The Gaming Den

I'm not putting this in Websites that make you cheer, do a backflip, or both because I'm also going to do some mild criticizing in this post, too. But for the most part these are positive.

I think one of the best ones is AVGN. I did not like his earlier stuff, since a lot of it just turned out to be pointless complaining. His Grow the Beard moment came with the Friday the 13th/NOES/The Power Glove dual review. I really think that he found his groove of both celebrating nerd culture while simultaneously mocking it. I've really been enjoying his recent reviews lately where he integrates popular and early Nintendo-era videogame culture into the games he makes. The CDl-I, Moonwalker, and Milon's Secret Castle are his best stuff. He's also a gigantic fan of the 'classical' horror genre and that's a plus.

Chuck Sonnenberg does a lot of really good Star Trek reviews, though his attitude towards the stuff he mocks is less affectionate and more contemptuous, especially of Enterprise. Not like it doesn't deserve it, though. I like his video reviews a lot more than his written ones; he has a funny voice and integrates video clips really well into his reviews. He has one of the best philosophies regarding entertainment on the entire Internet; I really recommend looking at his Threshhold Introduction video for anyone on the Internet.

The Nostalgic Critic I'm starting to cool to. He's lately been getting a lot more loud and spastic in his reviews and it kind of makes the movies irritating. However, since Titanic: The Animated Series and Mortal Kombat Annihilation are his two best videos and they were created recently, I think it's just the material he selects as opposed to any degradation in his style. I notice that when the movies are genuinely stupid/bad he becomes a lot more snarky and less shouty. But like someone else said he works a lot better when played off against someone else.

Ken Begg's jabootu.net is one of the earliest big-time Internet sites and his reviews are pretty much the gold standard for how reviews would be written from now on. My only complaint is that he increasingly has a tendency to rant and wax nostalgic so his later stuff is sadly hard to sit through. But the earlier stuff is gold. If you want to stop at juuuust the point where I think he jumped the shark then don't read anything after the Rocky series.

I like confusedmatthew because he catches a lot of stupid crap that other people miss and refuses to let his mind wander or just accept what's on screen at any point. I guess this is partially why he exists in the first place. Sometimes I think he focuses a bit too much on the minutae of things while very occasionally looking bigger problems.

I dislike Zero Punctuation. He's way too self-indulgent and sacrifices genuine criticism too much to make a zinger. He also crosses the line between insulting the product and insulting the genre--or worse, the fans--way too often and that to me is a huge no-no for reviewers. Insult the product, insult specific people involved with the production of product, but leave the fans out of it.

I wouldn't call Deceased Crab a reviewer per se since that's not the point of his videos, but he really goes into the gameplay of what he's doing and it's really enjoyable to see him deconstruct and show exactly why he likes games. His material was so good that I made the mistake of not actually finishing La Mulana and Cave Story because I liked watching him play more than I was actually playing. But considering the La Mulana requires a pencil and notepad to finish and Cave Story goes out of its way to permanently screw you over I think that's okay.

I haven't seen much of the Irate Gamer, but that's because I think his reviews are too sophomoric and LCD. It doesn't have the underlying affection that the AVGN has or the sophistication sfdebris has or even just the critical thinking confused matthew has. So I don't particularly see the appeal.

Fivethirtyeight.com's Nate Silver has some of the best statistical analysis you'll ever see. He's so good that he's getting recognized and called out specifically by the media. His 2008 electoral prediction was almost exactly on the money; his only blown call was Indiana and Omaha.

Shamus Young's blog, Twenty Sided, is currently mostly video game reviews. It's not a great resource if you just want "should I buy this game", but it goes into lots of detail on what makes a game good or bad. I'd recommend it to somebody interested in making games.

I can understand Lago's point about Zero Punctuation/Yahtzee. I check his review every week, but there's not many that I'd want to rewatch, even for the lulz.

I like the way he insults fans of genres I do like. Hes right, fanboys are morons. It probably helps that hes called himself a moronic fanboy while complaining about the latest Silent Hill game.