TotalBiscuit's Q&A - GameVid Expo 2014 (really great)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHbQyalxWzs

I'm not into his content, he doesn't really play anything I care about, but I thought this was really great and interesting. He reminds of off Jeff's stance on a lot of the topics brought up such as Early Access, Steam and Kickstarter. Good faster speaker any ways and it isn't cringe worthy like these sort of things usually are.

I don't think I've ever seen a solo Q&A in this kind of venue before. It's pretty astonishing how calm he is.

edit: I actually watched the whole thing. Didn't plan to. I don't watch any of his videos except for a few "big" ones here and there, but the dude really knows his shit, and he has some really interesting things to say here.

Whether you like him or not, the guy at least knows what he's talking about, or can at least sound coherent. I do like his videos because he does some homework beforehand, and they are informative unlike most youtube video game dudes which are usually some asshat talking poorly into a microphone; and half the time in German.

Oh man, living outside of the UK is really taking a toll on his accent.

He seems fine in this, i've definitely warmed up to TotalBiscuit after he made the video explaining shutting down the comments and all that. I can appreciate a guy who has a bit of humility (which TB seemed soooooorely lacking in for a long time). It's a shame he still has totally crazy opinions like "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is the future of videogaming storytelling" or "FPS has gone backwards as a genre because now they establish the world before they start the gameplay".

I like Totalbiscuit, kind of in the same ways I enjoy watchin/listening to Giant Bomb. He talks alot, sure, but it doesn't matter when you have a lot of sensible things to say. He possess a down-to-earthness that the giant bomb crew have as well, which I feel is genrally pretty rare among internet personalities.

Yea, if I'm looking for PC gameplay, I generally look for his WTF... vids. First one I'd watched was for the Warhammer 40K Space Marines game, which he just got super giddy while discussing it. He's got a great commentary voice and, like @vuud mentions, does a bit of background checking on the games and usually plays them for a good amount of time before making a video of them. That's a great Q&A video, btw.

@lackingsaint: Except, FPS games have gone backwards. Something like Far Cry 3 and Titanfall get so much praise because it goes back to the days of complete lunacy.

And I hope to God Brother's is the future game story telling. If VR is really the future, story telling like Brother's, integrated very heavily into the mechanics, will be the future of story telling in games. Not sitting there and watching cutscenes.

I don't think that FPS games have gone backwards overall, but the majority of shooter output these days isn't very interesting. We're never going to get something that tries to be like Doom - explore and open up a level, find secrets, 90MPH movement speed, shotguns that are actually fucking useful, etc. - which is really sad. But then, I'd love to see more games in general that build a world around gameplay instead of gameplay around a world.

On topic, (and to everyone in general, not lackingsaint) I tend to agree with Totalbiscuit on a lot of things so I'll probably watch this someday. At the very least, the man has a clear and confident idea of what he wants to say as well as a high bar for what he thinks is quality content. You might not agree with him, but we could definitely use a lot more people that combine his dedication with his clarity and quality.

TotalBiscuit is a genuinely good guy. Lots of people like to hate on him because of his popularity, but if you get a chance to take part in a discussion he is part of (I have a couple times on another forum), you will find that he is totally reasonable and quite knowledgeable about games. If he has an opinion on something he will always explain why if you ask and help you understand his view. He has an SC2 team, and when people question things involving it he will always take the time to personally respond and explain the logic behind a given decision (It is quite obvious he takes this very seriously). He made some incredibly well-thought posts on Team Liquid a little bit back with regards to the SC2 tournament scene a while back.

Also, he has (don't know if he still does) posted on GB before. He used to post in the SC2 section back when SC2 first came out. He was great there too.

I find him to be patronizing and insufferable.

This is actually pretty cool. Some of the questions are kind of a waste of time, especially since he answered them before, but others were really damn good questions.

@believer258 said:

Uh, that's a really insanely broad statement that's pretty much invalid. The last three FPS games I played were Metro: Last Light, Dishonoured and BioShock: Infinite. Sure, Dishonoured is more of a Stealth-FPS, but all three of those games include exploring to find secrets and useful shotguns (maybe you just don't think shotguns are useful because you don't happen to use them? Because I use a shotgun in basically every modern FPS I play). Then you have fast-paced games like TitanFall, Hard Reset, the Serious Sam games, the Painkiller games, the new Rise Of The Triad, there are still a LOT of games that use those elements you're talking about. There are dozens of games getting put out there every day, claiming we're never going to get those elements in a game against seems weird to me (especially when, as i've stated, there's still plenty of examples of games that use them).

@cinnase7en: Sucks for me I guess because I much prefer the slow-paced, atmospheric FPS's of today than the tedious, "where do I need to go where's the secret door where's the key everything looks the same here" games of old. I guess i'm to blame for one of my favourite genres of game "going backwards".

All i'll say as far as Brothers goes is that it really doesn't seem that special. I enjoyed it, but It has like one or two sequences that make the gameplay interaction with the plot meaningful. The rest of it is just the same overblown "shimmy sideways until there's room" platforming that's been in hundreds of games, with plenty of "hey just put the controller down and watch this thing happen" scenes. It saddens me that the ribbon of "gameplay mechanics causing you to really internalize the story" of 2013 was for some reason given to Brothers and not to Papers Please, which actually makes you feel the moral weight and stress of your actions.

You can also embed videos...

I should clarify, as I wrote that in a hurry.

I do like modern shooters, but there's a certain element and a certain style of fun that none of them have captured since they started to slow down and focus on on realism and atmosphere. I'll admit that some of Doom's levels are obnoxiously designed, but when they're well-designed (which is most of Doom 1), then they naturally open up the more you explore and find keycards and come across the right switches. Few good modern shooters even aim for something like that, and I haven't come across any that actually succeed.

As far as combat goes, again, most are concerned with realism and atmosphere. This is fine, this can be fun. I thought Bioshock Infinite was fantastic, for instance. But shooters have almost universally slowed down. Rise of the Triad might be the exception, but I haven't played that game because a) it was super buggy upon release and b) its later levels, from what I've heard, falter pretty badly. Painkiller and Serious Sam have fast movement, but both focus so much on holding down the left mouse button to murder things that they lose some nuance. I have several issues with Hard Reset, but chief among them is the slow movement speed which, when coupled with the dumb weapon system, makes for an un-fun time.

There's not much to say on the shotgun front, but none of them have had quite the same kick that Doom or Half-Life did.

First person shooters have, for me, become more about the spectacle, atmosphere, and story than any sort of well-designed, varied combat encounters or interesting levels or fun gameplay. I have thoroughly enjoyed some of these games, but they don't capture the same thing. They're not engaging more than once or twice. They don't expand their levels much, they rely on regenerating health and two weapon limits as a crutch for badly balanced enemies (side note: Halo has, in most cases, proven that this can actually be good design and not just a crutch), and so on and so forth.