Have You Played… Garry’s Mod?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

I know what you’re looking for. You’re looking for a game that let’s you be a janitor in a school riddled with drug dealers and class clowns. But also a game that will let you be a cop fighting robbers. But also a game where you are a soldier in World War 3. But also a game in which you are a prison guard keeping rowdy inmates in check. But also a game where you can be a footballer. But also--

Garry’s Mod is, by now, a must-own sandbox game. The building tools let you create stupid art installations out of old boots and brickwork textures, sure, but the more enterprising modders have come up with their own invariably wacky game modes. Role play servers are plentiful, with folks more interested in giving and taking orders, or making a scene, than in shooting each other in the head on sight. There’s high-school antics next to post-apocalyptic patrols, and so much more all housed on one big server list.

It might take a while to fiddle about with texture packs and settings, but there are whole communities passing their days in surreal disagreements over the changing laws of each world. And if you haven’t taken a look, even as a role-play tourist, you are missing out on some of the silliest stuff PC gaming has to offer.