'Splosion Man

[littlewilly91]

There's one hell of a backlash on these forums. I think it's because Yahtzee isn't your average reviewer who wants to provide a service well. Though people expect him to be. He's a critic and also he actually wants to try and make some changes- stop people repeating the same old stuff, stop games being centred on capitalism and being treated like a commodity by every publisher under the sun. They are plainly a great medium for communicating ideas and feelings, not just an indulgence. He's kind of campaigning. It's like politics, except he still gives a damn whether he's right or not... No one has managed to persuade him that he's got it twisted yet, so maybe he's starting to go for it and not give a damn about opposition. I share all his beliefeys I think so good luck to him.

I'm sure he could be more persuasive with the opposition though, and stop them being so deaf blind and dumb. Shouldn't write off "idiots" I don't think. To make an impact surely you have to re-brainerate them a bit. They are the majority after all. Remember that, yeah? Whatever- keep it up Yahtz.

 

[justadude]

i still don't get why he's upset that a maniacal cartoony character made of plasma says a few things. there are a million mute platformers out there, this one took a chance and went with a vocal little guy. and yeah, he collects hidden birthday cakes as level bonuses, so what.

this game has a lot of personality, and it's the best platformer to come out in years gameplay-wise. you can't deny it feels great to jump around the world. and it was made by a tiny company, not some giant faceless corporation.

and if you wanna talk about originality, how about taking the human meat shield mechanic and turning it into a giggling, donut-spewing tickle fest.

 

[Just_Karol]

Just have to point it out, but I got around to listen the song (that refers to donuts) in "Splosion man". And is it me, or those it sound a little bit too much like Radiohead's "Creep"?
In terms of Chord arrangement anyway?

 

[ValentineBlacker]

Portal is something else that the fans have nearly ruined for me before I even got a chance to play it. Yeah, so I'm 18 months behind, who isn't?

 

[justadude]

Just have to point it out, but I got around to listen the song (that refers to donuts) in "Splosion man". And is it me, or those it sound a little bit too much like Radiohead's "Creep"?
In terms of Chord arrangement anyway?

yeah, it's just you. i don't see it at all. i mean, they're both four chord pop songs, but that's all they have in common.

 

[m0ng00se]

Were the cake quotes already overdone when the devs decided what they'd put in the game ? Yeah, probably. (can't be sure they were aware of it though)

So what, quoting ("wink, wink, we played the same game") is fine unless everyone does it ?

At which point exactly does the "wink, wink" turn into a "wank, wank" ?

Never. It already IS "wank wank". Referencing something is never actually a joke in its own right, it's "hey remember that time that other thing made you laugh?" and then you laugh, or you don't.

Let's say you're with your friends and someone mentions that time your buddy sat on a chocolate ice cream cone or whatever and everyone said it looked like he crapped himself. You all laugh because this is hilarious. Nobody actually told a joke, the person referring to that moment just reminded you of a thing that happened before. The thing that happened before was funny.

I know a guy who exclusively uses inside jokes to try to be funny, but it grows thin extremely quickly and nobody considers him to be a funny guy. Why? Because he's not the one making anybody laugh.

References can be used in funny contexts, if you're desperate to find humor in them, but they are still never jokes. My girlfriend's mom responded to something costing 9000 dollars with "What 9000?!" which I found hilarious. The reference itself wasn't funny, it was the fact that a middle aged woman with multiple, prominent tattoos of decapitated heads referenced an internet meme that made me laugh.






random edit: wtf i registered four years ago?

 

[GeeDave]

Depressingly, a game announced before Splosion Man is going to be dubbed a copy when it eventually hits shelves.

Explodemon [http://kotaku.com/5194101/explodemon-brings-megaton-man-platforming-to-psn-wiiware-pc]

 

[theklng]

my word, why would anyone subject themselves to the torture of looking through all of these comments only to openly discuss them in a column for next week's escapist issue?

 

[wildpeaks]

Portal is something else that the fans have nearly ruined for me before I even got a chance to play it. Yeah, so I'm 18 months behind, who isn't?

I got another spoiler for you then: in the end, you die, we all do..
Does that mean you'll refuse living just because you know how it ends ?

So imho, play the game and find out for yourself if you like it or not, don't listen to the smegheads

 

[MonkeyPunch]

A very good read, especially as I have a pet-hate of memes.

This line though:
"No, I can't say I've ever been a mentally disturbed guilt-ridden widower. Well, sure, I've murdered a few sluts in my time but I've never felt guilty about it."
made me laugh out loud.

This might seem like a good thing at first, but it woke up my girlfriend (my PC stupidly being in the bedroom) and after a few choice words from both parties I remembered that I met her just a few blocks from where I live...

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Portal is definitely a great game, and I loved hearing "the cake is a lie!" for a few weeks.... But now it's way overused and only said by people who don't even know what it's from.

 

[Common Knowledge]

Something that Yahtzee seems to be ignoring of late in his reviews is the simple matter of whether or not the game is fun. I, like most people, watch his videos for a laugh, but I also want to actually know something about the game and whether or not it's even worth getting. For example; I wouldn't have picked up CoD4 if I hadn't watched his review on it in which he said it was a very good game. From his review of Splosion Man I basically learned nothing about how fun it is - just that it uses Portal references.

The other thing about this Extra Punctuation column is that it - rather than adressing the game - just meanders through a load of his personal thoughts, I don't see how anyone can possibly have that view on love without spewing venom. Personally I also dislike the whole Love Actually view on love which idolises the "star crossed lovers" debacle. But even if you do think that love is bollucks, it doesn't belong in a column about a game review because we actually wan't to hear about the game rather than you. I used to write a few game reviews for my Outfit in Planet Side and guess what? I wrote about the game rather than how interesting I find Norse Mythology.

Finally - randomness can be funny if it's done well. I haven't played the game but it seems like you're slating it just because it contains mention of an overused meme. Okay, but again what about the actual game? I wouldn't let a few cake references restrict my enjoyment of a game, but then you never once said if you actually did enjoy the game, it was just an endless tirade on how cake jokes are rubbish. Yes cake jokes are rubbish and you even stated as to why they make no sense in any other context, how does that actually affect the games perfrmance? How do I as the player respond to that? Is it less likely to make me buy the game? Well that depends on if you enjoyed it which you obviously didn't, but oh wait you never said that so didn't even review but rather slated a game.

Anyway, I enjoy your reviews Yahtzee but you have to realise that people want to find out what the game is like as well as laughing. There's plenty of people who can make us laugh but only you do so whilst reviewing new releases. So sticking to the subject in hand seems to be the goal of the day.

 

[ungothicdove]

"I believe that what people call 'love' is a combination of herding instinct, peer pressure, need for security and good old-fashioned lust."

Throw addiction into that mix and you're right on the ball.

First the herding instinct/lust get people to be attracted to each other. Once the instinct part wears off (which it does) people have become so used to their partner's habits and them being a part of their lives that they start to feel like their lives will no longer be complete without one another.

After a breakup, people often show the same symptoms as a junkie or smoker trying to kick the habit. Some fine examples would be replacing the old addiction with a new one (the rebound) or staying clean for a while and then running back to the old drug. (getting back together or stalking)
Even if someone finds a new person to get addicted to, it will still be like using a different drug, they'll miss the old addiction until they've completely worked it out of their system.

Peer pressure and the need for security are rather redundant in this context, since the need for security most people have was created by the image implanted by their peers.
Theres no denying the peer pressure part either. Open any book, turn on the tv, play a game, listen to the radio and all you read, see and hear about is everyone and their dog finding 'true love'.

Also, before anyone claims this is just some random pessimistic theory written by a bitter and lonely man, and they've experienced true love, all of the above has been proven by actual scientists and psychologists doing thorough research.

This is a little off topic but I've definitely experienced a lot of this as I'm fairly recently broken up. I'm not sure that I could agree that there isn't any such thing as true love but if there is, it has evaded me thus far. Unhealthy doses of infatuation and lust are about as far as I've gotten.

 

[I'mANinja]

Yatzhee's supposed to nit pick games and be overly critical... at least I think, I never watch Zero Punctuation to decide if I should play those games I watch ZP and read EP for a laugh, and to see his opinion. People should not get angry at opinions. And really calling everyone who uses memes an idiot isn't very fair... Most of them are probably smarter than some of you. O and THE CAKE IS A MOTHERF***ING LIE!!!!!!!!

 

[Artemus_Cain]

Oh, it's a complex psych profiling system.

I bet it still wont be able to tell if we're just messing with it i.e. giving it wrong information.

At least let the voice acting be better. That's the main reason I failed to be totally immersed in the first half of the series

 

[Inarticulate_Underachiever]

The ironic thing is, Zero Punctuation is now a part of internet pop culture.

 

[cyrad]

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Finally, somebody speaks out against this. "The cake is a lie" and Companion Cube jokes annoyed me before I even knew what Portal was. It kind of ruined the jokes for me when I actually played the game. I don't get why these people think they're clever when they reference Portal like this. The people who never played the game won't find it funny because the joke goes over their heads. The people who played Portal won't find it funny (unless they're dimwitted) because those jokes stopped being funny a month after Portal's release.

Don't get me wrong. I fricken LOVE Portal and find it an inspiring game for an amateur indie developer myself. However, people need to realize that more a joke reference is told, the less funny and clever it is.

People also need to realize that references are funnier when they're subtle. This is why Left 4 Dead's Zombie Genocidest acheivement is somewhat amusing. Would it be as funny if it was called "NOT A DEAD RISING REFERENCE?"

 

[Zamn]

You know, I never thought I'd say this as I understand Zero/Extra Punctuation's purpose as a ranty/comedy/semi-review thing, but this is just downright trolling, even for Yahtzee.

Yes, certain jokes get old and overused, and yes, sometimes certain things live off of nothing but pop culture references. But you know what? Live and fucking let live.

I know plenty of very intelligent people that find random pop culture references hilarious, sometimes out of context. It's just their sense of humor. It doesn't neccessarily show their intelligence level. And yet so many people don't see that and decide to write a fucking article calling everyone who enjoys the occasional random joke and reference an idiot. Not only is this insulting to a point above and beyond anything Yahtzee has every said before, but I have to say I'm shocked that the Escapist editors allowed this on here. It's nothing but trolling.

Now, I have nothing against people that don't find that stuff funny, but the people that start insulting those who do just piss me off. Congrats, Yahtzee, you're now on a very small list of people I know that think this way along with a pompous ass that thinks he's the hand of God and a stoner that does nothing but ***** all day and call himself a "bro".

EDIT: Also, I hope you realize you probably just insulted more than half of your core audience. Good job.

People seem assume this subjectivist view that all opinions are equally valid as fact. There is no reason that Yahtzee can't be critical of other people's senses of humour. In humour, as in all else, some people just have bad taste, it's not rendered automatically good by their entitlement to their own opinion. A right to an opinion is not a right to be immune to all criticism of it.

 

[ZeroMachine]

You know, I never thought I'd say this as I understand Zero/Extra Punctuation's purpose as a ranty/comedy/semi-review thing, but this is just downright trolling, even for Yahtzee.

Yes, certain jokes get old and overused, and yes, sometimes certain things live off of nothing but pop culture references. But you know what? Live and fucking let live.

I know plenty of very intelligent people that find random pop culture references hilarious, sometimes out of context. It's just their sense of humor. It doesn't neccessarily show their intelligence level. And yet so many people don't see that and decide to write a fucking article calling everyone who enjoys the occasional random joke and reference an idiot. Not only is this insulting to a point above and beyond anything Yahtzee has every said before, but I have to say I'm shocked that the Escapist editors allowed this on here. It's nothing but trolling.

Now, I have nothing against people that don't find that stuff funny, but the people that start insulting those who do just piss me off. Congrats, Yahtzee, you're now on a very small list of people I know that think this way along with a pompous ass that thinks he's the hand of God and a stoner that does nothing but ***** all day and call himself a "bro".

EDIT: Also, I hope you realize you probably just insulted more than half of your core audience. Good job.

People seem assume this subjectivist view that all opinions are equally valid as fact. There is no reason that Yahtzee can't be critical of other people's senses of humour. In humour, as in all else, some people just have bad taste, it's not rendered automatically good by their entitlement to their own opinion. A right to an opinion is not a right to be immune to all criticism of it.

Agreed, but this article is beyond criticism. He called them idiotic. That's a very horrible sweeping generalization.

And no opinion is valid as fact, which is why someone in a (sort of) celebrity position shouldn't be acting like his opinion is fact. That's exactly what's going on here. He has this mindset of "I'm right, and everyone else is wrong" here.

 

[kementari]

Thank you, Yahtzee. You always manage to express in such vibrantly blossoming terms the thoughts that have barely begun to send up shoots in my mind.

Look, even a non sequitur requires context, otherwise you're just jerking off. Portal's cake and companion cube moments work because they beautifully illustrate how the AI character is trying to manipulate you through an incredibly tentative grasp on how human emotions work.

I've been trying to communicate this to people for ages. Now I can just send them to this post.