The Not So Lazy “Lazy Game Reviews”

YouTube Logo in CRT PhosphorsLately I’ve been watching a YouTube channel called Lazy Game Reviews (LGR). This has quickly become my favorite channel on YouTube, with a good mix of information, humor, and unique content. It was the first YouTube channel that I decided to support financially on Patreon, and it’s been well worth it. Here’s what I like about LGR.

Not Always Lazy

This channel is a one man show by Clint Basinger, a PC gamer out of North Carolina. Basinger runs several different series on his channel, including the eponymous “Lazy Game Reviews”. Despite the name, these are well-researched, high-quality reviews of video games dating from the 1970s to the present. Basinger focuses mostly on MS-DOS games, but he also plays more modern series as well, especially SimCity and The Sims. In his “LGR Plays” series, Basinger occasionally makes longer videos of himself playing games like The Sims. Usually he plays with Duke Nukem as one of the characters. His Duke Nukem voice is spot-on, so much so that he did the Duke Nukem voice in an indie racing game.

Not Always Games

The reviews on Lazy Game Reviews cover more than just video games. LGR also reviews hardware, especially vintage computer systems and consoles, all with the same snarky attitude he uses for his game reviews. And if you like Clint Basinger’s sense of sarcasm, you should check out “LGR Oddware”, where he reviews odd and forgotten pieces of hardware. This includes all kinds of weird items, like strange computer mouse replacements and pinball flippers that clip onto your keyboard. I’m a big fan of failures and obscure items in general, so these forgotten bits of tech history always fascinate me.

Not Always Reviews

Lazy Game Reviews features plenty of videos that aren’t really reviews, like “LGR Thrifts” and “LGR Tech Tales”. The “LGR Thrifts” videos are fairly straightforward. In this series, Basinger visits various thrift stores with a glasses-mounted camera. He finds cool old hardware and software, all while musing about the tacky curios he sees along the way. Then there’s “LGR Tech Tales”, my favorite show on the channel. These are short documentaries about topics like OS/2, the Amiga, and CP/M. They’re very similar to some of the things I’ve written here, but with more polish than my tech history articles.

If you grew up with computers in the 1980s or 1990s, then there’s probably something on Lazy Game Reviews for you. And if you’re a computer history buff like me, this channel is definitely worth checking out. Finally, if you know of any other good YouTube channels about the history of computers, please let me know in the comment section.

Steve Lovelace

Steve Lovelace is a writer and graphic artist. After graduating Michigan State University in 2004, he taught Spanish in Samoa before moving to Dallas, Texas. He blogs regularly at http://steve-lovelace.com.

You may also like...

3 Responses

  1. February 16, 2017

    […] documentary makers no longer have to pander to viewers of lower intelligence. Instead they can make nerdy videos and know that other people will enjoy them. And while I doubt that anyone will make a billion […]

  2. March 2, 2017

    […] that fill the role abandoned by the History Channel. Two of my favorites are Vlogbrothers and Lazy Game Reviews, but there are a couple of the channels I’ve gotten into […]

  3. April 8, 2017

    […] maps than actually playing the game. The story of how he got started is an interesting one, and Lazy Game Reviews has a more detailed history. Suffice to say that the first version of the game featured a top-down […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.