What does Yahtzee want?

[mikespoff]

First off, I'm a fan of Zero Punctuation. I like a lot of what Yahtzee does with the posts, his visual and written humour is great.

But I have to wonder - does he actually like games?

I ask this because he literally seems impossible to please. I can't recall a single contemporary game which he actually said anything equivalent to, "This is a great game, you should play it", with the exception of Portal. Sure, he's praised older games like Psychonauts or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but generally only as a contrast to illustrate how much the game that he's actually reviewing sucks. In the past year, he barely managed to be positive about Batman: Arkham Asylum or Mass Effect 2, which are both nearly flawless games and garnered pretty universal positive reviews. If it's not rosily-tinted with nostalgia, apparently it just sucks.

I contrast this with Movie Bob, who does actually seem to like movies. He gets excited about great ones, he gets angry about ones that suck. In other words, he actually gives useful critique.

If you're just looking for the schadenfreude of whatching someone vent his considerable spleen for 5 minutes, ZP's great, but it really doesn't seem to be offering much to someone who's trying to assess a game's quality.

Thoughts?

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

Yahtzee's made a name for himself, at least in his public persona, for being sarcastic, caustic, and downright mean to games regardless of their quality or lack thereof. He's not about to buck that trend just to show us what he really likes, or even what he's really like in person.

People fear what they don't understand, after all.

 

[Leviathan_]

First off, I'm a fan of Zero Punctuation. I like a lot of what Yahtzee does with the posts, his visual and written humour is great.

But I have to wonder - does he actually like games?

I ask this because he literally seems impossible to please. I can't recall a single contemporary game which he actually said anything equivalent to, "This is a great game, you should play it", with the exception of Portal. Sure, he's praised older games like Psychonauts or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but generally only as a contrast to illustrate how much the game that he's actually reviewing sucks. In the past year, he barely managed to be positive about Batman: Arkham Asylum or Mass Effect 2, which are both nearly flawless games and garnered pretty universal positive reviews. If it's not rosily-tinted with nostalgia, apparently it just sucks.

I contrast this with Movie Bob, who does actually seem to like movies. He gets excited about great ones, he gets angry about ones that suck. In other words, he actually gives useful critique.

If you're just looking for the schadenfreude of whatching someone vent his considerable spleen for 5 minutes, ZP's great, but it really doesn't seem to be offering much to someone who's trying to assess a game's quality.

Thoughts?

You do realize that hes just ripping on games for comedy and lulz right?

 

[Cherry Cola]

... You list games he likes in your post!

How can you be missing the point of your own thread?

Look! You answer your own question right there in your OP!

Oh well, to add some more substance to my comment, I'll say this:

Have you seen ratatouille? Do you remember that food critic who is kind of like the bad guy? That's Yahtzee right there.

"I love food. If I don't love it, I don't swallow"

 

[mikespoff]

I really don't expect anything to change on ZP - as I understand it, it's the most popular weekly strip on The Escapist, and I don't think they'd want to mess with the goose that's laying, well, probably something a little nastier than an egg in Yahtzee's case, but you get my point.

I'm just wondering if anyone else was thinking the same thing.

 

[MetalPhoenix]

Top of my head: Painkiller and Saints Row are games he likes

 

[octafish]

He just wants a perfect game. It's all I want too.

 

[Zeromaeus]

He's a critic. He's not paid to like games. He's paid to rip them them apart and bring in the viewers.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Of course it's not a real review... he does comedy videos. And besisdes, before he would actually point out the flaws in games but also add in the good stuff and now he's not even trying to hide the fact that he's trolling. I mean, he said he hasn't seen the Prince of Persia movie but he knows it's crap, he played the first five hours of Final Fantasy XIII but knows the rest of it is crap, he barely played any of Monster Hunter Tri but he knows the rest is crap... obviously he's just making comedy videos at this point and if you take them as actual reviews then you're wasting your time.

 

[Jackalb]

World Peace.

 

[mikespoff]

... You list games he likes in your post!

That's my point, though - it's never the game that he's reviewing. I don't doubt that he remembers a time when he once enjoyed games, but it seems he struggles to praise a game while actually reviewing it, regardless of its quality.

 

[Danzaivar]

He wants a woman with three womens worth of genitals, non-linear stealth games and survival horror that emphasises the horror.

What every man wants, really.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

He has mentioned a few games that he found interesting/good and would play a bit more after feview. Think at least fallout 3 and GTA4 aren't really on his sh!t list.

 

[Arkvoodle]

Probably not topics like this.


Just saying...

 

[maninahat]

In the past year, he barely managed to be positive about Batman: Arkham Asylum or Mass Effect 2, which are both nearly flawless games and garnered pretty universal positive reviews. If it's not rosily-tinted with nostalgia, apparently it just sucks.

Actually, he admitted Batman was a good game and was only able to make nit-picky criticisms. And he's allowed to dislike Mass Effect 2, despite the concensus. Heck, I didn't like Mass Effect 1.

 

[Lawyer105]

You do realize that hes just ripping on games for comedy and lulz right?

This. I'm sure he really enjoys plenty of games. Or not. It doesn't really matter... the ZP clips are not about taking reviews seriously (because every review is inherently biased - a point which Big Y is well aware of, even if most reviewers aren't!).

They're about making you laugh, because having played the game yourself, you know EXACTLY what he's talking about when he makes some sarcastic comment!

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

In the past year, he barely managed to be positive about Batman: Arkham Asylum or Mass Effect 2, which are both nearly flawless games and garnered pretty universal positive reviews.

Uhm, that's an opinion not a fact. Apparently those opinions weren't in synch with Yahtzee's opinions.

I don't really care how much you like Mass Effect 2 or Batman: Arkham Asylum, nor do I really care how many positive reviews the respective games got. That still doesn't make a fact out of them being "nearly flawless", it's still just opinions. (And opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one and they all STINK)

And due to the fact that Yahtzee has ACTUALLY given positive comments about certain games (albeit a very small group of games), it just goes to show that he isn't impossible to please. (despite his comedic efforts of trying to come across as such)

And I find your comments about his supposed love for nostalgia to be somewhat unfounded, due to the fact that he has railed against fanboys annd games whose creation stem from the demands of fanboys and are produced with only fanboys in mind plenty of times already.

Fanboyism is closely tied to sappy nostalgia so claiming that he only likes games "rosily tinted with nostalgia" wouldn't really be a fair and reasonable assessment on your part...

 

[Cherry Cola]

... You list games he likes in your post!

That's my point, though - it's never the game that he's reviewing. I don't doubt that he remembers a time when he once enjoyed games, but it seems he struggles to praise a game while actually reviewing it, regardless of its quality.

But he's reviewed games he likes! Bioshock, the Orange Box, Saint's Row 2, Prince of Persia, Silent Hill 2, Crysis, Mercenaries 2.

He doesn't love them, but in the end he praises them and says he enjoys them.

 

[Buizel91]

i think he likes many games, he just points everything bad about a game for the comedy =)

To be honest if he wasn't how he was, i wouldn't be here now =P

 

[maninahat]

That's my point, though - it's never the game that he's reviewing. I don't doubt that he remembers a time when he once enjoyed games, but it seems he struggles to praise a game while actually reviewing it, regardless of its quality.

He liked Portal and Saint's Row 2 when he reviewed them.