Poll: Totalbiscuit

[Vicioussama]

Watch him occasionally. Eh. Sometimes better than others, but he's pretty much always got that air of PC Master Race shit and inflated self importance. Fairly whiny at times too, but he can be enjoyable enough.

EDIT: Also, the whole "CynicalBrit" thing. For one, ugh using nationality as an advertising point, fuck that.
And for being so "cynical" he's really not. Not in most of the videos I watch. ComplainingBrit maybe. OccasionallySomewhatAggrevatedBrit would work too.

Damn, this dude copied me... before I had put it. Stop reading my mind, not cool.
I hear people say 'ermahgurd he's got a British voice that's so cool' but really... I'm english and it's really not a magical thing. His voice isn't even particularly British.
He's really arrogant. He looks down on consoles, but he also looks down on games that were popular- I heard him bashing Skyrim, and for example when (I think it was) Pete Hines from Bethesda defending day-one DLC, he got angry and said Bethesda knew nothing about day-one DLC because they didn't do it... Seriously? He'll use reasoning like that? I think he pretends to know alot, but in reality... well, look at the example.
I'll admit I used to be subscribed on Youtube, but he was just such a dick about things that it was painful to even see the videos in the subs box.

What about Skyrim is good? Other than just running around and exploring the world. The gameplay is balls. the story is weak and not well presented at all, the side quests range from ok to dull, the effect you have on the world is minimal at best (take down a dragon, most are like "meh" even though it's supposed to be a big feat).

Game sucked. The Elder Scrolls has ALWAYS sucked and people often just overblew how good it has been cause it usually has good graphics for its time and it does make an interesting looking world with a decent lore, but still a shitty game with bad gameplay every time (though, to be fair, I'd say almost every first person combat game is pretty bad, especially if it tries to do melee based combat)

 

[Tom_green_day]

What about Skyrim is good? Other than just running around and exploring the world. The gameplay is balls. the story is weak and not well presented at all, the side quests range from ok to dull, the effect you have on the world is minimal at best (take down a dragon, most are like "meh" even though it's supposed to be a big feat).

Game sucked. The Elder Scrolls has ALWAYS sucked and people often just overblew how good it has been cause it usually has good graphics for its time and it does make an interesting looking world with a decent lore, but still a shitty game with bad gameplay every time (though, to be fair, I'd say almost every first person combat game is pretty bad, especially if it tries to do melee based combat)

However that's just your opinion. I won't just mindlessly contradict you, but that game won loads of GotY awards, made a shit-tonne of money and retained its hype months after release. I'd say 7 million in the first week can't be that bad. It was also the 9th best selling game... of 2012.

 

[Vicioussama]

What about Skyrim is good? Other than just running around and exploring the world. The gameplay is balls. the story is weak and not well presented at all, the side quests range from ok to dull, the effect you have on the world is minimal at best (take down a dragon, most are like "meh" even though it's supposed to be a big feat).

Game sucked. The Elder Scrolls has ALWAYS sucked and people often just overblew how good it has been cause it usually has good graphics for its time and it does make an interesting looking world with a decent lore, but still a shitty game with bad gameplay every time (though, to be fair, I'd say almost every first person combat game is pretty bad, especially if it tries to do melee based combat)

However that's just your opinion. I won't just mindlessly contradict you, but that game won loads of GotY awards, made a shit-tonne of money and retained its hype months after release. I'd say 7 million in the first week can't be that bad. It was also the 9th best selling game... of 2012.

Popularity != quality. Might I point you to MTV, Fox News, Call of Duty, etc. Thanks for playing the logical fallacy game though! Let's see what you can bring next!

 

[treeroy]

Totalbiscuit is superb. Honestly, I think he's the best Youtube personality, period. He is blunt, honest and consistent with his opinions, and his thoughts are usually rational, unlike an awful lot of other people's. I do sometimes disagree with his views, but I enjoy listening to them because they're almost always well thought-out. He is occasionally too soft for my liking - a Content Patch segment regarding religion in Bioshock Infinite comes to mind here - but on the whole, he's excellently opinionated.
I wouldn't say he's overly arrogant as some people have said, though he is more so than most. However, I do rather like arrogance, so I can't complain.

The only major problems with him that I have are his obsession with FOV sliders, and his belief that he has superhuman eyes that can detect the difference between 60 and 120 fps -- and even higher rates. I don't doubt his honesty when he says he can see the difference, but it's no doubt simply a placebo-type effect.

In terms of what I watch - which was the question being asked - I watch all of his videos, bar the Dota 2 stuff. I've been following him since his Frostfire days (Cataclysm beta).
Content Patch is a good way to hear a rational person's opinion on the day's news, and as such I watch it when I get home each evening. It's the only thing I ensure to make time for each day - so if I've only got half an hour of free time, I'll watch Content Patch rather than play a game.
WTF is... is informative in looking at new games, and makes up a lot of the value of reviews/critiques of a game when I'm considering whether to buy it.
The StarCraft 2 stuff is enjoyable. I find Totalbiscuit to be the best commentator to listen to in terms of noise, as he is able to commentate calmly, as opposed to someone like Husky, who doesn't seem able to control himself. He's definitely nicer on the ears.
I check the channel twice a day in case I've missed anything, and I'll try to make time to watch it all at some point.
I miss Azeroth Daily, though...

He's also got a lovely voice. When I'm working, I stick a long WTF is... on to listen to in the background. His voice is surprisingly helpful in focusing me.

He has a childish tenancy to call games objectively "bad" when its clear he just doesnt enjoy them, which is forgivable if he didnt do it during reviews, a critic should remain neutral

You should take a look at his reviews of puzzle games. He never simply calls them bad because he doesn't like them; he isn't a fan of puzzle games but he explains exactly that. In the WTF is of puzzle games, he will say whether it's a case of him just not liking it or whether it is poor game mechanics. He does the same with all of the other games as well, but I'd recommend looking for a puzzle one since you'll see that you're actually wrong.

Yeah, I'd say the thing that kind of puts me off to him is his sense of self-importance. Jim Sterling does it as part of a character. As far as I can tell Biscuit's not acting in his videos.

Well, he's certainly putting on the voice, so I don't see why he wouldn't be putting on much of the persona too.

What makes you think he's putting on the voice?
If he is, it's bloody impressive for him to keep up an identical voice for absolutely everything, whether it's live commentating or when he's being filmed in his normal life.

 

[Baldr]

Watch him occasionally. Eh. Sometimes better than others, but he's pretty much always got that air of PC Master Race shit and inflated self importance. Fairly whiny at times too, but he can be enjoyable enough.

EDIT: Also, the whole "CynicalBrit" thing. For one, ugh using nationality as an advertising point, fuck that.
And for being so "cynical" he's really not. Not in most of the videos I watch. ComplainingBrit maybe. OccasionallySomewhatAggrevatedBrit would work too.

He not even a Brit living in the UK, he lives down the street from me. He losing his accent and adapting a more local one I've noticed.

 

[verdant monkai]

All you ever hear form the guy is "ohh the textures aren't great here".

 

[Tom_green_day]

Popularity != quality. Might I point you to MTV, Fox News, Call of Duty, etc. Thanks for playing the logical fallacy game though! Let's see what you can bring next!

I guess that's another difference in opinion. I don't watch MTV and don't know what Fox News is but I geniunely enjoy CoD. Zombies is my favourite part of gaming in general, multiplayer is a fun way to relax in my opinion and I also prefer the campaign (of the original Black Ops) to story modes in games such as Deus Ex HR, GTA and Assassin's Creed.

 

[Bestival]

I've literally never heard of this guy before this thread. When I saw the title I thought it was one of our fellow forumgoers.
There is no option for me on your poll though.

That said, without watching any of them I will say that I probably don't like his videos. Most videos about games/gaming bore me to tears.

 

[II2]

He's useful. Hitting the options and tech parts first is dull but functionally important and informative. Beyond that, he brings light and attention to a lot of titles that need it. Good deal, for the most part, as long as you know his critical voice well enough to parce his preferences from what you'd look for in a recommendation.

 

[Judgement101]

Usually I don't take part in "Bash the youtuber" threads but this one I have to get involved in.

I cannot stand TotalBiscuit, and before I get a quote going "But you didn't give him a chance" or "You never watched him" or any other excuse such as those I have watched him, quite a lot, I used to be subbed to him and religiously watched his videos, but now I consider him among the worst video-game related youtubers out there. (Okay fine, Pewdiepie is infinitely worse but that's more of his fanbase being a ravenous group of people who call every video a knock-off at the first possible oppurtunity, but that's an argument for a different time.) For one, his title "Cynical Brit" is absoultely untrue. The only Cynical Brit in my opinion is Yahtzee, TotalBiscuit is just minorly upset about things. The main contributer to my hatred of him is his "War on FoV". For several videos in a row he complained about the FoV (Field of View/Field of Vision) causing him headaches, then subsequently gives the game a bad review, and yes, his videos are reviews, not "First Impressions" as he claims because at the end of the video he always says if the game is worth a buy or not. That isn't a first impression. Next for me is his complaints about "Fanboy-ism". I dislike fanboys as much as the next guy, but don't publically denounce your fans then complain when they don't watch your videos. I could go on and on about my opinions and issues of/with him, but I'll just save you guys the trouble:

TL;DR: He's an arrogant, glorified Let's Player who complains about irrelevant issues and denounces his fanbase at every turn then complains about their lack of viewer-ship later on.

 

[The Apple BOOM]

TL;DR: He's an arrogant, glorified Let's Player who complains about irrelevant issues and denounces his fanbase at every turn then complains about their lack of viewer-ship later on.

I personally suffer from the least motion sickness out of anyone I know. Boats don't get to me, reading in cars is fine for me, and I can stand all forms of 3D and FoV. However, just because I can stand them, doesn't mean others can. The FoV 'war' is something that has needed to be said for a while, and it is great that it finally has a big voice behind it. It is insulting to people to tell them to just get over their sickness. It's like telling people to get over depression or being color blind.

Or maybe they should just not play games, this just isn't their area. Sure, that's completely reasonable. You lost a leg? Oh well, guess I'm not playing baseball with you. You just want to pitch? But bringing a chair to the pitcher's mound ruins the game. It just isn't for you.

 

[Judgement101]

TL;DR: He's an arrogant, glorified Let's Player who complains about irrelevant issues and denounces his fanbase at every turn then complains about their lack of viewer-ship later on.

I personally suffer from the least motion sickness out of anyone I know. Boats don't get to me, reading in cars is fine for me, and I can stand all forms of 3D and FoV. However, just because I can stand them, doesn't mean others can. The FoV 'war' is something that has needed to be said for a while, and it is great that it finally has a big voice behind it. It is insulting to people to tell them to just get over their sickness. It's like telling people to get over depression or being color blind.

Or maybe they should just not play games, this just isn't their area. Sure, that's completely reasonable. You lost a leg? Oh well, guess I'm not playing baseball with you. You just want to pitch? But bringing a chair to the pitcher's mound ruins the game. It just isn't for you.

It's not that I'm telling him to not complain about his disease, it's that I'm sick of him giving a game a bad rep BECAUSE of his disease. He did this with The Darkness 2. He essentially said the game was unplayabled because of the FoV, but that was because of his disease, to someone without it the game was fine. I guess in general my issue is less with his disease/complaining and more with his lack of objectivity, which he claims to have. (Also, I'm 100% aware all reviews are subjective, but he claims to be somewhat objective, which is just untrue.)

 

[LeeArac]

People find his voice /soothing/? Really? Soothing? I hate to say it, but maybe that's an American thing, because to a British ear he has a voice I want to smash repeatedly in the mouth. I expect it's similar to how Steve Irwin could be quite grating to the Australian ear (at least until you realised Steve Irwin /wasn't/ putting on an act, and he really was the perenially jolly and slightly mental man-child he appeared to be).

And yes, promoting yourself based on nebulous national 'traits' is tacky as Hell: A little bit like if some Yank started doing bitchy LPs in their most put-on, overbearing tone and called themselves the 'Obnoxious American' to market themselves to British people. Whiny Brit might be more appropriate.

And you know what? Being divisive isn't /good/. It's not anything. It just is. Being divisive for the sake of it, however, is tired.

 

[Thoughtful_Salt]

It's good to be divisive.

I knew we'd see you here eventually, just couldn't resist eh?
Not sure if this even works on you, but keep making your videos your way, just tone it down on responding to comments by trolls, the last one I saw that you replied to made my respect for you drop a wee bit. Sarcasm doesn't really translate as well over comments and messages, so yeah, there you go.

hope genna gets well!

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

A little bit of an ass when responding to people, honestly, but his reviews are great, imo. They tell me just what I need to know about a game, especially games I wouldn't have heard of otherwise. His rallying for FOV sliders is something I can really appreciate as I have a friend who hasn't been able to play many FPS because of it during the past few years, and because I also have problems with low FOV on a lesser scale. Also, watching him playing Dota made me want to get back into it, so he's got my thanks for that.
All he's gotta to, imo, is just ignore the stupid fucking trolls. Pretend that the comments section isn't there or something. You hurt yourself more than them.

 

[treeroy]

People find his voice /soothing/? Really? Soothing? I hate to say it, but maybe that's an American thing, because to a British ear he has a voice I want to smash repeatedly in the mouth. I expect it's similar to how Steve Irwin could be quite grating to the Australian ear (at least until you realised Steve Irwin /wasn't/ putting on an act, and he really was the perenially jolly and slightly mental man-child he appeared to be).

And yes, promoting yourself based on nebulous national 'traits' is tacky as Hell: A little bit like if some Yank started doing bitchy LPs in their most put-on, overbearing tone and called themselves the 'Obnoxious American' to market themselves to British people. Whiny Brit might be more appropriate.

And you know what? Being divisive isn't /good/. It's not anything. It just is. Being divisive for the sake of it, however, is tired.

Yeah, I genuinely find his voice relaxing. I'm a fellow Briton, by the way. He has perhaps the only tolerable northern accent I've ever heard. It's really nice.

I honestly doubt he is putting the voice on. And with regard to being divisive - I think it's good. It creates arguments, and I love arguing.

 

[mike1921]

As in he portrays them as boring or what? Or just that he's generally somewhat calm? It's not meant to be incredibly entertaining it's meant to be informative.

His videos are neither informative nor entertaining. You can learn pretty much nothing from his videos that you couldn't figure out through watching gameplay footage without his commentary, or browsing somewhere else on the net, with greater detail.

1: he has content other than WTF is.
2: as his preferences on games tends to align with mine (Even console games he doesn't directly cover on his channel but mentions on podcasts/twitter) heavily I tend to value his opinion of how well something works and what is a big deal.

I would've never played Defense Grid Awakening for instance if it weren't for TB and at this point I'm wondering if I'd consider it my favorite Tower Defense game or favorite Strategy game period. And I probably would not have put as much thought into it if I had been exposed to it without his commentary.

And, yes, being entertain is MUCH more important. Because if you have the choice between watching something that is both informative AND entertaining, why would you choose something that is neither, which tends to be the case with this guy.

Here's the thing, attempts to be entertaining can also be annoying and definitely are more likely to be overbearing. I like to be informed of new indie releases I much prefer TB's style of mostly calm with the rare sarcastic/silly comment if i'm going to be watching it whenever a vaguely interesting indie game is released or whenever a game I just don't know all that much about is released.

Further more, I would suggest the reason Classic Game Room has less subscriptions, is because he's one of the rare video makers that doesn't rely on jumping on the hate and fear bandwagon. It's more than proven that the majority of people on the internet will keep returning to videos that they can spew their anger, hatred, and nonsense at, than say anything nice about. A lot of the time, it doesn't even come to anything remotely like a 'debate'.

I really doubt that even a significant portion of TB's million+ subscribers is from people who comment. It's not proven, he has a million subscribers and his last WTF is has 1,000 comments. A majority=/= a vocal minority

 

[Proto325]

I like his stuff, but I can't stand the way he says "obsurd" instead of absurd.

 

[masticina]

Nobody is forbidden to disagree with TB.

I like his videos, I like his style. Its his.. he made himself an own kind of style. And it works for him!

I like getting good information in a funny yet to the point way. Again you can disagree with him that is all allowed.

What is nice is that you get to really see if a game is worth it. Is a game good? Is a game decent and for who is it? There are many great games I don't play because they are not my type of game. Actually I don't play shooters.. that is about one of the biggest groups of games out there. Yet his videos mean I can see what these games have to offer, where they are going and what they are doing well.

Take or instance his Farcry 3 video, now I won't play this game but I am happy I can ses someone play it and point me out some of the things this game has to offer. Some videos I even repeat watch..

And yes I love how there are smaller games being played. Because really that is what I want to play, mostly I play relative small games. Guess what TB gives attention to those games, does a video, shows what those games have to offer. And I can say "mmm nah not for me" or "yeah like it put it on my list for steam"

Are there other people doing this yeah. TB's style just makes it very nice to watch. It is like you like some teachers at school and utterly don't other teachers. That and at least with TB I won't get the scream cam type of lets play.

In short TB makes some good content that really helps to see what a game has to offer.

 

[wizzy555]

I used to find TB annoying. In the old days he would just troll WoW players overconfident in his opinions etc. I found his voice annoying - even though I am British (I live in a different area, go 5 miles down the road and we talk different you know).

Now he provides consistent and reliable content and decent thought out opinions. He's probably my favourite games journalist at this point, except maybe Susan Arendt.

So yeah, thank god for totalbiscuit.