Video Essay: A Story About My Uncle

So 3/5 then?

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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)

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!

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

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

Neat!

@generalbison: Excellent point.

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!

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!

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

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).

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.

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

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!

I enjoyed this feature.

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.

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.

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.

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!

@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.

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.

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!

I dug this a lot.

loved this!

I enjoyed the video and could see where you were going with the little asides, but think you fell short a few times there (the modified voice wasn't very clear at all - subtitles next time?). Maybe you don't need them at all and can just rely on the essay portion of the video or maybe you just need more time figuring out how to marry the two together. Either way I look forward to seeing more of these.

Holy crap I think he said "A Story About My Uncle" about a bajillion times during that 6 minute video. That's all I could focus on!

This is the start of a beautiful new video series, I hope. I agree with some other comments about the editing that could be a bit tighter, but as a first(ish) attempt at this, it's truly brilliant.

Thanks @patrickklepek, you always deliver when it comes to new and fresh content, keep at it!

Sometimes you just want to fly indeed.... (boots up Saints Row IV)

This was awesome.

An interesting new format. :) Good idea, Patrick!

I love the idea, but the execution of this is maybe a bit of. I didn't feel coherent enough. But seeing as this is the first one, keep it up! I loved the essence of it, and I'm always open for some jazzy beats (which sounded like they were straight from LA Noir?).

Very cool video Patrick. Would love to see more of these in the future.

This was good, Patrick, though my critique is that I could not exactly decide what the focus of the "essay" was. At times it felt like you were reviewing the game, and at times it felt like you were trying to give a greater commentary using the game as an example. I hope to see more of these around the site, but I would suggest that you make sure you pick a focused message/idea you want to discuss and adhere to it tightly in the future.

Interesting format man, I hope the other Guys give it a try!

@patrickklepek I really enjoyed this. My only critique is the repetition of the games title throughout. I hope you get a good workflow going for stuff like this because I'm excited to see what you do next!

@vigorousjammer: I'm just comparing how they approach the same game, the objectives for both videos are to showcase the games, I could also point to Markiplier's video (the most popular A Story About My Unlcle video on YouTube) but I find his videos hard to watch. If you could recommend some good examples of good, popular YouTube journalists delivering well thought-out content I'd be happy to take it into consideration.

I feel exactly the same way about it. When you really learned the mechanics of swinging around, it was a blast to play.

Thoroughly enjoyed this video, Patrick. I wouldn't mind seeing one of these again. Great form to express your feelings in a different way.

@pyrodactyl: I was thinking the exact same thing. With added random music!

Good Video! I like floating islands. If you want me to play your game put some floating islands in there.

Great piece Patrick. Fantastic job! I loved hearing your feelings about the game. Can't wait to see more of these. Kudos to you good sir.

nit: so we're saying "undos" now? I think my English teacher would cry.

Thanks for the entertaining video! Looking forward to more in this kind of format!

I'm not sure that you really pulled off the attempts at humorous musical interludes, and to be honest I was hoping this would be more than basically a video review but thanks for informing me on this game Patrick.

I feel like this video was more about Patrick than the game...