Favorite Let's Plays and Speedruns

[Gegenji]

One of my favorite things to watch/listen to are Let's Plays. There's so many games out there that either slipped my notice, or of a format/style that I just don't do well with. Not to mention that there's such a vast amount of games out there that it'd be hard to play them all.

 

Which is why I like LPs and speedruns/longplays/etc. It lets me experience the games (and their secrets, in many cases), and sometimes even shows off new approaches and hidden tricks that I might not have even known. LPs of the Disgaea series lets me enjoy the amusingly written characters and plot without having to spend hours grinding the characters up to ridiculous levels. NieR is another game that, due to its Cavia-driven nature, I was only able to fully enjoy through someone else playing through (and even 100%!) it.

 

There's a few places to find these things. Let's Play was "born" (citation needed?) on the Something Awful forums, so that's always one place to look them up. Along with that is the LP Archive where many of the SA LPs are placed upon completion. There's also a Let's Play Forum somewheres, I believe, and there's always sites like YouTube.

 

But that's a lot to go through, so I figured I'd make a thread where folks can link and talk about their favorites (or even some of the not-so-favorites) amongst the LP Sea. And, just because there's a couple speedruns that I found really interesting in a similar way, I figured I'd include them on the list as well.

 

Personally, one of my go-tos for LP entertainment is Chip Cheezum. I actually started watching his stuff way back when he was doing his MGS2 LP, and he's only gotten better since. He shows a lot of skill, and his Experienced Player-and-New Guy dynamic with Ironicus works really well. It allows you to see a skilled playthrough of the game, and yet still get that "first time" reaction as well. His Revengeance LP is probably the best example of this, as Ironicus LOSES HIS MIND over the first boss of the game. It's great.

 

I've followed a few other SA LP regulars like Feinne and his screenshot LPs for basically every Nippon Ichi game, Chorocojo for his Pokemon antics, and Deceased Crab (Huzzah!). But beyond that, I don't know or watch some of the other big names. Folks like Markiplier seem to be about their own performances rather than the content of the game, and a focus on that rather than paying attention to the game is what has turned me off of the Game Grumps. There's something to be said about watching a group of folks play together that makes for a fun dynamic, though, so I still try to follow The Runaway Guys (even if Chugga's shouting gets abrasive really fast).

 

With more horror-related games, I usually stick to Voidburger and her comprehensive, atmospheric Silent Hill LPs, though SheSellsSheShells did a phenomenal job on Homecoming. I've also recently re-discovered Cryaotic through his Ao Oni run-through and am currently watching him fumble through Silent Hill 2. I think I gave PewDiePie one shot and immediately closed the video. :blush:

 

So, any other recommendations? Is there a particular LP you thought was done really well? Or an LPer or group of LPers that you find to be generally good viewing? Let us know!

 

Also, to stick with the tacked on bit about Speedruns, let me show you one of my personal favorite Speedruns of all time (be forewarned, though, it's a two hour trip - and I do mean a trip, they do some wild stuff):

 

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[ChewableMorphine]

[align=center]jmVIfM4zSDY [/align]

 

[align=center]YOU CAN DANCE IF YOU WANT TO, YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR FRIENDS BEHIND[/align]

 

 

[align=center]The Two Best Friends Play Resident Evil 4 playthrough is my absolute favorite.[/align]

[Branson Thorne]

My favorite Let's Play'er is Gopher. I seriously recommend subscribing to him if you are a fan of Rpgs like Skyrim, Fallout N, Wasteland etc.

 

He has the best skyrim/ fallout playthrough I've seen.

[Warren Castille]

Similar tastes to that. I recommend the LP archive for finding stuff you might just want to see, you sometimes strike gold. Of note:

 

Kaizo Mario World is a phenomenal watch with multiple great folks behind it. You might need to download the AVIs to view it, though, since Google Video is dead. Some of the runners uploaded their portions to Youtube, though: I know Proton Jon and PsychadelicEyeball did. Both have good channels on their own.

 

Trespasser by ResearchIndicates is similarly amazing for different reasons: The first being how he showcases a game that could have been amazing (seriously, watch at least the History of Trespasser video) and the second is JESUS CHRIST THIS MAN'S VOICE I COULD LISTEN TO HIM READ A PHONEBOOK.

 

My other go-to listen is Coffee Drinking Men. They're a little... off compared to most but I love their dynamic and they really adhere to their bits and pieces.

 

Lastly, I'll plug a friend's channel because it can't hurt.

is a play-through of all of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. None of the bugs or fuck-ups have been omitted, and you can see those involved go from giddy "This is so bad" amusement to hating life by the end.

[Kage]

\o/ Good Thread. Best Thread.

 

If Cryaotic didn't get a mention earlier I'd rave all about him now. :3

He tends to play more of the horror type stuff, which makes me appreciate him all the more because he makes it where I don't want to pull my hair out in anxiety over them.

 

 

More RPG wise, I definitely enjoy HCBailly.

 

Speedruns. :3 I fucking love speedruns and marathon speedruns. Watching Carl Sagan or Lee_SDA or even Trihexx run Yoshi's Island.

 

Werster is amusing. Back when I played games other than FFXIV I'd watch him do his Pokémon runs (any of them) while I grinded up in Tales of Graces f.

[Gegenji]

I thought of this after I had already made the thread but, I'm also kinda sad that Rooreeroolooo (such a hard name to get right!) up and disappeared at some point. His Banjo-Kazooie LPs are still on LP Archive, but he had been working on going through Nuts & Bolts when he stopped.

 

I find myself really bummed out about it, because it was a really good LP. A lot of people give that game flak but, as it was noted somewhere on TVTropes I think, it's one of those games that is more fun the more you put into it. Making crazy designs and thinking outside the box to beat all the monotonous missions. Where most of the LPs I see of it now just harp on how "This isn't Banjo-Kazooie" without end, Roo got mountains of suggestions for vehicle designs and presented all sorts of goofy ways to overcome the challenges (and even did some hilarious multiplayer with other SA folk).

 

I think what I missed most was the Jump mission in the Jiggoseum. He literally went through every vehicle he had gotten and had them try the jump, including boats that he just tossed over the edge. It was great, and it only got better when he busted out SA forum-user Lorak's kinetikos.h and completely abused the physics engine in the most hilarious ways. While the original video is gone, one person managed to recreate the kinetikos and has a video on YT.

 

Please watch. It's amazing.

 

nEi7hIMMyDk

[Hihimi]

I thought of this after I had already made the thread but, I'm also kinda sad that Rooreeroolooo (such a hard name to get right!) up and disappeared at some point. His Banjo-Kazooie LPs are still on LP Archive, but he had been working on going through Nuts & Bolts when he stopped.

 

I find myself really bummed out about it, because it was a really good LP. A lot of people give that game flak but, as it was noted somewhere on TVTropes I think, it's one of those games that is more fun the more you put into it. Making crazy designs and thinking outside the box to beat all the monotonous missions. Where most of the LPs I see of it now just harp on how "This isn't Banjo-Kazooie" without end, Roo got mountains of suggestions for vehicle designs and presented all sorts of goofy ways to overcome the challenges (and even did some hilarious multiplayer with other SA folk).

 

I think what I missed most was the Jump mission in the Jiggoseum. He literally went through every vehicle he had gotten and had them try the jump, including boats that he just tossed over the edge. It was great, and it only got better when he busted out SA forum-user Lorak's kinetikos.h and completely abused the physics engine in the most hilarious ways. While the original video is gone, one person managed to recreate the kinetikos and has a video on YT.

 

Please watch. It's amazing.

 

nEi7hIMMyDk

That vehicle is glorious and I want 1000.

[Khoure]

The only lets players I really watch are two best friends, cr1tikal, and vinesauce. For the most part, I don't have the patience for full, multi part playthroughs. I prefer the videos where they've cut the funnier/wittier portions and compiled them into something that's no longer than 20-30 minutes. There are a few exceptions of course, if something is exceedingly funny, but in general I just don't find watching ppl play games entertaining for hours on end.

 

and of course, here's a fantastic video of vinesauce going through a really bad mario knockoff called Superboy (only 4 minutes long!)

[video=youtube]

[Warren Castille]

Cr1tikal should be on everyone's subscribed list. I also recently started consuming all of BroTeam's stuff.

[Gegenji]

For the most part, I don't have the patience for full, multi part playthroughs. I prefer the videos where they've cut the funnier/wittier portions and compiled them into something that's no longer than 20-30 minutes.

 

Compiled stuff is pretty good too, if you're interested in the commentary and the more memorable parts of a game.

 

Personally, though, I find it's about the game just as much as the person playing it, if not more so. So I'm watching it in part for the LPer's comments and insight and reactions, and in part to experience the game. Which I suppose might be why I dislike it when it's more about the LPer than the game, or when they're too focused on their own antics to pay attention to the game.

 

I mean seriously, Game Grumps is notorious for this (especially in the older ones). They get mad and yell at a game for not telling them where to go when they missed blatant clues and NPCs giving them what they need because they were too focused on their jokes. They can be funny at times, mind you, but I find some of their best stuff is when they're either playing a game them know like the back of their hand (Mario Bros 2 comes to mind) or one that's so simplistic and linear that they can focus on their antics without hindering gameplay (ex. Kirby's Epic Yarn).

 

I know I probably shouldn't complain. I've only done one LP and it was a doofy little screenshot dealie. And enough people seem to enjoy their work to make all these Game Grumps Animateds. I just... I dunno. Their approach rubs me the wrong way, so I don't really watch them anymore.

[ProvaDiServo]

While I wouldn't call it a "lets play" I do enjoy the epic adventures of gootecks and Mike Ross. As well as The guys at Yo Videogames, but their language is NSFW.

 

There is the heartless 666 as well, he's got some hilarious LPs for the horror genre.

 

For the Darksouls crowd if you haven't tuned into EpicNameBro, A german spy, or Bitter bits give em a look over.

 

The super gaming brothers are also pretty good,

 

And for speedruns I personally stay in tune with "SpeedDemosArchives"

[Warren Castille]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

[ProvaDiServo]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

 

I gotta say while I agree, some of the shit that goes on in that is sick, like reprogramming super mario bros, into a game of snake was sick.

[Warren Castille]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

 

I gotta say while I agree, some of the shit that goes on in that is sick, like reprogramming super mario bros, into a game of snake was sick.

 

Doing funny things to games is acceptable! I love seeing what people can do to old coding and the sort. It blew my mind that you can backflip through the first boss' door in Ocarina of Time and land in the final dungeon of the game because of how things are connected, code-wise.

 

I just won't say that's beating the game. Similarly, I was amazed that someone figured out how to crash the RAM on a Super Mario World cart to trip the credit sequence in under ten minutes into the game. I just won't call that beating the game, either. If that's the case, any game with "view credits" as an option can be speedrun in about six seconds.

[Gegenji]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

 

I gotta say while I agree, some of the shit that goes on in that is sick, like reprogramming super mario bros, into a game of snake was sick.

 

... Link please?

 

But yeah, if I watch speedruns, it's usually only the 100% ones unless they're doing something patently ridiculous. I'm glad you were able to put your Pokemon in such a way at the start of the game that you can beat it in under a minute. I'm going to go ahead and watch a guy use pro bombjumping skills to sequence-break the hell out of Metroid game.

[Kage]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

 

I gotta say while I agree, some of the shit that goes on in that is sick, like reprogramming super mario bros, into a game of snake was sick.

 

... Link please?

One of the TAS runs iirc.

 

I love the Link to the Past runs. 100% no out of bounds etc. They have been fine tuned for years and years.

[Gegenji]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

 

I gotta say while I agree, some of the shit that goes on in that is sick, like reprogramming super mario bros, into a game of snake was sick.

 

... Link please?

One of the TAS runs iirc.

 

I love the Link to the Past runs. 100% no out of bounds etc. They have been fine tuned for years and years.

 

Yeah but... which one? I wanna see this.

 

Speaking of LTTP, though. I've also enjoyed watching a few races. A bunch of LPers getting together and trying to see who can beat a game first. I've seen a couple done with LTTP (hence my link from one topic to the next), but I've also seen it for things like Rogue Legacy and the Mega Man games. ProtonJon did it with Battletoads and even went so far as to add fake "achievements" for various things people did during the game.

 

Not all of them are winners, but a few can get rather entertaining. Especially when you get some good interactions going between the various players.

[Kage]

Pretty sure the first time I heard about it was last year at AGDQ 2014. But I found a video of just this.

 

OPcV9uIY5i4

 

 

One of the more amazing LTTP runners I watched was Krysstal. Also. Fuck blueballs. Every run can get fucked by blue balls. Also, the flippers glitch.

 

Anyway, I used to watch LTTP stream races on speedrunslive. They used to be held every sunday but Im not sure if they still do that.

 

At the GDQs I've seen Metroid races (4-man) as well as Megaman X(pick your flavor).

[ProvaDiServo]

Small tangent:

 

I miss the days when speedruns involved flawless play and not exploiting glitches. I'd much rather watch a TAS of something that's "fake" than watch someone glitchdance through a wall to trip the credits flag and consider that "beating" a game.

 

I gotta say while I agree, some of the shit that goes on in that is sick, like reprogramming super mario bros, into a game of snake was sick.

 

 

... Link please?

One of the TAS runs iirc.

 

I love the Link to the Past runs. 100% no out of bounds etc. They have been fine tuned for years and years.

 

Yeah but... which one? I wanna see this.

 

Speaking of LTTP, though. I've also enjoyed watching a few races. A bunch of LPers getting together and trying to see who can beat a game first. I've seen a couple done with LTTP (hence my link from one topic to the next), but I've also seen it for things like Rogue Legacy and the Mega Man games. ProtonJon did it with Battletoads and even went so far as to add fake "achievements" for various things people did during the game.

 

Not all of them are winners, but a few can get rather entertaining. Especially when you get some good interactions going between the various players.

 

[Steel Wolf]

My favorite Let's Player is MaximilianDood. Particularly his Boss Rage series. I've not met someone more in love with and more excited about fighting games in my whole life...and he doesn't act like some foul-mouthed 13 year-old to boot (though he does sling naughty language about, but it doesn't strike as ridiculous somehow).

 

He actually got me into the whole competitive gaming spectating thing, he's that into it all. I love his channel.

[SessionZero]

BroTeam and Two Best Friends are my standard go-to's. The Fate Of series on BroTeam's channel is spectacular, in particular. 

 

Also, while not technically a Let's Play channel, Retsuprae is amazing and I get plenty of laughs out of them.

[ProvaDiServo]

My favorite Let's Player is MaximilianDood. Particularly his Boss Rage series. I've not met someone more in love with and more excited about fighting games in my whole life...and he doesn't act like some foul-mouthed 13 year-old to boot (though he does sling naughty language about, but it doesn't strike as ridiculous somehow).

 

He actually got me into the whole competitive gaming spectating thing, he's that into it all. I love his channel.

 

Still avoiding his Yovideogames playthrough of Asura's wrath cause I wanna keep the last fight unspoilered

[Kage]

Actually one of the things that got me hooked on LPs and Speedruns is because for a long time I was watching Broodwar broadcasts. I was there the first year when a few people started up CSL (Collegiate Star League). Shit was tight and we had a few people who were really playing it up on the leaderboards at UCI's IEEE Lan party. Some people from UCSD DROVE UP! I digress.

 

People like Cholera, etc were commentating on OSL and MSL games.... and I wasn't the only one watching this stuff on youtube. I met some people at Uni who were watching during one of my GE classes :> and later... after CSL (and teamliquid forays)... well my youtube suggested feed started to give me let's play suggestions.

 

Especially, RPG let's plays.

 

But then came the let's plays for horror games. Games I myself just can't bring myself to play. And I found Cryaotic.

 

and I fell in love with Cry

 

The end.

[Harmonixer]

I'm really picky about my LP's. I can definitely agree that Cry is worth watching. I like the lack of facecam and his brand of humor. He makes really mundane segments of games worth watching and impresses me from time to time with his ability to not say anything super interesting, yet keep me entertained. His video descriptions are sometimes better than his playthroughs, just something about his presentation. Try his Vampire LP.

 

Jesse Cox has some pretty entertaining playthroughs if you can stand watching him grab every side quest and item along the way. He doesn't always play stuff I enjoy but I can pop in here and there and be satisfied with giving him time.

 

To a lesser degree I enjoy watching Dodger play stuff too. She picks on a lot of titles that aren't played as often and doesn't irritate the hell out of me with attention grabbing bs.

 

I'm not certain I would call them LPers, but I'm a fan of Emarrel. He's a Dark Souls players, and seems to be the best I'll ever have the pleasure of witnessing. He doesn't talk, as far as I can recall so it's annotations only. But man can that guy play. Mixing self discovered tech with stuff that's mostly know but hardly explored enough, he provides solid gameplay.

 

MartyrsBrigade and YamiTamashi are really excellent to watch too. Yami is another silent one, but the Brigade tends to have longer dialogues about what he learns and is pretty adamant about his opinions. Love or hate him, he helped me overcome some of my shortcomings when it came to the first games PvP. I fully admit that I was a more successful invader once I dropped the thought process that I had to play a certain way.

 

 

Does Gootecks and Mike Ross count as LPers? They do a show every month or so of them doing online Street Fighter 4 matches. It tends to be amazing simply because anyone that plays fighting games online knows that it's utter bs 90% of the time. The reactions are so genuine and the hype is hard to overlook for me. Maybe it's easier for me to get into since I still compete from time to time in fighters, it's still my favorite genre. I could never truly leave the scene, they are a fun way to accept that arcades are long gone and this is how it's going to be for the foreseeable future.

[Purpshuk]

Since I've been planning to become an LPer I started watching a variety of channels. So far though Markiplier will always be on my top favorite, he has a likeable personality!