Videos

007 First Light Title Sequence
Watched some of the BAFTA Game Awards this evening, mainly to see the premiere of this — the title sequence for the forthcoming James Bond game. I wasn't sure about the song at first, but it plays really nicely with the titles, which I think they've done an excellent job on. Excited for the game... though not sure when I'll actually get to play it as I doubt it'll run on my Steam Deck.

Beyond the Light
Episode 4 Music
And to go with the above, they released the fourth instalment of their behind-the-scenes dev diary, looking at music and sound.

Videos

Beyond the Light
Episode 1 Gameplay
Episode 2 Cast & Characters
Episode 3 Story

Quite looking forward to the new James Bond game, so finally caught up with this series of behind-the-scenes promo videos. Not sure if the game will run on my Steam Deck so don't know when I'll actually play it, but someday...!

TV

Fireside Chat LIVE With Matthew Mercer & Brennan Lee Mulligan

Holy moly, Campaign 4 starts next week! It felt kinda far off when they announced it*, but now it's almost here! So it's long overdue that I get round to this introduction-y hour-long chat Matt & Brennan did a month ago today (I've been meaning to watch this for a month?! Where does time go?!)

[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

* To be honest, it never felt that far off to me, because I immediately knew I wouldn't be able to finish C2 before it began, so the clock was always ticking.

TV

Critical Role Live Show: Melbourne || LIVE Beacon Backstage Pass

Where the Sydney pre-show was defined by Vegemite, this one is mostly stories of their trip to Melbourne zoo. So that's... nice.

These backstage livestreams are kinda pointless, but also kinda fun. I guess they know there's a chunk of their audience that just likes hanging out with the cast, even if they're not really doing anything, and this plays to that demographic.

The only thing approaching 'genuine information' was they said they're planning to announce/reveal a bunch of stuff at San Diego Comic-Con, which is only about a month away, so that's exciting. In fact, it's the weekend after the Age of Umbra finale — could we finally get some Campaign 4 news?

[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

TV

Age of Umbra
1x01 Desperloch [remainder]
It's been fairly widely commented upon, but combat really does flow so much more smoothly in Daggerheart than D&D. The latter makes it feel like a minigame: you stop, roll initiative, then everyone takes it in turn to do their combo of action / bonus action / movement. In Daggerheart, it just... starts. Okay, here Matt goes off to get a map, so it is still demarked in that sense, but it's only a slight pause. I can see how a less respectful or controlled table could turn it into chaos and/or one or two people dominating, but when played as intended, there's an ebb and flow that keeps it more engaging. Coupled with the different damage system in Daggerheart, which makes every strike more impactful, and I think overall it works much better, certainly as a viewer.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Critical Role
Tag Team at the Teeth: Prologue
A nine-minute setup for their two Australian live shows. Watching this now feels a bit like taunting myself, because who knows how long it’s going to be before I can actually watch the shows proper? (I’m not in Australia, so can’t see them live. I’m not in the US or Canada, so can’t see them in a cinema later this week / next week. Presumably they'll be on Beacon shortly afte Age of Umbra, but they’re set after Campaign 3, so really I’m a couple of hundred episodes off getting to them.)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Critical Role Cooldown
Age of Umbra Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

Critical Role Live Show: Sydney || LIVE Beacon Backstage Pass
So, while it's going to be a while before the show itself is on Beacon, they did do this backstage livestream beforehand. It's just hanging out with the cast, doing things like improv warmup and eating Vegemite for the first time, but that's fun in its own way (for some us, at least).
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

TV

Age of Umbra
1x01 Desperloch [1st hour]
As I've reached a very convenient end-of-story-arc point in my Campaign 2 viewing, I'm making a start on their currently-running Daggerheart-based miniseries. It's still the same players and GM playing a story-focused TTRPG, and yet the system switchup somehow makes it feel fresh and exciting. Interesting.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]


Ever since I started watching Critical Role, I’ve debated where to categorise it. Some would just say it’s TV, but I started watching it on YouTube — that’s not really TV, that’s just online video slop, right? (I get that this is a generational thing, and I’m definitely of a generation that doesn’t respect “YouTubers”.) I don’t even watch CR on my TV, but on my computer or tablet, something I would never dream of doing with real TV (this is less generational, more just being a purist — or, if you prefer, snob). But it sits uncomfortably under the “Video” heading too — that was created more for short-form disposable stuff.

Anyway, after (too) much reflection, I’ve decided to ‘upgrade’ CR and its associated content, and the start of their newest miniseries seemed as good a changeover point as any. Funnily enough, tomorrow this will include their backstage pre-show livestream from Sydney, which immediately threw me into a conundrum: a livestream is definitely more “Video” than “TV”. But I don’t want to split their stuff up like that, so I guess it’s all TV now!

Maybe I should just call it “Content”. My Content Experience. Ugh.

Videos

Critical Role
2x108 Traveler Con [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x108 Traveler Con [1st half]
Just 77 episodes (that's over half the campaign) after it was first mentioned (even at my accelerated pace, it's been a whole year since I watched that episode; in real life, it was over two years) — and after many, many episodes of steadily increasing mentions and preparations as it got closer and closer — Traveler Con is finally here!
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x107 Devoutness and Dicks [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x107 Devoutness and Dicks [1st half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Age of Umbra
Session Zero Creating Characters Matt Wants to Kill
You feel like a Session Zero should be a great tool for players, but probably not much fun to actually watch. Not so here — it's a delightful mix of learning about the background to the world of the miniseries (whether or not, and how much, that will also be covered in the series proper, who knows) and just getting to hang out with these guys. Yeah, I'm one of those people who enjoys that.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Fireside Chat LIVE With Matthew Mercer and Elise Rezendes!
Answering questions about Daggerheart — or, quite often, not being able to answer them while clearly being excited for what they can't reveal yet.
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x106 A Fog Lifted [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x106 A Fog Lifted [1st half]

With this episode, I’m three-quarters through Campaign 2 — the kind of milestone that has me thinking where I'll go next (not because I'm especially near the end — there's still 169 hours to go — but because, well, that end will come eventually).

CR recently started their Daggerheart-based Age of Umbra miniseries, which runs until the end of July; and by then they’ll have a backlog of live shows to share, which could well fill their August streaming calendar; so Campaign 4 almost certainly won’t start until September at the earliest; some believe it won't begin until 2026 now. Will I have finished Campaign 2 by then? September: probably not; especially as I plan to watch Age of Umbra (I would've started it already, but my free time was unexpectedly upended the past few weeks). The end of 2025: I really should have.

Either way, I’m increasingly certain my plan is to go straight from C2 to C4 (either when I finish C2 or overlapping with the end of it), and then possibly go back to C1 and/or C3 if (when?) once-a-week new episodes are not enough for my CR fix.

[Watch A Fog Lifted (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x105 Rumble at Rumblecusp [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Daggerheart Launch Day LIVE!
An hour(-and-a-bit) livestream to mark the launch of Daggerheart.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x105 Rumble at Rumblecusp [2nd hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x105 Rumble at Rumblecusp [1st hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x104 The Ruined Sliver [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x104 The Ruined Sliver [1st half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x103 Maritime Mysteries
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]