![]() ![]() Perhaps the most memorable challenge was when the hosts played Alien: Isolation. Anyone expecting highly polished controller mastery was in for disappointment as the three would often shout and die repeatedly while completing a section of the week’s feature game, much in the same way many of us play at home. The challenges were one of the most fun aspects of Videogame Nation. When a game lent itself to it, the show would often conclude with a challenge between the three presenters, sometimes roping in one or two of the talking head gaming experts who’d appear most weeks. Her slower and more laidback style sat well in contrast to Robertson’s high-speed manner. When The Order: 1886 came under inspection, Wilson bookended the show with a lovely piece on London as a setting for games, a segment that was actually much better than The Order: 1886. ![]() She’d present the main bulk of the show on occasion but could usually be found rounding it out with interesting features on gaming’s place in the world. Joining Maher and Robertson as the show’s third main presenter was Eurogamer’s Aoife Wilson. Gone were the Top Five Worst lists and instead we had a segment that was chock-full of life and celebration. John Robertson would occasionally take over main presenting duty but more often than not he’d pop up in another of new formula’s mainstays which was to look back at titles of a similar vein to the Game of the Week in a portion that was always informative and even funnier when delivered by John. Some games received better reviews than others but even when he was faced with a game that hadn’t come up to scratch, you always got the impression that Maher wanted it to be great and that he took no pleasure at all in finding the week’s chosen title a disappointment. The show’s new format opened with a Game of the Week feature in which Maher provided an in-depth review for a recently released title. Maher was instantly likeable and, much like Robertson, his passion for gaming was very clear. Wiped away was the condescension, the barely concealed scorn and left in place was a totally restructured show which got everything right that its previous incarnation had managed to get so wrong.Īnchoring Videogame Nation mark 2 was Dan Maher, former content co-ordinator for X-Box Live amongst other gaming websites. The producers of Videogame Nation obviously thought so too, as in August, Robertson was the sole survivor of the tsunami which swept through the current version of the show. His manic presenting style was highly enjoyable but above all else, John Robertson was a gamer and it showed. Famed for his catchy greeting of “Hello television friends, hi-def, high-five” before slapping imaginary flesh with his audience, Robertson was really the only reason to watch the show at this time. Lurking like a shining spectral presence on most of these early episodes was a weekly segment featuring comedian John Robertson of interactive gaming related, live show The Dark Room. Surely it was better to be recommending games to viewers rather than wasting their time with ‘The top 10 franchises that just need to die’?Īll was not lost though. Episodes were plagued with lists not celebrating the best in gaming but the worst in certain genres. It seemed to make the cardinal sin of mocking those it was presumably hoping to attract as an audience and most thought it’d be consigned hastily to TV hell. ![]() Fronted by two presenters who displayed only a passing interest in gaming at best and downright contempt for those viewers foolish enough to e-mail the show at worst, it looked cheap and was mostly awful. The show premiered on Sunday 30 th March 2014, though it’s fair to say that in its original incarnation it was, well, a bit rubbish.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |