Launcher's guide to getting into video games while you're stuck at home

what's up everybody I'm Mike Hume the editor of launcher and we are stuck inside and I suspect you guys are as well so we team launcher are here to help you with some video gaming questions I am joined by reporters jean park police favites editor mikael clement ah've

and our video producer john lker let's get right to it guys where should we start if you're a newcomer to gaming it's not like you can just buy a DVD player and play any movie movie in it all of these platforms are competing with each other each of

these platforms have their own in-house development studios to make these games but if you really want to get into something a little bit less complicated and more simple I wholeheartedly recommend it in a switch and the reason for that is at Nintendo for decades since the 80s is

always always deliberately designed their games to be accessible to widen the audience that's always been their stated goal as we do becoming kind of a hybrid console that you can either dock and play on your TV so it's like a home console and it's also a portable console

that you can bring anywhere on the go or just play in bed if you want to relax or whatever Nintendo has done a very impressive job of not just a very great selection of games that Nintendo is made like a Mario franchise Zelda franchise it's also been a

great space for independent games and a lot of those are easy to drop in and out of jump you have a Playstation which is obviously pretty celebrated for its own exclusive titles talk about that the PlayStation 4 probably if not has the most exclusive titles that are available

for it the PlayStation 4 in general is known as a more serious gamer console main station games have a tendency to last about 50 to 60 hours Plus and that's not just engaging with the story that the game wants to tell but exploring the world that comes around

with it so if you're looking to get truly immersed in the game and you don't really value interacting or doing as much of a social element in video games the PlayStation 4 is probably more of what going to be looking for you have no idea what is in

McHale I know your primary counsel is the Xbox what do you like about it and why is it your primary counsel I think if I put myself in the shoes of a player who's just trying to get into gaming for the first time I don't know that I

would recommend you know the Last of Us or God of War I would recommend titles that anyone can pick up that are serviceable kind of simpler let you play on your own time don't require tens of hours of investment and on that front I think the Xbox has

been really strong I'm a big game pass evangelist game past you know four five dollars a month ten dollars a month offers you this massive catalogue which range from minecraft to sea of thieves and then if you really want to dip your toes in the more intensive titles

you can play you know the Master Chief collection you can play the gears franchise all sorts of titles that would be deemed more serious oh man captain captain get word to work that trouble is coming there are PC gamers who think that PC is the only way you

should be experiencing video games why should newcomers maybe steer clear if they're not too comfortable getting into gaming because of our barriers of which kind of hardware you need what kind of graphics card you need what kind of memory and processing power you need I just bought a

laptop because I did it because as a console gamer I just wanted something simpler if you do already own a PC and even if it's not the most powerful PC out there there are also definitely lower tech video games that can be played on a PC I think

that the telltale franchise the whole franchise the sentence from Sims 1 2 3 4 but I think for looking at modern big scale video games then your best bet would likely be with a console and obviously there's one platform we haven't talked about yet that pretty much everyone

these days owns certainly in America and that's a mobile phone a smartphone mobile games I would say in general have the lowest barrier of entry for anyone getting into video gaming but the way that they make up for this fact is by creating a model known as free-to-play

which essentially means that yes some of these games you can actually download for free and just play regularly until you hit either a certain point or need a certain piece of equipment to help you further out in the game I would just caution people that see a game

that's out there for free just to be aware that there are certain elements of the game that might be behind these money pay walls if you're playing on iOS then you can get a subscription to Apple arcade and that's a great subscription-based platform with video games on there

that are not only accessible but also don't have my her transactions I have always recommend Asperger's Valley as a great starter game and then when I have some times I would come back to me and says I'm very confused about what I'm supposed to do because they don't

understand the menu system or like like objectives and everything there's a whole language to video games that people don't understand I would definitely recommend something like Minecraft I think back on like people in my family who are not gamers but who've played Minecraft and become acquainted with controls

and control schemes through that because this is the most significant sandbox you'll ever set foot in I recommend sky by that game company what I hear from people who are trying to get into gaming since so much of gave me a 3d movement they can't seem to acclimate

themselves by being able to move around games are sky are able to give you that ability to stretch your legs and get your feet wet before you get into it something more complicated if you do want to get used to shooters or even RPG mechanics I think the

Mass Effect trilogy is actually a great place to start because it's blending storytelling and and those mechanics together I need to know we're doing it for the right I think they do a very good job teaching you the mechanics and getting you more acquainted to those controls so

that eventually if you do want to go into destiny or whatever it may be it will seem a little easier there's an actual quiz you can take to find out sort of where you fall on the gaming spectrum and this it doesn't just ask you do you want

to just shoot some people or do you want to be a puzzle gamer or you want at this farm this mostly asks you like what motivates you what keeps you going what kind of person are you are you an overachiever it seems like it's super helpful again you

can find that quiz in jeans article online right now in the Washington Post comm some of the best review outlets for trying to figure out if you like games is going to be YouTube literally just searching for the game playing and taking a look at yourself to see

if this is the type of game you'd be interested in and also reddit channels which are basically just large forums where video game fans are fans of anything really gather to discuss certain topics about the game itself another outlet is a steam app which is also a website

that coalesces all of the information about a game into one hub and they offer games for you to download through their app themselves the other great thing about steam 2 is there's so many sales where you have 50% 60% off 70% off of games on PlayStation and Xbox

if you sign up for their online subscriptions then you also get it like a handful of free games every month often times they're they're great games Playstations done really good job too with bringing more massively multiplayer online RPGs which is role-playing games such as the platform which we

haven't really seen on console consoles very much but now you know yet we have Monster Hunter even Elder Scrolls online another thing your bonds cannot hold that tempest do those who have joined us for an introduction to gaming hope you learned something today hope you take the plunge

hope you get involved we'll see you online I'm sure you got more questions but we'll have more answers come join us on launcher chichi and in the meantime have a great what everybody