Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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erttheking said:
Ok, a couple of video game companies do not represent the political views of the American government, or the general population. Just because they're American companies doesn't mean that "America is making them". I would also like to point out that Valve is an American company, as is Bethesda and Obsidian.

Also, I have to shake my head a little. Games that you don't like are popular and because of that you hate Humanity? You're seriously overreacting man.
And in the multiplayer HALF THE TIME you are going to be playing as "the bad guys" killing "the good guys". Because it's random which team you end up in, no one cops out of playing because they didn't end up on the American side.

This undue focus by certain critics on the singleplayer is disingenuous, yes it is shit and goes to a whole new level of political incorrectness but people don't care about that. They go straight to the multiplayer, that's what everyone raves about and they don't care if they play as Americans or as the "enemies of America".

There is SOMETHING TO SAY about the multiplayer, and come on Yahtzee, you have been forced to play through worse games than Black Ops 2's multiplayer and Zombies and still done reviews. I want a review of the multiplayer, good or bad, there is something to say about it.
 

catalyst8

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Oct 29, 2008
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Because Whites are never the victims of racism. Oh, wait:
'That?s makes 4 attacks that we know of so far related to blacks engaging in lynch mob mentality to attack whites because they feel "justified".'
http://thegraph.com/2012/04/another-white-man-critically-beaten-20-black-racist-thugs-assault-him-citing-justice-for-trayvon/
 

major_chaos

Ruining videogames
Feb 3, 2011
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Wow Yahtzee reviewed a CoD game, hated it and never played MP or Zombies I'm so shocked. /sarcasm
I honestly think this may be the only ZP were I didn't laugh once and the fact that I like the game has very little to do with it, plenty of his reviews have ripped into games I like more then CoD and still been funny, but this one wasn't. He starts the review with personal attacks on people who like things he doesn't and never stops, using terms that I'm sure his mindless fanboys will be parroting for months to come, he then does his normal paranoid "CoD is racist" rant he does in every modern military shooter review, he then launches directly into his gun owners/Americans/Christians hate trifecta, and its just generally not funny to listen to him go on venomous political hate trips. I watch ZP for the comedy if I wanted a guy to tell me that everyone who has a different opinion is shit and wrong I would watch the news.
 

Grach

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Aug 31, 2012
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People, he hates competitive multiplayer. That's why he reviews MMO's, you can completely ignore everyone and play as loner, which I did also when playing MMO's.

To be fair though, he shouldn't review spunkgargleweewee games anymore. All his political bias and hatred for the US military complex is getting in the way of actual gameplay criticism. Yeh, I'm also with the guys sick of hearing him just vomit all over the US just because.

Before anyone says so, I'm south american and I don't think the US is evil. I used to, but they seem to be more like bizarro, trying to help but somewhat unsuccesful. If you want to talk evil then, look at Israel or North Korea or African Warlords.

Edit: Actually screw that. Carry on Yahtzee.
 

PainInTheAssInternet

The Ship Magnificent
Dec 30, 2011
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NAdducci said:
Man I am getting tired of this shit... America is not evil and racist! Not any more than any other country at least, probably less so actually. This ridiculous idea, that enshrines bullying of any white american regardless of actual character, IS f@#$ing racism.

I don't even play these first person shooters normally and it's a simple game that is obviously catering to military and secret agent drama which fits the style well, those of whom who enjoy that probably like the American military for their own reasons and are incidentally mostly white because that's what the population is. If you don't like that, well I guess people are different and you aren't the King. Reality bites sometimes.

People are free to like what they want. If you want others to respect your preference maybe you should respect them in the first place instead of drawing a line in the sand. At least Movie Bob attempts to look at things a tad more objectively, but his preaching is getting on my damn nerves too.

Maybe if Yahtzee spent less of his time being jealous of America's inherited wealth, masturbating to Theif 2 and Valve, and deriving an unhealthy amount of pleasure from acting like a troll so he can feel good about himself while wannabe trolls cheer him on, he might actually get a taste of why multiplayer games are fun, and develop the art of learning to coexist with people who are different. And if anyone is gonna call me a hypocrite for this part, I'm deliberately including it to show 2 can play this game, but it's better to let people enjoy what they like in peace.

I like Yahtzee, he's a witty, cynical, and skilled writer with a working knowledge of game design and penchant for third person solo player and indie games. And I like Movie Bob too. My kind of people most of the time. But I'm getting tired of both of their reviews being harsh judgement of the people who enjoy the games rather than the game/subject itself.
I've always had an issue with the notion that one cannot be criticized for liking something. If that object has unfortunate implications, low quality in innovation or especially troubling aspects in its online community, what does that say about the individual who chooses to enjoy it?

There is a definite link between what the game is and what the community is; look towards attitudes online if you want any proof of concept. Also, most of the online community is white because they are the ones buying consoles. Why do they do that? Because they have the money. It's not "white guilt," it's fact.

I'm a born-into-wealth white guy and I reject the notion that I am responsible for the past. I am, however, responsible for the present and the future. Don't use the fact that people point out our ancestor's actions as an excuse to disengage.
 

FiveSpeedf150

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Sep 30, 2009
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catalyst8 said:
Because Whites are never the victims of racism. Oh, wait:
'That?s makes 4 attacks that we know of so far related to blacks engaging in lynch mob mentality to attack whites because they feel "justified".'
http://thegraph.com/2012/04/another-white-man-critically-beaten-20-black-racist-thugs-assault-him-citing-justice-for-trayvon/
Shhh we don't talk about that.
 

Arcane Azmadi

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Jan 23, 2009
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ZZoMBiE13 said:
No mention of the ZOMBIEs eh?
Why would he bother? At this stage zombie modes in a CoD game just go without saying to the point that they're as much a part of the game as grenades. They neither add to nor detract from the game.
 
Mar 9, 2012
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catalyst8 said:
Because Whites are never the victims of racism. Oh, wait:
'That?s makes 4 attacks that we know of so far related to blacks engaging in lynch mob mentality to attack whites because they feel "justified".'
http://thegraph.com/2012/04/another-white-man-critically-beaten-20-black-racist-thugs-assault-him-citing-justice-for-trayvon/
You can throw up all the cherrypicked right wing rag articles about "reverse racism" and "scary black people" you like. It isn't in any way comparable to institutionalized racism, still inherent in the Western system as it was build by the white man and by far and large still works in favor for him both on the small and large scale.

You are just using stuff like that an convenient excuse to ignore this fact (and doesn't it sort of imply you believe one wrong justifies another?)
 

chadachada123

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Jan 17, 2011
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Grach said:
People, he hates competitive multiplayer. That's why he reviews MMO's, you can completely ignore everyone and play as loner, which I did also when playing MMO's.

To be fair though, he shouldn't review spunkgargleweewee games anymore. All his political bias and hatred for the US military complex is getting in the way of actual gameplay criticism. Yeh, I'm also with the guys sick of hearing him just vomit all over the US just because.

Before anyone says so, I'm south american and I don't think the US is evil. I used to, but they seem to be more like bizarro, trying to help but somewhat unsuccesful. If you want to talk evil then, look at Israel or North Korea or African Warlords.

You know what? I want Yahtzee actually explain why he hates the US so much. Quote this if you want it to be in the next Extra Punctuation.
I'm an American, and I hate my country's foreign actions and obsession with killing innocent people and imprisoning even more.

I also own several firearms and love shooting. I only say this because people (Yahtzee included) seem to think the two concepts are mutually inclusive. On that note, I'm also an atheist with a hatred of nationalism.
 

VladG

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Aug 24, 2010
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I'm actually kinda surprised about this ZP... Yahtzee considered CoD4 an actually good game but completely dismissed Blops2 despite them being much more similar than any other game in the franchise. They are certainly the only CoD games I really enjoyed.


It actually offers more freedom than any CoD game before (though admittedly that's not saying much, it's still very linear... but baby steps. And linear isn't bad as long as it's done right). Compared to Warfighter it's a damn sandbox!

It actually has a GOOD choice system, the kind that's not menu driven or even very explicit at times. Choices in Blops2 feel much more organic than most games manage and I'd have expected that after numerous rants about binary moral systems that plague games he'd be at least acknowledge a decent system pop up in such an unexpected place.

Hell, Blops2 even had PACING, something that the franchise has completely lacked since CoD4. It's nowhere near as crazy and frantic as the other games in the series.

As for boring... I found the crazy rampages quite fun. Totally insane, over the top and ridiculous... but fun. And the contrast and spacing between those and the standard shooting galleries felt very well managed. Also the game does NOT take itself seriously, and that, to my mind, is a major improvement. It throws all pretence of realism out the window, puts you in some preposterous situations and says... Go Nuts!

I've had a very similar experience with CoD as Yahtzee so far: Liked CoD4, became increasingly disgusted and tired of the sequels... but had a completely unexpected surprise with Blops2 for all the reasons very briefly presented above.

I feel the horrible over-saturation of execrable modern military shooters (most of them CoD games) and the demands of gaming journalism have tainted what could have otherwise been a pleasant surprise.
 

SonOfMethuselah

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Oct 9, 2012
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I would have classified the Strike Force missions more RTS than tower defense, but either way, they don't work. I actually kind of wanted to hear what Yahtzee had to say about the whole multiple ending thing. I wonder if he was even aware of it: there isn't anything to suggest it, and if he'd been avoiding other reviews to keep his opinion purely his own, then he might have missed it. Not that it adds all that much, I just wanted to hear what he thought about it.

But he summed the rest of it up pretty well, I think. I really want the next console cycle to start, just so that Activision can't keep demanding that the Call of Duty games be made with IW 4.0, or whatever the engine is. The need to develop a new engine would, hopefully, give us a year off from Call of Duty, and that's pretty much what everyone needs right now.
 

BX3

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Mar 7, 2011
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God, this was awful. Stunk too much of venting humor. I might have to stop watching his... ugh... "spunkgargleweewee" reviews because they're starting to get just as banal and predictable as the the games themselves allegedly are.