Shaky Cam Games

[brunothepig]

I gotta be honest, but I am getting sick of Yahtzee's cynicism and judgmental attitude.

Also, I have no idea what he's talking about when he refers to the "shaky cam" in Castlevania. It was quite obvious in Kane and Lynch 2, but Castlevania's cam was just fixed - it never shook.

P.S. I know he's joking about some bits, but these jokes just aren't that funny anymore.

Yeah, it's a bit obnoxious when he treats something good that you like as though it was a pile of crap. CV is a really good game, and he's gone easier on some legitimately awful games. Oh well. If you read Yahtzee without first eating your spoonful of salt, you're likely to run into this from time to time.

"Legitimately awful". See that's the thing, there's very very few games you can say were definitively bad. You might not like them, you might wonder how anyone did. But people do.
Coincidentally enough, I usually agree with Yahtzee's opinion on games. Where I disagree, I still do see the flaws he points out, or see why he might consider them flaws. Remember guys, Yahtzee's a critic. Plus, his reviews are subjective.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

So, if God of War is popular, it's because lots of people today are emo, selfish, self-hating, physically weak, sexist, responsibility-avoiding whiners who sympathize with Republican economic policies. You might say I'm reading too much into these things, but you have to admit it's definitely true that liking Resident Evil 5 makes you a racist.

Damn man, you be trollin'.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Well being a Naruto fan, i can definetly agree with the whole misogyny thing.

 

[Saturnplanet5]

Just change "Like God of War" to "Like Dragons Lair but it tells you which buttons to press."

 

[Dublin Solo]

The last paragraph really made my day. I like that kind of humoristic demagogy, especially when the author knows it is demagogy.

Thumbs up, dude, thumbs up.

 

[Ishadus]

I very much like this theory, might explain why everyone also like zombie games, you picture yourself as the only person with a brain left to be eaten by the monstrous hordes of mall going consumers.

lol I never thought about it like this before, but as a zombie lover myself, I have to admit that that has merit.

 

[Something Amyss]

You can be low budget and still be good, and you can TRY to be artistic and still be bad. If something is crap, an all too common excuse is that "it's artistic." no it isn't, it's still crap. And it was crap at the time too. The movie was shot in an age where engineers had FINALLY worked out how to make smooth motion cameras for filming, and they shot a bad movie using a hand-cam. Woo...

While I agree with what you said, it still comes down to my point. People take low budget as artistic, and they take poor quality as authentic. Blair Witch was done camcorder style to be "authentic," hell, they even went so far as to trick the kids making the movie, which led to a lawsuit.

Blair Witch had at least decent intentions, which were to draw the line between real and fake. I didn't like the movie, I didn't like the style, but as a fake documentary of the events of some kids who went missing looking for someone spooky, it fits the intent.

Other movies, movies where this isn't quite the case, have tried to emulate the style without much real attempt at substance (Sidebar: Pretty sure this is a problem with most types of imitation in Hollywood).

Other than the shaky cam being used is stupid in Castlevania: LoS, I also think there was another part of the camera I thought was silly. Like when you are in a snowy area or a rainy area, the camera gets little specks of snow or rain drops on it. That is just stupid and breaks the feel of being in the game. Why would you see these specks and drops? Is the game showing us that we are actually playing in a movie and we are watching it from the prospective of the cameraman, because they obviously didn't have cameras back then.

Moving on, I of course don't like shaky cam in anything, but I will also talk about something I would like to call swoosh cam. This is where you have two or more people talking and then when each one starts to say something, the camera quickly pans to the person starting to speak. I first started to notice this stupid form of camera work when I watched a random Battlestar Galactica episode that was on, because I was waiting for something else I wanted to see come on.

What depresses me is that one of my favorite television series, Stargate, with its new series, Universe, has adopted this way of filming from Battlestar, as well as the stupid soap opera like stories and relationships between crew members.

One of the things in Red Dead Redemption that gets to me is those water droplets. It's neat once, but it's immersion breaking and annoying. I might have a similar effect because I wear glasses, but Marston won't.

I must agree on Stargate. It's like they took the name, the prop, and nothing else from the series and just tossed BSG on. I like a couple of the characters (Doctor Rush intrigues me), but I kind of stopped watching. I'm hoping things change, especially since Caprica wasn't popular enough to keep going, but I don't hold much faith for that.

 

[GooBeyond]

if anything, that description of hack 'n' slash games fit the first devil may cry. so take out your "Like Devil May Cry ... but" stamp out, and slap it across Kratos' face.

 

[tsiegtiez]

Blast it Jeeves, this psychology rubbish is going to wind up with you in the muck if there isn't soon a concerted effort to take considerably more trouble to watch exactly where the feet on your head are taking you.

Er, sorry.

You've got excellent points this week Yahtzee, but it's the ending bit that really did it. Why do any of us like Hamlet? Or Othello? Or Falstaff even; we all project a bit onto fictional characters, and any real enjoyment is either surprise (comedic or thrilling) or vicarious reward. In a movie or a book or a game, the character I like and their accomplishments make me feel good. When the character I like in a game kicks serious ass, or the chap in a film manages to swindle the casino, or when James Bond in anything kicks ass/swindles the supervillain/gets the girl, we eat it up. It's psychological self-preservation, making us continue to believe as ever that we are, in fact, awesome, and by identifying with anyone who's succeeding at something we wish to succeed at, we get a mental benefit too. Anyone who isn't competition allows us to feel vicarious reward, and it's a great sensation.

But it is to be completely self-absorbed and ignorant that allows us to be so and not analyse or pay attention to just what we're vicariously enjoying, and we all have a disposition towards that ignorance that allows for just such a positive stimulus to work in the first bloody place. When a movie makes you feel good, look at why. When a book makes you feel good, look at why. When a game makes you feel completely fucking unstoppable, or deft and skillful, or silent and unnoticed as a night breeze, look to the why. Why else are Die Hard, Twilight, God of War, and countless other successful entertainment ventures so resonant with the masses? Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Super Mario, Harry Potter, Robert Langdon; all successful franchises or characters because of the way in which we allow ourselves to inhabit the specific people presented to us.

 

[DTWolfwood]

1. Books printed on Sliced Cheese would be awesome as hell! After your done reading you can eat it! instead of it sitting there gathering dust!

2. Castlevania is exactly like God of War! How else do you compare it? Go check out every review of the game out there. I guarantee they all mention GoW somewhere!

p.s. Next 2 year is gonna be the most useless years in american politics! nothing like winning House Majority and still losing in the Senate. Mind you any bills the President Vetos is gonna need to win in both the House and Senate for it to pass. Man the 2 party government is so useless here! you Parliamentary Governments have it ez! heh

 

[EvilYoshi]

I think shaky-cam has it's purpose and genuinely added to the experience in Kane & Lynch. Also, Yahtzee, you comments in the end can be construed as offensive. You know, if pressed for an explanation, you will probably just shake off any responsibility for your remarks as a bad joke. You may even go on to defend your statements as a biting social satire that is supposed to define a part of your image. However, I think you actually feel this way. Even if your scathing generalizations are aimed exclusively at GoW players, I still feel like the last section of this article is heartfelt malice thinly veiled as comedy.

On the other hand, it's refreshing to hear an honest opinion, offensive and unfocused as honest opinions are.

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

I'm only sad that I will never be juvenile enough to find joy in mental retardation. You're so lucky.

Yes, I am. She's a wonderful woman, mental retardation and all.

My point is that your point is invalidated by bias. You're so evidently blinded by your love for the main character's tortured soul and inner nuances that you feel the need to deny the undeniable.

What are you talking about? I mean, I like the game, yes. But I didn't go into it *needing* to like the game. I had no opinion of it before I started playing it, and I read very few reviews and saw no TV spots, so I went in with minimal bias. Sure, I picked up an opinion of the game from actually playing it... so I can only conclude that you're saying my point is invalid because I reached the wrong conclusion from playing the game.

So fine, your bias blinds you to the games merits, which makes your opinion invalid. Our perspectives are therefore irreconcilable (though admittedly mine is facetious), and further argument is pointless. Are we done now?

 

[BloodSquirrel]

I gotta be honest, but I am getting sick of Yahtzee's cynicism and judgmental attitude.

Also, I have no idea what he's talking about when he refers to the "shaky cam" in Castlevania. It was quite obvious in Kane and Lynch 2, but Castlevania's cam was just fixed - it never shook.

P.S. I know he's joking about some bits, but these jokes just aren't that funny anymore.

Some bits? Yahtzee is a comedian. Period. Comedic value aside, his reviews are no more trustworthy or informative than any other opinion you see posted on a forum. These Extra Punctuation articles, where he tries to be more insightful, generally show just how little he knows about what he's talking about.

Case in point- the first Xbox Ninja Gaiden matches his description of "like God of War" almost perfectly, and was released a year earlier.

 

[Wolfram23]

Eh, not the best article, however:

So, if God of War is popular, it's because lots of people today are emo, selfish, self-hating, physically weak, sexist, responsibility-avoiding whiners who sympathize with Republican economic policies. You might say I'm reading too much into these things, but you have to admit it's definitely true that liking Resident Evil 5 makes you a racist

So I guess it's a good thing I didn't really like God of War 3 (my only GoW experience)?

Shaky cam thing, well in gaming it can have it's uses. I thought in Need for Speed Underground (1 and/or 2) it was great in drag races. NFS: Shift had a pretty good job of making the cam shake and tilt as well, to really put you in the driver's seat. However, it often doesn't make sense. I didn't play Kane & Lynch 2, but it sounds terrible and that camera thing sounds simply retarded. So, while there is a time and place for it, I hope it's not going to be a trend.

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

You want me to quote you again? "Yeah, it's a bit obnoxious when he treats something good that you like as though it was a pile of crap. CV is a really good game, and he's gone easier on some legitimately awful games. Oh well. If you read Yahtzee without first eating your spoonful of salt, you're likely to run into this from time to time."

That's two full sentences complaining about how you don't like it when he complains about games you think are good, and doesn't do the same for games that you think aren't.

Sure, you had the parting shot about taking it with a grain of salt, but by that time you've made your point clear, am I right? It's like telling someone "no offense" just before you launch into a 10-minute diatribe of why they're such a horrible person.

Not at all. I was responding to a guy who said he was getting fed up with Yahtzee's cynicism, so I was trying to show a little empathy and suggest that maybe he could avoid the problem in the future with a heaping spoonful of salt.

Based on your posts so far, I think I've at least judged your love for this game, and your failure to understand Yahtzee's hate for it.

What do you mean? What's there to understand, exactly?

That's a subjective issue, I have no problems with that. Now, complaining about how much he hates your game starts to smack of the defensive fanboyism the SSBB crowd was so infamous for.

Bah, what's wrong with people arguing against Yahtzee's points? He himself quotes people from the comment thread and responds to them. I don't see him catching flak for it.

Pardon me if I'm making another misinterpretation of your character here.

Heh, you haven't said anything about my character, but you have misread my reaction.

 

[RockPlazaCentral]

This psychoanalysis thing with video games is kind of fun. I want to give it a shot:

People who like the Uncharted games are clumsy, overweight, reserved, law-abiding citizens who have never taken a vacation in a tropical place.

People who like the Super Mario Games live in drab, gray environments and don't get enough cake.

People who like to go online to kill hundreds of others in an FPS game don't have enough opportunities to kill people in their daily lives.

People who like sandbox games do the exact same thing on a very regimented schedule every single day without variation.

Say, what if you like God of War, but you hate Kratos?

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

"Legitimately awful". See that's the thing, there's very very few games you can say were definitively bad. You might not like them, you might wonder how anyone did. But people do.

Point taken. Even the worst games will usually get a couple of reviewers to hand out a respectable score. Any time that personal taste is a major factor, it's difficult to find the objective perspective. Nevertheless, we can't just throw our hands in the air and give up on critiquing art and entertainment altogether. So there should be an implicit assumption that one's mileage may vary, even as we attempt to evaluate a work.

In the absence of a particular example (which is a level of detail I'm disinclined to pursue), I think that's the most I can say in my defense. Some games, I feel, are legitimately awful. Yahtzee does tend to hate them. And occasionally he'll hate a decent or even good game every bit as much, perhaps owing to some fickle or capricious nature.

My point, really, was just that, while I sympathized with the guy who felt fed up with the cynicism, the reality is that Yahtzee is likely to surprise you in this way from time to time, and it's best to take his views with a grain of salt.

 

[Bootkiller]

Personally I think that a shaky cam can add to the mood, but recent games just haven't been using it properly.

Funny as always, Yahtzee.

 

[Squaseghost]

Hand held style only makes sense in movies, where the audience is totally passive, relative to the action on screen.

 

[Falseprophet]

This is so prominant because it is the most popular version of the three act story structure. It's called Mythic story telling and almost always involved reluctant protagonists who are drawn into a conflict for personal reasons at the closing of the first act. Almost every game/movie/book with a story follows this method, from Saving Private Ryan to Star Wars. This method of story telling lends itself well to games because the three act structure offers a sense of progress as the stroy advances.

I'm less of a fan of Mythic storytelling these days, but when it's done properly, the protagonist realizes somewhere around Act 2 that the stakes are much higher than his own problems and becomes a true hero. But that wouldn't mesh with the kind of moody antihero protagonists that are all the rage these days, so the caring about other people part tends to get dropped.

In other words, the story should be, "You got in this to save your girlfriend, but you realized as long as the Dark Lord is around, no one's spouse or child or parents are safe, and someone has to put a stop to him," not "You saved your girlfriend, and in so doing saved the world, even though that wasn't your intention."