Zero Punctuation: Top 5 Games of 2015

[gorfias]

I have the MCC with 4 it looks like the xbox 360 version really. In 5 the levels are a lot more expansive and everything looks polished as hell with a smooth framerate and good environmental physics. Levels don't really have invisible walls so if you wanna grenade jump to somewhere high you can and stuff like that. It looks great in game and the cutscenes are incredible. (almost too good so its a little jarring when you go from FF advent children levels of prerendered stuff to in game graphics.)

Oh man. I gotta get it. My wife is going to kill me for spending the money.

WORST:
5. Arkam Knight

meh:
1. Order: 1886, they were to occupied with rendering every wrinkle on the character's face that they forgot to insert a compelling story or even original gameplay.

Really? I don't own Order yet (figure it will be $5 soon and I'll pick it up for a lark) but compared to Batman? I'm not done yet but the new mechanic of driving around in the Batmobile, added to souped up graphics? I surprised you put the Order above Batman.

 

[Radoh]

Just seems to me the #1 shouldn't be controversial, or at least should be a game that is universally loved.

That kind of thinking encompasses everything that's wrong with the "AAA" games industry. Why try anything different or unique or possibly polarizing (though as a fan of Undertale, I believe that the only reason the game is so polarizing is because its fanbase has exceeded Sonic levels of horridness, but I digress) when you can pick something safe that everyone can agree is good enough?

Really? You think throwing in a literal last second review for Undertale isn't playing it safe? You think Undertale fans would have been okay if he never even acknowledged the game?
Somehow I really doubt it.

This was not a last second review of Undertale, considering he wrote one back in October.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/extra-punctuation/14860-Undertale-for-Best-Written-Game-2015#&gid=gallery_4930&pid=1

The mention in the video is likely just him trying to nip any dissenting arguments about him breaking his own rule for reviews.

 

[Level 7 Dragon]

#

WORST:
5. Arkam Knight

meh:
1. Order: 1886, they were to occupied with rendering every wrinkle on the character's face that they forgot to insert a compelling story or even original gameplay.

Really? I don't own Order yet (figure it will be $5 soon and I'll pick it up for a lark) but compared to Batman? I'm not done yet but the new mechanic of driving around in the Batmobile, added to souped up graphics? I surprised you put the Order above Batman.

Because I tried playing batman on my PC. Needless to say, I didn't play it for very long.

Order is functional, boring, yet functional. Every element of the game is polished to a mirror shine, yet it all feels lifeless and familiar.

 

[Spider RedNight]

It's not that I don't like Undertale... yes, I think it's over-rated and not worth all the praise it gets but itself as a game isn't a problem. Nooo it's the insufferable, idiotic fanbase - call me shallow or whatever but fanbases DO turn me off of shit. Also I'm STILL irritated that people are like "I've never seen anything like it before" and I'm like "OFF DID IT FIRST. EARTHBOUND DID IT FIRST."

Also I'm not a big fan of the characters. Can't put my finger on why.

I agree about Mehsassin's Creed though. And I didn't like Dark Souls I or II but I rather liked Bloodborne.

 

[Samastic]

I agree with you 100% on Undertale being the best game of this year, but I don't agree with The Order: 1886 being the worst. I mean, I think Alone in the Dark is far worse than 1886, mostly because Alone in the Dark is a like a bad greenlight item. It was buggy as all hell, it didn't have a singleplayer mode that worked, and the game didn't even follow it's own title. At the very least, 1886 worked, and it looked good. It was still boring and had lackluster gameplay, but it at least worked.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

i would have had dragon age inquisition in the running of best games of the year given just how fun it is

 

[Grampy_bone]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

Undertale is basically the "Oscar-bait" of videogames. Like Gone Home, It's main selling point isn't the gameplay or content, it's the ability to look down your nose at anyone who didn't like it.

You easily spot these games by how insufferably smug their fans are.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

The fact that I was wondering if undertale would make it here, only to have yahtzee open with that "review" of it had me laugh out loud so much that I had my neighbor tell me to keep the noise down (it's 1am). Honestly, the biggest laugh I've ever had from him. Loved the list, thanks for making it.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Wow, I'm dumb. When he dropped in that mock "review" of Undertale I thought it was supposed to be a concession for not putting it on the list, and that people would then endlessly debate whether that counted as naming it his real number one pick or not. Not that it was actually an excuse to actually put it on the list without breaking the rule.

Still think "Any game I've played and talked about in some form this year counts" would have been a reasonable compromise. Surely this isn't going to be the last time a game you didn't officially review impresses you enough to make the Top Five, and it'd be hard to come up with a creative way to get around the rule a second time. But I like how this game seems to be inspiring critics to inject some clever status-quo-breaking twists of their own into their year-end videos. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.

As for the top 5 blandest list... I dunno, I'd say at least two of the games on the worst list (The Order: 1885 and Hatred) sounded more like he hated them for being bland. This gimmick worked better for Jim Sterling because he plays a lot more Steam Greenlight garbage and has more legitimately terrible games to choose from. It also might have been a good idea... two years ago, was it? When Star Trek, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and Ride to Hell: Retribution reared their ugly heads.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

Undertale is basically the "Oscar-bait" of videogames. Like Gone Home, It's main selling point isn't the gameplay or content, it's the ability to look down your nose at anyone who didn't like it.

You easily spot these games by how insufferably smug their fans are.

I'm stealing this. I never could quite put my finger on why everyone and their brother seems to love this game, and this is the best explanation I've found.

Honestly, it's those fans that ultimately killed my enjoyment of this game. I don't really like going into a game completely blind, and I hate it when people tell me to "Just play it! It's brilliant, but I can't tell you why because it'll spoil it for you"! Every time something like that happens, it colors my expectation of the game, almost always for the worse. It would've been better if I had simply found the game on my own. Maybe then, I could've enjoyed it for what it is, but I can't do that with this game's rabid fanbase trying to shove this game down my throat.

I'm starting to suspect that the game caught on because it tries to do almost everything different. But "different" doesn't necessarily mean "good". While I will sit here and preach about how important a game's story is until I am blue in the face, the gameplay is still important. The thing is, the only thing that the gameplay itself does well is being different.

Also, why is it that I always despise a game's soundtrack even though everyone else praises it? Undertale's music makes my ears bleed.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

There's not really anything to "get". It's just kind of funny with how it subverts expectations. Unfortunately, I feel that once the gimmick gets old, the actual gameplay becomes quite mediocre. Also, IMO a lot of the great humor is counteracted by the "haha, lawl, random" kind of humor. Sometimes I felt like I was playing a meme. I'd say it's worth playing since it's interesting and cheap.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I wish someone would actually tell me why they thought Undertale was good (Not someone who doesn't know what their talking about thanks) But I've only heard positive things that go along the lines of "Just play it without any information"

But it was frankly the most grating experience I had all year (Besides struggling through Life is Strange) After you strip out everything that made me want to rip out my fingernails Undertale is just a pretty good bullet hell game.

Not kissing up or anything but I thought Consuming Shadow was better than anything on that list

 

[Ramset]

Waaah I don't get Undertale and hate the fanbase. Waaaaaaaaah.

 

[Enlong]

undertale to me seems like a jrpg for people that don't like jrpg's. i did not see the appeal and walked away from it after about 2 hours of playtime. then i played through all of "barkley: shut up and jam gaiden" with tears of joy in my eyes for the entire duration of the game. come at me fanboys!

ot: "but yahtzee, sterling did the blandy bland list already" i shouted at my screen... and 5 seconds later he went ahead and set me straight. good man.

I'd say both of those games are best played by fans of the genre. They both take cracks at the tropes in the genre/medium. Though Barkley does it for comedy from end to end, wheras Undertale switches to drama when it wants.

And both, I feel, manage to do their combat in a more interesting way that a lot of other games in their field. When have you ever seen an RPG where your teammates were all as mechanically different as the ones in Barkley, for example?

 

[Enlong]

Waaah I don't get Undertale and hate the fanbase. Waaaaaaaaah.

Man, don't do that. What's that gonna accomplish?

 

[CaitSeith]

Just seems to me the #1 shouldn't be controversial, or at least should be a game that is universally loved.

That kind of thinking encompasses everything that's wrong with the "AAA" games industry. Why try anything different or unique or possibly polarizing (though as a fan of Undertale, I believe that the only reason the game is so polarizing is because its fanbase has exceeded Sonic levels of horridness, but I digress) when you can pick something safe that everyone can agree is good enough?

Really? You think throwing in a literal last second review for Undertale isn't playing it safe? You think Undertale fans would have been okay if he never even acknowledged the game?
Somehow I really doubt it.

This is Yahtzee we are talking about. He has a long record of throwing shit to games that have lots of loud fans. From Sonic, Mario and Zelda; to Mass Effect, GTA V and Call of Duty (when it was the most sold game of the year).

 

[Madmanonfire]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

Undertale is basically the "Oscar-bait" of videogames. Like Gone Home, It's main selling point isn't the gameplay or content, it's the ability to look down your nose at anyone who didn't like it.

You easily spot these games by how insufferably smug their fans are.

I'm stealing this. I never could quite put my finger on why everyone and their brother seems to love this game, and this is the best explanation I've found.

No, you're stealing that because it's an answer you want to agree with, even though it's a bad explanation. The main selling point is the content.

You want an actual good explanation why the game is so popular? It's because the game is that good. From the likable characters, to the catchy music, to the gameplay-altering bosses, to the different way you can choose to deal with monsters, to the amount of detail that was put into the game to reflect almost every little thing you do; Undertale is a high quality experience. If you let a game's fanbase dictate your experience of said game, then it's your own fault that the experience is soured.

 

[CaitSeith]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

There's not really anything to "get". It's just kind of funny with how it subverts expectations. Unfortunately, I feel that once the gimmick gets old, the actual gameplay becomes quite mediocre. Also, IMO a lot of the great humor is counteracted by the "haha, lawl, random" kind of humor. Sometimes I felt like I was playing a meme. I'd say it's worth playing since it's interesting and cheap.

I agree. I call Undertale "Tropes and Memes: The Game" (ironically not in a bad way).

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

Undertale is basically the "Oscar-bait" of videogames. Like Gone Home, It's main selling point isn't the gameplay or content, it's the ability to look down your nose at anyone who didn't like it.

You easily spot these games by how insufferably smug their fans are.

I'm stealing this. I never could quite put my finger on why everyone and their brother seems to love this game, and this is the best explanation I've found.

No, you're stealing that because it's an answer you want to agree with, even though it's a bad explanation. The main selling point is the content.

You want an actual good explanation why the game is so popular? It's because the game is that good. From the likable characters, to the catchy music, to the gameplay-altering bosses, to the different way you can choose to deal with monsters, to the amount of detail that was put into the game to reflect almost every little thing you do; Undertale is a high quality experience. If you let a game's fanbase dictate your experience of said game, then it's your own fault that the experience is soured.

Thank you for this response! I'm so fed up with this disingenuous and cynical idea that if something is very popular but you don't like it, then the fans must be being dishonest about liking it.

I would have thought that Yahtzee liking Undertale would prove that it's not just people being taken in by a fad, but oh well.

 

[Kanatatsu]

I tried the demo for undertale and can only assume i didn't "get it".

Undertale is basically the "Oscar-bait" of videogames. Like Gone Home, It's main selling point isn't the gameplay or content, it's the ability to look down your nose at anyone who didn't like it.

You easily spot these games by how insufferably smug their fans are.

I'm stealing this. I never could quite put my finger on why everyone and their brother seems to love this game, and this is the best explanation I've found.

No, you're stealing that because it's an answer you want to agree with, even though it's a bad explanation. The main selling point is the content.

You want an actual good explanation why the game is so popular? It's because the game is that good. From the likable characters, to the catchy music, to the gameplay-altering bosses, to the different way you can choose to deal with monsters, to the amount of detail that was put into the game to reflect almost every little thing you do; Undertale is a high quality experience. If you let a game's fanbase dictate your experience of said game, then it's your own fault that the experience is soured.

The reason the fans soured me on this game is because they were so insistent about how great it is that I wasted an entire evening playing it.

The game did not make me think, did not make me laugh, and did not make me feel.

What it did do, unfortunately, is waste my time. I don't get spare evenings often, and I feel like a bunch of obnoxious gaming hipsters robbed me of one because they wouldn't shut up about this plodding, childish, meme-riddled, unfunny, fart-sniffing exercise in tedium.