https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3glCU-txQU

I take apart Jim Sterlings awful Shenmue video posted a few days ago.

Why single out the Shenmue video? Most of his videos are awful. I just don't see what waving dildos around has to do with critiquing things.

You didn't really take apart his arguments though. You just disagreed with him on a few points and pointed out 1 or 2 things he kinda got wrong. Im sure this game was alright back in 1999, but it looks really dated and not much fun today.

So, first of all you're complaining that in a video about Shenmue (not Shenmue 1 and 2, just Shenmue), he talks about Shenmue, but not Shenmue 2. Yeah, funny how that goes. I don't really get why that would change anything. Even if the second game is better by a considerable margin, it doesn't make the first retroactively better. As far as the subjective things you complain about, yeah, games that can be considered dreadful today do become cult classics. Some games just don't really age all that well, so while they may have been good or even great in the past, they don't necessarily hold up very well today. For example, a huge number of early 3D titles that were revolutionary at the time are absolutely horrendous to play today, and many were horrendous even then, we just didn't really know any better.

Having played the game back on the DC Jim's criticisms aren't wrong tbh although he tends to exaggerate in some cases but I knew Shenmue would be dated by today's standards, the two main criticisms he made about waiting for time to pass and lack of options for advancing time were major gripes for me back on the DC release only back then the game's scope was above many other games today however in the age of games like TW3 and Yakuza it doesn't quite hold up.

True. Silent Hill may be a classic, but man does it play like shit.

I agree with those above who agree with me.

Shenmue is not a good game. It never was. I don't understand where this idea of Shenmue being a good game came from. Maybe nostalgia? Or from people that didn't actually play it? For a long time, Shenmue was a joke, a meme on the internet forums. I can see why people want to play it, there's some historic value, but let's accept the facts. You can love Shenmue for every thing it is, i like bad games too, but it does not make it good.

No, the game was crap then. It's like Castlevania 2 in that it had some cool ideas that were creative and revolutionary at the time, yet still crude and unrefined, and the best it could say it did was give other games the template on how to take those ideas and do them better.

The way people cape up for Sega games, especially Dreamcast era, is astounding at times. I just finished replaying Jet Set/Grind Radio for the first time since it was fresh and new in '01, and my opinion of the game hasn't changed a bit: it's oozing with a unique style and flair, but the actual gameplay is a frustrating experience is marred the whole way through by poor, clunky controls and some terrible design choices. This was a bit more acceptable in 2001, but a lot of folks who didn't try the game until its PSN/XBL release couldn't get into it and didn't have nostalgia to fall back on. The JSR forums I visited seem to lean heavily to the feelings of these new players of, "It's because you suck at the game, git gud," instead of "Yeah, the game has obvious flaws, but keep at it and you'll be OK."  But the more I think about it, that's probably the Internet in general.

I watched that Jim Sterling video 3 times in rapid succession. I like my name for it better than Jim's. Shitty Yakuza.