de-rez: Hitman

[Doctor Shenanigans]

I'd like to relate a story, if I may:

Like many, you've probably got a friend who's an absolute blast to hang out with in person. He's probably not friends with many of your other friends, but as far as you're concerned that's fine because hey, it's not like you're making them hang out with him.

Now let's say that this friend of yours has a creative hobby, say fr'instance, painting. He loves doing it, but is actually pretty atrocious. Everything he creates is either heavily derivitive of something someone else had done far better years ago, or else it's just so poorly executed that any aesthetic value the work might have posessed at the start has been completely wiped out. But you don't say anything to him because he's a pretty nice guy and again, it's just his hobby; it's not as though he's making you look at them.

Except one night you got really drunk and told your friend just how awesome you thought his art was, and offered to let him hang some of his terrible paintings in your house. The next morning you sober up and find one of his monstrosities in your living room, and have to pretend like this is what you wanted or you'll lose this friend. You convince yourself that it isn't so bad, that maybe he'll just leave it at the one painting.

And then he starts hanging more and more, and inviting gangs of his other friends to your house to view his masterpieces. Your house is now full of loud, stupid people looking at terrible paintings and what's more your old friends don't want to come over anymore because your house is full of idiots and bad artwork.

Do you see where this heavy-handed metaphor is leading us?

I'm pretty sure that the Escapist doesn't need the sort of people who think that De-Rez is comedy gold hanging around. Of course, that's just one man's opinion, but it should be noted that I am one man with a fully functioning sense of humour which remained completely undisturbed through the entire runtime of that video.

 

[smellygoat]

@ Dcotor Shenanigans

You didn't have to go into so much detail with your "metaphor", but i thought it was flatering that you did. I'd like to make another poinr which i forgot to talk about in my first post.

The humor in this video was quite juvenile, and as such i could appreciate it being 18 years old. I have noticed during my time lurking here that that uber mature adult gamers of this site dont think much juvenile things (I'll use the general dialike for jRPG's due to their childishness as my example). But i fail to see how this video could attract supidity, there is a big difference between youth and idiocy, dispite what some may think.

Perhaps your also reffering to the quantaties of trolls that flooded these forums after yahtzees appearance. I'm not sure why he gets so many dumb peoplewathing his videos, he talks fast and has a large vovabulary, i guess its because he makes a few sex jokes.

@ Arbre

I went in with a blank slate not sure what to expect (apparaently something along the lines of gaming version of twilightzone) and was dissapointed by its lack of strangeness, but pleasntly surprised by its ammount of humour.

 

[TerribleTerryTate]

It has all the makings of working...in theory.
As some of the guys have already mentioned the lighting/camera angles were disappointing, but these things can be rectified.
It did have that rushed feeling, but maybe people are being too quick to judge. Everyone deserves a second chance, and to be honest, with the right ideas, this could work! Best of luck guys, keep it up.

 

[Booze Zombie]

This would have been vastly improved with some small changes:

1. If the plot was instead changed, to perhaps... Agent 47 trying to kill the guy as he's practicing on his punching bag, only to slip up on a banana peel and then run away quickly as the man looks around confusedly, wondering what the sound was.

Then later returning in a clown suit, with a Big Mac in one hand and a pistol behind him, shooting his victim in the face when he asks for ketchup to go in it... "Here", and then he eats the big mac his self "Yum".
Then choking for a second and spitting something out, exclaiming "I hate gherkins".

2. Better fake cromedome.

3. Better lighting.

I might also recommend investing in a better video recording device.

I would suggest that you guys delete this first one and remake it, however you wish, but I feel it would benefit from a remake.

 

[DarthTirith]

Eh, I was expecting more. The high standard of comedy ZP has reaches this and surpasses it.. Way surpasses it. I am not comparing them, the videos are nothing alike after all. What I am saying is I expected something a little more high quality from this website.

The comedy was way to forced, the set up was not only strange and bland but it seemed a little random. The first page comment had this in bag, its a SAYTV. Maybe with some improvement in the set up and pacing this could be something, but right now its nothing more then what I could get by going into Youtube and searching for the word comedy.

I might be missing the big joke here, I haven't played a Hitman game since Hitman 1, and I haven't seen the movie. I base my comment on what this clearly is.. A parody of a game which I haven't played. Perhaps you need to play the game or watch the film to understand it, something which brings me back to ZP, I don't need to play the games he talks about for a laugh.

I'll watch the next one to see if its improved, but I don't hold out for much.

 

[Doctor Shenanigans]

@smellygoat

I'm nineteen, just for reference. I laugh at tons of juvenile shit. I thought Team America was awesome, and was moved to *tears* by Yahtzee's naming Link 'Fagballs'.

Thus, I consider any attempt to excuse the lack of real humour as being too 'juvenile' for me to appreciate a poor defense at best, and insulting at worst. There aren't any jokes actually *made* in this video, other than the 'this person has an accent and oh look he talks a lot and is obviously not very bright what a character he is.' And that got old by the second time it was done.

@everyone else defending the video by saying 'it's a first attempt'

Um, no, it's not. The video with which they won the contract with the Escapist is not this one. They won the contract with a Ghost Recon parody, which is also on the site. The slipshod, poorly edited, derivative thing that they've got going on is kind of a habit, and has no place on a website with such a high standard of content and polish.

 

[Zelmor]

Sorry mate, that was not even a wee bit funny. I think you shouldn't go with the medium of video only because of the fortune in numbers Yahtzee's weekly rant can bring every Wednesday. That is somewhat unique in style.

It's not about the video quality, it is the cheap and bad humor it uses that let me down. I think the Escapist should stick to their quality articles about gaming, the industry and whatever strange things you can stumble upon (geocaching article made me wanna be a wizard too), but hey, who am I to tell you which direction you guys should take in your business model? This was a bit of stain on the else clean and nice look of the Escapist Magazine, but one cannot make a change if one fears mistakes. Nice try, now do something else.

a reader

 

[hasam]

I'm pretty sure that the Escapist doesn't need the sort of people who think that De-Rez is comedy gold hanging around.

hmmm have you seen the idiots who argue over who has the right to claim first post on zp forums, the place isn't exactley full of pipe smoking, tea sipping upperclass folk who chuckle to themselves over clever humour...

 

[Arbre]

Sorry mate, that was not even a wee bit funny. I think you shouldn't go with the medium of video only because of the fortune in numbers Yahtzee's weekly rant can bring every Wednesday. That is somewhat unique in style.

It's not about the video quality, it is the cheap and bad humor it uses that let me down. I think the Escapist should stick to their quality articles about gaming, the industry and whatever strange things you can stumble upon (geocaching article made me wanna be a wizard too), but hey, who am I to tell you which direction you guys should take in your business model? This was a bit of stain on the else clean and nice look of the Escapist Magazine, but one cannot make a change if one fears mistakes. Nice try, now do something else.

a reader

Maybe the Escapist is going too fast to build an audience. In the process, may even be loosing what the site originally was known for.
I didn't really come here to get my daily dose of LOLZ, and I think Yathzee fills that spot with style and intelligence well enough.

 

[Doctor Shenanigans]

I'm pretty sure that the Escapist doesn't need the sort of people who think that De-Rez is comedy gold hanging around.

hmmm have you seen the idiots who argue over who has the right to claim first post on zp forums, the place isn't exactley full of pipe smoking, tea sipping upperclass folk who chuckle to themselves over clever humour...

Kinda my point, dude. ZP is actually empirically *funny* and it attracts retards. Can you imagine the dross this would bring?

 

[Natsu_Blaze]

Well... I'll say this, it wasn't bad. But, as most of the others have said, it definitely needs work. You've got some moments- 47 showing up dressed as a clown was (funny) ridiculous- but you've also got some of the other kind of moments- like 47 showing up and going "Oi! I'm wearing all your clothes!". That was... kinda dumb. And you guys could definitely use a better setup, takes, what have you. Right now the quality is about the same as the one my 13-year old brother made with a couple of his friends.
So, work on acting, try to have more moments like clown-47, and try to up your camera/lighting stuff. You really could make something out of this; at the moment it's just sort of average.

 

[Arbre]

I'd rather have more reports on Project Horseshoe.

 

[akaFortySeven]

the lighting doesn't matter, it is like they are trying too hard I'm not saying i could do better but it's like Yahtzee's occasional s***e review it's difficult to be funnie all the time, but that was really sad I hope they do better in the comming weeks.

 

[end_boss]

I won't attack production values, because I don't mind the "we made this because we were bored and had nothing better to do" feel of these kind of movies. What I will criticize, however, is that the humour did not hit the target. The scene did little to cater to fans of the game, and certainly did not even find a mainstream appeal. Therefore, fans of the game won't find it funny because they don't relate to it, and the non-fans will be almost completely lost. To sum it all up, there was a complete absence of wit. It very well may have been funny to discuss, saying "What if Agent 47 was like this..." but in execution as a comedy sketch, it fell flat almost immediately.

 

[immortal88]

I'm curious why a number of you want to let the production quality on this slide?!

The articles on The Escapist are top notch, well written and edited. No one would read them if they were plagued with spelling and grammatical errors. For that same reason, this film needs to adhere to higher production values. Whatever medium you choose, if you're going to publish it anywhere other than YouTube, spend the time and money to do it right.

At the same time, I wonder how this snuck past editorial veto? Did the editors watch it before it was posted? If the second installment is equally devoid of value, I'd appreciate it not making an appearance on the site.

 

[Hachura]

I'd like to relate a story, if I may:

Like many, you've probably got a friend who's an absolute blast to hang out with in person. He's probably not friends with many of your other friends, but as far as you're concerned that's fine because hey, it's not like you're making them hang out with him.

Now let's say that this friend of yours has a creative hobby, say fr'instance, painting. He loves doing it, but is actually pretty atrocious. Everything he creates is either heavily derivitive of something someone else had done far better years ago, or else it's just so poorly executed that any aesthetic value the work might have posessed at the start has been completely wiped out. But you don't say anything to him because he's a pretty nice guy and again, it's just his hobby; it's not as though he's making you look at them.

Except one night you got really drunk and told your friend just how awesome you thought his art was, and offered to let him hang some of his terrible paintings in your house. The next morning you sober up and find one of his monstrosities in your living room, and have to pretend like this is what you wanted or you'll lose this friend. You convince yourself that it isn't so bad, that maybe he'll just leave it at the one painting.

And then he starts hanging more and more, and inviting gangs of his other friends to your house to view his masterpieces. Your house is now full of loud, stupid people looking at terrible paintings and what's more your old friends don't want to come over anymore because your house is full of idiots and bad artwork.

Do you see where this heavy-handed metaphor is leading us?

I'm pretty sure that the Escapist doesn't need the sort of people who think that De-Rez is comedy gold hanging around. Of course, that's just one man's opinion, but it should be noted that I am one man with a fully functioning sense of humour which remained completely undisturbed through the entire runtime of that video.

Oh, my god. Genious! I needed a good laugh after viewing the video, which is what I must call 'sub-mediocrity at its finest'. Shenanigans, YOU should be contributing material!

 

[Hawkzor]

lmoa i dont care if you ban me, but your a dickhead. just banning some account because he thought this episode was shit, well fuck you.

I think the red card was figurative.

 

[Jinky Williams]

I think the disappointment from everyone largely stems from this being put on The Escapist, where almost all of the content is fairly polished. It was about the expectation level. This looked like the guy's first shot at this type of thing. Not that this is bad, but it didn't match the expectation for a piece with more professional production values.

Admittedly, Yahtzee's ZP is a tough act to follow. Especially so because he had already had some time to up his game a bit before he started doing stuff here.

But I'm personally excited and behind this venture and want to see it mature, and I'll be watching it every week when it comes out. I think it's to de-rez's benefit that it's nothing like ZP (it's not trying to be a game review, etc).

 

[Hengst2404]

For me and my money we have a few things going here. First it was free and didn't cost us anything other than a few minutes of time and attention. Second, I have seen better videos done on youtube that had less production values and were obviously done by amateurs.

As far as the folks that say we need to allow them to improve or make more shorts before we judge, well not really, not really at all. If I watch a movie and it is horrible, do I owe it to the director to watch the sequel? If I play a really bad shovel ware game, do I owe it too the developer to improve and give the sequel a try? If folks hate the video, then that is an acceptable reaction and should be expected by anybody who creates something and puts it out there for others to view and judge.

Ultimately I think they tried too hard and just weren't really funny. All the other issues of production values and the rest can be overcome if the material itself is funny. For this short, I just didn't see the humor.