WalkerNeo - I offer two little bitty pieces of advice: a) play stronger competition, and b) play long games. Stronger opponents will require more critical thinking on your part. Long games give you the time to do that thinking.
As for what you've tried that you don't believe works, here's my view: a) watching a computer play is of limited help in my view/experience, but b) doing tactical problems that stem from real game situations WILL help. Puzzles that are NOT realistic of game situations are not of that much value. Even Mate-in-n problems are not the best practice because most tactical situations in a game are not mating problems.
Hope this helps a little (though I'm thinking these ideas are not rocket science).
i'm not a great chess player and i can't really find a solid way to improve my game. doing puzzles and watching how a computer plays doesn't help at all. i need to know what to do and what not to do. where do i begin, and where do i go from there?