The internet has become such an indispensable source of various information, that there’s virtually no need to even comment on how deeply it affects every aspect of everyday life.
You just can’t operate without it, and when it comes to gaming in this day and age, the internet is your go-to resource for news, reviews, shopping, and troubleshooting.
In this list, we’ll be going over the best sites that every gamer should bookmark, including news sites, review sites, as well as third-party online game stores that just might give you a better deal than Steam will.
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News and Reviews
In the first category, we’ll be looking at websites that deal with gaming-related news and game/hardware reviews. These two territories commonly overlap, so we have bundled them together into one category.
MetaCritic
About the Site
For a long time, MetaCritic has been many people’s go-to site for finding game reviews. Apart from games, they also aggregate movies, TV shows, and music reviews.
But of course, it has become as popular as it is not only because it operates as a gateway to numerous professional reviews, but also because anyone can register and write their own reviews, thus allowing readers to also get a glimpse of how the average consumer feels about a game, movie, show, or album.
How Does It Work?
The site forms an overall “metascore” based on aggregated reviews from various critics, as well as an overall “user score” based on the ratings and reviews left by registered Metacritic users. This way, you can easily get an overall impression as to how well a certain game is received by both the critics and the consumers.
Why Should You Care?
Reviews are inevitably biased, some more than others, and aggregation is perhaps the most reliable way to cope with this. If one reviewer is too lenient or unusually harsh towards a certain title, others won’t be.
And as we have already mentioned, the user score is always a great way to see how the consumers feel about a particular game. However, user reviews, obviously, tend to be more biased and less objective than those written by professionals.
But in any case, MetaCritic is your gateway to professional and user reviews alike.
Noteworthy Sites
Seeing as there are numerous authority sites and blogs to turn to when looking for news and reviews regarding the latest games and hardware, it would be quite a read if we were to go and describe them all in greater detail. As such, here’s a bare-bones lineup of what we feel to be the most reliable sites of this kind, listed in no particular order.
Hardware News & Reviews:
Game News & Reviews:
Now, some of these inevitably deal with both games and hardware, but we took the liberty of separating them based on which of these areas they prioritize/are better known for.
Game Stores
First and foremost, we have Steam, and everyone knows what Steam is. But did you know that there are online stores just as good, if not better, than Steam? Indeed, you can often find much better deals elsewhere, be it for Steam games or non-Steam games. This second section will be devoted entirely to such third-party game stores.
HumbleBundle
About the Site
HumbleBundle is one of those extremely popular stores that some people still inexplicably don’t know about. When it was founded in 2010, it was merely a low-profile storefront for indie games. However, as time went on, the project expanded exponentially and has since come to be the favorite of many a gamer.
There are several factors that contributed to the rise of HumbleBundle: good pricing, customer-friendly policies, charity contributions, and of course, the amazing game bundles.
How Does It Work?
Today, HumbleBundle consists of three “layers”, so to speak, and these are:
- Humble Bundle
- Humble Monthly
- Humble Store
The namesake Humble Bundle was the very first collection of products sold on the site. Today, there are always about six bundles available on the site at any given time, and this includes not only game bundles but also software, eBook, comic, and mixed bundles that include different types of products. As far as game bundles are concerned, they consist mainly of PC games, but console game bundles have been released from time to time. Customers are allowed to pay any amount that they wish, and the bundles are usually split into three tiers.
Humble Monthly is similar to the Humble Bundle, although it differs in several ways. It focuses exclusively on games, and, as the name implies, there is only one monthly bundle a month. Moreover, only one, two, or three of the most attention-grabbing titles are revealed at the start of the month while the other games remain hidden until the next monthly bundle is announced. And unlike the Humble Bundles where you can pay whatever you want across three tiers, monthly bundles come with a fixed price of $12.
However, Humble Monthly is more than just a game bundle. It is actually more of a service, seeing as it is a month-to-month subscription with an optional long-term commitment that can help save you a few bucks. Humble Monthly subscribers also enjoy benefits such as additional discounts, extra store credit, as well as access to the Humble Trove, a selection of various DRM-free games.
And last but definitely not least, we have the Humble Store. Here, you can find a large number of Steam games, although some are available as direct DRM-free downloads as well. The discounts are pretty much as frequent and as deep as the ones you’d find on Steam, but HumbleBundle does offer customers an optional 5% cashback in the form of store credit on every purchase as part of the Humble Rewards program, plus a percentage of each purchase goes straight to a charity of your choice.
Why Should You Care?
HumbleBundle’s biggest strength is, of course, the bundles. They are a unique opportunity to get a batch of good games at an even better price, and Humble Monthly, should you choose to use it, is not even a mandatory long-term commitment.
And while their store may not be that much more wallet-friendly than Steam itself, they certainly do reward loyal customers.
Not to mention that you’d be supporting a charity with every purchase! Why not help those in need while helping yourself to some quality games?
GoG
About the Site
Good Old Games, best known by the acronym “GoG”, is a subsidiary of the Polish publisher CD Projekt, a name that did wasn’t very well known until the Witcher games gained traction.
Today, CD Projekt Red is known for the highly controversial launch of Cyberpunk 2077, and The Witcher game series. GoG is an entirely DRM-free store, meaning that all of the games sold there require no launcher and are not activated on Steam or anywhere else.
How Does It Work?
As mentioned above, GoG is an online store that sells DRM-free games, and any games that you buy, you can download directly to your PC from the GoG library. This means that you don’t have to use another pesky launcher or have an active internet connection in order to play the games that you have purchased.
Why Should You Care?
First and most importantly, there are numerous old-school titles that can be found on GoG that are not available on Steam or in any other store.
Other than that, the store itself has a good customer support and a very convenient 30-day refund policy. Ultimately, if you want to get good deals on old and new DRM-free titles that are, or you just don’t want to use Steam for whatever reason, GoG is an excellent choice.
Other Ways To Get Games
While Steam, HumbleBundle, and GoG may be among the more widely-known online game stores, there are also others that you might not have heard of. To name a few:
- Fanatical – Similar to HumbleBundle, it includes both a store and game bundles, although they are rarely as good as what you’d find on HB.
- IndieGala – An indie game store that also offers bundles, as well as a wide selection of indie titles. The bundles follow a similar “pay what you want” philosophy seen with HumbleBundle, but again, the quality of the games isn’t as great as with HB.
- GreenManGaming – Yet another popular store that offers both solid bundle deals and good discounts. Again, the quality of the games found in bundles usually isn’t on the HumbleBundle level, but what makes GMG stand out is their excellent discounts.
Apart from proper online stores, there are also the so-called “grey markets,” i.e., online marketplaces where people can sell and resell game keys. There are a number of such marketplaces out there, the most prominent one being G2A, though we advise people against using G2A due to their unethical business practices and anti-consumer policies.
So, if you’re looking for the best game deals, we suggest one of the following marketplaces instead:
While none of the marketplaces listed above are as mired in controversy as G2A is, and while none of them share the aforementioned company’s anti-consumer policies, keep in mind that you’re always carrying the risk of encountering scammers or other serious problems when buying through a grey market. Hopefully, the company will intervene to resolve conflicts and issue refunds where needed, but it’s simply never 100% certain when it comes to grey markets.
Miscellaneous
In this section, we have a couple of other sites which don’t fit into the former two categories but that can be of great help nonetheless.
It might be surprising to see the “front page of the Internet” here. After all, Reddit is not a site you’d associate with gaming right away. However, it is home to numerous thriving gaming communities, something that you are bound to appreciate if you’re playing games with near-dead multiplayer.
With a little help from one such community, the near-dead multiplayer scene of an older game could quickly come to feel just like it did on launch day.
On top of that, you can also find many user reviews of some products that you might have trouble finding anywhere else.
UserBenchmark
About the Site
UserBenchmark is just what the name implies – it uses a simple benchmarking tool to collect data from countless user computers around the world, data which is subsequently uploaded to the UserBenchmark database.
How Does It Work?
All that you need to do is search for a component you want information on. This can be a CPU, a GPU, an SSD, an HDD, or RAM. The site will provide you with some general performance data on that component, while also allowing you to easily compare it to another one of your choices. If you want to contribute to the UserBenchmark database yourself, simply download their program, run it, and give it a few minutes to complete.
Why Should You Care?
The site is useful when building a new gaming PC or when you just need to upgrade your hardware. It is an easy way to get an overall impression of how well a component performs compared to others.
Of course, it is by no means the best benchmarking tool out there, and you should always check out some more in-depth reviews and benchmarks before settling on any particular piece of hardware.
IsThereAnyDeal
About the Site
The name of this site pretty much says it all. IsThereAnyDeal is there to give you updates on sales, discounts, and bundle deals taking place at about 40 completely legitimate online stores, so you never have to worry about missing out on a good deal.
How Does It Work?
After registering on the site, you can import wishlists from any of the tracked stores to form a unique “waitlist” on IsThereAnyDeal. Then, you can modify exactly what you want to be notified about – discounts, price cuts, bundles, special releases, etc. – and you will be receiving regular notifications in your inbox.
Why Should You Care?
There are almost always deeper discounts to be found in stores other than Steam, but keeping track of all of them is impossible without the help of a site such as this one.
With IsThereAnyDeal, you will receive constant updates on all the titles you’re interested in, and you’ll be able to get them as cheap as possible.
The Final Word
And that would be it, some very useful sites that we feel every game may want to bookmark… along with GamingScan, of course.
Naturally, there are many sites out there that we didn’t mention, so if you feel that there are other sites out there that deserve to be mentioned here, drop us a comment and we’ll see about updating the article in the near future.
