Online video games have been a staple in our society for over 30 years now. However, the rise of the internet caused them to evolve from small screens at home into online-only games with players from across the globe connecting their computers.
While this is a great way to play with friends and meet new people, it’s also opened up a whole can of worms when it comes to finding good games.
How to Find Good Online Games
Finding a quality online game is not as easy as it sounds due to the sheer number of websites out there. Technology advancement has led to multiple games online. To make this process easier for those gamers who may be new to the genre, follow these steps each time you want to try a new title:
Check For Those Games With Benefits
Not all online games are created equal, so it’s essential to understand what kind of benefits you can get by playing them. Some games come with free bookie bets while others offer perks. These perks come in the form of things that directly benefit your accounts, such as cosmetic or convenience items or things that allow you to have an advantage over other players. An example of the former would be unique skins for weapons and armor, while an example of the latter would be experience boosts. Whatever your preference is, make sure you look for this info before diving into a game.
Play A Trial Of The Game First
If you go straight from looking at the website to playing it, there’s a chance that you’ll end up spending money on something not worth buying. Instead of wasting your money on unknown titles, play a trial version of the game and see if you enjoy it. Most games offer at least 10 minutes of gameplay for free, so take advantage of this to make sure you don’t regret spending your money on something not worth it.
Search For Genre
Once you land on a game that has piqued your interest, click around and find out what genre it belongs to and what makes it different from other titles. You can then use this information to determine if that’s something you might be interested in or not. Common genres include first-person shooters (FPS), strategy, survival horror, racing, and simulation. Next, thoroughly investigate one of these games as they’re generally played more often than others due to their larger fanbase and how they make money through microtransactions/paid expansions after release.
Check Out The Competition
In modern times, many games have been released that are very similar to other titles. As such, it’s only natural for gamers to want to know what makes them unique before they go ahead and pick one over the other. There are several ways you can look into this; firstly, there will be reviews online written by people who purchased the game themselves or watched gameplay videos on YouTube. These should give you an idea of how good (or bad) each contest is but always remember that not everyone has the same opinion as you, so check out multiple sources before making any decisions.
Secondly, other titles may feature similar mechanics or offer something completely different through unique concepts or genre mixing. Sometimes these will even become more popular than their predecessor (League of Legends beat DotA 2 to the MOBA genre, for example), and you would want to know about them before committing your time and money.
Use Forums And Social Media
If you’re still looking for more information, there are several places where communities of people who have played these games gather together regularly. Look up forums associated with the title in question and see if anyone has written anything about it or ask questions yourself. There might also be subreddits, Facebook groups, or pages dedicated to specific games their developers have tagged to get more exposure from anyone visiting them.
Experience Screenshots or Trailers
See if any screenshots or trailers of the game in question exist and take a look at them so you can get some idea as to what it looks like, how big it is, and what gameplay may be like. The more available videos, the better an impression you’ll get, which should help with decision-making. However, just because they’re great-looking doesn’t mean that they’ll run on your machine properly or be enjoyable when you play them yourself. Also, note that while pre-release footage might not always show a game in its best light, it’s similar to a movie teaser and tells you next to nothing about what the complete experience will be like when the game is launched.
In some cases, you’ll find an active Discord group letting players chat while they play, many of which are happy to answer any questions that someone new might have. Remember that trolling and flaming are more common than most people think, so always tread carefully around these places and be aware of the golden rule: never talk about /r/gaming with outsiders.
Look At Reviews/Metacritic Scores
If you’ve done everything I’ve suggested above, then getting your hands on review scores should be accessible now. Metacritic will tell you what critics thought about the game. Still, it’s best used as a way of finding out if there are any significant issues (such as bugs or poor optimisation) within the title that may detract from your experience. It’s not necessarily reliable for getting an idea of whether or not you would enjoy a game, though. In some cases, it might even be worth looking up the lowest score and seeing how many of them came from respected journalists or people who have been proven to give inaccurate reviews in the past through their use of sockpuppet accounts.
So, that’s about all you need to know to avoid any significant problems when looking for new games to play. Remember that it pays off to be picky because your time is limited, and many great experiences are waiting for you on PC. As mentioned above, PC has an abundance of notable titles to play. The only downside is figuring out what to start first.
