@steveurkel: I get you, but the edits are fine. I feel like they're not for us, they're for grabbing a wider audience than us. It's not my cup of tea either, but I still think it's a smart move on GB's part.
Problem is that the edited versions don't really show the game or Giant Bomb at their best. I know You Tube SEO optimization is ruthless, but, it doesn't matter if the algorithm promotes your video if the video itself doesn't stand up and people end up ignoring the recommendation.
I almost think that, if GB is going to optimize for 15 minute videos, then what they need to do is maybe record the traditional Quick Look for B-roll, and then script something and do a new VO over the edit. Otherwise, things tend to feel disjointed as the jump cuts really break up whatever narrative about the game you're trying to build.
I don't know if it's a factor of my age or the way I consume information, but I miss the written word / will miss the written word. I'll also miss the concept of a review in general -- a relatively short opinion piece on a game, something I can quickly scan and decide if something is worth investigating, something with more detail than a Tweet or a short video piece, but not as long as having to sit through a long Let's Play, written by somebody that I know has both the experience and the preferences to evaluate something in a useful way.
I know the gaming landscape isn't the same when I started gaming back in the early 1980s, and that, in particular, subscription based models turn the entire concept of value on it's head. But, time IS money -- and when you only have two to three hours a week to play video games, even the whole subscription sunk cost argument loses value.
For example, I want to try some random large game. Hour to download and install, half an hour to putz with the settings, I play with it for an hour and discover that oh, this is actually really bad -- whoops, I just blew my entire time budget for the week.
And there are also all the Indy games that came out that will never see the light of day of a subscription service. Steam released almost 30 games yesterday alone. I know most of them are probably bad, regardless of the intent of their developers, but, in the past week there has to be at least a few hidden gems in there, stuff that has quality but they don't have the marketing budget or the contacts or the luck to get in front of eyeballs. (In this regard, Jan has actually been the most interesting part of the website to me over the past few months, as he keeps pulling weird interesting stuff.)
I actually miss these, because I feel the benefit of your experience coming through that I don’t find in ten minute video, an unscripted random discussion in a podcast, or two groups of people yelling at each other in a forum.
In terms of value, one thing you learn as a parent is that time IS money. You’re right, subscription sunk costs means there’s zero monetary risk to trying something (the money is gone regardless) but if you only have two hours a week to play video games in a focused, uninterrupted fashion, you don’t want to blow that on crap.
I never thought anybody would get me to think of the Super Mario Bros. film as something other than bad. So kudos? :) (Now I need to go back and watch TANG SMB and remind myself of that viewpoint...)
Given the utter chaos at Bioware and the way EA has mangled things over the past ten years, I'm surprised anything made it out at all, really.
I loved the original trilogy - but, I feel, just like with Andromeda, if you don't have the time or budget to do a really good job with the Mass Effect property, you shouldn't have touched it at all.
The one thing I'm really finding interesting is how people who never played the original games are dealing with the remaster. Like, for all the tweaks, it's still a 14 year old game design, and team building mechanics and story have become so polished since then.
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