Youtube gaming channels

Toasty

I still use review sites to get a general idea of how a new game is being received, but I'm also increasingly using streaming and youtube channels to see footage and reactions from a wider critical perspective. Skip to TL;DR now if you want to avoid some waffle..

This could be by osmosis, because, my teenage kids spend a lot of time watching youtube gaming channels and their knowledge of what's out there is deeper than mine. I'll hear about games I'm interested in, then research them from websites and youtube. Whereas my kids use youtube channels to show them what's about, no matter what the genre or platform, its been a bit of an eye opener.

I notice this when I get or show interest in a new game. My kids will invariably say, oh yeah, that's a good game or, don't bother with that, I'm thinking what? Turns out they'll have watched a lets play or some preview video of it way before I'd expressed an interest. Possibly because I'm a PS4 gamer and some of these games have been on other platforms way before they've hit the PSN Store.

The negative though, is my kids will have also in some instances seen the entire game, or at least the key plot points. For example, I just completed Broken Age, but while I was playing I had to keep my daughter from giving me spoilers and when I finished she said, "did you like the ending? spoiler spoiler spoiler was cool wasn't it?" She's not played it! (and indeed, is this another negative? She's enjoyed the game by proxy, good or bad?)

Oh, another example, I was playing a certain game and my lad said, oh yes, this was number 3 in the saddest gaming moments of all time, I thought thanks, XXX is bound to die now!

Is anyone else experiencing this? Probably more related to parents of a certain age, but I notice a thread further down about Gaming TV shows, they are very much redundant compared to youtube.

So basically, over the last couple of years I have been subscribing to the odd youtube channel and realised with the sad news of TotalBiscuits health, that I do now use youtube as a resource a lot more than I think and some of the personalities I've encountered very much endear me to watching more of their content.

TL;DR; Do you watch / subscribe to youtube gaming channels? If so, which do you recommend?

amardilo

I subscribe to loads of gaming channels as I like to see them played to see if it's a game I'd like and sometimes I just like to hear people talk about games.

Here are some of the channels I subscribe to that are still active:
Azzy The MLG Pro
Battle(non)sense
ChaBoyy
Chrontendo
Cinemassacre
Classic Game Room
Cool Ghosts
Defend The House
Digital Foundry
Drift0r
Eurogamer
Game Sack
Game Trailers
Game Trailers Review
Gaming Historian
Generation 16
Giant Bomb
Hank & Jed
Idle Thumbs
Larry Bundy Jr
Level Cap Gaming
LORE
Happy Console Gamer
Hot Pepper Gaming
Jackfrags
Matimi0
Mega64
Metal Jesus Rocks
Neebs Gaming
NX Gamer
Outside Xbox
Player One Podcast
Westie
X Factor Gaming

Flow Forward

Pewdiepie... All round top guy!

Toasty

Thats a name I hear uttered from my daughter a lot, along with Captain Sparkles!

Cobb

AngryJoe
TheRedDragon
AngryCentaurGaming

plus all the usual stuff like IGN, Machinima....

iwb100

The Russian badger - Simply brilliant though he's gone all ronku sponsored now. Older vids from him though we're great.

guttersnipez

Also a good channel is the rad brad top guy also

Courtjezter

I enjoy watching
JackSepticeye, although a lot of people find him a bit ott, with his shouting, i have never had that issue and think he comes across as really down to earth.
I also enjoy Outside Xbox, mainly because they don't take themselves too seriously.

edit:although without any doubt Markiplier has the best voice for broadcasting, i have seen a few of his vids but don't like him as much as the 2 above.

TheyCallMeTJ

As I do with movies, I play games that I feel appeals to me by instinct from synopsis or general concensus for games that are already out.  We dont need youtube channel games to discover gems.  We can do that by just scanning whatever is featured on Steam pages, and checking new releases every week.  Be the one to spread the word on a great Indie game, rather than depending on the word of others.

I love to watch gaming channels AFTER I play a game.  For instance, after experiencing the amazing Life is Strange final chapter, I really enjoy watching some playthrus to enjoy other peoples reactions especially to highlight moments in the game.   Btw you'll never see so much emotional reactions at so many different parts of a game as in Life is Strange!

Oh and SwingPoynt is my favourite personality but there are a heck of a lot of entertaining folks and I particularly enjoy the female gamers who seem to pay more attention and respect to the narrative and character nuances in games as well as being gunho.

Nice thread, Toasty.

Toasty

Good call, not really thought of that, but I do similar after a big TV show has aired. Life is Strange is on my to play list too.