matthewmatosis
patreon
2014/2015
🕑 Added 2014-12-27 16:56:36 +0000 UTC Hi All, The new year is coming on which has me thinking about what I should be working on in the future. This time last year I decided it might be interesting to attempt videos on more independant/small games and as a result I put out a few videos on those in 2014, namely: The Stanley Parable, Uplink, Dustforce and Antichamber. Unfortunately this is only a fraction of what I had hoped to do as I quickly found that doing smaller games wasn't quite as simple as I thought it would be. Just because a game is small doesn't mean it's any less worthy of a solid analysis so I spent quite a bit of time on these videos. Antichamber in particular took me a very long time to write up, perhaps longer than any other review I've ever done. It's nice to look at these games in-depth but the end result is just a ten minute video for you where I might have been able to put out a thirty minute video on a larger game instead. After realising how disappointed I was with my output this year this is what led me to abandon this small game focus and return to something bigger like the Mario series. On the positive side if we look at my larger videos this year I put out Shadow of the Colossus, The Wonderful 101, Dark Souls 2, New 'n' Tasty, Mario 64 and Sunshine. I'm very proud of how all these ones have turned out and I think they show I've been getting better as time goes on, hopefully you agree. Anyway 2015 is shaping up to be a bigger year for games than 2014 was. I'm particularly interested in Bloodborne, The Phantom Pain, Zelda U, Persona 5, Infinifactory and - hopefully - Spire. The immediate plan is to finish up the Mario series, focus on the Dark Souls commentary a lot of you have been asking about and then hopefully do something on the Zero Escape series. After that I'm not really sure but I don't think there will be a shortage of games to talk about in the coming year. Despite the indie game stuff not really working out I'm glad I tried it and would like to try something different again next year. This year I put out the video on Pac-Man/Scoring which I suppose is a sort of spiritual sequel to the Tetris video a year before that. Both of those are unique compared to my other stuff since they're more about a single topic rather than a whole game. They've never been as popular as my main videos but some of you seem to really like these and, most importantly, they don't seem to take as much work as my regular videos. I think it's easier to write something that focuses on just one element rather than stringing together a series of observations like I normally do. I'd like to try putting out a few more of these next year and I'm currently thinking of a few topics that might interest me in that regard. The plan for next year is pretty simple then, I want to focus on putting out more standard reviews but I might also put out some smaller videos on certain aspects of game design if something interests me. In theory the extra videos shouldn't detract from my main workload so hopefully they'll just be little bonuses. Whether or not I'll stick to this - or if it will even work - I don't know but I'm always looking to improve and part of that is doing something different every once in a while. I'm thankful for the support you've all shown me, it's been a great couple of years so far and I'm optimistic that the next one will be the best yet.Comments
Your videos are the bees knees. Thanks for your passion/dedication.
ok thanks for the answer one more question im wondering your throughs on that every game has to be a consistent 60fps or over on consoles and pc debate. Are you the type of person that has to have a consistent 60fps for it to be playable or are you fine with 60fps for better visual quality?
Matthewmatosis
Hi Ryan, Thanks for the kind words. I have a lot queued up at the moment and none of it is in the horror genre but I have always wanted to do something on Silent Hill 2. I actually set out to a video on it and hit a wall since the european version is locked to 50hz, I decided I would wait until I found a better solution. The recent influx of horror games has been interesting to see and I might end up covering one of the new ones in the coming year. Alien Isolation looks interesting to me, although I haven't played it yet.
Matthewmatosis
Hi Mike, I'm still not sure what format the Zero Escape videos should be since spoilers are obviously a huge problem. I'd like to talk about them in-depth but I'm aware that if I do so many people will watch the video first and spoil it on themselves despite my warnings. I may just end up doing a recommendation video which doesn't go too deep into the story so try not to get your hopes up too much. I'm aware that might be disappointing but I'd like to preserve the enjoyment for people who haven't played them yet if possible.
Matthewmatosis
Hi Tomos, I'm interested to see how that game turns out but when I do a series on something I tend to get burned out on it for a while. After doing the Mario videos I doubt I'll want to play/talk about another platformer for a while. It would be nice to see more 3D platformers in general though, it's a shame the genre seems to have died out. I hope you have a great new year as well.
Matthew you are hands down the best youtuber on youtube and following along on your adventure has been an incredible experience. I just wanted to thank you for that. Also I think many people would love to hear your opinions on some games in the horror genre as it is gaining ground again in the industry. Classics like Silent Hill 2 or Resident Evil 4 would be great videos. Or even recent entries like Amnesia or Evil Within. Either way I'm sure 2015 will be another fantastic year for your channel as there is simply no other reviewer quite like you. I look forward to more awesome analysis. Thank you so much!
Hey Matthew, I love your work. I just wanted to say that hearing you are doing Zero Escape is awesome! I love those games and can't wait to hear what take you have on them.
Hey Matthew long time fan here love your videos happy new year!! one question regarding platformers.There's this new indie one that ALOUT of people are looking forward to and it's coming out in 2015 it's called A Hat in Time it's inspired by n64 platformers like Mario 64 here's a small alpha trailer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvEmlprqj14" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvEmlprqj14</a> does it look interesting to you?
Matthewmatosis
Hi Alistair, First of all thanks for the kind words and I'm glad to hear I've had some influence on you. I was actually thinking of doing a Recommended games series but forgot to mention it in my post. In a way I've been doing them already as the "Underrated Games" series I do but I've been rethinking the wording on that and maybe "underrated" isn't a term I should be using. Using that term kind of implies I know the true value of a game and other people are mistake about it when all I can do in reality is give my opinion. I have other games I'd like to similar videos on such as Riven but I can't say that game is underrated considering how popular and well received the Myst series was. Renaming the underrated games series to recommended games would certainly open me up to a lot more of those types of videos and thankfully they're quite easy to do. I'll try to get a couple of videos in that style out over the next year. I'm still not certain how I should approach 999/Virtue's Last Reward so maybe that's a way for me to do them. I haven't played Banjo or DK64 in a long time but I'll give you my thoughts. I really like platformers and I don't mind collecting things so a large number of collectables usually doesn't bother me, DK64 is pretty extreme in that regard though. It becomes pretty tedious doing every level 5 times to get all the bananas and stuff. I absolutely love the final boss of that game though. As for Banjo a lot of people seem to think it's the best 3D platformer of its era and while I certainly enjoyed it I'd have to disagree. It has a lot of movement options thanks to the two main characters but unlike Mario 64 it's usually impossible to string those moves together into a smooth experience. For example if I remember right when you want to run around quickly as Kazooie there's a short animation where she pops out of the back where you have to stand still for a moment. That's the kind of thing that takes it down a peg for me. Rare were great at putting lots of stuff in their platformers like all the different guns and instruments and stuff in DK64 but it doesn't quite mesh together as well as it should. In Mario 64 if you know what you're doing you can always keep moving smoothly from one area to another which makes it better for me. I'm betting Zelda U comes out Nov/Dec 2015, we're a long way away but I think they'll hit that date. If I'm wrong I owe you a beer.
Allistair
Hey Matt, I hope you don't feel obliged to fill us in on the minutiae of your plans because we donate, but it's appreciated, nonetheless. The enjoyment I get out of your longer analysis videos of substantial games (MGS, Zelda, Mario) can't compare to the more meager indie analysis. I enjoy those too, but if it's holding you back from reviewing more (no Bayonetta?), please reconsider. Most of these indie games are short and mediocre; what you said about The Stanley Parable, Antichamber, and Dear Esther I thought myself, as did many others. They are not particularly deep, intelligent, or mechanically dense games. I feel like you are wasting your time if all your video does is preach to the choir. Meanwhile, I rewatch your other videos many times: Sometimes just to recap the game in my head, or for sheer entertainment value, or to grasp ideas from your analysis that were lost on my initially. You are my favorite YouTube reviewer; though there are some great film reviewers (tony zhou #1!) they can't compare due to copyright constraints and shorter analytic format. As a professional game critic turned developer, you inspired me to go back to analyzing and produce some of my own videos, starting with Mirror's Edge or Shadow Warrior (work in progress). Since I am so shamelessly taking from you, perhaps you can take an idea I had -- not a particularly original one, I admit: produce shorter "Recommended" videos that are 3-5 minutes. There are many games that are worth playing but don't deserve a 20+ minute analysis video, but I and others would still like to hear your thoughts on them. This could also serve as a needed break for yourself, as I imagine only doing longform can become tiring. Regardless of what route you choose, I'm sure I'll enjoy what's to come. PS - I started playing Banjo-Kazooie for the first time. How do you rate the Rare 64 platformers? PSS - No way in hell does Zelda U come out next year. Sorry!
