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Exploring tombs, flying spaceships, working as a magical pest-control man with cool eyes - these are all things we're unlikely to do in our lifetime. But some games don't deal with lofty fantasies. Instead, they let us experience a more down-to-earth fantasy of working in a vocation that we simply can't be arsed to learn for real.VA-11 HALL-A - or Valhalla, which is less of a mouthful - is a PC game that trades in this kind of fantasy. It belongs to the same category as Papers, Please, Harvest Moon and Euro Truck Simulator, but, rather than navigating bureaucracy, agriculture or trucking, Valhalla focuses on the art of bartending - something that can be exciting, but often isn't.
I used to work in a bar. Not the kind that you find in London, where the entrance is hidden inside a biscuit tin and you have to give a password to a pig before you're allowed in, or where the drinks are expensive, on fire and topped with a caramelised duck foetus. Mine was the kind of bar that should really be called a pub. You usually find these kinds of bar nestled somewhere between the only Post Office for 40 miles and a grotty newsagents.
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