There’s never been a better time in history to be a gamer, with a huge array of platforms and services out there now offering diverse gameplay experiences accommodating every genre or format you can imagine. But with so many options now on the table, it can be difficult knowing where to start.
What’s more, it can be challenging to identify the hidden gems among a mountain of knock-offs and clones. Fortunately, there are robust strategies any gamer on the lookout for a new title can adopt in order to make the process of finding their next game both simple and easy. Let’s take a look.
Comparison Platforms
Online comparison platforms are websites and apps that are built around collating recommended brands, goods or services in a given sector. Many people are familiar with comparison platforms from their experiences in shopping for insurance on their homes or vehicles, with popular brands in that space such as The Zebra and CompareTheMarket doing much to establish this popular format.
What many do not realize though, is that there are online comparison platforms operating both in many different market sectors, and in regions all over the world. It is for this reason that iGaming fans across the Arab world can turn to ArabianBetting to get a top-list of the best online casinos available to them in their region.
This site ranks the top gaming providers across the Arabian Gulf, and offers up competitive welcome bonuses and other sign-up offers to their patrons. This not only makes it a great means of discovering new gameplay experiences, with each provider reviewed and ranked based on their merits and features, but one of the most cost-effective ways of tracking down real-money platforms thanks to the promotional offers on hand.
Metacritic Ratings
There are several platforms out there that seek to collate the critical consensus on a given game in one place to make it easy for users to see which titles are well acclaimed. While the best known of these is Rotten Tomatoes, the one with the most comprehensive features has got to be Metacritic.
Unlike Rotten Tomatoes, which scores games on what percentage of reviewers reflected favorably on it, Metacritic aims to establish an average score based on the ratings of each review it draws upon. This means that it is able to offer the most accurate picture of how good a game is, especially when compared to other similar titles.
What’s more, Metacritic lets you read the source reviews from each critic right from within its site, empowering you to make your own mind-up about whether the critical rating is warranted. With so many games coming out each year, using Metacritic can be a very effective means of quickly assessing whether a game is worth your investment, which can only save you time and money in the long run.
Algorithmic Suggestions
While it may be useful to know that a game is critically acclaimed, that is not the same thing as guaranteeing that you will personally enjoy it. One good alternative is to let the various algorithms you interact with on a daily basis suggest titles instead.
As algorithms such as the Google Play Store’s suggested apps and Xbox Game Pass’ recommendations actively build a profile of your preferences based on what games you play, and how often, over time they can become very effective at figuring out what new games you would likely enjoy.
While this is an imperfect science, often algorithms can identify key themes about certain games that you like and can recommend more in this vein. For example, fans of Assassins’ Creed Valhalla may find that they will enjoy playing God of War Ragnarok as, for all their differences, both are still third person action games set in the viking world.
Award Winners
Checking on the winners and nominees of the major gaming award ceremonies, such as The Game Awards, the Golden Joystick Awards and the British Academy Games Awards can be a good way to discover new games. What’s more, as many of these award events host prizes for a number of categories, you can use them to find quality games in a given genre quickly.
For example, among the 2024 Game Awards categories you’ll find one for the Best Sports/Racing Game, with F1 22, FIFA 23, Gran Turismo 7, OlliOlli World and NBA 2K23 all nominated as top quality games in that genre.
