Smart Let's Players?

[bigfatcarp93]

This is an odd question; I've had no difficulty finding Let's Players who are funny, or just fun to watch, but I can't say I've ever found one particularly brainy. I don't mean to say the ones I've found are all stupid, per se, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any such (Preferably blind) Let's Players who are the really smart, intellectual types of gamers who like to think hard about the game's story and world, and strategize a lot.

Any ideas?

 

[Foolery]

Dopefish. Nah, I'm kidding. You know, I can't think of one offhand, either. TotalBiscuit usually gives a really smart breakdown of technical aspects of a game, but he's not focused on story.

 

[NeutralDrow]

It's the caveat of "preferably blind LPs" that's throwing me off. I want to say Accounting Nightmare for her Devil May Cry LPs, but those were designed from the start to be informative.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Well, there's VanguardOfValor [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVWYbKCbgtwABeUTu9itrSw]. He's probably best known for his FTL playthroughs, but he plays a variety of titles. He usually doesn't go in blind, but he does a good job explaining his actions and tends to make sound decisions. For example, he's currently playing the punishing Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Within and has managed the impressive feat of not losing a single soldier for seven in-game months (he's lost a few SHIVs, but those are meant to be disposable).

 

[Rayce Archer]

The let's play-er you want is Research Indicates, who gave Jurassic Park: Trespasser more love than it ever deserved. Be advised, series is LONG, But worth it.

 

[MerlinCross]

Most LP'er just tend to sit down and play. Not informative at all they just game and goof off with their friends. I mean sometimes they'll explain something for the audience but yeah no 'smart' Lp'ers I know of.

 

[Corven]

The only thing I can think of that fits is steve lumpkins 'a designer plays" series, where in his own words "I'm playing through games for fun and analyzing them from a design perspective as I go".

 

[SoranMBane]

Some of the Spoiler Warning [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDDVe86ov90uXCZSmEKgbjw] people are actual game critics (Shamus Young from the Experienced Points column here on The Escapist is one of them), so the commentary does tend to involve a lot of intelligent critique. They don't generally do blind Let's Plays, and the guy who actually plays the games for the group tends to screw up and break the games a lot, but they're about as good as you're going to get if what you're looking for is a Let's Player dedicated to critiquing and analyzing rather than just being funny (although they are pretty funny, too).

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I always though Chuggaconroy had some of the more scholarly LPs in existence. He usually examines the story, looks up the history or a game's development and researches the mythologies it could be based on very well. He also still adds the hyperactive persona in to keep the entertainment values up.

I'm also a fan of BrainScratchComms. They usually pick apart story or gameplay flaws between bickering with each other and making crude humor. They are also well versed with voice actor connections and localization differences. I can't say much about some of their strategies, though. "You could just go."

I've always wanted to start my own LPs with some friend and address questions I always have in my mind when playing, both in-story and how/why the devs did something a certain way. I just don't have the time right now or the money for capture devices.

 

[Fishyash]

It's going to be almost impossible to make an informative or intellectual let's play blind. Generally it leaves you with a lack of insight that comes through at least having played the game once. I generally prefer let's plays where the player knows what they're doing so they can spend more time explaining how the game works and offer insight about the game design or its history.

On that note, Chuggaaconroy and ProtonJon are both good examples of this. On the subject of ProtonJon, a lot of great LPers come from somethingawful and they generally have a different style compared to the likes of Pewdipie and Tobuscus. If you want to leave the video let's plays and look into screenshot/text based ones then I highly recommend checking out lparchive.org and looking things under the tags Informative (and possibly narrative and completionist). There are video LPs there that you can look up too.

Actually thinking of that, there are almost no narrative style video let's plays either. The only one I've seen is this brilliant let's play of Wasteland but that's about it.

 

[krebons12]

I don't know if it counts as a lets play, since dialogues in the videos are scripted, but one guy called fimflamfilosophy does let's plays where he'll talk about the games history or politics surrounding or even within the game. Hes only done lets plays for Fallout: New Vegas, Long Live the Queen, Soul Reaver 2, and Mechwarrior 4, but they are still enlightening and humorous to watch

 

[Melon Hunter]

Beaglerush [https://www.youtube.com/user/Beaglerush] does some very well thought-out LPs of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. His current series, Live and Impossible, is an uncut Ironman Impossible playthrough of the Long War mod for Enemy Within. The videos are really long as a result: the shortest is about half an hour, with the longest so far clocking in at three hours and seventeen minutes. However, you really can't ask for a better look at how to succeed in such a difficult game. He'll map out the level and explain his tactics throughout the missions, and it really shows in his success rate so far: by the middle of May, he's lost a mere five soldiers and the aliens are so resource-starved that Mutons haven't even appeared yet. He also will go through his choices for research, base management, equipment building and soldier loadouts.

The videos are very long for LP episodes, but they're well worth a look if you want to get into the fine details of how XCOM works at the Impossible difficulty level. Beagle's also a pretty animated guy, so it's pretty easy to get into the mood of the video and root for his soldiers as they get themselves out of some truly nightmarish situations.

 

[happyninja42]

I like https://www.youtube.com/user/ManyATrueNerd personally.

He's very funny, but also very clever about the games, and discusses the various interesting little quirks of the games. He also plays games with very interesting restrictions. He's popular for his Fallout 3 and New Vegas Let's Plays, but also his FTL series, and many others.

I'd check him out, he's probably my favorite Let's Player out there.

 

[Sylocat]

I like Cornshaq, as he often delves into the dev and franchise histories. Pretty entry-level analysis, but he does put a fair bit of effort into research.

Seconding the recommendation of chuggaconroy.

 

[Kontarek]

Well, Yahtzee has his little weekly Let's Drown Out series that he does with his friend Gabriel. They do tend to talk about a lot of other things besides the game they're playing, but usually they'll have pretty good commentary on what's happening in the game as well. The drawback is that their playthroughs are never comprehensive unless it's a really short game; each game they pick gets around an hour of play time and that's it.

Though, I do think looking for an intelligent-sounding Let's Player that does mainly blind playthroughs is a bit contradictory, as it can be pretty hard to sound smart when you don't have any idea what you're walking into. Truly valuable analysis and commentary comes only after spending lots of time with a game, and blind playthroughs tend to have very raw/spur of the moment reactions.

 

[niru12]

I am a letsplayer myself and i can tell you that the majority of the people watching lets play dont want to see someone super smart but someone who is spontaneous, goofy and funny.
Thats why there arent that many people who act smart while recording a lets play.

 

[niru12]

I am a letsplayer myself and i can tell you that the majority of the people watching lets play dont want to see someone super smart but someone who is spontaneous, goofy and funny.
Thats why there arent that many people who act smart while recording a lets play.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

Look up Scott Manley, pretty much does Sci Fi stuff exclusively, like Kerbal and Xenonauts. Seems to have an actual grasp on the science behind the fiction or is just a very convincing bullshitter.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

Smart hmm... I can think of respectful let's players knowledgeable about what they play, if that's what you mean.

SpoilerWarningShow and Fimflamphilosophy have already been brought up. I really like there takes on the Fallout series. FimFlam is unique in that he does his let's plays pseudo in character. It used to be his abridged series Rainbow Dash (did that just turn you off) but I haven't watched in a while and I think he switched.

Would Thesw1tcher count? Not the twobestfriendsplay Machinima show. I mean Their actual LP material. Their "the hypest shit" attitude can be draining sometimes but they do go in depth with their playthroughs.