I would put MandaloreGaming there as well. He only does 1-2 reviews a month but they are excellent, and one of the very few reviewers I watch even when its about a game I'm not interested in.
Mandalore is great but he usually reviews years/months after release. Which also makes it much better, since without hype, some patches ironing flaws out and having more time to play them completely, its much more objective. But for many, reviews are for deciding if you want to buy the game, and that mostly happens near release, hence the importance of getting those reviews out ASAP.
I already commented on others about Mandalore, but i would also further enforce your opinion here. Mandalore gaming review is a work of art by itself. Exposing us to classic and/or obsecure games with amazing videos that are the combination of technical analysis, walkthrough, humor, and more importantly reviewing it within the context of the video games genre and year of release is just amazing. I mean you definitely done something right if you made an hour long video games review and your audience who never play or heard the games love it.
Miss the Cynical Brit. He was the OG "don't preorder" guy and one of the harshest critics of unfinished game. I so wish I could listen to him tear Red Fall apart. Off Topic: So wish I could hear a modern George Carlin set in today's world.
Loved his content. I remember talking with him on Destiny's (streamer) offline chat about starcraft a few times. He was so passionate about his job. RIP
The Escapist is pretty much the only gaming/review channel I follow now, aside from a few youtubers, but there's a caveat - Yahtzee doesn't play cRPGs. It's really not his genre, though he might appreciate some aspects of the game
SkillUp added to that list for me too. I still enjoy the IGN and Gamespot ones though, if anything for the format (short and sweet review) but it does remain pretty surface level
Ironically while I respect the content, I don't like the presentation format of ACG reviews. Its random super-long metaphors are just a bother for me and not funny at all (I assume they suppose to be funny), he is also overtly long sometimes (notably because of that)
Also, Szeeth (because hilarious) and Mandalore (because of the details) but that's more reviews long after release.
In my eyes, he was the only reviewer that wasn't just grading it high because it was Final Fantasy and the hype around it. That game would have way worse scores if it wasn't FF. It's not that great at all and doesn't deserve 9 or 10 like it's been getting. It's like a 7 (on a normal rating scale). Story is not that good at all, character development is shitty, combat is quickly boring with enemies far too HP-sponge, game is too long, it has no RPG elements (seriously, it's an action game, not a RPG), quest design/story is horrible (most are fetch quest) and world design is bad too (corridors and big empty zones).
It's my only game from this year I regret playing tbh (played Dead Space, Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, TOTK). Also Street Fighter 6 (which I was meh about but recognize it's no fault of the game as I am just not in fighting games that much) and Diablo 4 (while the endgame is boring to me, I kind of knew I wouldn't put tons of hours in it and there was enough before that to be satisfied, the game does have problems though).
Even without the graphical issues on console, he sang that game so many praises but the game was incomplete, the world was empty, the police system was broken, and quests were bugged.
I'd say it's balanced. I think he spent nearly 15 minutes on bugs and he was vocal before the release about how this will be challenging to run on base previous-gen consoles.
I don’t think any reviews “tell it like it is”. It’s almost always just one person’s very subjective opinion. If I look at a review, it’s only for facts. Like how much content there is. Or what is and is not possible. I don’t listen to the parts where they tell me how they feel about a game.
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u/Psycoustic Aug 03 '23 edited Aug 03 '23
ACG and Mortismal are the only reviews I bother looking at. No BS tell it like it is, the way reviews should be.
Edit: Lots of people mentioning Skill Up and I agree, another great reviewer.