I enjoyed watching both of them one episode at a time, as I originally viewed them as they went up on the site. It may be a bit hard to watch the same gameplay twice in a row, but each run brings its own hilarity and is worth seeing. They do start out being pretty similar, but eventually, Brad's terrible game-playing skills puts them pretty far behind Vinny.

Watching one of the runs at a time is probably more effective because they run at different paces (Vinny is more effective at killing those sponges most of the time). I haven't watched the BR run because I honestly couldn't endure DP a second time back to back, but I'm sure it's hard to top Vinny and Jeff. In the end, it's always a cool part of the back catalog to go back to when you would want to.

At the time they were doing it, I watched BR almost exclusively with the occasional check in with VJ. Loved it all, but I'd like to go back and actually watch all of VJ, especially after falling in love with Twin Peaks.

DP is the most enjoyable game I'll never play.

I actually watched them while playing the Director's Cut, going through each a few episodes at a time until I caught up with where I was in the game. I think it was pretty interesting to see how the one pair handled a specific section while having the others' play-through fresh in my mind.

I watched both at the same time, I think if you watch 1 at a time, it will be harder to start the second run since you've seen it all. Plus it was fun to see the different play styles, perspectives, and commentary side by side.

I watched VJ, waited a year then watched BR.

In the nude.

I was going to say to watch one, and then the other, but really this is the correct answer.

Hey man, BR were ahead until the run was impeded by a couple crashes that lost some progress and sent them on an extended side questing kick! Let's not blame this one entirely on Brad. Though he was indeed rather terrible at fighting those wall ladies, while Vinny pretty quickly learned how to dispatch them rather efficiently.

Both at the same time is how I did it. Though I did it as they were being released.

VJ first since I think it's my favorite of the two and then if you really enjoyed it then go for the BR one. They're both fun to watch and I stuck with VJ till they finished, then watched BR and I found it really fun to go back and see their reactions.

@pyromagnestir said:

I guess. All I can remember is him constantly complaining about how bad the controls were, even though they are perfectly manageable for anyone with half a brain.

If you haven't played deadly premonition I would recommend doing both at the same time. That way you can discover the game with both teams.

I only watched VJ.

Whichever one you choose, after you're finished go watch at least the pilot episode of Twin Peaks. Before doing so I figured the comparison was just going to be surface-level, but there are some directly-comparable characters and story lines there.

And somehow the animation and voice acting in Deadly Premonition is less hammy than the acting in Twin Peaks.

Diva points. It stands for Diva points.

In my humble opinion they mixed up the pairings all wrong. It should have been BV, JR. Brad-Vinny QL's are the secret best quicklooks (brad is the sensible type and vinny is the complete whack job that balances him out) and Jeff and Ryan always played off each other really well.

With that said the Jeff/Vinny version is the essential version. Ryan/Brad one is good as well, but you really can't go wrong with something that has both Vinny and Deadly Premonition.

I tried watching both at the same time, but the different paces became tiring to keep up with. I would say try both if you can get a good system for how you're watching it, but if not, VJ is the way to go. I never actually finished watching BR so I might go back and do that at some point, but at the time I had just come off of the P4 Endurance run so I couldn't pass up the VJ combo.

Crossing my fingers for the Dan/Drew MGS ER, though not technically an ER since Dan has already played.

I only watched the VJ one. I did however scrub through the BR one to watch key points and reveals. I'd recommend picking the duo you prefer more, then watching the big plot points of the other one.

My recollection is that Brad was more frustrating to watch more often (missing obvious things - Ryan often wasn't observant enough to help him out) but that both of them had their peaks and troughs. At the time I thought both at once was a bit much and I can't really say that's how I'd recommend it. Half of the fun of that ER for me was the game itself and that really only works once.

I watched them in release order and that was a pretty good experience. Around episode 6 or 7 they start to be at different points in the game as they spend their down time doing different side quests. It's almost better not knowing what is coming for one run and then knowing what is coming for the other. Knowing where they are in relation to one another adds to it as well, and you won't get a sense for that if you watch one then the other.

But what you should really do is get two monitors and load up one on each and hit play at the same time.

Both are good for different reasons, I recommend VJ as they both have done an ER and know how to talk during the game where BR didn't really hit their stride till at least half way through the ER.

@rongalaxy: Fuck no, Ryan Vinny was the pairing to make and they missed out. Jeff would've helped Brad out better when he struggled and Ryan would've supported Vinny doing dumb shit more than Jeff

try playing through it alongside the videos. It's a pretty fun game. Stay maybe 1hr ahead of the videos. Your choices for side missions opens up fairly quickly so you won't just be rewatching what you just played all that often.

VJ is great fun. BR is great too. Ryan gets into the story as it goes along.

I watched Vinny/Jeff, then went back later and watched Brad/Ryan. At least that way if it's intimidating you could split them up and watch them in 2 parts.

Watch them both, but bare in mind that Ryan and Brads is more thoughtful (and sometimes maddening) to watch. Brad clearly didn't want to play it, but Ryan tries to be along for the ride.

I recommend watching one then going back and watching the other whenever you feel like seeing the game again.

Vinny and Jeff's is (probably obviously) the funny one. They didn't know how to react to the ending, though. I guess none of us did, really.

In any case I think they both have merit- for different reasons. I enjoyed them both.

For me, if I watched a game all the way through I would struggle to watch it all over again immediately. I enjoyed watching both runs concurrently.

Watch VJ for the gameplay because, even though neither team had fun playing it, Vinny and Jeff had more fun with what they had. They would just have conversations during boring parts or laugh when they died, where Brad would just get angrier and blame the game and the controls (rightfully so). After you're done watching the VJ run, watch the last few episodes of the BR run. Ryan's reactions to everything that happens is great and makes up for everything that happened before hand.

I watched one episode of VJ then one episode of BR until it was all over. I didn't get the fatigue other people have had because while they were mostly doing the same thing, they provided different commentary and unique moments of hilarity. It's been a while since I last watched them though, and now I have the urge....

I say watch the BR run first as they seem to get way more into the story (Ryan especially) then VJ.

Team BR 4 Life.

The final death count was like 20 for Brad and 4 for Vinny, BR was never going to finish first.

@corruptedevil: I started to do the same. A yearish later I'm watching BR... But I'm on the 3rd episode and not finding it as enjoyable as VJ.

Should I push through? Is BR worth it?

Note: I had already watched a lets play of deadly premonition before watching VJ, so the story wasn't new then either

I dunno, sounds like a lot of chafing.

First time around I started with BR and more or less skipped episodes, jumping through some to see if anything fun happened. Then almost two years later, when I was more familiar with the crew, I remembered that there was a VJ option as well and was floored by how much more entertaining it was. Spent a whole lot of days by just watching 3-4 episodes in a row...

BR focuses on sidequests a lot more if you want to see those, but Brad is very much a spoilsport who makes it hard to watch.

@basm321: I think BR became a lot more entertaining a bit in as Ryan warms up to the game and starts getting really into the story. Also Brad's constant struggle with the combat makes it far more of an emotional roller coaster, with great "highs" like him getting a certain weapon upgrade. Over all I actually prefer it to VJ.

I've only seen BR. Some day I'll watch VJ, but it's difficult to get motivated to commit the time (even though I know it will be entertaining).

Someone should log every time Ryan said "god damn it, Brad".

The first time, I just watched the BR run, tried to start VJ but couldn't handle watching DP again. I'd say watch them simultaneously. They're both very much worth watching and while you will see a lot of the same stuff over and over again, they do start to diverge quite a lot in the middle.

If you can't handle that, watch them about a year apart like I did.

Both side by side.

Ive watched VJ twice or thrice now. Its a lot of really funny shit.

My memory of it is that if you want to watch a weird game being played, then go with VJ. If you want to watch two guys react to the weirdness of the game, then watch BR.

both runs are awesome, I recommend watching an entire run then going back and watch the other one.

Yes.

I watched both at the same time, and it was fun being able to see how each team reacted to the various parts of the game almost side-by-side. It takes longer, though, of course.

I watched all of VJ first, then pretty much immediately started watched BR following. They were both good and are both worth watching. I'd say stick it through the end to one to see how much you like it, and then watch the other when you realize how great it is.