Zero Punctuation: Daikatana - John Romero's B****

[hermes]

The video was fun, but really simplistic.
For all the bad rap he gets, Romero was one of the best designers in the medium, being responsible for Wolfestein, Doom and Quake, revolutionizing PC gaming and creating things that today we take for granted, like online gaming and deathmatch.

For those that want to have a deeper look at the rise and fall of Id, I would advice you this book:

At least its a more complex account than "boohoo, they sucked!"

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Awwww yeah!
I got the Quake II demo and all my two PC friends were super envious how gloriously sharp everything looked at the max resolution and settings I'd spend all my money on. And MAN, did it look flabbergasting!
Too bad the gameplay and levels, and enemies where total shit. Boooooooring would be the correct term.

Thank goodness all the magazines took massive dumps on Daikatana, so I didn't sink a half years worth of cash on that crud!

 

[Dragonheart57]

I got this game in the Humble Bundle, weirdly. I was tempted to play it, but it doesn't seem to be the kind of bad that's fun to laugh at, at least not when you're playing it. It was right alongside Deus Ex and Hitman: Blood Money too, makes me wonder who the hell put that bundle together.

 

[blackrave]

I've heard about this abomination
Is it really THAT bad?

GET

A

ROOM

and just fuck already!

Besides "retard" is also opposite of "forward"
Maybe Yahtzee used it in that way.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I knew as soon as I read "Daikatana" in the title, I immediately heard that song in my head, followed by "Oh no, it's THAT game!" I liked all the dumping on John Romero and his hair, here, I haven't seen that since the Deus Ex retro-review (though still no mention of Warren Spector).
Also, nice touch on giving Romero Kamina's sunglasses. As much as Yahtzee dumps on anime, he could be a Gurren Laggan fan.

 

[Cronenberg1]

Are releases that slow Yahtzee?

Actually I was wondering too.

Why so slow?

No one has time to review or play games during pax. So no one comes out with any games. At least I think that's it.

 

[JimB]

Just fuck already!

While I find the video itself entertaining and insightful, there is really no conversation to be had about it other than, "Ha ha! Yep, that twenty-year-old video game sure does suck!" The conversation with Loki_The_Good is considerably more interesting to me.

Okay, first, having one kind of disability only gives you the vaguest insight into another; this is why I speak only of my two learning disabilities and not any of the other also professionally diagnosed ones.

Except you did not say learning disabilities cause depression. You said mental disabilities do. I will grant that you may have meant the former, but you said the latter.

Your prioritization is based entirely on fallacy and assumption. In either case someone suffers.

Nothing I can say or do will take away from you the joke you have already laughed at. It will still be there until and unless the Internet implodes or Mr. Croshaw decides the joke was in bad taste and alters the video like he did in the case of the pantomime dames thing (which I still think is a case of people missing the point of the joke, but oh well, it doesn't cost me anything for him to change two words in a video).

The assumption that there are other means of catharsis is also kind of messed up.

If there is only one way you can feel better about yourself, and if that one way involves you taking your pleasure at the expense of another person's pain, then I am personally convinced you are a monster and your pleasure is a thing to be assiduously avoided.

Maybe they don't I know I have issues finding it. Maybe someone is going through a really bad day and that one chuckle is what they needed to get through the day while the person offended felt bad for fifteen seconds then went off to do something they enjoyed.

Yes, and maybe the offended party in question felt so bad he built an atomic bomb and detonated it in the middle of New York City. Maybe Jesus Christ almighty decides that one joke is the straw that broke the camel's back and will no longer allow any human soul into Heaven, thereby condemning all our species to eternal suffering in the pits of Hell. I am not interested in adding hypothetical riders to an already hypothetical condition.

By the way, "talking over" means ignoring my or anyone else's real response to something while appealing to some hypothetical group with an opposing perspective.

Fair enough.

 

[Metadigital]

Ah, Daikatana. Every now and then you rear your ugly head.

I get a sort of sadistic pleasure every time someone unearths this travesty of a game. A good friend of mine was a programmer on the Daikatana team. On the original engine, that is. When he left to pursue other things they threw out all his code. The new code is what the public saw in all its glory. Whenever this topic gets dug up, some evil part of me makes sure my friend sees it. It happens every few years.

Romero himself is still fairly active. I know because Facebook has decided to make sure I see everything the friends of my friends are up to and there seems to be no way to stop it other than leaving Facebook. But, like a battered wife, I stick around and watch the show. I don't think this game ever really dented his ego much. If it did, he hides it. Honestly, I find it hard to be too cynical about him. Daikatana was about as glorious a fuckup as can be had, but it didn't destroy the guy. As an indie developer, such a crippling failure would have devastated me. Then again, Daikatana was just a badly made game. It wasn't like he worked on Duke Nukem Forever. I would probably have committed suicide long ago if I had made something that tasteless.

 

[Grach]

Danm, I was really hoping this week was Five Night At Freddy's. I know it was out weeks ago but still given that it's the dry period of game release now.

What? A review? Wouldn't it be better if he played through it? I'm sure the scariness would lead to some really scared reactions from Yahtzee.

It would be awesome, since Yahtzee has himself admitted to be fucking terrified of mascots.

 

[TessaraVejgan]

Never played the game the game myself and probably never will. Keep up the good work.

 

[Absimilliard]

I really like these brief historical snippets, and considering the occasionally baffling history of video games, I'm guessing we'll see some more of them in the future.
Now to find that Deus Ex-song he made years ago...

EDIT: Ah, it's after the Guitar Hero World Tour review. Thanks Google/search engine of your preference.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

I forgot about The Consuming Shadow. Still waiting for Fun Space Game, myself. I don't specifically remember what it was supposed to be about, but the name certainly jumps out at me.

 

[The Dead Singer]

Ah, Yahtzee. I just knew the chance to comment on Ferguson was just too tempting to let it go. You sneaky, witty little bastard.

PS: Silent Hills P.T.

 

[JimB]

Given the joke uses the word retarded and that's what we're talking about here I thought it was obvious we were talking about mental disabilities. That might be on me and if so fair enough I apologize for being unclear.

I will try to keep in mind that's how you mean it, but "mental disabilities" does not mean the same thing as "learning disabilities." I'm not trying to be a dick about it; just giving you a heads up.

No nothing can take it away but this is about whether the joke has a right to exist or should be condemned.

Jokes have no rights. Only creatures do. Mr. Croshaw has a right to tell that joke, and anyone who hears it has a right to criticize the joke. They are not mutually exclusive rights, and are in fact a facet of the same single right to free speech.

I am not taking pleasure in someone else pain. I am saying the possibility that somebody might upset at something that might give me pleasure is not an excuse to deride it one way or another.

I am pretty sure no one has done that, but okay.

 

[Horvath Gergo]

Fakyu! Anachronox and Deusex was great.

Dunno about thief 3.

 

[zerabp]

"Ha Ha we used to think three years was a long time"

This made me laugh more than the rest of the episode which was still hilarious!

Thanks Yahtzee!

 

[Nion]

I'm pretty sure the game industry has outsourced treating its audience with giggling contempt to the journalists.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

I know I should be reflecting on the lessons Yahtzee related to us (that none of us will remember two days later in the subsequent hangovers), but I only came away from this video with two things:

1) Daikatana is on Steam.
2) I need to get Daikatana.

 

[Karmik]

Well, I'll credit Romero one thing: He did give us "I can't leave without my buddy, Superfly.
A phrase so ridiculous and strangely, so conducive towards co-op gaming. (even if it's in a semi-sarcastic sort of way)

Hell, the name 'Superfly' alone is already strange if you ask me.

Super Fly is a blacksploitation movie from 1972. Very popular movie and part of a meme much beloved by Quentin Tarantino.

 

[ParoXoN]

I really love this new jingle. Is that wierd?

Not at all!

Because virtually none of you have been clamouring for it (except possibly you, Exterminas), here's the OGRMGH theme score arranged by my friend Req:
http://imgur.com/FFLRyW8