Zero Punctuation: Enemy Front & Valiant Hearts: The Great War

[MrFalconfly]

A game about WWI? What an interesting twist. Maybe even interesting enough to be worth checking out. I think it even got a recommendation.

really? you are blaming school shootings on gun control?

No, he's saying that because people oppose gun control so violently, we haven't been able to effectively stop them.

mental illness is the cause of the shootings.

So why not put restrictions on gun access for the mentally ill?

*NRA wackspin
"But that would encroach on the mentally ill's right to keep and bear arms"

Right, so we have established that there are people who frankly shouldn't ever have access to firearms, but you give them firearms regardless because of the 2nd amendment.

Great plan buster.

 

[Tony2077]

A game about WWI? What an interesting twist. Maybe even interesting enough to be worth checking out. I think it even got a recommendation.

really? you are blaming school shootings on gun control?

No, he's saying that because people oppose gun control so violently, we haven't been able to effectively stop them.

mental illness is the cause of the shootings.

So why not put restrictions on gun access for the mentally ill?

*NRA wackspin
"But that would encroach on the mentally ill's right to keep and bear arms"

Right, so we have established that there are people who frankly shouldn't ever have access to firearms, but you give them firearms regardless because of the 2nd amendment.

Great plan buster.

when it comes to some people logic be damned

 

[Biran53]

I think Yahtzee has discovered the best means of solving political strife against the immobile brick walls that are the out-of-touch elderly.

Explain the rudimentary logic at such a speed so that they have no choice but to nod their heads in agreement just to save face.

 

[flying_whimsy]

He raises an interesting point. Given that we have so many war games out there, why ISN'T the First World War depicted more often?

I'd like to see some WWI games as well; and with all of the trenches and stuff they seem well-suited to the modern shooter genre. Although playing as a soldier caught in a mustard gas attack in the same style as that guy getting nuked in COD 4 sounds more horrifying than any monster in Dead Space.


OT: I think this is the first time I've ever heard Yahtzee use the word 'delightful' in relation to a game or gameplay mechanic. That alone makes me think I should pick up Valiant Hearts. Well, that and the fact that it's a game set during a war that's actually about people rather than the war.

And as far as the gun control, politics, and school shooting shitstorm this thread is likely to devolve into; I had a feeling this was going to happen after watching Yahtzee's Let's Drown Out this past weekend when he made some similar statements. I think I'll check back in about six hours to see what comments people end up getting banned/suspended over; that's probably my favorite part.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Good episode. Tied in the two games quite well and funny throughout.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hey...Yahtzee has a murderous guy wearing a welding mask? Salty bear on a stick!

 

[Latinidiot]

He raises an interesting point. Given that we have so many war games out there, why ISN'T the First World War depicted more often?

I think it's partially what he said (there not being a true 'good side'), but mostl because of the combat of that time. Tanks were only just introduced, Airplanes didn't go too fast, and the infantry battles were such gloryless trench slaughter that the only way the commanders knew how to keep morale high was to execute any soldiers who even thought about deserting. The WWII shooter approach would not work with this setting. Which is why Valiant Hearts isn't, and I really want to play it (haven't got the gear to do so though).

 

[gamegod25]

Only seen a bit of Valiant Hearts but I liked how it took a more human and realistic approach. Rather than blind patriotism and chest thumping the characters think the war is stupid and just want to get back to their happy peaceful lives. They are dragged into the conflict whether they like it or not, the best they can do is try to survive and find their loved ones. There are some tonal inconsistencies but having some silly lighthearted bits to break up the very depressing setting.

 

[Adam Locking]

I would imagine it's due to the trench warfare employed so much during that war being too difficult to turn into entertaining gameplay. There's one of 2 scenarios: you man a machine gun and simply mow down people as they come out of the trenches, or you're on the other side, running through the onslaught, praying a bullet doesn't rearrange your brains.

Is it bad that I read this as; "hey, you could make a bullet hell shooter set in World War I, someone should totally do that"?

 

[Sidmen]

A game about WWI? What an interesting twist. Maybe even interesting enough to be worth checking out. I think it even got a recommendation.

really? you are blaming school shootings on gun control?

No, he's saying that because people oppose gun control so violently, we haven't been able to effectively stop them.

mental illness is the cause of the shootings.

So why not put restrictions on gun access for the mentally ill?

*NRA wackspin
"But that would encroach on the mentally ill's right to keep and bear arms"

Right, so we have established that there are people who frankly shouldn't ever have access to firearms, but you give them firearms regardless because of the 2nd amendment.

Great plan buster.

Have you ever actually heard this argument from the NRA? I highly doubt it.

No, the problem is that the USA has a shit history with regards to Mental Illness. You can't just say "anyone mentally ill can't have a firearm" because literally 25-30% of americans are mentally ill at some point during any given year. Most of those are never diagnosed, and most recover from their illness given time.

It takes a LOT of time and effort to prove someone is mentally ill and a danger to themselves and others. Time and effort that must come from the mentally ill persons' friends and family - which are far more likely to try and resolve the problem themselves - if they even notice it. We lack the fundamental foundations for even building a nation-wide mental health service; and an aversion to anything even resembling starting one.

There is a HUGE social stigma when it comes to mental health problems - and suggesting that someone should go see a shrink before they do something - say, like getting a driver's license (vital IMO) or buying a firearm (literally an enshrined right in the constitution) is considered little short of defamation of character. I had been hoping that this would begin to shift due to all the obviously crazy people causing harm - but no, all I see are people whining about how guns are killing people and how assault weapons (which have claimed only a tiny fraction of firearm fatalities in the US) need to be banned. I might even support that last one, even going against statistics, if "assault weapon" wasn't defined by how scary something looks.

 

[otakon17]

This might be completely off-topic, but did anyone else hear a kind of low fainting grinding noise in the background? Like someone was turning the crank on an old style backpack radio or the like? I swear I did...

 

[Darth_Payn]

I think I heard crows or something making noise in the background at several points. It was kinda weird.

I know, I was gonna say. What was with all the birds cawing in the background? That was really distracting. I was kind of hoping he'd mention it at the end in some contrived analogy (war=crows? I got nothing) but now I suspect it wasn't intentional.

Yeah, after the second watching, I had to turn up the volume to hear it better and yes, those were crows in the background.

I see this thread ending badly.

He raises an interesting point. Given that we have so many war games out there, why ISN'T the First World War depicted more often?

I would imagine it's due to the trench warfare employed so much during that war being too difficult to turn into entertaining gameplay. There's one of 2 scenarios: you man a machine gun and simply mow down people as they come out of the trenches, or you're on the other side, running through the onslaught, praying a bullet doesn't rearrange your brains.

I recall there was a flight sim set in WWI a decade ago, showing off its lack of modern conveniences as "radar", "lock-on missiles", or "armor", but I don't think it was a huge success.
There was an alternate history WWI FPS (back when FPS's still had SOME imagination) set in the 1960's and WWI was STILL going on. I can see a Call of Duty game set in WWI arbitrarily killing off PC's in un-skippable cutscenes, as Yahtzee has shown us that series is fond of doing.

OT: I watched previews of Valiant Hearts at ubisoft's E3 presentation, and it looked gorgeous. It is refreshing to see a game set during a war that spotlights the humanity of the people caught up in it and has a glimmer of hope in it. Why don't we talk about any of our extended relatives who were in WWI? 4 or 5 of my great-grandparents fought in that , on the Allies' side, survived, came to America, and conceived my grandparents.

Well, there's a gun-control debate brewing in this thread and at the time I wrote this, Latest Content has another story about Snowden. Today's going to be one of THOSE days in the forums.

 

[HalfTangible]

Gun control in America has been tried and every single time it has made gun violence in that area even worse. *cough*Chicago*cough* And you wonder why we oppose it?

We HAD stability in the middle east, just like we had stability in Vietnam. And then we decided to hand our victory over for no good reason (again) by leaving long before the region was able to take over for its own stabilization and we wonder why the region collapsed?

God, I hate hearing about politics here. It's not funny and it's generally inaccurate.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Battlestar Galactica? I must have missed something, because Advanced Warfare sounded like it was just going to be Black Ops II minus the laughable pretentions to having anything to do with stealth ops. Also, the fact that modern-war games have continued to sell as well as they have this far into the Obama era continues to baffle me. Especially given that the age range of most gamers correlates with the demographic that opposed the Mid-East wars in the first place. Maybe it was more a case of, the developers made whatever games they felt like, and players bought them because they'll buy anything that involves shooting people and that's what was out that year.

mental illness is the cause of the shootings.

if that's the cause why does America have hundreds of times more shootings than anywhere else?

....

Sometimes you people just make it too easy.

 

[Brian Tams]

*stumbles over to the corner and vomits*

As a conservative, I'm getting real sick of being tossed in with the "All Gun control is BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDD!" group.

No, sorry. I actually think there is room for some gun control, but both the right and left have taken such stupid positions that I can literally support neither one on the issue.

Republicans think any and all gun control is bad, which is idiotic considering how some of the proposals are reasonable (is requiring gun owners to also own a gun safe so fucking bad? IS IT?)

Democrats want to curb gun violence by outright banning Assault Rifles, which is humorous considering how pistols are used in the majority of gun violence in the US. Oh sure, there were some school shootings and such with nuts armed with assault weapons, but the statistics tell you that semi-automatic rifles aren't nearly as destructive as democrats will have you believe.

The whole thing is fucking stupid, and I'm willing to bet that there's a good amount of kickbacks being distributed among both parties that has turned the debate into a gigantic cluster fuck.

 

[Trikeen]

i began cackling uncontrollably at the first slide of the credits.