Zero Punctuation: Hunt Down the Freeman

[Steve the Pocket]

I'd argue that people buying games on the Switch has more to do with being able to play them anywhere; see also why people are actually re-buying Skyrim again. It's especially beneficial to indie games, which don't have to scale down to run on the thing because most of the time they're built to Commodore 64 specs in the first place.

 

[ewhac]

I think Yahtzee's closing sentiments are particularly appropriate and noteworthy given that GDC is this week. (Wonder if he's visiting?)

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

So let me get this straight; I'm supposed to be invested in someone who's upset because someone he was trying to murder had the GALL to defend himself when death squads came to execute hims and his colleagues?

Yea, this game lost me right from the concept. Glad I didn't give it a go now.

 

[Erttheking]

So let me get this straight; I'm supposed to be invested in someone who's upset because someone he was trying to murder had the GALL to defend himself when death squads came to execute hims and his colleagues?

Yea, this game lost me right from the concept. Glad I didn't give it a go now.

Oh but wait, it gets better. I thought that this asshole wanted revenge for his dead men. NOPE! He specifically wants revenge for Gordon injuring him. An injury that wasn't a career ending injury in anyway, it might be within the same star system as relateable if he lost a leg or something, he just got some scars on his face. Some generic anti-hero scars.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mitchell_0.png

Seriously when he actually meets Gordon (except not, it turns out it wasn't Gordon because why the fuck not. This is nowhere near a spoiler, because apparently in the game "Gordon" wears a helmet when he attacks you, which he never did in the game and sends up so many red flags) he just says "you fucked up my face," (along with accusing him of more somewhat justified reasons for hating Not!Gordon, but ones that only happened recently.)

 

[Wilco86]

"Kittypryded my way out"

Ah, that was a good one. But I hope Yahtzee meant the one from Claremont/Byrne era.

 

[Devieus]

Maybe its because I only played Half Life 1&2 like 8 years ago, but I never understood the...rapture it brings. Its an okay if slightly boring and repetitive FPS. Compared to games like Perfect Dark or even Turok, I don't understand why its some touchstone of story telling, character development and gameplay.

It'd be like if in 20 years people were like 'Wow, can you imagine what games were like before The Order: 1886? How could anyone have lived before that monumental exemplar of gameplay and graphics came to be?!'

Similar with Half Life 2, except it also became one of the best looking games of 2004 and instead of just giving us a story and an envoirement at all (which was then more common and standard, thank god) they came along with a good story and side characters. Stuff that, in regular FPS, was again rather unheard of (but common in other genres, of course).

Also the physics engine, prior to 2004 there weren't many games that had that kind of physics. They even added a gun just for the physics, some sort of physics gun. That shit was mind-meltingly amazing at the time. There was also some amazing AI going on, enemies weren't just lining up to be shot, they were out to get you and would make tactical decisions like when to throw grenades. It was also maybe the first game where it was at times an escort mission where you were the one being escorted by Alyx.

This game was really something fancy way back when, so obviously every game tried to be that game and in the process HL2 became just another one of those games.

 

[darkrage6]

Fortunately I hear Valve is finally getting back into making actual games now.

 

[darkrage6]

First off Yahtzee, it has been about a month Into The Breach released, strategy game by FTL developers.

Second off, I've elaborated a theory about what Yahtzee said: X Franchise/Studio goes stagnant -> X Franchise releases new game that slightly releases the strings and thinks outside the box -> Critical acclaim.

Say what you want about Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey, but the fact Skyward Sword and 3D World had mixed reactions helped contrast them with the new ones. After spending a decade making such shooters even Call of Duty would laugh at, the fact Guerilla released something different, namely Horizon Zero Dawn. And even Epic managed to weaponize that by taking the PUBG crowd into Fortnite.

Nah plenty of people like the Killzone games.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

*tries to watch with a straight face*

*snrk!*

Ok, that just looks hilarious. Not only did HL2 make a point of never using cutscenes that take away player control (thus this betrays the source material), but something about this screams "laughable".

I'm not an animator, so I can't tell what about it sucks (I think it's the fact everything looks weightless), but the dialogue certainly isn't helping things. XD

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

What a rousingly heartfelt conclusion.

 

[Moagim]

Thanks for reminding me that Half-Life, Valve and Tom Petty are all dead in the same video.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I think he was being facetious

Shhhhhhh, let me be salty

 

[Ninjamedic]

Maybe its because I only played Half Life 1&2 like 8 years ago, but I never understood the...rapture it brings. Its an okay if slightly boring and repetitive FPS. Compared to games like Perfect Dark or even Turok, I don't understand why its some touchstone of story telling, character development and gameplay.

Over the past few years I've come to regard Half Life 2 as the origin point for all that plagues modern Single Player shooter design, and I'm still surprised how little thought it put into how it was the true beginning of graphical showboating over actual gameplay mechanics.

 

[ccggenius12]

Am I missing something? I could have sworn that everything in the Orange Box was always open-source. Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to stitch together the assets to make atrocious fan-fiction.

 

[Sticky]

Last week Hot Coffee and this week Hunt Down the Freeman.
Yahtzee are you trying to tell us something? Should we be sending the rescue helicopters and the swat teams to some unnamed address for your rescue?

 

[darkrage6]

It'd be like if in 20 years people were like 'Wow, can you imagine what games were like before The Order: 1886? How could anyone have lived before that monumental exemplar of gameplay and graphics came to be?!'

That comparison makes no sense. Nobody liked The Order at all during release. Neither did it innovate on any level. Comparisology requires a fair element of practice and deeper musing to achieve effectiveness, like all of the waffling fields. Hone and respect this craft.

Also, this main character is supposed to be a selfish monster right? That?s the only explanation I can think for why we play as someone who JOINS the fucking Combine.

Somebody probably called him a Combine supporter online and he took it so personally he decided the only way to prove them wrong is to join the Combine.

OT: Is this going to have a post ZP stream I wonder. Does it honestly deserve one?

Some critics thought it was OK, but most people agreed it was the epitome of style over substance.

 

[darkrage6]

"Still at least that's one fifth of this year's bottom five sorted"

I know right?! How can this not be #1 on the worst list. What the fuck can top this?!

I'm surprised he didn't say two-fifths considering how he royally(no pun intended) thrashed Kingdom Come: Deliverance a few weeks ago, i'll be surprised if that game isn't in his bottom five.

 

[Sticky]

This video brings up a good point: what are the standards for valve, here? Is this only considered acceptable because no one at Valve bothered looking at it?

 

[RJ Dalton]

This video brings up a good point: what are the standards for valve, here? Is this only considered acceptable because no one at Valve bothered looking at it?

Possibly. Legally, if Valve doesn't stamp down on this, they could lose their trademarks, so I don't think Valve really thought about it. That, or these guys actually GOT permission from Valve ahead of time and Valve REALLY doesn't give a shit anymore.

 

[Jorpho]

I just hate Valve as a company so much.

They just... do... nothing...

Like, they do nothing.They don't try to improve or advance or create or ANYTHING. They just sit on top of their platform monopoly as the situation gets worse and worse.

The Steam Controller, SteamOS, and Steam Machines had a lot of promise, once. But considering that those were far from successful, you might expect them to be a little hesitant about launching another similar venture.

See, shit like this is why some indie games are looking to be sold on the Switch of all things, it?s not run by someone who stopped giving a shit.

Nintendo had the nerve to allow stuff like Meme Run and The Letter on the Wii U. Are they taking better care of the Switch?