Zero Punctuation: The Amazing Spider Man 2

[Akiraacecombat]

To all the people that got with the 1 day thing. Okay I get it, I still don't know how games in Australia go but often (and this also happen to reviewers in web pages such as Polygon) they receive an early access copy of the game (nowadays I find it hard not to have access to say ... a Steam Early copy of the game for a reviewer to be provided with) so they can write the review and yada yada yada, so it's not like is necessary to have a physical copy of the game at release date per-se nowadays when reviewers do get that kind of access before release (how much time before release is left to debate, but at least 4 or 5 days before release so reviewers can write up the summary, like Jim Sterling who had a write up and a video review of the game at release date).

I thought the point of Zero Punctuation was to take the piss out of games and very very occasionally praise them.

To the point of Wolfensteain and indie games, Yahtzee has addressed both of these rather recently. Even assuming Wolfenstein came out on time in Australia (ha!), you're not going to see him write, animate and record a review within a DAY. It came out Yesterday. And Indie games on Steam? He made his stance on that clear a week or two ago.

Maybe you don't like his reasons (though that would be baffling with Wolfenstein), but they are what they are.

Here I'm not expecting for him to praise it (though doing so would encourage me more to buy it), but rather see his views on it to see if it's worth the effort. I guess I got more used to his videos over the YT page with Gabriel, which they get to a bit of in-depth conversations about some games and characters. Still, I did forget the comedic value that ZP has vs it's actual reviewing content, but I can't ignore some of the points that come across the puns (given his appreciation for the Beatles and appreciation for killing Nazis, it wouldn't be to hard to come with ... something interesting, since Wolfenstein is basically toying with an alternative future with Nazi's 60s rock versions and all that).

I tend to watch ZP for sometimes for it's reviewing value and because I can "identify" more with Yathzee rather than generic IGN reviewer, since he basically runs down his experience from the game rather than a fucking checklist of the game's features (as is often the case). I know Jim Sterling got that covered but I think (and this a personal opinion, not a statement) he didn't liked the game because of how the premise toyed with the core concept, and that is something that people who have different kind of tendencies over different aspects of narrative clash with each other as of not having a consensus in the overall experience because of these contradicting views (not to say that his Wolfenstein review was bad, or that he reviewed the game bad or anything, but rather than is just not a view I could accept as definitive about the game, well after the Polygon review).

It shouldn't be down to critics to determine what I should or should not buy, but they do summarize what a game as a whole is, I watch different reviews from different sources just to get a glimpse of what could be interesting for me, only to find that is all a mess of conflicting views, ideas, concepts, bribery and so on, hence why I ended up relaying more on articles and stuff to give me a view of the game as it is, and how the experience plays out.

 

[tzimize]

Hehehehe, this was a great one. The Black Cat bit cracked me up something fierce ^^

 

[IrisNetwork]

I actually asked for this in his FTL review. Thanks Yahtzee. Love the representation of Electro and Goblin.

WAIT! WHERE'S RHINO? Or as I like to call him, the District 9 exosuit reject.

That says it all about Spider Man nowadays. A commercialized mess. Will Sony just give it up to MARVEL already?

 

[Neverhoodian]

Gotta say, it was good to see the lack of a tl;dr summary in the title. Dare we hope this signals a return to the old style?

 

[GoodNewsOke]

To be fair though, on the PS3 we got a pretty cool looking XMB theme as ad for the movie. So yeah, good job Sony, spending millions of dollars on a film just so I can get a halfway slick looking free advertisement theme. Thank you.

Does it glitch out on your console? I was excited for it, but it freaks out, so I changed it.

Yeah it does. Whenever I boot up the console or return from a game to the XMB. But it's only for a second or so, so I keep it.

 

[Farther than stars]

I'm pretty sure it's "bronze", not "copper".

Usually, yes, although copper does turn up here and there.

I don't think there would be much of a point to a medal you could bend with your bare hands.

Well, that rules out silver and gold, both of which are softer than copper.

Sure, but... that's why you make them into alloys. But generally the strongest and cheapest alloy of copper is bronze.

Side note: I love how quickly the Escapist Forums can diverge from the beaten track. What was this game again?

 

[K84]

.....really...i STILL have to dig up my PS2 and copy of the Spider-Man 2 game to have a solid and fun Spidey game experience?

 

[AgentLampshade]

Seriously? Carnage is the final boss? Did they just say "fuck Venom" and put his offspring in for no reason? Man, I'm so sick of seeing Carnage get the short end of the stick. With a decent enough writer behind him, he could become a fantastic villain, one with Venom's powers and The Joker's insanity.

 

[Kameburger]

I think the frustrating part of Spider-man in the games and the movies is that it?s soooooo f-ing close to being perfect. A perfect Spider-man movie and a perfect Spider-man game is somewhere buried into all these different games and movies, and it is just exponentially disappointing each time another one comes out. Now with ASM2 both the game and the movie, there are some things that are completely ok and are otherwise ruined by the surrounding lack of care given to the details in the middle. It?s a whole series defined by the 10% it doesn?t do as opposed to the 90% it does, made all the more frustrating because it makes Marvel look like they?re doing 150% perfectly.

ASM2 the movie has better special effects, and a better animated Spider-man than ever, and every bit of it pays off. The casting is always slightly off, in a way that it?s truly just hard to put your finger on was the script as bad as it sounds or were the characters miss directed, or worse really just not that good? The world building seems to have that design by committee feel that might not even be as bad if they didn?t seem afraid of their own material.

The game as well is one of those things that it seems like if they had played through it themselves a few more times they might have gotten it just right. ASM2TMTG has a lot of cool ideas mixed in with a big mix of obviously stupid execution. The web slinging looks fun, the sandbox has been done right before the story falls into the same trap that all movie tie in games fall into.

Tl;dr
I guess what I?m trying to say is, it seems so bafflingly obvious what would make both the games and the movies better that it has to be the most frustrating thing in the world for fans of the material to see it take such a beating

 

[marscentral]

It does seem like Spider-man at some point managed to draw the ire of some higher power or get on the receiving end of some sort of curse.

Wait, are we talking about the comics, or the franchise? >.>

snip

I'm not sure how I got quoted in that, but I didn't say that. I think you meant to get zachary.

I'm not sure why it attributed the quote to you instead of Zachary, it was late when I posted. My apologies.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Wouldn't have minded a bit more of a spoiler warning before he gave away the final boss fight. It's one thing to point out that you were confused about which would be the final boss fight (which I would have thought would obviously be the one with the credits after it) but another to just outright say what it was.