So, I'm still not over Bain's disappearance and his lack in the field of videogame reviewing, curation, etc.

He seemed to be the only one doing review videos that ticked all the boxes for me. He wasn't playing a character, making entertainment videos about himself ("look how loud I shout, lol, fun drama"), he was not accepting the little manipulative marketing strategies of today's industry (pre-orders, microtransactions, etc), he was knowledgeable enough to put new games in historical perspective (not being impressed by reinvented wheels), he was very transparent about relationships with publishers (mentionning when a game was provided free, etc), and, most importantly, he was a reliable, thorough reviewer : he didn't give his own opinion as much as explaining it, and explaining where people could disagree. If a game didn't appeal to him, he'd explain -with no jusfement but with encouragement- who it would appeal to, under what conditions. "If you don't mind this, you'll enjoy that". It made for very usefully de-centered, objective and honest reviews. Plus, he reviewed -and thus gave their chance to- rather obscure games.

So, the question is : Does anyone come close ?

Are there videogame reviewers that

1) don't "play an act", don't make it about their oh-so-cool-awesome-character (à la angry ones or 'quisition),

2) who care about information ethics more than clicks,

3) who go analytically deeper than yay boo reaction videos, and

4) who review other games than the latest trendy clicksafe AAA bestselling talk of the town ?

Or did the genre itself disappear with TB ?

I like this dude's videos a lot: Mandalore Gaming

Excellent reviews, but unlike TB, he mostly reviews older stuff. On the other hand, his videos also provide troubleshooting for getting said older stuff to run on modern systems.

Another favorite reviewer would be antisocialfatman. Unfortunately, he died years ago.

Ross's Game Dungeon is good (on the Accursed Farms channel https://www.youtube.com/user/chilledsanity). If you want something analytical his Deus Ex series went pretty deep. I would also very highly recommend Mandalore Gaming.

Anonther shoutout for Mandalore Gaming, and also
https://www.youtube.com/user/XboxAhoy
https://www.youtube.com/user/phreakindee
https://www.youtube.com/user/Pixelmusement

All FPS fans need to know about Gggmanlives.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Gggmanlives

Total Biscuit came to mind. It's a shame he's passed on. I haven't looked at the channel since to see what they're doing now.

I.. don't like it either. It's pretty bad tbh. You know even the last little while, you turned on one of his videos, and he wasn't the same. The booming powerful dynamic voice you heard a while ago was gone and it was replaced with this almost raspy shell of his former self. It really sucks.

He wasn't a perfect reviewer, but he was good at it. These days I don't watch youtube anymore aside from one or two guys, and I don't usually watch reviews.

ross's game dungeon is amazing.

another shoutout for ross, for sure.

Indie King

Check it out if you like. Feel free to leave behind any comment if you don't like the videos or how can they improve.

Kind of concerning how many game reviewers have died a premature death, maybe gaming isn't a healthy pastime.

Not sure if this is a joke, but John Bain was known as Total Biscuit.

No. I didn't know that. I only take a passing interest in what I watch or read about games.

It can be explained two ways: An otherwise healthy individual (at first) staritng an obsessive gaming spree that ruins sleep cycles and results in poor diet, and emotional stress problems with partners/family is indeed an unhealthy situation.
However, some people already have a chronic condition and find that gaming is a good way to escape their problems or find it the most entertaining way to spend their time stuck on their butts.

I've had both.

Well, most of the gaming mags lost their best reviewers when they went bust, then everyone stopped going to various sites because forums were being hailed as a much more personal place to find reviews (varied and unbiased as well), so in a desperate attempt to get clicks, they went agenda chasing.

Of course, some were garbage to begin with or simply barged into the space with no idea how to do it.

As for my personal picks of reviwers, LGR and Pixelmusement are already listed, so I'll cautiously suggest Yahtzee/Zero Punctuation if you want a caustic critic. There is also Jim Sterling, but some people would find him a bit of a large ham, but he does still do written articles.

I don't really look for video reviews.

Metaphor, not physical, I presume.