Which Critics/Journalists do You Enjoy?

[Casual Shinji]

Matthew Matosis

The dude just takes games apart like a 10-armed robot. No stone is left unturned. He also blissfully leaves out any sort of forced comedy, and let's the providing of information itself be the entertainment.

Seconding this. The only real problem with Matthew is the type of content he does, while fantastic, means he doesn't churn out as much content as others and you have to wait weeks, if not months, for him to put something out, but it's usually worth the wait and often 20-40 minutes in length. His silky smooth Irish accent more than makes up for it though.

It almost makes you wanna go and buy the games just so you can sit through his expert analysis of every little nook and cranny.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I suppose mine is a relatively short list. I don't really seek out specific critics/journalists for reviews and such (recent happenings haven't made the idea more palatable), but I'll admit that my liking for things sometimes align with these folks...

-Yahtzee
-TotalBiscuit
-Mogamu (Warframe dude, reviews weapons and stuff.)
-Logan over at Tek Syndicate
-Danger Dolan (WoW critic/commentator)
-Angry Joe

...I will also readily admit that most of this is for entertainment purposes, rather than informing my decisions on what to buy/get in games. ._.

 

[laggyteabag]

TotalBiscuit - I really like his work, and I know what he does and doesn't like in games, and he is really good at disclosure too, so I trust him as a critic, and as a PC gamer myself, his port report videos and time spent in the option menus as well as comments about the state of the game are really helpful to me, because nothing is worse than a game that just doesn't run well. A shame that he hasn't really done much "WTF Is..." is recent months because of the holiday and his illness, but I am looking forward to when he recovers so that he can really get back into it.
Jim Sterling - One of the few people that really dives straight into the Steam new releases page so that he can show what Steam has become over the past few months. I also like his review content, Jimquisition and the podcast that he hosts.
Angry Joe - Every game he does gets a 20+ minute review pretty much without fail, and that is what I really like about him. Sure, he doesn't do that many of them because of the high production time, but they are quality videos when they do drop.
Jeremy Jahns - The only movie reviewer that I actually watch. He is honest, and I like his energy and ability to make every video entertaining.

 

[Breakdown]

Half In The Bag on the RedLetterMedia website for movies. And Best of the Worst on the RedLetterMedia website for really bad movies.

 

[halisme]

Nostalgia Critic and Chick, Todd in the shadows and Yahtzee.

 

[Ishal]

George Weidman (Super Bunnyhop): My personal favourite game critic currently. His style is both very insightful and easy to digest. He isn't afraid to dig deep into a game mechanically, aesthetically or stylistically to pinpoint what makes them so good or what makes them failures. His "Critical Close-Up" series is essentially a series of video essays (mostly on Metal Gear Solid) that really do not fool around. But at the same time he doesn't come off as pretentious, he trusts that the viewer is on the same level as he is and his critique always seems very sincere.

I agree mostly. George's videos are pretty well done. He uses the knowledge of his degree to augment his videos by quite a large margin. What I mean is that it shows in the way he writes. His scripts aren't choppy, they blend together when he transitions topics and it doesn't seem out of place when he comes back to them.

On the pretentious bit, I'm afraid it's not so cut and dry for me. He has a VERY monotone delivery overall. He accentuates things, he laughs, he has a range for the topics, but when he's really harping on something it can get a tad bit pretentious. Though I will say that doesn't turn me off his content in the slightest. He does show that respect and sincerity more often than not. I see him compared with Matt Matosis a lot, and would always prefer to watch his content over Matt's.

Other than him? I like Totalbiscuit. I watch the Co-optional podcast more than his own content lately. But that will change soon. I generally enjoy long form videos. I don't have a short attention span and I'm told that I tend to enjoy boring things. Listening to someone go on for ~30 minutes about something isn't really a bother to me.

Yahtzee is good as well. Only I don't really watch ZP. Going back to the long form videos, his "Let's Drown Out" series is pretty good. Again, it's something I can just turn on in the background while I'm doing other stuff. But his Extra Punctuation articles are where he really shines. I just think he's a really good writer. I genuinely enjoy reading his thoughts as he presents them.

Other than that? I don't really have any critics that stand out. There are however a ton of let's players and twitch streamers that I follow. They do videos where they give a game the spotlight and highlight good and bad things about it. The most important part is that they demonstrate it while providing commentary.

 

[FPLOON]

Well, there's always Jim and Yahtzee for me... But, outside of that, there's:

Jeremy Jahns: No matter what video he puts up, I enjoy it nonetheless... And, as other have said, "dat energy"!
Angry Joe: Come for the reviews, stay for everything else...
Pan Pizza: Aka "Rebel Taxi"; does animation-based videos and stuff...
Most of Channel Awesome: Too many to list, but if someone says any of their names in this thread, I enjoy them as well... especially Cinema Snob...
Cinema Sins: What? They put a spin on criticism... kind of... I don't know... *ding*

Other than that, there's me, of course... Although, I do something question him once he goes into one of his "other than that/but I digress" speeches/closing statements, but I digress...

 

[Phlap]

TotalBiscuit and Yahtzee are generally my go-to's, though I've started watching ReviewTechUSA, AlphaOmegaSin and SuperBunnyHop recently as well.

Jim Sterling was on that list at one point, too. Even though I disagree with him on that topic, I won't deny that some of his stuff really hit the mark.