What is Ryan's forte?

I was watching the Lantern Run, when I started to think about which games did the GB crew excel at. During the years we have read/heard/watch these dudes, we can say, with some accuracy, which games they got pretty good at.

Brad got pretty good at Starcraft. I believe he also got fairly good at Super Meat Boy and, in the past, at Doom / Quake games. Both him and Jeff are quite good at fighting games (ones more than others). Jeff, we could say he got good at games like Trackmania, Borderlands, Burnout Paradise. Vinny we could say games like Dragon Age or The Witcher. Even other dudes from the WM we could pinpoint something (Dave, classical RPGs ; Norm, Starcraft ; Will, TF2, I think ; Drew, Halo ; Rorie, WoW).

But, Ryan, I don't think I ever got the idea that he really got good at any particular game. The only one that popped in my mind was Assassin's Creed, but even that I think he never got really good at it. To be great at a certain game, high number of hours played is required. Brad has played countless hours of Starcraft, Jeff played more than 100h of Paradise, for example. But, I've never heard Ryan talk about a game he sunk all those hours.

So, do you guys know which games Ryan is pretty good at? Maybe, he isn't good at any game. Or maybe, he doesn't like to talk about it.

He's really into pokemon, it's his secret shame.

Yeah... I don't associate Ryan with any game...

Eroge.

Ryan is a jack-of-all-trades perhaps? Now that you mention it, I can't remember anything Ryan sunk that much time into.

EDIT 100th post - <(^^<) yay (>^^)>

Ryan was in to Alan Wake a whole bunch but that's all I could think of.

Assassins Creed he really likes those games, also Kinect games.

Civ 5

Civ 5

Ryan hates videogames, the truth is now out there.

Kinect games

Ryan's work as an editor has taken a backseat to his work as a host. He is the designated host for any Whiskey event.

Jeff gets the more standard shooters, sim racing and all fighting games. Brad gets any game that has an 'artistic' bent to it, I think half because Jeff's colorblindness hampers his abilities to appreciate graphical art, and half because Jeff hates that shit if it overrides gameplay. Ryan appears to get more of the third person action games (he reviewed Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, God of War 3 and Brotherhood last year) and arcade titles.

@Management said:

@Icicle7x3 said:

Civ 5

Definitely

Well, he reviewed the game, which surely must have taken a lot of hours, but did he continue to play it a lot after reviewing it? I don't think so. That way, we can't say he got very good at it. Same deal goes to the Assassin's Creed games or Alan Wake.

@Brodehouse said:

Ryan's work as an editor has taken a backseat to his work as a host. He is the designated host for any Whiskey event.

Last 15 reviews: Jeff - 3 ; Brad - 3 ; Ryan - 3 ; Alex - 3 ; Patrick - 2 ; Matt - 1

Action Adventure

You know those mixed bags that reviewers are always talking about? Well, Ryan literally has a bag full of mixed genres and he's mastered all of them. And that's the story of where that term came from. He should really organize his games better.

Yeah..Ryan's real passion are shitty video game movies, he actually hates video games and is trying to get into the movie industry through journalism.

FUCK THAT GUY!

@DjCmeP: mystery solved. case closed.

He's a really strong frontman.

He played Kinect so hard he nearly died.  Have the others played a game so hard that they nearly died? Didn't think so.

Ryan isn't a competitive/multiplayer guy, so he doesn't really have "a game" in the same sense as NFL Blitz, Starcraft, Halo, or TF2 are for some of the staff. That said, Ryan seems to like adventure games and platformers (Super Mario 3 being one of his all time favourite games IIRC. He also seems to go for arcade-y experiences (Music games, Xbox Live Arcade stuff). I get the impression that, to some extent, Ryan values variety a fair bit more than the other guys. I don't think Ryan could play any game for as long as Vinny could an RPG, or Brad could Starcraft. I think this is partly the reason for his aversion to JRPG games and stuff like Demons/Dark souls; a large time commitment without much mechanical variety.

There is also the possibility that what I just wrote is bollocks, but whatever.

Ryan likes to watch.

I don't think all the games you mentioned the guys are especially good at. Like I don't think Jeff was "good" at Borderlands, he just put a lot of time into it.

@DonutFever said:

I don't think all the games you mentioned the guys are especially good at. Like I don't think Jeff was "good" at Borderlands, he just put a lot of time into it.

If playing over 80h of Borderlands don't make you good at it, I don't know what does.

Ryan enjoys games that are unique experiences that do not test any facet of gaming skill, preferring the 'experience' and while he sees and experiences the joy of multiplayer strictly with people he knows, he doesn't trust the internet society to deliver him the gameplay experience he will enjoy (perfectly acceptable stance). At the same time he is a vocal dickish character against (almost) any non-mainstream game that doesn't fit that mold. It's a perfectly acceptable stance to take, which makes him an enjoyable character whether you agree or disagree with his viewpoints on the subject, and is very easy to relate and not relate to many netizens for those precise reasons.

I see Ryan as the main front man but if I had to pick a game, he's the bees knees at Wipe Out on the Wii.

He his a master at RapeLay and Battle Raper.

Some weird responses in here.

Breakfast burritos.

I think he likes games in the action adventure genre.

Hosting stuff.

@owl_of_minerva said:

Ryan likes to watch.

...tell me more.

He played the shit out of LA Noire. But so did everyone else.

@makari: I'm going to have to disagree a little bit here simply because of his experience with the League of Legends community. I've never really heard him vocally against online communities.

He plays all the crap games

I second Ryan's love of action/adventure titles. He seems to enjoy short, linear game design which usually means single-player. On the Bombcast he has mentioned several times that he comes from the arcade experience, meaning the idea of sinking tons of time into any one game over time was a weird experience for him. Also, Kirby's Epic Yard. Ryan's true GOTY 2010.

Pretty sure he loves the new Fallout games...

I would actually say that it's pretty unusual for somebody to play many games but basically never really get into one single game. No gaming folks I know are like that, they all have or had their go-to games. 
If you are that person to begin with, the downside of covering video games is not that big, I guess.

@Ewy said:

Ryan isn't a competitive/multiplayer guy, so he doesn't really have "a game" in the same sense as NFL Blitz, Starcraft, Halo, or TF2 are for some of the staff. That said, Ryan seems to like adventure games and platformers (Super Mario 3 being one of his all time favourite games IIRC. He also seems to go for arcade-y experiences (Music games, Xbox Live Arcade stuff). I get the impression that, to some extent, Ryan values variety a fair bit more than the other guys. I don't think Ryan could play any game for as long as Vinny could an RPG, or Brad could Starcraft. I think this is partly the reason for his aversion to JRPG games and stuff like Demons/Dark souls; a large time commitment without much mechanical variety.

There is also the possibility that what I just wrote is bollocks, but whatever.

OH! Winner, yeah, this post has the most sense.

Ryan's just a cool dude. (and Kessler's dad)

@Sweep said:

@owl_of_minerva said:

Ryan likes to watch.

...tell me more.

He needs this.

@Jimbo said:

He played Kinect so hard he nearly died. Have the others played a game so hard that they nearly died? Didn't think so.

"Rider meet horse, horse meet rider" comes to mind

@Matthew said:

Pretty sure he loves the new Fallout games...

Yea, he talked about playing most of the DLC for New Vegas on one of the Bombcasts a while ago. I don't know if you would call it a "forte" but he generally seemed to enjoy them.

Ryan generally enjoys a wealth of short, singleplayer experiences (Assassin's Creed for example). He also loves silly bite-sized arcade experiences.

He'd rather see 100 tiny games from 100 different developers than a single long series from a single developer.

He also hates most things 'competition.'

Yeah, I've always gotten the impression that Ryan has a play style similar to myself: Lots of different genres, very adaptable (he usually kills it on multiplayer Quick Looks), not too keen on online multiplayer against randoms or spending too long on one game. Just an impression though. He has way more tolerance for racing games than I do.

I think Vinny's the same way, it's just we hear more of his JRPG/CRPG misadventures because they take so much longer to get through.

Ryan Davis is the D&D Bard of Giant Bomb with his Jack of all trades, master of none approach. He can also cast illusion spells on occasion.

ryans forte is making kinect games not work and almost dying.

Ryan Davis fucking kills at Uno.

Games? He writes for this little niche site called GiantBomb where he plays games and tells other people on the intern-et what his thoughts are about said games.

@Ewy said:

Ryan isn't a competitive/multiplayer guy, so he doesn't really have "a game" in the same sense as NFL Blitz, Starcraft, Halo, or TF2 are for some of the staff. That said, Ryan seems to like adventure games and platformers (Super Mario 3 being one of his all time favourite games IIRC. He also seems to go for arcade-y experiences (Music games, Xbox Live Arcade stuff). I get the impression that, to some extent, Ryan values variety a fair bit more than the other guys. I don't think Ryan could play any game for as long as Vinny could an RPG, or Brad could Starcraft. I think this is partly the reason for his aversion to JRPG games and stuff like Demons/Dark souls; a large time commitment without much mechanical variety.

There is also the possibility that what I just wrote is bollocks, but whatever.

I think that's right on the money, TBH.

I think he just doesn't stick with any game long enough for it to be considered a "thing". He plays through a game's main story/campaign/arc, maybe plays a little multiplayer, then moves on, like most people. I will say he does seem to be the biggest fan of the Rock Band games, out of the GB guys.

- Scott