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

[BrokenWokenBespoken]

The PS2 did had shovelware games, but every console had shovelware of some sort. The difference is the PS2 games managed to have successors and those that didn't were fondly remembered. You think Sony will allow anything like Tamsofts older lineup of Bikini Brawling games on their consoles if it was a new IP? Or make it easy for devs like compile heart to develop budget games with dedicated fanbases? Or as he said, quirky indie games having as much visibility as your generic experiences that only became a ruthlessly refined source of entertainment.

As for Auteurs, he has a bigger problem with the games are art so let's make a game where you have to help scared little child survive as a milquetoast adult with strong flaws since Detroit Become Human and TLOU2 reek of that nasty stench associated with artist clique attention seeking that no one in his generation would touch if they had stable secure lives unlike the Troons who see the games as some Messianic scripture to free them from the mud of spunkgsrgleweewees and titty games that are fun. What he wants are less twatty devs who want to make their own game and not worry about being a heart attack for the stockholders who now control the publisherd

 

[George Lucas]

Tbh he also said that the PS2 had so many memorable games because it had good third party support, meaning the sheer volume of games released for it was massive. For each quality game you had five shovelware bugfests. So that kinda torpedoes the whole ''games used to be better'' argument, we just remember the good ones more vividly.

One thing he does mention alot is the lack of auteur-driven game design these days, which, though coloured through rose-tinted glasses and likely influenced by his own personal misgivings, isn't entirely inaccurate. Then again, he did shit on Richard Garriot, David Cayge and TLOU for being terrible, so maybe he's just inconsistent. A lot of mechanics he seems to like in games aren't just good mechanics, they're good mechanics of old games. The few shooters he praises are those that deliberately mimick the more arcadey elements of late 90s/early 2000s run-n-gun games, like Painkiller and Resistance 3. He's definitely no stranger to the nostalgia goggles.

It’s a law of nature that the more complex a process is, the more potential for delay exists for it. You can get delay back through concurrency, but certain processes must be sequential. Practically, what this boils down to is that there is a trade-off in realism and responsiveness in play. Arcade-like elements of the past can fundamentally be more fun than gameplay with more ‘depth’. More and more games will fundamentally be based on older ones, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

In other words, consider why Go is still so popular despite having more representative, accurate historical simulations.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

The ps2 was back when middle size studios existed and games didn't devolve into the same third person action adventure with minor RPG elements and crafting mechanic involving some family drama grey goo. That's why it was a golden age, while today both AAA and Indies are stuck in their own fucking boring niches at least the last decade.

Anyways Yahtzee could probably review whatever he wants due to being the solve thing keeping The Escapist alive

 

[Marissa Moira]

In other words, consider why Go is still so popular despite having more representative, accurate historical simulations.

Because it has awesome brawler mechanics.

 

[Pissmaster]

Best/Blandest/Worst of 2021 video is up

Spoiler: The lists

Best:
5. The Artful Escape
4. Persona 5 Strikers
3. It Takes Two
2. The Forgotten City
1. Psychonauts 2

Blandest:
5. Resident Evil: Village
4. Kena: Bridge of Spirits
3. Back 4 Blood
2. Outriders
1. Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

Worst:
5. Twelve Minutes
4. The Good Life
3. Oddworld: Soulstorm
2. Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Earthblood
1. Balan Wonderworld

I forgot most of these came out last year

 

[BrokenWokenBespoken]

It shows how forgettable this year of gaming is.

Also Balan Wonderworld getting worst game is proof that washed up Japanese devs are incapable of reigniting nostalgic games as Left Alive also shown us.

Though Sterling and Yahtzee are in mutual agree for once

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

no SMTV on his list? the SMT fans must have really pissed him off.

 

[The tired cat]

It shows how forgettable this year of gaming is.

Also Balan Wonderworld getting worst game is proof that washed up Japanese devs are incapable of reigniting nostalgic games as Left Alive also shown us.

Though Sterling and Yahtzee are in mutual agree for once

The only issue is that Left Alive took a series that was about huge walking mechs and was tactical and tried to turn into an MGS knock-off. Balan Wonderland's issue is that it tried to be a weird mix of Nights-Sonic and kinda Psychonauts in a way while holding to very old game mechanic ideas.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

It'd probably get really boring to review the same sorts of games over and over again especially when you have to write something new and at least somewhat funny every single time.

Except he put himself in that position to begin with. Even in it's inception, Zero Punctuation has, for the most part, been about reviewing modern AAA games. Once in a while he's deviate from the norm and go to Indie/Retro shit, but otherwise his schtik is that he shits on newer stuff. There are some modern games he DOES ignore because they are "too bland", but with each passing year it seems that's becoming the new norm with AAA stuff.

If he really was bored of doing the same thing over again, he could mix it up by doing either a retro review, a game he really likes (sans Undertale) or another "Occasion Guide to Retarded Moments in Gaming History" video. Or you know, just retire and do what makes him happy.

 

[BrokenWokenBespoken]

Well it's a curve ball ladies and gents, turns out he does have begrudging respect for TLOUII after all.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/bad-games-are-better-than-bland-games-extra-punctuation/?fbclid=IwAR3_Azbx3fxseLC9HL47GpUGEYZ8INc__PimBdCjyCE2QX_dE8Nf49qNbSw

TL;DR AAA Games are worse for gaming because they are soul sucking experiences designed to create obedient consumers. Meanwhile, some obscure woke trash is better because it at least has "heart" even if he hates it.

 

[ShoFuKan]

TL;DR AAA Games are worse for gaming because they are soul sucking experiences designed to create obedient consumers. Meanwhile, some obscure woke trash is better because it at least has "heart" even if he hates it.

A bad game is still a waste of time.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Well it's a curve ball ladies and gents, turns out he does have begrudging respect for TLOUII after all.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/bad-games-are-better-than-bland-games-extra-punctuation/?fbclid=IwAR3_Azbx3fxseLC9HL47GpUGEYZ8INc__PimBdCjyCE2QX_dE8Nf49qNbSw

TL;DR AAA Games are worse for gaming because they are soul sucking experiences designed to create obedient consumers. Meanwhile, some obscure woke trash is better because it at least has "heart" even if he hates it.

Wow that's a shit take.
First of all the entire article is about how indies good, AAA bad, but the main example is Balan Wonderland - A game published by AAA and produced by a mid sized developer, the one thing it definitely isn't is an indie.
Secondly, it's ignoring that the Indie market is completely stuffed by soulless derivatives and only once in a fucking year you'll have some trailblazer that everyone will copy and paste with a tiny difference. What's the difference between a modern shooter or a shooter in the Build engine? How is a sandbox adventure game different from an Earthbound clone? Ask what were the best indies and people will tell you about games like Hollow Knight that game half a decade ago rather than anything new.
Finally it's narrow minded since it's ignoring that AAA games have a ton of art and music assets put into them that some people will find interesting by themselves. Here's a Youtuber exploring a Ubisoft game for an hour with all the stuff they put in:

It's the same retarded "only student films are real art" snobbery.

 

[The tired cat]

Wow that's a shit take.
First of all the entire article is about how indies good, AAA bad, but the main example is Balan Wonderland - A game published by AAA and produced by a mid sized developer, the one thing it definitely isn't is an indie.
Secondly, it's ignoring that the Indie market is completely stuffed by soulless derivatives and only once in a fucking year you'll have some trailblazer that everyone will copy and paste with a tiny difference. What's the difference between a modern shooter or a shooter in the Build engine? How is a sandbox adventure game different from an Earthbound clone? Ask what were the best indies and people will tell you about games like Hollow Knight that game half a decade ago rather than anything new.
Finally it's narrow minded since it's ignoring that AAA games have a ton of art and music assets put into them that some people will find interesting by themselves. Here's a Youtuber exploring a Ubisoft game for an hour with all the stuff they put in:

It's the same retarded "only student films are real art" snobbery.

I said it once and I'll say it again. His main audience now is only hipsters or numbnuts who cry "BACK IN MAH DAYS GAMES USED TO BE ART AND HAD SOULS!!! NOW ONLY INDIE DEVS HAVE SOUUULS AND VISION!!!" and Yahtzee still being a fucking hipster himself, keeps banging on that drum over and over again.

 

[LightDragonman1]

A bit off from what you are discussing, but I did notice that he likes his games to be self-contained. Like, he hates it when the Resident Evil games try to expand on their world and established characters, and prefers 4 and 7 because they have little to do with the main overarching narrative.

Thoughts on that?

 

[The tired cat]

A bit off from what you are discussing, but I did notice that he likes his games to be self-contained. Like, he hates it when the Resident Evil games try to expand on their world and established characters, and prefers 4 and 7 because they have little to do with the main overarching narrative.

Thoughts on that?

I mean, he pretty much sped "Reee'd" on the RE2 Remake, going "Oh! Now we're back to the whole dumb plot! I guess it'll take a RE4 remake to make things better again!!"

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

how exactly you go from "The fact is, the current system for both triple-A and indie games just doesn’t bring enough exposure to incredibly bad games" and

I worry that the truly interestingly bad game is in danger of dying out. Oh sure, there’s no end of terrible indie games along with no end of every other kind of indie game, but a game that’s bad because it lacked resources or because the creators weren’t very skilled isn’t an interesting story. It’s just to be expected, really. Car crash games require a certain set of ingredients – the money, resources and talent to realise the creator’s vision, and the vision itself being completely fucking nuts. And the creator must have that specific kind of ego as well that makes them utterly deaf to criticism

to "indie good, AAA bad" is a level of lol-didn't-read/watch that is beyond my understanding

the tl;dr is he wants more room for failure and experimentation in the AA/AAA area of the medium like you saw in the mid-2000s, before the monumental cost of making a video game ensured that you needed to churn out the most generic, stale paste possible to ensure a safe return:

Just look at that Bloomberg article about Ken Levine from a few weeks back that is initially about how Ken Levine is totally Duke Nukem Forevering his new project but ends up turning into a blatant hit piece against the whole concept of auteurism. That’s the voice of the industry, right there. Stop having ideas and keep making those skinner boxes, drones.

Now me, I don't really give a shit. The industry's in a massive bubble buffeted by the kinds of retards who shell out $60 for a game, get bored of it in a week, and then shell out another $40 for several expansions that also get old in a week. All mediums have recessive periods where the consumer base's likeness to grey slop turns the whole of its mainstream output into a boring, bland slurry. He's basically just screaming at the clouds that what has happened to film, radio, comics, novels, music, animation, and television at various points has also happened to video gaming. Except that it also already happened to video gaming in the late 80s anyways.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I said it once and I'll say it again. His main audience now is only hipsters or numbnuts who cry "BACK IN MAH DAYS GAMES USED TO BE ART AND HAD SOULS!!! NOW ONLY INDIE DEVS HAVE SOUUULS AND VISION!!!" and Yahtzee still being a fucking hipster himself, keeps banging on that drum over and over again.

I'd give more cred to Yahtzee if he went full on long reviews a la' Joseph Anderson rather than stick to 5 minute reviews for over a decade now and the occasional editorial.

how exactly you go from "The fact is, the current system for both triple-A and indie games just doesn’t bring enough exposure to incredibly bad games" and
to "indie good, AAA bad" is a level of lol-didn't-read/watch that is beyond my understanding

The paragraph beforehand is the tired "AAA games this day are skinner box"

In contrast, bland games are a cultural void. Games built from taking established formulas and mashing the copy-paste buttons until you’re left completing an endless conveyer belt of identical, perfectly efficiently designed challenges until the emotional part of your brain dries up. Nothing that calls itself entertainment media should leave you feeling emotionally numb and yet this is what the triple-A industry keeps deliberately churning out with its identikit shooters and sandboxes because all the punters who just want to kill time with non-threatening Skinner boxes make them more reliably bankable than anything that wants to take a risk.

Plus the entire crux of the argument is about AAA only making bland games unlike "muh indies who can be both bad and good, but not as bad. Now who wants to play an innovative Earthbound clone about depression?".
And the argument itself is just wrong by looking at last year with Cyberpunk, TLOU2, the last Battlefield and Back 4 Blood (which Crowbcat massacred a week ago), bad games aren't going anywhere, it's just that Yahtzee is either too late to the party or not willing to stir shit.

 

[Articles and Nudes]

It's funny watching people tard rage over his apparent hate for AAA titles, when the most negative threads on this forum are about AAA titles.

 

[The tired cat]

It's funny watching people tard rage over his apparent hate for AAA titles, when the most negative threads on this forum are about AAA titles.

Do you know what's the difference? This forum is filled with nobody motherfuckers whose rage is on the levels of a /v/ thread on 4Chan. This dude gets paid for this shit and acts like his opinion is some holy gospel that some numbnuts take as a proper opinion and then repeat it.

 

[Articles and Nudes]

Do you know what's the difference? This forum is filled with nobody motherfuckers whose rage is on the levels of a /v/ thread on 4Chan. This dude gets paid for this shit and acts like his opinion is some holy gospel that some numbnuts take as a proper opinion and then repeat it.

You seem to be the only one doing that, buddy. Might be time to let go of your weird grudge.