I enjoy watching gameplay so much that to me it's practically a complete, independent entertainment medium. Any game I like I'll watch if it's played by someone with skill. And thanks to the
Speed Demos Archive, my tastes now encompass even games I'm not very familiar with.
There's something fundamentally appealing about watching a great player pull off difficult feats. But skill isn't everything; personality goes a long way too.
4PlayerPodcast is an unbelievably entertaining channel on Justin.TV that features daily live play of a wide variety of games by a pack of very funny guys, and includes a chat channel that the players often respond to in real time. Audio commentaries can enhance an already entertaining speedrun, the best example I know being
CannibalK9's GTA San Andreas playthrough. Two of the main reasons my love for Halo has never waned are its robust
tricking and
speedrunning communities, which continually push all three FPS titles in unexpected directions with an inventiveness and dedication that are, to my knowledge, unmatched by any other group of fans focused on a single series. Bungie's superb community support (including the smart feature set integrated into Halo 3) can be credited with making Halo video sharing mainstream. If you can sort the wheat from the chaff, Bungie.net has
a lot to offer. You don't even have to own Halo 3 to
partake.
Fighting and action titles, when they're good, attract highly adept players who are especially fun to watch when you know enough about the games to appreciate what they're doing.
Tekken Zaibatsu is the premiere English-based Tekken community. To complement the wealth of videos listed on the steadily updated
video forum, site owner Castel, in occasional collaboration with TZ forum members, has churned out a prolific stable of top quality combo exhibitions.
Demon Darkness was my introduction to this facet of the Tekken scene. It still ranks high among my all time favorites. Also of note: KYSG's insane
tool-assisted combos, especially their
older stuff, and
SDTekken, home base of GAF's own MarkMan, whose
news blog covers the latest Tekken developments, with special emphasis on videos. The Soul Calibur community, though dwindling, still has
something to offer. And Virtua Fighter fans (I don't count myself among their number, and not for lack of trying) are
well represented.
The Devil May Cry series has attracted a small but extremely devoted
following of players whose
skills verge on the
superhuman. Ninja Gaiden also possesses an elite cadre of players. Though slightly less impressive in my estimation (due more to the limits of NG's combat system than by any fault of their own), their work is a sight to see.
Iberian's NG Realm archives many quality NG videos, and a great deal more can be found on YouTube. The output of
Bigalski,
Reim and
Shinobier is not to be missed. My great hope is that Bayonetta attracts a similar community.
Other videos to keep an eye out for on YouTube are speed runs of Morrowind, Mario 64, Shadow of the Colossus, Super Monkey Ball, Portal, Shinobi (PS2 version). Just search for "[game] speed runs" and you'll find more than you could ask for. Starcraft and Warcraft 3 matches are also well worth a look. Finally, up until recently Ashe10 was the be all and end all of high quality Final Fantasy videos. Annoyingly, YouTube has seen fit to suspend his account, which held hundreds of entertaining runs and guides. View his backup account
here.