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Geek Girl Authority
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Becoming A Better Gamer In A Few Simple Steps
If you want to be a better gamer , it's something that is actually going to be a lot easier to achieve than you might think. The truth is there are all sorts of things you can do which are going to help, and it's something that is going to be really worth looking into. Of course, you might have been gaming for a long time, or you might just be starting to get into it now. In either case, you are going to find that it's perfectly possible to become a better gamer, and it might be a lot easier than you imagine. Pic Credit – CCO License In this post, then, we are going to go through some of the main ways in which you might want to approach this. As long as you have thought about some of the following and started to put it into place, you'll find that you are soon going to be the gamer that you are hoping to be, with all of the benefits that this will bring. Know The Game Inside Out One of the main things that you need to do in all this is to ensure that you know the game you are playing inside out. This is going to be relevant for anything that you choose to play, and it's vital to make sure that you are learning about your game as much as possible. Of course, the best and surest way to learn about any game is simply to play it, so the more that you do that, the sooner you are going to learn the ins and outs of any game. But you can also learn about a game by reading around it, by watching streams of other people playing it, talking to people about it, and so much more. So all of that is going to be important to think about as well. You might also want to think about taking some time to read patch notes and look at tutorials. These are all the kinds of things that are really going to help you to know the game more and more fully. Practice With Intent It's one thing sitting down to play, and quite another actually playing with some kind of intent . If you want to get better at a game, you need to practice it with intent, and that's the kind of thing that is really going to help you to become a much better gamer. Of course, it's important that you have some kind of goal in place whenever you play. If you are focusing on specific aspects of your gameplay, you are going to be able to develop so much more quickly and effectively. It might be that you want to look into aiming, timing, or decision-making, or that you have something else in mind. It doesn't matter – what matters is that you are being specific about what you want to practice, and you are doing so with intention. That's the kind of thing that is going to be well worth thinking about. Review Gameplay Just as important as that intention is making sure that you find the time to review your gameplay afterwards. If you are able to do that, you'll find that you learn so much, and that you are going to be able to much more easily identify areas that you can improve upon. Recording and watching your games back can be humbling, especially when you lose, but it's hugely effective at helping you to spot mistakes. Every time you see a mistake, it means that you have identified something you can work on, so this is a really valuable way to try and improve your gameplay. You'll be able to effectively coach yourself into being a better gamer, at least with that game in particular, but probably in ways that will prove important across the board as well in other games. So all in all, it's a really effective thing to think about. Play Different Genres Although you may well have your preferred genres, and you might want to mostly stick with those, it's also true that there is much to be gained from playing a number of different genres too. In fact, the more widely you play, the more you are going to learn about your own gaming style, as well as about tactics and so on as well. It's actually amazing how much of a difference this can make, and it's the kind of thing that is really worth focusing on if you want to become a better gamer overall. So if you are used to playing shooters, consider a puzzle game, and vice versa. But also consider other, broader kinds of games too – you might learn something from playing online casino games or chess, or anything that counts as a game really. So this is the kind of thing that is really going to help a lot, and you'll find that you are much more likely to be able to game effectively if you are doing this. Optimize Your Setup If you are going to take this seriously, it's really important to make sure you are optimizing your setup as best as you can too. There are a lot of things that you can do if you want to be able to improve this, and it's amazing how much it can help you to succeed as well. You are going to find it so much harder to game as effectively as you could if you are experiencing lots of lag, bad keybinds and poor audio, so having more of a control over all of this stuff is definitely something to focus on. Image by Olya Adamovich from Pixabay Make sure that the hardware you are using is appropriate for the game, and that you are doing all you can to adjust the sensitivity as well as possible. These are simple things but they add up to make a huge difference, and you'll find that you can become a much better gamer as a result of these things. Keep Your Mind Sharp Games are first and foremost a mental thing , and you'll find that you can be the best gamer you can be if you are keeping your mind as sharp as possible. There are always going to be things you can do to help with that, and the truth is that there are all sorts of approaches which you might want to try out. But the main point is to ensure that you are keeping on top of your mental game as well as possible. One of the main reasons to do this is to avoid tilt. That is where you are mentally getting more frustrated with a game, and it can be subtle and powerful in terms of what it does to your gameplay. If you want to avoid tilt, you'll have to remain mindful, and you'll need to make sure that you are taking breaks and looking after yourself. Simple things like staying hydrated can help a lot too, and ensuring that you have a good diet. A clear head makes better decisions, reacts faster, and is generally able to game more effectively all in all. Play With Better Players If you are playing with other players who are better than you – at the game in particular or just generally – then that is going to help you to improve more quickly and effectively yourself. This is true whether you are playing with them or against them. You'll find yourself learning actively from what they do, as well as passively by simply being there and drinking it all in. This is certainly much better for you than playing with those who are not as good as you. It's a simple thing that is really going to help a lot. If you are playing with better players, that is going to be one of the best things you can do for yourself. Stay Updated Games change a lot, and these days they can change quite rapidly . You'll need to ensure that you are keeping up to date with those changes, because often they contain things that you really need in order to play effectively. Keep an eye on updates and consider putting on an automatic update option for any game that has the choice. This is a really simple thing you can do to ensure that you are going to become a better gamer, and aligned with everything else it will make a huge difference indeed. Those are just some of the main ways to become a better gamer in no time, so make sure that you are thinking about those and you should find it really does make a huge difference. TINY TINA'S WONDERLANDS and LIMBO Are Free in the Epic Games Store RELATED: Anime Roundup: Everything Coming Out in June 2025
Digital Trends
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Mario Kart World feels like it really could last the full Switch 2 lifecycle
For me, no video game is inherently a slam dunk. I never feel comfortable making a judgement call like that in earnest until I've gotten significant hands-on time with a game. Will Grand Theft Auto 6 make a boatload of money? Yes. Do I have any reason to think it will be 2026's Game of the Year before playing it? No. Even one demo isn't enough to convince me, and that was true when I played Mario Kart World in April. While it offered some reliable racing fun, the jury was very much out on its open-world pivot, its wider tracks, and 24-player modes. I needed to play a whole lot more. Now, just days ahead of the Nintendo Switch 2's June 5 release date, I've gotten to spend significantly more time with the system's big launch game. I spent several hours with Mario Kart World, playing everything from Free-Roam to Coin Runners. That gave me the clearer picture I needed to confidently predict that the multiplayer game will be an immediate staple of the Switch 2's library. While there are still pieces I'm not entirely sold on, the combination of tense multiplayer modes and relaxing solo exploration makes for a promising launch game that could comfortably occupy hundreds of hours of playtime. Recommended Videos Wherever I roam My demo was split up into several sessions. The back half was all about multiplayer, as I toured every mode alongside other press members. The first half was what I really came to see, though. I'd get plenty of time to do whatever I wanted in single-player mode. I used that time to win two Grand Prixs, race against a ghost in a Time Trial, and spend some significant time exploring the open-world. That last piece was a bit of a make or break detail, as I walked away from my April demo a little worried that Free-Roam didn't have much to offer. And for a moment, that still held true as my demo began. Here, I was free to go anywhere I wanted on the map. I could drive through tracks or go off defined roads entirely and simply explore the scenery. That continued to feel like a novelty at first as I cruised through some detailed, but ultimately empty environments. What this did give me space to appreciate is just how powerful the Switch 2 really is. At one point, I found a ground rail that took me all the way up to the top of a mountain. Naturally, I drove off it once I hit the top. I could see incredibly far off in the distance, with details on the ground in full focus as I glided overhead. It's a far cry from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which could barely load textures from that height. As impressive as that was, it didn't feel like there was much to do initially aside from driving through some stray enemies or getting sucked up by a stray UFO. Thankfully, I found much more to do as I began to discover the flow of exploration. There are three primary collectibles players find in Free-Roam mode. Peach coins are collectible tokens hidden in hard to reach places. I'm not exactly sure what they do, but they're a shiny thing to grab. Then there are question mark panels that are hidden throughout the world. Again, I couldn't figure out what the ultimate goal of driving over them was, but each section of the map does have a few and my progress is tracked on the map screen. It seems like there's some kind of reward for finding each set housed in and around a track. The real meat of Free-Roam comes from P-Switches, little blue switches that are found all over the map. When I drive into one, I begin a short challenge in the world. One had me racing behind a pick-up truck and trying to drive into its bed. Another had me grinding up into the sky on vines. Most missions are either coin collecting affairs or races to some sort of nearby finish line, and the ones I played could be completed in no more than a minute, if not seconds. There are hundreds of them to find and their locations aren't always obvious. Sometimes they're out in the middle of a desert. Other times, they're tucked away in a nook on a track. They can seem few and far between at first, but that actually speaks to just how densely designed World's map is. It's not that the map is gigantic; I drove from one edge to another in roughly nine minutes. It's more that it contains a lot of verticality that comes from environments that twist in on themselves. Finding each one seems like a long-term challenge akin to discovering all of Breath of the Wild's Koroks. What initially felt a little boring became meditative by the end of my demo. Anytime I had downtime as demoists set up a multiplayer session, I kept naturally popping back into Free-Roam to do a little more. Doing so gave me stickers that act as a sort of in-game achievement system. I can even set one to appear next to my name during races, letting me put some bragging rights on display. I could also pick up stacks of coins here, which go towards unlocking new karts (I unlocked one at 100 coins collected, and then 300, 300, and so on). That goes hand in hand with some other progression hooks, as characters also need to be unlocked whether by racing in Grand Prixs or discovering additional outfits in the world. That's where the open-world idea finally came together for me. I can now see the scenario in which I'd want to roam around. Maybe I'm waiting for a friend to log on and have a few minutes to kill. Maybe I just want to drive around, but don't feel like doing a whole cup. It's not so much the focus of World as it is something to pick away with years of downtime. That makes Free-Roam feel like a mode that's built to last an entire console lifetime rather than something that's meant to be completed all at once. Tense races Free-Roam represents a more casual side of Mario Kart World, one that's great for lazy Sundays spent lounging on the couch in handheld mode. The multiplayer half of my day, however, showed me just how intense the other end of the spectrum can get. Knockout Tour continues to be the star of the show here, as the elimination mode had me swearing up a storm as I tried to survive to the end. As is the case with Mario Kart, I loved it when I was doing well and cursed it when I wasn't. When I could lock into a race and show off my drifting prowess or clever mushroom use, I felt like I was playing a very skill-heavy game with lots of nuances. For instance, power jumping is a new maneuver with lots of potential for hardcore players. If players hold the drift button without pressing the joystick, they can charge a jump. Doing so lets them get up on rails to grind them and ride on walls. It can also be used to give players constant boosts, as landing a jump always gives a burst of speed. I can see a world where high-level players are jumping as much as possible during races to smash time trials. It's not an easy trick to pull off, though. Even the slightest joystick touch while pressing the trigger will initiate a drift. I found it hard to remember that and often ended up drifting instead of jumping, something that scared me off from using it too much in my demo. I wish there was a separate button dedicated to jumping, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it with time. While winning thanks to high-level tricks can be euphoric, losing can be a mixed bag. The more I played, the more I felt like World is tuned closer to Mario Kart Wii than any other game in the series. That game was more casual friendly by making it so items could very drastically alter positions in a race. That held true for me in Knockout Tour especially, as having 24 racers on screen at once means that players' fortunes can change in an instant. I'd be handily riding in first place only to get nailed by a blue shell, lightning bolt, and Bullet Bill in rapid successions. That's always been the chaotic ethos of Mario Kart, but the mosh pit of items turns the dial higher than ever in tighter portions of tracks. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's a bit of a pain. That little detail did cause me to do a U-turn on one feature I've been skeptical of since April: the wider courses. To accommodate so many players, most tracks feature much wider roads to avoid a 24 car pile up. I feared that would make races boring, but I'm now in support of it after seeing just how overtuned items can be. The wider courses mean that I have more space to swerve away from an incoming Bullet Bill, letting me sacrifice some momentum to avoid a crash. That adds a smart bit of risk-taking that gives me more ways to manage the chaos. Tools like the power jump add to that, as it can be worth storing up a jump and using it to strafe away from an incoming shell. In my most heroic moment, I saved a feather I picked up from an item box and used it to hop over a golden shell as it crept up behind me. There's more room for big moments here that go beyond simply tossing items and drifting well. I got to see that in action even more during the balloon-based Battle Mode and Coin Runners, a multiplayer mode where players have three minutes to grab the most gold. Both put me in more contained maps – seemingly eight in total – and tested my ability to maneuver. After a few failures, I started to pick up the nuances of nailing someone with a boomerang head-on or saving my flying hammers for when I could rain them down on two cars instead of one. While these are more stress-free than Knockout Tour, they still show just how tense any World session can be when going up against players who have all of its tricks mastered. Even after all this time, I'm still not ready to make a final judgement. I'm saving that for my full review, which will come after the Switch 2 launches. While I do feel like I have a good handle on most modes, I need to spend more time with the new tracks as some feel less cohesive than others due to the way they are designed to fit into an open-world. I need to spend way more time in Free-Roam too, as I still haven't fully shaken my feeling that the novelty will wear off sooner than I'd like. What I can say without question as of now, though, is that Mario Kart World is a blast whether you plan to play it casually or at a high level. It has a big responsibility as Switch 2's launch game, but I don't see it failing to deliver. I already know that it will be the first thing I'll fire up on June 5 even though I've already played it for hours. I'm only starting a new chapter of my stories kart racing career, after all. Mario Kart World launches on June 5.
Digital Trends
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Ex-Fortnite devs found new studio and reveal its chaotic debut game, Lort
Big Distraction, a newly formed independent game studio founded by former Fortnite developers, announced its debut game, Lort. It's a one to eight player co-op fantasy roguelike set to launch later this year on PC. Formed in 2023, Big Distraction is led by the former Lead Producer and Marketing Lead on Fortnite Battle Royale. It's currently an 11-person team comprised of veterans from studios like Dice, Blizzard, and MachineGames. Big Distraction's initial goal was to create a game that it could launch within two years of the studio's founding. Lort is the end result of that effort. Recommended Videos Lort is a co-op action roguelike set in a comedic fantasy world. Its debut trailer emphasizes a gameplay loop that will have players exploring a procedurally generated map in search of loot, scaling their power up, and hunting down bosses. Think of something like Risk of Rain 2, but with more more absurd humor. Players will start a run by squading up with up to eight players. They'll be able to choose from three character classes initially, including a wizard, warrior and ranger, but Big Distraction has ideas for more. There are no team composition restrictions, so players can run with a team of eight wizards if they so desire. From there, they'll explore an open area, hunt down treasure chests featuring over-the-top weapons, and get upgrades that boost their stats. Since it's all high fantasy themed, players will fight with weapons like maces, oversized hammers, and bows. In hands-off demo footage, I watched a crew take down hoards of Dragon Quest-like slimes and other colorful monsters using over the top spells, like one that whacks foes with an enormous hunk of wood. Big Distraction says that the power progression is a major focus of a run, as it will let players eventually put together builds that feel like they can break the game. It all makes for a multiplayer game that looks lighthearted and chaotic. Lort is set to release in the fourth quarter of 2025. It will release on PC and be compatible with Steam Deck.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
St. Thomas board game designer hopes players will 'Finesse' their bridge skills with new game
A St. Thomas woman with a passion for the card game bridge is seeing years of work come to life with a newly designed version of her favourite game. Carole Coplea says she's spent years perfecting FINESSE, which she describes as a visual board game that's easier to learn than the classic trick-taking card game. While the concept is similar to bridge, Coplea believes she's got something unique. "After I had spent a few years developing this thing and once people started playing the game itself, I realized it's not a bridge game," Coplea explained. "It's a serious game on its own." According to her rule-booklet, the game revolves around four players each putting down a card, with the highest one winning. The objective of the game is to predict how many times your team will win. The board features five ramps which help to visualize the gameplay, as well as game tokens placed on coloured squares. She's even created a new deck of cards. "The only thing we have to translate are the rules, because there's nothing to translate with the game itself. Anybody can play it," Copela said. With approximately 300 game sets in production, Copela said her plan is to set up a stall at the Horton Farmers' Market in St. Thomas. Feedback mattered Creating the game was not an easy task, Coplea said. After working out the rules of the game, the next step was to sketch out the board and take it to a local print shop. She then tested the game on family members before recruiting a larger group of testers through social media. She said she implemented a lot of the feedback she received, including additional symbols to make it accessible to people with colour-blindness, which she said she now considers a very important aspect of the game. "The tests helped me with some of the refinements," she said. "That is what the game is now." A growing market for board games Kayla Gibbens is the owner of Uber Cool Stuff in downtown London, which specializes in board games. She said many card games have been successfully transformed into board games, like FINESSE. "A lot of games are kind of based off of other ones," she explained, using the game Cribbage as an example. "There's Crib Wars, where there's more of a battling element to it. One game feeds off another one in a gameplay aspect— it's really interesting to see those growths." Creating a new board game and trying to get it distributed has gotten a little easier with social media, Gibbens said, but she pointed out that having a strong community of game enthusiasts is important. She note that it blew up during the pandemic when people were looking for activities during the lockdowns. "It always helps to have those communities around so you can get the feedback about how a game plays. You can get the word out and get a feel for the audience as well." "I think there's still a growing market," Gibbens said. Younger players Coplea enjoys the strategy and tactics of any board game, but says bridge is her favourite due to its challenging gameplay. She hopes FINESSE will offer players that same type of challenge, and potentially lead them to want to learn to play the original card game. "It's a lot easier to learn when you're young," she said. "I'm hoping that my game will help people learn the fundamentals of bridge before they actually need to learn how to play bridge.
