One of my favorite YouTube game critics explores every single Fallout game and their place within a collective idea of what the franchise has been and currently is.
Constable, did you in fact watch all 9.5hrs?
Lol, I am in fact at the 7h 22m mark. I jump in and out when I’m washing dishes, exercising, etc.
More than I expected. I appreciate your honesty. How is it thus far? Any highlights?
I’m not terribly familiar with the franchise personally. I had twice tried and failed to get into Fallout 3 back when it was released, and I’ve seen a video or two elsewhere (I think Hbomberguy did a video on a couple of the games a while back).
This video goes through every single game in the series (including Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel) sequentially, starting with the main game and then each expansion/DLC. He talks about story and gameplay, but also about the stories of their productions, the various influences that inspired the general feel of the universe, successes and failures, and how the identity of the series shifted as it changed hands.
So to answer your question, the highlight is that I feel like a certified expert without ever having really played any of the games. It’s also just ultimately 9.5 hours (7.5 confirmed) of high quality critical content.
Ahhh, now I see. That makes sense. Thanks for the video!
What’s with these hours long youtube essays? Surely some editing would be beneficial? And, in this case, publish the chapters separately.
Well, there’s an audience for it. I love long-form critiques, to the point where I’m generally less inclined to bother with anything less than around 45 minutes because it’s just not enough time to explore anything with the kind of depth that interests me the most (that’s a pretty loose rule though, some topics can be incredibly interesting but just don’t need a long-form analysis).
This essay actually covers about…9 games in the series I think? (1, 2, Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel, 3, New Vegas, a mobile game, 4, and 76). That includes all DLC as well, so it averages about 1-1.5 hours per game (variably, BoS and the mobile game both get significantly less time). And it is split into chapters with the YouTube feature.
I do know that’s still not appealing for everyone. I appreciate the top comment on the video: “Sweet baby Jesus.”
Brother why would you watch a 10 hour video. Just play the game at that point.
Yeah, I feel like I gave the impression this is just a full gameplay video or something. It’s not, it’s a critical analysis.
He does essentially review each game, but he also talks about stuff like the different paradigms of art in games: narrative, gameplay, choice, environmental design and storytelling, as well as their intersections (or their lack). For this series especially, he highlights those elements in contrast between the Interplay/Obsidian games and the Bethesda games.
I’m not actually interested in playing the games, but I love this kind of critique.