Battle Royale games over the past year or so have caught us all by surprise with it’s momentum gaining popularity. There are several battle royale games out there now and all have a different aspect to them but at the end of the day they are all a last man standing takes the top prize. The first battle royale game I played was The Culling. The Culling was heavily focused on melee attacks and you won’t find a wide range of guns lying around the map as those are very rare and you can only obtain those when you have enough in-game currency to open a special crate. The Culling focused more on crafting weapons or traps and armor to help you survive when you get into those up close and personal battles with your enemy’s. 16 players total in this battle royale game and the last man standing wins.     It’s been awhile since I was a PC gamer so next on my list of battle royale games was Fortnite as it became free to play as an extra mode on the Xbox One and PS4. At this time I knew about PUBG and trust me I was very close to upgrading my PC rig( my laptop and PC are ancient) just for that game but I held off. The reason for holding off was because we had rumors of this game coming to Xbox One. Fortnite “stole” the idea from PUBG as 100 players drop out of a plane (or party bus) and parachute down to certain points on the map. You then loot areas looking for weapons and other items to help you survive. Fortnite developers took some heat from the PUBG legal team as they tried to sue them for stealing the idea. That’s ok though a little healthy competition is good right?. Fortnite does take a different approach by adding a pretty unique twist as you are able to build using materials you find. Building walls to protect you during gun battles, or even a ramp just to get you to a higher vantage point is something PUBG or The Culling can’t offer you.  Nonetheless each game has it’s unique traits to keep you hooked.     Both Fortnite and PUBG are doing very well and I don’t see them dying off anytime soon. Increasing fan base for both games continue to grow and updates are happening more and more to improve gameplay on both consoles and PC. I am sure down the road we will see quite a few new battle royale games emerge and there have been rumors of AAA titles like COD and Battlefield looking to add battle royale game modes as well but I guess we will wait and see. After playing these 3 BR games I was instantly hooked on the genre. Battle royale matches are never the same, each round, each kill and even where you spawn in the map. That is what makes them so much fun. You never know what is going to happen and this is why players keep coming back for more and more. Now remember what makes these games so exciting is how you only have one life. You can’t just run in get killed and respawn again. Once you die you will need to back out and start a new game. As you inch closer to victory your heart starts racing and your palms are just dripping with sweat in hopes that you can out shoot or out melee your final opponents. I am drawn to BR games because of the one life is all you get. It makes for more intense matches, more strategy needs to be put into place to help you get to the end. When looting you never get the same items in the same place or even the safe zones on maps will never be the same. It’s always rotating and you have to adapt to how the map is working and what loot you get to help you make it to the end. I can recall a time making it to the final 15 in PUBG with our squad in tact and only a shotgun to help me survive. After successfully taking out another team I was able to loot their weapons and pack more of punch to push the final circle where we came out on top and got to eat that yummy chicken dinner. I love the communication aspect for this genre which is crucial when playing in squads which you can only do in PUBG and Fortnite, The Culling only allows for duos. There is no other game out there where in one round you completely hate you friends for leaving you alone to get rushed by another full team but in another game praise them for their amazing back up to help you get the win. It’s little things like that keep me coming back and I am sure other players are the same. Maybe its just something different we are seeing with this genre that has us excited instead of our regular team deathmatch with respawns. I mean everyone has their own reasons for enjoying certain types of games ofcourse.     Battle royale games keep players coming back with its unique game style and the ability to always have each match you play a being a different scenario you need to navigate yourself and your team through. With the growing popularity in this genre look for future titles to be releasing as battle royale only and existing titles will need to update and evolve to make sure they don’t lose fans. The action packed gameplay keeps me coming back and I will always be a fan if this genre going forward. The future looks bright for this genre.   Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!   Cheers Folks!