I am in an incredibly privileged position, I know. Sure, I was born in an English-speaking country, I have two parents who love me, I’m white, all that usual stuff. But also, I’m a game journalist. Video games are one of the most expensive media to buy on a regular basis, and publishers email me every day with free games. Some big, some small, some medium. Good, bad, indie, triple-A, VR, RPG, FPS, TRPG, JRPG, CRPG, ARPG, all letters. So I’m in a good position to tell them: go find a game.
Saying that game journalists just hang around playing video games all day is not the whole picture, but we undeniably have much more access to video games than the average gamer. There are games I’ve only played because a publisher sent them to me, some great, some… look, I’m not going to do the whole list again, okay? However, I would say that the real privilege does not come from getting these games, but from discovering them.
I was thinking about my most anticipated games for the rest of the year and realized that if it weren’t for my profession, I probably wouldn’t have heard of them. Spider-Man 2 is up there, but the rest are much smaller. Goodbye Volcano High has been in a few PlayStation State of Play updates, but after that we’re talking about games I only know about because I’ve been emailed about them or have otherwise discovered during the course of doing the parts of my job that they are not loafing around playing video games.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, American Arcadia, Venba, This Bed We Made, Stray Gods… these are all games I might not have heard of, and certainly wouldn’t care about, if I hadn’t had a big banner for them in my face. . These games are not going to be expensive. I’ll be able to play them all regardless of whether I’m part of TheGamer’s coverage plans for them or have to pay for them myself.
So here is my challenge for you. Go to Steam or whatever platform you use to purchase games. I can’t put them all in the headline. Sorry, Apple Arcade. No hard feelings, Microsoft Store. Regardless, go wherever you buy games and set the price to something reasonable. Something you won’t miss. I’m not talking about $50 purchases here. If you have Game Pass, you can even do it for free.
Once everything is sorted, start looking for a game. Any game you haven’t heard of before. A game that stands out for you, for whatever reason. A screenshot that excites you. A trailer that makes you feel something. A character that reminds you of someone. The reason doesn’t matter, just that there is one.
Then download it. Play it. I love it. Or hate him! That’s fine too. Then do it again. Don’t go crazy now: If you’ve been waiting for Starfield for years, don’t do this the day before Starfield. Big games are great too. But we all know the great games. They put them on the buses. These little games that you only discover by watching can be some of the most personal and rewarding experiences out there, and we should seek them out.
Yes, you could have done this at any time, but you didn’t. None of us do. I don’t even do this myself, it’s the closest I can get to recreating for you the luck that comes with the games that fall into your lap. The Artful Escape, Citizen Sleeper, The Forgotten City, Neon White, Coffee Talk, Call of the Sea, Paranormasight and Umurangi Generation are just some of the games I’ve only played because the publishers threw them in my face or my colleagues .
They would all be contenders for my top ten games of recent years, and I could very easily have lost them. In any other job, I would have. If you want to avoid the same problem, all you have to do is watch.
