I don't really associate LGR with video games. I mean, I know he got his start with video games, but it seems like most of his videos these days are about weird old computer junk that I actually have no interest in, except the dude has a chill enthusiasm about everything that makes anything he talks about interesting. He has an alternate channel called LGR foods, where he does cooking stuff! It's not updated that often and there are a lot of sandwiches.
While we're talking about LGR, The 8-Bit Guy does a lot of similar stuff except while LGR does mostly late 80's, early 90's computers, The 8-Bit Guy mostly goes through late 70's, early 80's computers, and does sometimes show the video games you can play on them but doesn't really focus on gaming.
There are a lot of channels I jump back and forth between. I do not watch all of these channels all of the time, but I usually let them play while doing chores around the house, working from home, chilling out right before bed, etc... they are both my junk TV and my background noise.
Kikoskia - Let's Player, lots of old RPGs and such but he kinda plays anything. His speech is 99% family friendly, although the games he plays aren't always.
Gopher - Again, lots of Let's Plays, mostly of first-person games like Fallout, Prey, more Skyrim videos than anyone should ever have, etc. Has an alternate channel archiving largely unedited livestreamed footage where I watched him play a lot of The Forest.
MandaloreGaming - Mostly pretty in-depth reviews of PC-centric titles. Not always the kinds of games I want to play, but interesting nonetheless.
Raycevick - Very much the kinds of games I like to play. Does some pretty in-depth criticism of what a game does right and wrong.
Errant Signal - This guy's discussion comes across as much more academic than anything else I'm posting here. It's less "this mechanic works well, this one doesn't, this story beat makes sense" and more spending time analyzing a game's themes and such. I wish he posted more often, but this stuff takes time. We need way more people like this guy.
Civvie11 - I don't know exactly what to call what this guy does. He doesn't really review games, necessarily, although you do know his thoughts on whatever he's playing by the end. He mostly just talks about his experiences with them, except with a humorous bent to them. Also easily the most foul-mouthed of what I've posted.
TheWarOwl - Almost always does videos about Counter-Strike Global Offensive. It's insane how you can make an entire living off of producing ten to twenty minute videos about one game, a game that's essentially an iteration of something that originally came out twenty years ago. Anyway, yeah, his stuff is pretty interesting and he's usually funny. Sometimes annoying, but usually funny.
MacieJay - I used to play a lot of Siege and I spent a lot of time watching some people play Siege. MacieJay has a lot of really great plays all over the place and watching him play is usually a treat. He's also nowhere near as toxic as a lot of streamers, which really helps, though he still has moments where he's kinda angry or a bit of a smartass.
KliksPhilip/2KliksPhilip/3KliksPhilip - One guy with three different channels, each with a different purpose. The first seems to be just whatever he's thinking about at the moment, the second is about games he's made, games he thinks are interesting, or just whatever gaming related subject he feels like talking about, and the third is about CS:GO.
Recently, I've watched some of NeverKnowsBest's in-depth reviews of CRPGs and I've looked around at some of CohhCarnage's stuff, both of which are pretty interesting and both of which seem to largely, though not entirely, avoid harsh language. There's also a channel called MikeBurnFire - I haven't actually seen many of their full videos, but both of the guys who play games for that channel were in US military branches and they have a lot of stories to tell about how incompetent, stupid, and infuriating their time in the military was and it's way more entertaining than it should be. I'm not necessarily sure where the truth ends and the exaggeration begins, but it's still entertaining.
Errant Signal is my fave, as mentioned above I wish he was able to publish more but he clearly takes a lot of care into his analyses, and makes me think about games in new ways.
People Make Games is good for documentaries about various aspects of video games, from an interview with Blitzchung early this year to a silly investigation into where a golden Wii that was supposedly given to the Queen was now.
I spend so much time watching YouTube lol. I have it on in the background while I'm working so basically the whole day. I follow tons of channels, lots of them gaming related. Some great ones have already been mentioned above but just including the links here at the top:
People Make Games - Great videos on great topics made by the nicest people.
Cloth Map - RIP Cloth Map so no new stuff but I go back occasionally to rewatch the videos.
Here are some of my other favourite gaming related ones in no particular order. There a couple more I follow for very specific games and topics but these I would recommend to everyone:
GameXplain - Where I get all my news and info about Nintendo games and Switch related stuff.
Highlight Reel - "Best recent clips from around the gaming world." Formally on Kotaku but since Chris was laid off he is now running it as an independent channel.
Archipel - Channel creating documentaries about Japanese artists, including concept artists, composers and video game creators. They also made a fantastic documentary on the Dreamcast. (closed captions support English).
Grimbeard is little known and highly recommended. He covers horror games and PC gaming ephemera. All his videos are impeccably edited and funny as hell. He's really come into his own in the last year or so as well.
Keep in mind that I find the typical Youtube approach to video games incredibly unappealing, so I really don't think of Youtube as a primary source for game information, but I also already have enough content from Giant Bomb and other podcasts I like (Besties, How Did This Get Played?, Triple Click) that I'm not necessarily seeking out more level-headed commentary, either. That said, I have gotten into a few channels over the years due to their unique takes:
Action Button: When Tim Rogers left Kotaku, I was devastated. I hadn't been a fan before but I began constantly seeking out clues as to what he was going to do next. When it became clear he was going to bring his bizarre fusion of personal storytelling, incredibly singular sense of humor and in-depth game critique to Youtube, I grinned a little. But nothing could have prepared me for interpretations of The Last of Us through the lens of Cormac McCarthy, half-hour analyses of the political climate around DOOM in the wake of Columbine, insane minutia like the following image, which eventually leads to a pie-chart of all types of "gaming" you engage in while playing FFVII Remake:
It's a shame there's only been three reviews so far this year due to a variety of complicating factors in his life, but now that he finally seems to be in a stable living situation the sky is the limit for this channel. Of all the "new hire" jokes I've made over the years, Tim was the least tongue in cheek. Turns out, much like DOOM, his work both speaks for itself and is bigger than itself. His independence will be his glistening crown.
Girlfriend Reviews: This channel flitted in and out of my algorithm for the past year and I always assumed it was some incredibly corny Youtubery waste of time that either trafficked in pandering to incels or was just a goof on girls as game players generally. Turns out, it's a channel I wish had existed when I was last in a long-term relationship with a girl who hadn't played video games beyond a couple random excursions through 1:1 at her cousin's house three decades ago but was interested in my interest in the hobby. The idea of reviewing games from the perspective of not playing them, but living with someone who both does and is very good at them, is such a refreshing perspective to me and leads to some truly interesting takes on some games I'd have otherwise never considered. It helps that Matt and Shelby are supremely funny, charming, delightful people.
It's a shame that they've taken the stance they'd rather not archive or even craft highlight reels of the long-plays they do on Twitch while playing the game and capturing footage because what really put me over the moon with these two was watching their sessions with The Last of Us Part II over a weekend after seeing several recommendations point towards their discussion of the game's ending and overall themes. Spending nearly 40 hours with those two as they flinched, hedged, swooned, battled with their own chat, fell in love with certain characters and out of love with others might have been my favorite gaming experience of 2020 but was also perhaps the most vital and nuanced dialogue concerning that game during its most heated period. I understand they have a reticence to hold their unedited, unscripted content to the fire and watch it slowly burn away rather than have something they said off the cuff be used as a weapon against them 10 years from now, but these two are really onto something.
Noclip: Most fans of GB know what this is so I won't go into quite as much detail here, and honestly I haven't been as interested in the games he's been covering short-form this year so I've fallen away from Danny a bit. But aside from the FF XIV documentary, which suffered from being a bit too dry and stale for my taste, this channel is full of bangers, whether that be the classic story of how DOOM 2016 overcame incredible odds to become one of the best shooters ever made, or the unprecedented (outside more in-house productions like the Double Fine documentary) level of access they got to CD Projekt Red and The Witcher series, Danny always finds such a powerful balance between casual and hardcore and marries it to pretty remarkable levels of candidness from the generally shadowy makers of video games that there really isn't anything else like what he's doing out there. Which is an ongoing theme with these three channels, really.
Those are the big three for me, though I do have some other shoutouts. a Pat Gill or BDG video on Polygon is a must-watch 99% of the time, to the point when another personality on that site presents a unique question or argument but then I click the video only to realize it won't be made presented by either of them, I have a hard time getting through the video. Those two are natural entertainers. I also follow the MinnMaxShow channel of former Game Informer editors, but I really only watch their content if I can think of absolutely nothing else to watch. I like those guys fine enough but there's just a little too much community engagement for my liking, which I get is totally a me thing. If they kept the audience interjections to a single portion of their broadcasts I'd probably watch their channel more frequently, but as I said at the top I already have five gaming pods I listen to that are fairly journalistic in nature so finding room for these guys isn't a strong goal of mine.
I look in on Boundary Break sometimes and find that a fun lark. I only have use for the Let's Talk Lore season dedicated to Bloodborne on Aegon of Astora's channel, but if you've got something like 40 hours to devote to one man's quest to host a full playthrough of Bloodborne while excavating every minute detail of the game's setting and plot from its items, environments, boss design and influences this is the series that cemented in me that while I will probably never beat Bloodborne, I can confidently say it's one of the five or ten most impressive artistic accomplishments I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I'll watch Digital Foundry sometimes just to remember why I will never be interested in PC gaming, Dan Ryckert if I need to shut my brain so off that I may as well have entered a coma, and Giant Bomb if I happen to be on Youtube rather than the main site and see something I don't mind not watching in window mode (my primary reason for preferring the native player to Youtube is this feature Youtube likely has buried somewhere as well).
Anyway, you can probably see why I like Tim Rogers' verbosity so much if you've made it this far! Let me surprise you then and say that while I can glean some interesting takes from a Noah Caldwell-Gervais or Joseph Anderson video from time to time, I'd say it's a spectacularly bold choice to make videos longer than The Godfather Part II that contain zero humor or personality. I can watch an Action Button video in a single sitting, but need to break their critiques up across sometimes as long as an entire month, to the point I'm never entirely sure why I bother.
Let's Game it Out - taking crafting/open-world games way too far in directions they were never meant to go. I recommend the Satisfactory ones. He's pretty funny, too.
Lance McDonald - deeeeeeep exploration into the hidden code of games like P.T. and the Souls series. He manually hacks together his own code into console-only games. He's extremely talented and has found stuff no one else has discovered.
Those are my 2 big go-tos if I'm looking for a ~20-minute video to pass the time.
Also Polygon and any new McElroy Brothers video if they aren't forcing the laughs too hard. Honestly getting a bit tired of their gimmick, especially with them making more than a couple questionable decisions over the years. They're not Palmer Luckey bad or anything, but I think these dudes should focus on what they're good at. They've been stretched real thin with like a dozen concurrent ideas and mediums for a couple years now so I guess we'll see where their stuff is at in a few more years if/when they've figured it out.
Has anyone mentioned Noah Caldwell-Gervais? He post massive, massive thematic dissections of games of all kinds on his channel, usually about an hour but sometimes up to 3 hours long. He takes it pretty raw, only doing one take and minimal editing on his recordings, but he is the single most eloquent video games talking-abouter I've ever heard. Some highlights:
Wolfenstein: Youngblood and how it holds up compared to the previous entires in the new saga, encompassing both the direction the story is going and its experience as a multiplayer-focused RPG-lite.
A two-hour long road trip video that functions both as an American history lesson and also a restrospective on Fallout: New Vegas. Honestly this one is just so fascinating I watched it all in one sitting.
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