I’m looking for sites not owned by Fandom, Ziff Davis, Tencent, etc., who still cover news and reviews.
I stuck with Giantbomb for years, even after Red Ventures acquired it, but, like others, drifted away from the site when its core members left/got fired.
I followed Easy Allies for awhile, but after Bowman moved on, it wasn’t the same.
Anyone have any recommendations?
If you are okay with Vox Media Group, I’ve been pretty happy with Polygon. They even have RSS!
I think Mike Mahardy from Polygon is alright, but generally I find their content leans into social commentary more than I want in a gaming outlet. I respect that some people want that, and I’m glad these sites exist for them.
I know it’s not quite what you’re asking for, but it’s where I get my gaming news from at least. I have subbed to SkillUp on YT for a very long time, and he covers loads of games and does weekly news videos where he covers the latest. The vids are very genuine and authentic, imo.
He, and a few of his friends also started a very chill and good podcast called Friends Per Second going more in depth on different gaming topics.
Highly recommended 🙌
Am a fan too. I’d mention YongYea here, but the unorganized unscripted way in which he makes 20 minute videos on every topic really kills it for me.
SkillUp’s weekly summary is much nicer.
Edit: remembered a word
YongYea just reads reddit threads without providing any actual commentary or context of his own. He repeats himself until he crosses the video length threshold for monetization.
He also had a nasty case where rushed his Cyberpunk 2077 review to be one of the first to monetize, and then monetized his apology video where he stated he didn’t really play the game enough to review it. And he admits he “went way too easy on this game in a way that I wouldn’t have with other games or companies and the review shouldn’t be up”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WeCfKzwaV0
I also remember when I used to watch him before Final Fantasy 7 Remake came out and he acted like he was a longtime huge fan of the original game, but when he watched the ff7r trailer he seemed like he barely knew the basics.
Yeah unfortunately I agree. I think Yong seems like a cool guy but his videos always start with a lengthy recap which anyone who watches his channel already knows from his previous video on whatever is recapped, and then he takes the longest possible route to explain the topic too.
I reckon if he made 5 min videos without all the fluff he’d be great.
I get a lot of my gaming news from Spawnwave on YouTube. But I dunno. In depth reviews are hard.
Miraheze is similar to how Fandom used to be, before ads entirely took over. There are no ads at all there. It is a site that uses MediaWiki so probably not many of its’ sites would be news oriented (with like a single author controlling the content), but instead more wiki content for an entire community to share.
