I got myself a premium membership only a couple of months back, and since then have been trying to catch up with all the new content! Apart from the premium Hitman videos (almost done with those) and Beast in the East (at episode 9) I've made my way through 4 of the 15 (!) murder island premium videos.

Considering they're all about movie length, and that they keep coming out quite regularly, I was wondering if there are any I should skip? I don't wanna skip any good ones, so I guess my question is, are there any non-good/ bad ones? I don't want to be extremely selective either, otherwise I'd have just watched the very best few.

What do you recommend?

I just realised that I've now watched 15 Murder Island videos...

I'd skip the early ones because they are very loot heavy and not much action. I'm not sure of the first one where they decided to start getting 'spicy', but I would start around there.

I'd recommend you just watch the weekly clip show - Best of Giant Bomb - which will have whatever highlights from that weeks Murder Island stream in it.

I'm not a big fan of the MI streams because I find them really dull for the most part. There was a good one a week or two ago when they almost actually won but the majority of them all go like this

• Spend half the game time looting and looking at inventory menus.
• Pay little to no attention to each others location and get separated.
• Get picked off for being separated.
• Spectate the last remaining player for the other half of their game.

There are some good moments that happen on occasion but like you said, they're all movie length long and those moments don't come often enough.

I think these age very fast, so I recommend just watching the latest one and the ones to come. And/or the weekly show "Best of Giant Bomb" as Jesus P above mentioned.

Definitely make sure you watch the one where Vinny gets the vision. It's an earlier one so make sure you don't miss it by skipping to the most recent ones. Probably my favorite moment in this series so far. I'd try to find it for you if I wasn't at work.

@mezza: Yup I've seen that one (floating buildings right?) so that's probably in the first 5. Think that's the same one where they were trapped in that tiny cottage and Alex shotgun killed someone. That was great!

@jesus_phish: Alright, I think I'll track the best ones through the Best of Giantbomb videos and check the comments for enthusiasm levels ("this episode was great") before watching them. Sounds like it wouldn't be worth the investment of time to watch each one of them all the way through. Thanks!

@captain_insano: Guess I've already watched the early ones since I've basically seen 5/15 of them. Haha 15 is a lot, I don't watch 15 movies in two months even!

I think some early ones were not great, then the spicy phase it got better, then lately I have not loved the last few. They don't stay together and they either go out in some dumb firefight where they don't see the enemy or get wiped out because they jump into an area with a million people. I just want them to stick together more so they can have longer matches as a team. Lately, it's been stuff where one guy is surviving and going on alone and that's not so fun to watch.

Just stay together! It shouldn't be hard to figure out but the GB guys are absolutely oblivious to it in the streams, meanwhile they get wiped by squads who are bunching up and covering each other. I'm not looking for advanced strats, this is the most basic thing you can do.

I have enjoyed all of them, i watch it because it combines all the people from east and west which up to this point has been really rare. If you are looking for hot strats then no(or maybe yes if you just wanna die in fun ways). I tend to watch GB content on my tablet while i'm getting ready for bed, so maybe 2 or 3 vids a week most times (well outside of quick looks)so the length doesn't bother me

I think you're good just watching the latest ones and some best of clips. I find it to be a very boring game to actually watch (which is surprising considering its popularity on streaming sites) but it's just fun to hear both GB crews interacting.

I've seen all of them and I've enjoyed it. It's hilarious at times, so crazy. They might not be pros but it leads to very funny situations. It's just friends playing an awesome game together. Then again, I'm a person who usually has to watch all episodes of things or do everything there is to do in things so don't trust me on this.

just watch the 2nd one they released on Youtube, the one with just Vinny, Jeff and Brad. A lot of great moments in that one.

@armaan8014: probably better off waiting for a Best Of compilation. Most of the runs are fairly long winded affairs of nothing happening punctuated by brief spurts of fun every 30 minutes or so. At this point there is nothing interesting in the build up. Looting the same houses in similar looking areas simply to get picked off by a sniper in a window. I'm actually dumbfounded that this game has surpassed DOTA on Steam. I understand the honeymoon period appeal, but not this weird craze it has generated among people that would generally shy away from this type of game.

@humanity: In terms of the people that aren't normally into competitive shooters I'd say it draws them for a few reasons. I would say the slower pace is definitely one of them, other shooters on the market are a lot more condensed making time from spawn till death much shorter whereas in PUBG you can prevent that. The other big thing I'd guess is the games design being heavily based around RNG allows for lesser skilled players to get the upper hand giving them a brief sensation of success that they wouldn't normally get.

More than anything though I think it's just a 'new' (if you haven't played the ARMA mods) concept in a sea of FPS games that are just iterating on other franchises that have already become worn out and tired. PUBG strips all the other games popular gimmicks out and places you in a much grander scale scenario.

Of course this is me spit-balling as I've always been into competitive games, I would be interested to hear from someone who doesn't usually get into them though.

No, nothing happens for the majority of the stream. You should watch it live once and then decide if you want to watch more, but you're better off watching the 1 or 2 funny clips that get posted around after.

@humanity: There was an interesting stat that came out this week, 55% of people who own CS:GO own PUBG. And numbers for the active player base for CS:GO has dropped while PUBG keeps rising and rising. Similarly it's pulling the most engaged players away from other games like H1Z1. It's pulling the least engaged from team based games like Payday 2 and L4D2.

You should definitely watch the one where Dan goes on and on about pants until Jeff does something about it.

I've been premium for years, murder island is one of my least favorite series by far. Its a good time just as a "podcast" to half pay attention to, but its gone on long enough. Project BEAST is by far my favorite premium series, and has made me laugh hysterically on many occasions, which i NEVER do. Metal Gear Scanlon is a great time too.

It was my favorite feature on the site for the first few weeks, but that ended up being a gateway drug when one week when I felt like I wasn't getting enough I remembered "oh yeah, Twitch exists." Since then I've found a bunch of streamers of varying combinations of personality/skill level that I love watching. I could literally watch/listen to people play this game all day long while multitasking, doing other gaming on the side. I think of it almost like my new spectator sport. The concept lends itself so well to "rooting" for the team you're watching.

It's fine audio content; there's something oddly comforting about two hours of "I've got a bunch of .551 ammo and 4x scopes if anybody needs some and I just passed some pants" for two hours punctuated by random outbrusts of "oh shit, oh fuck, I'm goo-no, I'm down." But I don't actually watch most GB content any way so I'm a weird case. I'd say anybody who's actually watching these streams is way more attentive than I am, but I can't imagine how weird people would think I am for having "watched" 80% of Beast in the East in a second tab while I read articles and played video game baseball. I don't know Japanese!

In conclusion, it's not as easily ignorable and comfortingly conversational as Blue Bombin' or UPF is, but it's also not as must-watch as Beast in the East or Metal Gear Scanlon was. It's right there in a happy middle; as someone who doesn't own a PC and thus won't play this game for a very long time, I'm endlessly fascinated by how much everyone on the site seems to like it and, again, I find it decent as background material. But I certainly wouldn't recommend watching it like a movie or TV show or something, most of the action seems to come from the playing of the game and doesn't fully translate to watching.

Probably not. I really enjoy watching the streams and each new video, if I miss it live. That said, I can't recommend people watching everything especially since the content is kind of same-y. For you in particular, that's like 15-20 hours of content, so you can instead watch all of BioForge, Life is Strange, Contradiction, or jump into Exquisite Corps, if you are so inclined. On paper that just seems like a better investment.

Even for some of the really funny moments or the most intense encounters--like how they one time made it to the top two teams--I can't remember where each highlight is. It's probably best just to watch the Best of Giant Bomb, and the new streams going forward.

Alright, looks like it wouldn't be worth the time investment to watch all the episodes completely. Think I'll skim through for the best parts taking comments and the best of videos as a guide. Thanks for the opinions everyone!

@nodima:@uhtaree:@gtb08: I listen to a lot of stuff while working, I might try it out as background material as well if I run out of stuff.

@clagnaught: I've watched the Contradiction run and played Life is Strange myself, but haven't checked out Bioforge and Exquisite Corps as I'm not interested in their associated games. Would you say those are must watch? (on par with something like Contradiction/ Beast in the east etc)

@armaan8014: Exquisite Corps is a fun series that is probably most like Project B.E.A.S.T., if you ever watched that. But it's one of those things where if you don't like XCOM, your mileage will probably be lower than mine. BioForge is fun to watch because of how archaic and weird that game is. If you already watched and enjoyed Contradiction, you might also like Tender Loving Care. It is not as good of a game as Contradiction, but it is fun to watch them play through it.

I'm not sure out of all of these, which ones are a must watch. I just really enjoyed their PlayDates. Also that year I think they hit it out of the park with Life is Strange, Until Dawn, and Contradiction all back-to-back.

I've watched all of them and had fun for the most part.

@clagnaught: Ah I'd forgotten about Tender loving care! I'd planned on watching that, thanks for reminding me. I'll check out an episode of the XCOM one and see how I like it. There's a lot of content! :D

Rather than watch any of them (though they're fine I guess), I recommend watching the June 30 Megadate with special guest Mary Kish. All 3+ hours are gold, but the 45 minutes in the middle where she plays PUBG is pure gold.

https://www.giantbomb.com/videos/gbe-megadate-06302017/2300-12359/

I watch all of them just for the banter. The murdering is secondary.

The Bioforge playthrough is one of the funniest things on the site. It's peak Vinny chaos/hilarity, and there's some great banter from Danny O'Dwyer and Drew. Patrick is great as their spirit guide reading from an amazing FAQ/walkthrough as well, and tracks down the producer after the playthrough for a neat interview.

I've enjoyed the Exquisite Corps so far. The production value has been some of GB's best work with some hilarious intros, and knowing nothing about XCOM going into it, I've still had fun watching the Beast crew's different playstyles and successes/failures. Now, I might kinda like XCOM.

*leaves to go watch Bioforge again*

@fezrock: @notnert427: Thanks, I'll check them out!

I would, but I skip through from after the match to when they start diving down.

If you are watching through all of those in sequence it does add up lol. There are def some gems in most any vid though. Only one I skipped cause I didn't like the person broadcasting it [which I won't say who out of politeness].

Watch the first 3 or 4 episodes and then stop. It was the most fun in the beginning and had more crazy/intense moments when everyone was new to the game, including the competing players, and they were still trying to figure out how the game worked.

The shed moment is still the best/most intense/most fun moment of the entire feature and I don't think it will be topped. At least not for me since I have already lost a lot of interest in this feature.