What does the escapist think of Totalbiscuit?

[KenAri]

I don't respect him much as a gamer (He hates on things for silly reasons, criticises things that are his own fault, etc), but I think he's a decent guy and a decent journalist.

Most importantly, I think he wants the best for the gaming community, and while he can be a bit quick to jump the gun on some things, he usually holds the 'right' opinions.

I don't find him particularly entertaining though. Being British, his internet persona isn't particularly interesting, and if you take his words just at face-value, there are better options out there for amusement.

I wish him well though. I'm glad he's recovering, and wish no misfortune upon him. He does drag topics out sometimes though..

 

[The Bucket]

He is pretty good at talking about a game, really getting to brass tacks.

But and it's a huge, full bodied, but ...

He LOVES to get on his little soapbox and bang on and on and on about a subject, just loving the sound of his own voice.

His also king of the PC elitists, just ragging on games for things like FOV sliders, not having the correct resolution or FPS ... you know the topics PC elitists just LOVE to go on about and get REALLY anal and nit picky about and when it doesn't meat their standards, the good ol' favourite "it's unplayable!".

Oh, does the PC elitist love that phrase, the game works ok (perfect? No but it can be played) but not to the PC elitist! Are the controls a little wonky from a bad port? If so, the game is unplayable! Unless it's a game like the witcher which has fucked up controls by design but that's ok 'cos that is just using the superior gaming input to it's fullest!

So he is an ok guy, until he starts to soap box, bang on about how good the PC platform is or a pet peeve sets him off.

Well some of us spent a lot of money on our hardware and get annoyed when a game deliberately underuses said hardware

I don't blame you for being a lil pissed but to bring it up, time and time and time again!? Especially when you're preaching to the choir, unless you're telling it to devs ... posting on their twitter or emailing them, then why bother repeating it?

Do you honestly think devs dont keep an eye on the media reaction to their games? If they want feedback they know where to find it, there's no need to spam their social media accounts.

 

[Nikolaz72]

He is pretty good at talking about a game, really getting to brass tacks.

But and it's a huge, full bodied, but ...

He LOVES to get on his little soapbox and bang on and on and on about a subject, just loving the sound of his own voice.

His also king of the PC elitists, just ragging on games for things like FOV sliders, not having the correct resolution or FPS ... you know the topics PC elitists just LOVE to go on about and get REALLY anal and nit picky about and when it doesn't meat their standards, the good ol' favourite "it's unplayable!".

Oh, does the PC elitist love that phrase, the game works ok (perfect? No but it can be played) but not to the PC elitist! Are the controls a little wonky from a bad port? If so, the game is unplayable! Unless it's a game like the witcher which has fucked up controls by design but that's ok 'cos that is just using the superior gaming input to it's fullest!

So he is an ok guy, until he starts to soap box, bang on about how good the PC platform is or a pet peeve sets him off.

Well some of us spent a lot of money on our hardware and get annoyed when a game deliberately underuses said hardware

I don't blame you for being a lil pissed but to bring it up, time and time and time again!? Especially when you're preaching to the choir, unless you're telling it to devs ... posting on their twitter or emailing them, then why bother repeating it?

The more it is repeated the harder it is to forget it. Say it once and people will nod but tomorrow they will have forgotten said nod, say it weeks and then months in a row and it sticks to peoples minds.

Stick such thoughts in enough peoples minds and it affects their purchases, some may hold off on preorders alltogether and buy when the game comes on sale if the port is bad.

If it affects sales, either the port will not be made (Worst case scenario) or they will put actual effort into the port (Best case scenario)

I've seen enough of the latter to believe that the campaign against sub-par ports is justified. After the throughough consumer push against bad ports, we've seen a lot of better ports. Mind you the bad ports are still there, and PC-focused youtubers and other informative entertainment providers like TB are vigilant (duh) to remind us, however compared to a few years ago its really gotten a whole lot better. I mean we got a GTA 5 on the PC and its port was really good!

Compare that to the GTA 4 port and well, that thing outright didn't work on many PC's and the console crowd -still- chastised the PC crowd for complaining about it. "At least you got the port" they would say, but the port was barely playable!

Some things are a bit silly, but I feel TB has gotten better on those areas. Like there are certain games where 30 FPS don't matter (as much) where he's eased off the heat a lot.

 

[omega 616]

snips

snips

Do you think the devs are thinking "nah, they wont want all these options" and "they will be happy with these resolution and FPS numbers"? Nah.

They know exactly what they are doing and I don't think soap boxing will do much. Feel free to think otherwise

 

[Nikolaz72]

snips

snips

Do you think the devs are thinking "nah, they wont want all these options" and "they will be happy with these resolution and FPS numbers"? Nah.

They know exactly what they are doing and I don't think soap boxing will do much. Feel free to think otherwise

Locked 30 FPS shooters has become associated with bad ports, low budget games or otherwise subpar games. This is a win on the consumers part.

 

[Edl01]

I love TotalBiscuit. He's one of the most brutally honest video game critics out there, he's not afraid to attack something he dislikes like Bioshock Infinite(a game I love) and I often find his first impressions much more informative and critical than most full reviews. Granted that is because I believe 95% of games journalism to be a massive overly positive circle-jerk but now I'm getting off topic. On top of the his Port Reports are among the most useful videos in my youtube feed.

I also love the fact that he doesn't try to be funny most of the time unless the game is absolutely awful. This may sound odd, but personally I think his video style isn't filled with random gags is almost unique for a Youtube gaming channel.

Many people here are bringing up his anger issues on Twitter, but personally that has no bearing on my opinion of him. To me he is a fantastic critic and what he does/says in his free time doesn't change that for me at all.

 

[EyeReaper]

i like him, though I mostly subbed because of his heathstone vids. Most of the other things fall into a hit-or-miss catergory for me

Although there are some irksome qualities of his, like his incredible bias of "Everything is always better on PC" and there's only so many times I can deal with his attitude of "Anything with an anime aesthetic has to be bad" before I click away and watch something else.

 

[Gretha Unterberg]

He is good a what he does, contentwise.

 

[Fijiman]

Personally, I don't give a shit about him and I will continue to not give a shit until he does something that will make me give a shit, which I kind of doubt will happen any time soon, if ever.

 

[thewatergamer]

I really enjoy his content, yeah he's blunt but he's honest and even if you hate him you have to respect his honesty to an extent

 

[Bat Vader]

snips

snips

Do you think the devs are thinking "nah, they wont want all these options" and "they will be happy with these resolution and FPS numbers"? Nah.

They know exactly what they are doing and I don't think soap boxing will do much. Feel free to think otherwise

Some developers do. Arkahm Knight and Assassin's Creed: Unity is evidence that some developers don't know what they are doing either.

 

[SidheKnight]

I like him. He's a great games journalist, he knows A LOT about PC gaming, and is a cool guy all around.

I don't see what's wrong with him, the few times he was mad at something or someone, it was completely justified.

 

[Atmos Duality]

For a long time he was the only critic that did PC-centric reviews I liked. Most of those were off-the-cuff things and LPs back when he was rolling with the Something Awful crowd, before he got big, but he hasn't lost his touch since then either.

He can be arrogant, but that's fine by me because his arrogance uniquely stems from a place other than some other pretentious twat's ideology. Also, I believe it takes a pinch of ego to be an effective, assertive critic even if it creates waves. (that's the real lesson critics should take from the late Roger Ebert, and Gene Siskel for that matter)

As long as he doesn't go nuts and start projecting pseudo-intellectual bullshit and sticks to practical commentary, I'll watch him anytime.

I'm not subbed to him, because I prefer to do my own research on games first, but Total Biscuit is a ray of sense in the stormy morass of gaming media dominated by projecting progressive idiots (like FemFreq) and whipped publisher apologists.

EDIT: How curious; the Sarkeesian defender is the only one that hates John Bain so much that they can't even offer polite criticism. Unsurprising: honest methods and professional ethics are an anathema to the likes of Anita's stupid "feels before reals" feminist dogma.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

I've liked some of his points, and think it was good that he revealed the illegally undisclosed review contracts relating to whichever game that was. I think he backed the very wrong horse by supporting GamerGate, which takes away the good will I had for him for pointing out legitimate ethics concerns, but considering his past ethics whistleblowing I'm also more inclined to believe his heart is in the right place on GG than the average supporter, so I don't really have bad will for it either.

Overall, I don't love him, I don't hate him. I don't give a toss if he wins the megalotto tomorrow and lives out his days as a very rich man, if he has a terrible car accident later this evening, or anywhere in between. He's a stranger I have no strong opinions on.

 

[sadistictoastie]

I used to really dislike him, but he's addressed a lot of the issues i had with him. He seems like a genuinly decent guy, and he works really hard at giving good, honest consumer advice and works hard to make sure he's on top of everything ethically, which is more than can be said for most.

I honestly think that the gaming world could use more people like him, he's done a lot of good for gaming, and i'm glad he has the following he does.

God i sound like such a fanboy.

 

[TwistednMean]

TotalBiscuit is intelligent, honest, and professional. What's not to like? I generally don't care much for in-depth reviews, but his I watch from time to time if not in the entirety. He advises folks on something which for the most part is a matter of preference, still he tries to be objective and impartial.

Oh, also he's on the right side of GamerGate, just like Yahtzee, and no surprise. Probably that makes me like TB even more as a person than all his review stuff combined.

 

[camazotz]

TotalBuiscuit is somebody I think I've heard about before...somewhere....but had to pop on over to Youtube to figure out what he did, why and how. Watched one video: seemed okay. Do not have time to watch any more on the off chance I'll find one that explains why the OP posed the questions, alas. Linkies?

 

[Cid Silverwing]

TotalBiscuit is exactly the hero we need in the face of an incestuously corrupt gaming medium. There is no bribing or bluffing the man, he stands up for his fellow consumers with brilliant sincerity and no mercy.

 

[BrokenTinker]

TotalBiscuit is exactly the hero we need in the face of an incestuously corrupt gaming medium. There is no bribing or bluffing the man, he stands up for his fellow consumers with brilliant sincerity and no mercy.

It's funny, I used to just dismiss him as one of the new guys replacing the old (this was ages ago, not sure if YT was even sold to google at that point) with the arrogance and raging. But once he chilled out on it, his stuff is actually good and his stance closely aligns with mine. I've some picture of the industry due to relatives, but he's right there in the mix, and the complaint against the PC shit is well justified (take a pick of corporate greed or incompetence for a lot of the "features" that's lacking most of the time).

The technical bits combined with linus and other YTers as well as advices from place like tom's hardware allow me to customize a lot of tailored CPUs for whoever I need to build a PC for. I know, it's odd that one would build a PC around current games, but with proper future proofing AND knowing what makes certain games ticks, you learn to go for different comboes of hardware to suit the taste of the new PC's owner.

 

[Azure23]

Seems like kind of a dick. He's knowledgeable and informative though, I'd imagine that if you're a PC gamer with an eye for technical specs he's invaluable. I've also gotta say that I loved his Terraria series with Jesse Cox, (although that was mainly due to him being terrible at the game while constantly berating Jesse though).

But yeah, I've seen him fire off on twitter and just repeatedly put his foot in his mouth in regards to communication with his fans, any criticism of him, and whenever someone disagrees with his personal politics. If I was in the market to buy a new PC, I'd definitely want his advice, but he's not the kinda person I'd care to be friends with, too abrasive.