There's more to gaming than just playing games, like browsing cool websites and reading about games, watching game trailers, talking to other gamers and reading the latest game reviews. After all, we can't exactly fire up our Xbox 360 at work, but we can browse the web for cool websites about gaming.
This list of cool websites for gamers constitute the best the web has to offer, including a really cool site where you can create your own game trailers and the best place to download premium games. Know of a great gaming site not on the list? Leave a comment and let everyone know about it.
A social news website for gamers, GameGrep is a great way to keep up on the latest and greatest in the world of gaming. Following a slightly different format than most social news sites, GameGrep places a premium on linking to the source article, so it doesn't get bogged down with a huge number of articles on the same story. GameGrep is a cool website for getting quick news about games.
A cool website for watching game trailers, you can even watch many of the videos in HD. Along with watching trailers, you can also browse through user submitted videos, watch in-game footage, check out video reviews and watch video podcasts.
This fun site is a great time killer. It lets you create your own game video by mashing up video clips from different games. There's also a number of different music soundtracks and sound effects you can add to the video, the end result being quite an addicting website. New games are being added all the time, and you can have fun making your own videos or just browse other people's mash ups. All in all, a cool website for when you need to take a quick break from gaming.
Machinima stands for machine cinema and refers to the art of creating a movie using video game footage. Machinima can be as large as full-featured movies and as small as funny little clips. By using games like World of Warcraft, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto and others, machinima producers can weave together quite an intricate story, interjecting their own soundtracks and voice overs, the end product of which can be quite astounding. This is a cool website for finding the best machinima on the web.
If there's one website you should visit before purchasing a video game, its Metacritic. A compilation of video game reviews from across the web, Metacritic is a quick and easy place to find out what the critics think. It also includes a user meter for finding out what other people thought, which is sometimes more important than simply relying on the critics. Metacritic also covers TV, movies and music as well.
If you just want a web page to stop by every so often to get a quick chuckle, the Penny Arcade comic is a great choice. Full of insightful little jests aimed squarely at the gamer and game development community, Penny Arcade is a great way to bring a smile to your face. In a list of cool websites, this is the one you choose if you have a big sense of humor.
The idea of playing games and social networks may sound like they go hand-in-hand, but between the social abilities of Xbox Live and the widespread use of GameSpy on the PC, "Web 2.0" social networks have had a little trouble when aimed at the hardcore gamer. But they can still be a great way to connect with like-minded gamers or just kill some time when you otherwise can't be playing games.
Combining a digital store with some social networking features, Steam is the perfect website for the PC gamer who doesn't want to bother with going to the store to purchase a game when the game can simply be downloaded straight to the computer. Steam also offers the ability to watch game trailers and links over to the metascore from Metacritic when available. One of the best cool websites for downloading games, Steam isn't alone in offering digital downloads, but it is one of the best.
While music games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour are all the rage, music in games has become increasingly popular over the years, with some games even releasing their own original soundtracks. VGMusic may not be the prettiest website, but it is a cool website for fans of video game music, so if you've found yourself humming a few bars of Zelda theme or trying to remember what the music for Super Mario sounded like, VGMusic is your website.
Game wikis are slowly becoming more and more popular due to their easy of use and their ability to create in-depth coverage of video games from information to strategy to spoilers and cheat codes. Wikia Gaming is the largest repository of game wikis, so if you are looking for help on a particularly difficult level of a game or just want to find out if dexterity is effecting your attack rating, Wikia Gaming tops the list ofcool websites to go to for great strategy tips and walkthroughs.
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