Zero Punctuation: Syndicate

[DanDeFool]

I like the part around five minutes where he describes the two groups who might be interested in this title.

It's spot on. I'm part of the latter "setting the publisher's office on fire" group. I expect a re-imaging of a game to improve it, flesh it out, etc. Not dumb it down.

The people in the former "too young to remember it" group won't give a damn about any of that, so EA might as well just give it another name that doesn't involve any licensing issues.

I'm glad the X-Com shooter got pushed back and (hopefully) replaced with a more appropriate remake. If they go ahead with the shooter in the long run, they should ditch all the X-Com references. A clean slate would give them more creative freedom in the shooter, and avoid angering those of us who remember the old strategic game. Heck, if it works out under it's own franchise, that's another franchise for gamers to enjoy, and the publisher to sell.

Why can't more re-imagings be like Battlezone (1998) or Battlezone II? (problems with bugs and forward compatibility aside)

Sad and true. But if you think about it, there wasn't any reason to expect anything else. Since the PC exclusive is dead, and it'd be nigh on impossible to replicate old school Syndicate's gameplay on the home console, another bloody FPS is about all they could do with the property.

Besides, it's not like the transition to FPS didn't work for Fallout, right? It's just too bad EA didn't follow Fallout's example of maintaining the depth and complexity of the original.

If you were in front of me I would punch you right now. Fallout 3 was about a freaking teenager 'saving' the wasteland (aka 50 people and a cow in some ruins) by making a water purifier downstream that doesn't actually change anything. Freaking vampires, fvcked up lore. . no choices/consequences or good characters or anything good from the originals. And the writing. . oh god. [intelligence] So you fight the good fight with your voice? I repeat exactly what you said so I'm smart?

To be honest, I've never played any of the Fallout games, so I was probably talking out of my ass there. I was mostly just going by Fallout 3's popularity and its positive reviews. I just assumed the fans of the original were at least tolerating it.

That said, I find it curious how you're more squeamish about spelling out the word "fucked" than you are about threatening to punch me. Not that I took it seriously, but come on, dude. Get your moral priorities in order.

 

[Kirbys]

Deus Ex was pretty good to look at dealing with lighting. Syndicate was annoying because there were some god awful lighting issues in the game so I had to restart to the checkpoint if I missed anything and I did all thanks to it! And god so much flare!

 

[Buizel91]

I loved the Beatles joke...Hilarious! :')

Great video as always Yahtzee!

 

[Blackpapa]

Hmm. Random thoughts.

When Fallout gets remade into a shooter, it's accepted with blind fan glee, accolades and awards (to some small amount of polarizing controversy).

By all but the glittering gems of hatred, of course. How I love that expression.

That being said F3, while lobotomized, sedated and generally catatonic still remained more or less an RPG. And don't forget New Vegas.

When X-COM gets remade into a shooter, it's rebuked by a chorus of hate so strong that it forced 2k to give Firaxis the task of making a much more awesome looking game.

Forced? Please.

The developers and designers aren't the people making the decisions anymore.

When Syndicate gets remade into a shooter, it's accompanied by another chorus of hate, said hate is ignored, and nobody is surprised when it turns out to be a bland forgettable mess that virtually nobody likes or wants.

What a shock.

Now we just have to see how the X-COM games turn out.

You're asking as if you had any reasonable doubt as to what the answer will be. At best it will play like a simplified X-COM: Enemy Unknown prototype/prequel with high-poly graphics and a modern interface. At worst it will be a sub-par tactical game without substance crushed under the misguided demands of a clueless publisher.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Forced? Please.

The developers and designers aren't the people making the decisions anymore.

2k is the publisher. They already made that decision; Firaxis is just the one given the task.
As for doubt, I always have doubt. Quality is never assured, and high expectations are a double edged sword.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

People still buy EA games?
color me surprised

Yah I know after Battlefield 3, Stars Wars the Old Republic and Mass Effect 3 you'd think people would stop buying games by EA.

Yeah, their games just get worse after every installment. ME3 is losing more and more of its RPG elements, BF3 is the same shit we've seen before, and TOR basically puts linear maps into a MMORPG... its amazing people still shell out the cash for this shit anymore.
Max price for bare minimum enjoyment.

 

[zehydra]

lol they're still abusing that bloom feature, aren't they? Bloom, like many things, should be used with moderation.

I still turn it off in some games when it just ends up looking quite unnatural.

Off topic: My captcha was "HOT-N-READY PIZZA" (for an ad for Little Caesars). Goddammit I hate this kind of advertising.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Anyone else having trouble getting the video to play? I just see a black square where it ought to be. I dunno.. maybe Firefox or Flash or whatever is mucking up..

Okay, got Flash updated, now I'm watching it...

His comment about how "the uncomfortable thing about Syndicate's plot is how you're barely involved in it" and "it turns out that you can't kill them cause they can just stop your brain chip".. This was exactly how I felt about Final Fantasy XII (that's 12), and one of the big reasons I kept getting frustrated while playing. Of course, it didn't help that FFXII kept trying to distract the player with pointless quests, minigames, and other grind-tastic diversions intended to prevent the player from noticing the incoherent or just plain lacking plot..

I mean, suddenly stopping the Storyline Express so you can go off and hunt marks (cause how else would you get the better gear and ability points and such), or going and doing a silly footrace with poorly designed characters that don't match the rest of the game AT ALL, or fishing in a way that makes you want to murder the developers.. it kind of makes it difficult to keep up with the plot. I'd often find myself forgetting what I'd been doing, or what my goal even was.

I suppose that doesn't relate a whole lot to Syndicate, but I have to say that part of the review really hit home with me on a couple of points regarding several games. I don't mind being put into somebody else's shoes, but if nothing I do is going to have any impact, we may as well be playing "Miss Bee's Grand Picnic" where you do NOTHING but flit from flower to flower collecting honey.. and the sole enjoyable part, stinging people, caused a game over cause we all know what happens when a bee stings you.

And I think that's part of the problem with Syndicate. Nothing you do really mattered for the most part. Like those boss fights in certain games where you lose even if you win.