'Splosion Man

[Juraz]

Though he doesn't reply whats wrong with giving blank personalities a bone to chew on? Some people might not have the means to think of anything interesting to say/do so they spout this out. The fact that this bothers anyone is beside me.

 

[shiajun]

I never got the "the cake is a lie!" joke. I actually found that little den a little unnerving and the random ramblings more creepy than funny. Those are the details that put GLADoS in a different light as it is completely indifferent to driving someone mad. It's subtle, something that I agree is entirely missing from people who spout out quotes.

As for random being funny, it has to be a certain type of random. Earth Worth Jim and the sequel are two of the most random games I've ever come accross. There's just so many completely weird things that add on to the other that make the whole delightfully surreal. However, it seems like a very concious art direction. Being random for the sake of randomness is as sophisticated as slap stick humor with groing pain.

 

[PodX140]

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.

You know, I have been having the same thoughts. It used to be that Yahtzee gave an opinion about a game, threw in some laughs and gave sound advice. More and more it seems he just is spending entire reviews being cynical and borderline trolling games and their developers/publishers on any aspect he can reach. It seems as even more time progresses, Yahtzee is getting more and more cynical, past the point of funny and into the realms of "sounds like another goth who thinks he has figured out the world." Really, there is no need to put such comments on love and things like that into what was and still should be a gaming review, not this new professional trolling career bull.

#2. Yahtzee has also seemed to developed a very strange complex where he must set games up with certain others because of setting, and he attributes the characteristics of the game he has played to the game he is reviewing. 'splosion man = portal, Overlord 2=fable, gears of war=halo=whatever else is hot on the market with a setting in the future (Oh! got another one! that new ps3 game, resistance or what ever it is.) And it is so amazingly annoying to see him rant on about this game like it was already done and it has the same flaws and whatnot.

A perfect example of this is overlord 2. He treated it exactly like it was fable 2, and why? what real similarities exist between the two? one is a heroic-moral-choice-sim, the other is a evil version of pikmin! And most of his review was him bullshitting about moral choice games, when it isn't even a moral choice game! you have two shades of evil, no good, and neither is really that morally different.

Yahtzee needs to start seeing the new and good in titles rather than associating them with older ones, or his audience will soon be gone. It will take some time for some diehard Yahtzee zealots to realize it, but they will, even if it takes another 100 episodes. I'm sorry to say Yahtzee, your audience comes to you for some sound gaming advice and a good time, no one cares about your personal life and bullshit.

 

[Mr. Shoggoth]

This wasn't really a rant on 'Splosion Man. More like on the plague that's called internet memes.

They must die. Each and every single one of them must die. Especially lolcats.

 

[KDR_11k]

The cakes in Splosionman were mostly exploration tokens, The Maw had those fat flies that made the Maw look like he just dropped something illegal and Splosionman has its own tokens, I guess they decided a cake would be fitting with Portal and everything. I didn't really care much for the humour in Splosionman, I bought it for the trick platforming but yes, it does seem to get pretty repetitive. A better case of humour might be Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentlemen, Please! and I even found Eat Lead funnier than Splosionman.

I have to say I didn't laugh much about Portal, maybe in part because everything was spoiled before I played it or because I just don't understand English well enough (I'm able to understand Zero Punctuation by now but dialogue in the Source engine is still way too much for me, I can't even understand it when it's set to my native language).

 

[The Inquisitive Mug]

PS: From the post above, sounds like Yahtzee hit a bullseye.

If you're talking about my post, I'd like to know exactly what you mean.

Well for starters, you basically epitomize the very audience he aims to insult.

And your post was ironically one gigantic troll. Your whole point could basically be summed up by saying "I DISAGREE WITH YAHTZEE AND I NOW THINK ILL OF HIM," which is a little hypocritical. I mean, at least when Yahtzee wrote this article he did it with a sense of satire and explained his reasoning. You basically just dumped all the satire to make more room for why you took this as a personal assault, because apparently "Live and let ****ing live" doesn't apply to your feelings about an internet comedian and his differing sense of humor.

And just for reference, when did "trolling" become a bad thing? People who overreact to things will continue to make the world a more hilarious place for years to come.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Ugh, yeah, I hate that fake randomness garbage. "OOH SPOON MUFFIN CHEESE HEHEHE NO WAIT SPORK NOT SPOON HAR." It's really... manufactured and artificial.

I call it the Invader Zim complex.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

I am really starting to feel sorry for you Mr. Croshaw. Not being able to enjoy a good platformer (seems like you are not enjoing it at least) just because there are hidden cakes in it and an anchievement which references Portal. I played 'Splosion Man, and had a blast. I think it is a breath of fresh air in this day and age, when there aren't that many games like this. Not good ones anyway. 'Splosion Man also managed to be tricky, yet accessable.

And as someone else said, random is funny. Just depends how you do it. You do a lot of random comedy in your videos. Most profanities for instance. They are random as hell. And they are also funny as hell, which has fast become the only reason for me to watch your videos. At the beginning, your videos was great as a review, since you addressed a lot of faults with games which other reviewers didn't touch. And you where hilarious.
Now it feels like you ***** and moan about things that really doesn't matter. Who cares if Red Faction Guerrilla is more action thant Guerrilla? (Though it would be awesome if it was more sneaky) Who cares if there are cakes in 'Splosion Man? Both those games are really fun, and I have had a lot of fun with them. And that is what games are supposed to be. Fun.

Which your videos still are, even though there are a lot of irrational and unneccesary bashing of something in a game which really doesn't have anything to do with how good the game is. That is fine to write in Extra Punctuation, but less fine in a review. Which Zero Punctuation is supposed to be. But keep up the good work making me laugh.

 

[Layzor]

He's totally over reacting here, sure when something like MGS, COD or Halo comes out peppered with lolcats and memes it is a fair complaint but 'splosion man...lighten up.

 

[dropframe]

Sounds like some pre-emptive tearing down of a funny indie game that might be funnier than the one you're trying to get made. Lest we forget that you're an internet meme yourself.

There are lots of fights to fight out there in the name of gaming. Why rail on Splosion Man? I suppose it's a testament to how powerful the game really is if it's bothering you this much. I'll chalk it up to jealousy.

 

[Parallel Streaks]

I've lost many nerd friends by screaming "I'M AWARE THE FUCKING BAKING PRODUCT IS A NON-TRUTH!". The only people who annoy me more than the people who quote it ceaselessly are the ones who laugh their arses off at it, it only encourages more plagiarizing.

Maybe I need less annoying friends. Or to stop feeling competitive at making people laugh, I'm proud when I come up with a witty retort, and on the brink of murder when somebody shoots it down with an over-used pop-culture reference.

 

[ZeroMachine]

PS: From the post above, sounds like Yahtzee hit a bullseye.

If you're talking about my post, I'd like to know exactly what you mean.

Well for starters, you basically epitomize the very audience he aims to insult.

And your post was ironically one gigantic troll. Your whole point could basically be summed up by saying "I DISAGREE WITH YAHTZEE AND I NOW THINK ILL OF HIM," which is a little hypocritical. I mean, at least when Yahtzee wrote this article he did it with a sense of satire and explained his reasoning. You basically just dumped all the satire to make more room for why you took this as a personal assault, because apparently "Live and let ****ing live" doesn't apply to your feelings about an internet comedian and his differing sense of humor.

And just for reference, when did "trolling" become a bad thing? People who overreact to things will continue to make the world a more hilarious place for years to come.

Wow... ok then. First off, was I asking you? No. I was asking Ericb.

Second, I don't "epitomize" the audience. I'm part of it, but if I was the top-dog of random pop-culture references, don't you think I would have been defending myself instead of the people I know who enjoy it?

Third, I realize my post was a big trollish, but sometimes fire must be fought with fire. But, it can't be summed up like that. I wanted to explain myself, so I did. The major difference between mine and Yahtzee's though is that I was saying I didn't like one person now... Yahtzee was calling over half his audience moronic. Tell me, how am I the hypocrite when there are shirts with his catch phrases on them sold on the same fucking website we posted these things on?

And by the way, what satire? This was his personal opinion about a group of people. This wasn't satire. This was just a huge inflammatory remark. And you are apparently completely oblivious to the fact that I said this:

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".

When someone feels a certain way about jokes, fine, I don't give a shit. But the second they start attacking a group of people for no logical reason, I take offense, whether I'm part of that group or not. He should be old enough and mature enough to know that there's no good reason behind that. He may be a comedian, and making the insult joke to people in his video is fine, because there it's all humor. Here, it wasn't. It was an attack. Obviously not a personal attack on me, but an attack on thousands upon thousands of good people. Yes, many of them will never see this article, but does that mean I'm less pissed off about it? NO.

One last thing, if you really think trolling is a good thing, you should take a look around this site and see that most people here disagree.

 

[Byers]

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.

Seems apt. Far more than half the people on the internet are idiots.

 

[The Big Eye]

Look, this ZeroMachine fellow is not trolling. Trolls don't bother to spell correctly or use polysyllabic words.
Of course, this sort of thing is familiar ground for Yahtzee: at various times, he's verbally disemboweled the gaming tastes of fans of RPGs, MMORPGs, JRPGs, anime culture in general, FPSs, RTSs, nostalgia gaming, Wii games (to an extravagant level), Nintendo, and zombies.
But including cakes in a game as a reward system does not make the game a suitable target for total destruction as a meme-carrying degenerate. Maybe its humour does feel a little manufactured, but the game would lose a good chunk of its entertainment value without it. And it's a baby!
Yes, Yahtzee made a kill. But the glory of it is shrouded in shame and dishonour.*

*Fully aware that Yahtzee is not a samurai

 

[Anarchy Sultan]

I'm glad I've found people who don't like 'Splosion Man at all. It's a horrible game online or offline. The Portal references aren't even a scratch on the games badness. I felt raped or wasting my hard-earned Microsoft Points on this load of bollocks (pardon my french)

 

[Nurb]

out if context randomness and just referencing pop-culture being popular is why the idiots behind "disaster movie" and "meet the spartans" make money and are allowed to make their piles of shit.

Poor Yahtzee doesn't realize the growing number of stupid, uneducated gaming youth, and how much its going to drag the industry into raw sewage, where the movie industry is now.

 

[HappyHacker]

iv had it with the damed cake refrences.... i have to deal with one of those idiots at work... last week i threw my brass paperweight at him.. enough is enough people get over it

 

[BillNyeTheColonelGuy]

iv had it with the damed cake refrences.... i have to deal with one of those idiots at work... last week i threw my brass paperweight at him.. enough is enough people get over it

Woah, woah woah.
Memes are nothing to get angry or aggressive over.
Although I'm not sure whether "Annoying quotes" would stand up in court.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

You know, I have been having the same thoughts. It used to be that Yahtzee gave an opinion about a game, threw in some laughs and gave sound advice. More and more it seems he just is spending entire reviews being cynical and borderline trolling games and their developers/publishers on any aspect he can reach. It seems as even more time progresses, Yahtzee is getting more and more cynical, past the point of funny and into the realms of "sounds like another goth who thinks he has figured out the world." Really, there is no need to put such comments on love and things like that into what was and still should be a gaming review, not this new professional trolling career bull.

Maybe he's getting more and more critical of the games because he has dispensed his advice and no one is learning from it. We just keep seeing more of the same tripe. There are some gems, but those gems stand out all too much and get beaten into the ground by people trying to copy/reference them. Maybe he's tired of seeing that crop up more in games and is getting just a teensy bit fed up.

Or maybe he's the same as he always was, and people aren't really seeing it anymore because he is too popular now...

#2. Yahtzee has also seemed to developed a very strange complex where he must set games up with certain others because of setting, and he attributes the characteristics of the game he has played to the game he is reviewing. 'splosion man = portal, Overlord 2=fable, gears of war=halo=whatever else is hot on the market with a setting in the future (Oh! got another one! that new ps3 game, resistance or what ever it is.) And it is so amazingly annoying to see him rant on about this game like it was already done and it has the same flaws and whatnot.

Maybe it's because the games that try to copy what is hot repeat the same mistakes without trying anything new, and thus being worthy of the same critisms. All he said about 'splosion Man is that it tries too hard. It's the difference between Star Wars Episode 1 and the original.

A perfect example of this is overlord 2. He treated it exactly like it was fable 2, and why? what real similarities exist between the two? one is a heroic-moral-choice-sim, the other is a evil version of pikmin! And most of his review was him bullshitting about moral choice games, when it isn't even a moral choice game! you have two shades of evil, no good, and neither is really that morally different.

I haven't played either game, so I can't make an honest opinion on them, however it seems that the games didn't expand upon their own predicessors in a way to make them unique, taking into account the previous games failures, and only expanding upon them rather than getting rid of them.

Yahtzee needs to start seeing the new and good in titles rather than associating them with older ones, or his audience will soon be gone. It will take some time for some diehard Yahtzee zealots to realize it, but they will, even if it takes another 100 episodes. I'm sorry to say Yahtzee, your audience comes to you for some sound gaming advice and a good time, no one cares about your personal life and bullshit.

All games will be judged based upon older games. Every person does this as well with everything they experience in life, not just games. It only makes sense that you judge games based upon games that are similar in some way. Is Dante's Inferno better than God of War? I don't know, but that's how it will be judged no doubt about it, since it is EAs version of the game. Is X hack-and-slash better than Diablo II? Considering not one has been made to suck over the fans makes me think no. Certainly none of them that I have played.

That doesn't mean these games are bad, or that they have no redeeming qualities. It just means that they have been unsuccessful in making a name for themselves and rather they reference something that is already famous and get rich off someone else's name. Reminds me of remakes of songs...

 

[PopcornAvenger]

Sunderland's quest is sympathetic and immersive, as it's unrequited. It's not allowed to devolve into the morass that is familarity and eventually contempt, right?

Now, if and when he ever succeeds . . . . . what will you do then, YC?