Videogames, they’re played on televisions. Well, they’re played on computer monitors too, but those have all but turned into televisions in recent years, right? Right. Of course, 61 Frames Per Second has been pondering and expounding on the relative merits of televised programming based on and about videogames of late. As our very own Amber Ahlborn made the point the other day, videogame television aimed at avid players is typically schlock ridden garbage, marred by a need to come off as both cool enough for the cool kids and geekily informed enough to appeal to the really cool kids. Amber’s spot-on in saying that the best game television is on the internet. When it comes to quality, the comedic characters created by Yahtzee and the Angry Video Game Nerd are joined by the first truly successful preview/review show, The 1up Show. Ryan O’Donnell and Jane Pinckard found the winning formula of scripted dialogue, personality and informed journalism lacking in every other attempt at the form, and O’Donnell has kept it strong for three years running.
The golden rule of entertainment is that when you make something that works, someone is going to imitate you on the quick. Until today, I had all but forgotten about the recently launched The Jace Hall Show, relegating to the section of my brain labeled “Mildly Interesting Things N’Gai Croal Wrote About and Failed to Hold My Attention Oh Look Metroid Fan Fiction”. For anyone unfamiliar with the name, Jace Hall is the founder of Monolith Productions (creators of F.E.A.R. and Condemned: Criminal Origins) and has been a significant player in the games industry for over a decade. I watched my first full episode of the show today because Hall was visiting Gearbox for a look at both Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines. The show’s slick production works well and its premise of sneaking quick looks of games still early in development – the pilot had a-sneeze-and-you’ll-miss-it look at Duke Nukem Forever – is a novel hook. But it’s hard not to notice its attempt to mimic The 1up Show’s casual tone and the similarity is a little off-putting. The coverage is there, but it still needs a personality of its own to thrive.
You can catch the whole first season here on Crackle.com or on your Xbox 360 via Live Arcade.
Related links:
Video Game TV: Can It Ever Be Good?
Yahtzee Says, Support Your Local Independent Developer (He’s Right.)
Video Game Television the Canadian Way, Eh?
Horrors That Time Forgot: GamePro TV
Game Over, Man: Aliens – Colonial Marines Penned By Battlestar Galactica Writers