Nowadays, the internet offers a veritable feast of online gaming options for you to enjoy solo whenever the mood takes you. While getting together for a game night is all very well if you live down the road from your mates – what options are available if you want to take on your friends that live further afield? Fortunately, the internet connects us all, making online gaming with friends across the world easy as pie. Today, we’re running through 10 of the best choices for interactive play, ranging from online poker all the way to Grand Theft Auto.
1 – Online poker
Let’s start with the obvious choice – online poker. And what better way to spend an evening than in an online poker room, taking your friends’ money. Choose a poker room with a chat function and you can even enjoy the usual banter you would around the kitchen table. Plus, playing online ensures you don’t have to shell out for beers, and that your mates don’t scoff all the Doritos!
2 – Dead by Daylight
What if we told you there’s a game that lets you combine multiplayer action, with horror characters more suited to a movie night? Enter – Dead by Daylight. This superb multiplayer game, available for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One, allows one group to assume the roles of a wide variety of cult killers, including Freddie Kruger, Jason, Michael Myers and the Jigsaw Killer. The other group? You guessed it…potential teenage victims. Expect slasher-style jump-a-minute play, with a healthy dose of competition thrown in. Another great option if you’re a slasher flick fanatic is Friday the 13th: The Game, which allows up to eight players. One of your crew assumes the role of Jason, and the rest have to work together (or go it alone, if they dare), to take down Jason and survive the night.
3 – Left for Dead 2
If you and your friends are in the mood for some first-person shooter action, look no further than Left For Dead 2, available for PC, Xbox One and Xbox360. This is one for you adrenaline-junkies, who want to spend your night of interactive gaming on the edge of your seats. There has been an apocalypse and killing zombies is the name of the game. Although Left For Dead 2 is almost a decade old, the hint of nostalgia it evokes will take you and your friends back to the days of gaming together when there weren’t so many miles between you.
4 – Hunt: Showdown
How does a night of monster hunting sound? This excellent first-person shooter, bounty hunter game, allows you and two others to form a team and head into 1890s rural United States, where terrifying beasts roam. Available on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One, there are a few elements that make this a real winner. Firstly, you and your team have to solve clues to establish the monster’s location. Next, you must hunt the monster down and take it out. Finally, you have to make it to safety, which may sound easy, but things aren’t so simple when other teams are aiming to kill you and seize the monster hunting trophy for themselves. This is a tense game, which requires good communication – making it a perfect option to enjoy with friends.
5 –GTA Online: Bikers
Another old-school classic for between 2-8 players, is Grand Theft Auto. Imagine if you and your mates had your own motorcycle gang…now you can, complete with jackets, clubhouse, leadership roles (and perks), formations to ride in and missions to carry out.
6 – Battlefield 1
For some military action, incredible attention to detail and battles that allow up to 64 participants, check out Battlefield 1. The game explores the battlefields of World War 1, and what makes the game special is that rather than following just one narrative, Battlefield 1 splits into multiple missions each following different single soldiers and their specific experiences in battle. Each chapter you and your friends unlock is different enough to keep you engaged, and they should take around an hour each. Perfect for a full evening’s entertainment.
7 – A Way Out
This jailbreak game is a real winner if there are just two of you looking to play, and is available for the PS4, PC and Xbox One. Choose which of you is the brains and which is the muscle, because you will have to work as an effective duo throughout if you have any hope of making it out alive.
8 –Rainbow Six Siege
This Counter-Strike style game allows you and your mates to choose your own adventure. Do you fancy hunting a terrorist? Freeing hostages? Finding and diffusing a bomb? This is ideal if you and your friends fancy a tactical challenge with a real focus on teamwork. Plus, it offers the chance to have some fun with battering rams, drones and all types of fun tools.
9 – Minecraft
We can’t justifiably create a list of games you can play online with your friends and not list Minecraft! Up to eight players can meet in this online world, to build, mine, battle, explore…the options of what you and your buddies choose to get up to on your online game night, are endless.
10 – PAYDAY 2
Plan and execute your own heist with Payday 2, which is available across most consoles and allows up to four players. If you’re a fan of heist movies, you will love this game, especially as there are plenty of nods to heist movies along the way, plus a healthy dose of popculture references. Choose your target, assume your individual roles, and go for the prize.
