Video game technology has advanced so much in the last decade and games are bigger and better looking than ever before, and they have way more advanced gameplay. But all of those advancements come at a price; huge download files.
Gone are the days when you could rush home with your new game, put the disk in and start playing. These days, you have to wait for the game to install or download the file, and most games will have a few patches to download on top if you don’t buy them on release day. It’s so frustrating because you’re so close to playing, but so far at the same time. If your internet isn’t that quick, you might have to wait all day, watching the progress bar slowly creep up before you can finally play.
If you sit there staring at the download, it will feel like time has stopped and you will quickly get frustrated. You need to find ways to pass the time until the download is complete so you don’t drive yourself crazy. These are some of the best ways to pass the time when waiting for a new game to download.
Start The Download At The Right Time
If you have the day off work and you’re hoping to spend the day immersed in a brand new game, you’re going to be disappointed if you get up in the morning and start the download. You could miss half a day of quality play time if you don’t plan ahead, which is why it’s vital that you start the download at the right time.
The best time to start the download is right before you go to bed, as long as you don’t mind leaving your computer or console on. Most consoles have a rest mode feature so you don’t need to use too much power and the download will carry on in the background. If you set the download going before you go to sleep, you’ll wake up in the morning and be ready to play, without any of the painful waiting around.
If you have work or school, start the download right before you leave so when you get home, it should be ready to play. Starting the download at the right time makes it so much easier to deal with the waiting.
When you are choosing when to start your download, you need to consider whether it is peak time or not. Many people don’t realize that there is an internet rush hour between 7 and 9 pm when most people are online at the same time. You may experience slow download speeds between these times, so try to avoid downloading then if possible.
Find Ways To Speed Up The Download
Finding ways to speed up the download is important as well and there are some great tricks that you can use. If you are on wifi, try plugging your console or PC directly into the router with an ethernet cable and the download should go a lot faster. You should also check whether there are any other downloads running at the same time. If you have patches and updates for other games that are downloading at the same time, that will slow things down. You’re not going to play those other games for a while at least, so pause those downloads and only leave your new game downloading. Once it’s finished, you can resume any other downloads.
You might be tempted to play some other games while you are waiting for the download, but you should be careful what you play. Running other games on a console while waiting for a download will slow things down, especially if you are playing online multiplayer, which takes up a significant amount of bandwidth. If you do want to play some games while you wait, look for some simple browser games that won’t slow the internet down too much, like slot games. You can play gonzos quest slot online, for example, without affecting your download speed because it’s a simple game. Browser games that don’t take up too much bandwidth are fine, but avoid anything that requires a lot of computing power or anything that is multiplayer because this will slow the download down a lot.
You should also check what other devices are connected to the wifi because, even if you aren’t using the internet, it still puts pressure on your wifi and slows things down. Disconnect your phone and your laptop from the wifi while the game downloads and it should go a little faster.
Finally, if you have tried everything else and the download is still moving at a snail’s pace, you should reset your router. It doesn’t always work but you may find that it speeds up your internet connection and the download goes faster.
Watch A Movie
Watching a movie is the easiest way to kill a big chunk of time, but you have to be careful about how you watch. If you start streaming on Netflix, that is going to eat up a lot of your bandwidth and your download will grind to a halt. If you still have any, it might be time to dig out some old DVDs that you can watch. Alternatively, you should plan ahead and download some of your favorite movies and TV shows on Netflix so you can watch them without using up any of your internet. However, even if you are watching a DVD or a download, you shouldn’t watch on the same device that you are using for the download. Running applications, even if they don’t require the internet, will still slow your download down.
Read A Book
Getting away from the screen so you are not tempted to keep watching the download is important because it will feel a lot slower if you stare at the progress bar the whole time. That’s why reading is a great distraction because you can get lost in a book or a great comic for a while and when you come back, the download should hopefully be finished. The other big benefit to doing this is that you don’t have to use your computer or console and you aren’t connected to the internet, so you won’t be slowing the download down at all.
Get Your Chores Done
We’re all guilty of procrastinating sometimes, and once your new game is downloaded and ready to play, you definitely won’t be ticking any chores off your to-do list, so why not get them done now. Write a list of all of the jobs that you’ve been putting off, whether that is housework, schoolwork, organizing your kitchen cupboards or whatever else needs to get done. You have a block of free time that will just be spent waiting, so you might as well do something productive. If you get all of the boring stuff out of the way while the game is downloading, you are free to play it guilt free without worrying about how much time you are putting into it. You’ll have a far more relaxing gaming experience once your to-do list is complete and the time will fly by.
Check Out Some Game Guides
If you really can’t wait and you want to start exploring the new game right away, why not check out some game guides online? You can have a look at the map and pick up some good tips so when the game is finally downloaded, you can hit the ground running without wasting time getting to grips with the controls. This isn’t always the best idea with story driven games because you don’t want any spoilers, but with a lot of games, you will find some useful tips and tricks that help you get the most out of it. Reading simple text pages shouldn’t use up too much internet but if you are really worried about it, see if you can pick up a guide book when you buy the game. Physical game guides aren’t as popular as they used to be, but you can still find them for a lot of games. If the game has a thick manual and a map with it, you should give that a read as well. You can learn all of the basic controls and they often have interesting background information on characters that you don’t always get when you play through the game. Just be aware that reading game guides and manuals will only make you more excited to play the game and that can make the waiting even more painful.
Play Another Game While You Wait!
When you are waiting for a huge game to download, you might feel as though time moves very slowly. This can be frustrating to say the least, but at the end of the day, there are things that you can do to make time pass faster. One tip would be for you to play another game while you wait. They say that time flies when you’re having fun, so why not give this a shot? There really are so many games out there for you to play, some of which include pokie slot machines.
Huge download files are frustrating, but that’s the price you pay for the incredible games that we get these days. Hopefully, downloads will speed up in the future but the size of the games is also going to increase, so waiting for games to download is just something that you’ll have to deal with. However, if you follow these simple tips to speed the download up and kill some time while you wait, you’ll be getting stuck into your new game before you know it.
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