Serious Game Fatigue

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Serious Game Fatigue

One tawdry pair of rundowns hardly does the year justice, so let's reminisce about some other things I didn't get quite so passionate about.

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[lordofpowies]

"God fuck us, every one" is the best Christmas/holiday quote I have heard in a while.

 

[1nfinite_Cros5]

But to close things off, there's one more thing I want to mention in the 'games too depressing to even make videos about' category, and that's the remake of Flashback...

But Yahtzee, you did make a video about that game! How could you forget?
Which I recommend everyone watches, by the way.

 

[Teoes]

Ho ho! Did everyone catch the crafty callback to the controversial joke from the original Papers, Please review? Gorsh I feel so clever and smart for spotting/interpreting it, I do I do.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Yeah once I played Bioshock Infinite, I just couldn't get into any other games. I remember watching Yatzhee's review and he said something along the lines of it being a depressing gaming year after that game. And I hate to admit it, but he was right. Sometimes I think Yatzhee is a troll, but damned if he didn't hit the nail on the head with that one. I mean I thought Bioshock was the perfect blend of humorous/serious/character development.
Games like Last of Us or GTAV just kinda' blurred together; not that the separate games blurred, mind, but the action/characters within each kinda' blurred together into a barely remembered mess of bad dialogue and boring action and wasted time.
Maybe I'm getting too snobby or old, but I'm starting to become okay with about 4 serious games a year. any more than that and its wasted time.
And indie games? The only one I thought was good was Stanley Parable, and I was finished with that in a day.
Its sad to be sure, but there are barely any games on my radar that strike my interest. A lot of them just seem like games I've played before in a younger time and have no real interest in returning to.

 

[JackyG]

Do you think this is the same thing as when certain comics became "Graphic Novels" because "comics" has childish connotations? Interactive narrative doesn't have much of a ring to it though.

 

[oldtaku]

"And God fuck us, every one."

I think He's got that covered!

 

[KDR_11k]

Well, the one game I'm hyped for this year is EDF 2025. I'm always more for mindless carnage.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Wait, wait, wait: Last year, Yahtzee called SO:TL his game of the year of 2012, and now he's named the fatigue of "serious" games after it. I'm trying to rationalize that, but I think he prefers a few "grimdark serious" games to stand out from the action-packed excitement of the others. Too many and its a big, drab slog.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Too many people are looking for consistancy in opinions when we are all aware that people change all the time. This is unavoidable.
Anyhow, when outlast was mentioned, i was a little confused as there was an xbla ubisoft title i downloaded with the same name which turned out to be a huge meh. Certainly not a horror!
As an incredibly cynical, jaded, hateful person who still doesnt understand trolling entirely, i cant say Sir Ben here is a troll (whatever that means in non phantasmagorical form), just an eclectic mix of truth, humour and hate
Bioshock infinite is up there with the film 'he was a quiet man' as stories that stay buried in your mind to haunt you on random nights or even during the day when someone is giving me important instructions on handling dangerous machinary

 

[Xman490]

Comparing Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (a game) to sausage rolls (a type of meat) is a good analogy. They both have really good tastes, though are relatively quick to finish. "Sausage" sorts of games like Braid, Limbo, and Bastion that have small characters diving into scary/disturbing worlds can all be expected to have a core of "fat" flavoring while "peppered" with an unusual graphic style.

 

[Evonisia]

Oh that reference to the Papers, Please video, classic. Still a bit disappointed that the joke got changed but what happens happens.

I didn't think you hated Sticker Star all that much, the reference surprised me. Though what surprised me more is that you still 'put' TLoU in your unofficial selections for Top 5 of the year and left out games you gave very positive or sort of positive reviews (Blood Dragon, Luigi's Mansion 2).

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Which brings me to The Last Of Us, a game I would have been happy to stop thinking about but everyone else seems to be convinced that it was the best game ever or something.

I don't think anybody thinks that, let alone "everyone else" - I think that for some reason TLOU has polarized opinion so much, that anybody not outright hating the game or defending it from the haters in anyway is seen as an irredeemable fan boy. Same deal with Bioshock: Infinite.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Comparing Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (a game) to sausage rolls (a type of meat) ...

Wait, since when did sausage rolls have meat in them? I think you are mistaken, Sir.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I was curious to see what Yahtzee thought of Flashback and now I know. Pretty much the same as I felt. My heart sank when he said "awesomesauce" It's one of those weird remakes that manages to forget everything that made the first game so great. Conrad was one of those characters like Gordon Freeman or Master Chief. A blank canvas to project your own awesomeness onto. New Conrad is what we Irish call "A fucking dickhead" It's a shame, because the environments in that game were really well modeled and....well that's it really.

Also obligatory "I loved your Flashback LP" ball licking

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ho ho! Did everyone catch the crafty callback to the controversial joke from the original Papers, Please review? Gorsh I feel so clever and smart for spotting/interpreting it, I do I do.

I totally missed that. What did he say about it?

 

[Teoes]

Ho ho! Did everyone catch the crafty callback to the controversial joke from the original Papers, Please review? Gorsh I feel so clever and smart for spotting/interpreting it, I do I do.

I totally missed that. What did he say about it?

It was where he mentioned Papers, Please but then said he did enough "sucking on that particular willy" in the original review; my immediate thought was of the particular kind of willy mentioned at the time and the brouhaha that resulted.

In fairness that particular particular willy was actually referenced during the Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons section of the review, but eh. Same video, same oral analogy, P,P actually had it's own similar willy controversy, same overall shitstorm.

 

[IrisNetwork]

Funny he did not mention anything about Shadow Warrior 2013. It was made by the guys who made Hard Reset, Painkiller and even Hotline Miami. They listened to his review of Hard Reset and even included a mop to do the clean up. Certainly reviewing it would be a great oppurtunity to go and say, "SEE! This is why people need to listen to me!"