These are Polygon’s best videos of 2024
We know you watched a few videos this year, but have you watched a few? Polygon videos this year? To celebrate another year on fire, the Polygon video team gave each producer the chance (…and task) to name their favorite work from 2024 to give you an idea of what to dive into.
The Big Game: The Making of Spycraft
This video is more like my favorite from the past three years, because my colleague Simone de Rochefort and I worked on it at least so long. The Big Game: The Making of Spycraft is a feature-length documentary about the title video game Spycraft: the great game. That big-budget, full-motion video game from 1996 featured both a former KGB major general, Oleg Kalugin, and a former CIA director, William Colby. The parallel stories of two titans of Cold War espionage and the making of a technological game became too fascinating to ignore.
Working on this video was unlike anything else I’ve done at Polygon. When I rejected the idea of using Jamelle Bouie – from New York Times op-ed, TikTok, Unclear and present danger podcast fame – tell the documentary, I never dreamed it would actually happen. We also had outside help with the narration, graphics and all the complicated production issues that go into making a full-length documentary, and it’s a testament to the whole team that it turned out so well. If you take the time to look, I really appreciate it!
‘Guy talks about Starship Troopers for 25 minutes, NOT clickbait‘
I’m a big fan of it Spaceship Troopers. Not only is it my favorite of Paul Verhoeven’s films, it’s also one of my Letterboxd Four, and if my friends are any indication, it’s an R-rated feature film that our generation was exposed to in a very not R-rated age. Years later I discovered and realized that it was a biting satire, perhaps the most It will bite for decades to come if the number of dissenting critics it fooled in 1997 is any indication. That’s a point that Pat’s video illustrates beautifully. His video is actually about a lot Spaceship Troopersboth the movie and the book, as well as one of my favorite games of the year, Hell divers 2.
But that is not why I think it’s important. Of course, I guess all our videos are importantbut i think this video is important in a more… urgent way. Because… you know. (I gesture at everything. I realize now that this is much more difficult to convey in writing than in video.)
While Spaceship Troopers And Hell divers 2 central, what the video is actually about, is that it is important to think critically about satirical media in a world where “Get it? It’s fascist” is no joke. Even sharp, penetrating satires like that Spaceship Troopers And Hell divers 2 are not without their flaws and limitations. That sometimes it helps to dive deeper, not just into the comments filmmakers make, or the books that inspire films Spaceship Troopers (Good, special not that one), but also the history that inspires a director to make a film about how war turns us all into fascists (yes, even That war).
Christina ‘XTINA GG’ Gayton
‘Subtle nerd clothing recommendations‘
My favorite video I made this year is this TikTok about subtle nerd clothing. It’s a sartorial interest I’ve had for a while and I’m glad so many people can relate to it. The video is about how nerd clothing used to be very cool and striking, such as Hot Topic T-shirts with the logo and name of the game on the front of a shirt in large, colorful letters. Nowadays you can find a variety of clothes to express your interests in more subtle ways that are only recognizable to other fans of the IP, like Atsuko’s Unown pants (which I think are now out of stock??).
‘Sonic the Hedgehog Interview 3: In the Shadow World‘
My favorite video from one of my colleagues is the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 interview Pat did with Ben Schwartz. I was impressed by their improvisational chemistry. I think it’s a testament to the creative possibilities for interviews and how they can be fun and interesting. It felt like I was watching two friends instead of a professional interview. I also loved it Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It was so good.
‘Tekken is still weird and that’s what makes it great‘
I loved making this video because it allowed me to delve into all my little interests and tie them together: fighting games, animation, martial arts movies, and weird wrestling history. But on a more personal level, I wanted to praise the spirit of warlike naivete.
Growing up in a pre-MMA world with limited internet access, it was entirely possible for kids like me to go to our karate classes in strip malls and practice throwing room punches from our deep horse stances, believing we were learning to fight. As I watched the schoolyard stretches devolve into clumsy, red-faced wrestling, I could tell myself it was because neither of us knew how to perform a well-aimed palm strike.
My sensei’s word was law, and my sensei said that if an opponent grabbed my lapel thisI could counter with a wristlock like this. It was a comforting dream. Anyway! This is a video about how fighting affects fantasy and how fantasy affects combat. I have a lot more to say on this subject and maybe someday I will!
‘Stop lying about Assassin’s Creed Unity’s Notre Dame‘
Boy, do I enjoy seeing a myth debunked. Take that, you stupid myth!
Sometimes you hear something and you believe it. Maybe you repeat it to someone else – maybe because it confirms how you think about the world, or maybe because it makes you angry, because it’s just fun to think about. Did you know Rutger Hauer? improvised the whole thing Blade Runner monologue on set? Wow!
It’s especially easy to do this on the Internet, where I can put some text over a photo of Keanu Reeves and convince a not insignificant number of people that he has an opinion on the subject of “fake friends.”
I love it when someone puts the time and effort into thoroughly correcting the record. But once is never enough. Simone has made this video a few times now different shapes. Misinformation can be really harmful, or just plain annoying, but it’s always hard to put a stop to it.
It comforts me to know that every time this particular myth emerges from the seething swamps of discourse, Simone will be there to fight the good fight.
‘I’ve been playing Elden Ring wrong for two years‘
This may not be my most substantial work, but I love it when I’m inspired to create something shit just happens to me. The anecdote at the heart of this video is that I spent two years brute-forcing and chewing my way through it. Elden Ringonly for my boyfriend to look at my posture and say, “Your shit sucks.”
But also: It’s about how I had fun Anyway.
But also: The reaction to the video was my favorite part. I was understandably a little apprehensive about releasing a video that said “lol I’m bad at video games.” But there are a lot of people in the comments who are encouraging, or sharing their stories of sucking Elden Ringand it really made me happy! For me, having fun isn’t synonymous with being good at something, and it looks like I’m not the only one!
‘Elden Ring does this better than anyone‘
The cool thing about this video is that I was going to make it. I like making videos about how game mechanics work, and the idea was to make one about how fabric is modeled. I turned to Gwen Frey, who I had interviewed about the Bread Boy in BioShock infinitebecause she had previously worked on designing video game clothing. We had a great interview and then I sat down to write the video, and it just didn’t work.
Separately, Pat had pitched a video about it Elden Ring‘s costumes and how the character design communicated. This also ultimately went nowhere.
Pat needed an idea for his next video, and I needed to stop lying to my boss about how I was making a fabric video. The solution was clear: Pat I was going to make a video about clothes.
And he knocked it out of the park. The great thing about Pat is that he is incredibly skilled at observing and explaining small details in games. And there are so many little details in it Elden Ring. He takes on a huge subject (ALL CLOTH IN ELDEN RING???), and makes it funny, digestible and educational. He did a much better job here than I would have, and I love it because he succeeded where I failed. And that’s why it’s so great to work in a team as talented as this team.