The UK has been hit by one of its coldest winters since 1963. Roads are in chaos as drivers simply do not know what to do when driving over the thick white stuff. People are seen walking around in hiking boots, with three scarf’s on and a duffle coat to match and to add people are panic buying again, as they don’t know when they’ll be able to drive back to their local stores. The UK is in a snowy stand still and it will be a couple of weeks before things return to usual.
So what if one of your games had a sudden weather change and instead of open roads and paths all you could see is white with maybe a few deer tracks here and puppy tracks there. Let’s take a game such as Grand Theft Auto as an example, imagine your last save saw you stealing a Blista Compact and carefully placing it into your garage before getting some shut eye. To your amazement you wake up to a blanket of snow and as you attempt to leave your garage in your little Blista you find yourself going nowhere fast. With no traction you find yourself hearing that horrible squeal as rubber constantly spins over solidified snow. Like any man broken down in his vehicle your answer is of course more power, but alas your car still goes nowhere and slowly you start to feel the onsets of carbon monoxide poisoning within your little garage.
Your character steps out of the vehicle slams his door shut and you know find yourself crunching through the snow with your cell phone in your left hand and your Uzi rattling within your frozen fingers of your right hand. So where’s your wellies, or hiking boots to help you walk through the black ice. Of course you don’t have any so you make your way out your garage as warily step onto the path way and like a cartoon character going over a banana you find yourself kissing the ground with snow crawling up your back and your fingers now completely numb. Where all the gritters in Grand Theft Auto, all the roads are are caked in snow and there’s no sign of it budging, but with no gritting company in Vice City there’s no sign of that changing. When they mayor was elected did he not think that it would snow in Vice, that a freak snowstorm would hit the VC coast and because of it business, travel and the economy take a massive downfall because of the city not being prepared. A horrible though I know but hopefully this winter will be a warm one in Vice City.
Now imagine yourself playing Dead Rising and as you start you realize that overnight the mall was hit by a snowstorm and because of this the doors are inoperable and will not open. This I suppose is both good and bad you are trapped in the mall with the hundreds of zombies slowly dragging their dangling legs towards you. The upside being that there’s no chance of the zombies outside making it inside so at least you can be happy knowing one all of these zombies are dealt with you can happily sit by a camp fire with smores and marshmallows singing cumb by ar in relative peace. The mall will also no doubt have a clothing store with winter clothing so you won’t be cold and sleeping bags are another plus. The down side being a quick getaway in a car is out of the question, there were no salt or grit boxes outside so I highly doubt the roads will be clear. Any gritters that are out on the road will no doubt be controlled by some blood stained zombie who has yet top learn how to operate the salt dropping button, so cars are not an option. With airports shutting and flights cancelled left, right and centre I don’t see flying as a viable option if you did make it to an airport alive.
The only option is live it out and to be fair no one is sure of how zombies cope in the tundra conditions of a snow storm so you may be in luck. Perhaps the dipping temperatures cause the congealed blood running through the undead veins to ice over making your foes immovable and pretty much threat less. All things considered I actually think in this scenario snow could be a good thing.
Let’s now move to the world of handheld gaming and Pokémon, your walking around the various Routes, looking at the beautiful trees and the Pokémon prancing around in the tall grass and it begins to rain and as you begin to shiver the rain turns to slow and as you look on everything turns from green or brown to clean white. You could run into one of your local caves but no doubt the wild Pokémon will end up there and you will just find yourself in battle after battle trying your best to find the exit only to see it blocked with a wall of ice. Maybe you’re in the game park trying to catch all manor of creatures and you decide to make your way to the exit and call for the tram only to see all services cancelled, your now stuck in the boggy marshlands and as the hours tick by you start to wonder which of your Pokémon has the most meat on it. There are hundreds of items you can collect on your trails but I notice there are no bags of salt or warm weather clothing, another game simply not prepared for the cold weather front coming to the Pokémon Island.
So what do I propose I hear you ask? I ask all Mayors, Presidents or Prime Ministers of these virtual islands to employ gritting teams and to have a supply of grit or salt that will last the gritters up to 13 days. Furthermore more warm weather clothing should be on sale in clothing stores around the county. These stores are to include arctic coats, wellies, hiking boots, beanies, ear cozies, winter trousers, neckerchiefs, scarves and winter socks. There should also be a daily weather update including temperature and a short summary of what is happening to the cold and warm weather fronts in the vicinity of your small town or city. Gas and Electric companies should install radiators and central heating through the entirety of the island and shall be given extra supplies of gas, coal and oil for emergency situations such as snowstorms, blizzards and deadly wind chill. Finally all vehicle garages should have tyres on sale with more suitable tread and also snow and ice tyre chains which can be placed on a car with ease to help them get to work on time and keeps the economy going strong through the coldest of days.
It’s horrible to think what the big chill could do to your gaming experience, the snowball fights and snowmen making would be a nice feature that all could enjoy but when the novelty of that wears off all you will find yourself doing is shivering to death and trying to find away to heat yourself up in a room, which thanks to the games developers, is left without a radiator or double glazing. When it comes to the snow it’s safe to assume that games designers have little care for the well being of your character so next time you pick up Grand Theft Auto or Pokémon just think about that.
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