Five Ways To Play Games When The Internet Goes Down

If you are a major gamer like me, then you will at some point have probably gotten stuck in a rut when the internet has gone down! It’s an irritating moment as it feels like you can only have fun when the internet is available. But is that really the case? It has been especially irritating in recent months for me as the internet has gone down at least once every week. It’s almost like clockwork as for a time it would always happen on Mondays, and while that trend has ended, it still doesn’t stop it from going down. I would look on the Virgin Media internet status thing and type in the postcode, and it wouldn’t say anything about an outage in the area, but still I would have no internet access. Personally I think there is a fault with the router.

Video Games are fun to play and whilst they do have a few internet options or maybe some will have DRM functionalities, this doesn’t necessarily apply to all games. So I thought I would share some options as to what you could do if the internet suddenly went down restricting your gaming pleasure. Enjoy!

5. Fighting Fantasy Books – Warhammer is a great hobby, provided you know at least one other person who plays it too (not knocking it, it is rather fun). Not all games are restricted to ones that are programmed and require powerful graphics cards. Some games can be played away from the screen, sometimes on a table, and using nothing more than a pen, paper and a dice. To this end you could consider trying a Fighting Fantasy book. These are solo player RPG‘s which come in the form of a book, and revolve around going on a quest, and turning to a specific page for a specific event. They can be quite fun if you haven’t tried them before, plus there have been several books published; which vary in theme and setting, providing a few hours of solo entertainment.

4. Strategy Games – Strategy games can vary in theme and style. You have things like the epic RTS Games of Supreme Commander and Age of Empires, to business simulation games like Planet Coaster or Stardew Valley. While in many cases they do feature some online play, they also provide single player campaigns and skirmishes; which can be played with or without online functionality. As a veteran strategy gamer, I know how enjoyable these games can be by simply selecting the skirmish options and playing against the computer.

3. Play on Another Console – Whilst the internet may have gone down on your computer, it may not be the same for any other device. It could be a simple fault with your dongle for instance. Anyway if you want to get gaming rather than messing around with cables, simply play on another machine, like a Switch for instance. You could also use this as an opportunity to test what is going on with the internet connection by seeing if it will connect to your current machine of choice. Anyway, choosing a games console also means you can choose a game on disc or cartridge, which usually work without needing any form of internet connection.

2. Board Games – Much like the Fighting Fantasy option above, Board Games don’t require screens, power or even an internet connection to play. Most of the time the only requirement is a surface to play on, like the floor or a table. You may also need to find someone to play a board game with, but many tabletop games out there do come with a solo game option too, mostly in the form of an AI character rule sheet (including all the rules they play by). So, for a completely unique experience, you could consider trying out a board game’s solo rules option (if you can’t find anyone to play with)?

1. GOG – If you want to continue playing on the PC, you may find that a struggle as some features may require internet access. But then again this doesn’t apply to all games; so as an alternative you could consider downloading one or two games off GOG.com ahead of time. GOG.com features a wide selection of games from classics to new indie releases, and has for many years prided itself on providing DRM free games. To this end, you can install and play games from their website, and continue to play them uninterrupted; even when the internet lights go down!