10 of the Best Video Game Sites

Video games are a big part of the modern entertainment industry, even surpassing the movie industry in profits. But where would we be without video game information websites? They help us decide what games to buy, which ones to look forward to, and even how to get through difficult spots in the games we already have. The gaming industry itself therefore relies on these websites, promoting their games and ensuring that the good games rise to the top while the inferior games sink to the bottom.

here's the top 10 of the best video game sites:

10 - Metacritic (Metacritic.com/games)

This website gives people what they really want to know about games, and gives it to them in an easy format. Metacritic brings together reviews of music, games, TV shows, and DVDs and averages numerical totals of all the combined reviews to form a singular number that gives the reader an idea of how entertaining or mediocre the product is. With video games, this is equivalent to reading dozens of game reviews and then averaging the writers’ opinions about them.

9 - Gamespot (Gamespot.com)

Gamespot is a website that gives readers news, previews, trailers, reviews, and demo downloads. At the time of writing this article, Gamespot.com is the 267th most visited website in the US and 313th worldwide. The site has been presented with many awards and commendations, including winning Webby Awards multiple years in a row. Gamespot covers all the major platforms: PC, Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3. And recently, Gamespot has also added iPhones and even Android devices to its video game information coverage.
This is a sort of one-stop shop for all your gaming needs!

8 - Reddit.com/r/gaming

Reddit.com is a social news media website. But to compare it to Gamespot.com or any other gaming website would not be fair, because Reddit covers much more than just gaming. The site consists of “subreddits,” which resemble subforums on a forum board—and one of these subreddits is /gaming. This site enables users to post their own content and then discuss it through comments. Thus, the reader can see the latest in video-game-related news and then discuss it with likeminded individuals.
For any video game enthusiast, the site is definitely worth checking out.

7 - Gametrailers (gametrailers.com)

Gametrailers.com is a video game website that focuses primarily on game trailers and recorded gameplay. The trailers can even be watched in High Definition if desired. In recent years, the site has expanded to include more reviews and comedic videos, but it is still based around watching the latest and greatest of trailers, getting gamers excited for upcoming releases. For the newest trailers out there, gametrailers.com should always be the first place to visit.

6 - The Escapist (escapistmagazine.com)

The Escapist promotes itself as an online magazine that covers video games, gaming industry, and gaming culture. On the website are various video series and editorial columns discussing games in our culture, including insightful analyses of the effect of games on everyday lives and the world around us.
However, the site is probably best known for Zero Punctuation. This is a series of video game reviews created by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw in a video format. Croshaw humorously criticizes games while giving the good ones backhanded compliments. If he says a game is even okay, then what he really means is it has game-of-the-year quality.

5 - IGN (IGN.com)

IGN is a news and reviews site for video games, movies, and music, although its primary focus is undoubtedly on games. The site includes reviews and up-to-date relevant articles on what’s happening in the video game industry—from discussions of upcoming games to behind-the-scenes looks at the companies behind the games. Its reviews have all kinds of media packed into them and are often a good first reference for reading about an upcoming game—every review has pictures, videos of gameplay, and trailers embedded into the text review itself.

4 - PC Gamer (Pcgamer.com)

PC Gamer is a top-selling gaming magazine that also has a popular online component. The site (and the magazine) focuses on recent news in the gaming world in addition to reviews, previews, hardware discussions, and “classic” gaming. PCGamer.com is notable for also including a separate section on the site for articles related to free pc games, including demos, free-to-play MMOs, browser-based games, and indie works. Most gaming websites do not acknowledge the realm of free games as important, even though most gamers would tell you that free games can be just as fun or significant as ones you spend $50 to play.
All things considered, PC Gamer is undeniably king when it comes to PC gaming.

3 - Kotaku (Kotaku.com)

Kotaku is, at its heart, a video game news website. There is no obvious division of news between “important” topics such as game release dates or “unimportant” topics such as humorous videos, but after getting used to the hodgepodge of news, Kotaku has countless interesting articles all in one place. Additionally, the topics on Kotaku include the kind of material that normal gaming websites would never discuss—such as the prominence of pirating software on various consoles or strange Japanese video games that may be offensive to certain individuals.

2 - GameRankings (Gamerankings.com)

The GameRankings website is a rating site comparable to Metacritic but it focuses only on video games. Additionally, it collects data from online and offline sources and even includes ratings for obscure and “classic” games from decades ago. The site lists all relevant reviews and then averages the values from any sites deemed notable—a small review blog may get listed but not averaged into the total rating, for example. Because of this particular system of rating calculation, including many other rules narrowing down what reviews are calculated into the total, GameRankings.com is usually the most accurate video game ranking site on the net.
Want to finally prove that Pokemon Silver/Gold is better than Pokemon Blue/Red? Then this is the site for you!

1 - GameFAQs (Gamefaqs.com)

Ah, GameFAQs. This site is actually owned by CBS, which also owns Gamespot (#9), but the website is undeniably worth mentioning in its own right. GameFAQs hosts frequently asked questions, walkthroughs, save files, reviews, screenshots, and cheats for video games. What is notable about this website is that almost all content is submitted voluntarily by the site’s users. All consoles are covered by GameFAQs, from PC, to Atari, to modern consoles.
Whenever a gamer gets stuck at any spot during a game, a quick visit to gamefaqs.com is all it takes to get past this bump in the road!

• Reference/Source: Toptenz.net by Steven Morgan of wix.com

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10 Nations/Countries Where Facebook Rocks and Rules

I first read the news here at AzraelsMerryland and he explained that “Philippines has the highest penetration of Facebook in the world at 93.9%. Penetration means the total number of Facebook users vs the total number of Internet users in the Philippines.”

The main source of the news came here at 247wallst.com and they showed here the Top 10 nations where Facebook rules the net, and they gave a nice stats based on data provided by comScore, Inside Facebook, New Media Trend Watch, and ZDNet and announced that the Philippines is the number 1 users of Facebook.

Here's the complete list:

10. Venezuela

Facebook: 86.2%
Twitter: 21.0%
LinkedIn: 3.2%
Internet Use: 37.7%

Venezuela has the third highest rate of Twitter use among Internet users. According to research firm comScore, 21% of Venezuela’s Internet users have Twitter accounts. The only countries with higher percentages are Indonesia and Brazil. America, by comparison, has a usage rate of 12%, the eleventh highest. Social media also plays a large role in Venezuelan politics. Hugo Chavez, the country’s president, has 1.5 million Twitter followers. He is the second-most followed political figure, behind only Barack Obama.

9. Colombia

Facebook: 86.9%
Twitter: 14.6%
LinkedIn: 3.3%
Internet Use: 48.7%

More than 86% of Colombians visited a social networking site in September, with Facebook leading the category. Visitors averaged 4.6 hours on the site during the month. Nearly 7 out of 10 Colombians visited a photo sharing site in September 2010 led by Facebook.com. Colombia is the fastest-growing Internet market in Latin America, growing 31% in the past year to reach 11.8 million unique visitors in September 2010, according to comScore. Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site in the country, with visitors having spent an average of 4.6 hours on the site during one month, of a total 20.4 hours spent online.

8. Peru

Facebook: 87.2%
Twitter: 12.5%
LinkedIn: 4.6%
Internet Use: 27%

Although a large portion of Peru’s Internet users are involved with social networking websites, it has a relatively small minority of people who use the Internet at all. As of January 2011, only 27% of Peruvians were online, one of the lowest rates among the Latin American countries. Peru also had the second slowest growth among Latin American countries of Internet users in 2010, according to Inside Facebook. The only country to have slower growth was Brazil.

7. Indonesia

Facebook: 87.5%
Twitter: 22.0%
LinkedIn: 1.3%
Internet Use: 12.3%

Social network penetration in Indonesia is the third greatest in Southeast Asia as of the beginning of 2011, at 90% of those people online. According to comScore, the country’s high adoption rates are due “almost exclusively” to Facebook. In January 2011, 22% of Indonesian Internet users visited Twitter, the fourth-greatest share among all countries. Indonesia, however, has the smallest percentage of Internet users among the countries on this list — 12.3%.

6. Malaysia

Facebook: 88.4%
Twitter: 10.8%
LinkedIn: 2.9%
Internet Use: 64.6%

Malaysia has the second-highest social network penetration in Southeast Asia, with 91%. One of the most increasingly popular social-networking activities in the country is photo-sharing on sites such as Facebook. From 2009 to 2010, the popularity of online photo-sharing increased by 57% in Malaysia. This is the second greatest percentage among Southeast Asian countries.

5. Argentina

Facebook: 89.2%
Twitter: 18.0%
LinkedIn: 6.4%
Internet Use: 64.4%

Facebook has become extremely popular in Argentina recently. As of May 2011, Argentina’s penetration rate was 89.2%. 27.8% of minutes spent online in Argentina are spent on social networks, making the category the second most popular online destination. The first is portals.

4. Chile

Facebook: 90.2%
Twitter: 14.3%
LinkedIn: 5.9%
Internet Use: 50%

Chile has among the highest rates of Internet use among Latin American countries, with 50% of Chileans online. According to comScore, 28.5% of all minutes spent online in Chile are spent on social networking sites, up 8.9 percentage points from the previous year. This makes it the most popular activity online based on “minutes used.”

3.Turkey

Facebook: 90.9%
Twitter: 16.6%
LinkedIn: 3.4%
Internet Use: 45%

Turkey has the highest Facebook penetration among all the Eurasian countries, with a rate of 90.9%. The second highest is the UK, with 81.7%. Internet users in Turkey also spend the third greatest amount of time on social networking sites among all nations, behind only Russia and Israel. The average Turkish social network visitor spends 7.6 hours a month on social networking sites.

2. Israel

Facebook: 91.0%
Twitter: 5.0%
LinkedIn: 6.4%
Internet Use: 71.6%

Israel has the highest rate of Internet use among the countries on this list, with 71.6% of the country’s population being “plugged in.” It is also very involved with Facebook. Besides having the second highest rate of Facebook usage among Internet users, Israelis spend the second most amount of time on social networking sites, behind only Russia. Israel’s social network users spend an average of 9.2 hours on social network sites a month.

1. Philippines

Facebook: 93.9%
Twitter: 16.1%
LinkedIn: 1.9%
Internet Use: 29.7%

Social network penetration is incredibly high in the Philippines, reaching 95%. Facebook is the country’s most popular website, more so than Google, and has a penetration rate of 93.9%. The Philippines is also the eighth most popular country for Twitter use on a global scale, with a penetration rate of 16.1%. The popularity of photo sharing has increased by 46% in the country in one year, largely due to Facebook. Social networking is so popular among Filipinos, the country has been nicknamed “The Social Networking Capital of the World.”

• Reference/Source: 247wallst.com by Charles Stockdale and Douglas A. McIntyre [Posted: May 9, 2011 at 5:20 am]
• Reference/Source: AzraelsMerryland[MAY 16, 2011]

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Top 10 Recent Annoying Trends in the Games Industry

With the economy getting fairly rough and the games industry getting hit with a multitude of closures and layoffs, it’s no surprise that game companies have reverted to “make a quick buck mode” these days. This has caused more than a few annoying trends to pop up within the industry whether it be on the publisher side or the developer side. Without further ado, here is a list of the top ten recent annoying trends in the games industry.

Relying on post release support far too much

Post-release support is a great thing for gamers and developers alike.  In most situations any sort of bugs get ironed out of the game fairly quickly if the developers missed something, and even downloadable content keeps people playing the game long after they are finished with the main areas.  The problem is that in this new digital age, most tech companies assume that everyone has access to the internet and other commonplace services that many take for granted.  In this situation there is a new trend popping up where companies print and release unfinished games to meet a deadline, and then force everyone to immediately update the game when they get home.  The problem being that not everyone can do this, so two versions of any said game could exist: the fixed playable one, and the terrible buggy one.

Paying for “add-ons” that are just part of the game blocked off

Another trend is for these guys to release DLC immediately after the release of the game, making folks suspect that it honestly could have been on the disk, but the consumer is getting gouged for that extra little bit of cash.  I noticed this most recently while playing WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2011 on the PS3 I just got.  Granted, the game came out a while before I got it, but some of the early DLC seemed sort of suspect, as if it was originally in the game but blocked off in some way.  The same game has another ace up its sleeve in that game companies are trying to curtail game rentals and used games sales by forcing people to pay for the online services of a game if you didn’t buy a brand new copy.  The aforementioned game in question charges ten dollars for those that want to play online, which isn’t too bad, but would make me pretty angry if I bought the game used, especially when most used stores only make the game five or ten dollars cheaper around release time.      

“Cinematic experiences”

I’m all for video games to make the leap from a kid’s toy to a mature art form, but I feel that a few game directors are using the media as a backdoor into the films industry, completely forgetting that the term is video games not video movies.  I’m not going to call any games out here, as that would start a flame  war, but any game that has multiple 30 minute cut scenes with little or no interaction held within is on a slippery slope.   

Announcing an announcement

A few companies have started a practice where, to drum up anticipation, they hype up an “announcement”.  This gets spread around all of the popular game-centric websites until it hits a fever pitch.  Comments like: “What could this game be?” or  “I bet it’s a new game in X franchise” are commonplace and only help intensify the resentment and disappointment once the “announcement” is finally revealed.  Turns out in many cases, the “announcement” is simply letting people know that the company in question is about to announce a game.  What!?  Are these guys seriously announcing an announcement?

Announcing games eons before they are released 

I’m not a huge fan of Nintendo’s new plan of only announcing games six months before they release to stop stagnating expectations of said game, but other companies also seem to do the exact opposite.  There honestly has to be a middle ground, because in situations like Gran Turismo 5, we knew about the game seemingly as it was first conceived by Sony.  After years and years of fan speculation, missed released windows, and mis-information I honestly think it would have been better to not announce it so early.  Most fans of the series had their expectations built so high for so many years, there was no way that the game, or any game for that matter could meet the expectations.  Here’s hoping Duke Nukem Forever doesn’t end up being critically panned for the same reasons.

Wii rail shooters

As a fan of arcade-styled rail shooters I initially loved the huge wave of these guys popping up on the Wii.  Games like Ghost Squad, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and even the VERY dated Mad Dog McCree took me back to the days when arcades were still around, and folks actually used them.  This sadly started a trend where all companies thought that rail shooters were a golden ticket to Rich-ville or something, completely over-saturating the market.  Almost all of these games have done poorly and lost money for their respective companies.  This leads us to the next point:   

Blaming gamers for company mishaps

It’s a story we have seen way too often:  a big game company wants to support a game system they don’t really understand, so they make a game atypical for it.  In this case we could either talk about Wii “hardcore” games or Japanese games on the 360 as both are good examples of this.  They hype the game up to get attention, and then the bitter realization sets in: nobody wants this game on this system.  Rather than keeping the failure internal, or make a classy little “my bad” press release, some of these guys have started to talk poorly on the system and its fan base at trade shows and other media.  Suddenly the heads of multi-million dollar companies are saying things like “The Wii audience is nothing more than children” (nobody did, just a possible example).  This does nothing more than anger the core audience of that system, and cause boycotts.     

DRM mismanagement

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a good way for game companies to protect their multi-million dollar investments, and make sure that the coders, artists, developers, and even actors get paid what they deserve.  What most of these systems entail is activation by way of some sort of a code, and limitations on the games installation on other devices.  Valve basically pioneered the practice with the release of Half-Life 2 way back in the middle of the last decade.  Steam was met with harsh criticism at first, but has become a benchmark for what DRM should be.  Sadly much more intrusive DRM schemes have popped up that undermine the consumer’s ownership of the game, and others have even hurt the consumer’s computer such as the case of Sony’s music DRM from a few years ago.
Take Ubisoft for example: under their DRM scheme used in such games as Assassin’s Creed II, the game has to constantly authenticate itself on an online sever, thus rendering the game unplayable if you do not have a steady internet connection, pay by bandwidth usage, or use a mobile device such as a laptop.  The word finally got around that folks hated it enough, and it was removed.  In an interview with Kotaku, Valve’s Doug Lombardi chimed in with the following:
“The key to making a good authentication system, Lombardi says, is to not stand in the way of customers enjoying what they bought. A bad system is like telling a customer "Wait, before you go on this roller coaster you need to change your shoes,"  

Competitive multiplayer for the sake of it

Some games are simply not made for multiplayer, and forcing all games to have an online mode of some sort is really stupid.  To further the point, most games DO NOT need any sort of competitive multiplayer if some sort of multiplayer is indeed needed.  Keep it cooperative guys!  For me there no greater offender in this regard than some of the earlier Nintendo DS games; games that added multiplayer simply to test out the systems Wi-Fi connectivity.  After playing around two rounds of competitive New Super Mario Bros. one is pretty much done with the mode forever.  Luckily they fixed it with the game’s younger brother for the Wii, where a cooperative multiplayer shows how it’s done.       

 

Games that are far too short

With the advances of graphical technology and the overall timeframe needed to make modern games is making certain games way too short.  This is especially prevalent in many first person shooters, as the campaign, or main story of the game, has been getting shorter and shorter in recent years.  I know that the main draw for these games is the multiplayer, a mode that is executed fairly well in most cases, but most folks want a competent single player experience as well.  Terminator Salvation almost immediately comes to mind when speaking of this trend, a game that was barely longer than the movie that it was a tie-in for.  I blame yearly releases or “Madden-itis” for this problem as many companies are forced to crank out a new game every year with minimal technological upgrades, a problem way worse for developers making shooter than yearly sports games.    

There you have it! What are some annoying trends popping up that you don’t like?

• Reference/Source: gamrfeed.vgchartz.com by Stephen Kelley[13 January 2011]

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Top Ten Reasons for Making Money Online

Source: shoutmeloud.com | It is a hard proven fact that people can make money via working online. Internet is profitable for many, but for others it is maybe a sheer waste of time. I am in favor of making money online since there are many obvious advantages for people who make money online instead of working offline and making money. Even though you don’t make much out of the internet, you can still benefit a lot from the process. I’ll discuss some of the good aspects about making money online.

1. Earn income from home:

Apart from small number of people who make a living through the internet, most people earn an extra income from it. The internet provides possibility of income since everyone can join the activities and generate advertising values. In most cases, people have an equal position in participation and as long as you are contributing to it, you can earn from it. Even though the money everyone can earn differ a lot, people are still glad to receive income from it.



2. Widen your horizon:

For most people, making money online and working from home is a brand new field, there are so much to learn and as your knowledge grows, your income increases. I remember some people saying that making money online drives him to learn more knowledge about the internet and marketing. From simple PTC to running own site, from Google adsense to selling clickbank products, it involves so many things that only would people learn more, can they make more out of the internet.

3. Way of entertainment:

Some people only see making money online as a way of relaxing and entertaining himself. To them, it is like browsing you tube videos and reading articles. As a matter of fact, almost everything you do on the internet can make you money, such as, forum posting, video uploading, writing articles, searching, sharing files and surfing, etc. Why not doing them with money and not for free?

4. Building personality:

Almost every venture in the internet can take persistent efforts. You have to do it everyday and accumulate bit by bit. Three minutes of focus will not earn you any money. For example, you have to click ad everyday in PTC site, otherwise you will not reach your minimum threshold earlier than others.

5. Become vigilant:

There are so many scams and spams in the internet, by experiencing such kind of things in order to be vigilant, as a result, you will gain insight into the online business.

6. Learn English:

80% of the internet content are delivered in English, for international members, exposing more to the language can improve their English a lot.



7. Strengthen your feeling of achievement:

If you get your first reward, it will encourage you to earn more. You can achieve your goal if you are encouraged. Since making online income is not as easy as it sounds and this is something not every one can achieve. If you are one of those who making money by your online activities, you are one step ahead of your league.

8. Make good use of your time:

The best thing about making money online is it can make good use of your free time. Every minute is not wasted and you can do things with it.
Increase your knowledge about internet marketing: some topics, such as SEO, Adwords advertising can be a good tool to make money and grow your business. To make money online you don’t have to be working full-time. Even if you spend 2-4 hours of quality time, you might end up paying many bills via your online income.

* Organize Blogging time with time management tool
* Agile management technique


9. Train your thinking:

Most of the successful internet entrepreneurs think of a unique idea and put them in practice, their ideas gave them a lot. So there is a saying goes like this: what the internet lacks is idea not practice.


10: Add your view:

I will leave this last point up to you. Why don’t you let us know your reason of making money online and benefit of it over working 9-6 job?

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Top Ten Online Games

Source: www.gameogre.com | Which online games offer the most bang for your gaming dollars? Here are the elite games from the MMORPG, Online RPG, Online Strategy, and Online Shooter genres. This feature is made by our staff while the Top 10 Online Games are voted on by GameOgre.com Review Members.
10) Age of Conan

Although not for everybody due to its content and high system requirements, Age of Conan may end up being the biggest new MMORPG since World of Warcraft. AoC's combat system and mature themes could innovate the industry for years to come. 
9) Diablo 2

Although this game looks ancient compared to some of its recent counterparts, the Diablo 2 community is still alive and well on Battle.net.

8) Neverwinter Nights - Demo Lair

You don't even have to like the original campaigns to enjoy countless hours of gaming bliss with NWN. Internet players are driving the value of this top RPG by making thousands of different modules for everybody to play. NWN also redefines the Online RPG genre by opening up the possibility of player-made MMORPGs.

7) StarCraft

Ever wonder where the term "Zerg" comes from? StarCraft started that term has been extremely popular ever since. The sequel will probably be even more popular when it is finally launched.  
6) Second Life
 
Love it or hate it, there is no denying the overall impact that Second Life has had on media, business, and even culture. SL has made people millionaires and has appeared on various TV shows such as The Office. 
5) RuneScape

RuneScape is proof that graphics are not required to be popular. RS has been drawing in players for years with simple graphics as it continues to be a leader among free MMORPGs. 
4) Team Fortress 2

Innovated the shooter genre with cartoonish graphics and outrageous characters. Best of all, online game play is free.
3) Guild Wars - GameOgre Review

Simply the best Free MMORPG today. Not quite as good as World of WarCraft game-play wise, but Guild Wars' lack of a subscription put its over the top in this category. 
2) Counter-Strike: Source

Better graphics and technology continue to drive the popularity of this vaunted first person shooter. Tops the original CS in nearly every way except Steam. Although it started out as a mod to Half-Life, Counter-Strike has developed into one of the greatest Internet games ever. 
1) World of Warcraft - GameOgre Review

The best online game today that you have to pay for with over 10 million subscribers. The entire MMO industry has reach huge heights of popularity thanks in large part to World of Warcraft.

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