Zero Punctuation: Top Five Games of 2016

[Yuri Gregorian]

The homefront series could have been good if they just took some risks and hired a writer. Maybe make the bad guys likeable?? Figure out a reason for them to invade or made the average soldier a little home sick or something other than "masked arsehole what hates freedom and shoots women" also, they should have had you fighting Americans, hunting down a sympathiser, fighting other liberation groups and a few acts of terrorism......like regular insurgents do.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

He streamed Color Splash some weeks ago on Twitch, he'd already beaten the game.
You don't?

And yet he still badmouthed the writing as not being funny simply because of that one line after Bowser kidnaps the princess. No mention of the fight with the steak, no mention of the musical starring Birdo, nothing.

It's a 5 minute video review, not a checklist of every waking second of gameplay.

There's a difference between hyperbole and flat out lying

What part of he "played the whole game and there's even footage of it if you bother to go to Twitch" is eluding you?

 

[Ambient_Malice]

The homefront series could have been good if they just took some risks and hired a writer.

The first game had "input" from John Milius. But it's important to understand Homefront isn't really a "series". Homefront: TR is like Prey 2017. It uses the name of the old game, but has (intentionally) pretty much nothing to do with it.

Dambuster hired a narrative designer during late development named Stephen Rhodes, best known for a quest writer on The Witcher 3.

Maybe make the bad guys likeable??

They're based on the Combine from Half-Life 2, who were faceless and largely worked behind the scenes as local puppet governments handled things. Most of the game's narrative decisions seem to stem from it wanting to be as much like HL2 as possible.

Figure out a reason for them to invade or made the average soldier a little home sick or something other than "masked arsehole what hates freedom and shoots women"

In Homefront: TR, the KPA/ApeX Corporation peacefully invades because America owes them a shitload of money. They offer to rebuild America and stabilise the government. They instead spend all their time harvesting natural resources to make awesome new "A-Pads" and such, and engaging in "counter terrorism operations" to deal with dissent. This is very similar to how in HL2, the Combine are harvesting natural resources while oppressing the population "for their own good".

also, they should have had you fighting Americans, hunting down a sympathiser, fighting other liberation groups and a few acts of terrorism......like regular insurgents do.

Homefront: TR has side quests where you photograph collaborators to mark them for death, and before long you see collaborators being murdered in the street. The second DLC involves you being sent to kill the hero of the resistance because he seems to have been turned by the KPA.

 

[OuendanCyrus]

I also really enjoyed Doom myself, maybe it would have made my top 3 list if I weren't such a JRPG nut and named Persona 5 my GotY. >.>

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

The homefront series could have been good if they just took some risks and hired a writer.

The first game had "input" from John Milius. But it's important to understand Homefront isn't really a "series". Homefront: TR is like Prey 2017. It uses the name of the old game, but has (intentionally) pretty much nothing to do with it.

Dambuster hired a narrative designer during late development named Stephen Rhodes, best known for a quest writer on The Witcher 3.

Maybe make the bad guys likeable??

They're based on the Combine from Half-Life 2, who were faceless and largely worked behind the scenes as local puppet governments handled things. Most of the game's narrative decisions seem to stem from it wanting to be as much like HL2 as possible.

Figure out a reason for them to invade or made the average soldier a little home sick or something other than "masked arsehole what hates freedom and shoots women"

In Homefront: TR, the KPA/ApeX Corporation peacefully invades because America owes them a shitload of money. They offer to rebuild America and stabilise the government. They instead spend all their time harvesting natural resources to make awesome new "A-Pads" and such, and engaging in "counter terrorism operations" to deal with dissent. This is very similar to how in HL2, the Combine are harvesting natural resources while oppressing the population "for their own good".

also, they should have had you fighting Americans, hunting down a sympathiser, fighting other liberation groups and a few acts of terrorism......like regular insurgents do.

Homefront: TR has side quests where you photograph collaborators to mark them for death, and before long you see collaborators being murdered in the street. The second DLC involves you being sent to kill the hero of the resistance because he seems to have been turned by the KPA.

My issue with Homefront The Revolution was it took the only good part about Homefront where you played as a desperate insurgent in a divided resistance against an army with zero qualms on committing an atrocity, the sequel was straight up popcorn movie action flick.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

The homefront series could have been good if they just took some risks and hired a writer.

The first game had "input" from John Milius. But it's important to understand Homefront isn't really a "series". Homefront: TR is like Prey 2017. It uses the name of the old game, but has (intentionally) pretty much nothing to do with it.

Dambuster hired a narrative designer during late development named Stephen Rhodes, best known for a quest writer on The Witcher 3.

Maybe make the bad guys likeable??

They're based on the Combine from Half-Life 2, who were faceless and largely worked behind the scenes as local puppet governments handled things. Most of the game's narrative decisions seem to stem from it wanting to be as much like HL2 as possible.

Figure out a reason for them to invade or made the average soldier a little home sick or something other than "masked arsehole what hates freedom and shoots women"

In Homefront: TR, the KPA/ApeX Corporation peacefully invades because America owes them a shitload of money. They offer to rebuild America and stabilise the government. They instead spend all their time harvesting natural resources to make awesome new "A-Pads" and such, and engaging in "counter terrorism operations" to deal with dissent. This is very similar to how in HL2, the Combine are harvesting natural resources while oppressing the population "for their own good".

also, they should have had you fighting Americans, hunting down a sympathiser, fighting other liberation groups and a few acts of terrorism......like regular insurgents do.

Homefront: TR has side quests where you photograph collaborators to mark them for death, and before long you see collaborators being murdered in the street. The second DLC involves you being sent to kill the hero of the resistance because he seems to have been turned by the KPA.

My issue with Homefront The Revolution was it took the only good part about Homefront where you played as a desperate insurgent in a divided resistance against an army with zero qualms on committing an atrocity, the sequel was straight up popcorn movie action flick.

It's a little more complex than that because the KPA are at least pretending to be a peacekeeping force. It's not like they're running around murdering people for fun. They're primarily reacting to acts of terrorism and things that threaten their interests. It's something of an analogy for American activities in the Middle East where America pretends it is helping countries when it really just wants their resources. You're the terrorists. You're the ones murdering the brave peacekeepers who've come all the way from utopian Korea to "help" the dirty unwashed masses in the violent, poverty-striken shithole that is America. The KPA see the resistance movement as little more than animals because they fight with no honour. You read diary entries from KPA soldiers talking about being ambushed by resistance fighters and losing squad mates and how they want to go back to Korea because America sucks so much.

And it's not like America hasn't committed human rights atrocities in the fight against terror. On top of that, you've got the APEX Corporation being quite typically "corporationish". So be a bit hyperbolic, it goes something like...

Stage 1 - If we ignore the problem, it will go away. We're just here to mine America's national parks, anyway.

Stage 2 - The most wanted terrorist in America, Benjamin Walker, is here. Fortunately, we caught him. This should help.

Stage 3 - If we raid a few houses, rough up a few potential terrorists, the "Free Walker!" problem will go away.

Stage 4 - The problem isn't going away. Need more drones. Drones fix everything.

Stage 5 - Things are getting out of hand. They just murdered the Mayor on live TV. We should just kill them all. Not killing them all was clearly an ineffective strategy, so killing them all will fix everything.

Stage 6 - Well, the "kill them all" plan fell through. We forgot drones can be hacked. Can we possibly blame the whole "use of chemical weapons on civilians" thing on the dead Mayor so we look like the good guys who risked our lives to save America?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

My lack of discretionary spending money is also a factor, since I will still get these two good shooters and The Witcher 3 eventually.

You can't go too wrong with Witcher 3, it offers tremendous bang for your buck. The Blood & Wine DLC alone offers more content than a number of contemporary, full-prized games.

If action-y rpg is your thing and you don't mind things getting a bit (very) Japanese, I would have to recommend FFXV. It's very well made and not everybody will choose to wrangle with the controls like they're a rabid bull kicking off a no-limits bath salts party. Yahtzee may be our deity of choice, but even he is not without fault.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

I started out shunning it, because I expected the worst when I heard about the "NO REVIEW COPY" stance of Bethesda. Once I played it, though, I went out and bought it on PS4... and PC... and some more copies for Christmas and select birthdays. I really think it's that good. Excellent shooty shooty pew pew in a sci-fi horror setting where you're the only true gat out of hell. Very immersive, pumping out that adrenaline like it's free lemonade. Oh, and it has the best 3D map system of just about any game I can remember off the top of me silly head. There's no second-guessing here.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

That burn on No Man's Sky at the end...oh man, I haven't laughed that hard at one of his videos in a while.

I always enjoy watching Yahtzee's Top 5 videos. Reminds me of all the things that I've totally forgotten about, and I like the inclusion of Blandest now.

Yeah, No Man's Sky got what it deserved in this one. The top blandest list is an excellent addition. I feel as if its just as damning as Shitiest games but in a different sense. Is forgettable and completely unfulfilling at full price any less bad for consumers than a broken game? I'd say they're even.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

The new Doom plays nothing like classic Doom. Doom 3 was more faithful to the original Doom formula than Doom 2016. It's more like the Shadow Warrior reboot than any other Doom game.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

The new Doom plays nothing like classic Doom. Doom 3 was more faithful to the original Doom formula than Doom 2016. It's more like the Shadow Warrior reboot than any other Doom game.

It's still running round shooting things in the face. I thought gaming had moved on from that, but I guess not.

 

[Mangod]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

The new Doom plays nothing like classic Doom. Doom 3 was more faithful to the original Doom formula than Doom 2016. It's more like the Shadow Warrior reboot than any other Doom game.

It's still running round shooting things in the face. I thought gaming had moved on from that, but I guess not.

... "running around shooting things in the face" is pretty much the FPS genre in a nutshell, isn't it?

 

[sagitel]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

The new Doom plays nothing like classic Doom. Doom 3 was more faithful to the original Doom formula than Doom 2016. It's more like the Shadow Warrior reboot than any other Doom game.

It's still running round shooting things in the face. I thought gaming had moved on from that, but I guess not.

so is pretty much EVERY shooter game in the world. i go around shoot things in every battlefield game, COD game, halo, GOW, bulletstorm, and....
thats like saying forza is bad because it has too much driving

 

[The Great JT]

Love Stardew Valley.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

So basically you admit the franchise has an unpleasable
group of whiners then?

Unfortunately being part of the fanbase I can attest to it going through a toxic phase that needs a massive pruning because expecting them to grow up is too much to ask. I expect whenever Nintendo decides to dust off the franchise they'll do something similar to what Awakening did to the Fire Emblem franchise and go for a fresh coat of paint.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

The new Doom plays nothing like classic Doom. Doom 3 was more faithful to the original Doom formula than Doom 2016. It's more like the Shadow Warrior reboot than any other Doom game.

It's still running round shooting things in the face. I thought gaming had moved on from that, but I guess not.

so is pretty much EVERY shooter game in the world. i go around shoot things in every battlefield game, COD game, halo, GOW, bulletstorm, and....
thats like saying forza is bad because it has too much driving

Well, exactly. Perhaps it's time gamers grew up?

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Doom? Is this 1993? Also, 2016 was awesome year and Yahtzee clearly didn't play the right games. Especially if Doom is #1 on his list.

The new Doom is really good, though. It offers just the same adrenaline rush like the original did, just in 64-bit and Full HD (where available).

Well, exactly. That's kind of the problem with it. Are we going to be satisfied with games that just do the same thing that they did over 20 years ago?

The new Doom plays nothing like classic Doom. Doom 3 was more faithful to the original Doom formula than Doom 2016. It's more like the Shadow Warrior reboot than any other Doom game.

It's still running round shooting things in the face. I thought gaming had moved on from that, but I guess not.

so is pretty much EVERY shooter game in the world. i go around shoot things in every battlefield game, COD game, halo, GOW, bulletstorm, and....
thats like saying forza is bad because it has too much driving

Well, exactly. Perhaps it's time gamers grew up?

 

[Rangaman]

OT: I'm a bit disappointed that you missed Hyper Light Drifter, Yahtzee. One of the best games I've played in recent memory. Still, good list for an otherwise mediocre year.