the 1UP show,

taking a break from music for a second, say hello to the 1UP show.


it's pretty apparent that every attempt at making a tv show about videogames has been a complete failure. well here in the UK anyway. either the shows are too technical, they focus too much on competitive gaming rather than reviews and previews, or they attempt humour and end up falling flat, resorting to "geek" jokes and using the old stereotype of gamers being overweight wasters that live in their mother's basement.

it's a great relief then that a certain group finally got it right. 1UP.com is already the best website for any videogame related material, their reviews are snappy and to the point, focusing more on describing the game fairly than relying on giving a score out of ten. their staff are the hippest and most in tune of any other gaming website, all of them debunking that gamer stereotype. when they started the 1UP show around three years ago, they found the formula for engaging video game television, except that it has never actually been shown on television.

they take the video podcast model but give it a professional finish to make it more like something you'd find on TV. they use a fly-on-the-wall style, playing out reviews as if we were watching three people just having a heated chat and most of the footage does seem ad libbed (scripting reviews was another big misstep of many VGTV shows). there is also a loose "story line" of each episode, if you can even call it that, a tongue in cheek plot that normally involves a couple of the shows cast (the writers of the 1UP website) trying to achieve some goal or competing with each other. i suppose it's hard to explain and better to just watch an episode (which you can above), but if you're pining for an injection of video game goodness that you don't have to read make sure you check it out. stay safe.