How do I start playing video games? A beginner’s guide

Recently, several non-techy friends have sidled up to me and asked, in hushed conspiratorial tones: “Keith, should I be playing video games?”

It’s an interesting question for two reasons. First, I write about video games for a living; that’s my job. So what did they think I was going to say? “No, they’re a massive waste of time”? Secondly, a few years ago, people my age were feeling guilty about playing video games, now there are people feeling guilty that they’re not. This is progress.

So for all the potential gamers out there who are thinking about taking up a joypad but don’t know where to start, or which games to try, or what a joypad looks like, here is a quick guide:

So should you play video games?

Yes! The medium has matured hugely over the last five years, and there is a vast range of experiences available, from big blockbusting open-world adventures about marauding gangsters, to teeny, highly personal indie games about coming out. Games are respected enough for Bafta to accept them into its remit, enough for Moma to put a range of titles into its permanent collection, and enough for major art spaces like the Barbican and the Grand Palais museum in Paris to run exhibitions.

Games have been shown to improve hand-eye coordination, cognitive flexibility, decision making, even vision. Despite popular stereotypes, games are sociable and inclusive, with large, supportive communities and some brilliant events. Basically, if you’re happy to watch TV for three hours a day or continually peruse celebrity gossip websites and social media streams, you cannot – with any degree of self-awareness – call video games a waste of time.

Not wasting his life … Avid gamer Snoop Dogg.

Photograph: UPI / Landov / Barcroft Media

What you need to play video games

Smartphone/tablet

If you already have a smartphone or tablet, then great, you’ve got a games machine. The latest Apple, Android and Windows handsets feature powerful processors, large displays and vast app stores crammed with games (you’ll have more choice if your phone is the latest model and your operating system is up to date). If you’re looking for a new handset, the latest iPhone and Android models are the best (Windows is not so well supported by game developers): the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Sony Xperia Z3 and LG G3 are all great options for gaming. Budget models like the Motorola Moto G and older iPhone models are fine for less demanding ‘casual’ titles.

PC

If you’re looking for the most advanced gaming experience with the best visuals, you’ll need to buy a PC (you can play games on Apple Macs too, but there are fewer titles available – unless you dual-boot, but we are not going there). Running the latest big budget action games at the absolute peak of their abilities – and ensuring you can do so for two or three more years – will require something in the region of an Intel i7 4790 processor, an Nvidia GTX 980 graphics card and perhaps 16GB of system memory (though 8GB is currently fine for games). It would be best to have a newish Windows install too, although plenty of games support the open source alternative, Linux.

However, you don’t have to spend big on a top-of-the-range mega beast: if you’re happy to turn some of the graphics settings down, £500-600 will get you a decent machine with an Intel i5 processor, AMD R9 280 graphics card and 8GB of memory. Even an old laptop with Windows XP and 512MB of ram will let you play a variety of smaller indie games and older titles. Classic point-and-click adventures, strategy titles and vintage shooters are cheap and easily available online (Good Old Games has hundreds of them), and don’t require state-of-the-art hardware.

If your eyes glazed over at all that talk of processors and graphics cards, that’s fine: go to a good PC seller like PCSpecialist, Overclockers or Chillblast, give them your budget and let them build a system that fits it. You will need to develop some knowledge of computers and operating systems, though, especially if you plan to upgrade your graphics card or memory at some point. We have an article on building a gaming PC – it’s a little dated on the specifics but still sound on the types of things you have to think about.

Console

Just about edging it … Playstation 4.

Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

For most people, a console is a good alternative to the PC. They’re cheaper, they’re ready to play right out of the box, and you don’t have to worry about lots of hardware compatibility issues and graphics settings. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are the latest models (both retailing at around £350), and technically they’re extremely similar. At the moment, the PS4 is selling better and developers seem to be getting more out of it in terms of graphics performance, but it’s close – and you should check which one your friends have, just in case you want to play online with them.

Alternatively, you could buy a Wii U (cheap and interesting with three or four amazing titles that are great for families) or step a generation back with a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. They both have hundreds of games available and at around £150 each are a cheaper starting point. Even picking up an old PlayStation 1 or Dreamcast and a bunch of games at your local car boot sale will give you an idea or whether you like gaming or not.

Where should I buy games?

Smartphone/tablet

All you have to do is visit the online app store supported by your device by clicking on the icon on your home screen. If you have a Windows phone it’s Windows Store, on Android it’s Google Play and on Apple phones it’s the App Store. You’ve probably already done this to download something like Candy Crush Saga or Angry Birds (which are both great games), but there are more complex options out there too. We’ll get to that tomorrow.

PC

If you want to play games on a PC or Mac, you should probably sign up for Steam. This is effectively a vast online shop, like the Apple App Store, where you buy games and then download them straight to your computer – you never need to own a boxed copy. Steam sells most of the latest blockbuster hits, but also has a vast range of interesting independent games (made by smaller studios) and a back catalogue of classic titles. There are regular sales too.

Like Netflix or Amazon, Steam will also suggest games based on your previous purchases, and there’s a social element, so you can connect with friends and find out what they recommend.

There are alternative digital shops (try Good Old Games, Green Man Gaming or EA’s own Origin store), but Steam dominates the market.

Console

For boxed games, supermarkets and major online stores like Amazon will get you the cheapest deals on the big new titles. There are a few high street retailers hanging on in there for dear life: HMV still sells games, and Game has had a resurgence over the last two years – it’s great for pre-owned titles (as are smaller chains like Planet Games and CEX).

‘Great for pre-owned titles’ … UK retailer Game has enjoyed a recent resurgence.

Photograph: Alamy

PlayStation, Xbox and Wii also have their own online stores, allowing you to download both major new titles and smaller indie titles – the prices for big releases can be expensive though, and they take up lots of space on your hard drive. With both Xbox One and PlayStation 4, if you pay for a subscription to their online gaming services (Xbox Live and PlayStation Network), you also get to download free games every month, and you keep these for as long as you’re a subscriber.

What else do I need?

PC

For PC gaming, you’ll need a decent flatscreen monitor. I’d go for at least a 27-inch Full HD display, at 120Hz (though 60Hz is fine), with as low a response time (measured in milliseconds) as possible. There’s a great PC Magazine guide to all the more complicated things you should look for.

Most games are fine with mouse and keyboard control, but you can also buy a joypad for action games (the Xbox 360 wired controller is perfect). If you get into flight or space sims a specialist joystick like the Saitek X52 or Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X may eventually be a good idea.

Console

If you have a new console, a full high-definition (1080p) flatscreen TV is the idea option, though an older 720p ‘HD Ready’ set is fine – just something with an HDMI port in the back. I’d say you need at least a 40-inch display to get the best out of the visuals, but others disagree (and as commenters are pointing out below, it depends on the size of your room). These days you can get a good quality, decent-sized LED television for less than £500. LG, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung are good brands to look for. You need a television with the lowest possible “input lag” (the time it takes for the screen to respond to joypad movements), which can be an issue with TVs that use lots of high-tech picture processing technologies. Some have special Game Modes which tweak settings for speed and motion blur.

You could check out Displaylag.com, which lets you know about the input lag on most major new screens, or HDTVTest which rates and reviews TVs in a lot of detail and usually mentions how good they are for gaming.

What about 4K, the new generation of TVs which offer four times the visual clarity of current HD sets? They’re still a bit pricey and none of the consoles support them yet so it maybe a bit early to jump on that bandwagon.

So what should I play?

Ah, this is the big question. There is a dizzying array of video game genres, some of them are self-explanatory (driving sims, flight sims, fighting games, puzzle games), some of them not so much. Here’s a quick guide:

First-person shooter (FPS): a shooting game in which you view the environment through the eyes of the lead protagonist. The aim will usually be to run through a series of linear environments shooting people/aliens/things.
Current examples: Halo, Call of Duty, Battlefield

Third-person shooter/brawler: like the above except the lead character is visible onscreen, and there is often an emphasis on melee combat as well as shooting stuff. Current examples: Bayonetta, Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted

Role-playing game (RPG): an adventure game, usually set in a fantasy or science fiction environment, where the player character gains new abilities, spells and weapons by fighting enemies and discovering treasure. This is a process known as collection experience points (XP) and “levelling up”.
Current examples: Final Fantasy, Dragon Age, Dark Souls, Witcher

Massively multiplayer online game (MMORPG): As above, but played in an online environment where hundreds of other gamers are also co-operating and competing. Fans usually join guilds (gaming teams) and attempt missions together.
Current examples: World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, Eve Online

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, the latest in the multiplayer online gaming franchise.

Photograph: AP

Real-time strategy game (RTS): A battle strategy title in which players control an army of different vehicles (units) and must direct them against an opponent’s forces. Usually, players have to mine for resources in order to build units before putting them into battle. Both competitors move and command their armies at the same time, unlike turn-based strategy games like Civilization and XCOM.
Current examples: Starcraft 2: Rome: Total War, Company of Heroes

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA): A comparatively new genre, in which two small teams of warriors battle each other on small-scale environments using an array of weapons and spells. The aim is to destroy the opponent’s base structure. This is a team-based genre, with each warrior controlled by a different player.
Current examples: League of Legends, Dota 2, Smite

Open-world shooter: an action adventure game in which the player has free access to a large environment, often a fantasy realm or a modern city, and can freely explore. There is often a series of narrative missions which move the story along, but the world will also contain an array of optional side-quests and tasks, which provide different experiences and allow the player to “level up” with new items and abilities.
Current examples: Grand Theft Auto, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider

How do I play online?

You’ll need a broadband internet connection and a router. When you’re looking for a provider, you need one that offers fast download and upload speeds, and a stable connection with less jitter (fluctuating performance) and latency (delays in getting data to and from the internet). If you’re planning to download a lot of games, you should go for a service that offers unlimited data downloads. Also, find out if the service prioritises gaming traffic: some providers use traffic management to stabilise the service at peak times, but this can really impact gaming performance. Generally, Virgin Media, Sky and BT are all okay, but specialist broadband providers like PlusNet and Zen are pulling in increasingly good reviews.

Once you’re set up, you can either plug your console or PC directly into the router via an ethernet cable, or you can connect wirelessly via Wi-Fi (if you have a PC you may need to buy a Wi-Fi dongle for this). Generally, you’ll get a faster more stable gaming experience with a wired connection. If your games machine is in a different room to your router, you could try a power line adaptor – this uses your home’s electric wiring as a network.

Most games make it really easy to play against other people online. There will probably be a “Multiplayer” option on the main menu: just click on that and follow the instructions. You may get a choice of playing “co-op” (with your friends against computer-controlled enemies) or “competitive” (playing against other people). If you don’t want to play against strangers, PlayStation, Xbox, Wii U and Steam all let you create friend lists of players you know, and you’ll be able to see when your pals are online.

Come back tomorrow for our list of the top 20 games for beginners…

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