Hello again! My long-time readers (hello to all two of you!) would know that literally one of the first articles I ever wrote had to do with slots in videogames. I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up article about blackjack for a while now, but I never really had the time to do something like this… Until now! Ladies, gentlemen, others, please gaze upon this most marvelous thing of beauty! Now, you might be asking yourself “Stanley, what’s even the point of an article like this? There’s plenty of free blackjack online, so what does it matter if some videogames feature it?” Well, yeah, you’re right – people can always go to a site like realmoneyonlinecasino.co.uk and find themselves a decent online casino, but it’s a different thing entirely when you do it while submerged within a videogame, wouldn’t you say?

Now, first and foremost, it’s important to note that pretty much any game that takes place in Vegas, or a version of it, probably has playable blackjack in it. Case in point – “Fallout: New Vegas”. The clue’s in the name, people! After a nuclear Armageddon pretty much wipes out most of the human race (read: anyone who didn’t hide in a vault when the attacks happened), the survivors need to rebuild civilization atop the ruins, and obviously the first thing they build is a casino, in which you can play several different games including blackjack. “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, while not a game which takes place exclusively in Vegas, or even in Vegas at all, still features a very Vegas-inspired setting – the town of Las Venturas. In their casinos you can play several different games, with the most interesting one in my opinion being, of course, blackjack. I’ve heard rumors that you can play blackjack in “Dead Rising 2” which, you guessed it, takes place in Vegas, but alas I can neither confirm nor deny them, since I haven’t played the game.

Let’s go a bit backwards in time now and examine one of my favourites, “Red Dead Redemption”, which takes place in the final days of the Old West. There, you can play some rather typical frontier games such as horseshoe throwing, poker and, you guessed it, blackjack! I didn’t even know that blackjack was being played in the Old West, but hey, I’m no historian, and who knows, maybe it was. Modern casino games are older than people suspect, after all. But my absolute favourite use of blackjack in a game has to do with the absolutely brilliant “Always Sometimes Monsters”, in which you play a person who was set to marry their SO (you can choose both of their genders), until life got in the way, things went downhill and the relationship ended. Years later you receive an invitation to your SO’s wedding and decide to get there and stop it, Hollywood style! Well, once you do get there you get invited to your SO’s bachelor/bachelorette party, which, of course, takes place in Vegas and allows you to play blackjack. Now, the reason why I really like this particular instance of the game is because it isn’t just some mindless game mechanic, it actually ties into the plot – you pretty much have to play the game enough in order to get the best ending, which, while controversial, is pretty awesome in my opinion.