Zero Punctuation: Braid

[Bombader]

Some people doesn't understand that Braid is a puzzle platform collect o thon thing. Not everyone is into collecting a few specific things, say like me. I don't mind having to find a blue key card to open the blue door, but make me collect 8 pieces of something to open one door or continue/finish the game is just bleh. I site Banjo and Kazzoie thing, where it mostly had you do this to unlock levels at a time.

Though Braid is more puzzle than Banjo is, since the game focuses on the puzzles and not as much anything else like level unlocking.

Man I miss the old Doom.

Gaming is a broad Genre (gets bigger if we talk anime related stuff) and to expect Halo fans to instantly like Braid is like saying, "I know you like Naruto and/or Bleach, but Paranoia Agent everyone should love!"

Wait... Okaimi not art? No wait Zelda clone right? Braid could be a Mario clone minus all the instant gratification of coins and lives, then gets praise for this simply because all the instant gratification is considered "sparkle" rather than a way for a player to continue playing the game. Such as head shots these days as practically announced every time one happens.

But don't mind me, this post comes with resentment of the creator of the games pretty much summing up that ALL games are bad (or not as unique or whatever) except his.

And to the "2 doors argument" he did put the key in the right door as an example of what above people are saying, but I assume you are given no word about it and thus have to level reset every time you forget.

Also when he said "YOU ADRIAN" the pic he used was that guy Yahtzee considers as plain and boring. I still kinda wonder who that is a bit.

And to feed my fan boy side of me, I'd like to see him retro review Zombies Ate My Neighbers for a laugh, or maybe Duke3D.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Wow, Yahtzee reviewing an Indie title, whats next reviewing a mod? Yikes! Good review though, as always. Although I really really want Entropy to come out soon, its just not going to happen.

 

[yourkie1921]

Well it's nice to hear he has a girlfriend...

Not for long he won't, by the sound of it...

Hmm. I thought he was speaking of a metaphorical girlfriend, since he usually avoids making much reference to the details of his personal life. Plus, he's not quite hot enough to pick up chicks with his cynicism.

I could see how some girls would go to him for his cynicism. If a chick were as funny as yahtzee getting laughs basically the same way yahtzee does (minus all the talk about his cock. but she can talk about her jiblies and happy bowl all she wants ) I'd plow her till next july. Do you think there are no females with that mentality

Once again Yahtzee exposes his retardation in regards to the level where the key will only open one door. I had to think about it for 30 seconds to realize that time flows backwards when you walk to the left which is why you can't open a door from the right then just walk through it.

Every episode has some equally glaring misobservation, and the guy should really play the games for more than 5 minutes before he writes his bits about them.

You might as well complain about his super paper mario review and how he could've skipped the long 2nd level thingy easily without going in the hamster wheel. But not realizing something like that doesn't make you retarded. And it's not a glaring misobservation. I've played.....5 of the games he's reviewed and braid isn't one of them and it never will be unless I get it for free and I still felt he was probably wrong about this. I've never felt that way before.

 

[daedrick]

I particularly ( sp?! ) loved this one, made me laugh more than the others. I also want to say that I love the fact that you can laugh of yourself. I always do the same in total sarcasm and people actualy believe Im serious wich is dumb. But anyway, you got a GREAT ( IMO ) game to review soon enough... Well 2 great games actually, Warhammer, and STALKER. I love stalker... hmmmm yes I do. Very much. ( if you dont like stalker, then I really dont understand your taste, but w/e. )

Disclaimer: Sentence cohesion and structure may suck because Im a french canadian... oh and my spelling as well. That being said! Yay.

 

[Inriri]

Yea, I blame the masses for bad games too, but mostly furries. They ruin everything, even drinks now.

 

[Soda241]

I guess im happy that your review are funny and make me laugh even know most of the game you review i don't even want to play or think about playing your review are truthful about the game and down to the point, Don't ever change that! Even if it worth 1mill and being sold to some big place, because your review wont be from you it will be from them.

For everyone who didn't read that.

Zero Punctuation rocks

And i still wont buy this game

 

[Monkeybone]

What the fuck, man. You talked even faster than usual and I had to watch it twice just to understand what you were going on about. Thankfully there's the visual cues, otherwise it'd be all NATTER NATTER NATTER. Pace yourself a bit more next time, this is your shtick, but it seemed a rushed in your delivery.

 

[Dramus]

Maybe someone's posted this, I don't know. I didn't feel like reading through 5 pages of comments and crap.
Anyway, funny review, but that's not why I'm posting. He brought up something that ticks me off, and that's the notion that indie games are somehow better just because they are indie. In fact there are probably just as many shit indie games out there as there are shit mainstream. There are a huge amount of copycat indie games that blatantly rip off other game's ideas (I know because I played all the shift knock offs on onemorelevel (and since shift is a portal knock off, it's like doubly unimaginative). The only difference is that indie games are not hyped (at least not usually), and so if one sucks no one cares because no one plays it. The only indie games most people play are the really good ones, so people get the erroneous idea that all indie games are super creative and good. It's the same reason why people always say games/tv/music/other were better back in the day; you don't remember all the shit, just what was good (nostalgia has something to do with it too, but that doesn't fit the parallel).

 

[hem dazon 90]

good vid i gess irelands tax here is the ha ha we get fog more often tax

 

[Moravich]

Was very funny as usual, but i think he got a little further away from the game this time, because i have no idea what braid is at the moment.

 

[shaun832]

Ha! Nicer beaches tax! I live in Australia and I really do think this is more important than the price of games... to a point.

 

[jordexciu]

The levels with 2 doors only appear in World 4 where time is manipulated by which direction you walk.
If you were to open the door from the right, as soon as you take that step left, the level will rewind causing the door to close.

Of course no one will figure this out first try causing you to restart the level regardless, but that's how it works anyways. It wasn't entirely a "dick move" on Jonathan's behalf.

 

[Archedgar]

I thought that was the FUNNIEST episode of Zero Punctuation in a long time.

I couldn't stop laughing through most of it, it was fast paced, witty and extremely full of charm/hilarity.

Major upgrade from some of the recent episodes which felt like they were declining in quality.
PS: World of Warcraft sucks.

 

[Argirious]

Heya nice Vid mate.. love the show watch it every thursday (cause i got to wait for the rest of the world to catch up, then again its handy cause i do my banking at the same time, gota love pay day.. rich again for a week and a new yahtzee episode!)

 

[DevilSaint44]

Great. I too have to pay as twice as americans for games

 

[parttimeesthete]

He brought up something that ticks me off, and that's the notion that indie games are somehow better just because they are indie. In fact there are probably just as many shit indie games out there as there are shit mainstream. There are a huge amount of copycat indie games that blatantly rip off other game's ideas (I know because I played all the shift knock offs on onemorelevel (and since shift is a portal knock off, it's like doubly unimaginative). The only difference is that indie games are not hyped (at least not usually), and so if one sucks no one cares because no one plays it. The only indie games most people play are the really good ones, so people get the erroneous idea that all indie games are super creative and good.

This is where you might have misunderstood Yahtzee's (and other's) point of view:
I think he meant that indie games should get more attention of the broad audience, not because they are generally better, but because they have more potential of innovation which can cause them to be better. Of course, the word 'better' in this regard is dependent on the subjective notion of quality that everyone defines for oneself.

So this statement holds mainly for people who see innovation as a huge quality feature like Yahtzee and many others including me.
Now the potential of a title created by an independent developer comes from his absolute freedom to build a game that is really different. Actually an indie developer - assuming that one of his goals is the attention and interest of others for his game - is not only more free to create something unique but is also driven to do so, since indie games, as you implicitly stated, don't get any attention if they are unoriginal.

In contrast, innovation gets thinned out in big commercial titles on a broad, average scope. The reasons are manifold. To name only two of them:
1.) The complexity of the decision and communication process in huge productions with a lot of people involved
(Just like in any other project, a large size makes it less flexible and unwieldy.)

2.) The necessity to please a large audience to be able to amortize monetary investments
(This can also be generalized to represent decisions that are driven by monetary ventures and interests of people in control within the media market, for example publishers.)

Of course, even huge productions can set themselves above this causality sometimes but sadly this requires much more effort and bravery. On the other hand indie developers, along with their creative freedom, have the freedom of producing crap and spreading it on the intertubes since there is absolutely no instance of quality control involved.

This whole mechanic is nothing new and can be observed in the entire media culture.

P.S. Sorry if this sounds too smug.

 

[SyntheticLung]

The key that only opens one door puzzle is easy. It normally appears on the levels where heading from left to right makes time progress and right to left is rewind, you can only open the door on the left because you are heading from left to right therefore making time move forward which makes the door open when unlocked opposed to the right door which can only be approached by heading from right to left which is reversing time. Anyway i'll finish this post up before I start sounding like one of those people on forums Yahtzee was talking about.

 

[MikePhilbin]

how dare you support an "original game" - funny, as always. [http://mikephilbin.blogspot.com/2008/08/ghost-recon-life-imitating-art.html]