I grew up on Nintendo, cut my teeth on Sega’s sports games, and bought every Playstation system ever built. After four years of college (and many a late night on Xbox), I worked at PC Gamer; I’m now Macworld’s de facto games editor. That means I spend a lot of time hopping around the Web, trying to stay on top of every platform’s news and trends. Below are some of my favorite hopping spots.
Kotaku
A branch of Nick Denton’s online gossip empire ( Gawker, Deadspin, et al.), Kotaku has some of the best writers in the gaming world. Up-to-the-minute cross-platform gaming news is all they do; they usually get that news before anyone else, so if you want stay current, their front page bears watching all day.
Inside Mac Games
If you must venture beyond our own topic center for Mac gamers, Inside Mac Games’ news section is the place to go. It’s regularly updated; between them and us, you’ll have all the Mac gaming info you need.
The Escapist
While I find the site hard to navigate at times and its news section weak, The Escapist produces the best games-related videos on the Web. Lots of personality (see, for example, contributor Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s caustic weekly review, Zero Punctuation), lots of humor, lots of detailed info.
IGN
One of the most successful gaming sites out there, IGN is huge, slick, and full of information. While it offers some information about PC-based games (and little if any about those for the Mac), the main focus here is the major consoles. But if you’re a serious gamer, IGN secures lots of exclusives, and you can usually trust what they say.
1UP
Back in the day (say, 2004), 1up was one of the hardcore gamer’s best kept secrets. Lately, it’s been overshadowed by megasites like IGN and Gamespot. But I’m still a fan, for its community news, podcasts, iPhone game reviews, and slick news tab.