When it comes to human entertainment, card games are some of the oldest in existence. There are table-top games, magic tricks, storytelling, utility, and more recently, mini-games. Card games are just one of those things so ingrained across the world that they're an easy game to modify.
And plenty of games have done it too. In fact, when it comes to videogames, sometimes the mini-games can be just as important to the experience as the core gameplay loop, and plenty of games have chosen card games as the surefire method for a successful diversion, or something to really sink your teeth into for hours at a time. Here a♔re some of the very best.
8 Gw☂ent - The Witcher 3 🐭
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Let's get the obvious one out of the way. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Witcher 3 is already a heavily lauded game for its story, world, music, and plenty more, but one of the best aspects of the game, and the easiest to lose yours🐻elf in, is Gwent. Anyone who has played will no doubt recognize that wide-faced grin and nod an NPC gives when Geralt says "Up for a round of Gwent?".
Played on a board with tiers of siege, ranged, and melee, your deck is built to achieve maximum strength until an opponent forfeits a round or runs out of cards. You travel the world collecting cards to make an ever𒐪 stronger deck, even taking part in tournaments. Gwent is so popular it even got a free-to🗹-play version and Thronebreaker.
7 ꦬ MesuKing - Yakuza Kiwami ꦉ
On a dramatically different end of the scale for card games is MesuKing from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Yakuza Kiwami. Now, Yakuza is known for its mini-games, and frankly, the mini-games are just as important as any other aspect of the world, making every city featured feel much more teem🎃ing with a culture of its own ༒to explore.
After stumbling upon some kids, Kiryu is introduced to MesuKing, a beetle card collect🧜ing game played on arcades where the cards a﷽re visualized as um, scantily-clad women. You have a main card determining your beetle-girl, and then multiple others for your abilities in any given match, working in a rock-paper-scissors style match-up.
6 ꩵ Ca🌜ravan - Fallout New Vegas
Of the modern Fallout series, New Vegas is often seen as the shining jewel at the center of the crown, the pinnacle achievement of the games with its great depth of role-playing and choices. But being set in, well, New Vegas, there's no avoiding card games, and that comes in the form of Caravan.
This game can seem incredibly daunting when it first appears, an intense mixture of in-lore terms and real-life comparisons. In short, you have three piles (each called a track) as part of your 'Caravan'. The intent is to sell off each track of your caravan by getting them to a value between 20 and 27, with 26 being ideal.
5 ⛦ ꦬ Poker - Red Read Redemption
Rockstar's rendition of its pseudo-fictionalized Wild West of America is an intricate one, weaving skillfully between a mix of Western films and genuine historical commentary. And true to the life of these inspirations, there are plenty of card games to play, tense eyes darting around the table for any miscreants.
Featured in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, poker is played using the Texas Hold 'Em ruleset, whereby players build the strongest hand with the help of community cards. In the first game, John can also cheat to keep an extra card in reserve, while failing results in a duel just like the classics that inspired the atmosphere of the table.
4 🍒 Trip🀅le Triad - Final Fantasy 8
The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy series became famed for its love of mini-games with Final Fantasy 7. The Gold Saucer, the highway chase out of Midgar, free-falling, dousing, and snowboarding to hide the tears. But Final Fantasy 8 opted to tone dꦅown on the number of mini-games and focus on the quality instead, resulting in Triple Triad.
Triple triad was one of the first examples of playing-card mini-games, inspiring both future Final Fantasy entries and many other games 🦋that came after. Triple Triad is high stakes, with the winner taking a card of their choice. The game is played on a board of nine tiles, with each card having directions in which it can attack to flip other cards to your side until you own the majority of the board.
3 🅺 Pazaak - Kn𓆏ights Of The Old Republic
Another example of an early card mini-game is that of Pazaak in Bioware's much-beloved 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Knights Of The Old Republic. KOTOR is praised for plenty🧸 of things, and to many is probably the best Star Wars game out there, even to this day, and what way to make a universe feel lived in than with some unique card games?
Pazaak functions♛ a little like Blackjack, with players having to hit as close to 20 as possible to win three rounds. Players are given a card from the dealer each turn and can choose to play any of the four cards chosen randomly from their deck. ꧑Where Pazaak gets interesting is in its plus and minus cards, which can actually save you if you go over the perfect 20 score.
2 🐽 Three Card Poker - GTA Online 💫
Another entry from Rockstar, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Grand Theft Auto series has had plenty of history with mini-games of its own, and San Andreas had a casino where you ca🌳n play roulette, blackjack slot machines, and more. So with GTA Online itself being set in Los Santos once again, it only makes sense for the gambling to return too.
Featured in GTA Online's casino are many of the same games, including a variant of poker called Three Card Poker. Unlike Texas Hold 'Em, Three Card Poker is played against the dealer rather than other players, with everyone trying to get a better hand than the dealer. That said, there's something more than a bit predatory about being able to buy in-game money just to gamble it away in a virtual casino.
1 𒅌 21 - Resident Evil 7 🦩
In what is probably the least likely game you expected here, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 7 actually has its own card game played in Banned Footage Vol. 2. Called 21, it is once again played akin to Blackjack with players trying to achieve 21 without going over. However, the beꦚts he﷽re are your own fingers.
It also features trump cards that have special effects like forcing an opponent to draw another card or lose their own trump card amongst other things. Fitting the horror aesthetic, the game is over when you lose all your fingers. But if somehow the story of it didn't put you off, 21 can actually be played in Survival as a fun little card game.