Video games are great because they can be set in the past, present or the future.
Just like movies or books, some video games have got the future very wrong, we look back
in amusement at their predictions - some of them though seemed to hit the nail on the
head.
Some games featured events that hadnt happened in real life yet - events that would change
the world forever - did the developers know this?
Have any games youve played predicted the future?
Lets find out - my name is Danny Burke, this is the top 10 video games that predicted the
future.
Starting off at number 10 we have Homefront.
This game was released by THQ in 2011.
It tells the story of resistance fighters in the US, battling against a Korean occupation
under a unified Kim Jong-un.
Some people were surprised at just how accuaretly it seemed to guess a turn of events that really
did take place in Korea.
Firstly, the coming death of Kim Jong-il which happened in December 2011, just 9 months after
the game came out.
They also correctly depicted Kim Jong-un to be the one to succeed him.
This may seem fairly obvious to us now but back then, there was still a lot of speculation
- Kim Jong-il had 5 children and nobody was quite sure who would take his place, even
though he had already announced Kim Jong-un as his heir apparent.
Whether they be predictions or coincidences, many people wondered if the games depiction
of a unified Korea taking over the US could also be the next thing to come true …
Coming in at number 9 we have Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2.
This RTS game was released by EA in October 2000.
The game was a huge success and sold very well.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Then, less than a year after its release - the September 11th Attacks happened.
Afterwards, people went back to the game and noticed that the cover artwork had a disturbing
resemblance to the actual attacks.
There you can see a plane flying right towards the twin towers as explosions go off everywhere.
EA scrambled to release a new version of the covert art.
The plane heading towards the towers was replaced with a US flag and a mushroom cloud.
EA even offered people who owned the old version to exchange it for a new version.
They did still keep the twin towers in the actual game as part of the campaign.
Many people were creeped out by the sight of the towers, explosions and a plane that
was released just months before it actually happened.
Next up at number 8 we have The Human Genome Project.
Some of you may have heard of the Civilization games, theyre hugely popular, I myself have
probably lost days of my life to them.
Well, theyre all the brainchild of game developer Sid Meirs.
He didnt just make Civilization though, he was also responsible for Alpha Centauri.
It was released in 1999 and featured a tech tree where players could progress a space
colony through scientific projects to gain permanent stat upgrades.
One of these was called the Human Genome Project - the idea was that once your Civilization
had mapped out the sequence of human DNA, it would unlock great potential in medicine
and our understanding of genes.
At the time, many players thought this was just a quirky game gimmick, but 4 years after
the games release, the international scientific community announced they had mapped the human
genome in real life, with the help of people all over the world.
They had first started it in 1990 but it took 13 years for them to complete it.
Some people say that Alpha Centauri predicted the projects successful completion and the
impact it would have on science.
Next up at number 7 now we have Madden.
Madden is the extremely popular American Football game by EA.
A new one is released each year with the aim to improve on what came before.
One of the things that EA strives towards is realism - realism in players by making
them as fast, strong and skilled as they are in real life and realism in teams by giving
them realistic results against other teams.
One sign that they have succeeded is the games ability to predict the outcome of the super
bowl.
For the last 10 superbowls, the game has been setup to simulate each game before it happens
- using this, EA have successfully predicted the outcome of the super bowl 8 times out
of 10 - 80% is very good - if betters wanted a system to help them when it comes to the
superbowl, its strange to think that Madden might be their best option.
Moving on to number 6 we have Ghost Recon.
When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it shocked many people all over the world.
The conflict lasted for 5 days until a ceasefire was agreed.
Some people who might not have been surprised were fans of Tom Clancys Ghost Recon.
The 2001 game features ultra nationalist Russians trying to take over Georgia with the help
of Rebels.
The game was also set in 2008, the exact same year that something very similar happened.
In the game, the US is alarmed by whats happening and deploys the Ghosts, a special force unit,
into Georgia to stop the Russians.
They end up taking the fight all the way to Moscow itself.
Granted, thats not how the real events played out - like I said earlier, the conflict was
just 5 days and did not involve any special US forces, at least no0ne that we know of.
Still, many people were surprised that the game included a conflict and a year than match
up so closely with real life events.
Some people say they knew something we didnt, others say this was just a coincidence, what
do you guys think?
Coming in at number 5 we have Pacman.
For as long as there have been video games, there have been critics saying that they leave
a negative impact on children - that video games can affect what they grow up to be,
violent video games create violent people - not true from everything Ive seen but thats
beside the point.
The comedia Marcus Brigstocke was once talking about this and he joked that -If Pac-Man had
affected us as kids, wed all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening
to repetitive electronic music- … I hate to be the one to explain a joke, kinda kills
it, but Im going to for those of you who might be confused - he's referring to the rave scene
of the early 90s which saw many young adults doing exactly what he said - running around
in dark rooms, munching pills as in drugs and listening to repetitive electronic music.
These people would have been the perfect age for Pac Man in 1980, the year the game came
out.
Its obviously a joke but some people have latched onto it and truly believe that Pac
Man either influenced or predicted the rise of the rave scene around the world.
Next up at number 4 we have Deus Ex.
This game is set in 2052.
It shows a world that has moved forward to the point of transhumanism where humans and
robots have become intertwined.
They may be right about this, they may be wrong - well have to wait to find out.
One prediction thats already come and gone though has creeped a lot of people out.
In parts of the game, you can see the New York City skyline - a number of famous buildings
can be picked out but interestingly, not the twin towers.
You might think theres nothing strange about this - every game showing the New York skyline
that came after 9/11 hasnt featured the twin towers.
Well heres the kicker, Deus Ex came out in 2000, a full year before the events of 9/11.
Eidos, the game creators, said that the reason they didnt include the twin towers in the
game was because of technical limitations and an effort to try and save memory space.
The weird thing is, the reason they gave for this in the game was that the towers had been
destroyed … by terrorism.
This may just be one very creepy coincidence but some people believe it was a not so subtle
prediction of events to come …
Next up at number 3 we have Metal Gear Rising.
This hack and slash game was released by Konami in 2013.
One of the games characters is a Colarado Senator called Steven Armstrong.
He has hopes of becoming President one day.
He's not a good guy by any stretch of the imagination - at one point he has Raiden,
the main character of the series, under his foot.
As he pushes him into the ground and raves about his twisted vision for the future of
America, including his promise to -Make America Great Again- … you might recognise that
line from somewhere.
The game came out in 2013, two years before Donald Trump even ran for President - some
people say that Metal Gear Rising predicted that someone would rise to power using this
phrase, those who don't like Trump might even go further and say that the characters bully
like nature was a sign of things to come.
Of course, this isnt the first time that people have ever used the phrase -Make a country
great again!- but this one seemed to raise a lot of eyebrows …
Next up at number 2 we have we have Mercenaries 2.
This action adventure video game was released in 2008.
The games story depicted the Venezuelan President trying to gain control of an American oil
platform.
Upon the games release, the real Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was furious at the
game makers and America in general.
He said that the game was nothing more than American propaganda designed to get support
from American citizens for an invasion of Venezuela.
In hindsight, this seems a bit ridiculous - if a government wanted to earn support for
a war from its people, I think it has better tools than video games.
Perhaps his anger was because he thought that people had figured out because, amazingly,
he did exactly what the game said he would do.
In 2010, the Venezuelan government decided to seize the assets of US oil rigs.
They took control of 11 drillings rigs that were US owned without any compensation.
I wonder if he ever played the video game …
And finally at number 1 now we have Smash TV.
These days, reality TV is everywhere - its almost hard to imagine a time when there werent
shows like it - but there was.
In 1990, a game called Smash TV.
Characters take part in an extreme game show where they fight for their lives while millions
of captivated people watch from home.
Think of it like hunger games but for the arcade.
Players had to enter life or death fights in an arena and nobody could leave till the
bloody end.
Some people look back at this game and think it was quite prophetic - we may not be watching
the real life hunger games on our TVs every week, but the internet seems to think that
Smash TV was onto something.
In 1990, years before shows like Survivor or The Bachelor were popular, this game predicted
a world of people obsessed with reality shows.
Lets hope they got the violent hunger games style prediction wrong …