What does the escapist think of Totalbiscuit?

[G00N3R7883]

I like him. Been watching his videos for almost 2 years. I think he's alot better at giving useful information than such as AngryJoe and JimSterling, both of whom I've been watching for about 1 year. For example alot of Jim's videos have literally no research done beforehand, so he'll struggle to perform basic actions that he'd know how to do if he'd looked at the controls menu before starting the video. Or he'll just give factually wrong information (in a recent video on Zombi he complained about seeing Xbox controller prompts even though he was using KB/mouse - it took me 2 minutes to find out on the forums that if you unplug controller it resolves the problem). Althought I do find Jim entertaining when he's taking the piss out of the broken greenlight trash.

TB's videos are very in depth because he plays them for a few hours before starting the video. He always makes detailed descriptions of what is good and bad about a game. I've bought lots of games on Steam after watching his videos, and I don't think its a coincidence that I've bought less games while TB was ill and making less videos.

 

[fallte]

TB is usually hilariously bad at the games he plays which I have always found strange for a "professional gamer". Other than that I have never watched his non gaming related content because I don't care about the useless opinions of people on the internet.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't know him too well to judge. All I know is that he spends the first 20 to 30 minutes of his reviews talking about the damn options menu, so I generally don't make it very far into them on the rare occasion I watch one. Nice for the people who love that kind of shit, I guess, but it just puts me right to sleep.

 

[Erttheking]

Meh, he's all right.

Sometimes I check out his WTF is series, but I tend to click out pretty quick whenever he gets on his pedestal.

 

[ghalleon0915]

As a mainly pc gamer, I find his WTFs informative since it goes into detail regarding the different video/sound/game options which someone like, say, Angry Joe does not. I like that he also covers a lot of games with less visibility, which is why I was able to learn about Bastion and FTL.

I do enjoy his Co-optional Podcast ( been watching since it was TGS ) and actually enjoy his non-content videos with his wife. I can understand why people don't like him, but I see a lot of my personality in him so I guess I'm more forgiving. I do think he would do himself a huge favour if he just avoids getting tangled up with comments from either twitter or reddit or what have you.

PS - Besides, his talk show with Jesse is what got me playing Terraria in the first place, so I can't hate a man who did that

 

[Charli]

Ambivalent. On the one hand, I support alot of his points of view. And he's an enjoyable personality when in a group of likeminded individuals.

On the other hand.

There are times where I just want to physically remove him from a keyboard and smack him on the nose with a newspaper like a naughty dog.

PS - Besides, his talk show with Jesse is what got me playing Terraria in the first place, so I can't hate a man who did that

I'm so sad this is no longer a thing, I'd happily have them insert Crendor into the mix for maximum idiocy factor. The commentary/conversations combined with random death was a great formula.

 

[GundamSentinel]

I enjoy watching his content and I like his personality (the Terraria series with Jesse Cox is one of my favorite things on the internet), but I don't think I can ever see completely eye-to-eye with a guy that spends that much time fussing over graphics and everything 'modern PC gaming should be'.

 

[NPC009]

I watch his review/let's play thingies on and off. He can be pretty funny if he's in a good mood (and playing a weird game) and that's fun to watch. I usually skip the part where he talks about the options menu, though. He gets way too worked up over that stuff for my taste.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I use to watch his WTF is videos back when he was about the only one doing indy games, but now everyone is doing them. I don't have his same fetish with option menus though.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I think he seems a decent chap... even the type of chap that you could have a drink in a pub with.

That is my mates test for people... would you have a drink with them? If yes: Good Bloke. If no: Wanker.

 

[Pseudonym]

I watch him some of the time. A lot of his content is a bit longer than I think it should be. Maybe it's because I watch him so sporadically but he never seemed that dickish to me as some people think. His WTF/first impression/quasi-review-that-he-doesn't-call-a-review thing is useful. I don't always agree with his views on the games he is presenting but he is informative. I found 10 second ninja and antichamber and maybe one or two other games through him and he doesn't even really like those games.

I find a lot of his critics to be rather whiny in a lot of cases, especially the people who, whenever his name is mentioned immediately feel compelled to say how much they hate him. Obviously in this thread that is just answering the question so I'm not blaming anyone for sharing their negative feelings about him here but I occasionally see his name inflame threads in a wholly unneccesary and derailing way. Besides that the points I typically see brought up about him (I care too much about e-celebs that I even know this) don't really annoy me as much as they do other people, apparently.

While I don't think graphics and options menu's are the most important thing in the world I don't mind somebody existing to critique them. Being zealous about it isn't too bad. I prefer people to be somewhat zealous about what they do. It makes him a bit more of a tech reviewer than an art critic but he seems to embrace that so whatever.

I don't really expect him to pretend his audience is the most important thing ever so when he doesn't that doesn't bother me that much. I've grown to significantly dislike the entitlement people can gain just from being a consumer of certain media. I have very little patience for people on youtube who think the subscribe button is a service to the person subscribed to rather than to the subscriber so when a youtuber is a little negative about their own audience I don't find that the worst thing ever.

I don't agree with his views on certain matters of disclosure but I admire his ability to discuss those matters without getting sidetracked by feminism and the identity politics of hashtag movements at least some of the time. A lot of people, and that includes TB on some other occasions, would do well to take that example.

 

[GundamSentinel]

I think he seems a decent chap... even the type of chap that you could have a drink in a pub with.

That is my mates test for people... would you have a drink with them? If yes: Good Bloke. If no: Wanker.

Which begs the question: what are the prerequisites to be someone you would have a drink with? Don't get me wrong, but being a good bloke if you would have a drink with someone seems a bit circular.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I've been subscribed to him for years and I enjoy his work. I regularly watch his "WTF is" and "Port Report" etc. And I appreciate his cold, logical approach to game reviews. He really wants to inform the consumers and that's his number one priority. Even if you don't care about his obsession about menus and FOV sliders, some people might care about that stuff and that's why he talks about it. To make sure that the consumers are well informed. I like that he always discloses the fact that he's been payed to endorse something etc. He's an honest and a ration person.
Sometimes when I don't have anything better to do I watch his co-optional podcast. Funny stuff.

 

[Kae]

He gets incredibly in-depth when it comes to option menus and PC functionality, I like that a lot as that's actually the stuff I want to know before buying a game, after all I know my tastes and I already know if I want to buy the thing or not, so knowing how well it performs it's what is valuable to me as a consumer, as it is what pushes me to purchase or not, also he shares my obsession with high FOV, we don't have the same taste in games at all but like I said his videos are useful to me, as for his personality, he's OK, he can be a jerk sometimes but I don't really judge people to much unless they really are horrible, besides I have been following his content for years so I have a fairly good idea of what he's like and even with the bad stuff he's still a pretty decent guy.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Used to watch his content a lot, but barely watch anything of his nowadays, partly because of his personality, partly because I've found other people whose tastes align with mine more and are therefore more useful.

I'll still throw on a Co-optional podcast VoD if they have an interesting guest on - Jim and Laura back to back for example.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I think he seems a decent chap... even the type of chap that you could have a drink in a pub with.

That is my mates test for people... would you have a drink with them? If yes: Good Bloke. If no: Wanker.

Which begs the question: what are the prerequisites to be someone you would have a drink with? Don't get me wrong, but being a good bloke if you would have a drink with someone seems a bit circular.

There aren't really prerequisites... it's subjective based on first impression. People can join and fall off the list in these catagories. You know within about 30 secs from meeting someone whether you think they are decent or not.

Sometimes you put them in a middle state and actually have to have a drink with them to decide fully.

EDIT: Oh... and I have to point out... I am in the military. This really only applies to people we meet on a general basis. People in the military are all usually of a similar type. If you are not someone who socialises and is part of the team then we wonder what the fuck you are doing in our organisation. We don't have time for hangers-on.

 

[DocJ]

I absolutely love him. He's great at what he does and provides excellent feedback on new releases. I'll always watch a WTF is... before I buy a new release.

 

[Arean]

I'm honestly a big fan of his, although I don't watch that much of his content. I don't really use first impressions/reviews all that much. I do watch the podcast religiously, though.

While he has his issues (always taking the bait being first among them) I respect his hardline stances as a dedicated consumer advocate. Also, I find it hard to not be in his corner with the amount of insane accusations flying at him all the time.

 

[BrokenTinker]

Wasn't a fan of his until about 15-16 months ago when I kept getting links for his vid from friends. He mellowed out compare to a few years ago where he rages at shit a lot.

I check on his stuff every once in a while, especially for lesser known stuff. Surprisingly got me hooked onto playing Gun of Icarus Online with the paid advert of all things (yes... I was THAT out of the loop, ended up supporting the expansion too).

Learned to love his stance on PC gaming, especially after learning that companies are "dumbing down" games to suit the consoles to protect sales from family in the industry. The problem is that the code-monkeys aren't kept (working with the gfx drivers, when you've ppl on that, it's "expense", but holy shit does it make games so much better), it's outsourced or simply not a priority. I'm not talking about raw graphics as in polycounts(something I don't really care about since I'm from the 8bit era , just gimme good content), I'm talking about FPS and optimization, something that should be routine instead of being an afterthought.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I'm in a weird position where I really enjoy his videos but I don't actually use them to get information. I just find them really relaxing to watch. I never got into the podcast though. I saw a few clips here an there but it wasn't for me.

He gets pretty damned insufferable when he decides to argue with people though.