known now mostly as "that show tommy tallarico was on" EP was a games show that ran from the mid 90s up until the mid 2010s on tv and actually still runs via victor lucas's youtube channel, making it by far the longest running games show there is, sure it may not have been the first, but i'd argue its one of the more important and honestly more interesting ones to go back to, both for its genuine highs and hilarious lows (mostly thanks to tommy). tommy is the big elephant in the room though, i won't defend him here, at least not much, he's a liar, maybe a rightwinger and just a total asshole and a hypocrite, though i wouldn't go as far as some have in calling him a scammer, as someone that has been following amiico drama from the start he just reeks of incompitance rather than full on maliciousness and his appearances on EP back that up to me, i don't hate the guy, if anything i find him completely facinating, he's like the Y2K george wood and he's so strange and wild in his opinions and lies that its part of what keeps me coming back to the show as much as i have.

the show was split into two main segments that both eventually moved into their own distinct show,the first was the interview and coverage stuff, the main crux of why EP existed and the stuff thats aged the best, its all genuinely good coverage and victor especially is really good at interviewing the devs involved, there's a ton of fantastic footage here thats super useful historically and all worth a watch, the other half is the more contentious portion, reviews on the run, this was where the two hosts would cover games of that month outside using various locations and landmarks as a backdrop, its a cute gimmick and they always pick fun locations that fit many of the games well, like a snow festival to review lost planet or a golf course for some golf games, many of these segments have been mocked and memed on, usually rightfully for tommies downright absurd takes and opinions, this would eventually be split into its own show a reviews on the run (which was named as judgment day when it came to G4 for america) despite how poorly much of it has aged i kind of preffered reviews on the run, tommy is usually wild in his reviews, with completely off base claims like his JOJO HOTF review where he claims its a streetfighter knockoff and his weird hate for any 2D game released on or after the ps1 and equally strange and undying love for, of all things, willy wonka for ps2 and then vic was, kind of far ahead of his time, especially for a review show on G4 of all things, speaking out against things like exsessive video game violence as early as the late 90s! i respect victor a lot actually, even when i disagree with his takes, usually on survival horror games, he always reasoned things pretty well to where i could fully get where he was coming from and would fight back against tommy when he said something undeniably stupid.

some of you might be thinking "why the hell would i want to watch a bunch of badly aged reviews by *tommy tallarico*" and i don't think i'll be able to convince you if that isn't part of the selling point to you, yeah, these are opinions by tommy that are strange and maybe a little badly aged, but thats the charm of it and not all of it is even badly aged like when the hosts went massively to bat for games like shenmue or when vic fought back against violence in games and it is good for insight on how games and trends were taken at the time, things like backlash against survival horror that would lead to the genre going the way it did, or the extreme hate some people had for 2D games all the way up until the XBLA indie revolution came about (i have read a lot of magazines from the time and this was so rampant, see tommys review of CVS2 or the UK ps2 magazines review of samurai shodown 5), these are things that can easily get lost and forgotten over time with how much opinions on these things have changed, its cool to see for example how games now regarded as classics like silent hill 3 and siren were hit with backlash at the time for how the genre did feel stale to people (something that doesn't matter as much now since games like that very rarely get made), of course some also are, this was the mid 2Ks so you should go in expecting at least a few bad points, though compared to a lot of its contmporaries like x-play, this one is super uncontravercial in its jokes and takes beyond tommy occasionally being a bit of a creep, which in of itself is kind of weird to see considering the family friendly image he tries to portray now, its kind of wild to see him obsessing over any game with nudety or violence in it and it shows just how silly his whole amico deal really is.

a good typical episode can be summed up in a single clip, which will be linked at the bottom of the page, it features 4 reviews all of which have one of the shows 5 main tropes, the genuinely right review of a game that deserves all the praise it gets, in this case perfect dark, its a good review, then you have a very well aged segment where vic shows how ahead of the industry he was by calling out the violence in soldier of fortune, which tommy naturally loves and goes wild over, then you have tommy showing his strange hatered for anything child friendly by hating rayman 2 but also still giving it a good score and lastly a fully wild tommy moment where he hates jojo so much he gives both versions of it a 4 while vic praises it and tells him to open his mind, that's the show in a single clip really, barring when tommy goes full on george wood like his review for willy wonka, which will also be linked, a game he gives one of the highest scores in the shows history, despite it being, well, willy wonka for ps2. and for the rest, well sometimes its just fun, at least i think, to see old reviews, how things were recieved, find new older games this way and even maybe a clip or two of the game that you've never seen before, i think there's a lot of value in that and its why i love a lot of older game tv, it hits in a way that youtube videos, even older ones, just can't for me, and its not nostalgia, i've said before but i wasn't around when shows like this were airing, i only started playing video games in 2010 when FF13 came out so all of this was new to me when i stumbled onto it, it helps give me a perspective on things i'd never have been able to experiance and i think that can be important for broadening horizons, its especially easy now for things to be revisioned and to see games and things in a light they were never put in historically and these shows help to counter these things and i think that's important, of course i do disagree with a lot of things like how they give games scores at all (you probably noticed i don't do this) or many of their takes on games i love like SH3 or musashi for ps2, but thats just part of the experiance, not everything will ever line up with my taste and that's okay.

the hosts too, i kind of love how they present the show, victor plays a fantastic straight man to tommys more outlandish takes and it's entertaining to watch, they would frequently argue and insult each other with snarky jokes and comments, get emotional and angry and when both did agree on a game, like the infamous high heat baseball 2003 review it was always hilarious to see them tear it to shreds or give it genuine praise (tommy even started swearing and left the set during this one, i will cover this game one day) and tommys unlikabiity makes him at the very least a memorable presance, he even seems aware of this and plays into this in later episodes, which i respect to a degree, vic is also just super likable and most of his reviews have aged really well for the time, he seems like a cool guy even now and i still keep up with his games coverage, check out his channel if you can where he still does cover games (again, linked below) , both have genuine industry insight and weather you agree with them or not, it was cool to see people who were super involved in the industry even outside the show give their takes on the games of the era.

where a lot of shows from this era i would have to give the caviat that a lot of them just dont exist now, from some being lost media and what is there is usually lost media, as is the case with much of G4 and for the longest time, was the case with this with a lot of it just being camrips from VHS or dvd and off screen records, but many early seasons can be watched on victors channel and as of hopefully next year the rest of the show will be going up thanks to victor and the toronto university, so this one actually does have a happy ending, go check out whats there at least, weather you agree with the hosts or not, i think anyone with an interest in the mediums history will have a good time here with either the reviews or the interviews.

+ rayman/jojo
+ tommy and vic fighting
+ victors channel
+ high heat baseball 2003