Since Theresa May invoked Article 50, there has been a mystifying surge in video games set in Britain. They come in all shapes and sizes, from Nintendo's Pokémon Sword and Shield, which riffs on the architecture of Oxbridge and London, to PanicBarn's anti-Brexit polemic Not Tonight. Most began development long before the EU referendum, but they are useful explorations of national identity at a time when what Britain stands for is hotly contested. Gary Younge has described the Brexit debate as a clash between stories about Britain's past and our ideas of Britishness. How, then, might these video games help us think about what Britain is today? In the 9th-century, Britain was not one but several nations, a mass of warring Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Viking kingdoms.

What does it take to turn Australia into a video game? Launching Tuesday, Xbox's Forza Horizon 3 is the racing series' largest world so far and perhaps its most visually ambitious. The game puts the player in charge of the car-loving Horizon Festival, allowing them to explore the continent in more than 350 different vehicles. SEE ALSO: Riot Games addresses the many issues of'League of Legends' esports The game has previously been set in the U.S. and western Europe, but Brown told Mashable Australia was always top of the short list as a potential setting. "It has this incredibly diverse environment -- rainforest, the Outback, modern areas and coastal areas. In terms of the beautiful world we could create, it was perfect," he said.