By Staff Writer
Gambling mini-games have come a long way since Nintendo’s original Super Mario series. They’ve been improving in graphics and inventiveness at the same rate as the games themselves. In this blog post, Slotegrator takes a look at the 6 best video games that feature in-game gambling.
Fallout
What would be left after a nuclear war desolated large swathes of the United States? That’s right: Las Vegas. Fallout: New Vegas takes players to a retro-futuristic version of Sin City, where some things have might have changed, but the important ones haven’t.
Players can find blackjack, roulette, and slot mini-games. Lucky players can win money, food, drinks, or a VIP stay at the hotel, but winning too much can have them booted from the casino under suspicion of cheating and barred from gambling there again. Outside New Vegas, people in the radiation-saturated Mojave Wasteland play the card game Caravan. The game suits its bombed-out surroundings, with flexible rules, improvised currencies, and decks cobbled together from stray cards.
It’s comforting to think that even after mass devastation, people can still find joy in the little things.
Final Fantasy
In Final Fantasy lore, the card game Triple Triad was invented using Tarot cards by a psychic named Orlan. Players can add cards to their Triple Triad deck by defeating monsters, and play the game when taking a break between quests.
The game is played on a 3×3 grid. Players and the AI take turns laying down cards. When a card is laid down, its value is compared to the card next to it. If the player’s card has a higher value than the AI’s, for example, the card is captured. The player that fills the entire game board with their cards wins.
The Witcher 3
Some people find the slaying of grotesque monsters invigorating. Some find it harrowing. Some, at times, find it a little stressful, or maybe even a little repetitive. In the world of Witcher 3, when the monotony of battling 3-eyed demon deer, giant monstrous centipedes, and other indescribable beasts starts to wear on players’ nerves a little too much, they can take some time out for Gwent.
Gwent is a one-on-one card game where players assume the role of generals, with 22-card decks representing their armies. Players collect cards to build a strong deck and play the game in between monster-slaying excursions. The game starts with a coin toss and each player drawing ten cards at random from their deck. Cards are played one at a time and players rely on their strategy and the strength of their deck to beat their opponent.
For a more traditional gambling experience, players can try the game’s first and second editions, which featured poker.
The Sims 3
The classic simulation of life as we know it finally added a gambling extension in its third edition. It’s a great place for first-time gamblers to get a hang of how to play the odds in a friendly environment before moving on to something a bit more real. The game includes poker, slots, roulette, and blackjack.
Red Dead Redemption
Lauded as a modern gaming masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption offers gamers a world full of possibilities with stunning graphics and engaging gameplay, letting the Old West leap into life on screens across the globe. And the Old West would be far from complete without a poker game.
No-limit Texas Hold ‘em is the name of the game. Thanks to a specially tailored suit item, Marston, the protagonist, often has a card or two that he slipped from the bottom of the deck up his sleeve. In the High Stakes poker game, however, there’s no cheating allowed – once they’ve paid the $250 buy-in, players have to rely on their wits.
Grand Theft Auto Online
Thanks to GTA online’s Diamond Casino and Resort update, players now have the opportunity to take their hard-stolen cash into the casino and gamble to their heart’s content. In addition to gambling, the casino offers some side missions players can complete. The update caused a tremendous fuss when it was released, with the game being banned in more than fifty countries almost immediately.
The reason the game caused such a stir is that players can use real-world currency to purchase in-game tokens to use in the casino. $1 in real currency buys $50,000 in virtual chips. To many governments, this smacked of illegal gambling, and the game was banned – but its proponents argue that it’s no different from the kind of in-game purchases commonly available in online games. Gamers with permissive governments gave the update rave reviews.
For gamers looking for a taste of gambling or gamblers looking for a video game that includes a game of luck or two, any one of the six games above will keep them satisfied.