Who are Your Favorite Video Game Reviewers/Critics?

[TychoCelchuuu]

I don't read reviews, but if I'm to give shoutouts to the criminally underappreciated, I think I'd like to draw attention to Dan Bruno. I read a lot of bullshit video game blogs, and a lot of them are pretty smart or whatever. Dan's is mostly about music theory in video games. I recommend the stuff on Mother 3 if you want to really bake your noodle.

As I pointed out in the first post, we have a thread for this sort of thing. This is a thread for reviewers!

[Architecture]

Jeremy Parish.

There's a dryness to Mr. Parish's writing that I can't really get past. I don't want to call it glibness, but I guess that's best I can articulate it.

 

I really do enjoy US Gamer in a general, and I'm glad that he and Kat Bailey among others landed on their feet.

[catfishmaw]

As I pointed out in the first post, we have a thread for this sort of thing. This is a thread for reviewers!

 

Woop. Sorry, guys. Gonna try and work on my reading comprehension skills.

[Merus]

This thread made me realise that I basically don't care about reviewers who are not TychoCelchuuu at all any more. My decision-making process for what games I play basically has no room for reviewers any more, and I've been burned too many times by reviewers being hyperbolic about AAA games and suspicious of smaller titles that are actually great to trust any of them to actually be right about anything.

 

I am not for a second accusing any of them of payola; merely that the review process is completely orthogonal to how I play games that it's basically meaningless.

[Bjorn]

This thread made me realise that I basically don't care about reviewers who are not TychoCelchuuu at all any more. My decision-making process for what games I play basically has no room for reviewers any more, and I've been burned too many times by reviewers being hyperbolic about AAA games and suspicious of smaller titles that are actually great to trust any of them to actually be right about anything.

 

I am not for a second accusing any of them of payola; merely that the review process is completely orthogonal to how I play games that it's basically meaningless.

 

Agreed.  Thinking about this after I originally posted, I realized that if anything influences me outside of the IT cast and forums, it's gaming podcasts in general.  A good conversation about a game will tell me more about it, and give me a better idea if I want to play it, than any review ever has. 

[NotDorner]

not nearly as serious, But I never miss a yahtzee and Broker is great as well, enjoyed his "how video games changed the world" piece

[Tanukitsune]

I have posted on this thread yet, so this post seems appropriate...

 

Lazy Game Reviews are pretty rad:

[Badfinger]

After seeing Zero Punctuation mentioned, I watched a review for the first time in multiple years. To my surprise, it was hilarious again like it wasn't as much to me when I stopped watching them. I am perfectly fine with someone skewering games. They need skewering.

[Reyturner]

Podcasts and Quick Looks have pretty much replaced written reviews for me as consumer advice (other than Tom Chick, but only because I'm tired of getting ear cancer from Three Moves Ahead). Video Games Hot Dog, Giant Bombcast and Idle Thumbs rarely steer me wrong.

 

The Spoony Experiment has been giving the Ultima series and Richard Garriot the Red Letter Media treatment (with an unfortunate dash of nerd rage filler but its basically fine) for about 5 years now. 

[Gormongous]

The Spoony Experiment has been giving the Ultima series and Richard Garriot the Red Letter Media treatment (with an unfortunate dash of nerd rage filler but its basically fine) for about 5 years now. 

 

I was really enjoying this series after you recommended it, but now he's gotten to the ninth one and all he's doing is raging about plot holes for well over an hour. I was actually feeling a bit sorry for how much of a neckbeard I had him pegged as before I started, but this validates me a bit too much...

[chummer]

...I'm tired of getting ear cancer from Three Moves Ahead). 

Harsh criticism.

[Reyturner]

Harsh criticism.

 

I love the content, but I could get better sound quality by plugging my $30 headset into my cat

 

I mean... I couldn't... but it's pretty bad. 

[BusbyBerkeley]

I really loved reading John Teti's criticism in particular on Gameological, but now that that has been swallowed back up into the AV Club he doesn't write about games much anymore. Most of the regulars there are pretty reliable, but they post way too infrequently anymore. Bummer.

[Gormongous]

The new Daft Souls podcast with Matt Lees, Quintin Smith, and friends is really good, albeit only two episodes in.

 

Listening to it reminds me of how much more I like Quinns' video games writing than his board games writing. His video games writing is hard-nosed and to the point, eager to find out what works and what doesn't in a given game. Hearing him dismantle why he enjoys Luftrausers and yet why he thinks he might not always enjoy it is the high point of the first podcast. It's in so much contrast to his work on Shut Up and Sit Down, which almost feels like advocacy. I know that Quinns believes board games deserve better cultural visibility and hosts a site celebrating the fun they offer to that end, but I'm frustrated by his extreme hesitation to voice any sort of authoritative criticisms against a game that he enjoyed even a little bit. I mean, I understand his reasons for never wanting to call a board game broken or bad, because the point of a game is to entertain and if it's done so than what else matters, but it means that his reviews are good for telling me that he and his friends had fun, not that I will, in which case I'm probably better off watching them just as sketch comedy instead. It's nice to have him back as a reviewer on Daft Souls.

[sclpls]

I've got Daft Souls in my queue, I'm looking forward to checking it out. I hear what you're saying about board game reviews, and by and large I agree with it. I will say though that on the SU&ST podcast I've heard him tear into some games that he thinks are bad, so that might be a better thing to check out for more critical coverage than the videos (I haven't seen that many of the videos, so maybe I'm off-base here)?

[Gormongous]

I've got Daft Souls in my queue, I'm looking forward to checking it out. I hear what you're saying about board game reviews, and by and large I agree with it. I will say though that on the SU&ST podcast I've heard him tear into some games that he thinks are bad, so that might be a better thing to check out for more critical coverage than the videos (I haven't seen that many of the videos, so maybe I'm off-base here)?

 

Nah, I think you're totally on target. I do listen to the podcast and you're right that he's a lot more candid about what doesn't work in a given board game there. I guess the time they take to film the videos allows him to sand off most of the sharpness from his opinions? Anyway.

[Griddlelol]

The new Daft Souls podcast

Thanks for introducing me to this. It's really good. 

 

I'm ashamed to say I don't know where any of the hosts are from originally though.

[RubixsQube]

I tend to not find many game reviews to be altogether that useful, because the reasons that I enjoy video games tend to be so wholly and completely different than the reasons that most game review websites enjoy games (Although, while this has been true historically, the games media landscape on the whole is getting better!). Places like Giant Bomb, while they tend to offer "funny" and "highly critical" takes on video games (which is good, I'm glad that they broke free of the standard model), are speaking to an audience that I don't know if I belong to, and as a result, reading a game review meant for someone who needs to know whether the latest Big Video Game Experience is worth your time and money is not helpful to me.

 

That being said, I have always liked Jeremy Parish, even if he is a little "dry" (I agree, Architecture), because he has a very solid grasp of individual game mechanics, and I know that if he enjoyed a game, I'd probably like it. Ditto for Idle Thumb's own Jake and Chris. Danielle Riendeau of Polygon does a fantastic job delving into important social aspects of video game design (even if she gets undeserved, patriarchal blowback). Chris Kohler at Wired also seems to write some fantastic games criticism, especially levied at Nintendo, although I do wish that the company would read it. The author who I absolutely love reading, but who produces the most polarizing responses in his readers, is Tim Rogers (actionbutton and kotaku), who's favorite games are so opposite of mine, but who understands the nuances of the game experience in a very important way.