Many various video games have implemented something called mini games into their gameplay. It is all about giving the player more and more activities to do outside of the main story or side quests. More often than not it results in players enjoying these mini-games, and in this article, we will focus on their potential expansion.
A lot of titles also introduced some casino mini games, like in the latest GTA V video game, with the expansion to the GTA Online mode, Rockstar has introduced an entire casino with multiple games from blackjack and poker to even horseracing.
Why Would You Play These Mini-Games?
First of all, many of these mini-games are free to play, they might cost some in-game currency, but you do not have to spend any real money, apart from this spent on the actual video game. More often than not it also helps get right in said in-game currency. You can bet on horses to get an advantage in GTA Online or beat everyone at Poker in Red Dead Redemption 2 and always have the money for the wanted bounty payment. With these types of video games, you do not even have to play online pokies at Joe Fortune or a casino, but you might enjoy it inside your favorite video game.
Best Games with Casino Mini-Games
We will skip the most obvious and aforementioned titles in-depth; you just need to know that GTA V has an entire casino in its online mode and Red Dead Redemption 2 offers a great way to play Poker with an awesome western atmosphere. Apart from these two giant titles, you are also able to play Poker in Watch Dogs. Even though the first game in the franchise didn’t live up to the expectations after its initial E3 presentation it still was a decent game overall with a good and grim story, innovative hacking gameplay and it also had some mini-games, one of which was Poker.
Another title that was hugely influenced by the casino culture is Fallout: New Vegas. As the name suggests it would be illogical not to include some types of casino-related games inside a video game literally set in Vegas. Here you can explore many different post-apocalyptic casinos, however, most of them aren’t abandoned at all and after interacting with some NPCs you are able to play roulette, blackjack or even hit a jackpot in slots.
An unexpected title to make this list is The Sims 3. The entire franchise is basically a life simulator so no wonder that the developers have introduced a set of casino games to add more activities for your sim to do. One of the add-ons to the third game in the series was called Licky Simoleon Casino. It allowed you to enjoy the wonders of a casino, while still developing your sim’s character. You might have had a bunch of spare Simoleons laying around and now you also had a place to spend it.
What Could We See in the Future?
We think that there are certainly some types of games where it fits perfectly, and we should see an increase of casino-inspired mini-games in future video games. With GTA VI looming on the horizon, we can be almost certain that it will include at least some casino games like Poker, Blackjack or Slots. It was always an integral part of being a criminal in this game’s virtual world so it would make sense that this trend would continue. We might even get a full-fledged casino like in the GTA Online expansion, but this time in the single-player experience.
In addition to GTA, there are plenty of more games that would fit perfectly. The upcoming Sims 4 game could benefit from having some type of casino at launch, a way to quickly loss or gain money, and would add an element of randomness to every family you create.
There is also Starfield which is another Bethesda game, and we covered one before in this article in Fallout: New Vegas, and we could assume that there might be a type of Space Poker or Space Casino in the vast galaxy that is being presented to us in Starfield. We will not have to wait long to see if that prediction is true.
Should There Be More Casino Mini-Games?
We think that yes, there should be more activities like that in video games because it is quite easy to implement and design, with a lot of random elements in place, and can be later reused for future games by the same company. It will also provide the player with some thrills, and ways of both spending and earning in-game cash. There is also a lot of variety when it comes to casino games, so some activities might differ depending on the game. Somewhere there might be a lot of card games, and elsewhere slots would be a great addition. A good example of that is the Borderlands franchise, where your only activity similar to the ones mentioned previously are slot machines. You could spend money or Eridium on slots and get some weapons or equipment in exchange. This will most likely be re-used with another installment in the Borderlands series.
