@@sydt7104 He said that Minecraft is bad because he didn't like it. And the list of reasons he gave were all his own personal failings. His Minecraft take is like saying Legos are boring because they give you creative freedom.
@@sydt7104 Minecraft is great when you are using the school computers back in the day loading off a flash drive. But no man's sky is actually the future. Favorite game by far for vibing with friends
Some media literacy is required to be a good media critic. For example Ben Shapario is a person who has no media literacy and has some of the stupidest movie takes I have ever seen.
He just reviews movies just to let his audience of edgelords know which movies are “woke” and which are not. It’s basically the equivalent of scrolling through Conservapedia’s “Worst Liberal Movies” and “Best Conservative Movies” lists.
I used to be a huge Nostalgia Critic fan, but that was when media analysis on TH-cam was still kind of a new thing and he didn't really have much competition and unfortunately he hasn't really evolved his style over the years (incesant yelling at the camera, clumsily inserting a bunch of annoying skits). That style just isn't as big on TH-cam as it used to be. And some of his reviews have been downright questionable (did he actually watch "The Wall"?). I think Lindsay Ellis and Todd in the Shadows were by far the two best things to come out of Channel Awesome.
@@carter_lovejoy There were similarities, but I don't think it's fair to say he was "ripping off" AVGN. More likely, he found some level of inspiration from what he did. NC's style of humor is largely pretty different, and the two pull off pretty dissimilar atmospheres through their older reviews. Is NC insufferable nowadays? Oh absolutely. But it's not really fair in my opinion to alledge he was ripping off James Rolfe.
I agree with all you but I still likes his editorials and normal movie reviews I think the skits really tainted his reputation I really like how he talks about media. His Dark Toons series is really good
Jacob Geller is my favourite "reviewer". He takes a game review and turns it into a piece of art that really makes you think about the game and the world in new ways. Fantastic channel.
I like how he can zero in on a running theme between games and even other forms of media, which helps you recognize what the game might be trying to do. It feels more like the conversations I have in real life with friends, where meandering asides like "this reminds me of something else that's similar" occur and you try to string it together later into a sort of cohesive picture of your mental state as affected by a work rather than just the direct observations of a work itself.
I feel CinemaSins is probably the worst example of "The Cynical Reviewers", I feel the Internet would be much less Excessively Nitpicky if they didn't exist, there'd still a lot of them, but not nearly as many as CS spwned.
A lot of sins aren't even movie/cinema sins. Just stuff in the film that he doesn't like. That's why Th3 Birdman is better than his channel. Th3 Birdman sins and calls out CS on their bs.
@@YokaiX The Birdman tends to also nitpick sins and get quite a few wrong or be contradictory. Like in his response to multiverse of madness. He went after CinemaSins for question the internal consistency of the film. Arguing that he's making an out of universe critique even though he wasn't. Then in that same review uses the comics, an out of context critique, to defend his own point.
I'm not an avid fan or even watch them that much, but I was always under the impression that CinemaSins was, like, 80% a joke? Where on occasion a Sin will actually be pointing out a valid plot issue, but the majority of Sins are complete non issues that the narrator states in a very deadpan way, like even he doesn't actually care about whatever is being said? I mean, one of the first Sins in any given video is just the movies' title showing up before the story starts, so it all comes off as just a goof.
@@kenjen9861 Yeah, CinemaSins is just supposed to be fun. It's not a review, and you're not supposed to think at the end "Oh wow, what a huge list of sins this movie had, it must be a horrible film." Still, even as a joke, it gets annoying if the "sins" feel arbitrary, or based on a misunderstanding of the movie, because then the joke doesn't work. Shaun has some good (old) videos tearing apart CinemaSins. I think there's also somebody called CinemaWins, which is sort of the opposite -- just pointing out cool things they liked about movies. I think I've only seen like one or two of those, but the idea is wholesome.
A reviewer I want to plug is Civvie11. He reviews boomer shooters and other older games, and he comes off as incredibly informed and passionate about the subject while also poking fun at tired online review shows. I knew nothing about games like Quake or Blood but now I want to delve into those and I even got into games like the original Prey game and Cruelty Squad. He really hits that perfect combination of informative and entertaining
As a big Cruelty Squad fan, I think his review is actually still my favourite of all CruS reviews, mainly because he doesn't just outright view the game as a "joke game" or "shitpost meme game" upon seeing the graphics and presentation, but he is really open-minded from the very beginning and articulates pretty well how he feels about the game and seems to understand it better than most. Though to be fair, it's a shame that Cruelty Squad didn't have a sewer level.
Honestly of all reviewers, I still really like AngryJoe. I know his schtick is to get angry at bad games, but when he likes something it feels very genuine, and I always get the sense that he genuinely enjoys video games as a medium and a fun art form. He also does a good job exposing corporate greed and over all bad design when needed. I also think the concepts behind Girlfriend Reviews are very charming and wholesome.
I fully agree, I have so many memories of watching AngryJoe reviews when I was younger. I especially appreciate what you mentioned about how you can tell that he really likes the medium
Personally I don't really like Joe. Like a lot of review youtubers, his "opinions" on more popular games tend to be shaped by the bandwagon around the game. If people seem to not like it, he doesn't like it. Same goes for when people really like something. Also sometimes he decides to hate a game or a movie before it has even come out, which leads him to go into it with a closed mind and without even giving it a chance, leading to a low score.
I also think Aj has a certain type of charisma that NC lacks. Like there is something endearingly awkward and unpolished to his skits and antics. They generally have a "You and your best mates dressed up in costumes and tried to make short films in high school"-energy.
I really like how Fantano has evolved his critique style over the years to fit the current mold of TH-cam and the fact that he's always authentic in his views.
I especially like the fact that he stopped using the n-word that often and that for every Death Grips review he first pulls out his MC Ride hugging pillow for the camera.
@@estudos6156 Kanye has some really good songs. His fans are incredibly obnoxious, though, and pretend he can do no wrong. and of course, his personality is really off-putting. But I'm a strong believer in »the death of the author« because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to enjoy anything.
I wouldnt exactly call his channel 100 percent authentic. Hes gone on record multiple times saying if he had his way, hed be reviewing a lot more obscure shit and that one bandcamp segment he used to do would still be a thing, but it doesnt make money for him and most of his audience are there for his takes on pop hip hop and occasionally /mu/core.
The old extra credits "games you might not have tried" videos have that vibe of finding interesting things in games that are not perfect, and it makes sense since their focus is finding games that teach you something interesting on a design level.
One of the worst "cynical reviewers" I've seen is Mauler. He seems to think that whining about something for 8 hours straight by bitching about every little line is criticism. One of the cringiest things I've heard him say was that he and Rags have a "gift" for criticizing media and finding flaws in writing.
IDK, sometimes cynical dissection has its place. Mauler's long response to Hbomb was completely deserved, considering how much BS was packed into that video.
People don't understand that "criticism" is not blind praise or blind anger, it's careful analysis of the art and how it works. It's not about the reviewer's opinion, it's about understanding why it produces a certain reaction.
I can't believe he mentioned EYE Divine Cybermancy, that game is such a gem. Really exemplifies the archetype of "flawed indie game with a lot of unique ideas that could built on" that he mentions in the beginning.
Nostalgia Critic’s review for The Wall should’ve been the final nail in the coffin for his show. I don’t understand how he managed to still do it after that disaster let alone the whole Change the Channel scandal before that. I would be really pissed if he did a shitty musical review of Yellow Submarine or A Hard Day’s Night similar to his review of The Wall since The Beatles are my all time favorite band/artists.
Nostalgia Critic is the embodiment of the meme that untalented artists become critics. I don't generally agree with it, but I can't take his criticism seriously after seeing Doug's genuine attempts at creating movies.
His views have been pretty middling for a while now. I think a lot of his Fanbase has moved on. He used to hit 1 million views semi-regularly, I don’t think that’s happened in a while.
The Critical Drinker is literally Mr. Enter of live-action. They both manipulate their audience, claim to have right opinion on everything and they're both narcissistic losers.
@@jakfan09perspective, sh3 has one of the most beloved protagonists of the series, is constantly held in high regard for its themes, characterization, and symbolism. It also got a remaster treatment. 4 didn't.
@@jamesross2279 4 at least has a PC port on GOG and Steam. 3 had a shitty remaster and getting a legit copy costs a ton. I mainly refer to 3 as underrated because of the place it has amongst horror fans in general. I think it's just as good as 2 most people don't however.
@@jakfan09 "legit copy costs a ton" hmm could it be because it's one of the most popular games in one of the most popular horror franchises in video game history?
I think that’s a great point. Analysis and critiques of games are sometimes even better when they disagree with you. You get a different perspective, and a different way of thinking which can be incredibly valuable
17:40 Doom eternal is designed so You use the entirety of your arsenal. all enemies have a certain gun assigned to them that they are weak to. I'd argue only allowing one type of gun would break the game design in this case.
Forcing you to use a specific gun for a specific enemy for every enemy isn't fun though. You're not playing the game the way you want to play it at that point, you're stuck playing the game the way the devs want you to. That, among mamy other reasons, is why I think Doom 2016 is way better.
Yeah I think shooters where the player has a massive arsenal are usually designed for that style of game flow. Each weapon is meant to be like a tool in your belt, and you need to figure out what that tool is best for and in what situations to use it. Thinking like this massively improved my experience with Black Mesa. That being said Vaush's idea where all guns are disposable like cigarettes and you grab-shoot-drop-grab repeat sounds like a fun and fast game design.
@@lolusuck386 You are playing the way the devs want you to 99 percent of the time in every game. Also Vaush argues to literally force the player to only use ONE Gun for one stage. So you are agreeing with me.
@@scoople6 I had the feeling that there are situations in Black Mesa where no gun is all that good, and the only way to avoid losing 80% of your health due to some stupid turret or ambush is save scumming.
from watching James I managed to avoid the 2016 anti-feminism obssessed with anita sarkeesian alt-right brain rot pipeline that so many other gamers fell down to and I will always thank her for that
@@scylecs And that's not to mention their recent videos. Just like back then, there's too many gamer dudes who really couldn't give less of shit about actual abuse, constantly crowing about how "Video games are video games, why do you have to get political!?" But every time, Jim is there to dig back into the garbage because no video game is worth the soul crushing awfulness of the modern production line.
@@scylecs For me, the most offensive thing about Anita Sarkeesian's videos on female characters in gaming was that the presentation was fairly bland and she wasn't really saying anything new. Anybody who had been into video games up until that point and was mature enough to examine the medium honestly could easily pick up on the trends in character archetypes, the damsel in distress, the stigma of "girl games," etc. But judging from how angry some of those babies got about her work, I guess she was still saying something they needed to hear.
I can’t stand when people say things like “Vaush’s media takes are so bad” or whatever. I mean, that’s so much more reductive and snobby a statement than whatever he’s guilty of. What does it even mean? You actually just disagree with everything he says about art and games and so on? It’s so obviously absurd, like, most of what he says about this stuff really is usually just pretty straightforward and reasonable. The only thing I can’t forgive is when he dismisses 2D Metroid games despite never playing them...
If Vaush says something objectively wrong about a piece of media, then the take is bad. Also, if most average people are upset by a take, then it can hardly be interpreted as "pretty straightforward and reasonable" imo.
@@jjdude5531 I’m sure plenty of people have plenty of specific disagreements with him, I haven’t got a problem with that. But a lot of people will make the kind of statements I’m talking about without giving any specific explanation or justification, and in that case it’s more of a generalised out of hand dismissal, and basically just vague, lazy snobbery in my opinion. That’s what I have a problem with, not the very concept of disagreeing... obviously.
The point of a reviwer is not be bold. It to show your honest opinion, in an entertaining and informative way. Being contrarian is good if your being contrarian because your have a differ take and not being a cynic for cynic or contrarian sake
My absolutely favorite game or game mechanic "reviewer" channel is Game Maker's Tool Kit. They talk about games and how devs use different mechanics / tools to make their experience. Worth a watch.
i don't understand this phenomena where all of these people think the game they like is like whatever anyone else is talking about. i feel vowsh getting infuriated here. Whenever I ask anyone for a specific type of game I just get reffered to seemingly almost random well known game and it's like "shut up that's not what I asked"
This is the one time I'm gonna invoke the appeal to hypocrisy 4Head VDS take, because it's funny, and also for once kind of true: Vaush's media takes often actually are fairly hegemonic surface-level takes. Specifically, mostly his TV and movie takes tend to be very... normie. The Incredibles being read as pro-Objectivist is a super common room temp take, his MCU Spider-Man one was literally just the "hurr Iron Boy" bandwagon, and his Korra and The Batman takes are basically identical to the ultra mainstream "Killmonger was right" meme... which is to say, fairly superficial. In the latter case at least I always read the Amon thing in Korra as being about tankie-style grifting undermining genuine proletarian concerns, for instance, but the whole read of "this is milquetoast both-sidesing and anti-left" is just... the easy read everyone vaguely left-leaning beelines toward. He has good takes sometimes though. But when it's not super specifically a thing he's familiar with, well... That.
Interesting I see Equalists as something like non-benders supremacist movement, especially with Hiroshi Sato basically being Henry Ford of Avatar universe.
It's a trend , where people believe their take is some avant grade thing, but it's actually like the second most surface level, mainstream take. Is it different from the main consensus? Yeah, but it's liking Pepsi instead of Coke. Bethesda is the one I see a lot where people will act like they're about to be sent to the camps for not liking Skyrim or Fallout 4, when that's like the most popular position outside of the most absolute normie sections ever. "Fallout 4 is a good game, but not a good Fallout game" became a meme for a reason.
I actually disagree on the game design part. It IS a bad thing that the vast majority of modern games have a shared logic. It in fact, ruins most modern games. Part of the fun of games is learning how to play. You pick up a game from earlier than the 2010's and you are given a bunch of systems to learn and master. Are all of said systems great and polished? No. But at least they aren't all canned bread every day forever! I cannot think of anything more destructive to the artform than the homogenization it has gone through the past decade... And the saddest part is a lot of these tropes and shared logic were great things... Crafting, and open worlds, and liberating encampments, and all of it! But they've become so all encompassing and rotten they are dirt at this point! And considering the fact that since all this shit is so cut and paste that publishers feel bold enough to accelerate development cycles to the point of torturing programmers... No. There is nothing even remotely okay about that state of affairs! It's bad for the artform, it's bad for artists, it's bad for consumers.... It's just bad!
You are right on so many levels (no pun intended.) Video games have been so homogenized in so many ways and they really need to get better in that aspect
I think you're right about the homogenization of modern video games (to a point), you're leaving out pretty much all indies and I think the point about the "shared logic" of video games was describes as encompassing more than the genre of homogenized open world shooty thingies...and is more referring to the language of gaming. And like any language, the language of gaming is constantly evolving and we're hitting a point were we are basically reading the same book again and again (at least if you're playing ubisoft)
@@darth0tator The existance of indie games, specifically ones catering to niches outside of the dominant market forces, are why I said things like "most games" are ruined by it, and not "nearly all" games are ruined by it. It is worth noting though, as good as the indie market can be in terms of genre variety, with a bunch of genres that the AAA devs have actively given up in the quest for more shooters and ARPGs that increasingly are looking more like eachother to begin with, those encompassing tropes and trends can be found there quite a lot too. Should it be a shooter or an action RPG, you still have a good chance it's gonna be just as samey in terms of gameplay as the big budget "AAA" titles. I'm pretty sure the biggest problem here is not having enough pre-production time to think out unique gameplay systems, so they basically end up copy pasting what worked in other games. For the AAA industry yearly releases and the corporate fear of innovation are the obvious problem here. Teams are not permitted the pre-production time to make something truly special or unique most of the time, whereas indie games can hit similar snags due to inadequate budgeting, an unclear vision of what the game should be before production begins, or my new favorite, inexperienced devs not understanding that you can't just wing it and jump right into production and expect a positive result (looking at you paralives). Indie games are certainly hit less badly by the homogenization, and are certainly by far the torchbearers keeping the artform alive, but to act like it doesn't negatively affect them at all is overly charitable.
I used to think I was a huge gamer, but the older I get, the less I care about the video game aspect of video games. I have hundreds of games on Steam, but all I play is linear story-based indie shit and VNs. Hell, I read more books than games. A lot more. I guess I always just cared about the story and immersion, not the satisfaction or completing tasks efficiently.
I don't think that makes you any less of a gamer. In fact, I think this happens to most people, you spend your youth experiencing as much art as you can before refining what you like and what you don't as you get older.
@@rockduded8925 true. I firmly believe games have the potential to be the ultimate medium for storytelling because of the interactivity variable and the illusion of being party of the story.
TH-cam media criticism mostl reminds me of that textbook from "Dead Poets Society" that sought to put poetry in a graph by applying almost mathematical standards. Thet keep banging on about things like "structure" or "relatable characters" and I'm like "F that, I'm going to watch some Dario Argento".
The reasons Vaush likes Noah Gervais are pretty similar to what I think about Action Button Reviews, his style has a similar consistency. Particularly with the combination of flowery language and ramshackle structuring of the videos.
I LOVE Tim Rogers, but his last video came out a year ago! Does anyone know what he's doing now? I miss his content. He also did great stuff while he was at Kotaku. Another great one was Brian David Gilbert, he was at Polygon for a while but now I think he just does independent stuff occasionally.
believe it or not, my opinion on Dark Souls 2 not being that good compared to the rest came from me just playing the game. Stuff like the MatthewMatosis video just help me put into words those things that are just feelings at the time.
I think these are two separate events. First you play the game and you like/dislike it on your own, except most people can't really articulate why they feel the way they do. Then the internet comes in and homogenizes all arguments until you have two distinct sides yelling the same opinions past one another.
I love that idea actually, let's add to it a bit - Movement-based shooter, open world. You have two gun slots like Halo, but your ammo is stupidly-limited, basically always one clip at a time. Every enemy you kill drops a gun, and you'll find stronger ones laying around (or dropped from tougher enemies) and they're very easy to see and know at a glance what type you're looking at when considering where to move and what to pick up. The reason all this is important, though: You can combine guns together. Instead of picking up a gun, you can use an ability to slap it together with what you're currently carrying to create a hybrid of the two. The ammo is still very limited - every gun is totally disposable - but when you put them together, they become much better than their constituent parts. Revolver + rocket launcher = hyper-fast explosive bullets that you can unload as fast as you can pull the trigger. Grenade launcher + pistol = hucks a literal fistful of bullets in a ball shape that explodes on contact, chaotically bouncing everywhere and shredding enemies, especially in tight spaces. SMG + sniper = blows through its ammo in a second, but absolutely deletes whatever group of baddies you're aiming at. Naturally, progression has less to do with the guns and more to do with your character's abilities. You'll likely be running across much tougher foes as you go, and they might literally just shed guns as you damage them. It definitely has to have some balance factors to ensure any fight can be beaten no matter what you come in with, but it sounds like it would be fun~ The reason BOTW's weapon degradation sucks is inventory management. It's not easy to get something stronger to immediately deal with elevated threats - often if you used your best stuff, you end up in situations where you're plain out-classed by enemy weapons. This should make you play more strategically and finding ways to disarm enemies, but in practice you're just hoarding the pretty stuff, getting annoyed when it breaks, and often facing enemies you can't disarm/steal from. You need to keep a variety of weapons for different situations/threats, and managing it all just kinda sucks. You hoard away the good stuff and end up using weaker weapons than the developers expect you to use, all because you think you'll need them later. It's too much of a half-measure: the game's design doesn't fully force you to play like weapons are temporary, so instead most of us treat keeping our stash stocked up as a chore. Death comes too easy, too often, so it's not too stupid to just throw ourselves with our bad weapons at a fight until we win, because we're saving the electric sword for a REALLY really tough fight that may never come. So... I'd say even the health system and saving factors into how people treated weapons. Halo doesn't have ludicrously-limited ammo supply, but you do often run out and have to find something quickly to replace your current loadout. And nobody really seems to be bugged about that. You have two weapons and depending on what they are, you might deplete one in 30 seconds of play. So weapons being temporary/replaceable is not an issue inherent to such a system - it just needs to be supported by the gameplay.
@@ucielmedina3375 He makes some good criticisms here and there, but often times, he says the most reactionary shit. He does like Arcane and he made a recommend video about it. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that The Series has some progressive/woke elements in it. Maybe that's why he likes it. If it isn't progressive, then it's a good film in his eyes.
Cynical reviewers are a cancer on media criticism. Cinema Sins, Nostalgia Critic, YMS, Critical Drinker, Filmento, etc. All of this people don't really care about what they are reviewing, they just care about looking cyinical and edgy, and trashing everything they can for the sake of it.
I don't know about Critical Drinker, but YMS and Filmento definitely don't belong on this list. YMS is more picky than most, but he certainly cares. Filmento might be the farthest thing from edgy I can think of. While I don't think most of his videos are good, he doesn't do a lot of trashing.
At a minute in when he is discussing what reviews are for and how he likes contrarian because they make you think more about the thing being reviewed, I agree, sort of. I think there are two classes of reviewers. I'm not looking at IGN, Skillup, or ACG for a deep dive into what makes a game tick or a way to make me think differently about the game or medium as a whole. I watch them because I want to know if a game is worth the time and money to pick up. On the other hand, video game dunkey, The Salt Factory, and Raycevick all make more in-depth videos on a game. I don't watch these types to see if I should buy the game, 99% of the time I've already bought and played it when I tune into these types of videos. They still review the games, but they are often more of a deep dive. Consider Horizon: Forbidden West. Reviews from the majority of publications were like, "this game is well made and fun, you should get it." But then others, like Videogame Dunkey, came out with a video basically saying, "It's competently made, but feels like an algorithm made it, lowest common denominator open world trash." By the time I watched Dunkey's video I had already played the majority of the game, but I wanted to see his thoughts. His video DID make me think differently about the game, though I still enjoy it and am looking forward to New Game + since it was just updated.
My favourite game reviewer is Noah Caldwell-Gervais. He reeeealy takes his time in the videos, but no one else i know goes so deep and insightful in the material at hand!
Mandalore Gaming is BASED. He and Ross Scott (Accursed Farms/Gaming Dungeon) put SO much research into their reviews. Two of the best gaming critics on TH-cam, hands down.
Nah, Hbomb's DS2 video is trash. There's nothing wrong with making 'devils advocate' arguments on its own, but his video didn't have consistent standards. For example, he complained about DS1 boss runbacks, but never mentioned Darklurker or the frigid outskirts in DS2. He was grasping for any nonsensical reason to argue DS2 is better than DS1. MauLer has a very harsh takedown series that dissects how cluelessly wrong he is. An example of a good video I disagree with would be Mattewmitosa's 'Lost Arts of Demon's Souls'.
I feel like Vaush only like contrarians he can agree with. Most people disagree with Matthewmatosis video "lost arts of demons souls" but he is very consistent with good. arguments. Vaush would disagree too because his souls opinions are mostly mainstream (bosses like Artorias are the best ones etc)
@@thefebo8987 I'd actually say his views can go into one of the most toxic elements of the fanbase: obsession with the technical aspects of the game. People like him expect every boss to be an epic showdown and will sh!t on anything that tries something unique, like Micolash or Maiden Astraea. They'll praise areas for their level design, even if they have nothing unique to offer.
I remember an anime channel I follow responded to a Vaush take and I essentially said Vaush is funny in the sense that his general views on art and art analysis are usually spot on. Media critics are awesome to watch because I find new ways to interpret and/or appreciate the works that have influenced my life. Thinking of art so clinically is a disservice to a lot of its intangible factors. Art direction and discovery matters can matter more than adherence to convention. This stuff is awesome….but you also can’t help but want to yell at him every time he gives his opinions on something specific.
I think when Vaush goes to specifics, he sometimes does not admit that he simply has not done his research. I suppose that as he is a livestreamer, sometimes his tangents are not prepared.
I've heard of a german speaking reviewer "Spätzünder", who is said to do some pretty good reviews for a total beginner. Sadly only in german, but I guess nobody is perfect, right?
@@Ass_of_Amalek Pssst, I'm just trying to play it cool, you know. They told us in ze TH-cam-Kurs that international communities really dig the timid german geek type. Of course german is the perfect language, but they could never understand. ;)
The bit about indie games is why I like watching Markiplier’s playthrough compilations because he gives his genuine opinions and constructive criticism while showcasing how cool they can be.
He gives a lot of good takes on game design and he does really appreciate the work that goes into even a little indy game, even if it is mostly borked.
When I started reviewing books online I (foolishly) thought that I would try and do a 'Zero Punctuation' style and it would be really funny and blah blah blah, all I managed to do was annoy a lot of other readers and in some embarrassing cases actual authors of books, cynicism is 100% not automatically sceptical OR funny!!
Iron Pineapple's series on Soulslikes comes to mind, where he goes looking through souls games and offers valid suggestions and criticisms to smaller souls like games and highlights the ones he finds genuinely worthwhile or at the very least worst investment
Whenever I watch a Dunkey video I know there's a good chance I'll disagree with him because he has a much greater love for platformer games than I do. It seems fluid game feel is pretty important to him, if the game doesn't have that he doesn't seem to get past it in his reviews.
I think that dunkey has a healthy view on games, he dislikes grinding, shitty anime dialogue, and cut and paste content. He definitely understands his own tastes and what he likes. I do think he manipulates footage to create small story scenarios but overall he is goofy at worst, and can be a full range of emotional, joyful, and contemplative at best
To be fair, Yahtzee has openly admitted that the format of ZP doesn't lend itself well to constructive critique, and that he does often feel bad for essentially kicking the developers of bland, committee-design games while they're down for having seen such a thankless task through to completion. His side projects are often a much more insightful look into his feelings on video games as an artform, whether it be his own indie games or Extra Punctuation essays.
I think most things we refer to as "porn" these days don't really fall under the category of "art" so much as "marketing gimmicks". If you look at erotica as a whole, mainstream porn is like those cheap copy/paste big budget video games. It's spending the most time, money, and effort to put out the bare minimum dopamine loops. I think it's also even more exploitative than people realize, because it takes advantage of the viewers in some ways, though I'm not one of those anti-porn types or anything. There's just not much there to criticize other than maybe analyzing how a specific "genre" successfully manipulates a certain demographic's fetish or something. Just imagine if someone actually made high-effort, heartfelt, live action erotica, though. I mean, how would I even get the funding for that?
Dunkey is an amazing critic and an incredibly entertaining TH-camr, thank you so much for introducing him to me a while back, Vaush. His media takes are so much better than yours there is no reasonable comparison lmao. But seriously, thank you. (Also most of hbomb's Souls takes are objectively correct.)
As far as music critics go, my far and away favorite has to be the man of darkness, Todd in the Shadows. Before that, it was (now rather cringe-inducingly) ADoseofBuckley. Somewhat similar styles of content between them, but Todd has much better content with regards to music criticism IMO, in that he's a genuine music fan and critic who happens to engage in comedy, whereas Buckley is a raging comic who happens to talk about music sometimes. That, and he actually likes music, so he's introduced me to some good new stuff.
So glad someone brought up Farcry 2 right at the end of the vid. For all of the bad things about that game, it had some really immersive weapon mechanics. Things like degrading weapons, RPG backblasts causing fires behind you, the entire fire spreading mechanic was leagues above future farcry titles. Hell, it's leagues above shooters that come out now. If that game got a proper remake today with a better damage model, less annoying NPCs, and a fast travel system, I'm sure people would love it.
Racing games are also not my style but as a kid I had a game for the PS1 called Running Wild that was a Foot Racing game where you could pick from a bunch of Bipedal jungle animals and that game was so cool. Every kid on the block was stuck on Need for Speed 2 but I just wanted to race as an Elephant on two legs.
He didn’t say nsfw, he specifically said porn. Most of which isn’t even Sex, just a woman being treated as f*ckhole by a man. That’s not “art” that’s the same old dehumanization of women that men put everywhere. Just in its most explicit form.
Mauler is one of the reviewers I've taken to in recently in terms of being good at taking movies apart to judge the quality on an objective level. From that I try my best to review both games and movies with an objective level of quality in mind. If I happen to have a feeling on something I'll still try to explain how the game or game achieved to get that feeling effectively. The last thing I do is when I can insert a this is how one can improve upon this, I will add that. Lastly I know some people don't like the number scores like a 7/10 but I maintained mine and just worked on what the scores means rather then give a score. This is where I usually reinforce what made the thing objectively good or bad.
How can a thing be objectively good when people have vastly different weights for the same thing? Like, I think Baldur's Gate is a terrible game. Even if you could somehow prove I'm objectively wrong, why should that matter?
I don't feel that way. There's a lot of media I used to love but got bored with because I outgrew it, or appreciate more because I grew into it. How can art be objectively good if changing as a person charges how you experience it?
@@Nerobyrne In terms of a game for example, there are 2 elements I focus on, Gameplay and Story (If the game has a story) Story is a bit easier sense it also applies to a movie and writing in general, how well the characters are written, including character arcs, and how a story flows with the characters. The point of being of objective is to best avoid I think or feel statements as much as possible and replace that with it is bad because and insert an example then I personal include how when can improve to best avoid making a similar error. It matters to help better both crafts improve.
@@LimeyLassen There will still always be things that will be fundamental for good story telling, in crafting characters & the world they inhabit. Even in drawing as an example (With nothing else) has basics, Like most people can draw stick figures, so moving up from stick figures would be a type of base line. Sadly my own art marit isn't strong. But I have written a book and help design a game so I've studied how to make engaging characters and interesting worlds. I even have a full video on ways to become a better writer.
@@MustachedTom so you're just more assertive? That's a conversation tactic, not a method of objective analysis. Although it is true that the are some semi-objective methods of literary analysis, the first thing you learn in literature studies is "there is no wrong analysis as long as you can ground it in good arguments". For instance, I think Baldur's Gate is "so good it's bad". Which is something I should make a video on, because it's actually quite a complicated analysis. But, what I think makes it a bad game is at the same time a reason to love it.
0:00-1:21 Though the first few minutes is mostly why people can be overly sensitive to opinions is because of many people can get overly paranoid about the influence that opinion has when it's treated as "fact" by most people. As we've seen with certain individuals of history, when that opinion is based on rather dubious or unethical matters(racism, sexism, or dictatorship, totalitarians, or fascists) and that influence spreads among others and they become like them, you can see why we have this persecution complex over the influence of an opinions.
(Game dev accidentally makes the elevator go up instead of down) Hbomberguy: "Clearly, this is a super intentional thing is meant to represent how space and time are distorting in on themselves to warp the environment!" *Space being warped is never shown or referenced anywhere outside of this one transition* Yeeaahhh... I don't care how different it was, that was a really bad take. You can absolutely say something contrarian and make really unconvincing bad points, just like how you can make a contrarian take with good points that are actually well-founded and support your conclusion. Like a good defense of The Phantom Menace would probably make a case for the intricacy of the politics and stuff, right? If you just try to ascribe some deeper meaning to the outdated greenscreen then you're probably just wrong. And I'm not sure how much you can even really gleam from someone just saying something stupid. Hbomberguy's other game reviews, especially his new ones, rarely really do this and just make WAY better arguments than 'The devs thought shields were bad in Bloodborne so blocking sucks on purpose'. Which only gets funnier after DS3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring came out.
Many people use review channels to decide whether or not to buy or play a game. Having someone who is providing information I would disagree with is completely counter-productive. In short, do we want their review to be "correct"? Yes i within our subjective opinion of "correct" - that is exactly what we want. Do you want a comprehensive appraisal of the product? Yes. Vaush doesn't want a "review" - he wants a "commentary". Many "reviewers" also don't know the distinction here though. I don't like seeing a 1.6 from viewers but then praise an 87.5 from critics because it "makes me think". I trash them for being incredibly "incorrect" and off the mark. If they DON'T like the game, they at least better be able to articulate who WOULD like the game - especially if it has widespread success and acclaim. If they can't - they're not a good reviewer. Conversely, if they DO like something, they should be able to criticize things about it that others may not like.
the important part is KNOWING that you disagree with a reviewer...I remember the olden days where gaming magazines were still a thing...and I knew that I would usually disagree with one of the reviewers, so when he said game xy was only 75% or something, for me it would be 85-90% (always depending on details of course) your last point is a little weird...if it is a classic games journalism context, they usually still get review copies early and release the review on launch day (so there is no success or acclaim to comment on) of course it is good when they can articualte who would like the game...what reviewers do you watch that don't do that?
@@darth0tator I'm talking about all contexts, especially since he's talking about youtuber reviewers here - and that broadness should purge most of the "weirdness" you mention. But I'll be honest - and essentially double down.... If they review a game as a professional reviewer BEFORE it has acclaim (for reasons you mention) - and their review doesn't include any of the aspects that earns it that later acclaim and why it might appeal to people on those grounds -- then they're a trash reviewer, and there is was no utility in sending them an advance copy to review in the first place. Imagine being given an advance copy of Minecraft and not mentioning how one could indulge their creativity to build things. If you miss that, how good of a reviewer could you really be? I'm just sayin' . . . But of course someone given the game to review TODAY would know minecraft is famous for exactly that - creative building. I can't think of a single game famous for something that I wouldn't mention in an independent review of that game. The only exceptions would be aspects of a game that aren't present at release. For example, the presence of a robust modding community - or a community in general provides huge value to games, but a reviewer cannot possibly review non-existent mods or communities of players.
I was an old AVGN fan, but what i always admire about James Rolfe was the fact that it was clear to me that the AVGN was a charácter and the joke was always that it's kinda sad that a grew up man got that angry about old games. The problem is that a lot of angry reviewers took the anger and the "everything sucks" mindset and run with it like it was a genuine trait
yeah that's most people who play video games. you'll find the same for any popular form of media. most people have incredibly narrow taste in films, music, etc. this is fine, though it's good to try things normally outside your wheelhouse
He does with both gaming and movies but that's alright. I find his media takes entertaining enough even though I also disagree with quite a lot of them. Doesn't matter as long as I see eye to eye with him on politics - you know, the important stuff.
I like hbomb but his Dark Souls II video has so many skewed points on basically-objective issues that it strikes me as practically dishonest. I'm glad he likes the game, but it can't be for the reasons he said because they are literally wrong reasons.
Oliver Harper is pretty wholesome. He may not go balls deep into media analysis like Lindsay Ellis but he does pretty interesting retrospective reviews.
A mistake a lot of reviewers make is pointing out negatives before positives, which is something I believe Chris Stuckmann pointed out years ago, I think when reviewing things like movies and video games you should point out the positives before the negatives if you have positive things to say about something you don't like
Regarding videogame appraisal, RagnarRox's videos present a perfectly curated list if you're into survival horror and rpgs. His takes are very holistic and he's able to disclose just as much as necessary to get you interested in the game in question
@@jasonfenton8250 Also Vampire the Masquerade and Rule of Rose, here. He has a very "select" taste in videogames. Really think that this type of game appreciation channels need a concept or a theme to build a core audience, whereas review/ criticism tends to work better with the latest AAA bandwagon
I don't know how it works in English, but in my language I like to distinguish between a review, which is a short and somewhat superficial "should you spend money on this" text, and an analysis, which tries to understand the organic structure of a text. I dislike reviews, I find them overall kinda pointless and uninteresting. As for analysis, the only strong opinion I have is a deep dislike from Joseph Anderson.
"I like contrarians!" says Vaush, the contrarian.
he says bold truths, like how Minecraft isn't that great.
Insert surprised Pikachu face here.
@@sydt7104 He said that Minecraft is bad because he didn't like it. And the list of reasons he gave were all his own personal failings. His Minecraft take is like saying Legos are boring because they give you creative freedom.
@@branfrd stay mad
@@sydt7104 Minecraft is great when you are using the school computers back in the day loading off a flash drive. But no man's sky is actually the future. Favorite game by far for vibing with friends
Is this about me?
love you Melon, and Nine Inch Nails💙
yes we love you
What makes a bad critic? That’s an easy question, all it takes is for the critic to disagree with my opinion obviously.
Exactly. Everyone knows and agrees that *my* waifu is the best.
Well that is true, i mean if you agree with everything with some critic when he suggests something you are sure you will like it.
Some media literacy is required to be a good media critic. For example Ben Shapario is a person who has no media literacy and has some of the stupidest movie takes I have ever seen.
“There’s a black woman in this movie! Woke trash 0/10”
Yeah. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone should be reviewing media.
@@questionablelifechoices7501 there's two races. White and political
@@imyourmaster77 lmao
He just reviews movies just to let his audience of edgelords know which movies are “woke” and which are not. It’s basically the equivalent of scrolling through Conservapedia’s “Worst Liberal Movies” and “Best Conservative Movies” lists.
I used to be a huge Nostalgia Critic fan, but that was when media analysis on TH-cam was still kind of a new thing and he didn't really have much competition and unfortunately he hasn't really evolved his style over the years (incesant yelling at the camera, clumsily inserting a bunch of annoying skits). That style just isn't as big on TH-cam as it used to be. And some of his reviews have been downright questionable (did he actually watch "The Wall"?). I think Lindsay Ellis and Todd in the Shadows were by far the two best things to come out of Channel Awesome.
Doug Walker imo was just ripping off AVGN/James Rolfe’s shtick since the beginning of the Nostalgia Critic
@@carter_lovejoy There were similarities, but I don't think it's fair to say he was "ripping off" AVGN. More likely, he found some level of inspiration from what he did. NC's style of humor is largely pretty different, and the two pull off pretty dissimilar atmospheres through their older reviews. Is NC insufferable nowadays? Oh absolutely. But it's not really fair in my opinion to alledge he was ripping off James Rolfe.
The best part that came out of Channel Awesome is that Doug is a massive POS.
I agree with all you but I still likes his editorials and normal movie reviews I think the skits really tainted his reputation I really like how he talks about media.
His Dark Toons series is really good
I’d say that Nostalgia Critic isn’t really a reviewer. He’s more like a Mystery Science Theater commentary track and roaster.
Jacob Geller is my favourite "reviewer". He takes a game review and turns it into a piece of art that really makes you think about the game and the world in new ways. Fantastic channel.
He often champions games too, he reveals the beauty and joy you can get from the most unexpected sourced. I love his stuff so much!
I really appreciated his take on the new call of duty being made as outright propaganda for the US and British militaries.
I like how he can zero in on a running theme between games and even other forms of media, which helps you recognize what the game might be trying to do. It feels more like the conversations I have in real life with friends, where meandering asides like "this reminds me of something else that's similar" occur and you try to string it together later into a sort of cohesive picture of your mental state as affected by a work rather than just the direct observations of a work itself.
I feel CinemaSins is probably the worst example of "The Cynical Reviewers", I feel the Internet would be much less Excessively Nitpicky if they didn't exist, there'd still a lot of them, but not nearly as many as CS spwned.
A lot of sins aren't even movie/cinema sins. Just stuff in the film that he doesn't like. That's why Th3 Birdman is better than his channel. Th3 Birdman sins and calls out CS on their bs.
I think they were better at the start, but at this point they just kinda list common tropes and go "isn't this dumb!?".
@@YokaiX The Birdman tends to also nitpick sins and get quite a few wrong or be contradictory. Like in his response to multiverse of madness.
He went after CinemaSins for question the internal consistency of the film. Arguing that he's making an out of universe critique even though he wasn't. Then in that same review uses the comics, an out of context critique, to defend his own point.
I'm not an avid fan or even watch them that much, but I was always under the impression that CinemaSins was, like, 80% a joke? Where on occasion a Sin will actually be pointing out a valid plot issue, but the majority of Sins are complete non issues that the narrator states in a very deadpan way, like even he doesn't actually care about whatever is being said? I mean, one of the first Sins in any given video is just the movies' title showing up before the story starts, so it all comes off as just a goof.
@@kenjen9861 Yeah, CinemaSins is just supposed to be fun. It's not a review, and you're not supposed to think at the end "Oh wow, what a huge list of sins this movie had, it must be a horrible film." Still, even as a joke, it gets annoying if the "sins" feel arbitrary, or based on a misunderstanding of the movie, because then the joke doesn't work. Shaun has some good (old) videos tearing apart CinemaSins.
I think there's also somebody called CinemaWins, which is sort of the opposite -- just pointing out cool things they liked about movies. I think I've only seen like one or two of those, but the idea is wholesome.
"I like contrarians"
Destiny has entered the chat.
Matthewmatosis is a contrarian too. Don't know why Vaush mentioned him as the opposite
A reviewer I want to plug is Civvie11. He reviews boomer shooters and other older games, and he comes off as incredibly informed and passionate about the subject while also poking fun at tired online review shows. I knew nothing about games like Quake or Blood but now I want to delve into those and I even got into games like the original Prey game and Cruelty Squad. He really hits that perfect combination of informative and entertaining
As a big Cruelty Squad fan, I think his review is actually still my favourite of all CruS reviews, mainly because he doesn't just outright view the game as a "joke game" or "shitpost meme game" upon seeing the graphics and presentation, but he is really open-minded from the very beginning and articulates pretty well how he feels about the game and seems to understand it better than most.
Though to be fair, it's a shame that Cruelty Squad didn't have a sewer level.
What sets him apart too,is him having an understanding of the game engines,on whatever he's reviewing.
Can confirm. Used to like Rent the musical, watched Lindsay Ellis’ video on it. Have grown to hate rent.
I miss Lindsay :(
@@EliaFlowers same… 😩
I hated Rent before it was cool. :p
I hated Rent while watching it & my hate grew as the movie progressed
I also love having zero conviction and changing my opinions to match my favorite content creators.
Honestly of all reviewers, I still really like AngryJoe. I know his schtick is to get angry at bad games, but when he likes something it feels very genuine, and I always get the sense that he genuinely enjoys video games as a medium and a fun art form. He also does a good job exposing corporate greed and over all bad design when needed. I also think the concepts behind Girlfriend Reviews are very charming and wholesome.
I fully agree, I have so many memories of watching AngryJoe reviews when I was younger. I especially appreciate what you mentioned about how you can tell that he really likes the medium
4 HOURS??
Personally I don't really like Joe. Like a lot of review youtubers, his "opinions" on more popular games tend to be shaped by the bandwagon around the game. If people seem to not like it, he doesn't like it. Same goes for when people really like something. Also sometimes he decides to hate a game or a movie before it has even come out, which leads him to go into it with a closed mind and without even giving it a chance, leading to a low score.
I also think Aj has a certain type of charisma that NC lacks. Like there is something endearingly awkward and unpolished to his skits and antics. They generally have a "You and your best mates dressed up in costumes and tried to make short films in high school"-energy.
My favorite angry joe video is definitely his Geoff Keighley interview
I really like how Fantano has evolved his critique style over the years to fit the current mold of TH-cam and the fact that he's always authentic in his views.
I especially like the fact that he stopped using the n-word that often and that for every Death Grips review he first pulls out his MC Ride hugging pillow for the camera.
Antoine Fontaine the internet's laziest music hater
I love Melon, although i think he should trash more Kanye West, i don’t see kanye as anything more than a mediocre artist
@@estudos6156 Kanye has some really good songs. His fans are incredibly obnoxious, though, and pretend he can do no wrong. and of course, his personality is really off-putting. But I'm a strong believer in »the death of the author« because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to enjoy anything.
I wouldnt exactly call his channel 100 percent authentic. Hes gone on record multiple times saying if he had his way, hed be reviewing a lot more obscure shit and that one bandcamp segment he used to do would still be a thing, but it doesnt make money for him and most of his audience are there for his takes on pop hip hop and occasionally /mu/core.
The old extra credits "games you might not have tried" videos have that vibe of finding interesting things in games that are not perfect, and it makes sense since their focus is finding games that teach you something interesting on a design level.
Man, I miss the old extra credits...
@CFilmer the original guys voice 😢😔. Loved watching the Extra History vids in middle school, would watch and rewatch them lol. Oh how the time flies
One of the worst "cynical reviewers" I've seen is Mauler. He seems to think that whining about something for 8 hours straight by bitching about every little line is criticism. One of the cringiest things I've heard him say was that he and Rags have a "gift" for criticizing media and finding flaws in writing.
Amen to that!!
I think I could forgive his incompetence if he weren't politically deranged as well.
I was to watch him, but i couldn’t bring myself to watching his 8+ hour videos. Im so glad I left him, he and Rags are just assholes
IDK, sometimes cynical dissection has its place. Mauler's long response to Hbomb was completely deserved, considering how much BS was packed into that video.
@@WalkTuahthePolls BS = Liking things you don't like.
People don't understand that "criticism" is not blind praise or blind anger, it's careful analysis of the art and how it works. It's not about the reviewer's opinion, it's about understanding why it produces a certain reaction.
Yeah like Matthewmatosis and NOT Hbomberguy
@@thefebo8987 It's been years and you're still mad that someone said they liked Dark Souls 2.
@@PlatinumAltaria nah I liked Ds2 overall (ds2>ds3) but I don't can't stand hbomberguy
@@thefebo8987 Hating someone is not really a good argument.
@@PlatinumAltaria I hate his arguments and his childish behaviour
I can't believe he mentioned EYE Divine Cybermancy, that game is such a gem. Really exemplifies the archetype of "flawed indie game with a lot of unique ideas that could built on" that he mentions in the beginning.
And they did. It's called Necromunda.
*Cough*Pathologic*Cough*
Nostalgia Critic’s review for The Wall should’ve been the final nail in the coffin for his show. I don’t understand how he managed to still do it after that disaster let alone the whole Change the Channel scandal before that. I would be really pissed if he did a shitty musical review of Yellow Submarine or A Hard Day’s Night similar to his review of The Wall since The Beatles are my all time favorite band/artists.
I guess you could say it was the final brick in the wall
Nostalgia Critic is the embodiment of the meme that untalented artists become critics. I don't generally agree with it, but I can't take his criticism seriously after seeing Doug's genuine attempts at creating movies.
His audience consists of teenagers. And he’s still going to cons here.
His views have been pretty middling for a while now. I think a lot of his Fanbase has moved on. He used to hit 1 million views semi-regularly, I don’t think that’s happened in a while.
@@yvette4948 a lot of his fanbase from what I understand are teenagers/kids and neckbeards.
The worst critic on TH-cam is The Critical Drinker. Hands down, he uses his reviews to implement his shitty politics.
yea i dropped my sub around the covid time. couldnt stomach his whining about diversity, masks, etc. interesting to know he's still going at it.
The Critical Drinker is literally Mr. Enter of live-action. They both manipulate their audience, claim to have right opinion on everything and they're both narcissistic losers.
@@SpacersChoice and you know what's even funnier, he's almost 40 years old. Drinking alcohol daily kills brain cells you know.
"B..b..but he knows writing. He's a published author."
So is EL James, and I wouldn't trust her as an authority.
AVGN and Schaffrillas are my favorite media critics.
>Sees the Nostalgia Critic be put as 'bad'
>...Tragic. My childhood. I feel old.
Extra punctuation is a great series if you want to hear him out of cynical mode.
He also said Silent Hill 3 is overrated which is a terrible take. If anything Silent Hill 3 and 4 are underrated.
Second that one, it’s also got cute doggo sometimes
@@jakfan09perspective, sh3 has one of the most beloved protagonists of the series, is constantly held in high regard for its themes, characterization, and symbolism. It also got a remaster treatment. 4 didn't.
@@jamesross2279 4 at least has a PC port on GOG and Steam. 3 had a shitty remaster and getting a legit copy costs a ton. I mainly refer to 3 as underrated because of the place it has amongst horror fans in general. I think it's just as good as 2 most people don't however.
@@jakfan09 "legit copy costs a ton" hmm could it be because it's one of the most popular games in one of the most popular horror franchises in video game history?
I think that’s a great point. Analysis and critiques of games are sometimes even better when they disagree with you. You get a different perspective, and a different way of thinking which can be incredibly valuable
17:40 Doom eternal is designed so You use the entirety of your arsenal. all enemies have a certain gun assigned to them that they are weak to. I'd argue only allowing one type of gun would break the game design in this case.
Forcing you to use a specific gun for a specific enemy for every enemy isn't fun though. You're not playing the game the way you want to play it at that point, you're stuck playing the game the way the devs want you to. That, among mamy other reasons, is why I think Doom 2016 is way better.
Yeah I think shooters where the player has a massive arsenal are usually designed for that style of game flow. Each weapon is meant to be like a tool in your belt, and you need to figure out what that tool is best for and in what situations to use it. Thinking like this massively improved my experience with Black Mesa.
That being said Vaush's idea where all guns are disposable like cigarettes and you grab-shoot-drop-grab repeat sounds like a fun and fast game design.
@@lolusuck386 You are playing the way the devs want you to 99 percent of the time in every game. Also Vaush argues to literally force the player to only use ONE Gun for one stage. So you are agreeing with me.
@@scoople6
I had the feeling that there are situations in Black Mesa where no gun is all that good, and the only way to avoid losing 80% of your health due to some stupid turret or ambush is save scumming.
@@Alias_Anybody Nope
Noah Gervais is my favorite video essayist. He’s made me feel more emotion from his writing than even some of the media he reviews.
He's such a great channel.
His Kotor video was really exceptional. Feel like the videos are too damn long tho.
@@LimeyLassen meanwhile I'm wishing the 9 hour RE video was longer. Quietly, though - I feel like Noah already works too hard
Thank God for James Stephanie Sterling... and Vaush.
from watching James I managed to avoid the 2016 anti-feminism obssessed with anita sarkeesian alt-right brain rot pipeline that so many other gamers fell down to and I will always thank her for that
@@scylecs And that's not to mention their recent videos. Just like back then, there's too many gamer dudes who really couldn't give less of shit about actual abuse, constantly crowing about how "Video games are video games, why do you have to get political!?" But every time, Jim is there to dig back into the garbage because no video game is worth the soul crushing awfulness of the modern production line.
@@scylecs For me, the most offensive thing about Anita Sarkeesian's videos on female characters in gaming was that the presentation was fairly bland and she wasn't really saying anything new. Anybody who had been into video games up until that point and was mature enough to examine the medium honestly could easily pick up on the trends in character archetypes, the damsel in distress, the stigma of "girl games," etc. But judging from how angry some of those babies got about her work, I guess she was still saying something they needed to hear.
I can’t stand when people say things like “Vaush’s media takes are so bad” or whatever. I mean, that’s so much more reductive and snobby a statement than whatever he’s guilty of. What does it even mean? You actually just disagree with everything he says about art and games and so on? It’s so obviously absurd, like, most of what he says about this stuff really is usually just pretty straightforward and reasonable. The only thing I can’t forgive is when he dismisses 2D Metroid games despite never playing them...
Hey i said the thing about 2d metroid on the "i like bad graphics" video!!!!!!!!!!!!😃😃😃😃
If Vaush says something objectively wrong about a piece of media, then the take is bad. Also, if most average people are upset by a take, then it can hardly be interpreted as "pretty straightforward and reasonable" imo.
@@jjdude5531 I’m not talking about a specific individual take though.
@@lmcd301 And yet maybe the people saying "Vaush’s media takes are so bad" are talking about multiple specific takes.
@@jjdude5531 I’m sure plenty of people have plenty of specific disagreements with him, I haven’t got a problem with that. But a lot of people will make the kind of statements I’m talking about without giving any specific explanation or justification, and in that case it’s more of a generalised out of hand dismissal, and basically just vague, lazy snobbery in my opinion. That’s what I have a problem with, not the very concept of disagreeing... obviously.
I still enjoy Zero Punctuation. Because I see them as comedy, not an actual review.
Nostalgia Critic is obviously the best of the best of reviewers.
@J Dowty his Wall review changed my for the better
@@badabingbing474after Pink Floyd’s ai art competition I’ve come to the realization that Doug walker died for our sins
The point of a reviwer is not be bold. It to show your honest opinion, in an entertaining and informative way. Being contrarian is good if your being contrarian because your have a differ take and not being a cynic for cynic or contrarian sake
My absolutely favorite game or game mechanic "reviewer" channel is Game Maker's Tool Kit. They talk about games and how devs use different mechanics / tools to make their experience. Worth a watch.
Adam Millard and People Make Games are great if you like that channel
i don't understand this phenomena where all of these people think the game they like is like whatever anyone else is talking about. i feel vowsh getting infuriated here. Whenever I ask anyone for a specific type of game I just get reffered to seemingly almost random well known game and it's like "shut up that's not what I asked"
To be fair, listening to Vaush be wrong about the things I like does get me to think about why I like them, so he's got a good point
It doesn't, it just makes me think that Vaush has a lot of stupid opinions
Yea Vaush speaking so authoritatively about something as subjective as enjoying video games is always interesting in a yikesy way. Food for thought.
This is the one time I'm gonna invoke the appeal to hypocrisy 4Head VDS take, because it's funny, and also for once kind of true:
Vaush's media takes often actually are fairly hegemonic surface-level takes. Specifically, mostly his TV and movie takes tend to be very... normie. The Incredibles being read as pro-Objectivist is a super common room temp take, his MCU Spider-Man one was literally just the "hurr Iron Boy" bandwagon, and his Korra and The Batman takes are basically identical to the ultra mainstream "Killmonger was right" meme... which is to say, fairly superficial. In the latter case at least I always read the Amon thing in Korra as being about tankie-style grifting undermining genuine proletarian concerns, for instance, but the whole read of "this is milquetoast both-sidesing and anti-left" is just... the easy read everyone vaguely left-leaning beelines toward.
He has good takes sometimes though. But when it's not super specifically a thing he's familiar with, well... That.
@@Ass_of_Amalek No. You have brainworms, and the one polished braincell that survives coming out to have a good take once a month.
@@Ass_of_Amalek this is satire right?
@@Ass_of_Amalek Gunther, please. Dunning-Kruger is unironically cringe.
Interesting I see Equalists as something like non-benders supremacist movement, especially with Hiroshi Sato basically being Henry Ford of Avatar universe.
It's a trend , where people believe their take is some avant grade thing, but it's actually like the second most surface level, mainstream take. Is it different from the main consensus? Yeah, but it's liking Pepsi instead of Coke.
Bethesda is the one I see a lot where people will act like they're about to be sent to the camps for not liking Skyrim or Fallout 4, when that's like the most popular position outside of the most absolute normie sections ever. "Fallout 4 is a good game, but not a good Fallout game" became a meme for a reason.
I actually disagree on the game design part. It IS a bad thing that the vast majority of modern games have a shared logic. It in fact, ruins most modern games.
Part of the fun of games is learning how to play. You pick up a game from earlier than the 2010's and you are given a bunch of systems to learn and master. Are all of said systems great and polished? No. But at least they aren't all canned bread every day forever! I cannot think of anything more destructive to the artform than the homogenization it has gone through the past decade... And the saddest part is a lot of these tropes and shared logic were great things... Crafting, and open worlds, and liberating encampments, and all of it! But they've become so all encompassing and rotten they are dirt at this point!
And considering the fact that since all this shit is so cut and paste that publishers feel bold enough to accelerate development cycles to the point of torturing programmers... No. There is nothing even remotely okay about that state of affairs! It's bad for the artform, it's bad for artists, it's bad for consumers.... It's just bad!
You are right on so many levels (no pun intended.) Video games have been so homogenized in so many ways and they really need to get better in that aspect
I think you're right about the homogenization of modern video games (to a point), you're leaving out pretty much all indies and I think the point about the "shared logic" of video games was describes as encompassing more than the genre of homogenized open world shooty thingies...and is more referring to the language of gaming.
And like any language, the language of gaming is constantly evolving and we're hitting a point were we are basically reading the same book again and again (at least if you're playing ubisoft)
@@darth0tator The existance of indie games, specifically ones catering to niches outside of the dominant market forces, are why I said things like "most games" are ruined by it, and not "nearly all" games are ruined by it. It is worth noting though, as good as the indie market can be in terms of genre variety, with a bunch of genres that the AAA devs have actively given up in the quest for more shooters and ARPGs that increasingly are looking more like eachother to begin with, those encompassing tropes and trends can be found there quite a lot too. Should it be a shooter or an action RPG, you still have a good chance it's gonna be just as samey in terms of gameplay as the big budget "AAA" titles.
I'm pretty sure the biggest problem here is not having enough pre-production time to think out unique gameplay systems, so they basically end up copy pasting what worked in other games. For the AAA industry yearly releases and the corporate fear of innovation are the obvious problem here. Teams are not permitted the pre-production time to make something truly special or unique most of the time, whereas indie games can hit similar snags due to inadequate budgeting, an unclear vision of what the game should be before production begins, or my new favorite, inexperienced devs not understanding that you can't just wing it and jump right into production and expect a positive result (looking at you paralives).
Indie games are certainly hit less badly by the homogenization, and are certainly by far the torchbearers keeping the artform alive, but to act like it doesn't negatively affect them at all is overly charitable.
I agree. That's why something like Portal is so great
is the "I'm am glad that person X remembers The Nostalgia Critic, so I don't have to" joke overused yet?
Never
cinema snob is pretty good because he goes pretty deep
First time I've heard that one, actually.
Minecraft just doesn't grab me. I'm a Don't Starve enjoyer, myself. Doesn't mean it's better, it's just what I prefer personally.
Terraria and Don't Starve are both better than Minecraft, but Minecraft is still really good
@@Starman256 ok hipster
I used to think I was a huge gamer, but the older I get, the less I care about the video game aspect of video games. I have hundreds of games on Steam, but all I play is linear story-based indie shit and VNs. Hell, I read more books than games. A lot more. I guess I always just cared about the story and immersion, not the satisfaction or completing tasks efficiently.
I don't think that makes you any less of a gamer. In fact, I think this happens to most people, you spend your youth experiencing as much art as you can before refining what you like and what you don't as you get older.
@@rockduded8925 true. I firmly believe games have the potential to be the ultimate medium for storytelling because of the interactivity variable and the illusion of being party of the story.
@@Klemeron I as well. Not to shit on non-interactive media or anything, but vidyagames do offer a unique experience.
@@rockduded8925 i will say, you cannot read a videogame on a lawnchair in sun
@@Klemeron I mean, unless you have a Switch.
I would be curious to hear Vaush talk about Renegade Cut and what he thinks about his analysis videos.
TH-cam media criticism mostl reminds me of that textbook from "Dead Poets Society" that sought to put poetry in a graph by applying almost mathematical standards. Thet keep banging on about things like "structure" or "relatable characters" and I'm like "F that, I'm going to watch some Dario Argento".
The reasons Vaush likes Noah Gervais are pretty similar to what I think about Action Button Reviews, his style has a similar consistency. Particularly with the combination of flowery language and ramshackle structuring of the videos.
I LOVE Tim Rogers, but his last video came out a year ago! Does anyone know what he's doing now? I miss his content. He also did great stuff while he was at Kotaku.
Another great one was Brian David Gilbert, he was at Polygon for a while but now I think he just does independent stuff occasionally.
Markiplier is still a very charitable small indie game reviewer even after all these years.
believe it or not, my opinion on Dark Souls 2 not being that good compared to the rest came from me just playing the game. Stuff like the MatthewMatosis video just help me put into words those things that are just feelings at the time.
I think these are two separate events. First you play the game and you like/dislike it on your own, except most people can't really articulate why they feel the way they do. Then the internet comes in and homogenizes all arguments until you have two distinct sides yelling the same opinions past one another.
“What makes a BAD media critic”
Vowsh 😏
I love that idea actually, let's add to it a bit - Movement-based shooter, open world. You have two gun slots like Halo, but your ammo is stupidly-limited, basically always one clip at a time. Every enemy you kill drops a gun, and you'll find stronger ones laying around (or dropped from tougher enemies) and they're very easy to see and know at a glance what type you're looking at when considering where to move and what to pick up. The reason all this is important, though: You can combine guns together.
Instead of picking up a gun, you can use an ability to slap it together with what you're currently carrying to create a hybrid of the two. The ammo is still very limited - every gun is totally disposable - but when you put them together, they become much better than their constituent parts. Revolver + rocket launcher = hyper-fast explosive bullets that you can unload as fast as you can pull the trigger. Grenade launcher + pistol = hucks a literal fistful of bullets in a ball shape that explodes on contact, chaotically bouncing everywhere and shredding enemies, especially in tight spaces. SMG + sniper = blows through its ammo in a second, but absolutely deletes whatever group of baddies you're aiming at.
Naturally, progression has less to do with the guns and more to do with your character's abilities. You'll likely be running across much tougher foes as you go, and they might literally just shed guns as you damage them. It definitely has to have some balance factors to ensure any fight can be beaten no matter what you come in with, but it sounds like it would be fun~
The reason BOTW's weapon degradation sucks is inventory management. It's not easy to get something stronger to immediately deal with elevated threats - often if you used your best stuff, you end up in situations where you're plain out-classed by enemy weapons. This should make you play more strategically and finding ways to disarm enemies, but in practice you're just hoarding the pretty stuff, getting annoyed when it breaks, and often facing enemies you can't disarm/steal from. You need to keep a variety of weapons for different situations/threats, and managing it all just kinda sucks. You hoard away the good stuff and end up using weaker weapons than the developers expect you to use, all because you think you'll need them later. It's too much of a half-measure: the game's design doesn't fully force you to play like weapons are temporary, so instead most of us treat keeping our stash stocked up as a chore. Death comes too easy, too often, so it's not too stupid to just throw ourselves with our bad weapons at a fight until we win, because we're saving the electric sword for a REALLY really tough fight that may never come. So... I'd say even the health system and saving factors into how people treated weapons.
Halo doesn't have ludicrously-limited ammo supply, but you do often run out and have to find something quickly to replace your current loadout. And nobody really seems to be bugged about that. You have two weapons and depending on what they are, you might deplete one in 30 seconds of play. So weapons being temporary/replaceable is not an issue inherent to such a system - it just needs to be supported by the gameplay.
Critical Dinker is a reactionary Movie Critic TH-camr.
That dude is insufferable.
He's literally if Mr. Enter and Jeremy from Geeks and Gamers did the fusion dance while drunk.
@@ucielmedina3375 He makes some good criticisms here and there, but often times, he says the most reactionary shit. He does like Arcane and he made a recommend video about it. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that The Series has some progressive/woke elements in it. Maybe that's why he likes it. If it isn't progressive, then it's a good film in his eyes.
@@etabiansosin He didn't realize that Vi and Caitlyn are obviously lesbians?
@@ExtremeMadnessX Watch his video about the series and find out if your interested.
Jimquisition with Jim Stephanie Sterling is based
Cynical reviewers are a cancer on media criticism. Cinema Sins, Nostalgia Critic, YMS, Critical Drinker, Filmento, etc. All of this people don't really care about what they are reviewing, they just care about looking cyinical and edgy, and trashing everything they can for the sake of it.
I don't know about Critical Drinker, but YMS and Filmento definitely don't belong on this list. YMS is more picky than most, but he certainly cares. Filmento might be the farthest thing from edgy I can think of. While I don't think most of his videos are good, he doesn't do a lot of trashing.
YMS is good
@@mrrdirty6198 Critical Drinker is another The Quivering clones that whines about SJWS and woke in modern movies.
At a minute in when he is discussing what reviews are for and how he likes contrarian because they make you think more about the thing being reviewed, I agree, sort of. I think there are two classes of reviewers. I'm not looking at IGN, Skillup, or ACG for a deep dive into what makes a game tick or a way to make me think differently about the game or medium as a whole. I watch them because I want to know if a game is worth the time and money to pick up. On the other hand, video game dunkey, The Salt Factory, and Raycevick all make more in-depth videos on a game. I don't watch these types to see if I should buy the game, 99% of the time I've already bought and played it when I tune into these types of videos. They still review the games, but they are often more of a deep dive. Consider Horizon: Forbidden West. Reviews from the majority of publications were like, "this game is well made and fun, you should get it." But then others, like Videogame Dunkey, came out with a video basically saying, "It's competently made, but feels like an algorithm made it, lowest common denominator open world trash." By the time I watched Dunkey's video I had already played the majority of the game, but I wanted to see his thoughts. His video DID make me think differently about the game, though I still enjoy it and am looking forward to New Game + since it was just updated.
My favourite game reviewer is Noah Caldwell-Gervais.
He reeeealy takes his time in the videos, but no one else i know goes so deep and insightful in the material at hand!
Mandalore Gaming is BASED. He and Ross Scott (Accursed Farms/Gaming Dungeon) put SO much research into their reviews. Two of the best gaming critics on TH-cam, hands down.
Media essayists are more important to me than critiques. Watching people dog on something without purpose never enriched my viewing experience.
That is not what criticism is, that's what people pretend criticism is so they can dismiss it.
@Gruts Thefoodman
>Hates critiques.
>Critiques critiques.
Nah, Hbomb's DS2 video is trash. There's nothing wrong with making 'devils advocate' arguments on its own, but his video didn't have consistent standards. For example, he complained about DS1 boss runbacks, but never mentioned Darklurker or the frigid outskirts in DS2. He was grasping for any nonsensical reason to argue DS2 is better than DS1. MauLer has a very harsh takedown series that dissects how cluelessly wrong he is.
An example of a good video I disagree with would be Mattewmitosa's 'Lost Arts of Demon's Souls'.
I feel like Vaush only like contrarians he can agree with. Most people disagree with Matthewmatosis video "lost arts of demons souls" but he is very consistent with good. arguments. Vaush would disagree too because his souls opinions are mostly mainstream (bosses like Artorias are the best ones etc)
Don't know how anybody can defend hbomberguy on this video. His arguments are so full of shit in this video.
@@thefebo8987 I'd actually say his views can go into one of the most toxic elements of the fanbase: obsession with the technical aspects of the game. People like him expect every boss to be an epic showdown and will sh!t on anything that tries something unique, like Micolash or Maiden Astraea. They'll praise areas for their level design, even if they have nothing unique to offer.
It’s boarder-line lying and click baiting by putting nostalgia critic in the thumbnail but not mentioning him once
Agree. F*ck Vaush for that. He isn’t even the default stand in for TH-camr critic.
I remember an anime channel I follow responded to a Vaush take and I essentially said Vaush is funny in the sense that his general views on art and art analysis are usually spot on. Media critics are awesome to watch because I find new ways to interpret and/or appreciate the works that have influenced my life. Thinking of art so clinically is a disservice to a lot of its intangible factors. Art direction and discovery matters can matter more than adherence to convention. This stuff is awesome….but you also can’t help but want to yell at him every time he gives his opinions on something specific.
I think when Vaush goes to specifics, he sometimes does not admit that he simply has not done his research. I suppose that as he is a livestreamer, sometimes his tangents are not prepared.
I've heard of a german speaking reviewer "Spätzünder", who is said to do some pretty good reviews for a total beginner.
Sadly only in german, but I guess nobody is perfect, right?
@@Ass_of_Amalek
Those bicycles are gonna get you.
@@Ass_of_Amalek Pssst, I'm just trying to play it cool, you know. They told us in ze TH-cam-Kurs that international communities really dig the timid german geek type. Of course german is the perfect language, but they could never understand. ;)
6:00 to 7:30 Vaush desperately wishing he knew Splattercatgaming was a youtube channel.
>E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy
Vaush has a based take, yes. EYE is amazing. And cheap! FULLER AUTO!
Yes! The way people perceive cynicism and doomerism as being more "realistic" and "skeptic" is so frustrating.
Pedophiles and nazis could also technically be classified as contrarians
The bit about indie games is why I like watching Markiplier’s playthrough compilations because he gives his genuine opinions and constructive criticism while showcasing how cool they can be.
He gives a lot of good takes on game design and he does really appreciate the work that goes into even a little indy game, even if it is mostly borked.
When I started reviewing books online I (foolishly) thought that I would try and do a 'Zero Punctuation' style and it would be really funny and blah blah blah, all I managed to do was annoy a lot of other readers and in some embarrassing cases actual authors of books, cynicism is 100% not automatically sceptical OR funny!!
Iron Pineapple's series on Soulslikes comes to mind, where he goes looking through souls games and offers valid suggestions and criticisms to smaller souls like games and highlights the ones he finds genuinely worthwhile or at the very least worst investment
Dunkey is very entertaining, but his insight on how a game actually plays is often surface level.
Whenever I watch a Dunkey video I know there's a good chance I'll disagree with him because he has a much greater love for platformer games than I do. It seems fluid game feel is pretty important to him, if the game doesn't have that he doesn't seem to get past it in his reviews.
I think that dunkey has a healthy view on games, he dislikes grinding, shitty anime dialogue, and cut and paste content. He definitely understands his own tastes and what he likes. I do think he manipulates footage to create small story scenarios but overall he is goofy at worst, and can be a full range of emotional, joyful, and contemplative at best
He's also nitpicking and biased.
@Estrogen Fury yeah, exactly. he’s nitpicking and biased, i win, bye bye
Does anyone have a clip of Joseph Anderson talking about Coconut Island?
I need to know too.
Oh god
To be fair, Yahtzee has openly admitted that the format of ZP doesn't lend itself well to constructive critique, and that he does often feel bad for essentially kicking the developers of bland, committee-design games while they're down for having seen such a thankless task through to completion. His side projects are often a much more insightful look into his feelings on video games as an artform, whether it be his own indie games or Extra Punctuation essays.
> Vaush says Minecraft is not that good
Ok I am now officially part of vaush bad
I think most things we refer to as "porn" these days don't really fall under the category of "art" so much as "marketing gimmicks". If you look at erotica as a whole, mainstream porn is like those cheap copy/paste big budget video games. It's spending the most time, money, and effort to put out the bare minimum dopamine loops. I think it's also even more exploitative than people realize, because it takes advantage of the viewers in some ways, though I'm not one of those anti-porn types or anything. There's just not much there to criticize other than maybe analyzing how a specific "genre" successfully manipulates a certain demographic's fetish or something. Just imagine if someone actually made high-effort, heartfelt, live action erotica, though. I mean, how would I even get the funding for that?
Bad media critic: voosh
Good media critic: fat Ian (before media take arc)
Ayo, wtf , ultrarare-foil-gold vinch-media-take???
Dunkey is an amazing critic and an incredibly entertaining TH-camr, thank you so much for introducing him to me a while back, Vaush.
His media takes are so much better than yours there is no reasonable comparison lmao. But seriously, thank you. (Also most of hbomb's Souls takes are objectively correct.)
As far as music critics go, my far and away favorite has to be the man of darkness, Todd in the Shadows. Before that, it was (now rather cringe-inducingly) ADoseofBuckley. Somewhat similar styles of content between them, but Todd has much better content with regards to music criticism IMO, in that he's a genuine music fan and critic who happens to engage in comedy, whereas Buckley is a raging comic who happens to talk about music sometimes. That, and he actually likes music, so he's introduced me to some good new stuff.
clickbait, didnt even mention NC
So glad someone brought up Farcry 2 right at the end of the vid. For all of the bad things about that game, it had some really immersive weapon mechanics. Things like degrading weapons, RPG backblasts causing fires behind you, the entire fire spreading mechanic was leagues above future farcry titles. Hell, it's leagues above shooters that come out now. If that game got a proper remake today with a better damage model, less annoying NPCs, and a fast travel system, I'm sure people would love it.
what makes a bad critic? vaush
Heh....I thought I was the only one who played E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy .... Mandalore is good stuff, btw \m/
15:33 LOLOL the Chat! "Wow, this is just like Skate 3"
I'm ded
Racing games are also not my style but as a kid I had a game for the PS1 called Running Wild that was a Foot Racing game where you could pick from a bunch of Bipedal jungle animals and that game was so cool. Every kid on the block was stuck on Need for Speed 2 but I just wanted to race as an Elephant on two legs.
I love how NSFW work isn't seen as "art" despite being the oldest depictions of art in history.
Edit: WHERE IS THE GECKO?!
He didn’t say nsfw, he specifically said porn. Most of which isn’t even Sex, just a woman being treated as f*ckhole by a man. That’s not “art” that’s the same old dehumanization of women that men put everywhere. Just in its most explicit form.
@@Ass_of_Amalek true. This is just like when men claim that sex work is the “worlds oldest profession” when really it’s probably like… berry-picker.
Mauler is one of the reviewers I've taken to in recently in terms of being good at taking movies apart to judge the quality on an objective level. From that I try my best to review both games and movies with an objective level of quality in mind. If I happen to have a feeling on something I'll still try to explain how the game or game achieved to get that feeling effectively. The last thing I do is when I can insert a this is how one can improve upon this, I will add that. Lastly I know some people don't like the number scores like a 7/10 but I maintained mine and just worked on what the scores means rather then give a score. This is where I usually reinforce what made the thing objectively good or bad.
How can a thing be objectively good when people have vastly different weights for the same thing?
Like, I think Baldur's Gate is a terrible game. Even if you could somehow prove I'm objectively wrong, why should that matter?
I don't feel that way. There's a lot of media I used to love but got bored with because I outgrew it, or appreciate more because I grew into it. How can art be objectively good if changing as a person charges how you experience it?
@@Nerobyrne In terms of a game for example, there are 2 elements I focus on, Gameplay and Story (If the game has a story) Story is a bit easier sense it also applies to a movie and writing in general, how well the characters are written, including character arcs, and how a story flows with the characters. The point of being of objective is to best avoid I think or feel statements as much as possible and replace that with it is bad because and insert an example then I personal include how when can improve to best avoid making a similar error. It matters to help better both crafts improve.
@@LimeyLassen There will still always be things that will be fundamental for good story telling, in crafting characters & the world they inhabit. Even in drawing as an example (With nothing else) has basics, Like most people can draw stick figures, so moving up from stick figures would be a type of base line. Sadly my own art marit isn't strong. But I have written a book and help design a game so I've studied how to make engaging characters and interesting worlds. I even have a full video on ways to become a better writer.
@@MustachedTom so you're just more assertive?
That's a conversation tactic, not a method of objective analysis.
Although it is true that the are some semi-objective methods of literary analysis, the first thing you learn in literature studies is "there is no wrong analysis as long as you can ground it in good arguments".
For instance, I think Baldur's Gate is "so good it's bad". Which is something I should make a video on, because it's actually quite a complicated analysis.
But, what I think makes it a bad game is at the same time a reason to love it.
0:00-1:21
Though the first few minutes is mostly why people can be overly sensitive to opinions is because of many people can get overly paranoid about the influence that opinion has when it's treated as "fact" by most people. As we've seen with certain individuals of history, when that opinion is based on rather dubious or unethical matters(racism, sexism, or dictatorship, totalitarians, or fascists) and that influence spreads among others and they become like them, you can see why we have this persecution complex over the influence of an opinions.
(Game dev accidentally makes the elevator go up instead of down)
Hbomberguy: "Clearly, this is a super intentional thing is meant to represent how space and time are distorting in on themselves to warp the environment!"
*Space being warped is never shown or referenced anywhere outside of this one transition*
Yeeaahhh... I don't care how different it was, that was a really bad take. You can absolutely say something contrarian and make really unconvincing bad points, just like how you can make a contrarian take with good points that are actually well-founded and support your conclusion. Like a good defense of The Phantom Menace would probably make a case for the intricacy of the politics and stuff, right? If you just try to ascribe some deeper meaning to the outdated greenscreen then you're probably just wrong. And I'm not sure how much you can even really gleam from someone just saying something stupid.
Hbomberguy's other game reviews, especially his new ones, rarely really do this and just make WAY better arguments than 'The devs thought shields were bad in Bloodborne so blocking sucks on purpose'. Which only gets funnier after DS3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring came out.
The second anyone says there is a “correct” way to play a souls game, I immediately take their video game opinions about 69% less seriously.
Redlettermedia and Chris Stuckmann all the way
Many people use review channels to decide whether or not to buy or play a game. Having someone who is providing information I would disagree with is completely counter-productive. In short, do we want their review to be "correct"? Yes i within our subjective opinion of "correct" - that is exactly what we want. Do you want a comprehensive appraisal of the product? Yes.
Vaush doesn't want a "review" - he wants a "commentary". Many "reviewers" also don't know the distinction here though. I don't like seeing a 1.6 from viewers but then praise an 87.5 from critics because it "makes me think". I trash them for being incredibly "incorrect" and off the mark.
If they DON'T like the game, they at least better be able to articulate who WOULD like the game - especially if it has widespread success and acclaim. If they can't - they're not a good reviewer. Conversely, if they DO like something, they should be able to criticize things about it that others may not like.
the important part is KNOWING that you disagree with a reviewer...I remember the olden days where gaming magazines were still a thing...and I knew that I would usually disagree with one of the reviewers, so when he said game xy was only 75% or something, for me it would be 85-90% (always depending on details of course)
your last point is a little weird...if it is a classic games journalism context, they usually still get review copies early and release the review on launch day (so there is no success or acclaim to comment on) of course it is good when they can articualte who would like the game...what reviewers do you watch that don't do that?
@@darth0tator I'm talking about all contexts, especially since he's talking about youtuber reviewers here - and that broadness should purge most of the "weirdness" you mention.
But I'll be honest - and essentially double down.... If they review a game as a professional reviewer BEFORE it has acclaim (for reasons you mention) - and their review doesn't include any of the aspects that earns it that later acclaim and why it might appeal to people on those grounds -- then they're a trash reviewer, and there is was no utility in sending them an advance copy to review in the first place.
Imagine being given an advance copy of Minecraft and not mentioning how one could indulge their creativity to build things. If you miss that, how good of a reviewer could you really be? I'm just sayin' . . .
But of course someone given the game to review TODAY would know minecraft is famous for exactly that - creative building.
I can't think of a single game famous for something that I wouldn't mention in an independent review of that game.
The only exceptions would be aspects of a game that aren't present at release. For example, the presence of a robust modding community - or a community in general provides huge value to games, but a reviewer cannot possibly review non-existent mods or communities of players.
0:35 Jordan Peterson voice KEKV
Stephanie Sterling's channel is mostly devoted to focusing on the trashfire that is capitalism through the lens of the games industry
I was an old AVGN fan, but what i always admire about James Rolfe was the fact that it was clear to me that the AVGN was a charácter and the joke was always that it's kinda sad that a grew up man got that angry about old games.
The problem is that a lot of angry reviewers took the anger and the "everything sucks" mindset and run with it like it was a genuine trait
Seer is a an awesome new reviewer who mostly tackles Diablo style rpg's and TF2
It’s become increasingly obvious Vaush has a very narrow scope when it comes to gaming.
Many people do tbf.
And that's perfectly fine.
yeah that's most people who play video games. you'll find the same for any popular form of media. most people have incredibly narrow taste in films, music, etc. this is fine, though it's good to try things normally outside your wheelhouse
He does with both gaming and movies but that's alright. I find his media takes entertaining enough even though I also disagree with quite a lot of them. Doesn't matter as long as I see eye to eye with him on politics - you know, the important stuff.
I like hbomb but his Dark Souls II video has so many skewed points on basically-objective issues that it strikes me as practically dishonest. I'm glad he likes the game, but it can't be for the reasons he said because they are literally wrong reasons.
Movies with Mikey is a video series on the channel filmjoy that does an excellent job appreciating the artistry of various films.
Duude the reviews got me on pathologic, im fucking addicted to the torment its not fucking good
Ofc a contrarian would conflate contrarianism with a new or better perspective or something
Oliver Harper is pretty wholesome. He may not go balls deep into media analysis like Lindsay Ellis but he does pretty interesting retrospective reviews.
what makes a bad media critic? being vaush
I don't know man black flag was great and pretty unique with their ship combats, but yeah the assassin stuff is just copy and paste lol
A mistake a lot of reviewers make is pointing out negatives before positives, which is something I believe Chris Stuckmann pointed out years ago, I think when reviewing things like movies and video games you should point out the positives before the negatives if you have positive things to say about something you don't like
Vaush wildly flailing for 20 minutes trying to explain why his media takes aren't dogshit
A decent Video, Vaush, But that was really annoying how you put a really loud "Battery Low" sound every few minutes. Very odd choice, really.
And the really loud amber alert warning at the end was unnecessary.
Regarding videogame appraisal, RagnarRox's videos present a perfectly curated list if you're into survival horror and rpgs. His takes are very holistic and he's able to disclose just as much as necessary to get you interested in the game in question
Ragnarox got me into the Gothic series and The Void.
@@jasonfenton8250 Also Vampire the Masquerade and Rule of Rose, here. He has a very "select" taste in videogames. Really think that this type of game appreciation channels need a concept or a theme to build a core audience, whereas review/ criticism tends to work better with the latest AAA bandwagon
I don't know how it works in English, but in my language I like to distinguish between a review, which is a short and somewhat superficial "should you spend money on this" text, and an analysis, which tries to understand the organic structure of a text. I dislike reviews, I find them overall kinda pointless and uninteresting. As for analysis, the only strong opinion I have is a deep dislike from Joseph Anderson.
My least favourite type of youtube media crticism is whatever Mauler and Critical drinker are doing