Video Essay: A Story About My Uncle

loved this!

I dug this a lot.

I think playing these types of videos completely straight would work fine, Patrick. However, if you want to add a little humor, I think "in-game" humor would be more fitting for videos like this. Physics glitches, braindead AI, etc. Just a quick cut to and from a clip of ridiculousness as you're talking about it in a larger context. I don't think it would work for you to start making jokes in the context of your larger intellectual point. Let the game make the jokes so there's less dissonance.

I think that's how X-Play used to do it. Could be remembering wrong, though.

Love the content, though. Keep it up!

Let the Patrick hate ensue, as arbitrary as it is at this point. However well done @patrickklepek It's nice to match the parallels between games like Papa & Yo. Good job Patrick, and keep producing quality content. Ignore the haters.

@generalbison said:

Oh, because the Game Grumps are totally aiming for journalistic integrity and aren't just a comedy act, right? Cmon', man. I also don't want video game sites to go anywhere, but there's plenty of good YouTube channels out there doing serious journalistic work. Game Grumps are not one of them.

Patrick, if I can be completely honest, I find myself avoiding a lot of your written work for various reasons, but this video content you have been producing has been excellent. Please keep it up!

I'm on to you Klepek! You're just trying to review a game without giving it a score! I know, scores are evil and counter to good criticism or something. :P

Anyway, great video. Keep em coming.

Why call it a Video Essay? This just felt like a video review without a score. To me a video essay would be using themes of the game to jump off into a larger point. Or maybe I'm just crazy and missing something here. Other than that I thought it was a interesting piece of content with the exception of that bionic commando part, it just seemed a sort of out of place way to say grappling hooks are cool.

Nicely done, P-Klep. Your voice works fantastically for this kind of narration, soothing and smooth, but not sleep inducing. Keep bringing it Scoops, nice to hear your opinions int his format.

I enjoyed this feature.

Hi @patrickklepek! I really enjoy your writing and these new video features. This one was pretty good, but I felt it was a bit too experimental. I thought the voice distortion and song drop distracted too much from the point you were making. Like some others have said, it kind of felt like a video review without a score, though that's not a bad thing... Not trying to critique too much because I love the fact that you're trying these new things! Keep it up man, I enjoy your work!

This would be a video review if it ended with a score, not a bad thing just an observation. Keep em' coming.

The video seems kind of disjointed and I am not sure what the point was. The comedy segments didn't work and clashed with the overall tone of the video. You should either go one way or the other with this kind of thing, serious or silly. I think it might serve better as a video review, unless there is a specific topic to talk about which you didn't really have.

I thought the Xbox video was far more successful than this.

Ummmm. So video reviews are back? This felt very similar to some oldschool Giantbomb video reviews (this isn't a bad thing, I loved those review videos).

Thanks for the scoreless video review, I guess. What do you guys do all day?

I love to see stuff like this, good on you Patrick. I love short bits of opinion pretty much more than anything, and you provide it well!

I know you'll get better at the editing part, and I can't wait to see where this kind of thing goes, but next time make sure you end the video with the end of the music you're playing! There's no conclusion, and it just stops!

This could have been served well by tighter editing, but great piece Patrick. Always thought this style of video would be a great fit for you!

@generalbison: Excellent point.

Neat!

Great work on this Patrick, really loved it. Keep 'em coming!

Oh wow, Patrick, this is fantastic. Please do more of these.

Cool thing, seemed like a more personal take on a video review (which I'm completely fine with). Hopefully expanding the staff will allow more of these sorts of features to appear, as long as you guys can justify the workload.

The more of these you do, the better they'll get, so keep at it!

My takeaway from all of this is that Capcom should rip off the swinging mechanics from Bionic Commando '09 and put them in a completely different game.

Somebody certainly should. The next Assassin's Creed game; now featuring hot grapplehooking!

(Not a euphamism)

Wow, keep that Bionic commando dude away from the site, whoever he is, he seems insane!

This is a really awesome way to take a quick-er more personal look at emotionally/mechanically based games. More please.

Patrick, I like the idea behind these kind of "deeper than Quick Look" videos, but I think there was an inconsistency between your tone and the content of the video throughout. From the caption, I thought you were going to use the game as a jumping off point for some kind of cathartic revelation about your relationship with your family--the name of the game and the stories you've told about your relationship with your father led me to that conclusion--and when I got to the Bionic Commando part, I was a little disappointed. For 3/4 of the Bionic Commando video I thought for some reason that it was Jeff's distorted voice, and after I realized it was you, I didn't really see where the connection was to the game. I think if these video essays were to delve into deeper stuff--akin to the Depression Quest PAX panel--they would be enjoyable to watch (also if they were longer). Otherwise I like where you're going with this, and keep pumping out content! I make an effort to watch and read as much Patrick content as possible, so I'm eager for the next installment.

I hope this is the return of Video Thing, it was a feature back in 2008 and 2009, a lot of random and silly stuff.

I wouldn't sweat the people who have a problem with the editing too much. Of course there's room for improvement but for someone just getting started you're doing an admirable job. I like the format of a quick, casual but personal overview of your experience with a game, it's got potential.

Oh Patrick you don't have to feel ashamed about liking Bionic Commando.

More stuff like this please. This video managed to briefly interest me in the game and then almost immediately turn me away from playing it. That's one of the things Bionic Commando does so well. The weighty swinging feel in that game is perfect.

@patrickklepek I like the idea of these 'Video Things'. They allow you to inform us about lesser known games without having to rely on everyone reading a lengthy article on a game very few will probably know about. I didn't know this game existed, but a 5-6 minute video was easily digestible, and served the amount of curiosity I had very well. Good stuff!

I'm echoing previous users here however: I think you should play these straight. The topic seemed pretty serious, so the cut to your 'anonymous source' and the royalty free music were completely out of whack with the rest of the narrative and subject tone...However of course, if the subject matter itself is immediately much more lighthearted than this example, then by all means follow that direction. Naturally, with this being only the second video, together we'll find a format that we can all agree on and enjoy.

I also wasn't entirely sure what your conclusion was supposed to mean? It felt like a review ending of 'yeah, it's ok'...And? As opposed to presenting me with a wider point to think about, which is where I thought it was going, as you developed some personal connection to the title very early on...I was left hanging.

With those light suggestions behind us, I look forward to seeing what you tackle next, and how the video essay feature evolves. Keep at it!

EDIT: I don't agree with the chap who said you should make an assembly cut and hand it off to Vinny. Otherwise, you'll never improve your own editing skillset. Like I said, keep at it.

So 3/5 then?

Cool idea. Not so sure about that musical interlude though...

Cool feature. But I did kind of feel like a video review without a score IMO

You are correct. +2 points to Gryffindor.

The pacing felt a little off in this one, particularly the music choices/audio editing. That said I do like this series and would gladly watch more.

I loved this, but echo the statements others made about some of the pacing feeling off.

Pretty good for a semi-trained-quasi-video editor.

Patrick's voice is really calming, if that's not a super weird thing to say. I really like this feature. A Story About My Uncle seemed intriguing, but I wasn't sure how well the grappling would hold up over the course of the game.

At the risk of sounding like I'm complaining, this is a bit too much like a Video Review for me. I'd prefer if these video essays were more big picturish or beyond a traditional review. It'd really add to the value of the content too (and maybe justify the time put in more?). Anyways like that you're experimenting with content.

I think this style is a good balance between how it would be talked about during the morning show or Bombcast, a quick look, and a written review. I also really enjoy the production. It comes across that Patrick is really enjoying what he is working on while learning and playing around with the tools.

Thanks for doing this, it was awesome. I would consider this a review, because I like those critiques that imbue some personal anecdotes and feelings and how the game comes together as a whole in addition to the typical paragraphs dedicated to story/gameplay/production values/sound/flaws. Will have to check out this flawed but cool game.

Really enjoyed this style of review, Patrick. Keep it up!

Its been pointed out that it needs some work so I wont bore you with repeating what needs to be tweaked. No worries, practice makes perfect

This a good and informative format for letting people know about games that might go under most peoples radars.

Bionic Commando was pretty great, and whenever I hear people disparaging it I just keep my mouth shut and quietly wait for the next game in the grappling hook for an arm genre.

I like these kinds of videos from you Patrick, but this one felt kind of of superfluous. It was basically just a video review with a few anecdotes and opinions not pertaining to the game thrown in haphazardly. There wasn't much of a deep meaning to it or a point at which it all came together. I'm guessing that this was more of a test run for a series of these types of videos coming in the future, and if so then keep at it I'll be excited to see more!

Man, who cares about the story in Bionic Commando 09...the swinging was fan-fucking-tastic and imo is the best swinging in a video game (spider man 2 for the ps2 is up there as well)

Damn, what an underrated game

I feel like this video and his Kinect video is Patrick finally finding his own voice with Giant Bomb. Don't get me wrong, Patrick is probably the member that produces most content for GB but I have always thought of this site as a video site and these videos by Patrick are a fucking great contribution to the site's content.

Keep it up.

Way to go Patrick! I like the tone of the video more than any thing else, feels a original approach to "review" videos that usually are pretty dry in terms of tone. Can't wait to see what will come up next!

Yeah, it's a solid game with some issues, got way too much flak.

There's something about Patrick's voice in these and in the Interview Dumptruck intros that I can't stand. Canned/stilted, awkward seriousness or something