Game video walkthroughs

What do you think about them?
I confess to using one for a game (I can't remember which one now) where there seemed to be no text walkthrough for or maybe it wasn't detailed enough? It was so hard to pinpoint the bit I needed!

Out of interest I've just looked at a couple of You Tube videos for The Cat Lady (it's an example but what I'm about to say could apply to many other game walkthroughs presented there!)

In both cases the presenter had never played the game before so here you are watching someone struggling through the game! My thought was that I can do that myself!

The worst was the one with the inset of the poster with headphones throughout! - I couldn't work out the point of that & even worse, while I don't mind thoughtful dialogue pertinent to the game I really don't care for 'crass' comments, swearing & verbal diarrhoea! For me, for a video play through to work the person has to have played the game before so it's direct, know all the angles & present a commentary that's sensitive to the game. I don't mind personal views as long as it's not self-indulgent warbling!

It varies from one genre to another, but it seems to me that a fair number of YouTube playthroughs are only intended by the presenters as entertainment for their subscribers, rather than any great motivation to guide the casual viewer-in-need-of-a-hint through a stuck point. You're watching the vid for the presenter's personality, rather than their know-how. (I subscribe to a fair few myself, and they are usually outside of the adventure genre.)

There are (of course) exceptions to that generalisation. Arglefumph, for one, who records informative walkthroughs for every Nancy Drew game.

If a presenter is playing a game through for the first time, and they have no idea what's what or where or how, then to title that series as a "Walkthrough" is grossly misleading.

Th Sherlock Holmes walkthrough by gewurzuk are well done.

Like Rushes said, in a lot of cases you have to deal with the presenter's personality, which can be obnoxious. I usually try to watch the walkthrough with the sound muted only to where I'm stuck.
However, there are quite a few walkthrough presenters who are very knowledgeable and insightful. It's happened a few times where I couldn't get through a spot in a game with a text walkthrough, and with an audio/visual explanation from the Youtube walkthrough, was able to get past it.

I don't know what to say here Rushes as in my experience of the handful of video play throughs I've watched I'm just not interested in the presenters (most of them talk far too much!) - do people really watch them for the personality of the presenter? - that's such a bizarre idea to me but then again on the rare occasion I've used them it's for either a hint or a screenshot!

That's what I like to see!

The ones I sampled Rushes were called "gameplay" so perhaps not misleading but I guess I need to avoid those in the future!

MaG, I only ever use a video walkthrough as an absolute last resort for a hint, or to find a screenshot but it's good to know that there are some sincere ones for the Sherlock Holmes games!

I think the video walkthroughs are a great idea Ewil if you're lucky enough to come across good ones as you did! How can you tell between the good & the bad without investing too much time first?

Adventuregamefan8 does a nice playthrough though he seems to be doing a lot of casual games now.
Still, he has a lot of playthroughs of adventure games up on YouTube.

Gil.

I kind of like the trend of youtube walkthroughs and the more help the better. Some of the individuals that post video walkthroughs are hard to swallow and I just turn them off but for the most part I think they are trying to help as well as get noticed.

I have used them on occasion mostly when I run into a pixel hunt and can't find a location of where to find a particular switch etc. The drawback being that you have to go through a lot of video just to get to the point you are looking for.

I guess it's one of those situations where too much information is better than not enough. With the video walkthroughs, at least you have an option (besides Gameboomers) to go to if you're stuck and the text walkthrough doesn't cut it.

As far as the time investment, I think it's worth the time to do a complete search before giving up and not completing the game.