The Wednesday Weekly – Issue 31 – 5 of the Best Playable Characters

It’s Wednesday again! Hooray! That means, of course, that we are all set to head into video game land once more. This week’s topic (as you can already tell from the title) is five of the best video game characters – in my opinion of course. Ready? Go!

1) Lara Croft

Oh, hey look, Lara makes it into another list! Come on, how could she not? The Tomb Raider games stand as some of the best of all time, and Lara is a character for the ages. She’s been around for 21 years, and is still as popular as ever. In the games, (like you don’t already know) she is an archaeologist who continually manages to get into troublesome situations, whilst finding some ancient treasure / lost kingdom. It’s all good though, and we all love Lara… Right?

 

2) Batman

The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The Billi… No, wait. Only a couple of people know the secret, and if you don’t know it already, I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you. Anyway, Batman is one of the best super heroes of all time (for me it’s Batman and Iron Man at the top of the list), but he never really got a great game until Rocksteady released Arkham Asylum. It’s fantastic playing as B-man, gliding around the asylum / Gotham in the later games, driving around in the Batmobile in Arkham Knight, and (of course) beating up thugs on pretty much every street. Who doesn’t want to be the Batman?! Except Iron Man…

3) Nathan Drake

Nate was always going to be on this list, just like Lara, and you know it. Uncharted is one of the best game series I’ve ever played, and Nate isn’t your average video game hero. He’s just like you and I (except for that freakish upper body strength!), and you feel that when he’s in a high pressure situation, like a gunfight – and there are a lot of gun fights over the five games – I include Golden Abyss in the canon. The character gets better as the games go on too, improving his relations with other characters, like Elena. Playing as Drake really can make you think “yeah, I could do that stuff”. Except you probably can’t, and shouldn’t try – definitely don’t try getting in a gun fight. Unless you have something like an Apache helicopter…

4) Sam Fisher

You might be forgiven for forgetting Sam Fisher or the Splinter Cell games, but not by me. Those games are some of my favourites of all time, and are definitely my favourite stealth games. Sam Fisher is the main (possibly only) field operative of the highly secret Third Echelon, a division of the American N.S.A.. The gear is great, his manner is always serious but sometimes funny, and the gameplay is just superb. If you have never played as Fisher, what are you doing?! Go get the games!

5) Corvo Attano

The main character of the first Dishonored game (I know, it’s spelt the American (wrong?!) way), Corvo is the bodyguard of the Empress who resides in Dunwall. I won’t ruin the storyline of the game, but Corvo uses his powers (magical of course) to take down the bad guys over the course of the game – that’s not a spoiler, it’s pretty much the basis of all games! You never actually see him in Dishonored (it’s played from a first person viewpoint), but Corvo is well worth playing as – not just for the powers, but for the story too.

So we find ourselves at the end of another list. Was your favourite on here? If not, leave a comment or get in touch on the Facebook page and let me know!

Next week, we’ll look at five things to be aware of if you live with / are dating a gamer.

Until then, keep gaming!

C