Third Person Action - Last Game THEY Played

I've noticed a little chit chat happening in a couple of threads about games we've been watching a friend, partner, loved one or Twitch streamer play. It isn't quite the same as sitting down and playing a videogame oneself, but it is a big part of how we experience games. No one person can, or wants to, play every game of every genre. That's what pals are for!

Games What I've Watched Shen Play

Dragon Quest Builders 1&2

Shen's best friends/ housemates bought her a copy of DQB2 for her birthday, assuming she'd play it on their Switch and/ or mine. Unbeknown to them, I actually got her a Switch for her birthday. She played it to absolute death, to the point that I bought her the first one as well.

It looks like an excellent game, but absolutely not my cup of tea. Lots of being organised and prepared and building things to a plan. I don't have the patience or the mindset to play it, but vicariously experiencing the best of the characters, puns and monsters has been fun, and seeing what Shen manages to build is always amazing.

Fatal Frame II
Shen's a big Fatal Frame fan. As a creepy Japanese horror series it appeals to me massively, but the ones she has are all in Japanese and very much about wondering around collecting things. I have been really impressed watching it though, the atmosphere and architecture and creepiness is absolutely top tier.

Monster Hunter XX
Naturally, as long as we've been dating it's been on my agenda to get Shen into that there Monhan. She had a little go on my copy of Generations Ultimate, messing around with tutorials and stuff.
Then, more recently, through a combination of watching a couple of Cool Ghosts videos which mentioned Monster Hunter and watching me fight some of the cooler, more interesting late-game monsters, she decided she really wanted to play more. I had the ingenious idea to set up my Japanese Nintendo account on her Switch so she could play Monster Hunter XX now that I have Generations Ultimate.

Games I've Watched People Play on Streams

Dark Souls
This is basically the only game I've watched streams of, and I've watched a few. I don't like watching top-level streamers do speedruns or challenge versions or multiplayer duelling or any of that shit really. What I like seeing is someone play through Dark Souls for the first time. It's such a unique experience that I haven't recaptured with any other games, not even the sequels or replaying DaS itself. The closest I’ve come to recapturing the experience is through other people.

https://spong.com/podcasts/darkcalls/]Dark Calls
My first vicarious Dark Souls experience, not even a stream but a podcast series. James plays Dark Souls but he isn’t allowed to talk to anyone about it or look at anything online: he can only ask Dave for advice, and only on these calls. On the other side of the coin, Dave is operating entirely from memories which are like a year old. Other than Dave’s occasional showings on Midnight Resistance, this was my first experience of the two hosts. They’re now among my favourite dudes, forming the backbone of The Computer Game Show, my favourite podcast.
They also recently did a sequel podcast: Star Calls. Dave watched the Star Wars films for the first time, with James as chaperone.

Two Dark Souls
A brilliant stream series with Tamoor Hussein and his brother, who plays DaS for the first time while Tamoor freaks out at how brazen he is. Alas, they never finished the series, and it no longer appears to be online

Richie Tries To Play Dark Souls
Richie Morgan, of Gamewank and Scottish Games Twitter fame, played through Dark Souls after being bullied into it by his pals. I had bumped into these guys a little through Videogamer, Bit-Socket and Midnight Resistance, but this was my first real interaction with that crowd. I really enjoyed it, and I now really enjoy Richie appearing as Santa on every year’s Christmas episode of 2 Good Boys.

Dark Souls Sundays
Mat Murray, from the aforementioned Computer Game Show, eventually did his own Dark Souls playthrough on stream. It was entertaining stuff and he’s actually gone on to stream the likes of Bloodborne and Sekiro since but I don’t want to watch until I play those myself.

I also understand that Prepare to Try is a good Dark Souls stream and, essentially, the return of Expert Super Guide with a different cast, but I’ve not given it a watch yet.

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Other than Dark Souls, the only other streams I watch are other ocassional things from the TCGS boys (I’m excited to catch up with Sean Bell’s FIFA streams) and some stuff from Monster Hunter.

What have y’all watched people play? What else should I watch people play?
Discuss.

Donkey Konga on the GameCube is the answer to all these questions.

The fact that Donkey Konga is not THE big game that everyone streams and watches on Twitch is the number one reason for climate change, Trump, Brexit and Nestle getting rid of the green Boost.

This thread existing has made me realise that I don't really watch people play games at all. I don't watch streamers or YouTubers, The Lady doesn't play the games I want to watch (let's face it, Custer's Revenge doesn't hold up in the visuals department these days ), and I don't have many other options since ZeroJones stopped doing Videos Games.

I can imagine Dragon Quest Builders and Fatal Frame being more fun to watch than to play though. Can't hide behind the sofa if you're busy playing.

I watch some stuff on Mixer and YouTube now and again of mates or as you brought up TCGS which I watched them play Nights in the Woods.

Other then that, I don't even watch the Overwatch League anymore.

Little surprised you don't watch the lady play ball as I would have thought if she does play the likes of Mass Effect then you may have wanted to see the story, same maybe with some things like Gone Home which you don't really need to play.

I'm not sure whether Gone Home would be her thing. I probably would spend some time watching her play PC if her PC was anywhere near me (we don't live together yet), but I'm not much of a watcher in any case. If I'm not watching something with someone I'm probably bored and looking for something else to do at the same time halfway through.

Balladeer wrote:

The Lady doesn't play the games I want to watch (let's face it, Custer's Revenge doesn't hold up in the visuals department these days ),

I dunno, those visuals hold me up, wey hey, PENIS.

Quote :

and I don't have many other options since ZeroJones stopped doing Videos Games.  

Once I sort out my internets I plan to do some more streaming and/ or youtube stuff - gotta spread that brand!

Quote :

I can imagine Dragon Quest Builders and Fatal Frame being more fun to watch than to play though.  Can't hide behind the sofa if you're busy playing.

Yep, Builders is fucking terrifying. It's like Cube 2: Hypercube all up in there. Also, this thing:

Balladeer wrote:

I'm not sure whether Gone Home would be her thing.  I probably would spend some time watching her play PC if her PC was anywhere near me (we don't live together yet), but I'm not much of a watcher in any case.  If I'm not watching something with someone I'm probably bored and looking for something else to do at the same time halfway through.

I was thinking of games where you don't need to play to still get a similar experience. I dod think though after this a tad of subject for this thread but talking PC reminded me but could play on your PS3 which may get some more use when Lady moves in as I've got a CO-OP game for ya, Portal 2.

Balladeer wrote:

and I don't have many other options since ZeroJones stopped doing Videos Games.  .

I might get around to busting out my capture card once I'm moved into the new place for what it's worth, although I doubt I'll be as endearing as ZeroJones!

Drunkalilly wrote:

Yep, Builders is fucking terrifying. It's like Cube 2: Hypercube all up in there. Also, this thing:

Oh, I know what that is now after playing a bit of the first Dragon Quest. That's a chimera and they're fucking dickheads who enjoy ambushing you in poison swamps and in mountain areas. I hate them.

masofdas wrote:

...as I've got a CO-OP game for ya, Portal 2.

She's already played it with someone else.

JayMoyles wrote:

I might get around to busting out my capture card once I'm moved into the new place for what it's worth, although I doubt I'll be as endearing as ZeroJones!

Get that cuddly Oddish in the shot and you'll be golden!

Drunkalilly wrote:

Yep, Builders is fucking terrifying. It's like Cube 2: Hypercube all up in there. Also, this thing:

I agree, that url was terrifying. Also I have actually seen Hypercube.

I actually don't think I've seen either cube film.

Balladeer wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

I might get around to busting out my capture card once I'm moved into the new place for what it's worth, although I doubt I'll be as endearing as ZeroJones!

Get that cuddly Oddish in the shot and you'll be golden!

Heh, Oddish lives on my mum's dashboard in her car now as she was the one that usually rescued him from peril, like the purple and green garden I spoke about on LLP.

I've seen Hypercube as well I think! What a load of fucking nonsense.

This is a good thread - I always thought that, when people described "Let's Play"s, I'd automatically say "what's the point of that?" But there are certain things that I do get. I wouldn't watch someone attempt speedruns normally, but I am quite a big fan of the Games Done Quick events. I think it's to do with the fact that there's an audience there to react to things, and of course the charity aspect. The smaller-scale GDQX was recently on, and one of the more fascinating things was the Super Mario 64 Randomiser hack, which swaps all the level entrances round, and moves all of the stars, coins and bad dudes around. As a game I feel like a know like the back of my hand, it was interesting to see the chap there think on his feet. And they speedran a Point-and-Click adventure - albeit Return to Zork is an infamously shit one (as kids, me and my buddy Arthur spent ages trying to work out how to not irreversibly lose the game). Don't watch the Zelda II one though - I love that game, but it's accompanied by someone else performing a piano rendition of the game music. Badly.

But I've not actually watched anyone else play anything in real life for a bit...

Games Done Quick is always a great watch because for the most part, they curate the content you're going to see and the runners prepare extensively for the marathon run to ensure that it's entertaining to watch. It's nothing like watching them stream their practice runs or world record attempts as they'll just be chatting to their audience or concentrating very hard.

On a somewhat related note, Summoning Salt on YouTube does great mini-docs on the history of the world records for various games. They're all great videos.

Highly recommend summoning salt, based on the support Mario bros one and the pokemon blue one

I love the tunes he uses and the way that a new speedrunning trick being discovered is built up to be this massive and incredible thing solely in the context of the mini-doc.

I'm enjoying watching Maximillian Doods Terry Legacy series at the minute where he plays through the Fatal Fury/King of fighters series, and another one that's a great watch is a series called 'What Happened?' by Matt McMuscles where he takes a look at the biggest game disasters of all time.

The two episodes that most will get a kick out of on here would be the one for the Super Mario Bros movie as well as the Street fighter movie

Max is great - pretty sure I've shared some of his FFVII:R content on here before.

I watched one of Matt McMuscles's videos on Too Human because the sheer disappointment I felt when that game came out is still unrivalled to this day.