2022 - A Round Up and Tier List

So here at the end of a pretty crazy year, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take stock of how everything has played out and think back to where I was at the start of the year.

As of 1st January 2022 I had just released the Prince of Persia retrospective and was sitting at about 500 Subs which I thought was a pretty big deal at the time (I literally had a glass of wine to celebrate on Christmas Day)

So what happened next?

Well I kept making videos and slowly but surely, people kept watching and more people seemed to discover my weird little corner of the internet

As of today, the channel ticked over 50,000 Subscribers which means that somehow I've gone from 500-50K in 12 months - a feat that I never thought was remotely possible when I first started out.

All I can say is thank you again for the support on Patreon and with all the kind comments on the videos. I'm currently loving working on the channel and I'm already neck deep in notes and research for the next video which I can't wait to see up on the channel with the rest of them!

I also thought it would be kind of fun to look back at my older videos and put together some of my thoughts about them. Of course this naturally resulted in a tier list as that's simply the way writing about anything on the internet works these days.

S TIER

Eternal Darkness

I've said many times before that I think the Eternal Darkness video is my magnum opus and I really do hold it very close to my heart. The game is fantastic, the history behind Silicon Knights is extremely interesting and I even got to retell some Lovecraft stories. Everything just seemed to click and I had non-stop fun from start to finish making it.

Castlevania

This was a video I'd wanted to make since I first started and the fact that I finally got to do it - and it was received well - was extremely satisfying. It's quite hard to be objective about it as it's so freshly released but it's a microcosm of everything I want the channel to be - a history documentary, a video game review show and an audiobook all wrapped up in one. Somehow I feel like this 7 hour beast does come together and it's made me very happy to see all the hard work pay off.

A TIER

Lord of the Rings

Again - this was a video I'd wanted to make for a long time and I really felt like I was racing against time to release it, almost like some mystery other channel would release it before me and I'd be pipped to the post. Luckily, that never happened and the video was really well received but there are a few things that irk me about it.

I'd love to be able to go back and rework the audio as my mic wasn't great and also there is zero game audio at any point which I think is a bit odd. It's a bit of a black mark against it in my mind although I do really enjoy the writing and theme of it all.

Dino Crisis

This one was a real slog to make as I suffered with Covid-19 pretty badly while writing and editing it and so despite it being my most successful video (by far now) I'll always slightly resent it for how brutal it was to put together. I'll also never live down muddling up some of the dinosaur names and this results in me receiving dozens of messages every week reminding me exactly what a Stegosaurus is

B TIER

Prince of Persia

I'm not sure why I decided to make a video that reviewed every single Prince of Persia game but I'm glad I did as it was really the spark that made people notice the channel. That being said - I think it's got quite a few issues which I'd absolutely correct if I could.

The audio and visual quality in some places is really poor and I think some of the decisions I made around which games I covered were a bit off the mark. I wish I'd explored more of the ports of the original Prince of Persia and almost certainly should have slogged through 3D and given it a proper review.

Still - you live and you learn and I think this video paved the way for everything that came after.

Alpha Protocol

It's the definitive B Tier video isn't it? I think it's a decent little project without any major flaws but really it's just a fun "shorter" video exploring an odd little game. I think my favourite parts are where I dive into the history of Obsidian which really cemented that I wanted that to be a big part of the channel.

Jade Empire

The first Lengthy Retrospective video I ever put together and honestly, I think a pretty decent effort considering I'd never made anything remotely as long before. There are a few oddities (the chapter titles, the "no sequel" premise, the horrendous mic quality) but other than that I really think I did justice to a game that never gets the attention it deserves.

C TIER

Mortal Shell

Despite putting this in C Tier I still think this is a pretty great video, it just suffers from me not really knowing the direction I was heading in when I made it. Obviously these days we focus on older titles but this was born from me wanting to include some interesting modern games, which is maybe not where my skills are. I still absolutely love this game though and can't recommend it enough - especially the DLC which I was utterly addicted to.

DOTA 2 - A LOVE LETTER TO A GAME I HATE

Again - it's not that it's a bad video but just that it doesn't really fit the channel. One thing I do really enjoy is that you don't see many people trying to blend the video essay world with multiplayer games so it was enjoyable to try and take that challenge on.

D TIER

QUICKFIRE RETROSPECTIVES - 6 RETROSPECTIVES IN 1 HOUR

This video was completely born out of how long the Castlevania video was taking and I think it really shows because it's really quite an aimless video which makes it a tad uninteresting. It was still a lot of fun to talk about some games that I genuinely love but I think it's pretty obvious there wasn't a proper idea behind it's creation. I'm still messing around with the thumbnail and title today which tells you everything you need to know!

HOW THE NUZLOCKE SAVED POKEMON (FOR ME)

It was the first proper video I ever put onto YouTube and it really shows. While I love the premise and really do stand by how fantastic Nuzlocke challenge runs are - you can really tell I was still getting to grips with editing. There are a few too many jokes and far too much manipulating text, which I think stems from not being as confident in your script/VO. It was still a good project to have done and it taught me a lot

So with that I'll bid you a happy Christmas and a merry new year! Hopefully I'll see you all in the streams, on twitter or in the comment sections. Know that you've all helped make this one of the best years of my life and I am more appreciative than you could ever know!