One of our most highly anticipated games this year is Everyone's Gone To The Rapture. Due to be released on the PS4 this summer, it's a first-person mystery adventure, in which players have to assemble the story behind a mysterious apocalypse.
Which is nice and all... but the main reason we're excited about it is because it's set in a fictional Shropshire village. Frankly, games are rarely set in the UK, and if they are - as we discovered while compiling this list - it's usually an alternate UK, and (sorry, everyone in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) it's usually London.
Still. Who cares about any of those places, right?
Later this week, we will unite as a country to vote upon which power-hungry, privileged idiot we think will be the least awful choice to govern us for the next half-a-decade. It seemed like a good time for a celebration of British unity, albeit - appropriately - with a London-centric focus. Here are 10 notable Brit-ish games. Pip pip, old chum/och aye the noo/top of the mornin' to ya/there's lovely for you.
Which is nice and all... but the main reason we're excited about it is because it's set in a fictional Shropshire village. Frankly, games are rarely set in the UK, and if they are - as we discovered while compiling this list - it's usually an alternate UK, and (sorry, everyone in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) it's usually London.
Still. Who cares about any of those places, right?
Later this week, we will unite as a country to vote upon which power-hungry, privileged idiot we think will be the least awful choice to govern us for the next half-a-decade. It seemed like a good time for a celebration of British unity, albeit - appropriately - with a London-centric focus. Here are 10 notable Brit-ish games. Pip pip, old chum/och aye the noo/top of the mornin' to ya/there's lovely for you.
10. GRAND THEFT AUTO: LONDON 1969
This mission pack for the original GTA was influenced by - among other things - real life crims such as The Kray Twins, and movies like The Italian Job. It was much-loved at the time - not least because points were awarded for slaughtering a crowd of Mods - and London continues to be an oft-requested location for a future GTA game.
Anyone who has actually driven in London will tell you that - if they were to aim for any degree of authenticity - this is a terrible idea, given that driving in London is about as smooth and effortless as forcing a giraffe into a pencil case.
Anyone who has actually driven in London will tell you that - if they were to aim for any degree of authenticity - this is a terrible idea, given that driving in London is about as smooth and effortless as forcing a giraffe into a pencil case.
9. THE GETAWAY
We're in London again, with yet more gangsters, for this GTA-esque PS2 drive 'em up. For anyone who knows London, part of the fun of The Getaway was seeing how authentic the geography was. On the whole: very authentic. But it's testament to how accurate the game was that we found it somewhat jarring when certain roads were missing or blocked off. Pfft. As if driving in London wasn't stressful enough already.
8. DEAR ESTHER
From the team behind Everyone's Gone To The Rapture, Dear Esther is another UK-set game, albeit one based on a fictional Hebridean island. Yes: a game actually set in Scotland! We don't know if any satirical or deliberately stereotypical point was being aimed for when the developers decided that the title character should've been killed by a drunk driver, but still... there it is.
From its empty beaches to its abandoned bothies, the eerie atmosphere does a brilliant job of evoking the stark beauty of the Western Isles, and promises great things for that aforementioned Shropshire village.
From its empty beaches to its abandoned bothies, the eerie atmosphere does a brilliant job of evoking the stark beauty of the Western Isles, and promises great things for that aforementioned Shropshire village.
7. TOMB RAIDER III
Tomb Raider is as British as fish n' chips, barbecues in the rain, and binge drinking... except when Lara Croft is being portrayed by the American Angelina Jolie, or the series is being rebooted by a studio based in San Francisco. It's surprising, then, that the franchise has only once properly exploited the UK (well... London, naturally) as a location.
In Tomb Raider III, Crofty could be seen fannying around the Thames, the abandoned Aldwych tube station (which is very real - and can be visited on selected days throughout the year), a Masonic temple, the City of London, and the Natural History Museum (which, weirdly, is holding an Egyptology exhibit that would, in real life, be rather more at home in the British Museum).
In Tomb Raider III, Crofty could be seen fannying around the Thames, the abandoned Aldwych tube station (which is very real - and can be visited on selected days throughout the year), a Masonic temple, the City of London, and the Natural History Museum (which, weirdly, is holding an Egyptology exhibit that would, in real life, be rather more at home in the British Museum).
6. ZOMBI U
One of the toughest and most frustrating games we've ever played - yet one of the most genuinely terrifying as a result - we've no doubt that part of why we love Zombi U is that because, once again, we recognise a lot of the locations, due to being Londoners. Who hasn't wanted to hit one of the Queen's Foot Guards around the head with a cricket bat to see if he'll crack a smile?
5. RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN
And now we reach the part of the list where things start getting a little bit iffy. Though set in an alternate 1950s where aliens have invaded Britain, the game was developed by American studio Insomiac Games, and is a bit light on authenticity.
That said, there's a set-piece located in a recreation of Manchester Cathedral, which managed to upset the Church of England. Allegedly, it violated the CoE's copyright, and having the player fire guns at aliens was, apparently tantamount to desecration. Sony was forced to apologise for inadvertent offence caused, and even the Prime Minister (a "Tony Blair") stuck his oar in. As a consequence of the massive hoo-hah that ensued, the game leapt up the charts, despite its lacklustre review scores, and Manchester Cathedral saw a jump in visitor numbers.
That said, there's a set-piece located in a recreation of Manchester Cathedral, which managed to upset the Church of England. Allegedly, it violated the CoE's copyright, and having the player fire guns at aliens was, apparently tantamount to desecration. Sony was forced to apologise for inadvertent offence caused, and even the Prime Minister (a "Tony Blair") stuck his oar in. As a consequence of the massive hoo-hah that ensued, the game leapt up the charts, despite its lacklustre review scores, and Manchester Cathedral saw a jump in visitor numbers.
4. THE ORDER 1886
We accept that there are plenty of intelligent and culturally aware Americans, but we've also met slightly too many who appear to think that modern London looks exactly like it does in The Order 1886, and that we all sit around talking about King Arthur, while watching Top Blimp on our smog-powdered televisions.
Yeah, alright, America... you might think we look disgusting with our yellowed and buckled teeth, but at least we'd struggle to shoot one another with handguns, however much we might want to.
Yeah, alright, America... you might think we look disgusting with our yellowed and buckled teeth, but at least we'd struggle to shoot one another with handguns, however much we might want to.
3. GRAY MATTER
Gray Matter was a crushingly dull Windows and Xbox 360 point-and-click adventure set in Oxford (with some sequences based - of course - in London). Coming from the mind of Jane Jensen - the brain behind the Gabriel Knight series - it does, inevitably, whiff of patronising, sub-Victorian tweeness, complete with dodgy accents. Hardly a surprise, given that Jensen lives in Pennsylvania.
We'd love to repay the favour by coming up with some hilarious jokes based upon what scant, un-researched information we've absorbed about Pennsylvania during our lives, but to be honest, we don't think we know a single thing about Pennsylvania, except that it's where Dracula comes from.
We'd love to repay the favour by coming up with some hilarious jokes based upon what scant, un-researched information we've absorbed about Pennsylvania during our lives, but to be honest, we don't think we know a single thing about Pennsylvania, except that it's where Dracula comes from.
2. FABLE
Alright, the Fable series is set in "Albion" - not Britain - but it sort of feels British, in an old-fashioned sort of way. Being cosmopolitan, urban types, we do tend to forget that much of the rest of the country is still a fantasy realm ruled by feudal lords, and populated by whimsical bards and adventurers. Still, at least in the real British countryside you can plant an acorn, and it'll probably grow into an oak tree...
1. SIR, YOU ARE BEING HUNTED
Developed by Essex-based Big Robot, Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a first-person stealth and survival game set in a stylised, and procedurally-generated, depiction of the British countryside. Basically, every time you start up a new game, the landscape is entirely unique. Big Robot founder Jim Rossignol stated that he had "a vision to take what was kind of bleak and frightening about the British landscape and put it into a game".
Unfortunately, it has a touch of steampunk about it - further fuelling the belief of all foreigners that British people drive around in coal-powered cars, and still all own a pocket watch - but we cannot deny that there is something bleak and frightening about the British landscape. Especially Dartmoor, where Digitiser2000's Mr Biffo was once bitten by a horse. Horses are scum.
Unfortunately, it has a touch of steampunk about it - further fuelling the belief of all foreigners that British people drive around in coal-powered cars, and still all own a pocket watch - but we cannot deny that there is something bleak and frightening about the British landscape. Especially Dartmoor, where Digitiser2000's Mr Biffo was once bitten by a horse. Horses are scum.
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