What does the escapist think of Totalbiscuit?

[WindKnight]

Used to think he was alright and would occasionally glance at his WTF videos for games I was interested in. Then he made the FPS police and his Tecmo Koei video and the already large pedestal he stood on grew ten times that day. I unsubscribed and haven't looked back since.

I don't understand this argument. Why does a PC-based channel for PC owners used to 60fps complaining and/or informing that games are locked at 30fps (which some might find unplayable) affect anything? Tecmo Koei's PC ports are atrocious for his audience, they may not be for you but that doesn't mean he or his videos are bad.

Because a lot of games being flagged by the FPS police are in a genre where the FPS doesn't matter, or are of an age or use a graphical style that makes 60fps problematic, impossible or irrelevant.

And that's before some adherents actively used the list to start witch-hunts against devs, something its fair to say TB himself called out.

 

[Tilly]

I watch and enjoy most of his content.

I also like that he has the kind of mind and analytic way of thinking that is quite rare in gaming media (as it's generally more associated with the sciences than the humanities, where most in the media come from).

 

[Tilly]

What confuses me is how he's constantly mentioned as being a key player in the whole GG vs Feminists thing. I'm guessing I must be out of the loop because I get all my coverage of him from his youtube videos, which seem to always be be solely about games and the game industry, and never about the clash between GG and feminism. Does he talk about that on a twitter account or something?

His input has been fairly small and it's certainly wrong to say he was a key player. He's just the person who has the largest following who happened to comment on the ethical failings with gaming media at a time when a lot of people were desperately trying to deflect on the issue. Boogie2988 got similarly demonized for doing nothing more than refusing to go along with the weird idea that if some people are sexist online, therefore no bad behaviour was going on with gaming media. Logic of rectal origins.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

That is a name I've seen mentioned quite a bit. I think I may have seen a video or two of his. He may also be British.

 

[Rastrelly]

He's OK. Sometime makes interesting statements. Though his preferences in gaming don't match mine often.

 

[Buckets]

I like what he has to say mostly, kinda zone out when he goes on about framerates but that's about it.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I tend to think of him as a reliable critic, but being part of a small caste who thinks gaming on the PC at less than 60 frames per second isn't some sort of grievous offence, I do sometimes get a bit irritated by a few pet peeves he has. To me, they're nonexistent.

On the plus side, however, his Port Reports have turned out to be a good source of info for well-optimized PC games. It's managed to extend the life of my dual-core rig, seeing as several current-gen games are so well tuned as to only need an average RAM count and a decent graphics card.

Of course, that's when he doesn't unearth some kind of poorly assembled and thoroughly buggy mess, which allows me to avoid it. Looking at you, Watch Dogs...

 

[Superlative]

Meh.

I've watched some of his stuff and it was pretty good. I know he's technically a critic but I think of him more as an entertainer than anything else. He goes on rants but I've agreed with the ones I've seen (stop being transphobic dicks and dude, i have cancer so lay of the hate mail).

hes ok I guess...what more do you want?

 

[TallestGargoyle]

I watched him fairly regularly until the Dark Souls PC port thing happened. After that, I still kind of continued watching him, but was a lot more weary about his opinions.

 

[AidoZonkey]

I find him one of the better gaming Youtubers, I don?t always agree with him but he explains his argument, is willing to talk about a topic rather than shout it at you, and he brings up mistakes he made in the past (to a certain exstent). Yes he can be elitist and confrontational in some of his videos but I respect him because he explains things from his point of view with a disscution.

 

[boag]

He is either a love him or hate him kind of guy.

I personally think he is great and providing content and first impressions. What about you?

Ever since last year ive put my trust into him, he hasnt done anything to break that trust, in my eyes he has earned it.

Some of his companions however do receive more scrutiny from me.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I kind of like his videos because I find his port reports and various news/information videos helpful and entertaining. I just can't bring myself to like him as a person though. He just comes across as so smug and pretentious and it irks me. He has VERY strong opinions on certain things and seems fond on drawing lines in the sand rather than be a little flexible.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've seen a couple of his WTF videos and saw him on the escapist expat panel a couple years back, but that's about it. He's not part of my regular youtube viewing rotation though.

 

[Jake Martinez]

I've been subbed to him for a couple of years now. His "WTF is...?" series is really good. He does an excellent job of going over game features and mechanics and seems to honestly respect his audience.

The one thing that he does that I really like is that even when he is looking at a game he doesn't like for whatever subjective reason (for example, he just hates that genre of games) he provides his criticism in a way that is actually meaningful outside of just his stupid opinion.

This is something that I think a lot of "professional game reviewers" never manage to do. It's like how Roger Ebert used to be able to look at a movie, even if it was a genre of movie that he hated, then understand what the audience of that movie who loved that kind of thing was looking for, allowing him to give them an idea of if they would like it or not as well.

Basically TB is genre savvy when it comes to video games and actually provides a lot of good feedback even about things he doesn't personally like.

I think this is why he probably has such a large following on Youtube, I always feel like I'm going to get something useful out of his first impression videos when half the time if I am reading a proper review these days I wonder if the "reviewer" even understands who the target audience for a game is.

 

[chuckman1]

I like some of his videos.
I wish they were shorter and he did more reviews. Steam sale videos are ok.

 

[scw55]

He's a human being who like all of us can mistakes and has made mistakes.
Brashness is sometimes good at cutting through. Sometimes is just aggravates.

Unfortunately, personalities such as him or Yahtzee creates the idea that one way to be popular on the internet is to be brash. As I said, there's a time and a place for it. But people cannot see this. So you end up having lots of people who are very rude about others.

I started watching a video of someone bitching about someone else. I stopped watching when it was only about bitching. It was 13 minutes long.

TB is a human. He is fine. I enjoy some of his content. But sheep minded people only see that he is a brash and misinterpret it as "being a dick = makes you popular".

I can't stand watching him play DotA2 because he sounds like he is having such a terrible and unhappy time.

 

[babinro]

He's a poor entertainer.

I think he's a good source for honest opinions but I've never been able to get through an entire video of his due to boredom. This is fine of course if that's what you want but I'm watching videos to be entertained and educated. Totalbuiscut in my experience only educates.

Note: Due to the fact that I'm not a fan of the 5 or so video's I've seen I have to base my opinion solely on those. TB no doubt has several shows and 1000's of video's so it's entirely possible he delivers some content I'd enjoy.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Who is this person ? Never heard of him...

Oh, a games reviewer...i don't have a need for them...

 

[leberkaese]

He has some characteristic flaws but his opinions on the gaming industry are golden. If he says a game is great I believe him and I consider buying it. Also, if he dislikes a game out of personal reasons he's still able to highlight the good parts of a game - something most reviewers aren't able to do.

 

[likalaruku]

I'm neutral about him. He's not "funny" (not that he's trying to be), I have Adult ADD, & his videos are lengthy, so he can only hold my interest for about 5 minutes. I do appreciate his efforts to keep the gaming community informed though.