"Zero Punctuation" and "Dev Diary" by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw - The only thing worth watching on The Escapist

[Vida]

Apparently Yahtzee plans on leaving America and going back to England if an abortion ban happens. If Abortion is what's holding you to America then just go back to England then lol

At around 46:30

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7atFASmGgcNALyiAlJlnIh?si=jNYv2PjDSCCm9zXjR7xetw&t=2784

Who wouldn't want to live in a nation where your daughters can abort your grandchildren?
I feel bad for his daughters, having such a weak male role model as a father and living in a shitty state.

 

[Franz Joseph]

Who wouldn't want to live in a nation where your daughters can abort your grandchildren?
I feel bad for his daughters, having such a weak male role model as a father and living in a shitty state.

For his daughters sake hopefully he doesn't move to a area with a Muslim population...

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

For his daughters sake hopefully he doesn't move to a area with a Muslim population...

If his wife is really loaded like the rumours say (the wealth related rumours, not the fat ones) then they'll live in the ivory towers that only witness muslims as "native Brits" on the BBC.

 

[anklyscr]

If his wife is really loaded like the rumours say (the wealth related rumours, not the fat ones) then they'll live in the ivory towers that only witness muslims as "native Brits" on the BBC.

alway curious about this. Where do I find a chubby based fat bird.?
They must exist.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I re-watched Zero Punctuation's video on Hotline Miami 2 and he was spot-on for a lot of the game's issues (buggy, too many characters--somehow missed the "out of range sniper" problem); well, actually it was a two-parter for Ori and the Blind Forest. While 2015 certainly wasn't PRIME Zero Punctuation it makes me wonder when exactly he lost it. The easy answer is California but already by 2015 he had been doing this for at least five years and losing his edge, and I would say it started around here. Two things to note about 2015:
1) Not reviewing Undertale but giving it extremely high marks at the end of the year, and I will admit, that non-review of Undertale convinced me that it was actually good and GOTD material (it, unfortunately, did not live up to that).
2) The dual Steam indie review feature itself. It started that year (looking at the wiki, the first one was in January 2015 with Five Nights at Freddy's and This War of Mine). It definitely started out with semi-popular stuff like a dual feature of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number and Ori and the Blind Forest, stuff people have heard of, in comparison to stuff no one has heard of, for example in September 2023, a dual feature of Lies of P and Chants of Sennaar.

There was a thread on Zero Punctuation on /v/ yesterday afternoon. It got jannied at around 69 posts, but it does bring up how he's got the "dad gamer" syndrome and how shitty/forced his Hogwarts Legacy review was. The question if it's even "forced" is a big question, because I can also believe he is a big enough faggot to truly believe it. YouTubers often say they're "playing a character" but nothing about Yahtzee indicates that he is, all his other stuff indicates that he is a complete douchebag with some atrocious taste in video games.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

I remember finding it strange that he made that video talking about how Sonic and God of War have the opposite tones, like that God of War has too many quips and Sonic is too self serious. To an extent I agree, but he defended it so poorly. Almost on the level of Pre Rec. Like his example for God of War was "they talk while fighting" and for Sonic it was "the weather is bad". He doesnt really engage with anything. And for God of War you can make the argument the characters are desentitized to their violent lifestyles and for Sonic I can just point to him fauning over the edgelord furry nonsense of Undertale and Night in the Woods

edit: actually that thread from 4chan discusses this same principle because apparently he either reviewed ShadOW and said the same thing, or recanted. this then leads to 4channers arguing how edgy Shadow is and if they should have him quip every other sentence. I reiterate my point about Night in the Woods' writing being awful, but awful in such a way that people look over it. Trush, egh, trash, ugh

 

[RedditExodus]

YouTubers often say they're "playing a character" but nothing about Yahtzee indicates that he is, all his other stuff indicates that he is a complete douchebag with some atrocious taste in video games.

He isn't. His ZP on HFW criticised Aloy for putting herself in danger when she's The One or something, and his EP, where he's out of character, does the exact same thing. The same argument was made about Nostalgia Critic vs Doug Walker reviews, where the views are the same, but the presentation different.

I think the Hogwarts stuff was a favour to Sterling. It just felt so forced. We've seen what he looks like when worked up (see election), and that wasn't it. Classic virtue signalling. Look at Digital Foundry. Handled it professionally when the controversy came up, despite Linneman (bottom left) being woker than Yahtzee and having a meltdown on Twitter.

https://youtu.be/yEd5iha9ubQ?si=kgDF9yM7JUOqOVmC&t=2509

@ 41:49. Call it deflection or fence sitting, but this is a guy (Leadbetter) who knows not to give oxygen to brainrot internet drama while running a media business.

Someone mentioned in /v/ him turning down the difficulty. That was probably Crowded Followed, where he turned it to the 2nd lowest difficulty to spare himself the indignity of playing on the easiest, and suggested the devs tweak the difficulty. He also sucked off Mark Brown's new game. While he's more competent than the average vidya journo, I stopped taking him seriously for purchase suggestions when I realised he's not really good at anything. He enjoys 2nd monitor games and anything he can rush through in a week, but hasn't bothered to master anything. He feels like a tourist in every franchise bar Silent Hill. No wonder any Sonic/Nintendo review has him harping on the fans for half of it.

 

[The tired cat]

He enjoys 2nd monitor games and anything he can rush through in a week, but hasn't bothered to master anything.

Well ye, his more infamous was him putting the super easy difficulty in MGS4, so he can have the infinite tranq gun and then he'd bitch about the whole game. Same was with Wildlands where again he put on the easiest difficulty.

 

[RedditExodus]

Well ye, his more infamous was him putting the super easy difficulty in MGS4, so he can have the infinite tranq gun and then he'd bitch about the whole game. Same was with Wildlands where again he put on the easiest difficulty.

Lmao. I once tried MGS4 on liquid easy. You literally kill everyone with one bullet. That plus auto aim turns it into DMC2. Just goes to show that playing hundreds of games doesn't make you good at them.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

playing hundreds of games doesn't make you good at them.

I don't even know that for sure. He has admitted to watching YouTube to see how games conclude, and claimed that he only personally completed four JRPGs ("EarthBound, Paper Mario 2, Persona 4 and Persona 5") but that means that he didn't actually beat Chrono Trigger which he had just reviewed at the time, or I Am Setsuna, another JRPG that he claimed he beat.

 

[Shroom King]

but that means that he didn't actually beat Chrono Trigger which he had just reviewed at the time

I never got the Programmer's Ending either in Chrono Trigger. Can't have everything, I guess.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I never got the Programmer's Ending either in Chrono Trigger. Can't have everything, I guess.

I assume that when he beat those other JRPGs he didn't have 100% NG+ completion. You think he did NG+ on any JRPG?

 

[The tired cat]

I assume that when he beat those other JRPGs he didn't have 100% NG+ completion. You think he did NG+ on any JRPG?

I doubt it, he probably beats it once and goes "Welp, that's good enough!"

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

He isn't. His ZP on HFW criticised Aloy for putting herself in danger when she's The One or something, and his EP, where he's out of character, does the exact same thing. The same argument was made about Nostalgia Critic vs Doug Walker reviews, where the views are the same, but the presentation different.

I think the Hogwarts stuff was a favour to Sterling. It just felt so forced. We've seen what he looks like when worked up (see election), and that wasn't it. Classic virtue signalling. Look at Digital Foundry. Handled it professionally when the controversy came up, despite Linneman (bottom left) being woker than Yahtzee and having a meltdown on Twitter.

https://youtu.be/yEd5iha9ubQ?si=kgDF9yM7JUOqOVmC&t=2509

@ 41:49. Call it deflection or fence sitting, but this is a guy (Leadbetter) who knows not to give oxygen to brainrot internet drama while running a media business.

Someone mentioned in /v/ him turning down the difficulty. That was probably Crowded Followed, where he turned it to the 2nd lowest difficulty to spare himself the indignity of playing on the easiest, and suggested the devs tweak the difficulty. He also sucked off Mark Brown's new game. While he's more competent than the average vidya journo, I stopped taking him seriously for purchase suggestions when I realised he's not really good at anything. He enjoys 2nd monitor games and anything he can rush through in a week, but hasn't bothered to master anything. He feels like a tourist in every franchise bar Silent Hill. No wonder any Sonic/Nintendo review has him harping on the fans for half of it.

His Horizon review where he praises the character constantly talking because "she's le insane" is vidya journo brainrot at its finest. Shitty tropes even when justified by the plot are shitty tropes

 

[The tired cat]

So, how much sucking off Ukraine and goin' bad "BAD RUSSIA" will we have here.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

So, how much sucking off Ukraine and goin' bad "BAD RUSSIA" will we have here.

No much. He said the game was delayed cause of the war and that's it.

 

[The tired cat]

No much. He said the game was delayed cause of the war and that's it.

Really? So he goes off with Harry Potter and here he pusses out? Dunno if I should be disappointed or not.

 

[Irrational Exuberance]

Really? So he goes off with Harry Potter and here he pusses out? Dunno if I should be disappointed or not.

Don't you worry--he's still capable of pulling out the "hot" takes.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I re-watched Zero Punctuation's video on Hotline Miami 2 and he was spot-on for a lot of the game's issues (buggy, too many characters--somehow missed the "out of range sniper" problem); well, actually it was a two-parter for Ori and the Blind Forest. While 2015 certainly wasn't PRIME Zero Punctuation it makes me wonder when exactly he lost it. The easy answer is California but already by 2015 he had been doing this for at least five years and losing his edge, and I would say it started around here. Two things to note about 2015:
1) Not reviewing Undertale but giving it extremely high marks at the end of the year, and I will admit, that non-review of Undertale convinced me that it was actually good and GOTD material (it, unfortunately, did not live up to that).
2) The dual Steam indie review feature itself. It started that year (looking at the wiki, the first one was in January 2015 with Five Nights at Freddy's and This War of Mine). It definitely started out with semi-popular stuff like a dual feature of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number and Ori and the Blind Forest, stuff people have heard of, in comparison to stuff no one has heard of, for example in September 2023, a dual feature of Lies of P and Chants of Sennaar.

There was a thread on Zero Punctuation on /v/ yesterday afternoon. It got jannied at around 69 posts, but it does bring up how he's got the "dad gamer" syndrome and how shitty/forced his Hogwarts Legacy review was. The question if it's even "forced" is a big question, because I can also believe he is a big enough faggot to truly believe it. YouTubers often say they're "playing a character" but nothing about Yahtzee indicates that he is, all his other stuff indicates that he is a complete douchebag with some atrocious taste in video games.

I am rewatching his Hotline Miami 1 review and not one minute in he's crying about MW2(original) being "racist". I dunno if he ever HAD the edge to begin with, he cracked a funny joke here or there but he was always a wanker.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I doubt it, he probably beats it once and goes "Welp, that's good enough!"

The thing is even beating RPGs the first time is probably a bridge too far. He didn't review Super Mario RPG, even when the Switch re-release would've been the opportunity to do it. It's not a long game, and even getting a few hours in will get you far enough to add ♡♪!?, er, Geno, to your party.

I am rewatching his Hotline Miami 1 review and not one minute in he's crying about MW2(original) being "racist". I dunno if he ever HAD the edge to begin with, he cracked a funny joke here or there but he was always a wanker.

His political views were pretty mild even into 2016, I think it would be best described as "Bush-era liberal". The real issue is the quality of reviews. A lot of the late 2000s/early 2010s stuff was pretty accurate as far as actual review content went.