May 11 – 23, 2015
Games Played: Arma 3, H1Z1, Rust, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CohhCarnage, a mild tempered man who loves hoarding every item he sees and interacting with as many of his viewers as possible, and his wife Laina, who appears on and off the stream with shows of support and kisses, are the focus for this week’s review. During the review period we saw CohhCarnage, or Cohh, play two very different types of games. He played games like Rust, Arma 3, and H1Z1 where the main focus seemed to be to interact and play with viewers from his stream and he also played Witcher 2 and Witcher 3, both games with heavy story elements, which are single player games where interacting with viewers is difficult.
Cohh’s stream was found through Dropped Frames which also featured Ezekiel_III who was the first streamer we reviewed here on the The Twitch Review. We selected Cohh because he felt quite the opposite of Ezekiel in terms of how he dealt with frustration and setbacks in games. While playing Arma 3 Battle Royal Cohh did not scream or rage even after putting a tripmine down in the entrance of a house he thought had two exits only to find that he put the mine at his only way out. He tries his best to disarm the mine but cannot find it to select it and he cannot see it to try to shoot it. Instead of freaking out he goes to the entrance and goes prone and slowly inches forward to the outside in a last ditch effort to free himself from the building. It felt nerve wrecking as everyone watching wondered when the mine would explode. But Cohh actually made it outside safely with no explosions and he plays a little victory sound and smiles saying he figured the mine had glitched out and wouldn’t explode. It was more fun to exit that way he said and he was right.
For science is what he says when he says when he tries things out that may or may not work out well. In Witcher 3 Cohh tries to loot everything possible and that leads him to searching every corner and jumping every gap that if he messes up means in-game death. Atop a bridge that’s broken he saw a gap that might be jumpable, you see he quicksaves and says, “for science!”, and jumps and falls to his death. He made it on the second attempt but he may not have not tried at all without his need to test his in-game abilities.
The stream isn’t always just Cohh having fun though. Laina pops on and off the stream, often to distract Cohh with kisss and snuggles and cats, and at least once during the review period she sat down a joined Cohh through a Witcher 3 quest full of rats and ghosts. Cohh filled her in with the quest up to that point and Laina taught the viewers how cool rats are as Cohh is attacked by them.
The quality of the video on Cohh’s stream is as good as you could reasonable expect on twitch. The games Cohh played always looked like they were on the best quality available, Witcher 3 hair settings aside, and the only drops in frames per second were outside Cohh’s control where his internet service provider was messing up. The webcam on the stream was always on and the quality was nice and clear. Green screen usage was great and we could not see any errors around the edges of Cohh’s body or even of Laina’s walking around in the background.
The layout of the stream was unintrusive with the webcam footage in bottom left or right corner and other information around the edges. The other information included a donation tracker, a sub tracker, a death counter, a t-shirts sold tracker, a sponsor’s logo, a graphic popping in with information about difficulty and platform he was playing on. The information displayed changed depending on the game played and was never obnoxious. In fact, oftentimes the information wasn’t large enough and the viewer might need to put their stream video on fullscreen to see what they said. People watching on mobile device may have trouble seeing or reading the information. Sub alerts were hard to read when they pop up but this isn’t an issue because a little sound clip, “COHHSCRIBER,” plays and if Laina is near-by you’d hear her say, “Good Show!” with a swing of her fist. Cohh then reads off each subscriber and thanks them. The sound quality of the stream was balanced between Cohh’s voice and the game volume nicely and the sub alerts were not overbearing or distracting for the most part as the alert sound was never louder than anything else on the stream.
If there was one defining aspect of this stream it would be how focused it is on interacting with the viewers. While many streams are welcoming to new subscribers and try to interact with viewers, not many reach the level we witnessed here on Cohh’s stream. During multiplayer games the focus was always on playing with viewers; even to the point of having a server in Rust just for viewers. When Cohh died in Arma 3 he wouldn’t leave the server to find a new game. Instead he would spectate the other players and talk with his viewers. More impressive was when he was playing Witcher 3, a game that demands your attention and concentration, which is story drive and single player. Even during a game like that he still managed to be constantly interacting with his viewers, even when there were over 7000 of them. Many times people would ask the same question over and over or if Cohh missed some loot and people yelled at him a thousand times but he didn’t get frustrated and complain about it. Instead he’d just answer the question or acknowledge that he heard he missed something and investigate. The relaxed and understanding nature with a focus on interaction of this stream have lead to a relaxed and understanding community where people are either playing together or are working together to experience the game being played.
The overall feeling of the CohhCarnage stream is calm and positive with a focus on community interaction and group experience. Discover together. “For Science,” as Cohh might say. This focus is nice to see. Other good points are in the moments where Cohh may be concentrating hard on the game and Laina pops in in various ways to distract him. The reaction reaction to kisses is reminiscent of a young boy having his cheeks pinched by an overeager aunt who thinks he is just too cute. But his annoyance is only an act and he always response and reciprocates her feelings with kisses back, well wishes, and I love you’s. The stream isn’t perfect for everyone though.
During the review period, the vast majority of the playtime has been put into Witcher 3. Cohh is known for playing games for 100% completion and will go everywhere and do everything. That’s enjoyable for some but it also means that in a game like Witcher 3 there will be hours and hours between main story elements. If you want to experience the story of a long story game like Witcher on Cohh’s stream you can expect to have to wade through every sidequest in between even if there are 20 hours of them. While wading through those quests you can expect Cohh to try and have as much fun as he can with everything he does but if you’re looking for something more focused on story then this stream may be hard to enjoy. This stream, by its very nature, is also very calm so people who want something loud or exciting will not be satisfied here. Even in moments of excitement and tense action that end in victory are met with Cohh playing a victory sound, smiling, and saying something like, “that was a good fight.” You won’t see him screaming or jumping out of his chair in victory screaming, “OH YEAH!”
If you’re looking for a calm stream with a focus on community interaction and you’re not expecting loud or excitement This stream has many things going for it. Cohh interacts with and plays with viewers in ways we haven’t seen often enough, Laina is a great addition to the stream whenever she pops on adding elements of unpredictability and charm, and, while it can interfere with following story plotlines, it is interesting to see a person doing everything possible in a game in pursuit of that 100% completion.
The Twitch Review Loves CohhCarnage.
If you’d like to check out CohhCarnage for yourself they stream at http://www.twitch.tv/cohhcarnage.
The Twitch Review 