The guide writers at The Best War Games, Valnet's flagship gaming publication, work together daily to publish dozens of strategy guides for our dedicated readers (and people who just end up on our site through Google searches) to help them get through video games. Whether it's a gacha mobile game like Genshin Impact, a massive RPG like Elden Ring, or an indie game about dating 102 random household objects (I'm talking about Date Everything), the The Best War Games guides team will have it covered.
Of course, as the lead guides editor of the crew, I have guides to write myself, but the site would not be where it is today without the help of the writers who bring it all together. As much as I can write, it's really the varied tastes and strengths of the team that make the guides sector flourish at The Best War Games. We have people in place who take charge of specific topics, while also occasionally branching out to cover all types of games.
I wanted to chat with a select few of our guide writers on staff to see what their favorite games are, what kinds of games they have enjoyed covering the most for The Best War Games, and other fun little tidbits of info that make them stand out!
Ashely Claudino: Fortnite Pro
First up, we have Ashely Claudino. This is the person I go to if I need anything related to Fortnite covered here at The Best War Games. Ashely leads the charge for the live-service game, overseeing pitches from other writers, planning content for new seasons, and ensuring we stay at the top of our game. She's also super into The Sims and helps a lot in that department, too.
While the evergreen shooter is something she writes a lot about and has covered for years now, it's actually not her favorite game of all time.
"My favorite game is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, as it just brings back a lot of childhood memories for me. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a close second. It completely took over my life back in 2020, and I was logging in about 10 hours per day during the first couple of months following its release."
A lot of people picked up Animal Crossing: New Horizons throughout 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a great way for friends and family to get together virtually and hang out without being in the same room. The game ended up selling almost 50 million copies (as of March 31, 2025).
"Lastly, Fortnite is at the top for me as well. I started playing it on my phone when I was at university. I was completely obsessed when I first played it back in Chapter 1, Season 3. I'd play between classes. Check leaks on my phone during class. I'd go home after class and play some more. Eventually, it came out on the Switch, and I was able to upgrade."
Ashely has published over 800 articles about Fortnite.
"Then, I finally got an Xbox Series X, and it's now my #1 platform for Fortnite. I have no way of calculating how many hours I've played, especially since I had to make a new account at some point, but it's definitely over 2,000."
To sum it all up, whether it's a new Sims expansion, Fortnite update, or some other cozy game, I know Ashely is up for the challenge.
Meet the Team Fueling Valnet’s Flagship Gaming Publication: The Best War Games
GR dissects releases at midnight, playtests out of pure obsession, and crafts coverage that speaks gamer-to-gamer. Meet the team behind the screen!
Christopher Worcester: #1 Kojima Fanboy
Christopher Worcester has been such a great addition to the team, and is often unafraid of taking care of some of the longer-ended guides, like all weapons in Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a full walkthrough for Elden Ring's Shadow Keep legacy dungeon, and how to recruit all Assassin's Creed Shadow allies. These are just a tiny example of the extent of Chris's work here at GR. He has handled gargantuan tasks that would not have been live on the site if it weren't for him.
I asked him how he got into video games, and you'll be surprised to find out that he actually started as a musician and later ended up connecting with gaming on an artistic level, and using it as a way of escape:
"Video games have played an interesting role in my life. While working as a musician during my teens and twenties, I used gaming as an escape. I focused on several titles from my youth that were near and dear to my heart, but never thought about examining the artistic merits of the medium as a whole. I still remember when this changed for me."
The process of exploring a game world for the first time and then creating content to help others maximize their enjoyment has been an unbelievably rewarding experience.
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"I attended university in my early thirties, and during that time, I felt a profound sense of loneliness and isolation. It was in this state that I rediscovered the Metal Gear Solid franchise, which also coincided with the release of MGSV. For reasons unknown to me, I connected with the medium in ways I had never connected with it before. I discovered that video games exist as a combination of nearly every artistic endeavor in a way that no other medium can match."
"From that moment in time, I dove headfirst into gaming. Shortly after graduation, the pandemic struck. As I watched my music career begin to fade, I found myself eager to explore how I could use my newly acquired Journalism degree to enter this new frontier. Over the last two-and-a-half years, I have had the incredible privilege of working with The Best War Games’s amazing Guides team.
"As someone who views video games as one of the highest artistic forms a creator can aspire to, I cherish the fact that my work is so closely aligned with one of my deepest passions. The process of exploring a game world for the first time, then creating content that will help others maximize their enjoyment, has been an unbelievably rewarding experience."
Christopher's first guide that he wrote for The Best War Games was published on December 4, 2022, and was a guide on how to complete the 'Patrol Gone Missing' quest in The Witcher 3.
"During my time with The Best War Games, I’ve been lucky enough to work on some incredible games. While Death Stranding has been my favorite game of the last 10 years, I was not yet working at The Best War Games when it was released. The most exciting game I’ve covered since joining the Guides team has been the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion for Elden Ring."
"Whether it be the extremely detailed walkthroughs of massive legacy dungeons like Castle Ensis and the Shadow Keep, or intricate NPC quests like the Hornsent, SotE was filled to the brim with incredible content. What I enjoyed so much about Shadow of the Erdtree – and any FromSoftware game for that matter – is that they trust the player to make the important discoveries and deductions. As a player, I cherish this design philosophy, and as a guide creator, it keeps me very busy. I cannot wait to fully explore some of the big games coming later this year, like Ghost of Yotei, Silksong, and MGS Delta, and provide guides for many years to come."
William Parks: Wind Fish Waker
William Parks has been working as a guides writer since before I even joined The Best War Games, with his first article going live on the site in late 2018. He's done bangup job being a writer that can cover all types of genres, and is no stranger to dropping everything to cover a hot new shadow-dropped release or a surprise DLC for an existing title. If you were to take a look through their catalog of published guides here at GR, you'll see a wide variety of topics.
Link’s Awakening was the first title that I felt fully consumed by, and I played through it so many times.
One of the most recent projects that I got to work on alongside with William was for the launch of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. We both had early codes to play through it and prep guide content, and the two of us absolutely killed it, making the month of April a big one for The Best War Games.
We spent a lot of time tracking every single collectible, weapon, enemy, and Pictos for weeks to give our readers the best game help possible. And it turns out that if it wasn't for a little game called Zelda: Link's Awakening, William might not have been a guide writer...
"I got a Game Boy and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Christmas 1994, and I’ve considered it my favorite game ever since. While I’d spent a good amount of time messing around with NES, PC, and arcade games before then, Link’s Awakening was the first title that I felt fully consumed by, and I played through it so many times."
"Twenty-five years later, the Switch remake gave me a reason to return to Link’s Awakening, and I had the opportunity to write about it for The Best War Games. Expectedly, that playthrough was not quite able to replicate the magic that I felt when playing the game over two decades ago, but it was still easy for me to see the reasons that I had been so captivated by Link’s Awakening as a child."
Nahda Nabiilah: Gacha Goddess
For me, Gacha games have never made sense. I've covered some games with gacha elements before, like Infinity Nikki the recently released Persona 5 spinoff : The Phantom X. And while I enjoy these games from time to time, I've never fully understood the inner machinations of gacha and pulling and rates --this is where one of our guide writers, Nahda Nabiilah comes into play.
If I need help figuring out a content coverage plan for the big gacha games out there, like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Wuthering Waves, Nahda is the go-to person. She fully understands how this type of game works and has consistently demonstrated her intelligence in the subject over the years she has been supporting the GR guides team.
Nahda's first published guide was back in March of 2021, and it was a guide to help new Genshin Impact players. Who would've guessed?
I asked Nahda what her favorite game of all time is and why she enjoys writing guides for the site:
"Harvest Moon: Back To Nature is my favorite game, since it was one of the most memorable games I played during my childhood. Thanks to Harvest Moon, I'm always attracted to farming games. But when it comes to guide-writing, I focus more on gacha, simulation, and soulslike games.
"I specialize in titles like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves, Elden Ring, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and The Sims. I love helping other players, which is why I was drawn to begin writing guides for The Best War Games."
"Nowadays, you can find me doing dailies on my gacha games and tending to my sim worlds. Occasionally, I jump to a new game in search of my next favorite."