Zero Punctuation: Until Dawn

[deadish]

I will never understand where this 'Yahtzee hates Nintendo especially" idea comes from given he in the A Link Between Worlds review word for word said:
"I find myself in a strange position of being unreservedly on your side, Nintendo. And why? Because you released a game console, not an inferior gaming PC."

I really wish people who don't understand the differences between how consoles and PCs work, regardless of the similarities in certain hardware components, would stop commenting on this.

So, having to download and install day-one patches for games is "how consoles work", is it?

I was referring to the "inferior PC" part of the comment.

"Oh the specs are lower therefore it must be 'inferior'", while happily ignoring all the wasted resources due to how PCs function - virtual memory, driver overhead ... etc. (and no VM isn't about the swap file; you can have VM without a swap file).

 

[LenticularHomicide]

I will never understand where this 'Yahtzee hates Nintendo especially" idea comes from given he in the A Link Between Worlds review word for word said:
"I find myself in a strange position of being unreservedly on your side, Nintendo. And why? Because you released a game console, not an inferior gaming PC."

I really wish people who don't understand the differences between how consoles and PCs work, regardless of the similarities in certain hardware components, would stop commenting on this.

So, having to download and install day-one patches for games is "how consoles work", is it?

I was referring to the "inferior PC" part of the comment.

"Oh the specs are lower therefore it must be 'inferior'", while happily ignoring all the wasted resources due to how PCs function - virtual memory, driver overhead ... etc. (and no VM isn't about the swap file; you can have VM without a swap file).

Well, Yahtzee isn't one of those specification snobs in the first place. He already laid out his reasons for comparing next-gen consoles to gaming PCs in an Extra Punctuation way back in 2013: The Trails and Perils of Returning to PC [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/extra-punctuation/10803-The-Trials-and-Perils-of-Returning-to-PC]

In summary, the reasons he sees next-gen consoles as being inferior gaming PCs are because next-gen consoles now have characteristics formerly associated only with PCs (having to download and install patches, a focus on online-only multiplayer). However, unlike a PC, since a console is still nominally a purpose-built dedicated gaming machine, you can't do anything else while the patch is downloading (unlike a PC, where you can always let the update work in the background), and you can't easily replace a malfunctioning component (again, unlike a PC, which is built to a standard industry-wide specification), which makes the user experience overall frustratingly similar to PC gaming and yet inferior at the same time (in his opinion).

Specifications don't have anything to do with it. In fact, in that same article he has this to say about his Alienware gaming PC:

And then there's the fact that every time I mention that I got an Alienware, all the smug eye-rolling schoolyard elitist tossers burst from the woodwork to patronize me about it. Shut the fuck up. It plays the games I want it to play, it doesn't sound like a jet engine's flying past and I can write the cost off on my tax return. Beyond that I couldn't give a fish finger.

 

[deadish]

In summary, the reasons he sees next-gen consoles as being inferior gaming PCs are because next-gen consoles now have characteristics formerly associated only with PCs (having to download and install patches, a focus on online-only multiplayer).

Well ... patching is less a PC thing and more of "have internet access" thing. Patches weren't that common before the Internet even on the PC although it did exist thanks to BBSs. i.e. Patches exist because a convenient mechanism for disseminating them exist.

However, unlike a PC, since a console is still nominally a purpose-built dedicated gaming machine, you can't do anything else while the patch is downloading (unlike a PC, where you can always let the update work in the background),

Let's be honest here, when your PC is doing "heavy" updating, you can't do crap either. Your hard disk will be at 100% making everything that needs it slow as molasses in January and you can forget about doing anything lasting more than 15 mins if it's Windows that need updating as you will have to restart.

and you can't easily replace a malfunctioning component (again, unlike a PC, which is built to a standard industry-wide specification), which makes the user experience overall frustratingly similar to PC gaming and yet inferior at the same time (in his opinion).

Unlike a PC you don't have to troubleshoot which component is broken. You just consider the whole thing broken and let the manufacturer sort it out if it's still under warranty or replace it if it isn't. Weeks on the phone with the likes of DELL trying to get them to replace what I believe was a fault video card - it was and no they didn't know better - was to put it lightly "very frustrating".

 

[MadOgre]

Um... Yahtzee... what happened to this week's review ????

 

[Naldan]

Who is animating these episodes, btw?