Poll: Is Yahtzee serious?

[Zhadramekel]

I think he's serious but he does go OTT on a lot of points and he may prefer to point out the bad over the good of a game

 

[Uzi-Bazooka]

He said in a review that "My mission is to point out most games as the shit they are to highlight the few good games that break the surface."
And there you have it.

 

[PureChaos]

i take a lot of things with a pinch of salt, he's probably saying what he feels but exaggerating in a few areas to make the review more entertaining.

 

[MarrionetteMaster]

I like to think he's serious. Then again that could be because just about every review he's done I can agree with him 100% on. I strongly dislike just about ever game that's been popped out over the last few years. There may be just 10 or so I've enjoyed, but I'd rather just play classic games back when things felt more fun. Anyway to reiterate, yeah I think he's being honest with his reviews and he doesn't hate every game on the Wii. He mentioned both Galaxy games were good and fun, he even mentioned one of the CoD games being decent(solo not online obviously).

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

...Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out...

Well, right off the bat I'd like to point out that's not true. The only genres he has specifically stated to hating are JRPGs and RTSs, and even that wasn't entirely accurate as he's stated in his weekly columns. He hates the modern JRPGs that are obsessed with spectacle and angst, admitting to enjoying games like Chrono Trigger and (I think) some of the FFs pre VII. He's also said that he can acknowledge that RTSs may be good, they just don't float his boat so to speak. Regardless, it's fairly apparent that Yahtzee's points are serious and generally valid, and it's also slightly less clear that he doesn't hate every single game he reviews, he just sh*ts over all of them (quoting a podcast there, just to be clear).

 

[Pinkamena]

It's just comedy... I never take him serious.

 

[Lenin211]

He uses hyperbole for comedy and to emphasize things that he doesn't like in a game. There is no option other than "yes" and "no" in the poll however, and so I cannot vote in it.

 

[viking97]

in a podcast yahtzee said he genuinely hates everything he says he hates. although i don't recall him saying he hates third or first person shooters, and i distinctly remember him saying RTS is just something he's never gotten into for whatever reason.

strawmen are so easy to argue with because they don't argue back, i suppose.

 

[Diceman]

I don't really understand why this is actually being debated.
Yes he's being mostly serious.
Why can't someone genuinely hate most of the dross out there?

 

[Racecarlock]

In the core of what he is saying, he is serious. However he clearly a. exagerates and b. ignores the good parts as much as possible. In one of his videos he starts out listing good points for a game and then says "but we don't want that, you all love it when I poke holes in a game so here goes" or something along those lines.

I believe in his arkham asylum review he said "But you don't call a sewage technician to redecorate your bathroom and you didn't come to me to hear about how a game is good."

But to be honest, people will only take him seriously if they share his tastes. IF you're like me and you enjoy whizbang shooty fun and silly over the top action and horror that's acutally scary and even a good story, then you should take him at face value, as you'll probably notice every flaw he does. But if you like slow gameplay and lots and lots of menus and numbers and shit or grey brown realistic shooters, you should probably look to some other reviewer. Also if you're a nintendo fan.

 

[Sjakie]

why the F*** are you asking us? You should ask him, he's the only one that knows for sure

 

[signingupforgames]

He's probably semi-serious. He accentuates the negative aspects, so he probably doesn't think all the games are horrible. HOWEVER after playing game after game after game after etc. He's probably gotten to the point where he's like a film critic, able to spot the most bland and uninteresting garage that we would see as merely average, and truly spiteful by how many pieces of trash there actually are. But in all seriousness, he's probably mostly just trolling.

Probably.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

He's not a reviewer, he's a critic. A reviewer will take a balanced look at a game and deliver an unbiased report. A critic will examine a game and pick up on all its flaws, glossing over the good and emphasizing the bad.

Yahtzee exaggerates for comic effect, but he's pretty on the ball when it comes to finding a game's weak spots.

In all fairness Yahtzee only really glosses over the good if he doesn't like the game or isn't sure if he recommends it or not. Plus there's usually more to say about something that's bad.

 

[Agayek]

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?

The answer to this is simple. Go watch his Bioshock video, specifically at ~0:15. He explains that people hate him when he's nice to a game. Thus, most all of his reviews are rather negatively biased.

He presents the worst bits of the game in a comedic manner, instead of actually doing a balanced review.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

The MH review - he didn't play the game for more than half an hour or an hour, tops. I can guarantee you that. He only mentioned the gathering quests and barely even mentioned the hunting quests.

Well it is possible that he did some of the hunting quests but it's quite a while before you fight the first big monster (I don't really count the Great Jaggi because, while tough, it wasn't that big or exciting) and he did mention that the early encounter with the final boss was genuinely exciting. He's also said in the past that he rarely, if ever, excepts the argument that "It get better later". Before you get the wrong idea, I genuinely like Monster Hunter Tri so far (the Switch-Axe in particular is on my list of coolest weapons ever) but you can't deny it has a very slow start so you could be forgiven for giving up on it before playing to the end.

 

[Liquid Paradox]

yhatzee's reviews are honist, if that's what you're asking. If he hates a game, he nitpicks it. if a game is okay, he nitpicks it. if he loves it, he praises it, followed by nitpicking, because that's what The Escapist pays him to do.

Too bad there isn't a 3rd option on the poll: Kinda. Well... that's my vote.

 

[Aelfspranca]

I can't imagine he isn't being serious if you read his articles as well. I've personally come to a point in gaming where I own systems from every console generation both home and portable and sift through hundreds of titles to find a few dozen I find enjoyable. I watch him every week because it's refreshing to see someone calling an industry that has consistently avoided innovation in cultivating an experience in favor of improvements in graphics and realism. I have a few subscriptions to published gaming magazines and a I follow a few more on-line and it's very rare to find a review that is really critical of a game on any practical level. I often rent or buy these games to try them out only to find myself bewildered at what game the reviewer was playing. It's for this reason I only purchase games used from retailers that fully reimburse returns during a set time frame. Gaming simply isn't worth the cost otherwise.

 

[Draconalis]

On the other hand if he isn't in character it's rather jarring that he honestly hates so many of the games out there and truly beleives them to be bland and unoriginal.

This is how I felt long before I ever knew Yahtzee existed. Most games do not impress me at all.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I think he's serious. He always tries to make his reviews fun to watch, at the same time gets his points across.

 

[Maddenfreak]

while i think at ground level he's serious, he plays a lot with comedic effect which blurs the true statements a bit