Readers who frequent the PC reviews here at Avault have probably noticed that I have started posting video commentary on YouTube along with my regular game reviews. I thought I would take a few minutes here and explain what my goals are with these video commentaries, where I see them going, and how they connect with our other work here.

My initial foray into video commentaries was sparked by some of my academic work. I purchased a copy of Fraps so I could screen capture games for use in presentations. After doing some initial work, I realized that there were some things I could highlight to our readers in a video that would take up too much space in a written review, such as describing the good and bad qualities of a title’s interface. I did some experiments, and found that iMovie makes adding commentary fairly easy, provided I keep the cats out of my hair (they like to mew at me while recording). It’s taken a bit of practice, but I really only need about an hour or two to record and edit a video commentary once I have the raw footage from the game.

With that being said, I want to be clear that what I am attempting with these video commentaries is not an all encompassing video review that will one day replace the written reviews. There are a number of reasons for this, the most important of which is that our readers can read our reviews in circumstances wherein it would be impossible/unadvisable to watch a video review (while at work, using computers in public, and so on). Second, the written word is better for conveying certain kinds of information. But there is also another consideration. Making an entire review from video would obviate what I think is the most beneficial part of doing a video and providing commentary. Instead of just blabbing away mindlessly while random clips from the game play in the background, I can actually show our readers how an interesting part of the game plays.

I think that posting video commentary of this kind is going to be better for you, our readers, because I can illustrate that which is either really good or really bad in any particular game. I can show my readers the “pew-pew” aspects of Stalin vs. Martians in all its RTS tedium or demonstrate the dirty brawling of the gang fights in Zeno Clash. I can also show our readers some parts of how the game is played to help them make an informed purchasing decision. After all, even a 5-star game with our Seal of Excellence, despite its quality, will not be the kind of game everyone will enjoy. Seeing me playing through part of the game, commenting on the action, will enlighten readers further. And that really is the name of the game, isn’t it?

However, there are some things that my video commentaries are not meant to accomplish. Video commentary cannot really be used to demonstrate the quality of the graphics or audio of a game. While I can demonstrate an annoying soundtrack, bad sound effects, or poor artwork, video compression makes showing the quality of the actual rendering impossible. Any game that I screen capture and compress for posting on the Internet will lose some audio and video quality. Thus, even if I forget to say it in the commentary, none of my video commentaries should ever be used to judge the quality of a game’s rendering. (Whether the game trailers that the companies promoting various games put out on the Internet should be used to judge the quality of the game’s audio and video is a whole different consideration.)

Furthermore, video commentaries should not be construed as revealing everything about a game. Due to time constraints, I could not possibly reveal everything about gameplay in a video commentary (you’d get bored after thirty minutes, trust me). I will only pick the most relevant portion(s) of the game to comment upon, primarily to illustrate things that are exceptional or abysmal, that would take up too much room in the written review.

Also, it will be rare that I present the multiplayer aspects of the game. The reason for this is that I would not want to post footage from a multiplayer game unless I had the consent of the other players. I would consider that borderline unethical, not to mention rude. This will make it unlikely that I would get significant footage from MMOs unless I am member of a guild/kinship/in-game organization whose members would be cool with appearing in a video.

Finally, video commentaries are not meant to demonstrate winning strategies or my brilliance as a player. As I intend to illustrate specific aspects of the game, I may reduce the difficulty settings or use specific scenarios in order to engineer the things I want to show our readers. While this may be less important for completely new titles, for expansions and add-ons, experienced gamers who played the original should take my actions with a grain of salt and not try to emulate them unless I specifically mention my actions as a valid strategy.

All of that being said, I would like to make it clear that I am not trying to up the ante in the reviews we do here at Avault. My colleagues are doing a great job, and my experiments in this direction are in no way a refutation of their work nor an attempt to show them up. In the face of some new software I acquired, and, after seeing what our competitors do with video reviews, I want to try something different.

Of course, our readers might want to chime in and indicate what they want to see. You’ve seen my work and the video reviews of others. Given our format here at Avault what would you like to see? What kinds of details?

P.S. After getting ready to post this, I thought I might want to mention that I really have no idea where any of this fits in with what our editors have in mind for the future. Whether they think this is a good idea, a bad idea, or that it fails to fit in with their plans to initiate a takeover of the planet at the behest of their masters, the Flying Lizards of the Planet Zorb, is something only they can answer.