Current or former member of Giant Bomb. I think so. It is kind of weird given that, for a lot of his time at GB, he was the guy who played the weird indie games.

Look at his recent Dead Cells runs on twitch. On run one, he beat the first boss and then kept going. Run two, he did it again. Some of that is luck but some of it isn't. I haven't gotten close to where he got on run one.

His first person record maybe isn't as strong. He certainly played enough of PUBG. But between Spelunky, Dark Souls, Dead Cells, and Mario Maker, in a third person action game or platformer, that mother fucker is a stone cold murderer.

PS I considered posting this to the Dan Ryckert page forum.

It’s a weird question.. he’s a guy that worked for this site, that plays and covers games for a living..and is good at certain types of them?

So yah, I guess?

Dan's pretty good at video games he likes.

Giant Bomb can definitely take credit for that.

I swear this sites community constantly surprises me with its incriminating forum titles...

You're right: he is truly the best gamer.

Jeff, though.

I haven't seen Patrick beat both PS2 Garfield action adventures yet, so the verdict is out.

Could Patrick beat Jeff at NFL Blitz?

Honestly they have different gaming strengths

Brad's Mile High Club achievement is no joke. Give him Doom 2 and let him go

Put Alex in front of Rock Band

Let Vinny learn how to build a goddamn spacecraft and get to the moon

Give Jeff some NFL Blitz

I can't pinpoint just one for Dan, but he pulls out wins more often than no when they are playing competitively against each other.

None of them (and apologies to Abby, Ben, Jan, Jason, Drew, Ryan, Austin, Patrick and anyone else I have missed for not mentioning them) are eSport (is the term "athletes?") athletes, but they play games for a living and create content around that. Like anyone, they have their niche games they are good at. Pretty sure I'd get stomped if anyone played me in pretty much any fighting game, but I'll give you a run for your money in Total War or Grand Campaign games.

Brett is the best.

Dan has the most Mario Party wins, so he clearly has the best skill.

@charongreed: The digs on Dan, before he was at GB, are the best part of that clip.

@captain_insano: While it's true that people have their strengths as other people have mentioned, Patrick in my opinion tends to throw himself at games in a way where he excels quite a bit at new games and has the chops to actually reproduce some really good videos of him playing a game. Most of the stuff you mentioned are games that particular person either was already good at before they were 20 or is simply ok at. Patrick gets his hands on a game and tends to clear it or display a playstyle that mimics very good players.

Of course I'm not saying he excellent at every game he's played and he certainly won't be playing for the New York Excelsior but he plays like a person who has a firm grasp on mechanics and tends to play games that come out with an aim to understand and complete.

I will repeat what we all say once in a while in quicklooks: "I'm here to see fun GB personalities play games, not high level play." That refain will hold true and I will always come here and pay my yearly to do so because I like this place and the personalities here but I don't expect to see exceptional gameplay unless its Tetris or Rockband.

He’s not just the best gamer, he’s the woke gamer.

Pat is the best gamer Pat has produced.

Not sure GB in this instance matters much. I also considered the GB staff more to love video games then to be competitive A1 hard core, though they can be good.

I do consider Mr. Klepek to be absolutely top notch at Outlast, and others of the horror game genre.

I seem to recall Vinny blowing through Cuphead on a stream or two. That ain't easy.

have you seen him play metal gear

I don't care if someone is good at games or not but I miss his content on here. The lack of articles on here is killing me.

Jeff is better, and if it counts: Will Smith probably.

Patrick's good at certain videogames because he's careful and introspective. As funny as he was during those Mario Maker Challenges reading way too into the level design and trying to find tricks where there weren't any, that's what makes him good at games. All the ones you listed him as being good at are games that are less twitch based and more about careful, methodical play.

That isn't to say the other GB folks are bad at games, far from it, they each have their own style of game that they click with, just like how Patrick clicks with games where cautious, considerate play is the way to go.

I never really care how "good" people are at games,
I care about how entertaining they are while playing games,
and with those metrics Giantbomb in past, present and likely future, can't be beat.

I think Jan is probably the best one of what i have seen off his skills.

@soulcake: Has Jan played games on video yet? I feel like I haven't seen it. It's fun to get an image of how they guys do things so I'd like to see a bit.

As for the topic. In my heart I believe Austin is secretly great at many games but never really showed it off since he mostly quick looked story and strategy games. But I'm also just projecting cuz he approaches games in a similar way that I do. :P

I'm also fairly sure that the combination of performance anxiety and sandbagging for videos means that neither Jason or Ben has really showed off their fighting game strength on video. There are glimpses in the Kenny Omega SFV video where Jason actually shows off his knowledge and experience. But Kenny is actually ridiculously good and practices regularily so it was hard to shine in comparison. I would love to see footage of either of them playing in EVO pools or something so you can see what it looks like when the match really matters.

Also shoutouts to Vinny for being an incredibly efficient learner. I'm pretty sure he could be amazing at any given game if free time and interest aligned. The Soul Calibur series is a great nugget of this theory in action. That's the main reason it's maybe my favorite series on the site. Very relatable for people who have gone through the same process of crash coursing a game like that.

Maybe, I mean just look at this, if you're getting haters you know you're very good.

Good on Patrick, but I haven't been coming to Giant Bomb for ten years because I want to see a bunch of people be good at games. In fact some of the best GB moments come from someone or some game fucking up.

To be honest if i find the new Dead Cells build harder then the beta build. PogChamp Patrick with dem skillz.

Rorie is the best gamer, he has the most WoW and Mr. Shifty achievements

I came here to say this.

Playing those BS Mario maker levels from Dan and the community probably served as good training.

@ballsleon: Real talk, Mr. Shifty is no joke.

But seriously...does it matter? Some of my favorite videos are of Vinny and co. constantly failing at Kerbal xD

porbably. Jeff is very good at certain games and Vinny is pretty good a Cuphead and similar stuff.

I think Jeff's probably the best overall, but of course they all have different strenghts/weaknesses.

Even Brad (shocking, I know) is really good at certain games.

Patrick's definitely not bad, though.

Not even Dan's gaming luck is on par with Patrick's. Check out his Dark Souls run on Youtube (highlight Time-Stamped below. Turn your volume down). It's rife with the luck of the Irish.

He's siiiiiick. I saw him shoot a guy in a game and he didn't even zoom in. He'll the illest as well as the wokest of gamers.

My favorite part about watching Patrick play a tough game is he's really good at talking through what he's doing, what he did wrong and how he needs to adjust.

@sloppydetective: this very reason is why Patrick is my favorote GB member to watch playing video games.

It's infinitely funny to me how seriously people take this. The amount of self-seriousness I see when someone like Patrick sarcastically brags about how he plays games is deliciously stupid. For whatever reason how well someone plays a game is a real sticking point for people and blatantly poking fun at that and still get those responses is *chefs kiss* level internet.

The truth is clear. Patrick is a true s-tier gamer, get over it!

s-tier gamer is probably the dumbest phrase i have read all day. Wish i could scrub it from my mind.

@meierthered: Congrats on somehow avoiding this phrase until now.

Apparently Patrick made it to the final boss of Dead Cells yesterday. Jesus.

@personandstuff: Somebody check this guy for CheatEngine!!

Patrick was forged in the fires of Spelunky dailies. I'm not surprised he's rockin' Dead Cells. I think if you cast a wider net of games, Dan's got him beat pound for pound. He's got the "sports gene" but for video games. You can't teach that.

As an aside, I'd love to see more games industry crossover competitions, similar to IGN vs Kinda Funny in Mario Tennis. Waypoint vs GB in various things would be DOPE

But seriously, does he see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch? Wokeness not confirmed.

He is no match for Mr. Shoemaker.

#teambrad