Watching this makes me cringe by how overly simple the commentary is. I know that TB is known for being an e-sports caster for the totally oblivious viewer, but I feel like he’s not doing the game any justice!
At least more people have bought the game because of his exposure.
Encourage them to do it.
It’s not even a bad thing for SSF4AE really.
Strange but I guess its good…
Awful tone in his voice, it’s sooo annoying. And he uses words that he probably thinks sounds impressive way too much. You don’t need to say he’s zoning after every single fireball.
I didn’t watch the whole thing, I’ve got a bad enough headache already, but one thing is for certain. He doesn’t understand the concept of commentating. All he’s doing is talking about what is going on, saying every action, it sounds like he’s trying to be a radio announcer instead of a commentator.
sounds like a guy that would comment on darts haha 
I can’t wait for him to bring to fighting games his unique brand of knowing absolutely nothing about anything and yet STILL somehow managing to be so insanely popular that I don’t even understand it. If we’re lucky, Totalbiscuit can even start drama with random SRK forum trolls and community heads and then talk about the haters and how much they gonna hate. How is it possible to be a fan of this guy? His popularity completely boggles my mind. It cannot be emphasized enough how little he knows about the games he commentates.
Also, the Cynical Brit?* Really?* Calling yourself cynical is the most annoying thing any human could possibly do. NICKNAMING YOURSELF cynical should be a crime. Who do you think you are, Charlie fucking Brooker? HEY GUYS LOOK AT HOW CYNICAL AND BRITISH I AM WHO KNOWS WHAT KIND OF WILD CYNICAL THINGS ARE LIABLE TO COME OUT OF MY MOUTH! Douche.
You shouldn’t take things so seriously, dude isn’t trying to come off as an expert or anything. Why hate?
Little less annoying than optimism is I think.
He wasn’t any good at Warcraft or Starcraft either, but his word was god among his followers. I don’t understand his appeal.
I really like TB for his “WTF is…” series and some other videos because it brings exposure to indie games that, otherwise, might not have been known. But his commentating seems to be restricted to the entry-level fighting game (or other games he commentates on) viewer. I say this because I see a lot of positive comments on the video by people who want more, and comments by those who are watching a fighting game (commentary) for the first time and are surprised by how entertaining it is.
We don’t need to know the definition of Shoto or Charge characters. Or, that Ibuki is a ninja (we can tell from her character portrait). We can tell from the match that the Blanka ball is being punished by a dash punch on block even though TB doesn’t draw attention to it.
I think TB spreads himself too thin on the games he commentates and doesn’t focus on improving himself in a particular game or genre. The result is he can only be considered appealing to those around or below his skill level - like first timers.
Watching his SC2 stream was painful. Was super annoyed at first how he kept talking like he was really good, but kept losing badly due to whatever reason he came up with. It was quite fun sitting with a mate watching all the stupid/bad stuff he kept doing ingame though. According to my mate he practices a lot with high level players as well, so watching some of the things he did was mind boggling.
At work, so haven’t watched this commentary yet, but I hope it’s better than the 3 minutes of him mashing srk with Dan that I watched before. I guess some of his followers might buy the game, but I sure hope it doesn’t reinforce the “fighting games is just mashing buttons” view a lot of people seem to have.
Guys, he’s just commentating from a casual standpoint, for he is nothing more than a casual player, catering for the very same playerbase. That vid wasn’t meant for SRK members, so I don’t understand your expectancy. Also, considering SC2; “I suck at starcraft” is the vids’ title, so how could you want some pro level action from this guy?
What are you, jealous? Why would you even give a f**k? Even bashing his name…you really must hate him for some strange reason. Do you see me freaking out that your username doesn’t make any damn sense? Chill the hell out.
Here’s the issue that I have with TB.
If you’re watching an NBA match or similar professional sport, what do you expect from the commentators? It’s ideal for a sports commentator to know his stuff, but because all the action is obvious (so-and-so shoots a 3-pointer) it is more acceptable to comment play by play.
However, when you’re watching a WNF stream or a tournament match video that was uploaded later, you appreciate the commentaries from a player like Viscant because of their knowledge and expertise of the game.
That’s why it’s really unusual for a commentator like TB to become popular despite his lack of knowledge about the games he commentates. He would be bashed by beyond belief if he commentated for any major tournament. Simply admitting the fact that you don’t know much about a game, yet choosing to commentate doesn’t make him any more qualified. Thats like saying: “Yeah, I don’t know much about the stock market but I’m going to commentate anyways.” In this case, it is worse because TB openly admits that he doesn’t know much even though it’s part of what he does for a living.
Because e-sports has much implied knowledge (think option-selects and safe jumps in SF, or build orders in SC and jungling in LoL) it is necessary for a commentator to know his stuff. TB commentates more like a sports commentator, telling what is obvious and redundant to us. Although his fans seem to like it and AE is gaining some more players, I feel that it is laziness to not know about the games you commentate, especially if it’s your job.
Well the title already says he’s trying to cast a little bit of it. He admits he has little bit of knowledge and it’s totally fine especially he has a fair amount of audience to his channel. A little more exposure to people outside of FGC isn’t a bad thing at all. Chances are you probably have enough good channels with insightful commentary. This isn’t for us, this is for people who are tuning in around his level of knowledge. And judging from the youtube comments, he’s not doing too bad with that particular chunk of viewers.
Althought not a lot of of the average/above average player base of fighting games liked Adam Sessler on mic at EVO last year, he brought in a lot of G4 viewers and they tuned in and got exposure.
So again, this isn’t entirely bad and it doesn’t really affect the rest of us. Encourage more of this IMO.
Well he did say “Try” which is assuming this is something new for him. No one starts off being an expert in anything. Moving from lets plays to amateur commentating is quite the leap but with a little time and practice I can see him doing quite well.
Instead of ripping the guy down, why not give him some pointers as to what he is doing wrong. You know, constructive criticism… if his lingo is not up to snuff, explain to him what he is doing wrong.
What bothers me is why the so called cynical brit uses a game with menus partially in french.
I think TB would be great for commentating Street Fighter if he could get an analyst to pair up with him. He’s so good at color commentary, but horrible at game analysis.
The french in AE PC is normal. Sadly its like that by default for some weird reason. No matter what language you install the game in. Itanother bug capcom needs to fix. As for TB doing commentary i found it to be very amusing. I kind of enjoyed. Stop bashing the guy. Its not like its the only game he plays. For a Gamer and reviwer to do such commentary is pretty nice. And he`s also increasing the community by doing so. Getting more people intterrested in the game. Not a bad thing right?
Ah ok, I’m french, and my full game is in french.
Didn’t knew of the language issue for others, weird because the english files are there…