas is a funny ol’ creature who seems to be looked down on by most of the House of Troubles, but that won’t top them wanting to do their best for their daedra lord.

That’s all the dogs we’ve got time for, have we missed your favourite? Let us know in the comments. Or if you want to share some dog pics, always feel free to do that too.

The Elder Scrolls Online Classes

You’ve seen the news about The Elder Scrolls VI but you’ve been disheartened by how far away it is from release. You’ve decided that instead you can hop onto The Elder Scrolls Online and see what it’s like, you’ve been hearing good things recently and during Bethesda’s E3 2018 conference it looked pretty good.

You’ve picked it up, you’ve installed it, and now you’re sitting at the character creation screen and you’re asking two questions, what’s the best class, and what class to play?

Don’t worry, sit yourself down and pour yourself a hot drink. We’ve got the answers for you, here’s an overview of each class, and a class guide of what kind of fantasy each one fulfils.

Firstly, do remember three things that are unique to The Elder Scrolls Online classes; they can use any weapon, wear any armour, and they can fulfil any role (if set up correctly). Whilst we’ll mention the roles they’re suited for, but if you decide to be a healing, plate clad, Nightblade, then you go for it.

Dragonknight

Dragonknights specialise in either a damage or tank role, and they’re extremely fire-focused. Their three skill trees, Ardent Flame, Draconic Power and Earthen Heart all focus on different aspects of being a Dragonknight. Ardent Flame is a damage dealing specialisation, with damage-over-time effects and fire damage being core to the line. Draconic Power features area-of-effect and crowd control abilities, and Earthen Heart offers debuffs, crowd control, and other damage mitigation abilities.

Basically if you’re looking to be a tank or live the classic warrior fantasy, then the Dragonknight is probably where you’ll look. If you’re looking to smash some enemies with a warhammer or take every bit of damage and keep on swinging, then this is the class for you.

Nightblade

The Nightblade fulfills a role similar to rogues or thieves in other, more traditional games. With skill lines that focus on stealth, speed, and stabbing, they’re the best class if you’re looking for a bit of the old silent murder.

Like all other Elder Scrolls Online classes, they feature three distinct skill lines. Assassination features damage and debuffs that cripple your foe, Shadow deals damage via area-of-effect skills and crowd control abilities, and the Siphoning line sees you dealing damage, albeit slower, but also moving into a more support role.

If stealth is your thing and stabbing is your game, Nightblade will be the best class to fulfil that sneaky sneaky stabby stabby rogue fantasy. For a brief look at the Nightblade, check out my recent playthrough of the start of the latest chapter, Summerset:

Sorcerer

The Sorcerer is your magic user, summoning daedra from Oblivion to assist them in combat and controlling the weather to deadly effect. Their three skill lines focus about how they use these twin abilities of summoning and the storm magic that fuels them. Daedric summoning is a damage and crowd control specialisation, with daedric pets that can assist the player. Dark Magic is a healing line which heals, removes conditions, and stuns enemies. Storm Calling, their final line, is entirely based around damage and area-of-effect abilities.

If you’re looking to be a mage then the Sorcerer is your one-stop-shop for everything magic related. Blast your enemies from afar, summon daemons, or heal. Its all here.

Templar

Similar to paladins in some other games, the Paladin calls upon the power of the sun and light to deal damage or heal allies. Like the other classes they can be focused on damage, healing, or tanking, but unlike the other classes they have more defined roles through their skill lines. Aedric Spear is a damage class, using light to destroy and interrupt enemies. Dawn’s Wrath is a support line with a heavy focus on burst damage, debuffs, and adding conditions to enemies. Restoring Light is a tank and healing class, protecting your allies whilst you heal them.

If the idea of being a stalwart warrior of the light, standing toe-to-toe with darkness appeals to you, then the Templar is the best class for you in the Elder Scrolls Online.

Warden

The first of what hopefully will be some more new classes added to the Elder Scrolls Online, the Warden was added in the Morrowind chapter. A nature class that is a decent all rounder across the board, the Warden can be easily configured to fulfil any role. Their three skill lines focus on ice, nature, and summoning animal companions, so if you’re playing the Elder Scrolls Online and see someone running about with a giant bear; they’re a Warden.

Their Winter’s Embrace skill line is their tanking role, featuring ice damage and protection for yourself and allies through frosty magic. Green Balance is a healing and support tree, using the power of nature to enfold your allies in its healing embrace. Animal Companions summons creatures to fight by your side and boost your damage output as you slaughter foes together.

Overall the Warden is the class for you if you’re missing playing a hunter, or a druid, or just like freezing your foes.

The Elder Scrolls Online…Future Classes?

That’s all the classes that are in the game right now, and as you can see there’s something for everyone in the Elder Scrolls Online, and we’re hopeful that more classes will be added in the future – there’s rumours and rumblings of a Battlemage class being added at some point.

Are you going to play The Elder Scrolls Online? If so, what class will you choose, or if you already play which one do you already play? Let us know in the comments below.

Father’s Day – Dads in Gaming

Father’s Day falls on Sunday the 17th of June, and what better way to celebrate than to let your dad have a play of some games for once, go on, stop hogging that controller.

It’s also a good chance to take a look at the dads who have graced our videogames, so lets take a look at some of the dads out there and judge them on their dadivity.

Kratos – God of War

Despite killing his entire family pre-the original God of War, he’s back with a son in the latest in the ‘smash some gods in the face’ series. Determined to do it right this time, Kratos heads North with Atreus to spread the ashes of Atreus’ mother and well, smash some monsters with his axe. This game is all about Kratos finally learning to control his rage and how he’s made a new start on life, hopefully making a better life for young BOY.

Dad Rating: 4/10

Barrett Wallace – Final Fantasy VII

Barrett would do almost anything for Marlene, who isn’t his biological daughter but who has been living with him in Midgar for years. Barrett’s the model of a conflicted father, he wants to be with his daughter but understands that if he doesn’t fight for what’s right, even if he protects Marlene now she won’t have a world to grow up in. It tears him apart but he does the right thing, even though it’s not what his heart demands of him.

Dad Rating: 7/10

Kazuma Kiryu – Yakuza Series

Haruka Sawamura becomes an orphan during the first Yakuza game, so who better to take her in as his foster daughter than Walking Man o’Punches, Kiryu? That’s right, ya boy has a daughter, and it’s due to his care and love that she grows into a strong, confident woman. That and she’s a playable character so it’s technically *us* that helps her grow up.

Dad Rating: 9/10

Joel – The Last of Us

You can tell through the interactions Joel has with Sarah that he’s a loving father and he cares deeply for her. It’s this which makes it absolutely heartbreaking when she loses her life just minutes into the game, and no surprise that Joel’s crusty outside is broken through by surrogate second-daughter, Ellie. He’s a good dad, all in all, even if he does kinda sacrifice the future of humanity for Ellie.

Dad Rating: 6/10

Subject Delta – Bioshock 2

If you ever thought that your dad was big and strong, then imagine if your dad was Subject Delta. He’s an absolute unit. The first Big Daddy, he bonded with Eleanor Lamb and they formed a father-daughter bond which survived decades, and also survived Subject Delta being quite quite dead for a while. Despite their chemically induced bond, or because of it, you can tell they both care for each other, and it’s this which propels Subject Delta through Rapture’s creaky tunnels.

Dad Rating: 8/10

Eli Vance – Half Life Series

Eli did something almost impossible, he formed a resistance and raised a daughter, Alyx, all during a time when the planet was under alien invasion. You try doing that, I guarantee it won’t be a cakewalk. He’s unique in videogame dads in that whilst yes he’s protective of Alyx, he also understands that she’s a vital piece of the resistance and keeping her at home won’t solve anything. So he sees her off on missions, but as events play out, maybe it was him that needed protecting.

Dad Rating: 10/10

Maybe The Sole Survivor – Fallout 4

This only applies if you choose male when setting up your character in Fallout 4, but if you do then hey, you’re a dad. Except you’ve lost your child, which lets face it isn’t *great* dad behaviour. It’s technically not your fault as you were mostly frozen at the time, but that’s not much of an excuse, especially as instead of hunting down your son you spent the next seventy-six hours shooting supermutants and talking to robots. But hey, at least you get a fur-child in the form of Dogmeat.

Dad Rating: 0/10

King Granseal – Shining Force II

Ah King Granseal, another absent-minded father. He watches his only daughter get abducted into a hell-dimension, and then spends the next few years ignoring his responsibilities as he searches for a way to get her back. It’s understandable that he’d be driven to recover her, but he’s still a King and that crown doesn’t come off for anything short of a guillotine. Eventually they are reunited, no thanks to him though.

Dad Rating: 2/10

Ethan Mars – Heavy Rain

If there’s one thing you can say in Ethan’s defence as a father, it’s that he really, really knows the names of his kids. Even if he is a bit absent minded with their locations, is Jason down the back of the sofa, has Shaun fallen into a sewer, who knows? But Ethan knows one thing, it’s that he can press X to Jason.

Dad Rating: 4/10

Nathan Drake – Uncharted 4

Nathan Drake goes through a lot, but it’s what he puts other people through that really defines this character. He tries to do the right thing but usually ends up hurting those around him along the way. Eventually, after a lot of soul searching and world travelling, he does realise what’s most important to him and finally sort-of-settles down with his wife Elena and daughter Cassie. A beautiful and fitting end to a wonderful series.

Dad Rating: 7/10

Here’s our video summary of some of the best dads, pops, and fathers in the world of gaming:

So that’s some of the dads you can see in videogames near you, who’s your favourite dad in a game? Let us know in the comments below.

Green Team Streamer Schedule – 1st to 3rd May

Looking for a stream to watch this weekend? Look no further, our mighty Green Team are here to entertain you. Check out what games they’re playing and when in our schedule below. We promise you, you’ll be fully entertained!

Friday

Game Name Time (GMT)
Overall Endsville_Games 17:00
Moonlighter Bod699 19:00

Saturday

Game Name Time (GMT)
Charity Stream DailyDirty 12:00
Fallout 4 CorrosiveG 15:00
Milanoir Bod699 19:00

Sunday

Game Name Time (GMT)
Splatoon 2 Barl0we 18:00
Golem Bod699 19:00

Fallout 76 – Every Fallout Game

Fallout 76 is the latest game announced by Bethesda and the next in the long-running Fallout series of games. The first game, Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game came out in 1997 and since then it’s had many sequels from many different developers.

There’s a vast wealth of Fallout games, Fallout spinoffs, and Fallout experiments that have been released over the years, so for the first time ever we’re proud to be able to put together the definitive list of every single Fallout game released so far. We previously ranked the games, but this time it’s just a plain ol’ list. Lets go:

  • Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
  • Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
  • Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
  • Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
  • Fallout 3
  • Fallout: New Vegas
  • Fallout Shelter
  • Fallout 4
  • Fallout V
  • Fallout 6: Dogmeat’s Big Day
  • Fallout 7: Mission To Moscow
  • Fallout VIII: Caesar’s Palace
  • Fallout IX: Caesar’s Shed
  • Fallout X: Caesar’s Revenge
  • Fallout X-2: Caesar in Love
  • Fallout 12: A Dog Ate My Homework
  • Fallout 13: Unlucky for Some
  • Fallout 14: Bombs are Bad
  • Fallout 15: Bombs are Really Bad
  • Fallout 16: We Don’t Know Why We Have to Labour This Point, Bombs Are Bad
  • Fallout 17: Bombs are Good
  • Fallout 18: Four Dog
  • Fallout 19: Five Dog
  • Fallout 20: Dog
  • Fallout 21: Can Super Mutants Have Feelings?
  • Fallout 22: Can Ghouls Have Feelings?
  • Fallout 23: Kill All Non-Humans
  • Fallout 24: Nuka-Cola Fun Times
  • Fallout 25: Stomach Ache Attacks
  • Fallout 26: Mission to Mars
  • Fallout 27: Back to the Future
  • Fallout 28: Fallout Boy
  • Fallout 29: Fall-Out With Your Parents
  • Fallout 30: Almost Makes You Wish for a Nuclear Winter
  • Fallout 31: Old Vegas
  • Fallout 32: New Vegas: Matthew Perry Actually Acts Edition
  • Fallout 33: I’m Fall-Out of Love, I’m So Lost Without You
  • Fallout 34: Fuck It We’ll Set It in Europe
  • Fallout 35: Skyrim 2
  • Fallout 36: Stephen Mulhern’s Face is Everywhere
  • Fallout 37: All The Vaults Are Full of Blancmange
  • Fallout 38: Help it Smells
  • Fallout 39: We Need A Big Spoon
  • Fallout 40: Dental Issues
  • Fallout 41: False Teeth Made of Uranium
  • Fallout 42: The Meaning of Life, The Universe, And Everything
  • Fallout 43: Why Did I Think This Was a Good Idea?
  • Fallout 44: I Really Need To Think These Through
  • Fallout 45: I’m Running out of Ideas
  • Fallout 46: Why Can’t You Have a Bicycle?
  • Fallout 47: What’s the Rest of the World Like
  • Fallout 48: Save The Baby, Kill the Baby
  • Fallout 49: Nuclear Jive
  • Fallout 50: The Last Jedi is the Only Star War
  • Fallout 51: Todd Howard Gone Wild
  • Fallout 52: Todd Howard Gone Mild
  • Fallout 53: Todd Howard With Child
  • Fallout 54: Todd Howard Dialled (For a Pizza)
  • Fallout 55: It Was All A Dream
  • Fallout 56: Syke it Was All Real
  • Fallout 57: Thank Fuck For That, What a Cop-Out That Would’ve Been
  • Fallout 58: Well, More Like a Fall-Out
  • Fallout 59: All Voices Done by Ron Perlman
  • Fallout 60: Back in Black
  • Fallout 61: Matchbox 20
  • Fallout 62: Presented by Dr DisRespect
  • Fallout 63: Weird Al Yankovic Is The Baddie In This One
  • Fallout 64: Ninja vs Drake
  • Fallout 65: Everybody Loves Raymond
  • Fallout 66: The Devil in Nevada
  • Fallout 67: Maybe We Should’ve Done TES VI Instead?
  • Fallout 68: Van Buren
  • Fallout 69: Nice
  • Fallout 70: Switch Edition
  • Fallout 71: The Lone Wanderer Makes a Friend
  • Fallout 72: Vault 13 Had a Secret Water Chip All Along
  • Fallout 73: The Chosen One Slept With My Wife
  • Fallout 74: New Reno > New Vegas
  • Fallout 1
  • Fallout 76

Sorry.

Green Team Streamer Schedule – 30th May

Looking for a stream to watch this evening? Well the Green Team is ready to entertain you! Check out below what games are being played by these mighty individuals, and what time and day you can catch them.

Game Name Time (GMT)
Total War: Warhammer 2 Cringer 13:00
Assassin’s Creed: Origins Kisuke 17:00
Cultist Simulator FuzzyFreaks 17:00
Conan: Exiles Drogith 2:00

 

DnD Races ranked worst to best

A while ago we covered the best to worst DnD classes, and it continues to be one of our most popular blogs. So I’ve come back to you now to rate the other half of the most important decision you’ll make about your character: their race. Although you’d typically decide this after your class because the stat boosts you’ll receive should coincide with your class’s strengths, a huge amount of your roleplaying may come from your race. It influences your background, your voice, your outlook on life, and your relationship with the other players.

So without further ado, here’s the races of Dungeons and Dragons rated from worst to best.

Gnome

I’m just going to put this out there, Gnomes are lame. Who watched Lord of the Rings and thought “You know what’s missing? A squeaky-voiced, tiny, obnoxious, Grimm-fairy-tale-esque little munchkin in a bright purple robe!” Or who played World of Warcraft and thought “Yes, those little jumping bastards who keep backstabbing me and doing dancing emotes really elevate the fantasy world I’m inhabiting.” They are endlessly joyful, excited and they love pranks. Does that sound like something you want in your adventuring party? Sure it may be fun for you, but your friends will soon want to mount you on a spear and use your wizardry robes as their banner. And with an intelligence boost of +2, you’re more or less stuck playing a wizard.

Half-Elf

Humans and elves (SPOILERS FOR THIS LIST) are some of the best races in the Forgotten Realms, and their offspring are no different. In fact some say they take the best of both worlds – and they’d be right because even the creators of DnD say it. With 2+ Charisma and +1 to two other stats – Darkvision and Fey Ancestry – they’re an incredibly versatile race that can be any class and make it shine, save maybe Barbarian and Fighter (and not even that bad). So why is it down here? Well, it’s just a bit of a cop out isn’t it? Taking the best of two races, and yet neither’s rich lore backgrounds? The Player’s Handbook talks about them being wanderers and diplomats, not really belonging anywhere. This sets off my DM 6th sense right away. A powerful set of stats and features, combined with a vague and, one might say, edgy background? Nope, burn it with fire.

Tiefling

Speaking of races with a 2+ Edginess, the Tiefling wins out against the half-elf everytime. From the basic rules: “To be greeted with stares and whispers, to suffer violence and insult on the street, to see mistrust and fear in every eye: this is the lot of the tiefling.” If you want a game filled with Moral GreynessTM, or would actually rather be playing Vampire: The Masquerade but your friends won’t let you, the Tiefling is for you. With a boost to Charisma and Intelligence, this race was made for warlocks and even comes with edgy spells in the box regardless of class. With the new sub-classes like eldritch knight though, Tieflings can redeem themselves, and having NPCs physically fearful or repulsed by you can give some interesting roleplaying moments without the player even trying to be all Geraldo of Rivia.

Half-Orc

If you want to play a class that puts a lot of its stock into Strength, you’ll definitely consider the Half-Orc. With its Strength and Constitution bonuses, extra damage on crits, extra bonus on Intimidation, and a failsafe against death, it’s a no-brainer for a fighter, barbarian or even druid. Despite not having much breadth in terms of role-playing, their backgrounds make them kind of interesting. With the strength of orcs, but the brains of humans, they rise to become leaders and chieftains, adding more finesse to the otherwise brutish implement that is the standard orc. It’s not higher on this list because you’re limited to either chieftain who lost his stripes or slave – there’s not much else a half-orc can do in the Forgotten Realms.

Dwarf

GIMLI! Okay we got it out of our system now. I don’t know about you but I struggle a lot to not think of Gimli when I think dwarves. He’s just so iconic, and copied countless times until now most dwarves have Scottish accents. Sure you can be a sexy stubble dwarf like Kíli, or a sexy bearded dwarf like Thorin, but it’s just not what your mind jumps to. Anyway, their stats are actually pretty great and are a first choice for some classes. Choosing either Mountain or Hill Dwarf you get Strength and Wisdom bonuses respectively, on top of your +2 Con, and resistance to poisoning which can be a real life-saver. Dwarven clerics are a thing for a reason, and so are Dwarf fighters. They’re hardy and wise and full of grudges which makes roleplaying pretty fun too. Just make sure your Dwarf has a reason to be un-grumpy once in a while.

Dragonborn

Strength and Charisma bonuses put the Dragonborn high up on the list. They also get a draconic ancestry that changes their resistance depending on which dragon they’re descended from, which also changes the damage type of – get this – their breath weapon! That’s right, in between short rests you can breath fire, ice, lightning and all sorts at your foes. It comes in really handy sometimes, like when my Dragonborn paladin was in a prison, he lured the guard in and roasted his face. And then the monk actually fought him but that was less cool. Anyway they’re taller and heavier than humans, but very regal thanks to dragons being the rulers of the world. This pairs them perfectly with paladins and fighters, but also Charisma-based magic users who want to be able to smack around their enemies when they get backed into a corner. College of blades or Sorcerer anyone?

Halfling

Those who have seen Lord of the Rings (yes I know I’m mentioning it again but it basically spawned high fantasy alright?) may think Halflings are a bit soft and useless and spend more time getting into trouble and thinking about bacon than actual adventuring. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find the most resilient of races who take on the biggest tasks with little fuss. Hardy like dwarves, rowdy as humans and sometimes as elegant as elves (they love a bit of poetry), Halflings can surprise you (they sure surprised Sauron, eh?). Mechanics-wise, you get immunity to being frightened, can move past creatures bigger than you, have a 2+ to Dexterity and get re-rolls on Natural 1s. Prepare to surprise your party again and again with your usefulness and take their praise humbly whilst smoking a pipe full of Old Toby.

Human

Humans are vanilla and somewhat boring, yes. But thanks to our shared millennia of human history, there’s no shortage of types and variants of humans to take inspiration from. The mechanics back this up with basically letting you choose any two stats you want to boost, and even a feat from the get-go if you take variant human. A lot of interesting and strong builds require the ever malleable form of the Humans. They get everywhere all over the Forgotten Realms, so they can look and act however you like. If you’re not interested in the typical attributes that come part and parcel with the other races, just pick a human and not make your race that important. You’re also never going to be treated badly in-game for being a different race. Yay privilege!

Elf

So Elves are the best race. They just are, we can’t fight it. They live forever, they can be as badass as Drizzt, noble as Elrond or spectacular as Legolas. And those characters represent their sub-races pretty well: Drow Elf, High Elf and Wood Elf. They all get +2 Dex which makes them good for at least half the classes right there, and then you’ve got either Int, Wis or Cha bonuses to fit to whatever class you want. Apart from tank, the elves can fill the roles of damage dealers, social faces or skill monkey with ease. They get all the cool features like DarkVision, Fey Ancestry, bonus to Perception – a skill that is always useful – and their sleep trance which means they’re always on guard. Oh and they get a free cantrip or ability to hide in foliage easily. And to top it all off, they’re chaotic. The perfect race for any player of DnD.

Despite this list and all my waffling, as I wrote in my article about being a great roleplayer, taking your races’ inherent personality traits doesn’t make an interesting character. Try to think of your character first, along with your class, and THEN pick a race. A grumpy elf or a bloodthirsty halfling may make things way more interesting, and it’ll stop you thinking GIMLI as soon as you read the Dwarf page.

Any disagreements, agreements, the comment section is down there.

Green Man Gaming’s 8th Birthday Party Extravaganza

We’re absolutely pooped, it’s been a long hard month of celebrating our 8th Birthday and now it’s nearly over.

We’ve still got it in us for one last gasp though, one big push to show you all that we love you and that we want to party, hard, with you.

So today we’re launching our After Party!

After Party?

What does that mean? It means more games on sale, more deals for you, and also it means we’re bringing back some of our flash deals for a bit longer. Did you miss out earlier in the month? Then head on over to our After Party and see if that game you wanted is there, waiting for you, all at an incredibly low price. Go on, our Hot Deals page has all the info you need.

We’ve got huge savings on some of the best games out there with additional savings coming to you direct with publisher-specific vouchers. You can get deals on Square-Enix games, Ubisoft games, Deep Silver games, NIS games, Curve Digital games, and more. On each page you can find publisher-specific vouchers that’ll give you even more off your favourite games.

8 Years Old

We’re a young company still, only eight, but it’s been a long long road to where we are now. Above you can see us in our original office which was a dingy little place with bad lighting and no aircon, and before this picture was taken we even had to share desks and if you were late, you had to stand. The roof even fell in one day, almost hitting and killing our CEO and founder Paul Sulyok, mid-speech.

It’s got better since then, last year we moved into our cool new offices and we’re getting bigger and better every year. If you want some hot corporate bants, we’ve got some details about our history for your visual perusal right here. Includes SECRET PICTURES of our old website, check it out:

Times have changed since 2010, silver on black is out, green on black is IN.

So go celebrate us being eight with some great sales, times’ running out on our birthday sale month so get those deals while they’re hot.

The Circles of Nerd Hell

So this just in from Green Man Gaming’s roaming reporters/poets Olly Alighieri and Nicky Vergilius Der Watt, after us nerds die there are nine circles of hell waiting for those of us who have committed the worst sins in Nerdom. After translating it from Latin into English for you, here are the circles of what they call the ‘Ludos Autem Inferno’ – Nerd Hell.

Limbo

This but forever.

The first circle of the Ludos Audem Inferno is for casual gamers, those who don’t partake in as much nerd culture as they ought to as transcribed in the Nerd Manual (coming soon). It is in a permanent state of limbo, that being, a permanent game loading screen. Icons turn on their axis eternally, mildly useful tips are given and perhaps several images of game artwork.

Lust

Live footage of this circle.

The second circle belongs to those who have coveted and harrassed members of the opposite sex within the realms of nerdom. Be it by calling them names in their Twitch chat, telling them to play support, or ‘please go out with me b****’, those people belong here. And here they must dwell for all time in a nightclub that is perpetually at 4am, and the lack of social skills is keenly noticeable, and the anonymity of the internet offers no shield.

Gluttony

Ughh.

The circle that belongs to those of a nerdy, gluttonous nature is filled with those who pretend that they have completed way more games to a much higher level than they have done, and are therefore more experienced and knowledgeable than you. Their punishment is to only ever play DLC and season pass content until Judgement Day, and that which is no more value than $5 each.

Greed

All with 3% completion.

This circle is divided into two groups: one is for those who pre-orders every game no matter what, and the other belongs to those who buy out consoles/hardware on launch to sell them again on ebay. The sin of this circle is therefore greed, and so they must have an ever growing pile-of-shame in their Steam library that is slowly added to but with no actual new titles.

Anger

‘LEARN TO PLAY SCRUB’.

The circle of hell in which the angry dwell is said to be bursting at the non-existent seams these days. Filled end-to-end with those who were so familiar with yelling down headset mics and breaking keyboards after requesting their support ‘just die’; now they must play Wii Tennis for all time, only against a cadre of daemons with the voice and temperaments of 12 year old boys who have many opinions about your mother. No offense to 12 year old boys but seriously, get off the mic you silly sods.

Heresy

King of ‘well actually’.

As we reach the lowest depths of Ludos Audem Inferno, we come into contact with some of the worst nerdism has to offer. The sixth is the place where those opinionated nerds that populate your Dungeon & Dungeons groups, or maybe your raid party. Their rallying cry is ‘WELL ACTUALLY’ and ‘I can’t believe you haven’t seen/played/heard of X!’ They belittle your corner of nerdiness and only their obscure corner is correct. Here they must watch Jim Sterling videos on repeat. With the comment section disabled. For eternity.

Violence

Jake Paul doing his thing.

Here lies those who instigated unjust violence onto their fellow nerd. Whether it be actual violence (I’m sure it’s happened somewhere), Jake Paul boxing against other YouTubers, or just button spammers in fighting games, this is not okay and breaking the social contract of nerds everywhere. And so their fate is to sit in a physical YouTube comment section surrounded by those who wish the utmost violence upon them and their opinions, who will toe-poke you until the end of days.

Fraud

The Pit of Despair.

The penultimate circle is reserved for those peddlers and purveyors of fake or stolen game keys. As well as those who give false advice to those who don’t know any better. If you want to see this in reality, go to a game shop in December and watch these sinners sell endless copies of Barbie’s High School Dream 3 and Cars 2: The Game. They dwell in ditches dug out of thousand of rotting plastic cases of E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial on Atari 2600.

Treachery

Bastards.

And here we reach the bottom, the lowest of the low, the pit, the dearth, the Last Stop. Here belongs those who have become treacherous to their own nerd kind, who have forsaken all games, board games, non-casino, non-family-Christmas dice and card-based activity, sci-fi TV and comic book adaptations. Those who shun miniatures and Reddit; pen and paper role-playing games; the ownership of film props of any kind; arguments on the internet and dressing up. All with the excuse of wanting to become ‘normal’, and ‘sociable’.

Their punishment is nothing but their continued existence in this state of denial and betrayal, in the frozen heart of Ludos Audem Inferno.

A thank you to another of our writers Nicky Van Der Watt for partaking in this perilous journey as well to bring us news of this terrifying fate. If you want to discuss where YOU are going to go after you die, and want to make some friends beforehand with similar fates, comment below!

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dark Souls

Dark Souls Remastered is a game with swords. But it’s more than that, it’s about a deep and rewarding combat system that rewards persistence paying attention to details, and a story that rewards much the same. Basically, it’s Dark Souls. You know Dark Souls. Everyone knows Dark Souls, it’s the third person action RPG series that pretty much everything over the last decade has been compared to.

There’s a huge amount of secrets and facts hidden away in Dark Souls, and in books like You Died which give you a glimpse behind the scenes of the making of Dark Souls. So here’s ten facts that we guarantee you didn’t know about Dark Souls.

10. The original title for Dark Souls was ‘Miyazaki’s Fun Dungeon’.

After the success of Demon’s Souls, From Software was under a lot of pressure to release a sequel. Miyazaki was happy to oblige, but felt a change of tone was needed. Originally what became Dark Souls was a much lighter affair, with clowns, balloons, and a magic dragon called Henry who was your companion throughout the adventure. Alas it wasn’t to be, as the game got progressively darker throughout development, until it was felt ‘Miyazaki’s Fun Dungeon’ didn’t accurately sell the game anymore.

9. Havel’s Armour is inspired by the feeling you get when you really need a poop.

Have you ever needed a poop? Really really needed a poop? Needed a poop so bad you waddled about grasping your butt? Well that’s exactly the feeling that Havel’s Armour set is meant to remind you of when you wear it. It’s little details like this which really bring the world of Dark Souls to life. Here’s hoping the poop waddling animation makes it intact into Dark Souls: Remastered.

8. Great Grey Wolf Sif was originally a Pug called ‘Snif’.

A rare screenshot (above) has been uncovered of the original form of the Great Frey Wolf Sif. A giant pug called Snif was to be your foe, who would lick and slobber on your character until you drowned to death. Eventually it was thought that this was simply too scary for anyone to experience, so a much less terrifying monster was put in its stead.

7. If you shoot the tail off the Hellkite Dragon, it’ll cry. You monster.

The Hellkite Dragon is first introduced to you as you enter the Undead Burg, but later you can meet it as it guards a long bridge. By careful positioning and use of a bow you can shoot its tail off, which gives you a fairly powerful sword called the Drake Sword. However, doing so causes the Hellkite Dragon to well up with tears, and will spend the rest of the game licking at its tail and sobbing quietly, making this one of the truly emotional moments in Dark Souls.

6. Firelink Shrine is named after the time Miyazaki lost his job after working on The Legend of Zelda.

Before Miyazaki worked on Demon’s Souls, he worked on Legend of Zelda. His ideas, however, about permadeath and Link having to repeat levels over and over again to recover his lost trousers didn’t go over too well at Nintendo so eventually Miyazaki was let go. He never forgot those formative experiences at Nintendo though, and named the Firelink Shrine after the time he had his items thrown into the street outside Nintendo HQ by an uncaring bodyguard.

5. The Chosen Undead’s canon name is ‘Frank Deadlinger’.

During character creation it’s possible to name your character anything, but if you leave the slot unfilled it actually inserts a default name. From this we can tell that the Chosen Undead’s canon name is actually Frank Deadlinger, a 32 year old postman from Seward, Nebraska. On a side note, it appears the only prohibited name in Dark Souls is if you call your character an ‘Undead Chucklefuck’, the reasons why are as yet unknown.

4. Siegmeyer’s helmet is filled with a mystical potion that’s actually 99% sweat.

Eagle-eared players may be able to detect that Siegmeyer’s voice is muffled when he speaks to you, which many have speculated is due to his huge helmet. Recent investigations performed by a team who have access to the base game files have noticed that instead, Siegmeyer’s helmet is filled with a viscous liquid which is only described in-game as ‘sweat_soup.object’. Speculation is rife about what this might mean, with the leading theory being that it is a special potion that Siegmeyer uses to keep his strength up.

3. The game’s plot is actually lifted entirely from the film ‘Sleepless in Seattle’.

Many of you reading this may not remember the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, but to those who’ve played both Dark Souls and watched the film it’s no surprise that both film and game share their plots, almost point for point. Who can forget the scene where Gwyn wants to order ‘What the Chosen Undead is having’ or when Gravelord Nito says that you had him ‘at hello’. Once you’ve seen both, the parallels really do rack up.

2. If you wait for 15 minutes in your cell in the Undead Asylum, Pagan Min comes back and helps you lay your mother to rest.

At the start of the game you wake up in a cell, deep in the Undead Asylum. But did you know that if you waited for at least 15 minutes, Pagan Min would return from his errand and fill you in on his backstory – and a bit about your family history, then take you to lay your mothers’ ashes to rest. It’s a bit of a wait in that cell, but you can spend it looking at the amazingly rendered Crab Rangoon and enjoying the ambience.

1. If you complete the game in under an hour, the Chosen Undead says your name.

It took five years for this secret to be discovered, but in the end it was found that if you complete the game in under an hour, during the end credits the Chosen Undead will turn to camera and say your name. That’s not all they say, in fact they say the following: ‘Hello (name), well done for completing Dark Souls. But can you find the remaining seven Chaos Emeralds?’. The hunt is now on to find out what the Chaos Emeralds are and where they fit into the Dark Souls mythos.

There you have it, ten facts about Dark Souls that we bet you didn’t know. Do you have any other Dark Souls facts that we’ve missed? Hit us up in the comments.

Green Man Gaming’s 8th Birthday – What Was 2010 Like?

It’s Green Man Gaming’s eighth birthday and we’re celebrating it across the website with a sale and much more. Birthdays are a time to celebrate how far you’ve come, but you’ll never know how far that is until you look back at where you began. For us that’s way back in 2010.

So lets travel back in time to the distant past, to that long forgotten age. 2010, the time before time. See what the world was like when Green Man Gaming was birthed onto an unsuspecting internet.

Films

We all know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008, ushering in the Age of Sequels, but what did 2010 look like? The biggest film of the year was Toy Story 3, the film about toys, stories, and sadness.

We saw Inception come out, paving the way for a billion Reddit comments about the ending, Harry Potter was beginning its wrap up its long long journey towards helping the kids learn how to act, and we got the next Iron Man which made everyone ask ‘why doesn’t Whiplash wear a mask?’

Also this was the year that Facebook died. You might think recent revelations have hurt it, but it was in 2010 that the end was sighted. Despicable Me came out, and as anyone on Facebook knows you simply cannot escape those banana coloured little fuckends who mostly appear with comments about ‘needing more wine’ or the suchlike. That’s right, Minions. Curse the day this film came out. Curse everyone who thought Minions were a good idea.

Games

2010 was a hell of a year for games, an absolute belter of a year. Not only did one of my personal favourites come out, Fallout: New Vegas, but we saw games like Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption, and much more come out. I’m not going to go ahead and write too much about this year but seriously, look at some of these names:

  • Bayonetta
  • Darksiders
  • Mass Effect 2
  • Star Trek Online
  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
  • BioShock 2
  • Deadly Premonition
  • Heavy Rain
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2
  • Supreme Commander 2
  • Assassin’s Creed II
  • Final Fantasy XIII
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising
  • God of War III
  • Metro 2033
  • Supreme Commander 2
  • Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening
  • Cave Story
  • Just Cause 2
  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
  • Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
  • Skate 3
  • Bit.Trip Runner
  • Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
  • Alan Wake
  • Red Dead Redemption
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2
  • Alpha Protocol
  • Transformers: War for Cybertron
  • Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
  • Limbo
  • StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
  • Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
  • Amnesia: The Dark Descent
  • Civilization V
  • Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
  • Dead Rising 2
  • Final Fantasy XIV
  • Fallout: New Vegas
  • Super Meat Boy
  • Fable III
  • Rock Band 3
  • Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
  • World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
  • Infinity Blade
  • Super Street Fighter IV
  • Halo: Reach

It doesn’t really matter what type of game you play, that is one heck of a year. I’m still playing through some of them (Alpha Protocol, one day I will finish you). What a year, honestly.

TV

David Tennant stopped being Doctor Who in 2010, and we instead got Matt Smith. Someone we doubted at the time, but soon managed to stamp his own brand onto the Doc. Again though like the games we got in 2010, we got some absolutely cracking TV starting. Justified, the angry vehicle for Timothy Olyphant began showing. We got Boardwalk Empire, the absolutely money-filled epic about life in 20s Atlanta. The Walking Dead started and for a while it was the brave new zombie hope…until we got four hundred seasons of doing shit all. Sherlock began over on the BBC, Holmes has never been so smug. Children’s TV was reinvented with the advent of Adventure Time, showing that kids could enjoy things that had heart and could enjoy things darker than people suspected.

We saw Scrubs end after a disastrous final season, Breaking Bad and Mad Men were in full swing, and the Best Sitcom Of All Time, Parks and Recreation, had just started its second season where it actually started putting jokes into the series.

Politics

It was a pretty different world in 2010. Barack Obama was president of the US, lending intelligence and class to a chair previously inhabited by a walking mushroom. Over here in the UK we had dull-but-solid Gordon Brown who was ousted due to calling a bigoted woman a bigoted woman, who was then followed up by David Cameron, a walking balloon.

Down under the bottom of the planet, Australia welcomed its first female Prime Minister in the form of Julia Gillard, who defeated opponent Paul Rudd [Editor’s Note: Kevin Rudd).

Events

Lots of events occurred in 2010, but the only one of real note happened online. A little gaming website called ‘Green Man Gaming’ was launched in 2010, which soon took over the planet with style, panache, and incredibly handsome blog writers.

Well, maybe not yet, but possibly this section will be accurate next year? Here’s hoping.

That’s 2010, it was a year of brilliant games, brilliant TV series, and some brilliant-to-average films. Does it match up with what you remember? Let us know in the comments.

Royal Wedding – The Best Weddings in Games

The excitement in the air is palpable, your mouth is dry, sweat runs down your back. That’s right, multiplayer is coming to No Man’s Sky.

Oh and also there’s a royal wedding or something happening on the 19th of May.

As our audience is obviously made up of many staunch monarchists we thought we’d use the union between Prince Harry (the ginger one) and Meghan Markle (the Suits one) to shine a spotlight on some of the best weddings that games have had to offer.

So dust off your best suit, put on a non-white dress, and get your bouquet-grabbing hands ready. It’s wedding time:

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

We spoke earlier in the week about how Uncharted 4 subverts tropes about being a hero, but it also features one of the best depictions of a marriage in videogames and well, most films and tv too. Nate and Elena love each other deeply, but it doesn’t mean their marriage is without issues. However due to learning the superpower of ‘communication’ they make it in the end.

Whilst the wedding doesn’t make it into the game directly, you can glimpse their wedding day in photo form, showing off the happy day.

Chrono Trigger

There’s only one way to a woman’s heart; go back in time and prevent her ancestors from being killed, and then go to prison for kidnapping her. Works every time (Incels, this is a joke, do not kidnap people).

Crono spends a lot of time with Marle over the course of Chrono Trigger, and there’s some cosy campsite scenes so it’s not a surprise that by the end of the game our protagonist and the leading lady have fallen for each other. In the editions of the game that come with cutscenes, you get to see the happy day in glorious animation-o-vision. Beautiful.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The question in Skyrim about who will your spouse be, the question is who won’t be your spouse. You can marry almost anyone in this nordic utopia, and it’s never anything other than utterly slapstick and awkward. Marry your lizard-boyfriend and laugh nervously as your adopted children stand there awkwardly, staring at the wall, grumbling about not eating, and wanting to play hide and seek. Enjoy the scenes as during your moment of utter tenderness with your spouse, your Housecarl stands there, glaring at you with the power of a thousand tiny suns.

With all Elder Scrolls games, the joy comes from making the story your own but also enjoying the slightly bumpy ride you’ll take to get to your destination. So enjoy being married, and then never speak to them again because they’re in Markath and you’ve done all the quests there.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Oh Johnny Sasaki, you keyboard-wearing, IBS-having, un-modified Rat Patrol member. You tried your hardest and most of the time unfortunately that wasn’t good enough, but it was good enough for one Meryl who decided to make you an honest man at last.

After years of appearing in games as little more than comic relief and having his IBS being a recurring ‘gag’, it was quite nice at the end of MGS 4 to see Sasaki, aka Akiba, tie the not with his Rat Patrol superior, Meryl Silverburgh. Even Rat Patrol pals Ed and Jonathan turned up for the happy day. Lovely.

Final Fantasy IX

There’s no wedding better than a surprise and potentially non-legally-binding wedding, and the dwarves of Conde Petie know how to throw a wedding. In order to get access to the Iifa Tree, Zidane and Dagger (Garnet) must get married in a heartwarming ceremony, something that fuckboi Zidane is definitely up for. Alas Dagger isn’t quite up for it, and at least it’s only a valid marriage on the Outer Continent.

It does help Zidane conquer his fuckboi ways though, and eventually he learns to maybe not take marriages like this so seriously.

The marriage between Quina and Vivi though is legit canon and I will fight anyone who disagrees.

Rally-ho!

Want more weddings? Watch our video on the best weddings in games:

That’s all the weddings we’ve got time for. Have we missed your favourite in-game wedding? Hit us up in the comments below!

Paradox Games – What GMG Recommends

The Paradox sale is in full swing in support of PDXCON right now, but we wanted to recommend to you our favourite Paradox franchises. They all offer an excellent strategy experience, but carry a different flavour whether it be sci-fi, fantasy, cities or RPG. Read on to see what we think of each, and if you like the sound of it, have a look at the sales page.

Stellaris

If you ever want to build an empire in space, Stellaris is your game. Starting out with just one planet and a space station, truly eXplore, eXpand, eXterminate and eXploit across the stars, and then build a Dyson Sphere around one of them to harness bonkers amounts of energy. The high points of Stellaris are numerous: the building of epic space projects like the aforementioned Dyson Sphere or a whole ring-station around a planet, running into ancient, incredibly powerful alien empires that want to put you in a zoo, or customising your civilisation around your favourite sci-fi race. And yes, those races can be hive-mind alien insects that utilise and eat slaves. There’s really no idea too small.

Cities: Skylines

Do you want to build a city, right down to the placement of the districts, the infrastructure and the anti-sewage overflow systems? Cities: Skylines is the game for you. I’ll let one of our Green Team explain via video just how special it really is:

Age of Wonders III

If you’ve ever played a game like Civilisation and thought “this is nice, but I also really liked Heroes of Might and Magic”, then welcome to Age of Wonders III! Create a Hero that has a class like Rogue, Warlord or Archdruid, and then select a race to align yourself with. The standard fantasy humans, elves, dwarves, draconians are all here, but your hero will give them a distinct flavour apart from the norm, meaning no 2 playthroughs will be quite the same. Use your hero and units to fight turn-based battles and raid the map, which are usually packed with events, treasure and enemies. Honestly, this is as close as you can get to Heroes of Might and Magic without, you know, playing Heroes of Might and Magic.

Pillars of Eternity

We all really like Pillars of Eternity here. Writing about it in a different article, we said this about the grandfather of new cRPGs:

PoE has been largely credited for instigating this new enthusiasm for the world of cRPGs. Kickstarted way back in 2012, ‘Project Eternity’ harnessed one of the strongest natural forces known to man, nerd nostalgia, to fuel its development and eventual release. It took the text-based dialogue and story-telling, the painted scenery and levels, and the party-based adventuring of cRPGs of old and brought in into the 21st century.

Anyone who’d played Dragon Age would be perfectly happy here, albeit maybe underwhelmed by the endless text from those spirits you could find (which turned out to be backer rewards and completely unimportant to the main story – who knew?). This was a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, almost painfully so.

Crusader Kings II

Otherwise known as the Cersei Lannister Simulator, plot, sabotage, and marry your way to ultimate rulership for your chosen dynasty. Probably the most non-lethal of all the games listed here, if you don’t count all the characters you’ll no doubt want to murder with a medieval turnip spoon in a tavern outhouse. Every campaign you play will generate some sort of strange narrative that will surprise each time, and you’ll be swapping sagas of your family history with your friends, telling them about how your king wanted to kill his wife but couldn’t so she killed him instead. Basically if you like that mobile game Reigns, this is that but way way more in depth. There’s also a Game of Thrones mod, just saying.

Can Videogames Help With Mental Health?

There’s a continuous discussion in the media about videogames and whether or not they’re a benefit or a hazard for people. Some would argue that videogames cause violence and exacerbate issues such as ADHD, however as continuous research has shown, these claims are often baseless.

However, one of the questions that hasn’t had much research put into it, is the question of whether or not videogames can be a net benefit for the player.

As it’s Mental Health Awareness week, we wanted to look into some cases where videogames have been used in ways to help people who experience issues with their mental health.

Note: This article is meant to highlight some of the positive experiences people who struggle with their mental health have had with videogames. Videogames are not a replacement for help from a trained medical professional.

Veterans and Videogames

One thing that is repeatedly highlighted is the alleged propensity for violent acts that videogames inspire, however, for those people who suffer after experiencing violence they have been found to be a boon. Veterans who experience issues adapting back to society have found in same cases that videogames can provide a stability to their lives whilst they work through issues. Videogames provide a safe world for some veterans, one where they understand the rules and where they can escape to when life itself is too much.

In addition to that, the structure and rules that games set in multiplayer environments mean that some veterans who find social interactions hard can use multiplayer to help them with social interactions. With objectives and set rules and match times, it means that these veterans who struggle so hard to deal with other people generally, can use this semi-rigid structure to provide talking points, to provide ways to communicate with each other, and to reach out to other human beings.

PTSD is an affliction that means you can end up stuck in the past, in a traumatic event. Your reactions can become fixed, your heart races, you sweat, you feel that fight-or-flight response to things that shouldn’t trigger that. Videogames have been shown to help treat PTSD for some sufferers, by providing a calming environment that is also engaging enough to draw attention away from the object or event.

Videogames, whilst not being a ‘cure’, can definitely help provide a stable place for PTSD sufferers or Veterans to explore whilst working on rejoining society.

Read more: How Video Games Are Helping Young Veterans Cope

Heart Rate Game That Helps You Take Control

Champions of the Shengha by BfB Labs is a game that mixes together a few different genres, but the most important thing is that it also monitors your heart rate. Through a biofeedback patch, the game actively tries to stress you out. It’s frenetic, involving drawing cards, playing them, and trying to keep your cool throughout. It doesn’t let up and it forces you to make snap judgements as your pulse skyrockets.

By monitoring your heart rate and by giving feedback about it, you’re encourage to keep your pulse and heart rate low. This has an effect on cognition as well, as by keeping yourself calm in body you’ll be calmer in mind as well. Panic and adrenaline sets in when your pulse is goes higher, and whilst the game provokes that it also has feedback loops that aim to try and help you control your breathing and your pulse.

The creators talk about how Champsion of the Shengha helps create a sense of staying calm under pressure, something that we all could usually use some help with, and especially if you struggle under pressure could be a way to train yourself in a safe environment.

Read more: Behind the tech of BfB Labs biofeedback card battler Champions of the Shengha

How Gaming Has Helped Me

This is more anecdotal rather than science led, but I would like to take a moment at the end of this article to talk about the times that gaming has helped me and my mental health.

I struggle with depression and self esteem issues, and I often find myself easily stressed and worried about things I can either not control, or things I’ve blown out of proportion.

Gaming for me is a refuge from both the world and from my own feelings. When I’m feeling hopeless or depressed, or if I’m stuck in a spiral of hating myself or worrying about life, games are always there and they always provide a space for me to escape into.

There’s a lot to be said for a distraction from your problems. Obviously problems still need to be dealt with, but you can’t spend every moment of every day worrying about your problems, especially when your problem is yourself. Videogames, like other forms of entertainment, give you an outlet, a taste of escapism. But more than that, they are actively engaging and can lead you into being more wholly subsumed by them whilst you’re playing. A film is engaging, a book is engaging, but nothing compares to a game for simply giving you something actively distracting.

It’s meant that, when I’ve been at my worst and I’ve struggled to do even basic tasks, videogames have got me through those periods. A lot of official advice is always ‘go for a walk’ and ‘do some exercise’ or ‘eat something healthy’, but frankly none of that has ever worked for me because when I’ve been feeling terrible, I’ve been unable to gather the energy to do any of those things. Videogames on the other hand require a low energy investment,  but have a high ceiling for pulling you in and distracting you.

I can’t say videogames have cured me or anything like that, therapy and medication have helped me put myself back together. But I can’t underestimate how much videogames have helped, and how much they’ve kept me together in my darkest periods.

Mental Health Awareness Week runs between the 14th-20th of May, and is hosted by the Mental Health Foundation.