'Hello, Fellow Gamers'

June 28, 2018 2:00 PM

Final Deployment 4: Queen Battle Walkthrough [Autoplay Video] “Tips and tricks on how to beat the alien queen boss battle in Final Deployment 4 (Multi-platform) as well as the "Homecoming" DLC.”

“In 2014, Adult Swim published an “infomercial” called Too Many Cooks that became an instant viral hit. The darkly funny, surreal comedy parodied the corny ensemble-oriented title themes of the 1970s and ‘80s sitcoms before spiraling into a bizarre slasher film that defied explanation. Now, creator Casper Kelly is back with another parody — but this time, it’s aimed at the culture of games and people who stream them. Final Deployment 4: Queen Battle Walkthrough, created by Kelly and Nick Gibbons, starts as a (barely) over-the-top sketch starring Blair Trigger, a streamer playing what best resembles a bad Gears of War game.” [via: The Verge]

posted by Fizz (19 comments total)

“There's no looting in this part of the game.”

This is so great. I love it so much.
posted by Fizz at 2:04 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

[Spoiler alert] Wow!
posted by aubilenon at 2:31 PM on June 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is amazing.
posted by brundlefly at 2:40 PM on June 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

This makes me think a little of [Spoiler] Glittermitten Grove, also by Adult Swim
posted by aubilenon at 3:11 PM on June 28, 2018

I guess I admire the commitment, but I also think there were very few different jokes in those twenty minutes, and instead they took those few jokes and played each of them out for a very long time.
posted by one for the books at 3:38 PM on June 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

i feel like most of what's going on in this video isn't jokes
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 4:39 PM on June 28, 2018 [6 favorites]

Can't wait for the speedrun vid. I'm thinking a good nade jumper could probably get through this in less than ten minutes.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 5:21 PM on June 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

(and i mean i can see the repetitiveness as a comment on how video games, which we voluntarily spend a lot of time on, tend to be pretty repetitive)
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 5:54 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Well that was 20 minutes I'll never get back.
posted by symbioid at 6:28 PM on June 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

Not Enough Cooks.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:39 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

That was hilarious. I have a history with these shows. Every two years or so for some reason I end up accidentally watching an Adult Swim video like this. Previously I have seen the Anti-histamine Commercial with the Dopplegangers and the Salad Maker/1950s Sex Toy Infomercial. Each time I come away astonished, and feeling like this is some sort of new significant art form. Then I forget about them entirely for another two years.
posted by seasparrow at 8:56 PM on June 28, 2018 [5 favorites]

A six minute video stretched to over twenty.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:37 PM on June 28, 2018

That got so strange. Like a lot of Adult Swim videos, I feel it's not so much funny as surreal and provocative.

Twitch-style streaming is a great subject for a reflection on purpose and control. There's something fundamentally weird/interesting about experiencing a video game, intended to be an interactive experience that puts you in control, through passively watching a video of someone else's play-through. (...I say as someone who's watched more than her share.)
posted by Kilter at 3:36 AM on June 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

I loved this. I thought I knew where they were going with it and it just kept kicking into overdrive.

Streamer culture really feels like a whole bunch of kids made monkey's paw wishes about wanting to be able to play video games for a living someday.
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:32 AM on June 29, 2018 [7 favorites]

There are too many layers of meta here to be sure, but it seems like they somehow think "But what if I'm a loser because I'm actually a character in a video game being controlled by a dumb girl who is really bad at video games?" is funny.
posted by straight at 10:10 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

i definitely thought the first fifteen minutes dragged a little but you needed all that setup for the last five minutes to really pay off, which to me it did.
posted by JimBennett at 10:54 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Is this Frog Fractions 2?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:13 PM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

I liked this one better than Too Many Cooks and the two related ones with the two families. I think in the case of the last two, they were more straight up horror surrealism instead of meta-commentary surrealism like this one? Maybe it hit more notes with me because of the video game and streaming culture mixed with existentialism and all. Anyway, thanks for posting this!
posted by Freeze Peach at 3:30 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I liked this in no small part because I don't get into streamer culture at all. Watching other people playing games has always seemed to me to be like that friend (or really acquaintance) who wants to show you their new game or guitar or whatever but doesn't let you play it. Walkthroughs are fine, but I really prefer text with screenshots or maybe video just for the bits that actually have to be demonstrated with them. As such, I got a kick out of this, for taking the you-watching-someone-else-watching-their-avatar-doing-nothing concept to several more matryoshka levels. I also liked the bit where the bug-fighting marine had to go home and endure realistic veteran-type things.

it seems like they somehow think "But what if I'm a loser because I'm actually a character in a video game being controlled by a dumb girl who is really bad at video games?" is funny.

Hmm, I think you missed a bit or two there, it's not really meant to be funny, and there's also something near the end where he's hoping that he's really just a video game character being controlled by someone else because then his sad life isn't really his fault.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:09 AM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]