Which endurance run* should I rewatch?

A few months ago I randomly started to watch old Playdates like Life is Strange and Until Dawn. Both were fun to revisit, but I really the Life is Strange Playdate. That was one of the big moments where the GBeast started to come together for me.

I've been meaning to rewatch Contradiction also, sort of for the exact same reason, so I guess I also kind of vote for that.

Contra: Hard Corps.

Or Contradicition or the MGS games. Hard to choose one for MGS since they all have something unique to offer with discussions. The first is fun because you get to see Dan and Drew slowly develop a friendship, but they really hit some boss fight walls.

Shenmue is easily the best Endurance Run.

If you've never watched any endurance runs, I think Contradiction makes sense to start with, since it's fairly short and is a game they all enjoy throughout, all the longer ones have extended periods where they don't seem to enjoy what they're doing. Still enjoyable to watch of course, but still.

Edit: sorry, missed the re- in rewatch.

Contradiction is short enough to binge. MGS works well but only if you can tolerate Dan's Dan-ness for a lot of hours.

Persona 4 is the winner in my heart though.

I voted Contradiction. It's very good and pretty short. Persona 4 is probably my favourite, but it's super long. A real time commitment. If you happen to have literally over 100 hours to devote to watching a video series in the near future then you should go for it, otherwise maybe hold off.

Murder Grenade Scanlon. Seriously, count the grenades.

Well I started with Metal Gear Scanlon, and I think that was the right choice for me right now. I really like wintry stuff in the winter time, and Shadow Moses Island seems pretty darn cold! I’m glad I saw some folks saying Contradiction because that one was super fun! Austin, Vinny, and Alex were a top-notch trio! I think that’s the one I’ll do after MGScanlon… god I wish they could get Drew back long enough for a Death Scanlon run :/

P4 is my favorite but Shenmue might be second. It's so good and I think very underrated. When the game really gets to them it gets incredible.

Also have to say the Phantasmagoria playthroughs are both pretty underrated. Really fun to watch them play those odd games. Also the Bioforge playthrough is really funny.

@stephen_von_cloud: I forgot about phantasmagoria! Any time Vinny’s there for an FMV adventure game it’s pure gold…

Until Dawn is also a good one.

Deadly Premonition is the best, followed closely by Contradiction. They both have the best pace and a manageable length, and murder mystery plots make for the best endurance runs. Persona 4 was good to watch the first time, but the grinding episodes make it a harder rewatch.

Also Bioforge is one of their best endurance runs even if it isn't labelled as such.

There is no VR Deadly Premonition? There's a BR and a VJ.

I've watched the Vinny Jeff one maybe 3 times now, idk why just something about the chemistry they had at that time that really entertains me...'this time on shooting fences'

@sarcasticmudcrab: typo, supposed to say BR, must have been autocorrected…

VJ Deadly Premonition if that was an option. From the list, Persona 4.

Bioforge!

I just recently watched Persona 4. Some of the jokes they make neither Jeff nor Vinny would endorse in 2019.

I would say it depends on your taste in games/host sense of humor. But I will say watching the first 3-4 eps of Beast in the East is what finally convinced me to get a ps4 and get into the Yakuza series which I now love with great passion...

But also Contradiction is relatively short and hilarious, and that other terrible FMV game - the one with the crazy? psychologist and the couple with the tragic and weird backstory... [edit - Tender Loving Care was the name of the crazy FMV game]

Life is Strange was really good, but I would say only if you enjoyed the game itself- if you don't/don't think you would like the game it would just frustrate

@candivore: this was something I was a little bit worried about… so far there’s been some interesting irony in terms of what Dan and Drew have said in MGScanlon1, but nothing that’s made me upset with either of them. It’s also a smaller gap, which affects things…

@candivore Like what?

O, just stuff about politics mostly, but also video ideas that never came about, and the usual Dan-isms.

If you mean what it affects? I think the longer the gap between a piece of media and when you watch it, the more likely it is to contain stuff that would be looked at differently from a contemporary lens.

Either way, Metal Gear Scanlon was a great choice, I’ve already gotten to the final episode… so I’m not sure if I’m gonna go with 2 next or follow one of the suggestions in this thread…

Stand by my opinion that persona 4 ER is the best content they have ever produced. Yes its 100 hours, but it's an incredible 100 hours with Vinny, Jeff and the greatest game ever made.

P4ER all the way

@alias: There were jokes here and there that I don't think they'd make today, but what really stood out were a few sexually explicit comments about underage characters that I found particularly distasteful.

Persona 4 all the way. Not just for the game. It's a weird time capsule of what GB and society was like back then. One example is at the start they ask Ryan to look things up for them on the computer (because they didn't have smart phones) until one episode Jeff mentions he can look things up on his iPhone now. There's also lots of little bits of GB history throughout the series like the drama behind nearly losing the 50th episode and all this other stuff that didn't really happen in the other endurance runs.

Contradiction's also a lot of fun but is much shorter. MGS is fun but can be a bit tedious at times, especially some of the boss fights and stuff like that. Deadly Premonition is okay, but I'd watch the Vinny/Jeff one of that. I fell off the Chrono Trigger one pretty hard. Honourable mention goes to Beast in the East, which is basically an endurance run, and a video series I liked a lot. I hope they do another Yakuza series like that in the future. Mass Alex is pretty good too.

Contradiction is real fun and asks a lot less investment than Persona 4 although the highs of the latter is definitely higher than the former.

May I recommend Shenmue? Really holds up on rewatch IMO, rewatch it myself periodically. The Persona 4 ER is nice, but the time investment combined with the dated production values makes that one tougher to go back to.

The Shenmue ER is easily one of my favorite things on this site. Few things come close Vinny's "Fireboylt" bit, but the whole series is full of GB gold.

I think I’m gonna move onto Shenmue next. I’m about halfway through Metal Gear Scanlon 4 so I’m a bit more than halfway done on the whole thing.

One of the best bits of conversation in giant bomb history came when Dan said “Metal Gear Solid ends with the letter D” and Drew hits back with “Spoilers!”

Good times ~[^]_[^]~

Persona 4 ER is overrated. Yeah I fucking said it. It starts super strong but peters out in the middle.

Contradiction all the way

I appreciate the asterisk; for me an Endurance Run isn't defined by playing through a whole game but through playing every day, hence the endurance. You play until it's done.

@eccentrix: yeah I know why they don’t use the ER term all that often anymore because the expectation of that much video content, a whole bunch of weekdays in a row, and not only for premium members just doesn’t make sense for their business model. But premium members know what series like Vinnyvania and Blue Bombin’ are really all about…

@dudeglove: He really was a virtuoso with those grenades, seriously impressed at times.

I’m glad I picked Metal Gear Danlon :’(