Zero Punctuation: Bastion and From Dust

[DarkPanda XIII]

I'm not that surprised that Yahtzee would like the narrator of The Bastion, especially when I overheard the joke when the main guy fell off.

"And then, he fell to his doom."

The main guy flies back into view and lands in a heap at the center of the map.

"Nah, Just kiddin"

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Shit! I bet with a friend that the next ZP would be Bastion + Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. So close!

 

[Smooth Operator]

I really hope From dust is open for mods because people will go nuts over it, and I'll probably get both of these for PC.

 

[Shjade]

I'm surprised people are replying to this saying they'd never heard of Bastion before when there was already a Bastion review on this very site. I guess some folks really do only visit for the ZP's.

 

[kebab4you]

Hmm sounds like I should pick up Bastion also, always love building games ._.

its not even remotely a building game from what gather. Looks like an Action RPG.

Aw, guess I should research before I speak <.< Anyway it´s an indie title so shouldn't be to expensive so will probably still pick it up when it comes later this month.

 

[KoalaKid]

Perhaps I'm being too sensitive here, but does anyone notice that he is insulting America in all of his reviews to the point that it's basically becoming a running gag? I mean, I can take a joke and realize our shortcomings and failures, but it's getting a bit out of hand here. It's like he'll take any excuse he can to call America stupid, overly militaristic, or any other blanket insult he can come up with. "America changed the cover and title of a game, therefore they are stupid." Big whoop. I don't see how that has to do with the subject at hand, or will have any impact on the gameplay and story. Maybe I'm looking too into things and that's supposedly some inside joke that my "stupid American brain" isn't getting or missing his insults directed to other countries, but honestly I'm having a hard time believing it. If someone can let me know if I've overlooked something please tell me, because I do like Zero Punctuation very much even when it takes the piss out of games I enjoy.

Because Yahtzee is a Brit living in Australia, and so represents two primary-english-speaking countries. It's generally the European or (sometimes) Asian countries that express their unhappiness with the USA's political decisions or past failures, but the English-speaking countries have sizable anti-american populations because of cultural pervasion, really. It's especially jarring to the English, who don't like having the global standard of their home tongue altered by a nation whose respective grasp of the language some of them believe inferior. And the Aussies just seem to want to be left alone. All this perpetuated by the American media who happily export to equally idiotic recieving outlets in countries that simply aren't as compatible with the US as those people think they are.

TL;DR: Your media are a load of imperialistic wankers who can't even do it properly, and that's all we ever see.

this constant, generally excepted nationalism has gotten way out of hand, it irritates me so much that after Yahtzee took that last quick jab at America I didn't even watch the rest of the video. I don't understand how it is that most people abhor racism, but practice nationalism which is generally the same thing. nevertheless I'm sick of it, as a folklorist I study culture, and although I knew this before college I can tell you now with even more certainty that people are just people no matter where you come from or what your culture is we are pretty much the same. I just wish others could see that.

 

[KoalaKid]

That was unexpected for him to critique 2 xbla games.
It was still good though.

He did that about a year ago too. Limbo and Deathspank. This is just a drought period for big titles.

i was hoping for a catherine review. glad you liked bastion though.

How come no-one living in USA seem to grasp the concept that not all of the world is able to play a game once it's been released in USA? USA uses NTSC, Europe and Australia (the place where Yahtzee is right now) use mostly PAL and huge chunks of Africa and Asia uses SECAM.
Translated into simple terms. When a game is released in USA it is released in NTSC. Yahtzee a PAL user have to wait for the PAL release (more importantly the Australian release) before he can play it. If you are hoping for a review for a game that has not been released, and there's currently no plans to release then you do in other words hope he will review a game without playing it.


Great reviews. It wasn't that much of a surprise that he'd like From Dust, I myself think it's pretty good, but I haven't had the time to play Bastion yet, I guess I'll have to check it out. I do agree on the points about the NPC being really retarded when it comes to moving though. Just a drop of water there and they'll shout for help.

How come there are so many people living outside of the US that speak in sweeping generalizations?

 

[Xandre]

Great, thanks to his renaming The Bastion "Sebastian," now I'm going to be stuck saying "the" as "se," which will make me sound like Germany in the English dub of Hetalia.

In other news, I wasn't expecting him to like From Dust (though it looks intriguing to me), and I'd never heard of The Bastion, so this was doubly unexpected. I almost wish I still had my Xbox 360.

Well, wish no more. The Bastion is coming out on Steam, so you have that to look forward to at least.

Scarily though, Yahtzee giving praise for two games in one review...? Okay, maybe not high praise, but still, if universal balance must be maintained then the next game he reviews may have to reach "Daikatana" levels of suck.

'Matter of fact, here's how I think 2012 is going to go down: Yahtzee will release three consecutive reviews in a row where he gives high praise to games, and the consequent skull-buggering and warping of our reality will call everything to collapes Bastion style, and with any luck, every human not killed by the shock of the cause or the aftermath will see "Level 2" appear in front of their eyes the next morning.

(Yahtzee, please don't review Daikatana. We don't need your concentrated awesome to tell us the game sucks)

 

[Taunta]

Interesting reviews. Recommendations from Yahtzee are not to take lightly, so I might think about picking up From Dust. I do like me some god games. Anyone know if it's available on anything but Xbox?

 

[PixelKing]

That seemed like he liked bastion, and that from dust is another god game. But XBLA reviews are great for the semi-budget gamer like myself.

I definitely recommend Bastion. Specially the first time through, its all amazingly done and the story is haunting, with a powerful and beautiful soundtrack to fit. I honestly never had an issue with the isometric camera. I almost recommend one of the two endings because that certain ending feeds directly into you replaying the game on New-Game + mode.

And, one of the best things I like about New Game+ mode, is that it lets you keep all of your weapons and weapon upgrades, keeps every vigil you unlocked (besides 4 of them, which are easy enough to unlock), and the Monument, which he didn't cover, gets a few new challenges thrown into it, which can really boost the difficulty of the game should you choose to activate them.
Said monument also alleviates that whole "God" feeling you can develop, letting enemies have a chance to regenerate health, turn intangible sometimes while being hit, and becoming faster and stronger while dropping grenades ala Martyrdom when killed.

I just can't hate this game..

Listen to it... listen to it now...

edit: It is also worth it to do New Game+, because you miss it the first time, but there are plenty of subtle surprises and everything to experience while doing so.

I'll put it on my to buy list, and its good to know I have replayability with the new challenges in NG+

 

[Judgement101]

Bastion is amazing. The narrorator's voice is like drizzling chocolate over your ears........wait....

 

[putowtin]

Oh what a night.
Late December back in '63
What a very special time for me
What a fucking annoying song to have stuck in your head for all eternity. Thanks Yahtzee.

you too eh!?!

OT smashing review, tho to go along with getting a song stuck in my head I now want to watch the Never Ending Story... thanks Yahtzee!

Now to listen to some heavy rock to get that bloody song out of my head!

 

[MSfire012]

Wow, 2011 isn't even finished and Yahtzee enjoyed
Shadows of The Damned, bastion, from dust, portal 2, Infamous 2, crysis 2 and I think he liked Bulletstorm, alice madness returns and Yakuza 4

 

[Wireframefool]

Not sure if anyone has answered you yet, but it's only available on XBLA and soon to be on Steam as far as I know, it might be released on PSN at some point.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

A good episode for once, you actually made me laugh.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Did anyone else find it harder to follow his jokes this week?

 

[Yopaz]

That was unexpected for him to critique 2 xbla games.
It was still good though.

He did that about a year ago too. Limbo and Deathspank. This is just a drought period for big titles.

i was hoping for a catherine review. glad you liked bastion though.

How come no-one living in USA seem to grasp the concept that not all of the world is able to play a game once it's been released in USA? USA uses NTSC, Europe and Australia (the place where Yahtzee is right now) use mostly PAL and huge chunks of Africa and Asia uses SECAM.
Translated into simple terms. When a game is released in USA it is released in NTSC. Yahtzee a PAL user have to wait for the PAL release (more importantly the Australian release) before he can play it. If you are hoping for a review for a game that has not been released, and there's currently no plans to release then you do in other words hope he will review a game without playing it.


Great reviews. It wasn't that much of a surprise that he'd like From Dust, I myself think it's pretty good, but I haven't had the time to play Bastion yet, I guess I'll have to check it out. I do agree on the points about the NPC being really retarded when it comes to moving though. Just a drop of water there and they'll shout for help.

How come there are so many people living outside of the US that speak in sweeping generalizations?

It's not generalizing, it's exaggerating. I also didn't say no-one grasps the concept, I said no-one seems to grasp the concept. Also at the point I was quoting 1 in 6 (actual numbers and that is excluding all posts stating Catherine isn't out) posts mentioned catherine. Of those who posted and did not mention Catherine most were not from USA or haven't entered the country where they reside. So yeah, doing the statistics from page 1 70% (that's a low estimate) of the Americans that posted for me are unaware that Catherine has not been released in PAL regions.
Now I am perfectly aware of that there are smarter individuals, but when it comes to games and releases it always seems like at least most need to be reminded that US release does not mean international release, except for when a game is released in Europe or Australia first. In that case I must say I am ashamed to admit that we don't make the assumption that it's out in USA, but gloat about how we got it first until the day they receive it in USA since that is a rare thing.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Well that's convinient! I've always wanted a game where I could throw elements around like big balls!

 

[Agayek]

Sebastian sounds like a good game, haven't seen it on PSN, so it might be an exclusive title. From Dust sounds fun, but I already have Tropico to make little ants suffer whenever I got a bad day at my workplace.

Both Bastion and From Dust are for 360 and PC. The PC versions are on Steam and I assume GFWL.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

At first, I was angry at Bastion, since I thought it was XBLA exclusive.

...And then I saw it on Steam. And then my day was made. Adding a positive review from YATZEE of all people to the other great reviews has gotten me to pre-buy it.

And I too think that terrain forming up under your feet as you walk onto it is freakin sweet.