The Best LP Ever Made

[Flanged]

The Codex Consensus seems to hold that video Let's Plays are generally terrible, and a symptomn of the decline. This is almost always true. But there are exceptions to the rule. One such exception is this blind playthrough of Raw Danger on the PS2 by Robert Florence (formerly of Consolevania, Burnistoun, Video Gaiden, Eurogamer, and the infamous Dorito Pope games-journalism scandal).

It's not new, it's not perfect, and it's not even complete. But it is still the best LP ever made (imo). Deserves a thread of it's own I reckon.

 

[taxalot]

Before I click, tell me why.

 

[sexbad?]

 

[Tigranes]

Best LP ever made is treave.

Video LPs are terrible because LPs are mostly not engaging enough to be full attention media, and I'd rather read while multitasking, at my own pace - otherwise I'll go play a game myself. Also, you have to put up with terrible voices that have hardly learned how to talk properly on media (which is a skill). Not only that, because this is real time, video LPs have to go through all the boring parts and make up some shit to say to fill in the gaps, making them excruciatingly redundant, whereas picture LPs can just pick interesting moments. Video LPs are like sitting on a couch doing nothing with one hand on my dick while some other dude plays the game and makes completely pointless banal comments about every single line and part of the game to fill up the time. "LETS GO, ARE YOU READY? LET'S PLAY. LET'S GO. OH. THIS CUTSCENE IS VERY LONG. OH. ;LOOK AT THAT 3D MODEL. OH. I WILL NOW READ OUT SOME OF TH ELINES YOU CAN READ ON THE SCREEN. OH, HERE WE GO. LOOK AT HIM RUN." Really, why do you want this?

As for this thing, specifically, the FABULOUS Scottish accent is nice. That's it. Otherwise this is exactly the same shit as all the other video LPs out there.

 

[Baron Dupek]

The only answer is Supergreatfriend. His mouth is always shut when needed + chat and you're done.
Watching archival videos from 999 and Virtue's Last Reward is far more entertaining that other filth, even more than actual games. Other than that - Retruspurae and maybe Kikoskia. Tried others and seems like waste of time even when you're kid or unemployed parasite.

 

[octavius]

Video can be good for recording particularly interesting battles. Otherwise pics and text is nearly always superior.

 

[TOME]

Best LP ever made is treave.

This.

 

[Abelian]

Freeman's Mind, a guy larping Half-Life as a mentally unstable Gordon Freeman, is quite funny, too.

 

[felipepepe]

Not sure if it's the best LP ever, but it's one of my favorites:

Spoiler

:3

 

[agentorange]

raw danger

 

[Jick Magger]

As a rule I try to avoid video LP's of RPG's and sandbox games because a majority of them are just made up of the player having to do shit that is just plain not interesting or entertaining to watch (i.e. grinding, going backwards and forwards between traders to sell useless shit, long treks from point A to point B, etc), unless the LP itself is extremely informative and/or the LP'er actually bothers to edit out all the fat (i.e. SuperGreatFriend's LP of Deadly Premonition), and games that are notorious for being difficult, i.e. Dark Souls, because I don't really find people re-doing the same section of a game over and over and over again to be that fun to watch.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Difficult games can be fun to watch because you see the player slowly learning how to defeat the challenges over time (plus the nerdrage is usually entertaining). Of course, unless he's really shit at it and posts 20 videos of him trying to jump over a gap, but from what I've seen those are rare.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...play-a-shitty-game-fallout-3-completed.34530/

Best LP EVAR! No video required.

 

[catfood]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...izardry-4-the-return-of-werdna-ironman.24449/

/thread

 

[Carrion]

Video LPs are terrible because LPs are mostly not engaging enough to be full attention media, and I'd rather read while multitasking, at my own pace - otherwise I'll go play a game myself. Also, you have to put up with terrible voices that have hardly learned how to talk properly on media (which is a skill). Not only that, because this is real time, video LPs have to go through all the boring parts and make up some shit to say to fill in the gaps, making them excruciatingly redundant, whereas picture LPs can just pick interesting moments. Video LPs are like sitting on a couch doing nothing with one hand on my dick while some other dude plays the game and makes completely pointless banal comments about every single line and part of the game to fill up the time. "LETS GO, ARE YOU READY? LET'S PLAY. LET'S GO. OH. THIS CUTSCENE IS VERY LONG. OH. ;LOOK AT THAT 3D MODEL. OH. I WILL NOW READ OUT SOME OF TH ELINES YOU CAN READ ON THE SCREEN. OH, HERE WE GO. LOOK AT HIM RUN." Really, why do you want this?

I mostly agree, but I do think video LPs can work with certain types of games if done properly.

For example, Spoony did a fairly entertaining Let's Play of SWAT 4, where each episode consisted of one level in the game. Most of the levels can be completed in ten minutes or so, so he usually had something to say at all times and the whole LP ended up being pretty compact. If he kept repeatedly dying on some level, he fast-forwarded through it or put some kind of a montage there, and as a result he covered the whole game without making it into a 20-hour-long slodge (12 episodes, each of them maybe around 15 minutes long on average). I don't think it would've worked quite as well with pictures, and it would've been difficult to do as well since you can't save your game during a mission. Good luck organizing all your screenshots after finishing a level on your twentieth attempt, or trying to take a mid-combat screenshot in a game where one bullet or little mistake can end your mission (although I suppose you could just record your game and take screenshots of that, but I have no idea how people manage to do those huge LPs in the first place).

Then he did another review of the expansion pack, and it's just him playing the game and throwing an occasional comment here and there. It's just a huge waste of everyone's time and I couldn't sit through more than a couple of minutes of it.

I've also enjoyed some of the Spoiler Warning LP's on Shamus Young's site, as they usually have three or four people commenting on the games. The downsides are that some of the games they've covered are too massive for a video LP (they did New Vegas and a couple of DLC's, for example), and too often they drift into inside joke territory where entire episodes just consist of inane banter that's got nothing to do with the actual game.

Still, I can honestly say that the best screenshot LP's on the Codex are better than any video LPs I've seen, because reading them doesn't feel like you should be just playing the game yourself.

 

[Drakron]

Retruspurae

They are only good when its a terrible game, they are really became "try hard" when its a decent but dated game.

Personally I like Diabetus LPs because he seems to be very chill and never gets mad as Slowbeef can get really hard to watch, heck his Metroid Prime LP should be watched if only him getting lost again, plus he gets mad ... well both did Dark Souls LPs you can see the different of style.

That reminds me Psychadelic Eyeball is also pretty good since like Diabetus he never gets angry.

 

[Abelian]

I find that graphical adventure games lend themselves better to video LPs. Of course, once you watch an adventure game LP, there is no reason to play the game yourself.

I generally dislike video LPs for reasons that were already discussed, but particularly when they waste the viewers' time due to running around, load times, and repeated attempts when the author gets stuck.

 

[The Fish]

I don't watch let's plays but this preview play through of dragon's dogma gave me some laughs when I first watched it. There are seven parts and it gets better as it goes on. No youtube link though.

http://www.videogamer.com/videos/dragons_dogma_episode_1.html

 

[Drakron]

Of course, once you watch an adventure game LP, there is no reason to play the game yourself.

This is true for all linear games, there are games that because they are non-linear you would still want to play them.

Adventure games are simply too linear and because gameplay is not exactly engaging there is really no reason to play them but due to the CoDification of games with most games being a cover-based, regenerating health with 3 weapons at most there not much of a reason to play those either.

 

[Carrion]

I have no idea why people would want to watch LPs of games that they actually want to play. Even if it's a non-linear or heavily randomized game where each playthrough is different, it's much more satisfying to discover things yourself rather than watch some asshole do that for you.

 

[octavius]

I have no idea why people would want to watch LPs of games that they actually want to play. Even if it's a non-linear or heavily randomized game where each playthrough is different, it's much more satisfying to discover things yourself rather than watch some asshole do that for you.

On rare occurences I watch Let's Plays to see how other players tackle a particularly difficult/interesting battle.
But I often check on Let's Plays of games I really enjoy to "compare notes" and to see if I missed something.
Sadly too many Let's Plays are too heavy on the LARPing and too light on endurance and preseverance.

 

[Carrion]

On rare occurences I watch Let's Plays to see how other players tackle a particularly difficult/interesting battle.
But I often check on Let's Plays of games I really enjoy to "compare notes" and to see if I missed something.
Sadly too many Let's Plays are too heavy on the LARPing and too light on endurance and preseverance.

If you've already played the game, I can understand that. If you already know what the game is about and how it plays, you'll probably get more out of the commentary as well when it comes to game mechanics, level design, the story and so on. However, if you want to play a game but haven't had the chance yet, I'd steer clear of all Let's Plays since they'll just ruin your fun.

 

[PlanHex]

I remember this one as being pretty damn good: http://lparchive.org/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-II/

 

[buzz]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-play-dark-heart-of-uukrul-dead-and-done.54028/

the game is beautiful but I don't think I would've been able to beat it without this LP. It's how I got on RPGCodex as well.

 

[Night Goat]

The Dark Id does a good job.