Only then would the lp be truly complete. Most episodes are a whole lot of nothing to begin with anyway.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
SbF: Super Best Friends Play Thread: ReBoot
- Thread starter RecursiveFault
- Start date
Only then would the lp be truly complete. Most episodes are a whole lot of nothing to begin with anyway.
Hellwarden
Member
I have actually kept up with MGSV, mainly because seeing Pat and Liam's reactions have been interesting to me.
If anything, Life is Strange is the walkthrough I struggled through.
If anything, Life is Strange is the walkthrough I struggled through.
Sibersk Esto
Banned
Shamelessly stolen from reddit
Mr Woolie Madden; Friend, Let's Player - searching for a way to tap into the hometown fandom he thought he had.
Then an accidental overdose of Salt interacts with his unique body chemistry.
crackling thunder
And now when Woolie Madden grows Salty or Downtrodden a startling metamorphoses occurs...
Starring Woolie Madden,
THE INCREDIBLE SULK
The Woolie is driven by salt, pursued by a cameraman he paid to be there.
"Everyone will see it, uncut. This is what the Best Friends are all about."
Starring MIKE0 [Image of Mike]
And El Woolio [picture of Salty Woolie]
An unfortunate panel event happened where nobody showed up, and supposedly Matt as well.
The cameraman was paid to record the guys hang out with a fewclose friends in an audatorium.
"Got a post mortum on this?"
[Woolie nodding disappointedly at the camera]
A Panel event that Woolie or the other best friends cannot really prove happened, so they must let the world go on thinking the panel event was cancelled. Until he can find a way to control the boundless salt that dwells within him.
THE INCREDIBLE SULK
ArclightBorealis
Member
Okay, Pat throwing a fit in Brandon's room during the latest SOMA video is making up for the lack of progress being made on this puzzle. I can't even be that mad.
I think it was just a combo of alot of poor lp choices along with busy wedding times. Does that excuse it, certainly not.
Personally due to these rough times however I feel that I will probably never be as avid as a viewer again when compared to this time last year, unless they just strike gold in terms of quailty consistently in the future.
VidulaSaix
Member
It feels like they feel almost pressured to keep up a constant commentary, which in turn causes them to lose focus on things like story beats because they're more focused on the conversation they're having. In games like Bloodborne this isn't as big a deal but in hugely story driven games like MGSV and SOMA it's crippling.
I think this can sometimes be an issue. We certainly want to hear their commentary, but if they're pressured to constantly talk the entire time, the content itself tends to suffer and they miss very obvious story points or gameplay hints.
People aren't watching the LPs just for the commentary. They also want to see how the zaibatsu play and enjoy/suffer through the game. It's a fine balance to strike, but an important one. Basically, there doesn't need to be commentary every second. Sometimes it's best to let something on screen settle or let everyone digest a plot point. That can be a lot more effective and entertaining than going on a random tangent that will distract everyone, including the viewer.
Totally. A lot of people always jump to the "Oh well why do you watch them if you don't want them to talk" BS excuse. Those people miss a very important point. Yes, I do watch them for their personalities. I watch to see them interact with the game, overcome it and offer insightful or funny reactions to what they are playing. If I had the choice between a few minutes more silence where they can actually absorb the information the game is relaying which in turn allows them to actually understand/offer comments on whats happening or enduring them wandering around being lol randum or frustrated for 20 minutes because they have no idea what they are doing its not even a choice. Unfortunately we are getting the latter more and more.
And the next knee jerk point people would probably say is that I'm expecting them "play perfectly". No, I'm really not. I'm just hoping they pay enough attention to get through the game competently. Half the problems they are having in SOMA are based around them trying to fill every second a dead air.
An LP needs to be functional (emphasis on fun). If I just wanted to watch game-play with minimal dead air I'd just listen to music while playing.
DAREALGUMMY
Member
I have gotten annoyed in some LP'S or even a few ransoms where they're just talking and miss information and spend the next few minutes going "wha happened?"
VidulaSaix
Member
That's honestly one of the reasons I enjoyed the LiS LP overall, because they would actually get silent during key points and let the game speak.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
While I agree that it's not very easy to find a balance between talking and not talking, not talking over cutscenes should be a no-brainer. It doesn't matter if you're mid-story or whatever, just stop and listen and after you know what's going on continue with whatever you were going on about. I'd rather they forget to finish a story than watch 10 minutes of them not knowing what to do because they weren't paying attention.
I really enjoy Matt's commentary but he talks so much that he doesn't pay any attention to the game he's playing most of the time, which is why I prefer him to not be playing. Liam is better at video games than the others(in general) and he's good at knowing when to stop talking whenever he needs to concentrate.
DXLelouch153
Banned
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
No this beach is too pixelated and I don't like how my girlfriend is talking to me.
DXLelouch153
Banned
they did a full LP of the Batman and Robin genesis game?
misses bull
Banned
This soma lp is unbearable I think I'm gonna drop this
Someone tell me when they get to the transfer scene
Someone tell me when they get to the transfer scene
Nah they did like half an hour of the PS1 one.
E_Darkness
Member
Oh man, Soma part 7 is just... unwatchable. How can they be this bad.
TC McQueen
Member
Is Pat playing this on his too dark TV? It could be part of the problem.
air jordans for dogs
Member
It's the developers fault, Patricks tv is perfectly calibrated
Pat's TV calibration died in the car crash! :O
If if he looked at things for more than 3 seconds before moving on they'd probably notice things.
I know how you feel. Good thing the Yoshi video was up on vessel to cleanse my palate.
Foxhound286
Member
So, how's the SOMA lp going? I haven't started it because I was thinking about buying it, but I decided not to. Is it going well?
Foxhound286
Member
I really should have read this page first. After reading the impressions, it honestly sounds dreadful. Guess i'm skipping this one.Look up haha
TC McQueen
Member
Honestly, I'm enjoying it, but I think environmental puzzles aren't really their strong suit at all, which leads to hilarious results.
ArclightBorealis
Member
I think SOMA shows two undeniable things about Pat: That he can't leave a room the way it was without wrecking it, and will not hesitate to kill every last person he meets (AI sim, robot, or otherwise).
Truly the last hope for the human race.
Truly the last hope for the human race.
This is the same for me. The one negative I have with it is the talking over important dialogue and I too would like if they'd just let it play on its own. But everything else, I find their bumbling around a bit endearing, partly because I always like Matt and Pat LPs more than all the other combinations and also because I've not played SOMA so I'm not in a position to get too upset about their method of playing.
skLaFarebear
Member
Stolen from reddit but daammnnn this is SOMA 7 in a nutshell.
lmao
I need to find the time to catch up on Soma. About 5 episodes in and its been great so far.
Stolen from reddit but daammnnn this is SOMA 7 in a nutshell.
This isn't limited to SOMA. this can be applied to most of their LPs in the last year.
Mat-triX
Member
Stolen from reddit but daammnnn this is SOMA 7 in a nutshell.
I stopped watching Game Grumps and started TBFP - back in 2012 - because I thought "Wow, these guys are actually competent!".
I don't hate it or anything. I think their recent output let me lower my expectations somewhat. For the most part they are put in interesting situations that spawns some nice commentary. Compared to recent LP's its a step up. I don't think peoples complaints are tied to having played it its just the painful things are really undermining its potential and making it hard to not get frustrated. stuff like
the bit with the proxy wasn't even a puzzle. If they looked at the terminal for more than a millisecond they would have saved us 15 minutes of aimless wandering and deaths.
"He died in the car crash!" its just like FUCKING WHAT GUYS ARE YOU GUYS FUCKING IDIOTS? For the first time I actually started questioning their intelligence. Either that or it is just endemic of the fact that t they don't shut the fuck up and pay attention and are overthinking everything.
Like why is Matt even there? It's obvious he doesn't actually give a fuck. He is just in full dead air mode. If they aren't going to pay attention or get invested then why should I?
IMO obviously. I don't know A LOT of people seem to be voicing the same complaints (here, reddit, YT, Twitter) so hopefully they'll pick up on it (since they ghost us apparently)
Having just finished watching Undertale Part 12, I don't think I can afford to let things slide as they have anymore. This ensuing post will contain Undertale spoilers up to the point in the publicly released LP unless otherwise stated. If you want to respond on any spoilered points then PLEASE spoiler your response in kind.
So this was supposed to be the first culmination of everything the game was leading up to. The final sequence involving Asgore and Flowey is, in my opinion, one of the better swerves in video games, if not one of the BEST. So why... why was their overall reaction to the whole event so blasé considering everything?
For what it's worth, Liam was COMPLETELY in the right to call out all the people who figuratively wailed at the top of their lungs for them to never use the FIGHT button for the pacifist run. Their confusion over how to deal with resolving Asgore and whether or not the game was trying to trick them was completely understandable given the misinformation they had.
However, Matt was trying to auto-pilot through the fight (both of them) so hard that it was ridiculous! I'll get to the presumed reason later, but come on man!
-"Seems all you can do is FIGHT." Maybe the game should have been clearer.
-I didn't get a message saying that I died again. This one sticks out like a sore thumb since Matt says this as the message has just finished passing, and that while it was passing they weren't even talking! It's not even that they were too busy talking to pay attention; it's that Matt just wasn't fucking paying attention, period!
-For what it's worth, Liam was trying to coach Matt on how to dodge the attacks in both fights, but Matt just... wasn't willing to give a fuck for some reason.
And let's not even talk about Omega Flowey, where Matt's reaction essentially amounts to silence and whining!
For what it's worth, Liam was COMPLETELY in the right to call out all the people who figuratively wailed at the top of their lungs for them to never use the FIGHT button for the pacifist run. Their confusion over how to deal with resolving Asgore and whether or not the game was trying to trick them was completely understandable given the misinformation they had.
However, Matt was trying to auto-pilot through the fight (both of them) so hard that it was ridiculous! I'll get to the presumed reason later, but come on man!
-"Seems all you can do is FIGHT." Maybe the game should have been clearer.
-I didn't get a message saying that I died again. This one sticks out like a sore thumb since Matt says this as the message has just finished passing, and that while it was passing they weren't even talking! It's not even that they were too busy talking to pay attention; it's that Matt just wasn't fucking paying attention, period!
-For what it's worth, Liam was trying to coach Matt on how to dodge the attacks in both fights, but Matt just... wasn't willing to give a fuck for some reason.
And let's not even talk about Omega Flowey, where Matt's reaction essentially amounts to silence and whining!
...I was confident that the final sequence would force Matt to get good. In a sense, he did. But that came at the cost of whatever enthusiasm he had left for the game at that moment in time, and it baffles me.
In the episode, they mention Matt's wedding, which leads me to believe this was still recorded before the wedding happened. If the wedding was causing that much stress on Matt during that slew of recording, maybe he should have just held off on recording LPs until it was resolved. Since he's recently finished his honeymoon, I assume he's feeling better. But if he's not, I feel like people would understand if he took some time off to get his real-life affairs in order instead of trying to give the, like, 20% he's been giving in these recent videos.
It's frustrating to me because I know he and Pat can do better, and they have. But nowadays, all the yells and moans of people seem to have forced them to double-down on their own inadequacies. Since if we're acknowledging how we're giant cowards and stupid idiots on camera, then it's ok to just act like that for 15 minutes at a time and not bother to try to get better, right?!?
On one final note regarding the Undertale LP:
Calm down Liam, Alphys is great, and if he hasn't already found out why, then he will. Just like the other guys, I believe in you! You can do a bit better, too, Liam!
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
While I do agree that Matt hasn't been pulling his weight all that much lately, I don't think him being bad at dodging in Undertale has anything to do with it, he's just really bad at it.
They should consider hiring some people to do the editing and other stuff(like making best of videos) that they don't have time for or don't feel like doing. It honestly doesn't really matter how they do it, but production values need to go up.
They should consider hiring some people to do the editing and other stuff(like making best of videos) that they don't have time for or don't feel like doing. It honestly doesn't really matter how they do it, but production values need to go up.
VidulaSaix
Member
Not an entirely accurate statement. I'm sure he does plenty of behind the scenes work, but when it comes to being on camera there definitely is an obvious lack of "Fucks to give" for lack of a better saying, apparent even in games he loved near the start such as Undertale. It's not really the production values alone that are frustrating, it's the DSP-tier lack of attention in damn near every video recently that's just ended up ruining quite literally every LP.
NCR Redslayer
NeoGAF's Vegeta
I think Matt doesn't have fucks to give because he was too busy thinking about his wedding at the time of the recording. Liam even made a point in the video jokingly saying that the reason Matt gets hit from the bullet hell so many times is because Matt's "probably thinking about messing up his wedding vows."
Matt has been this way (lame commentary, randum repetitive jokes ad nauseam, incredible lack of spatial awareness) for a very long time so it can't be solely attributed to the wedding. When he isn't into something and LP's it anyway (and tanks it) it shows and for my taste he has the weakest commentary skills of the Zaibatsu (unless its something he is super passionate about).
Even it if is wedding stuff then it still shows a lack of awareness when choosing LP's and line ups that has been hurting them for months.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
Of course, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes so I'm not going to comment on that.
SBFP just plays what they want, not what is "optimal", and it's part of the reason I like them so much.
Semi-related but after watching some of Game Grumps' playthroughs I started appreciating SBFP even more for never bailing on a playthrough unless they're forced to.
They clearly put thought into what they are playing. Especially since so many LP's recently have been new games to grab that hype. It isn't an accident. Plus Starfox and bloodborne highlight they do think about if an LP is optimal although they don't do it nearly enough.
EDIT: Say I did agree you could argue that maybe its the reason why their LP's have been so scattershot lately. If they don't think about it maybe they should. Since quality is taking a nosedive.
NCR Redslayer
NeoGAF's Vegeta
The best LPs of SBF, IMO, are usually the games they have played before on their own time like Revengeance and No More Heroes.*
*Does not include RE4.
*Does not include RE4.