Stuff You Should Really Be Into 2 – The Revengening of Blood Death

So over the past couple of months I’ve been enjoying a site called thatguywiththeglasses.com, a collaborative site where many, many video reviewers review stuff and I thought I’d share it with you all so in no particular here’s my top 5 That Guy With The Glasses reviewers.

1. Doug “The Nostalgia Critic” Walker

That guy with the glasses himself, Doug’s Nostalgia Critic character reviews nostalgic film and TV shows. Well, ones that are from roughly the 80’s to the 2000. They’re comedy skits in which his larger than life character makes jokes about the bad characters, writers, acting, effects, plotholes etc.

It’s a bit MST2Kish,  but the videos usually don’ t run any longer than 15 minutes, so it’s really him just picking the highlights to make fun of.  He’s got a huge backlog of stuff and it’s well worth checking out.

2. Lindsay “The Nostalgia Chick” Ellis

Like The Nostalgia Critic, the Chick is a comedic persona that reviews nostalgic films and TV shows. Although she was hired to be the female Critic, reviewing the girly stuff Doug couldn’t, she’s evolved into a more analytical reviewer and because of that is my favourite on the site. Sure you get to see somebody making fun of bad films and it’s still funny, but I often feel like I’ve learnt something from watching her videos. Also, her friends Nella and Elisa who appear in her videos are hilarious.

Also also check out Elisa’s Vampire Reviews too.

3. Lewis “Linkara” Lovhaug

The site’s comic book guy, the Linkara persona is an angry man dedicated to reviewing bad comics. He’s pretty forgiving to them though, and a lot of what he points out are from what he’s learnt from decades of reading comics. It gets a little continuity nitpicky at times, but he’s still funny and well worth a look for comic fans.

Oh, and he’s also got a series dedicated to breaking down each series of the Power Rangers and reviewing them. Fuck yeah.

4. Todd “Todd in the Shadows” Nathanson

Why do I like this guy? He reviews pop music, which I’m really not into, has terrible production values and never reveals his face. But he’s hilarious. His persona is that of a pitiable, angry young man and a lot of the humour comes from his over-analysing the lyrics and thematic content of the songs, exposing their bad writing. He does also cover the music and technical side of things, but it’s not the focus.

I haven’t even heard of most of the songs he’s reviewed, but I watch these videos just for his spin on things.

5. Hope “JesuOtaku” Chapman

JesuOtaku is the anime reviewer for the site. I’m not much into anime, but I still enjoy her serious breakdowns of the technical and story/character focused breakdowns of the shows she reviews. She hasn’t really got a comedic persona like the other reviewers, but does have comedy skits related to the show she’s looking at at the beginning of her videos that’re always worth checking out.

She’s also part of the Desu Des Brigade of anime reviewers, creating a Digimon retrospective like Linkara’s Power Rangers one and a lot more besides.

Honourable Mentions

I like both The Spoony One and the Blockbuster Buster as well, but I haven’t looked at as much of their stuff and they don’t quite break into my top five. Check them out too.

And there it is gang! I really urge you to explore the site, there’s a lot of great stuff there.

Mass Effect 3 Fans Just Can’t Be Pleased – SPOILERS – ALSO KINDA RANTY

Look, I was there with you all when we got pissed off about the ending. I called for DLC from Bioware. I even defended the idea of an author compromising their work to please their audience. But I kept some perspective. Bioware have promised  to give us the closure we were all saying we wanted. I respect that they don’t want to change or rewrite the endings they have or add a new one, and I don’t think they should.

This is Shepard’s story, and you may want your to raise little blue babies with Liara, but to me a story this big about someone this important can only end with that person dying. We can respectfully disagree on that.

But according to a poll of nearly 3,000 players on Bioware’s forum had 84% of participants say that the new ending DLC isn’t enough. Apparently, getting what we asked for isn’t good enough. We need the same “epic battles” and cookie-cutter happy endings everybody else needs.

But about that battle…were you not there? Maruaders and Brutes and Banshees spawning from four different locations, completely encircling you in a place with no adequate cover as you fought desperately for the future of all sentient life against impossible odds? Did I just dream that? Is that part of the Indoctrination Theory too now?

I didn’t really mind that the endings were more Arthur C. Clarke than Star Wars. It was their lack of integration and explanation that irked me. That looks to be what they’re fixing. And I can work with that. In fact, I’ve gotten over the ending completely now. By the time they’d announced the new DLC, I’d stopped caring.

Because it’s just a video game.

Like Star Wars is just a bunch of films, Transformers is just an old (and kinda bad) cartoon. These are huge, formative parts of various eras of our lives but that doesn’t mean we have to hold them to these unreachable standards. And we shouldn’t be so damn bitchy when we don’t like what we get.

Video games and films and cartoons and comics and all that stuff are important. I get it. Really, I do. I’m right there arguing that pop culture is  more vital and culturally truthful  than any amount of “High Art”. But at the end of the day, politics, the environment, charitable works, scientific advancement, your job/grades/social life/love life/whatever are more important things to spend your time on.

Mass Effect was a trilogy that tried to give a rich, original universe and compelling, transmutable story on a scope that just seems to be too big for them to really pull off.  Bioware really don’t deserve this level of hate.  They gave us Baldur’s Gate, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, KOTOR, The Old Republic. Remember all that stuff? Yeah. Good stuff.

In fact, Bioware’s one of the most consistently good studios out there. Who else really matches up to them? Valve sure, but who else can you name that’s been delivering such consistently good games for so long?

And considering the wealth of wonders the Mass Effect trilogy has given me, let alone their other works, I can forgive them a shitty ending.