Line #28 WebVideo/NoahCaldwellGervais


1	[[https://www.youtube.com/user/broadcaststsatic/videos Noah Caldwell-Gervais]] is a Website/{{YouTube}}r who runs an AnalysisChannel that was formerly named ''Broadcast Static''. The channel features in-depth critiques and retrospectives of popular and obscure video game franchises and individual video games, starting with an hour-long retrospective of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series.
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3	After a successful Patreon campaign, he has also produced a trilogy of {{Travelogue\|Show}} videos collectively known as "the Triptych", which followed him, his wife, and his dog fulfilling Noah's lifelong dream of traveling across the western United States in a restored [[HippieVan VW Bus]].
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5	Noah's critiques are notoriously lengthy, with his full retrospective of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series clocking in at just under ''9.5 hours''. A sorted list of his videos can be found on the [[Recap/NoahCaldwellGervais Recap page]].
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7	!!Tropes found in Noah's videos:
8	* AnalysisChannel: The channel's backbone are Noah's extensive critiques of individual video games and entire franchises, primarily {{Action\|Game}} and HorrorVideoGames, as well as classic {{Western RPG}}s and {{Immersive Sim}}s.
9	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Noah often uses his video game critiques to reflect on RealLife, as well, and when he doesn't have a good answer, he instead puts it into a question that strips the issue down to its very core and lets the audience ponder it with him (see the [[Quotes/NoahCaldwellGervais Quotes tab]] for some examples).
10	* ArtifactTitle: Noah formerly used "Broadcast Static" as his channel's until he began branding his videos with his own name instead.
11	* AuthorFilibuster: All of Noah's videos are lengthy, and more than once he dedicates a few minutes to relay either an opinion or personal story, although he attempts to make it pertinent to the video game in question. For instance, his review of ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' includes his opinion about difficulty in games (and what it says about people who prefer either extreme), but he uses it to illustrate how accommodating and well-paced he felt the difficulty in that game was.
12	* DeadpanSnarker: Noah's narration is generally very even and factual, so on the occasions where he allows himself to sneak in a snark (usually directed at video game developers, publishers, or political figures), it often takes a second or two to register with the viewers.
13	* FanNickname: The ExcusePlot of some Quake games involves "Quake" being the name of some kind of BigBad. "Damn that Quake bastard moves fast!" Noah refers to this character almost exclusively as "Quake, that fast-moving bastard".
14	* FormerlySapientSpecies: Noah found the final level of ''VideoGame/Quake2'' to suggest this of the Strogg. Once they had some form of culture and an existence other than torture and conquest, which shows in the actual decorations and pomp of the level, but now that's vestigial, a lingering trace of something they can no longer reach or remember.
15	* HypeBacklash:[[invoked]] Noah didn't find ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' to be particularly enjoyable, feeling that the shooting was above-average and the story was stupid and non-sensical. However, he still believes that the game is one of the most important games ever made in its scope of influence and that it needed to happen to save the franchise after both ''Code Veronica'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'' show how dated the franchise's gameplay and formula was. He compares it and the games influenced by it to the song "Hallelujah" -- it was ''written'' and first performed by Leonard Cohen, but a lot of people including Noah himself prefer other covers.
16	* MonoNoAware: Noah identifies this as a CentralTheme of the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' trilogy and of the Creator/FromSoftware games in general: that nothing lasts forever and, however terrifying that is, this must be accepted, that denying this inevitability leads to great suffering, and that it's the finite nature of life that makes it worth something.
17	--> "We all want to cling on, to linger, to be as we are forever. [[ImmortalityImmorality This is bad for us]]. Gradually, we all slip into the chill night that encompasses all. To meet it with open eyes and open arms is a frightening proposition, but it's a proposition through which a person might reckon with their existential position as a fragile, transitory thing more honestly."
18	* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer:
19	** In the ''VideoGame/FarCry'' retrospective, during the ''Far Cry 3'' segment he quotes the director of the game where he mentions that all the overt themes of the story were on purpose and meant to be allegorical and meta rather than literal with him going on a colorful rant about people not "understanding the game" and "taking the game seriously", Noah pauses two times to remind us that the man he's quoting works for a multi-million dollar company.
20	** In the ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} Identity'' retrospective, during the ''Crysis 2'' segment he discusses the changes to the format made in the sequel (the change from small-sandbox levels to linear levels with arenas, and the removal of two of the Nano Suit abilities). He quotes the contradicting statements made by the game's director Cevat Yerli about "not streamlining, just refocusing" and the game being "a choreographed sandbox", while both saying that they made a lot of decisions based on their preconceived notions about console players, only to later state they didn't do it accommodate console players and did it because they believed that all players would love the changes. Even Noah is baffled at the Yerli's statements, and his attempts to hide the fact that the game was designed for more casual audiences and weaker hardware.
21	* OldGuardVersusNewBlood:[[invoked]] A major theme of his Western [=RPGs=] retrospectives and reviews is the comparison between how [=RPGs=] were made and expected to be played in the 90s and from 2000s onward (for more background on this gap, see MediaNotes.WesternRPG). He reviews them from the perspective of a player/fan of both the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' tabletop game and of its video games.
22	** In his ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' retrospective, he goes to great lenghts to explain that old [=RPGs=] games were meant to last 40 to 70 hours, how leveling was painfully slow, how most combat situations always put the player's party in a disadvantage, how party members can be killed permanently during combat and most damning of all, how needlessly complex the [=THAC0=] system was (which was used in all licensed ''D&D'' games), and believes that this was one of the reasons the Genre was overshadowed and later taken over by 3D sandbox and Action [=RPGs=].
23	** He constantly compares ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' to future Creator/BioWare games such as ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' (''[=KotOR=]''), ''Franchise/MassEffect'' and ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' since ''Neverwinter Nights'' (and its expansions) serves as a weird bridge between the classic [=WRPGs=] and modern [=RPGs=] that's neither as complex as the ''Baldur's Gate'' series but not nearly as accessible as ''[=KotOR=]'', ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' and ''Franchise/MassEffect'' by comparing how the newer games make a conscious attempt to be accessible and are willing to take some liberties with gameplay rules and mechanics to make the game easier and faster to play while Neverwinter Nights ''insist'' on following the D&D rulebook to a teeth.
24	* OnceOriginalNowCommon:[[invoked]] His feelings on ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' is that it was profoundly innovative, interesting, and fresh -- and that other games have so refined its gameplay style that the original game just isn't as appealing once you're familiar with those games.
25	* ThePowerOfLove: While discussing ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', and specifically Caesar's Legion reducing women to subhuman status and outlawing homosexuality, he says that there's a reason fascism always tries to oppress women and gays -- a fascist institution depends on men being willing to die for the movement and not a lot else.
26	-->''"Nothing erodes devotion to the state like devotion to another individual. There is nothing more individualistic than love. Love pulls the soldier away from the unit, it disconnects them from their nationalistic obligations, it makes them not want to ''die'' so much anymore. It makes them want to live, instead."''
27	* PrecisionFStrike: Noah doesn't swear a lot in his videos, but when he does, it serves to either emphasize the point he wants to make or as BrutalHonesty.
28	* RightForTheWrongReasons: While calling out how ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel'' uses themes such as the drug war and police brutality in very poor taste and exaggerated manner, Noah points out that many of these things are based on actual problems that have been sensationalized by cable news, and ''The Cartel'' may very well be how other countries see the US.
29	-->''"The Cartel says some of the most unflattering things I can think of regarding the American character, but how many of those things are fully untrue, once you get past the insult of having it said so plainly?"''
30	* SeriousBusiness: Noah usually argues against the classic notion that "true gamers are those that beat action games at the hardest difficulty", particularly since he, in his own words, is "a fool and a stoner, and must be allowed to make mistakes". He therefore impresses upon listeners that there is nothing wrong with playing on the easiest difficulty. He takes particular time discussing this in regards to ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'''s difficulty curve, where he discusses another gamer's quote on Twitter, and rebuts that for most people, mastering a game only means mastering that ''specific'' game, and that constantly losing in a game is more likely to simply make him find something else more productive to do, not stubbornly forge onwards.
31	* ShooOutTheClowns: Downplayed. Early on, Noah tried to lighten up his videos with jokes here and there, but these were very hit-and-miss. After realizing that "being funny" is not a requirement for a good critique, he dropped them in favor of a more DeadpanSnarker approach -- not that he's above jokes, sometimes becoming a LargeHam for a moment.
32	* SoOkayItsAverage:[[invoked]]
33	** He believes ''VideoGame/Fallout76'' is this, mostly due to the game not pretending to be something it isn't (a Role-Playing game) and for its well-crafted open world. Keep in mind that he's a fan of the original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'', and he admits that ''76'' is the culmination of everything he dislikes about the Bethesda-made ''Fallout'' games.
34	** ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' is what he expected it to be, yet it ended up disappointing him for its limited open world(s), enemy variety, and its gameplay trying to [[FollowTheLeader copy Fallout 3/New Vegas's clutter-based loot]]. Most importantly, he feels it has weak story choices[[note]]with choice A being siding with the Corporation, B being siding with those who are against them or C which is to force a compromise between the two factions[[/note]] when choice "C" is the clear GoldenEnding for the first two story arcs (Terra-2 and Monarch). While he does recommend the game for ''Videogame/{{Fallout}}'' and RPG fans, he admits that he doesn't plan on completing another playthrough as he felt that he didn't miss much on his first and only playthrough.
35	* ShownTheirWork: During the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' retrospective, he explains to the audience the most notable aspects of the ''{{Monomyth}}'' and how it influenced Creator/GeorgeLucas and the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise in ways most have never noticed.
36	* SigningOffCatchPhrase: Every video ends with Noah saying "Thanks for watching".
37	* SoBadItsGood:[[invoked]] How Noah feels about ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'', believing that it fails catastrophically at almost everything it tries due to the developers trying to make the "ultimate horror experience" by pandering to anybody it can, with him going as far as calling it a "transfixing '''supernova''' of failure" that always managed to surprise him for how stupid and self-serious everything was and thus kept him entertained most of the way through.
38	* StylisticSuck: Many of his videos open with a shot of some random items arranged to invoke the subject of the video and a sheet of paper with the title written on it, with some thematically appropriate music playing (in bad quality) in the background. This was originally owed to the fact that Noah had produced his videos on literally NoBudget, but has since become a kind of a SignatureShot for him.
39	* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks:[[invoked]]
40	** His biggest complaint for ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' was the developers' insistence in mirroring the first ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' without expanding on its themes and tropes or creating something fully original for the new setting when they had a blank slate to work with. The fact that he spends an entire hour talking about it without going in-depth with the characters and sidestories shows how frustrated he was with the game.
41	** His biggest issue with ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'' was that it tried too hard to copy ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''. ''Tides of Numenera'' was its own unique setting with a wholly unique setup for the protagonists nature, and yet it did the same thing as ''Planescape'' by making the protagonist connected to the BigBad as a clone of it, similar to how the protagonist of ''Planescape'' was connected to the BigBad as one of the various incarnations of it. Due to the changes in story and approach, it copying ''Planescape'' resulted in the story losing its writing quality as it lacked the same meaning since unlike with ''Planescape'' where the protagonist was dealing with its past, the protagonist of ''Tides of Numenera'' is not as connected.
42	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: [[invoked]]
43	** Discussed in the ''Ghost Recon: Wildlands'' analysis, as he feels that playing as a squadron of ruthless American vigilantes killing genocidal Cartel hitmen across a poor South American nation without a hint of self-awareness or LampshadeHanging is insensible at ''best'' and jingoistic and racist at ''worst'', and makes it hard to get invested in the characters.
44	** He feels that Aiden Pierce of ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' is one of the reasons its story didn't work as the developers wanted as Pierce is an unlikeable, self-serious, manipulative and selfish vigilante that only cares about his own personal vendetta against the people that killed his niece. The fact that the game does its damnest to avoid portraying Aiden in a bad light by always pitting him against worse people made Noah believe that the developers thought that players would find Aiden "cool", which ended not being the case as it ended causing him difficulty into caring about the world and the characters.
45	** In his review of ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}'' during the ''Home, Home on the Console'' review, he comments the game is overtly racist against Native Americans (wiping out multiple groups of them to help a railroad succeed or imitating ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', as well as Native American beliefs by killing Great White Buffalos for sport). He also states that the attempt to defuse racism by making the protagonist half-Apache just makes it worse. As such, it becomes impossible root for the ironically (?) named White as a protagonist.
46	* TravelogueShow: Noah was able to briefly branch out into the genre after taking his show "on the road" in 2017, producing a trilogy of videos he has since referred to as the "Triptych". He is particularly inspired by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Least_Heat-Moon William Least Heat-Moon]]'s books, and draws intentional parallels between Least Heat-Moon's concept of ''quoz'' (basically, any unexpected interesting things one discovers off the beaten path while traveling) and the way WideOpenSandbox games like ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' structure their content. In "The Desert Bus", he brings up many ''quoz'' from his own travels that were functionally identical to encounters in ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'' and concludes that the infamous joke game ''[[VideoGame/PennAndTellersSmokeAndMirrors Desert Bus]]'' had been fundamentally wrong in its conception of RealLife travel as a boring chore and that realistic travel is much more akin to a densely-packed open world game instead. In 2022 he also traced the path of the Lincoln Highway and put out another quite long video about that experience in 2023, ruminating at length about his experiences, history, and the country itself.
47	* TrueArtIsAngsty:
48	** Invoked in his analysis of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', which he praised for not being a typical post-apocalyptic zombie story, for refusing to follow up the obvious story route set by its predecessor, and for being an author-focused story rather than one made to please fans. However, he also admits that this was the reason why the game caused such an aggressive backlash from many fans who wanted to see the continuation of Joel and Ellie's story and not the story of [[TragicVillain someone whom they wronged]] and who retaliated against them and... [[HeroKiller succeeded]].
49	** Also invoked in his analysis of ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', as the game's bleak tone and feeling that no matter what you do, a single person cannot change a society for the better not matter how hard it tries, is a major reason why the game is a piece of art clearly based on the personal beliefs and experiences of an individual with a vision.
50	** The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' trilogy and its central theme of death and somber atmosphere made a major impression on Noah for this reason. It's why ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' is his favorite of the trilogy because it focuses the most on those themes of death and decay, even if he admits that gameplay wise its the least of the trilogy. And conversely ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' is his least favorite because while not lacking in those themes, it's much more occupied with nostalgia most of the time.
51	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece[[invoked]]: He suggests ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' could become a CultClassic because of this, noting the specific references to Martin Shkreli and the game's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(hacker_group) Anonymous]]-inspired vision of the hacker group [=DedSec=].
52	* UpdatedRerelease: The 2023 retrospective of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series superseded five older videos on the series, including Noah's very first published video essay from 2013 (most of the older videos have since been unlisted). In addition to discussing titles that have never been featured in previous videos, such as ''VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutShelter'', the new video is more than twice as long as all of the aforementioned older videos ''combined''.
53	* ViewersAreGeniuses: Since Noah's analyses are in-depth and several hours long, and he often quotes books and authors most people haven't even heard of (such as William Least Heat-Moon and his ''qouz''), it usually takes [[RewatchBonus at least one rewatch]] to catch all of the references.

Context WebVideo / NoahCaldwellGervais