Betrayal

[Irridium]

Uhu...

*quickly hides god of war 3*

DON'T HATE MY BELOVED GAME!

Its not like betrayal in a God of War game is even suprising.

They mention it in the trailers for gods sake!

"A man betrayed by the gods forms an uneasy alliance with the titans..." Or something like that.

If you can't see Kratos getting betrayed, well then thats pathetic.

 

[MGlBlaze]

God of war 3 is beyond incredible, no hating

You realise that he is inevitably going to hate on it because that's what Mr. Croshaw does, right? As in he does it even (usually, anyway) if he admits to liking the game. Let me quote him from his H.A.W.X. review;
"I might even go as far as to say that H.A.W.X. has sold me on Air Combat games... but that's not funny, so let's find more things to rip on. The story's a nice, fat target!"

Not to mention he may well go out of his way to comically tear at God of War 3 simply because you asked him not to.

Anyway;
Aw, no update on FSG:TG?

I liked the snarky jab at the 'twist' of Super Mario Galaxy, too.

Also; people are still asking you to include and/or like the multi-player aspects? Seriously? Do they actually watch your videos, or do they just look at the thumbnail image and title before running off and making a load of shit up that amounts to "LOL TH1S G4M3 SUX0RZ!".

I need to go wash my brain with soap for writing in 'leet speak' now. Excuse me.

 

[SAMAS]

It's just a common literary theme. It comes up from time to time.

 

[dashiz94]

Betrayals worked in older games when story had a much larger emphasis. Now a days, when the story needs a bit of beef.."HEY! Let's make this guy betray the other!" "Yeah dude! It'll make the game like totally deep!"

 

[Mr Companion]

I hated the betrayal in the first assassins creed game, I knew from the start that Altair's leader was evil.

Was it the bit where Alteir drones "I am at your command master" or something like that. Because that really made me think Hang on am I a villains henchman here? And I was right.

 

[Pontus Hashis]

Plan 9 from outer space gave me stockholms syndrom... So bad it was fun.
But woudn't it be cool if something that would seem to be an obvius betrayal turns out to not be and all apeshit?

 

[TotallyFake]

"Stick-to-it-iveness" isn't a word.

As for the subject matter - yes, the "bet-h-rayal" is not the cleverest plot twist of all. Why not flip the context around - say, reveal the main bad guy to be Dark Lord Reasonable or something.

Didn't they do that in MGS 4?

.. Yeah, they did.

They also pulled the "the-guy-you're-working-for-is-evil" in MGS1 and 2. Arguably they did in 3 and Portable Ops (although Snake never knows this, the player does).

I'd like to see someone actually track down where all the betrayal crap started. There must've been some game that did it so well that everyone decided to copy it, and it sure as hell wasn't KotOR II.

You implying that KotOR II had a bit betrayal twist? Oddly, I found that one the most effective. Yeah, the betrayer is well established as a betrayer, it's what she does. But the whole point of the masses of betrayals was you, so why would she ever betray you? In fact, from her perspective, she's still helping you.

 

[mjc0961]

Haha, I was laughing so hard at the Super Mario Galaxy bit. I saw the game title, and thought "Huh? What betrayal? Mario just beats Bowser like he always does." and then the explanation... Ah, great stuff.

It is becoming rather tired, though. Mass Effect 2 discussion inside:

Spoiler

I'd been waiting from the start of the game for the point where the Illusive Man inevitably betrays Shepard... And I was thoroughly surprised when it never really came. Sure, I had the thoughts of "Yep, there it is. Great plot twist Bioware." on board the Collector Ship, but when they managed to logically explain it as not really a betrayal and have TIM and Shepard keep working together, I was actually pretty impressed.

 

[craddoke]

Sadly, this particular sin is not limited to video games. If any movie, television show, commercial, music video, or ring tone introduces more than one character/voice, I immediately assume that one of them is going to betray the other. If one of those characters/voices is the mentor of the other ... well, it's usually not worth watching/listening any further.

That's not Genre Savvy, that's being a pessimist.

Well, I will take pessimism with +50% accuracy over optimism any day.

Examples: Any James Bond, Bourne, Avatar, Eternal Sunshine, Memento, Lost, V, FlashForward, etc. ad nauseum - I was kidding about music videos and ring tones. I should have added novels.

 

[CheckD3]

So since you have people complaining about the multiplayer again and you only play single player, I'm sure the world must know, Which was the better SINGLE PLAYER, the samey shock and awe of Modern Warfare 2, or the Dust Bowl that is Bad Company 2?

As to betrayal, to be honest, even the blatantly out there can sometimes interesting, though the reason I would say it's bad is that it's the old, "no originality" clause, where game writers have no new ideas, so they say "hey, let's make someone betray someone for revenge", and then we get an unoriginal idea out of something that could be fun...

 

[LimeJester]

I don't know if Uncharted 2 deserves to be in that list with the rest of them. As far as formulas goes the betrayal in that game comes in the second level, the whole plot of the game is sprung off of it. It's not like it comes in the 11th hour like most games when there's still 2 - 3 levels left and the writers are running out of story to tell. And before anyone says it Chloe doesn't count as a betrayal to me, she's clearly mercenary from the start, and plays both sides when necessary. It's no surprise she'd pull a gun on Drake to save her ass.

 

[VGFreak1225]

Also, in Viewtiful Joe,

Spoiler

Captain Blue is the villian.

So simple, yet it didn't even cross my mind until I got to the twist in the game.

 

[Torque669]

My god I cant beleive I forgot about Second Sight. I bought that game after playing Timesplitters Future Perfect (Mainly because it said Free Radical Design on the front).

However I agree Betrayal is annoying in games, especially the ones you can see coming from a mile off, however sometimes it works Id say but its very rare nowadays to see a good betrayal hat makes me go "Oh you *****/Bastard"

 

[Baradiel]

Yes, most games need a decent singleplayer before they're classed as good. A Battlefield game is NOT ONE OF THEM! Hell, Bad Company 1 was the first Battlefield game to even have a singleplayer, and they were brilliant. They popularised online shooters.

"Besides, I don't believe people who say Bad Company 2 is chiefly multiplayer-focused"

It's a Battlefield game. Battlefield is synonymous with multiplayer.

" The massive, extremely linear levels..."

No bigger than the multiplayer levels, and in Rush they're just as linear.

" the spectacular set pieces"

Same as before, they're in the multiplayer (eg. The panama canal map, a massive rusty tanker)

"the vehicle races"

Just the vehicle mechanic made more linear

"the World War 2 prologue"

It's a prologue to give a base for the rather feeble plot. It isn't really part of the main campaign.

"the emphasis on creating distinct identities and personalities for the NPC sidekicks whose collective name is the fucking title of the game"

Only because of Bad Company 1. They have much more personality in the first one. If anything, their personalities are generic and can be summarised into:

Redneck
Geek
Easygoing leader
Normal Bogstandard Soldier

The game is called Bad Company 2. It is a sequel to the first one which had the same characters with the same personalities, who are now more watered down versions . They HAD to have a singleplayer with the same characters, and anyone who has played the first one will realise that the personalities have suffered considerably.

"to me, do not paint a picture of a single player campaign thrown in as an afterthought"

Well, to me they paint a picture of a humourous campaign that tried to become more serious to please CEOs and people in suits who couldn't recognise originality if it was wearing neon trousers and pissed in their cheap, bland coffee.

I would recommend the first Bad Company if you want a good singleplayer experience. It was fun, exciting and the most important thing; ORIGINAL!

However, Battlefield Bad Company 2 IS A MUTLIPLAYER GAME. They is no escaping that. It is made by DICE, a multiplayer specialist. they've made a bestselling series of MULTIPLAYER GAMES. They are making the multiplayer for the new Medal of Honour. And this is only their second Battlefield with a singleplayer.

The MULTIPLAYER (which I should point out, AGAIN, that this is the focal point of the game, and the reason most people bought it) is first class. The singleplayer simply isn't.

...

God that took ages...

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Second Sight? I forgot all about that awesome game, I may have to dig it out

 

[Voltano]

Wow, I'm surprised Yahtzee mentioned "Second Sight" as I thought that game was really good. Game-play was really sweet, but the story was also damn good as well. Kind of lame that it may be overlooked by so many people. :-/

I've seen that game on Steam a few times. I'm thinking this game will get record sales kind of like "Pain-Killer" did after Yahtzee mentioned this. >.>

I never thought about the whole betrayal plot-twist, but I see what this article means that it's getting redundant. Look at movies along with video games and the number of times this plot-twist is pulled off is staggering. I always thought a good plot-twist is something that goes completely 180 on the direction of the story, even better if it wasn't expected at all by the audience yet several subtle hints were dropped early on to make the realization more believable the second time played/watched through. The best example I could think of would be the movie "Sixth Sense".

 

[Phoenixlight]

I hated the betrayal in the first assassins creed game, I knew from the start that Altair's leader was evil.

Was it the bit where Alteir drones "I am at your command master" or something like that. Because that really made me think Hang on am I a villains henchman here? And I was right.

Well that and the fact that he was wearing all-black robes with the personality he had.

 

[VGFreak1225]

Yes, most games need a decent singleplayer before they're classed as good. A Battlefield game is NOT ONE OF THEM!

Here's the thing. Many people who buy games expect good Single-player experiences.

Let me put it to you this way. Imagine you go order a bouquet and you pay someone $60 to make it. The bouquet contains tulips and roses. You don't particularly care for tulips, but many other people do, and it makes a nice addition to the roses. When the flowers are delivered, the roses are perfectly fine, but the tulips are covered with piles of crap. You can try and cover up the crap and ignore it, but you can't quite remove it from the tulips. Now if you tried to show this to someone who liked tulips, they probably wouldn't care for it.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 may be multiplayer focused, but there are still plenty of people who want a good single player experience first in their military shooters. I am included in that group, and I probably won't be getting BC2 any time soon because of that reason, especially since I don't get military shooters all that often. For them, its a good campaign first, then the multiplayer makes a nice addition on the side. Having a great multiplayer is not an excuse for a poor singleplayer.

Edit: And another thing: by including a single player campaign that is 8 hours long, (or however long the campaign is) the developers are implying, "Hey we included something that requires some commitment by the player, so it must be very good. You should try it." If the campaign is nothing more than training for the multiplayer, and it isn't particularly good, then how about reducing the campaign to about 1 or 2 hours, (however long it takes to show all the multiplayer components) call it a tutorial, then take 20 or 30 dollars off the price tag. There is much less confusion, and the players who like the multiplayer can still enjoy it.

 

[Xirdarch]

Betrayal, well what would be done instead? This isn't a case of a dead horse trope but rather an example of something that works and therefore is done ad-infinitum.
I bet it has something to do with that plot twist in the Bible when (Spoilers) Judas sells Jesus out (Spoiler over).
I just think all modern game developers are trying to piggyback that success, 2000 to late, and badly.

 

[King Kupofried]

I know it's not a game Yahtzee would play since it's a JRPG but Persona 3.

Spoiler

Ikutsuki's betrayal of you after defeating the 12 shadows I thought worked quite well. Since unlike alot of betrayals there are no real signs of him planning to turn things around on you since you all know virtually nothing about the Shadows other than that you should get rid of them before they kill everything. He doesn't pointlessly leave little hints of what his real plans are like some cheesy villain rubbing his hands together in the shadows since you are doing exactly what he wants done without question since even if he was not there to help direct you, I'm sure anyone else in the same position would come to the conclusion that destroying the Shadows seemed like a good idea.
There is also quite a bit of effort into making you actually like him with his incredibly corny but somewhat charming personality and fondness for puns. Perhaps other people saw through it but I was actually somewhat surprised and quite sad when I found out he was crazy.

I think one the real problems with betrayal I find is that the person going to back stab you is generally the first person you suspect it will be, and their personality is so abrasive that you WANT them to turn around on you just so you get a chance to shoot them.

I was also very surprised at how many people cried for Yahtzee to touch up on the Multi-player. I'm honestly glad he doesn't waste his time with it in the reviews since every single online shooter game can be summed up with several points that can apply to every other online shooter, and Battlefield games while fun in their own way do not exactly break into new ground that significantly changes the dynamics of it all.