Introduction
Being in a rock band is a dream lifestyle for many, but as with any industry or career that seems exciting on the face of it, the reality behind the job can be different to what you might expect.
Long tours can turn into a gruelling test of endurance, and so even rock stars need to escape from reality sometimes to become a kung-fu master, havoc-wreaking mech pilot, or a dual-sword-wielding orc warrior. Don't they?
Well yes, as it happens. So what games do they play when they've got time to kill on the tour bus? We put the question to some of the amp destroyers featured on Radio 1's latest BBC Introducing compilation - including Twin Atlantic, Pulled Apart By Horses, Lonely The Brave, Prides, and Coasts.
Falco, Future of the Left
What are your favorite PC games of all time?
The Total War Series. Total Bloody War. Like the annoying little kid from Time Bandits although without the lisp (if you haven't watched Time Bandits, by the way, then just fucking do it). I was obsessed with war and battles as a kid, which is pretty ironic really seeing as I'd be shit with a mace through my eye, all bleed-y and stuff.
I started with the first in the series, Shogun. It was fantastic, but the whole thing really hit its stride through Medieval, Rome and Medieval 2. Hey, I love the French and everything (GUYS, YOU'RE THE BEST), but there's nothing on earth more satisfying than invading their wonderful country on a laptop screen while wondering how much bread they need to get through the winter. Perfect stuff - it was as if it was designed for me.
Later on, with the possible exception of Shogun 2 the series has got a little stale - the recent Attila tried to jazz it up a bit by making the whole experience a bit more fraught, but it was so grim at times that even a quick ball-punching could have lifted the mood.
Very good work, though; give yourself a hand and all that.
Other than that, BioShock 1 or 2 - I'm not picky. Infinite was fine, but the first ones made me genuinely fearful as I traversed the narrow corridors of my flat (in the same way that the original Half Life had a few years before), and for that I am grateful/still in recovery. Nothing quite beats the experience of harvesting a small girl (or 'Little Sister') for the first time, then taking half an hour or so to wonder exactly what the tits just happened.
Also, the Homeworld games, once the controls were cracked (a whole hour, as I have no patience). Brilliant work everybody. Here, have a nice cake.
Pulled Apart By Horses
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
Back in the day when I was a kid I thought the only games you could play on a PC were Lemmings and Solitaire, so I was mainly glued to my Mega Drive back then. Then a close school friend of mine with dial-up internet and a powerful (dad-owned) PC introduced me to the wonderful world of Quake.
This game was my first taste of online multiplayer as consoles hadn't tapped into the worldwide web and it literally blew my mind away as a youngster. I could play against other people online and they didn't even need to be sat in a room sharing a TV/monitor with me?! Mind blown. I'll never forget that game. This spurred me onto PC gaming for years and I'd spend hours on Halo, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and literally anything with online multiplayer capabilities.
What PC games are you playing now?
I'm currently playing the PC conversion of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. I've got the game on Xbox One, but the beauty of PC gaming is that you get so many tech-heads/fans who love a game so much that they'll take the code and modify the game to their liking for either comedy value or to add a new element into the game.
A guy in the USA has cleverly added first-person perspective to this game and it truly is quite a lot of fun to re-play a game in a brand new perspective. It must take hours of endless work to do this so hats off to the guy who did this. Love the modders!
Coasts
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
My favourite PC game of all time would have to be Championship Manager 01/02. It's an absolute classic and is my favourite out of all of the CM/FM series of games. It all got a bit too in-depth after this and none of the others quite captured the same enjoyment as CM 01/02. Me, Liam and Chris actually started a new game a couple of tours ago and are about eight years in to it. So it has certainly stood the test of time. I used to play Age of Empires 2 as well growing up, that was a classic.
What PC games are you playing now?
I've been playing a game called This War is Mine recently. It's basically a survival game set after war has taken over the country. It's pretty dark but is engrossing. You start in a house and have to scavenge for items, build crude workshops and go out at night to try and find more items, trade or steal from people. It's fairly bleak to be honest and you'll think that you're doing okay and then randomly one night you'll return from a night out scavenging and find that all of your food has been stolen and one of your people has been shot dead.
It's very challenging, though, and you have to make moral decisions on whether to steal from people worse off than you, or whether to risk your own life to save others and it all has an effect on your characters' morale. Your characters can get into a spiral of depression if you make them do something they don't agree with and they'll stop completing tasks and will eventually run away from your group.
Prides
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
I sunk a lot of time into all the classic LucasArts games: Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle primarily. There's nothing like working out insane puzzles with quality, and often hilarious, dialogue.
What PC games are you playing now?
Right now I'm playing Double Fine's re-mastered Grim Fandango, Telltale's The Wolf Among Us (more adventure games for the win!) and the absolutely amazing Papers, Please, which has such a ridiculously engrossing narrative, and really addictive gameplay.
Twin Atlantic
Ross McNae (Bassist)
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
My favourite PC game of all time is Championship Manager. I lost days of my life to this when I was younger.
What PC games are you playing now?
I don't really play much other than FIFA on the PlayStation. Kills a lot of time on the tour bus or in venues.
Sam McTrusty (Vocals)
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
My favourite PC game was probably Tomb Raider. The simple reason being that Lara Croft was a babe and I was a young adolescent. A potent mixture.
What PC games are you playing now (and why?)
I don't play games very often if at all anymore. I'm too busy playing guitar and being on the move. If I could I'd probably play more GTA or Call of Duty.
Craig Kneale (Drums)
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
Before I discovered music I was really into video games – my favourite PC game from that time was probably Half-Life. I remember we had to really pimp up our family PC because it needed the top-of-the-range graphics card and sound board.
I don't know how well it's aged but I remember when it was first released I didn't think a game could ever get more realistic (well, apart from the fact it was about aliens). Being in my early teens the game appealed to me because it was an escape from the weirdness that age brings, that you could immerse yourself in.
What PC games are you playing now?
I don't really play games so much these days but I did just download the remastered version of Grim Fandango, kind of for nostalgia reasons. I've only mucked about with it for half an hour – but it definitely holds up.
Lonely The Brave
What are your favourite PC games of all time?
There'll always be a warm place in my heart for Hidden and Dangerous – the original Call of Duty. I didn't have a powerful enough graphics card for my PC when I first bought it, so I had to save up a bit to buy one, before I got to play it. I remember that summer being roasting hot. While everyone else was outside enjoying the sun, I was in my room, curtains closed, loving this. I certainly don't miss the days of having a limited amount of lives per play-through, though!
What PC games are you playing now?
At this moment of writing, I've been loving Dying Light. I'm not a huge fan of the whole zombie genre, but I've had some thoroughly enjoyable hours on it. It's just a great time for gaming, at the moment. I've been blown away with what the last couple of years have given me... The Last Of Us, Borderlands 2, Dragons Age Inquisition, Dark Souls, Ni No Kuni... I could go on and on... I can't wait to see what the next couple of years bring us.
