As 2018 comes to a close, let's look back-ten years. Tim Rogers (that's me) counts down the best games of 2008. As a man once sang, "it was a very good year."
I greatly appreciate the sincerity he brings in between. Cynicism and irony are entertaining and can be illuminating but If everything is cynical its worth nothing. The reason he's so good is that he's passionate, knowledgable but also a human.
I for one, am glad that both you AND Jonathan Blow exist. He may make amazing games, but no one can make videos and write quite like you do. Happy New Year and thanks for all the great videos!
I got married in 2008. I played a lot of Valkyria Chronicles in 2008. In 2012 I had a son and we named him Welkin. I am sometimes jealous of my son because I like his name so much. He loves telling his friends he is named after a video game character.
This is the 4th tim rogers vid I've watched in the last 3 hours, I've been trying to figure out how he does this. His writing is so good and free flowing it makes me question my intelligence.
When I think back to 2008 the first game that springs to mind of personal lasting significance is Dead Space. I think that game aged plenty well and has solidified as a classic. I still play it once a year (hoping one day the series might reanimate). You reminded me that Valkyria Chronicles and Braid came out in 2008, both games I adore.
I'm thinking of starting a programming course at 29 after doing a Bachelor in a Humanities course I realized I didn't want to do anything with in the end. So starting at 26 sounds like having your shit together to me.
Tim Rogers, you are a unique human being, the David Lynch of gaming. Thank you for another year of deep and insightful opinions mixed in with pure hilariousness. I'm a doctor training in psychiatry and although I adore my job, it comes with some awful and disheartening stories that tend to stay with me longer than I would like them to. Your work always leaves me in a cheery mood, for that I thank you.
Was briefly baffled to stumble on this video and hear such glowing praise for Valkyria Chronicles, since I really disliked my experience with the series… until feeling very validated to hear the fourth game specifically sucks 😅 i assumed I’d hate the first if I hated the fourth, but now I’m actually kind of excited to check it out
Hearing Tim Rogers talk about anything reminds me of the exact reason I am so saddened by the break up of the Super Best Friends whereas if I heard the same about another gaming group online (sans the Game Grumps) I wouldn't even be affected. And that is JUST HOW GENUINE AND EARNEST Tim and the SBF and people like that are that makes me want to hear them because they are putting out their actual honest, spiteless, lacking-in-hate, heart on their sleeve thoughts on something that has nothing to do with trying to destroy something or someone or guide someone else's opinion on something or just be contrarian or game the "Influencer" system. It's how they really think and they don't care what YOU think, because it's not about influencing you. Its about "here's what I think, I'm not trying to change you, just attract people based on whether they are interested in what I have to say, if you aren't, peace be onto you". I know that's not actually are not the thoughts of people like Tim Rogers or the SBF, but it's what I feel when I hear them. It's inviting and inclusive without being seductive. It's like seeing the lonely person at the lunch table and you wonder why they are siting alone. Some people reject the perceived reaction and make them into an enemy, some try to approach and feel dejected if they didn't feel they got anything immediately out of the interaction and some sit and and just want to learn about the person and sometimes a friendship forms because you were willing to just let someone be themselves without judgment. Like I feel that Tim isn't sharing these stories to grab your interests or elate a response but because it's genuinely on his mind and he genuinely just felt like letting it out into the world. Some will reject it or be dejected and others will just go "Huh...?" and keep listening, maybe even relate to a similar feeling. I am sad hearing his stories, but it's a good kind of sad, the kind that makes you go "I want to give you a hug" especially because you honestly need a hug for yourself from a kindred spirit too. Anyway *HUGS*
Actually I'd really like to play more games from Tim, so if going into computer science early had led him to be able to do more of that I would be ok with it.
Me too, and I've played the first game at least 7 times in the past decade, and still got hooked to VC4 campaign and loved the characters. I wonder what Tim hates about it.
VC4 is probably my favourite game of the year and, having gone back to VC1, the original doesn't hold up. The story is inane and unfocused, the characters are barely there, the level design is iffy. 4 is vastly better in all regards (literally there is not a single thing it doesn't do better than 1) and I was honestly shocked at how well the story, its themes and characters all came together.
@@names-are-for-friends Yes dude, most of the things you said I've written on my Review (unfortunatly it's in portuguese). The addition of squad stories makes Squad E more relatable than 7. I think they did a very nice job in making me feel something for those characters.
@@alexis3084 I'd forgotten the VC1 squad doesn't have any personality traits or skills before I started the game. But to be fair, that's something they share with the main cast, so it didn't bother me for long. I still laugh when I think about the guy who is your childhood friend and suggested to be an important character, but who only appears in scenes that are directly relevant to his character arc and then completely disappears from the story for long periods for no reason. EVERYONE in the game is like that but he's the worst example. I like VC1 as a game, but it's inconceivable to me that a real human being could genuinely prefer it to 4 because it's such a straight improvement in every single area
On a different topic, Why is Braid not on Switch by now? I have literally always wanted to play Braid and never did because I essentially had to skip the entire PS3/X360 era and it wasn't on a Nintendo platform at all. I almost feel like it's a conscious choice to not move Braid up at least to PS4/XB1 (though, in the case of Xbox, it should still work on XB1, right?). Yet how many people would discover its magic now if it was on Switch? Given the install base is almost 20 milllion already, I have to assume at least a quarter of that will want Braid since the praises for it are still out there.
My favorite example of the Oscars proving how stupid and pointless they are is the 1990 awards when they picked Driving Miss Daisy over Do the Right Thing. If you ask me, that year the Oscars judges did the WRONG thing.
Fallout new Vegas is shit I don’t understand why people like it more it actually boggles my fucking mind atleast fallout 3 had a story other than hey I got shot in the head (which I shouldn’t have survived anyway) now I want revenge and there’s apperently more after that? Idk I stopped playing cuz I was tired and forgot I had it when I woke up
Doing the dishes and had to race to stop this with soapy hands so I didn't get Lost Odyssey spoilers. I've never owned an Xbox but someday I will play this game.
I've entered some obscure medium of psychdaledic streams of one-sided counselling sessions paired with verbose discussions of video games. I want more.
I was so wonderfully pleased to learn of Tim Rogers' love of Lost Odyssey. Just when final fantasy was starting to lose me it came along and completely blew me away. I'd love to see a hd re release on modern platforms.
I'm a gigantic MGS fan, and I'd been waiting 3 and a half years for the biggest game ever to come out. The level of pure happiness and excitement the day it was released is yet to be topped
Last year, Jonathan Blow tweeted about how "biological factors" make women less interested in tech than men, and when called out on it, said that "progressive politics" are suppressing speech like that. Maybe you dodged a bullet when he stopped talking to you for a petty reason like not finishing and reviewing a game as quickly as he would have liked.
It really blows my mind that someone who made The Witness could be so dense about somethings. I seriously think The Witness is a fucking masterpiece and a triumph for the medium, but I can't get very enthusiastic about it these days because of Jon Blow's baffling beliefs. When the anti-diversity ex-Google guy James Damore was making the news rounds, the Atlantic published a rather naively sympathetic article on him, and Jon Blow actually agreed with the article. Like, dude, you've been on the receiving end of gamergate bs for how long? And you can't tell that this James Damore guy regurgitated typical gamergate rhetoric? I still think the guy is brilliant, but he's the epitome of Sillicon Valley centrist liberal.
Something about that story about Jonathan Blow was really great and I don't even know what it was yet. Also, I've tried to get into Lost Odyssey three times but I always drop it and I don't know whether I should try again or if it's just not for me.
I liked the concept and the novella parts, but wasn't really feeling it until after the part he mentions here. Not that specific part itself -- that might've been the roughest part of the game to get through, in terms of pace and linearity and all that -- but yeah, disc two and onwards really gripped me and I think it's my favorite game of that console generation now, so you might just need to persevere a bit more than you usually would to get the full payoff.
In Canada, we get to complain about game prices as much as we want to since a new game has been $79.99 + tax for the last several years. I don't even remember the last time a AAA game came out that wasn't that price.
Oh man I LOVE Lost Odyssey! Its just a shame it was suffering from so many technical issues, slow downs, lag, painfully long loading times :( that killed the experience for me. I still hope it gets released on PC, though I know that won't happen...
I hated FC 2. Got tired of the stupid TB aspect. And also hated the fact that you felt like everything was pointless since you were dying anyways. And yes I realize there are other endings (if I recall).
Far Cry 2, I was soooo excited for this game I convinced my mum to give me it before Christmas and adored Guns of the Patriots FN bizarre but class game! I remember the stealthy section through Vienna (or wherever it was), so many standout moments, way less responsibility 10yrs ago....... Ahhhhhh nostalgia :)
I checked out that list on your old blog you mentioned and OMG - Panzer Dragoon Zwei is so good. I happened to play it for the first time this year and I feel like I will be friends with that beautiful ugly dragon forever
