VG caught up with Johnny between sessions at The Carriagehouse, a Connecticut studio where he recently began recording tracks for his upcoming release, his fourth on PointBlank, and tentatively scheduled for release next Spring. He has made a full recovery and recently returned from a summer tour of Sweden. In late 2000, Johnny was sidelined with a broken hip after a fall at his home. Also recently released is the Pieces and Bits video (VG, June ’01), a compilation of video clips throughout the years. Live In NYC captures the grit and fire that made Winter a living legend. ![]() 1998 saw the release the critically acclaimed Live in NYC, a bold testament to his enduring feel for raw blues which contained tributes to Freddie King and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. In the ’80s, Winter was inducted into the Blue’s Foundation’s Hall of Fame and recorded three albums for Alligator, including the excellent Guitar Slinger, before settling in at his current home of PointBlank records. The team of Muddy and Johnny stayed together long enough to win two more Grammys, for 1978’s I’m Ready and 1979’s Muddy Mississippi Waters Live. In addition to being a world-class guitarist, Winter won a Grammy in 1977 for producing Muddy Waters’ landmark comeback album, Hard Again. Throughout the ’70s, Winter released a slew of successful albums, often with collaborator Rick Derringer, including the now classic Johnny Winter AND Live, and Still Alive and Well, his comeback following a debilitating substance abuse problem. The trio soon built a following in Austin and Houston, which resulted in a Rolling Stone magazine writer calling Winter “…the hottest item outside of Janis Joplin.” The subsequent buzz culminated in a major-label bidding war, concluding with Winter signing with Columbia Records in ’69 and recording his highly regarded self-titled debut album shortly after. ![]() In 1968, after deciding to concentrate solely on blues, Johnny assembled a trio with bassist Tommy Shannon (today with Double Trouble) and drummer Uncle John Turner. Unfortunately, he was unable to break into the Chicago blues scene and soon moved back to Texas, where he played in various blues and rock and roll outfits for the next few years. ![]() In the early ’60s, Johnny cut singles for several regional labels before moving to Chicago to immerse himself in the blues scene, jamming with local blues legends and a young Mike Bloomfield, among others. A true original in the Texas guitar slinger tradition of T-Bone Walker, Freddie King, and Albert Collins, Winter’s instantly recognizable guitar style and gravely roar have gained him a worldwide following and reverence in the rock and blues communities.īorn in Beaumont, Texas, in 1944, Winter and his younger brother, Edgar, played in a variety of local rock and roll bands before they made their recording debut for Dart Records in ’59. John Dawson Winter has been a troubadour for the blues for over 40 years, plying his razor sharp licks from the Texas roadhouses where he first cut his teeth in the early ’60s through the massive audiences of rock festivals like Woodstock, to his world tours of the present day.
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If you’re into war-based video games you’re probably already familiar with this one. Hearts of Iron IV can still give you a realistic look at how wars are fought on a large scale even without trying to perfectly recreate historical events. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Given that your actions have a direct impact on the course of the war, you will inevitably end up playing through an alternate version of WW2. You can take control of any nation that was around at the time while leading its armies and engaging in politics as you see fit. The game goes to great lengths to replicate the political situation present at the start of World War 2. Whereas most other games on this list allow you to control an individual soldier or a squad of soldiers, Hearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy game that puts you in charge of an entire nation. ![]() We’re moving away from first-person shooters to talk about something a bit different. To add even more realism, the game’s HUD lacks traditional FPS elements like a health bar, ammo count, or even a minimap. Avoiding getting shot at is a top priority in this game regardless of what mode you’re playing. Most weapons pack a serious punch and there’s no respawn system. With Security forces using modern guns like the M4 carabine and the Insurgents being restricted to older weaponry like the AK-47 and even some WW2-era guns. Similarly, the weapons are also based on real-world counterparts. Meanwhile, the Insurgents are based on groups like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The Security faction is comprised of the equivalent of real-world militaries like the US SOCOM or NATO forces. Players can join one of two teams – Security and Insurgents – and work together to complete objectives in versus or co-op modes. But while the setting may be fictional, Insurgency: Sandstorm is easily among the most realistic war-based games out there in terms of close quarters guerilla-style combat. This next game isn’t based on a real war but it was clearly inspired by many of the real conflicts that have been raging across the Middle East over the past several decades. ![]() There’s no health regeneration or anything like that and bandages are only good for preventing blood loss. Likewise, don’t expect to be able to heal in this game. You’ll get a sense of the number of rounds found in a magazine when you reload but don’t expect any specific numbers. The HUD doesn’t feature an ammo counter so you’ll need to either check manually or just try to remember how many bullets you have left. You’ll need to take into account things like bullet drop, bullet spin, and cover when firing at an opponent. Red Orchestra 2 puts a lot of emphasis on realism, especially when it comes to guns. Despite being a little over a decade old at this point, Red Orchestra 2 still holds up pretty well in terms of both graphics and gameplay. Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of StalingradĪnother WW2-based title, Red Orchestra 2 is one of the best war-based video games centering around the Battle of Stalingrad. Namely, The Battle for Moscow, The Invasion of Normandy, the Battle of Tunisia, and the Battle of Berlin. Matches are fought across four campaigns based on real-world battles. Infantry squads, tank crews, and aircraft fight each other on massive battlefields that can potentially host hundreds of soldiers at once, including bots. In addition, you can also recruit new specialists to bolster your forces. Though squads are fairly basic at first, they can be upgraded with better equipment over the course of the game. You can only control one of these soldiers directly (with the rest being controlled by AI) but can switch between them at any time. Each with their own unique specializations and weapons. Unlisted gives you command over a squad of anywhere between 4 and 9 soldiers. However, the main focus this time around is on the infantry. Just like its older brother, Enlisted features realistic vehicular combat complete with an extensive collection of tanks and aircraft to choose from. ![]() EnlistedĮnlisted is a squad-based MMOFPS released in early 2021 by Gaijin Entertainment, the same company that brought us War Thunder. If you’re looking for titles set further back in time, you may want to check out our list of top 10 grand strategy games. For the purposes of this list, we’re primarily looking at games that depict warfare in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. With that in mind, we invite you to join us as we take a look at the top 15 most realistic war-based video games of all time. But while some franchises go out of their way to glorify war and turn it into an over-the-top spectacle, there are still examples of war-based video games that try to keep things grounded. Video games as a whole aren’t exactly known for conveying the horrors of war in a realistic manner, with popular series like Call of Duty and Battlefield doing a particularly bad job at it. ![]() This was perhaps not an entirely bad thing, as Civ2 did away with some of the overly educational aspects of the game, like random quiz questions about old inventions, and was generally well-received by critics. Though the game was an official part of the Civilization franchise, and was produced by the same company as CivI, its creator, Sid Meier, had nothing to do with the production of Civ2 (nor did his partner, Bruce Shelley). Like its predecessor, the game came with a real-life, full-sized map of the tech tree that you could proudly post over your computer desk for easy reference. ![]() Graphics were vastly improved in Civ2, and the tech tree was expanded significantly. One who played valiantly and didn't let other civs push them around might get " the Conquerer," "the Great," or even "the Magnificent," while those that avoided conflict or development might be called "the Pathetic."Ĭiv2 also took one of the franchise's many baby steps towards acknowledging progress outside Western Civilization, adding the Japanese as a choice to the civ smorgasbord, and including Sun Tzu's War Academy as one of the seven Renaissance wonders of the world. This was also the version of Civilization that attempted to be the most equitable with regard to gender: each tribe had a male and female leader option.Īnother series tradition that Civ2 started was that of awarding players titles once a game concluded. The second installment began a long trend of adding and mixing up new civilizations, adding the Sioux and Vikings among others, and giving the Russians a little more credit by making their leaders Lenin and Catherine the Great. It introduced hit points into the combat system, so wars were not won and lost in single turns. The best you could do was stir your country into anarchy and make the council too angry to talk to you.Īside from the high council, Civ2 was a vast improvement from the original. Why? Because Sid Meier paid those voice actors for full eight-hour days, dammit, and you're going to listen to every word they say. And stay.Įven though you were the supreme ultimate ruler of your civilization, you couldn't even fire them. Banish any mental images you have of spears glancing off a tank's steel, because phalanxes are here to stay. A decently experienced phalanx unit fortified on a mountain could defeat a modern tank in a single turn. Players tried to settle cities, build units to protect their empire, and conduct diplomacy, while watching some of the more belligerent leaders, like Alexander the Great, do his best to steamroll everyone else's cities before his phalanxes became obsolete.īut who are we kidding? In the slightly screwy combat system that would come to characterize Civ gameplay, phalanxes never became obsolete. Starting in 4000 BC, players worked to develop their civilization by building wonders and researching technologies, a concept lifted in large part from a board game of the same name released in 1980. Montezuma began a long and storied reign as a massive jerk, the English wanted to know why they had to be pink on the map, and since the game was developed at the tail end of the Cold War, the Russians were led by Joseph Stalin. In the beginning, there was, counterintuitively, Civilization. |
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