YMMV / Noah Caldwell-Gervais

aka: Broadcast Static

• Anvilicious: Noah dislikes the kinds of gamer who valorize difficulty and are hostile towards anyone who won't or can't master very difficult games. He's been the target of such people himself as he admits to being a "fool and a stoner", an imperfect player who still has a lot to say about the various games he's covered. While it's understandable that he'd want to refute their arguments, it can get repetitive to hear if, say, one goes from his video on Control to the one on Dark Souls to the one on the other Fromsoft games.
• Broken Base:
  • Noah's opinions on Mass Effect 2 are either praised or disliked for a variety of reasons. Many praised him for noticing the unnecessary sexualization of the female party members, the fact that Jack's character arc can only be completed by romancing her (something he hated) and the lack of a cohesive plot. On the other hand, many disliked his short rant regarding Jack's character arc, which many felt he got a little too angry, his indecisive/mixed opinions on some of the aspects of the game (like forcing Shepard to work for Cerberus) and his favoritism towards the first Mass Effect affecting his opinion of the game, leaving many feeling that he was too harsh and nitpicky with it even after he said that Mass Effect 2 is a damn good game in his opinion.
  • His opinions on Dragon Age II have also caused some debates due to him focusing more on addressing the (infamous) shortcomings of the game rather than talk about characterization and themes like he did with the first Dragon Age, he does talk about them but not as much as the shortcomings. The fact that he talks about Isabella and Fenris in a dismissive tone without mentioning the deeper aspects of the characters also contributes to this.
  • His discussions on modern-day politics that appear in a few of his videos. On one hand, its enjoyable to hear his political stance or opinions since he usually ties them into the topic at hand and never talks like he is condemning people, just instead sharing his opinions and feelings in relation to the game. On the other hand, many feel his political comments are out of place and feel very forced, especially since he comes across as very "matter of fact" in his statements, in addition to people feeling like it distracts from the conversation since he can sometimes awkwardly transition without any real reason too.
  • His The Last of Us retrospective has caused this because of his view of the popular first game as he feels that while the game is a storytelling wonder with great gameplay and characters, he felt that the story was too predictable and overrated. However, he goes to great lengths to praise the controversial sequel for the same reasons its considered controversial such as having a story exploring the reality that there are no "heroes" in a Gray-and-Grey Morality world, for refusing to dabble in "saving the world" or "finding the cure" story tropes and beats that exist in most zombie media and for taking risks that, in his mind, mostly paid off with the exception of the length of Abby's half of the story. He also firmly believes that Joel's brutal death was the natural course to take in response for his actions in the first game. Some commenters felt that he enjoyed the sequel's story due to having played both games back to back unlike most fans that had to wait seven years to get a sequel and felt that he refused sympathize or understand why many people hated the story the moment Joel was brutally killed off.
  • Was Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood really an ineffective Prequel because it ends on a triumphant note despite the fact that so many of its protagonists become horrible miserable people in the original (as Noah suggests) or is it a case of the game developers engaged in Dramatic Irony, or is it an attempt at Dramatic Irony that falls flat due to poor framing?
  • The amount of time spent the Dark Souls spent railing against the "git good" mentality proved to be divisive enough that he specifically made a point of spending less time talking about it in the followup "Souls Inheritors" video.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!:
  • Many people took issue with his negative opinion of Call of Duty: World at War during the Call of Duty retrospective due to his dislike of its brutal and nihilistic tone, gory violence and the portrayal of the Japanese Army which he found to be racist as he feels that the Japanese had a excuse to be brutal against its enemies, something that really angered some commenters with knowledge of the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan during World War II. Many pointed out that his comments mirror the often used argument that Japan was an Anti-Villain in the conflict, which greatly ignores how Japan committed many terrible acts during the war.
  • Noah had a very negative opinion of the Postal series, especially the second and third game, which he criticized for their sexism, racism, promotion of toxic masculinity and overall tasteless humour, calling them "asshole simulators". Since the second game is an established Cult Classic, many people didn't take this opinion kindly and the Postal retrospective remains the most disliked video on his channel.

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