Zero Punctuation: E3 2018 Round-Up

-Dragmire-

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ToastyMozart said:
Ryallen said:
I preorder games because I have Amazon Prime and preordering games gives Prime members a 20% discount. There's not really a better preorder bonus than "pay less for the game you're getting anyways."
That discount persists for about a month or so post-release too though, so you've still got time to check in with a critic you consider reliable before putting up your $48.
My Prime discount gets worse as release day gets close. Might be different depending on the region.

crazygameguy4ever said:
i'm knid of confused on how Yahtzee is less interested on the new spider-man game every time stuff is shown on it.. that's the exact opposite attitude of pretty much every gamer, journalist and rabbit squirrel around right now.. it looks incredible (still not pre-ordering. since I never pre-order a game)
His opinion lines up with what I've heard people say after the first video on it. There was a separate video that focused on the web slinging and general combat that won quite a few people over. Still, maybe he saw that too and still didn't like how it appeared to play.
 

Callate

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Captain Marvelous said:
I've seen Ubisoft and Unity get well deserved shit for a lot of reasons to this day, but that is not one I've encountered in recent memory. I think most people would rather forget Unity was a thing. Especially since Syndicate had the option and was actually good. Or at least playable.

Having trouble with time-stamp, but about 11:15.

Most people probably have let it go. But given the state Unity shipped in, I think the argument that they really didn't have the resources to plug in a female character actually has some weight- and seeing it continue to get flogged annoys me.
 

Dalisclock

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Callate said:
Ubisoft will stop bringing up the female character option when people stop giving them shit about not having a female character in AC:Unity. So don't hold your breath, 'cuz grinding that axe never gets old for some people.
Mostly they got shit because of how bad their excuse was. They'd had female assassins in previous AC games(as in every game since Brotherhood), even as a main character in Liberation, so the "It's too hard to implement" came across as weak. Then it turned out that Unity had problem with terrifying missing faces and Arno falling through the earth, among other things, so that particular gripe ended up falling down the list a bit.
 

Makabriel

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The whole "Wahhhhh exclusives" crowd is pissing me off enough to actually post again. WTF cares about exclusivity? Microsoft had THE best set of games this years, and all the whiners have is "None are exclusive" Jesus fragging Christ people. Does it matter when the exclusives the other side have are crap and rehashes? Or games that have been trying to release for 2 years now (looking at you Spiderman).

Oh, and I'm sorry but I am going to say "but what about X Y Z), because there were a hand full of original, artistic 3rd party games produced by who? You guessed it. MS
 

darkrage6

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Thaluikhain said:
darkrage6 said:
Ryallen said:
I preorder games because I have Amazon Prime and preordering games gives Prime members a 20% discount. There's not really a better preorder bonus than "pay less for the game you're getting anyways."
Thaluikhain said:
He didn't have to say anything about the new Tomb Raider game beyond it being about her becoming the Tomb Raider. Nuff said just there.
I think it looks pretty damn awesome and i've quite enjoyed the previous two games.
Only played the first reboot, and that was alright, it's just that the games are called "Tomb Raider", not "someone that might become a Tomb Raider by the end of this game, or maybe the next one". That get old.

When Lara says "Oh no, can't we sort this out without violence?" just when I'm saying "Yeah, gonna shoot that guy in the face with an arrow", it grates a bit.
That didn't bother me since the 2013 game was the very first Tomb Raider game I ever played, so I didn't have those kinds of expectations going in.
 

darkrage6

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Dalisclock said:
Thaluikhain said:
darkrage6 said:
Ryallen said:
I preorder games because I have Amazon Prime and preordering games gives Prime members a 20% discount. There's not really a better preorder bonus than "pay less for the game you're getting anyways."
Thaluikhain said:
He didn't have to say anything about the new Tomb Raider game beyond it being about her becoming the Tomb Raider. Nuff said just there.
I think it looks pretty damn awesome and i've quite enjoyed the previous two games.
Only played the first reboot, and that was alright, it's just that the games are called "Tomb Raider", not "someone that might become a Tomb Raider by the end of this game, or maybe the next one". That get old.

When Lara says "Oh no, can't we sort this out without violence?" just when I'm saying "Yeah, gonna shoot that guy in the face with an arrow", it grates a bit.
Cutscenes:"I'm sorry Mr. Deer for murdering you for food I need to survive", "I just killed a dude. OMG!"
Gameplay: 30 dead dudes full of machine gun bullets later.....

It's the gameplay/story segregation that's hard to get over, this bizarre gyrating between "I'm sorry I have to kill" and the murderfest between cutscenes she has no reaction to.
Eh didn't bother me, I think Yahtzee was exaggerating that part a bit for the sake of humor(which is fine).
 

darkrage6

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Makabriel said:
The whole "Wahhhhh exclusives" crowd is pissing me off enough to actually post again. WTF cares about exclusivity? Microsoft had THE best set of games this years, and all the whiners have is "None are exclusive" Jesus fragging Christ people. Does it matter when the exclusives the other side have are crap and rehashes? Or games that have been trying to release for 2 years now (looking at you Spiderman).

Oh, and I'm sorry but I am going to say "but what about X Y Z), because there were a hand full of original, artistic 3rd party games produced by who? You guessed it. MS
Same here, i'm getting sick of MS getting shit on for actually being pro-consumer.
 

darkrage6

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Callate said:
Captain Marvelous said:
I've seen Ubisoft and Unity get well deserved shit for a lot of reasons to this day, but that is not one I've encountered in recent memory. I think most people would rather forget Unity was a thing. Especially since Syndicate had the option and was actually good. Or at least playable.

Having trouble with time-stamp, but about 11:15.

Most people probably have let it go. But given the state Unity shipped in, I think the argument that they really didn't have the resources to plug in a female character actually has some weight- and seeing it continue to get flogged annoys me.
I don't think it has any real weight at all.
 

darkrage6

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Captain Marvelous said:
Disagree about Spider-Man. The game looks fantastic and I'm looking forward to it. The swinging looks great, the action okay, and the cosmetic upgrades to Spidey's villains are pretty good. Spidey's cringe jokes are par the course. I've honestly gotten used to it.

Also, Ghost of Tsushima is not post apocalyptic.

Callate said:
Ubisoft will stop bringing up the female character option when people stop giving them shit about not having a female character in AC:Unity. So don't hold your breath, 'cuz grinding that axe never gets old for some people.
I've seen Ubisoft and Unity get well deserved shit for a lot of reasons to this day, but that is not one I've encountered in recent memory. I think most people would rather forget Unity was a thing. Especially since Syndicate had the option and was actually good. Or at least playable.
I think he got Ghosts mixed up with Days Gone.
 

darkrage6

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Callate said:
Ubisoft will stop bringing up the female character option when people stop giving them shit about not having a female character in AC:Unity. So don't hold your breath, 'cuz grinding that axe never gets old for some people.

Cyberpunk looks promising. Fallout held some hope until they implied that well-written NPCs will be exchanged for random trolls with the ability to drop nuclear weapons on a hundred hours of crafting. I don't quite get the amount of hate Anthem seems to generate, other than that it looks bog-standard and they're suspiciously cagey about stringing together thirty seconds of continuous play.

Now, back to the ridiculous backlog of games indicating I shouldn't be looking at E3 coverage at all.
Anthem looks dull, the fact that Bioware's talent is being wasted on this instead of another ME game is what annoys people, and when Anthem inevitably fails Bioware will be shut down like all the other EA studios.

Also the grievances against Ubisoft were totally legit considering their absolutely terrible excuses for why they couldn't make female character models in the first place. Also you missed Yahtzee's point, which was that Ubisoft seemed to totally forget they had already let you play as a female character in Syndicate, them avoiding that seems very shady to me.
 

darkrage6

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Dalisclock said:
Silentpony said:
darkrage6 said:
Wow I didn't even know Ubisoft acted like they hadn't done the playable female character thing with AC before, i'm as pissed as Yahtzee now, surprised he didn't also snark on Odyssey for the devs bragging about how the game adopted a Bioware style dialogue system that let you romance people.
Same. I didn't watch it so I had no idea they were bragging about 'finally' having a lady character. I assumed its just par for Ass creed games to have sibling protagonists now, simply the right call to make and doesn't take away from the story. Really kinda shitty they made such a big deal about it for Odyssey.
Well, they had a female protagonist before Syndicate as well. Apparently Ubisoft forgot about AC: Liberation(You know, despite having an in-game advertisement for it in Black Flag).
Yeah that too.
 
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Callate said:
Captain Marvelous said:
I've seen Ubisoft and Unity get well deserved shit for a lot of reasons to this day, but that is not one I've encountered in recent memory. I think most people would rather forget Unity was a thing. Especially since Syndicate had the option and was actually good. Or at least playable.

Having trouble with time-stamp, but about 11:15.

Most people probably have let it go. But given the state Unity shipped in, I think the argument that they really didn't have the resources to plug in a female character actually has some weight- and seeing it continue to get flogged annoys me.
Ah, that's just good ol' Sterling. Giving companies like Ubisoft shit is basically his thing. And, honestly, Ubisoft has earned and deserves a lot of the shit they get. Especially for the shit show that was Unity.
 

Callate

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Captain Marvelous said:
Ah, that's just good ol' Sterling. Giving companies like Ubisoft shit is basically his thing. And, honestly, Ubisoft has earned and deserves a lot of the shit they get. Especially for the shit show that was Unity.
darkrage6 said:
Also the grievances against Ubisoft were totally legit considering their absolutely terrible excuses for why they couldn't make female character models in the first place. Also you missed Yahtzee's point, which was that Ubisoft seemed to totally forget they had already let you play as a female character in Syndicate, them avoiding that seems very shady to me.
I will never dispute for a moment that there are perfectly decent reasons for giving Ubisoft shit; this just isn't one of them. Adding a new model with new skins, a new voice, and potentially new bone animations and interactions with NPCs in the middle of a tight, multi-year development that was already so short on time and resources that players fell right through the world in the release version is not the triviality that some made it out to be. And the evidence suggests that had they dropped everything to implement it, they would merely have gotten grief for how additionally broken the world was from whatever time and energy they diverted to a feature they had never originally promised- and that said implementation wasn't as polished as the male version.

It's quite possible they should have kicked their release date six months up the line, but that would have meant taking a different kind of grief- less from the public, perhaps, but more from their higher-ups and investors.

As far as Syndicate is concerned, my impression is that Odyssey is the first game where you choose your viewpoint character and inhabit them throughout the game- Syndicate had the player moving between one and the other as dictated by the plot.

Ubisoft may not be communicating that well, given. As evidence of some sort of inherent duplicity? Oy... There comes a point where it just further illustrates they can't win. "So, we're doing what you asked us to..." "WHAT DO YOU WANT, A COOKIE?!"
 

Erttheking

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ToastyMozart said:
Ryallen said:
I preorder games because I have Amazon Prime and preordering games gives Prime members a 20% discount. There's not really a better preorder bonus than "pay less for the game you're getting anyways."
That discount persists for about a month or so post-release too though, so you've still got time to check in with a critic you consider reliable before putting up your $48.
It does? I just took a look at Mario Tennis Aces and the discount is gone now, and that game came out today.
 

Transdude1996

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darkrage6 said:
Makabriel said:
The whole "Wahhhhh exclusives" crowd is pissing me off enough to actually post again. WTF cares about exclusivity? Microsoft had THE best set of games this years, and all the whiners have is "None are exclusive" Jesus fragging Christ people. Does it matter when the exclusives the other side have are crap and rehashes? Or games that have been trying to release for 2 years now (looking at you Spiderman).

Oh, and I'm sorry but I am going to say "but what about X Y Z), because there were a hand full of original, artistic 3rd party games produced by who? You guessed it. MS
Same here, i'm getting sick of MS getting shit on for actually being pro-consumer.
Microsoft? Pro-consumer? Excuse me, but may I ask what timeline you just hopped in from? Of the most recent examples, I don't see how shutting down and DMCAing fan projects [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/04/micosoft-dmcas-twitch-streamers-playing-halo-online-eldewrito/57217/], adding lootboxes to your version of Miis [https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/01/10/the-xbox-one-itself-may-soon-be-getting-loot-boxes-for-avatar-items/], and calling your userbase toxic [https://gamerant.com/phil-spencer-xbox-one-fail-toxic-gaming/] can allow for a company to be considered as pro-consumer.
On top of the company being being hypocrities [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-18/microsoft-removes-mention-of-cloud-work-for-ice-after-protests] when it comes to making political statements [https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/06/18/microsoft-statement-on-separating-families-at-the-southern-border/].

darkrage6 said:
Callate said:
Ubisoft will stop bringing up the female character option when people stop giving them shit about not having a female character in AC:Unity. So don't hold your breath, 'cuz grinding that axe never gets old for some people.

Cyberpunk looks promising. Fallout held some hope until they implied that well-written NPCs will be exchanged for random trolls with the ability to drop nuclear weapons on a hundred hours of crafting. I don't quite get the amount of hate Anthem seems to generate, other than that it looks bog-standard and they're suspiciously cagey about stringing together thirty seconds of continuous play.

Now, back to the ridiculous backlog of games indicating I shouldn't be looking at E3 coverage at all.
Anthem looks dull, the fact that Bioware's talent is being wasted on this instead of another ME game is what annoys people, and when Anthem inevitably fails Bioware will be shut down like all the other EA studios.
You really want to give Bioware another chance when 90% of the original staff were gone by the time they made Mass Effect 3 and after the disaster that was Andromeda?
Also the grievances against Ubisoft were totally legit considering their absolutely terrible excuses for why they couldn't make female character models in the first place. Also you missed Yahtzee's point, which was that Ubisoft seemed to totally forget they had already let you play as a female character in Syndicate, them avoiding that seems very shady to me.
It's a way for them to dodge any actual criticism anyone may have towards the game and give the studio brownie points. "Oh, you don't like Odyssey or see anything in the game that looks appealing? That must be because you can't get past the fact that you can play as a girl now." And, it's useless to argue with anyone about anything beyond that point because you can tell the character of the individual by the simple fact that they want to shut you up by throwing a label your way. It's nothing new, and public has been tired of this bull for the past 4 years. Just look up at how with this E3, you have journalist and publications singing praises about how "look at how far gaming has progressed and how inclusive it is" [https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44504344], meanwhile talking out of their other end about how gaming is still a medium overrun with prejudice and hated. [https://www.polygon.com/e3/2018/6/14/17465102/women-protagonists-video-games-e3] You cannot make these people happy, and people are tired of this shit.
 

Erttheking

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Transdude1996 said:
It's a way for them to dodge any actual criticism anyone may have towards the game and give the studio brownie points. "Oh, you don't like Odyssey or see anything in the game that looks appealing? That must be because you can't get past the fact that you can play as a girl now." And, it's useless to argue with anyone about anything beyond that point because you can tell the character of the individual by the simple fact that they want to shut you up by throwing a label your way. It's nothing new, and public has been tired of this bull for the past 4 years. Just look up at how with this E3, you have journalist and publications singing praises about how "look at how far gaming has progressed and how inclusive it is" [https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44504344], meanwhile talking out of their other end about how gaming is still a medium overrun with prejudice and hated. [https://www.polygon.com/e3/2018/6/14/17465102/women-protagonists-video-games-e3] You cannot make these people happy, and people are tired of this shit.
Different people working at different publications have different opinions. More at 11.

What exactly are people tired of anyway? Journalists not having a hive mind?

And I'd be more willing to take your complaint that people shit on those who don't like Assassin's Creed Odyssey because it has women seriously, if I hadn't publicly, more than once, made it clear I have no interest in the game because I think Assassin's Creed is overdone and I have zero instances of being called a sexist pig over it.
 

Transdude1996

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erttheking said:
Transdude1996 said:
It's a way for them to dodge any actual criticism anyone may have towards the game and give the studio brownie points. "Oh, you don't like Odyssey or see anything in the game that looks appealing? That must be because you can't get past the fact that you can play as a girl now." And, it's useless to argue with anyone about anything beyond that point because you can tell the character of the individual by the simple fact that they want to shut you up by throwing a label your way. It's nothing new, and public has been tired of this bull for the past 4 years. Just look up at how with this E3, you have journalist and publications singing praises about how "look at how far gaming has progressed and how inclusive it is" [https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44504344], meanwhile talking out of their other end about how gaming is still a medium overrun with prejudice and hated. [https://www.polygon.com/e3/2018/6/14/17465102/women-protagonists-video-games-e3] You cannot make these people happy, and people are tired of this shit.
Different people working at different publications have different opinions. More at 11.

What exactly are people tired of anyway? Journalists not having a hive mind?
Please don't tell me you allow yourself to be this ignorant?
-OFFENDED GAME JOURNALISTS PILLORY KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/02/offended-game-journalists-pillory-kingdom-come-deliverance/51838/]
-SJW MOVIE CRITICS TRY TO BLAME READY PLAYER ONE BACKLASH ON #GAMERGATE [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/03/sjws-try-blame-ready-player-one-backlash-gamergate/55013/]
-GAME JOURNALISTS ATTEMPT TO SMEAR DEVELOPER FOR IN-GAME TEA-BAGGING DURING PAX DEMO [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/04/game-journalists-attempt-get-developer-fired-game-tea-bagging-pax-demo/55918/]
-CBR CENSORS ALL DISCUSSION ABOUT JAWBREAKERS COMIC [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/05/cbr-censors-discussion-jawbreakers-comic/59148/]
-JOURNALISTS FEAR ELON MUSK?S PRAVDUH WILL USE GAMERGATE-STYLE CRITICISM OF MEDIA [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/05/journalists-fear-elon-musks-pravduh-will-use-gamergate-style-criticism-of-media/59866/]
-SJW MEDIA ARE FURIOUS THAT VALVE WON?T BE CENSORING STEAM CONTENT [https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2018/06/sjw-media-are-furious-that-valve-wont-be-censoring-steam-content/60664/]


erttheking said:
And I'd be more willing to take your complaint that people shit on those who don't like Assassin's Creed Odyssey because it has women seriously, if I hadn't publicly, more than once, made it clear I have no interest in the game because I think Assassin's Creed is overdone and I have zero instances of being called a sexist pig over it.
Do you really think they care?
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/06/22/assassins-creed-odyssey-main-character said:
It?s unremarkable, unfortunately, but the choice to display Alexios more prominently is especially disappointing at a time when misogynists are kicking off about women in ?historical? games, such as Battlefield V". God forbid some guy doesn?t get in the spotlight. Of course, nothing?s to stop you from visiting your local video game den and quietly flipping covers to ensure everyone knows who the game?s real hero is.
Actually, speaking of which, there's been loads of articles attacking gamer's that are complaining about the inaccurate presence of a female character in "historically accurate" Battlefield 5: https://www.qwant.com/?q=battlefield%205%20protagonist&t=news
Personally, I want to know why it is that Velvet Assassin [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/739-Velvet-Assassin] has been the only game, that I know of, where you do play as an actual female spy who operated during WWII, and why it is that we don't see more games detailing the life stories of real soldiers who fought and died during the wars instead of someone inserting their fanfiction characters.
 

Erttheking

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Transdude1996 said:
If you're gonna fling shit, try and fling shit that has some kind of impact. I point out that you're basically being angry that games journalists have differing opinions and asking what exactly you're angry about and if you expect gamers to have a hive mind, and you respond by calling me ignorant and posting a bunch of all caps links to one angry gamer bitching about SJWs. For the record, I got a few paragraphs through the first one before deciding reading anymore would be a waste of my time and dropped it. Actually respond to what people say and don't just vent your frustrations at them.

I get the feeling that you don't really care, considering you jumped ships to a completely unrelated thing with completely different context the second I brought up experiences that disproved your victim narrative.

Also complaining about historical inaccuracies in Battlefield V is some of the most, bar none, hilariously selective outrage I've ever seen over a video game. "It's so unrealistic! Get women out of my realistic games where everyone has a rifle that was only made nineteen times in real life, has tanks on the front line that never actually saw front-line combat, where you can use a wrench to fix a horse, and where I can take a man who's almost dead, stick a needle in him, and all of a sudden the twelve SMG rounds that shredded his torso are back and fine."

Hey, maybe if the people who don't like women in Battlefield V don't want to be seen as misogynistic, maybe they shouldn't be complaining about realism in a game that clearly hasn't given a damn about realism for years now. It just portrays that they have an utterly shallow understanding of the second world war and are demanding that that shallowness be pandered to. It isn't a good look. Also please point out where BF5 ever claimed to be historically accurate.

See the thread that focuses on this for other arguments by people who don't feel much sympathy for those who are highly selective in their outrage.

As for your Velvet Assassin point, the majority of all WWII video games in general is focused on "Fanfiction" characters. So, again, selective outrage.
 

gyrobot_v1legacy

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The Rogue Wolf said:
It was nice of Yahtzee to write us a brand new novel for the end of the video.

The lowlight of E3 for me was that godawful mobile Command and Conquer game. People I didn't know playing an utterly uninteresting, simplistic game (I have actually played free Flash games that were better) while the developers tried to play it off as the most exciting thing ever. I could almost hear their shoes hitting the teeth of long-suffering C&C fans.
Unfortunately, most C&C fans have moved on with theirs and the new kids are too busy playing DOTA or LoL. The RTS genre died long ago and this is just a cancer "treatment" developed from the corpse