Zero Punctuation: Top 5 of 2010

[tigermilk]

Kane and Lynch 2 killed the franchise? Would that not rather suggest the first wasn't misanthropic turgid shite?

 

[LostSwedishDildo]

Regarding the position of Bioshock 2, I am of the majority who where surprised. I'm no mainstream game sucker (still I must admit I really love steampunk)but, even tho the story is shitty, it was an interesting twist to turn the totally Goddless philosophy of Rapture into a fanatic city housing a zealot gang of drug addicted freaks.
Nevertheless, I must say that gameplay and level design where awesome.
Ben must have been intensely disappointed by the fact that it is indeed "more of it", however it still is a good game in my opinion...
Rest of the dual top five is pretty decent, so well, good job.

 

[josh797]

i actually thought hed for sure put fable3 on as worst game. a lot of people hated it. also,


YAHTZEE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, PLAY MASS EFFECT 2!!!!!!

hed love that game, and we havent had a positive review in a while. i have no doubt itd make it to the top of his game of the year list, if he had played it this year

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1461-Mass-Effect-2

thanks for the link! i swear i looked for that.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I beleve everyone agrees that Bioshock 2´s place came as a suprise.

The really sad part is I actually expected him to do it. Which isn't the same as saying that the game deserves it.

To be perfectly honest, it saddens me a bit that much of the hate for Bioshock 2 has less to do with its quality and more to do with Bioshock fans who never even gave the game a chance by deeming it crap for the simple reason that it was both unnecessary and (arguably) not quite as good as the first.

I gave Bioshock 2 full chance. I had no expectations going into it.

Let me put it this way. The first main level in Bioshock one has you facing off and learning about a psychotic plastic surgeon who is trying to discover, through experimentation, the true meaning of beauty.

Bioshock 2's first level involves some random Black women who, I guess, has a large extended family.

One of these games is an artistic masterpiece with cool shooter stuff and some puzzles on the side. The other is a run and gun game focused on killing anything that moves.

I don't think Bioshock 2 was that BAD per se, but it was simply not the same quality of game as the original. People revere the incredible design of rapture, the characterization of Andrew Ryan, and the deep questions it poses over free will. The only part of Bioshock 2 that I ever remember all that vividly (And I was TRULY impressed by it too) was a certain part where you gain perspective from a different character (I'm sure you know which part it is, I don't want to spoil it).

2 made some nice improvements in gameplay, but completely dropped the ball in the terms of narrative. Even if combat was more fun, the ambiance surrounding it just didn't have the same weight.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I was disappointed at the lack of attention towards new PC behemoth sequels, SC2 and Civ V

Well, I'm not sure if his 'worst' list had room for Civ 5 AND starcraft 2. Remember, he really hates RTS', and Civ 5 was pretty bad.

 

[LostSwedishDildo]

agreed

 

[Jegsimmons]

HAHAHAH! he actually had me there when he said "Halo Reach"

i about shat my pants in Rage. oh he had me good!

but yeah, Kane and Lynch was shit.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Every bad game is a sequel. Surprise surprize surprize.

If you are insinuating he has some bias, note Dead Rising 2 and Just Cause 2?

Considering that a huge percentage of the industry is sequals and remakes, it isn't too surprising that they'd be all over the place in any top X list.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Review

I don't get why People like Amnesia. I couldn't find anything scary about it. It's just boring.

It's not overtly scary. Most of the scariness comes from your own mind, that requires a certain level of intelligence.

Is that in defense of the game? Because that is borderline retarded.

I think he means, in less rude terms that the game's horror comes from the atmosphere in the game. I'm not sure, but maybe the atmosphere didn't have much of an effect on you, either due to you not "getting" it, or not immersing yourself enough. On the contrary what he said, intelligence has nothing to do with the atmosphere, you just need to let it get in your head.

Gotta be a little submissive dare I say for it to have an effect, if you don't let the atmosphere crawl over you, you won't be able to enjoy it properly.

That's the only problem with psychological horror: You have to be willing to participate, or else it just seems like an action game with a weird storyline. However, when participating, you can truly enjoy brilliant games like Silent Hill and Amnesia and Penumbra. Then again, some people don't feel like participating.
It also has to do with that Survival Horror isn't for everyone.

 

[Nomanslander]

I think it has more to do with how awesome Bioshock: Infinite seems right now. Before its debut, a lot of Bioshock fans worried the series was just going to get worse and worse.

Bioshock 2 was the beginning of a series heading straight for the shitter (not a bad game but definitely missing that special something that the first one had), and that was the reason for all the hate.

BS:I has brought a lot of hope back into the series, therefor no more need for hate with the second game.

I will lose what little faith in the gamer community I still may have.

A bit more seriously though, Bioshock 2 had three major problems: 1) it tried too much to be like the first game 2) it lacked many of the tiny details that made the first one so atmospheric (probably due to a shorter development time) 3) It was completely unecessary.

....


I simply don't buy it that people saw it as "beginning of a series heading straight for the shitter". At most it can be seen as the point where they started milking the franchise, something that Bioshock Infinite should do little to appease.

Honestly, I think you're putting a little too much faith into the average gamer.

Most average gamers wouldn't even go so far as do what I said up there, they would simply hate BS2 because it was popular to do so at release (most not even having played the game I bet).

Anyways, for those with a little more brain (but still not enough to tie their shoelaces), their train of thought right now is that sequels and remakes are the bane of today's industry (movies also). It's to be expected that with every sequel the game will suck more and more, so there for we could only expect the worse for BS3 and it was all BS2 fault (the game they decided to start milking the franchise into the ground).

 

[moosek]

I guess I'm gonna pick up Just Cause 2.

 

[lokiduck]

lol I knew that music was from my favorite movie A Clockwork Orange :3

Great list no complaints except in my book Amnesia was the best because when a game is so scary that even my friend who is hard to scare was scared of it, you have a masterpiece. Though what I saw of Dead Rising was hilarious and fun mostly because of the people playing it XD

 

[Nurb]

Every bad game is a sequel. Surprise surprize surprize.

If you are insinuating he has some bias, note Dead Rising 2 and Just Cause 2?

Considering that a huge percentage of the industry is sequals and remakes, it isn't too surprising that they'd be all over the place in any top X list.

I'm not saying he has some bias. I'm saying every bad game on the list is a sequel. I'm not surprized hastily put together, short attempts to milk the franchise without much thought to quality or story/narritive make up the worst (big publisher) games of the year

 

[mrpenguinismyhomeboy]

Wait what. Woah.

What a deconstruction of the entire gaming art form.

 

[mirror's edgy]

Ha! Everyone (including me) who supports the cultural betterment of games has now shamelessly admitted that Just Cause 2 is just a blast.

 

[Erdie]

A bunch of sandbox games, bleh, not my thing.

 

[Superior Mind]

Decent. Still I don't really understand why the top two.. no top three - were fairly unstructured sandbox games. I'd say that Red Dead is deserving and playing through Dead Rising I can agree it's a barrel of dumb gaffaws to mow through a mob of zombies with knives strapped to your mitts. But Just Cause 2 as well? And at number one? Yeah I know it's fun enough and the world is gargantuan and pretty enough to make getting around it not a massive chore but at the end of the day I couldn't give a rat's arse about anyone in the damn thing. Once strapping a soldier's boot to a rapidly ascending lift a couple of times there's not much else to it all. It's forgettable and to illustrate that the Zero Punctuation today reminded me that I haven't actually finished it... or even played it to any great degree.

On the other side I think the list of worst games was pretty expected and warranted. I could almost hear the sphincters clench when Halo: Reach was named worst of 2010.

 

[Echo136]

The music made me LOL!

I beleve everyone agrees that Bioshock 2´s place came as a suprise.

No, I was thoroughly disappointed by that game so I was in no way surprised by his choice.

 

[Xocrates]

I don't think Bioshock 2 was that BAD per se, but it was simply not the same quality of game as the original. People revere the incredible design of rapture, the characterization of Andrew Ryan, and the deep questions it poses over free will. The only part of Bioshock 2 that I ever remember all that vividly (And I was TRULY impressed by it too) was a certain part where you gain perspective from a different character (I'm sure you know which part it is, I don't want to spoil it).

I won't disagree with you, but I would like to point out that the perceived difference in quality in plot is more that Bioshock 2 is more subtle in its approach.

Bioshock characterized its environment and characters better I won't argue that, but while Bioshock was about the world and its characters (and frankly, I would argue that Bioshock's questions on free will only apply to videogames), Bioshock 2 was about you wanting to rescue your "daughter" and how your actions affected her. Bioshock was more memorable, but Bioshock 2 presented the more personal and meaningful experience (though not as well as the first).

We can argue all day on which game is better on which point, frankly I'm not sure myself. My entire point is that if you place Bioshock 2 in a "worst of the year" list then you cannot possibly have played that many games or you simply never even gave the game a proper chance.

 

[Machineboyyy]

Brilliant list!!! You, Sir Yahtzee, have impeccable taste. Just Cause 2 is a brilliant sandbox game, I love it. Your other top 5 are definitely winners in my book, good show.

Concerning the worst 5 list; I haven't played Bioshock 2 myself but surely there must of been something worse to add to that list of five?

Bioshock 2 doesn't look bad at all from what I've seen online.

Good call on Kane & Lynch 2, the first game wasn't too hot to begin with, then they created a shaky, flare-filled camera gimmick and threw out a generic third person shooter. Although I'm no Halo/XBOX fan, I can honestly say that the Halo franchise is doing pretty well with Reach being a very well made game (even if it's just a straight forward FPS). Reach sincerely wouldn't deserve to be on the either list.