Blog:Grust's Top 10 Real Life Gaming Tips

Ever since I was three years old and picked up my first NES controller, I've been an avid gamer. So much so I even picked up a few tips to aid you in the real world. So here are my top 10 real life tips to aid you in the realm of gaming.

10. Keep Your Games Organized:  If you ever saw my game room tour blog, you saw I keep my games neat and organized. I keep my games arranged by console, name, sequels, and even my special editions and retro in box games organized the same way. This makes finding my games nice and easy. It's high on the list because I'm pretty sure you do it too since it's just common sense.

9. Use Multi-Tap For Old Shooters: In my games I beat blog, you'll see I beat Legendary Wings, a great aerial shooter for NES..... but I didn't tell you I beat that game without a multi-tap controller or feature. You may think that's a huge victory but really, it did a number on my hands tapping the shoot button nonstop. By the time I actually beat it, my hands were hurting fierce from the rapid tapping. Learn from my mistake, if you play a game like Legendary Wings, for the love of homemade ice cream use a multi-tap.

8. There's no Shame in Walkthroughs or Strategy Guides: A lot of games, even some considered the best have their extremely cryptic moments or difficult fights. When that happens, I'm not afraid to pick up a strategy guide or look at an online walkthrough. Sometimes when I'm playing an RPG, I'll even look at a walkthrough just to see how far I am. I didn't get my Platinum trophies on PSN by myself you know. Hell, look at the original Legend of Zelda, awesome and one of the most important games of all time and it's very cryptic. When it first came out there was even a hotline for beating the game. Walkthroughs and strategy guides exist for a reason so don't be afraid to rely on them.

7. Make Sure to Get a Secondary Hobby: I really love gaming but to avoid burnout a secondary hobby may be needed. Besides game collecting, I myself really enjoy cooking and keep cast iron cookware and maintain it. I even like to make my own homemade ice cream which ruined storebought for me forever. I also enjoy manga, YouTube videos, movies, looking up recipes or watching Good Eats on my dad's TV (I got rid of my own cable). I even maintained my own sourdough starter but had to give it up when I failed with four breads.

6. Hot Water Therapy For Your Hands: I do a lot of gaming and often my hands will need relaxing afterwards. One of my favorite (okay my only favorite) methods is to give my hands a soak in hot (not scalding) water with some Epsom salt or baking soda added to it. The key is to find the right temperature so it's hot but not too painful and keep your hands submerged for 15 minutes. While I soak, I have a YouTube video on my Vita running. Once over, my hands feel refreshed and the pain and stiffness is gone. The only downside is your hands will be itchy for a while. Still a good way to relax them.

5. Use Reliable Sources for Game Reviews: We all know about Corruption in Game Journalism yeah yeah, so the best source is user reviews and ratings right? Well, it depends. I usually trust GameFAQs for some but for the love of giant squids do not rely on Amazon or EBay reviews....EVERRRR! I bought some really shitty games based off their reviews including Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast and saw positive reviews and high rating for crap like Sonic Boom. Hell a lot of positives for crap like that were often "kids loved it" "kids loved it." This moronic "review" was even used to "review" The Intec Interact saying it was great for kids. From what I hear, some of these "reviews" are from people trying to sell the game. Rivals can even make fake accounts to give bad reviews for other products, not just video games. I quit reviewing on Amazon after seeing these knowing my actual attempts would be drowned out by these idiots and frauds. Metacritic is also unreliable as it's prone to review bombers. What would I rely on? Well, in addition to GameFAQs (yeah it's SJW but I avoid the forums and use ad block), I rely on most YouTubers like Cinemassacre, Yong Yea, or Angry Joe. As for say user reviews on Steam, I would say, only go the games where the most helpful are positive rather than how many "positive" reviews they got. For instance the most evil game ever made has a ton of "positive reviews", however, the most helpful among them are negative. And no I'm not a PC gamer, but I'm at least aware of that. Of course a great source can come from both the Crappy and Awesome Games Wikis.

4. Keep Your Consoles Nice and Clean: One you can easily overlook is the cleanliness of both your consoles and controllers. When I first got my new Gamecube, one of the controllers had a sticky button so I got the screwdrivers needed to open it and I took it apart and cleaned it up. Taking apart most of my consoles is why most of what you saw in my tour was so clean. Even more important is that modern consoles heat easily and need a fan. If coated in dust, a fan can't blow out the heat. Sadly though even with care, some consoles are not well designed and in some cases, it's a matter of when, not if they break down. I had to toss out my CD-i because of this and one console I heard of will burst into flames. However for the ones that can last like a Super Nintendo, keep them in great condition and you'll be gaming for life.

3. Almost never Preorder: Preodering is one of the most overrated things in gaming. For one, the game is likely overhyped and you'll be spending money on a dud game. Remember ProJared's first review for Two Worlds. He was excited for that game and when he got it.... well he started his channel to make sure that game didn't escape notoriety. If I can think of one reason to ever justify preorders, it's when you get a free gift. And not DLC for the game. When Super Smash came for the 3DS and Wii U, preordering both got you a soundtrack. I preordered and got the soundtrack and since I trust Nintendo got 2 great games for my collection.

2. Check for Scratches When Buying Used Games: Most of the time, I get my games from retro game sites so I'm not all that worried, but when you see a game at a garage sale, open the case first and check the disc. Is it smudged? No worries, that's easy to clean, but deep scratches move on. When I got my 800th game from that "gamer" sale, I checked the discs for each game I bought and they were in great shape. If they hadn't been, I would have walked away.

1. Proper Nutrition and Exercise: Staying in shape and eating right prolongs your life and keeps you fit so you'll be gaming longer. Plus with nutrition, you add more blood to the brain and improve memory. When I was a teenager, I had weak memory and would forget a warping song from Ocarina of Time 10 seconds after hearing it. After dumping soda for water and going on walks, my memory is improved and I can remember most things in gaming I know I couldn't have as a teenager. The brain improvements alone are good enough to make this number 1 but prolonging you life cements this as my best real life tip for gaming.

Any other tips you got? Let me know in the comments.

