Shaky Cam Games

[duchaked]

yes...playing through RE5 I was totally going "oh my gosh I love killing black people" the whole time
/sarcasm
(more like "oh my gosh Wesker is too cool-CRAP stop kicking my butt!")

but yeah, enough with the God of War comparisons
heck, I'd like to see some DMC or Ninja Gaiden ones being used
altho...my friend and I both found that he preferred the combat in DMC and I preferred Ninja Gaiden (I wanted, or was used to, the X&Y fast/strong attack and a block button system), so even both games are different enough despite both being in the same ish genre (God of War can fall under the "we love QTEs!" hack and slash)

I loved the camera in Halo Reach...yeah it's weird that I mention THAT from a Halo game, but Bungie did something new with it
it wasn't shaky, but it was made to be like an actual person was there filming it. characters will walk in front of the camera, some blocking action if you're familiar with theatre concepts
just thought it was a nice touch

but yeah...too much shaking and I think my minor motion sickness would start to kick in >:[

 

[duchaked]

oh btw, Yahtzee, I know you're a British guy living in Australia but...in case you haven't realized, the douchebaggery in American political parties has evened out with both Democrats and Republicans (or in my opinion, both sounds have bounced back and forth fighting for 1st place in the jerkhole olympics)
not the same kind of assholery, but you know...both in their own ways :/
just sayin'

...lol probably coulda said that in a more educated sounding manner (albeit less blunt), but friendly discussions of politics is unseen on the Internet so it's whatever

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[taltamir]

@Yahtzee Croshaw: For a "British born Australian" you certainly spend a whole lot of time ragging on the US republican party... A huge percentage of your reviews include direct references to republicans and their demonization, and yet australian and british politics are suprisngly absent (well, you once complained about an aussia prick who hates games; but that is pretty much it)

Moreover, you always grossly misrepresent both republican and conservative views (there is a difference), as well as facts (facts are not views).

I expect that the only response I will get is personal attacks, suggesting that I am an uneducated, dumb, hick, inbred, republican, WASP, rich, etc... I should point out that I am none of the above. For example, I am a libertarian atheist... You don't have to be a republican to disapprove of strawmen.

Finally, you are an entertainer, yet you don't seem to realize that those politician jokes aren't funny. A good portion of people find them offensive or misinformed, the rest mostly find them not funny or even downright depressing (if they agree with you, its damn depressing to be reminded of, especially when coming to a humor site to be entertained... leave the politics to the press)

 

[TraderJimmy]

Apart from not *technically* being true, due to Gabriel being a different sort of protagonist, why exactly do you think this is? Might it be because you cherry picked? Bayonetta and Castlevania share a timed block/dodge slowdown mechanic that none of the other games have. God of War shares multiple selectable primary weapons with Ninja Gaiden II, and Castlevania does not have this. Ninja Gaiden II and Heavenly Sword both have chain weapons.

Almost everything you listed is *extremely* common in action games to the point that nearly every one has it. The only exceptions are chain weapons and grab finishers. These aren't the feature for feature copies you want to make them out to be.

Is that the new Eau de Fanboy cologne from Calvin Klein? Wherever did you get it?

Your mom likes it too. I've just come from her house, which is why I'm wearing it

Seriously, though.... yeah, I like the game. I guess that makes me a fan of it. What's your point?

You haven't heard? Liking something makes your opinion automatically invalid.

Science.

 

[unwesen]

So you are saying my opinion is wrong?

I'm saying Cloverfield wasn't good. That's not an opinion, because a plot is kind of necessary to call it a movie. If I may quote from Wikipedia: "A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images." Story needs plot, or it's no story.

And it did have a plot. It may have been thin, (...)

We can argue whether it did or did not have a plot. By the very fact that it was thin enough to merit a discussion about whether or not it in fact existed at all, I feel my point is proven. You may disagree, I won't stop you.

(...) but a plot is not necessary to enjoy a film.

No, although there's a contradiction here in that films - or at least movies - need a plot, so enjoyment of them pretty much mandates a plot. But I'll give you that point: you can enjoy watching paint dry, if you so wish. My enjoyment of such plot-less proceedings is not great.

Sometimes, I'd rather watch something mindless than an intense psychological thriler.

Me too! But the cheesiest, mindless action romps that I can think of have more plot that Cloverfield pretended to have.

Oh, and sarcasm does not make you automatically funnier.

Who says I was being funny?

 

[ohgodalex]

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?

No, on the grounds that you're wrong. I didn't say that the game was bad; in fact, I'm quite partial to God of War clones as a whole.
Regardless, a God of War clone is a God of War clone no matter how good of a God of War clone it is.
God of War clone.

 

[The Cheezy One]

snip

The thing is, you are being very literal about the meaning of the film, but not about its content. It did have a plot. If it didn't, it would literally be the cast, standing in a location, doing nothing. I think what little plot there was was well conveyed, and with a decent plot, could have made a very intriguing scenario, especially with the occasional flip back to a couple weeks earlier. One thing that did annoy me, however, was that the guy went back for the girl, and actually found here, dispite a buiding crashing into the one she was in. Also, while a mass of alien things is attacking them, camera dude still manages to keep a view on them. Same with running. If they are running forward, wwhy is the camera still constantly looking at the same point? I believe critics were incredulous about this too.

 

[unwesen]

The thing is, you are being very literal about the meaning of the film, but not about its content.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that.

I'm being somewhat literal when I interpret the meaning of the word "film", or rather "movie". A film is really just a sequence of frames, or more precisely a roll of film on which a sequence of frames is stored, but with today's digital technology it doesn't make much sense to be so literal.

Some film rolls don't hold stories with plots, but just "footage", e.g. of historical or made up events. Even if you cut them together into a documentary, and have a narrator tie all those bits together, there is no story being told in most cases (some documentaries cross over into movies, however).

It did have a plot. If it didn't, it would literally be the cast, standing in a location, doing nothing.

Well, not really. If you have a cast standing around, then there is a plot, even if it can be summarized in a short sentence. A few minutes of footage of, I don't know, a fish tank, that doesn't contain plot. There's no plan for things to happen in a specific manner in that.

Look, I'm aware that Cloverfield tries the mockumentary angle as an excuse to get rid of as much plot as possible, it's an artistic statement of sorts. I get that. I know that the lack of obvious plot is intentional, and that whatever else happens, however much it's stripped down, is still technically a plot of sorts.

The problem is that Cloverfield fails as a proper story because the plot is too thin, and it fails as a mockumentary because the camerawork and character's inexplicable behaviour constantly yank you out of your suspense of disbelief.

I'm sorry, but that just makes the whole thing a pointless exercise to me. It's a bit like making a competitive first person shooter and then making all weapons deal zero damage because you want your game to promote peaceful ideals. Nice idea, but it really doesn't work.

 

[El Gostro]

snip

A lot of users here,such as myself do not reside in the states,are quite aware of the shit storms our own local political scenes are and yet are also quite familiar with the comedical exercise of conservative gerontology american politcs are,if only because news from the current empire/big fish/tomato boss spread easierly through the globe.
So yahtzee citing australian or brittish political blunders wouldnt be as universally far reaching as citing american politics everyone in the somewhat global audience that Yahtzee videos targets is more or less aware of.

Feel free to disagree or correct me,I tend to be wrong about a lot of things

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.

I most certainly DO NOT sympathize with Republican economic policies! And I go to the gym every day!

Hey, I second the gym part! (and as someone not from the USA, the Republican economic policies part doesn't really concern me much)
... and I'm self-hating and responsibility-avoiding. Does the admission make me a whiner too?
Fuck if I know, let's just drown this in vulgarity. FUUUUUUCK YEAAAAAHH

Your comments have inspired me to write an article on the rise,fall and abandonment of my gaming life and times...

 

[tyriless]

.[/quote]
It's not even about the back story so much. I don't mind a mystery. It's the fact that you never learned anything about the characters and then they died.

Oh, no, I'm wrong, you learn one thing: the main guy is obviously a brain damaged douche. Not only does he prefer filming stuff to helping his supposed friends, he also prefers it to, say, running for his life.

Ok, ok, I'll stop ranting now.[/quote]
Your criticism is legit in that there is little character development and that there is no really depth to anyone but the protagonist (shallow as that it). However, I disagree with your semantics saying there is no plot. There is a plot. I In fact there are two> The rescue and escape of the main protagonist and his girlfriend and the relationship the two have, albeit the latter is woefully undeveloped.

 

[Rocketboy13]

Also not strictly speaking a Republican policy, just popularized by them.

for the love of god can we all agree not to talk about politics because what ever you say there will be at least one person offened......

My bad. I just thought I would clarify for him as he is an Australian.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Your comments have inspired me to write an article on the rise,fall and abandonment of my gaming life and times...

Cool.
Maybe you get to post it on the wall.

 

[w1ndscar]

The last game that specifically drew attention to the camera was Mario 64, and only because it was relatively new technology. At the beginning they established that the controllable camera was being held on a fishing line by a small cloud monster. But who was filming whenever the cloud monster was on screen, Nintendo? You won't be lasting long if you keep trying to feed us that kind of bullshit.

I Lol'd

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

Are we done now?

No, on the grounds that you're wrong.

Yes, on the grounds that this is my last response. It's been a pleasure.

 

[onelifecrisis]

I just read the article. I always read these articles and always end up feeling it was a waste of 60 seconds. But this week... OMG! Yahtzee! You wrote something interesting! Even thought-provoking! Well done, sir. More articles like this please.

 

[Misho-]

I just read the article. I always read these articles and always end up feeling it was a waste of 60 seconds. But this week... OMG! Yahtzee! You wrote something interesting! Even thought-provoking! Well done, sir. More articles like this please.

Lol This is nothing against you onelifecrisis in particular, but whenever I read the phrase " I feel like I've wasted X amount of time (playing-reading-writing... You get the idea) this" It makes me wonder...

What else would you do in say 60 seconds? I mean I can think in some impossible things like, read a life changing article, lose your virginity (and the respect of your sex partner... remember- 60 seconds only), complete a mario Stage, smoke a cigarrete, go back in time and save the world from Mecha Jesus or something... But realistically it even takes you 60 seconds to fire up some internet pages (depending on Internet velocity) You could just stare into the horizon and lose more than 60 seconds before you realize it... I mean why are people saying things like "you've made me lose 60 seconds I'll never get back... Now I have to get back to my busy schedule of doing nothing and not changing life in the slightest..." If that's the case why not indulge yourself seeing a little article good for a couple of chuckles and maybe some analitical view on games and life?

It makes you sound so snobish when you say "i've lost 60 seconds"... But again, its nothing against the guy who posted. I guess he really is busy saving the world and changing millions of lives 60 seconds at a time.

But agreed, bring some more of this articles Yahtzee!

 

[Lunar Templar]

You have a big angry bloke who seriously needs to get over something, generally a lady friend.

Gabriel Belmont was not particularly angry in the game. I would say more that he was conflicted, and not just for personal reasons, and if you watch the end (before the credits...), he makes peace with everything he's done and forgives himself.

They take it out on non-human creatures with a weapon that incorporates a chain so that it can have a decent reach.

Kratos kills humans too, incidentally. He pretty much kills everyone. Gabriel only kills the monstrous. And every single action game I can think of has that. Even TFU has you killing Rancors.

It has quick light attacks and slow heavy attacks,

Well.... technically Castlevania divides it into single enemy and multiple enemy attacks. Both do have light and heavy attacks, but so does just about every game ever.

as well as combos involving the two, air combos and the ability to grab and instakill the enemy with the circle button if you're just completely bored with tossing the guy around.

Every action game I can think of has air combos. Castlevania does have some grab insta-kills against some enemies, and not *every* action game does. Though a lot do.

You gather souls from enemies and use them to upgrade your combos and magic spells you learn along the way, and collect things that eventually make your health and magic bars bigger.

Just about every single action game has this. (I can't think of an exception off the top of my head, but there are a couple I'm not completely sure of... like I can't remember if you upgrade your health bar in NG2, but you certainly collect 'souls')

Then at the end of it you kill whoever the local equivalent of Satan is.

Hades is God of War's equivalent of Satan. So even God of War doesn't fit this formula. Unless you just generically mean "The game has an end boss". And all action games do.

Many games mix and match some or most of these elements but the three that do every single one of them are God of War, Dante's Inferno and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Apart from not *technically* being true, due to Gabriel being a different sort of protagonist, why exactly do you think this is? Might it be because you cherry picked? Bayonetta and Castlevania share a timed block/dodge slowdown mechanic that none of the other games have. God of War shares multiple selectable primary weapons with Ninja Gaiden II, and Castlevania does not have this. Ninja Gaiden II and Heavenly Sword both have chain weapons.

Almost everything you listed is *extremely* common in action games to the point that nearly every one has it. The only exceptions are chain weapons and grab finishers. These aren't the feature for feature copies you want to make them out to be.

only thing i can hope to add to this is,
Castlevania has been using 'chain based' weapons longer then God of War has even been a thought, since nether of the 'good' games listing in the LoS review you play as a Belmont as the main character

 

[Arronax]

Nice Straw-man.

 

[Freeze_L]

All the movies that did this, successfully, had various reasons to do so. Often the film was a fake documentary and, very often, budget restrictions. The camera guy was always a character, he was part of the film, and it made you feel more linked into the events, even though you are strictly an outsider. You are watching what "really" happened, you get lost in the film. It might even work in games if it were addressed like that, but you would have to be an outsider watching the game and controlling things (like heavy rain) or the cameraman himself.

In fact that is an interesting idea for a survival horror game, you play as the camera-man, and our powerless to help. That would be hard to pull of but a game version of Diary of the Dead would be pretty scary.