Zero Punctuation: ZombiU

[omegawyrm]

Am surprised he gave even mild credit to the game because Yahtzee's general opinion on anything with Nintendo's label on it is "lol Nintendo sux".

Of course, he DID spend half the review bitching about the Wii U instead of the game, so I guess it's just par for the mediocre course these days. Can't spend the review demonstrating genuine original concepts and humor, can we? Let's ***** about a company I don't like, my fans haven't gotten tired of that yet, I'm sure! This is why I loved your GW2 review (despite being a huge fan of the game) which managed to keep things on the actual topic, but found this review almost pathetically mediocre in terms of humor (despite not even OWNING the game) mainly because you ran out of faults so quickly that you had to spend the third act of your review crawling back to the console hardware for more things to ***** about.

I know you're going for comedy here, Yahtzee, but you're starting to become the Carlos Mencia of video game comedy, beating the same old boring stereotypical jokes as if they're still somehow funny. "Nintendo sux and iz 4 babiez har har har". "Gamers are entitled har har har". And so on. Yes, some of them are true but that doesn't excuse you from recycling the same fricking joke ad infinitum. Be original for once. The "Nintendo sucks" joke is way beyond a dead horse, it's already thoroughly decomposed.

He's been doing this shit for years, and making the entire gaming community more cynical and dickish with his vast influence. It's kind of ridiculous.

 

[BishopofAges]

To be honest, this review actually received a good share of praise before the usual downfall. I feel good about his points and I still really want to play this one.

All in all, good review style this go around, very entertaining with facts and figures.

 

[Terramax]

So wait, Yahtzee actually likes the game?

And I have to disagree with the semi-transparent inventory. I hate that shit. It's never transparent enough or it's too transparent. And the point of it was that you can only focus one or the other. To keep the tension up.

In which case you could just have the inventor pull up on the TV screen whilst the game is still running. Only thing is, if that happened on a PS3 or 360 game, it would be considered a flaw. But put it on a secondary unit and suddenly it's called innovation(?)

 

[OldNewNewOld]

So wait, Yahtzee actually likes the game?

And I have to disagree with the semi-transparent inventory. I hate that shit. It's never transparent enough or it's too transparent. And the point of it was that you can only focus one or the other. To keep the tension up.

In which case you could just have the inventor pull up on the TV screen whilst the game is still running. Only thing is, if that happened on a PS3 or 360 game, it would be considered a flaw. But put it on a secondary unit and suddenly it's called innovation(?)

No you couldn't.
If you put in on the screen, you can see the inventory and only the inventory. On the WiiU you can see both, but you can focus only on one. You can always look back to the TV to see what's going on.
If you make the inventory transparent, there will be absolutely no tension because you can see both all the time.

 

[D Moness]

Of course, he DID spend half the review bitching about the Wii U instead of the game, so I guess it's just par for the mediocre course these days. Can't spend the review demonstrating genuine original concepts and humor, can we? Let's ***** about a company I don't like, my fans haven't gotten tired of that yet, I'm sure!

Kind of the reason i stopped watching any vid based on games released for a nintendo system. Half of the time he just bashes the system for anything he can think of and not focussing on the game he is suppose to talk about.

Even on other vids that review completely different games he can not keep himself from trying to take a stab at nintendo.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no, as far as I know, they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

EDIT: There I fixed it, so EXCUSE ME, PRINCESS!!

 

[nima55]

Yahtzee doesn't like the Wii U? No shocker there. Pretty sure there is nothing Nintendo could do to make him like them. Oh well I'm off to play ZombiU again.

A quality he has in common with anyone not; under 12, over 50, or possessed of the ability to constantly ingest ripe, fresh turds over and over again because they have a little "N" sticker on them.

When Nintendo can produce more than two good games per-generation that aren't targeted at young children or Generic Middle-aged Mother of 3's, they might start to earn back some of their credibility.

As I'm sure your ego needs the boost that comes from beating up the big company, sure why not

 

[nima55]

At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

http://kotaku.com/5960459/10-things-about-the-wii-u-that-were-loving-or-hating
Look guys! a non-existent website. An unbiased one at that

 

[Canadamus Prime]

At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

http://kotaku.com/5960459/10-things-about-the-wii-u-that-were-loving-or-hating
Look guys! a not existant website

Ok ok, now I know they exist. Sheesh! ¬___¬
For fuck sakes, why is everyone picking on me? It's not as though I'm a hater or anything. Hell I used to love Nintendo, almost fanatically so, but I'm not going to ignore what I think are questionable design decisions. And as I said on another thread, I'm a hell of a lot more forgiving than most. So get off my back already!

 

[TheSchaef]

Who said anything about realism? No, seriously?

I thought we were talking about functionality.

Functionally, a second screen gives you more screen space to observe your environment, rather than obscuring them with overlays.

If we're talking about functionality, this would have been a favorable comparison on the part of the Wii U. It's rather like wondering why we need two sets of shoulder buttons on a controller when we only have two index fingers. Are dual analog sticks on a controller that also has a D pad and 10 other buttons also a solution looking for a problem?

The bottom line is, there are now more tools to add to the gameplay equation, which pushes the "semi-transparent overlay" argument into the realm of aesthetics.

 

[nima55]

At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

http://kotaku.com/5960459/10-things-about-the-wii-u-that-were-loving-or-hating
Look guys! a not existant website

Ok ok, now I know they exist. Sheesh! ¬___¬
For fuck sakes, why is everyone picking on me? It's not as though I'm a hater or anything. Hell I used to love Nintendo, almost fanatically so, but I'm not going to ignore what I think are questionable design decisions. And as I said on another thread, I'm a hell of a lot more forgiving than most. So get off my back already!

Sorry I just saw you comment and assumed you were by your tone. I bear no ill will

 

[Canadamus Prime]

At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

http://kotaku.com/5960459/10-things-about-the-wii-u-that-were-loving-or-hating
Look guys! a not existant website

Ok ok, now I know they exist. Sheesh! ¬___¬
For fuck sakes, why is everyone picking on me? It's not as though I'm a hater or anything. Hell I used to love Nintendo, almost fanatically so, but I'm not going to ignore what I think are questionable design decisions. And as I said on another thread, I'm a hell of a lot more forgiving than most. So get off my back already!

Sorry I just saw you comment and assumed you were by your tone. I bear no ill will

That's alright. You'll have to pardon my frustration. I've often defended Nintendo through all the hatred the Wii received and now that I've quite calmly and rationally criticized the design of their Wii U controller I'm getting attacked for it.

 

[Darmani]

Whoah a very positive review for the game. A reminder of past failures. And the only failing is a shortness of content and it was more tour Britain.

Seems Zero Punctuation and the WiiU will be a gleeful matchup.
Seems he's laying off the negativity or just encountering more stuff he likes of late.

 

[Swifteye]

Also, it appears that the Wii U is not as powerful as the PS3 even in spite of being more powerful then the Wii.

How is it even possible to release a next gen console that is less powerful then a LAST gen console?

I get the Wii not being as powerful as the PS3 or the Xbox 360 but the Wii U?

This is lame.

Yea yea graphics aren't everywhing bla blah blah and whatever.

Actually if you play a PS3 or 360 port on the WiiU it's possible to experience framerate issues and other such bugs. Ashens did a test run with Assassin's creed and Batman city and he experienced jerky animations and some minor glitches and not just in game but in cutscenes as well.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I'm surprised he didn't tear into this game. Usually things that slightly bother me are what really tick him off.

To me it was an ambitious game that got very stiff on the execution. The inventory management using the second screen was fine, but the scanning features made me want to punch the screen.

The lack of any other melee weapons was surprisingly my biggest annoyance, you get the cricket bat and nothing else. I don't expect Left4Dead variations, but it felt very lazy.

It's not a horrible game, but I didn't like it.

 

[Negatempest]

ZombiU WANTS you to not look on the TV for the purpose of getting in the way of your Line of Vision to increase tension.

You know how they also could have achieved the "loose sight of surrounding"-thing? BY HAVING A FREAKING GUI ON THE SCREEN BLOCKING SAID VIEW!

Yes, we as gamers want more ****/stuff on the screen. So if I get this straight. You want alot of clutter on the main screen? I'm glad for the second screen so the clutter doesn't block my field of view. And yes I have played so many games like GoW, Bayonetta, DMC, CoD where the clutter on the screen hid enemy movement and got me killed a few times. I, at the time, accepted it as the limits of a console. Now that we got a console with a second screen on the controller to free up the screen more...you complain? A clutter-free screen video game is hard to come by, and the Wii-U is helping to fix that and I couldn't be happier.

Ever heard "Inventory Screen"? Something that every game ever used? And nobody complained about it "blocking the screen"? In fact, it is 100% possible to keep the screen clear in normal gameplay and still have a GUI for your oh-so-wanted 'immersion by blocking Line of Vision'. Dead Space did that already! Absolutely no GUI whatsoever during gameplay UNTIL you open your inventory. Similar to a lot of other games (some had some few GUI, some had none - BUT ALL WORKED)

My point isn't that the Dead Space GUI shouldn't exist. My point is that such a GUI should NOT be the only choice. If an option can be made to enhance gameplay, even though it is not necessary, it can or should exist. For example, the rumble feature is not even necessary at all for gameplay, but for some of us adds to the game. You have to have suspension of disbelieve that the rumble from the action on the screen is actually felt by the player. So after many uses of the rumble feature, it has been fine tuned to the hardware that we know of today.

 

[madhousezack]

"Come and join us, the master will be home soon"
Anyone else have a awkward boner?... yeah, me neither...

OT: Being a Londoner this game intrigues me from the possibility of lolz.

Also, I hope he reveiws Rayman Legends.

Am I the only one who thought of "Manos: The Hands of Fate" When he did that whole "Master will be home soon" thing?

 

[5-0]

He actually sort of liked it? HE ACTUALLY SORT OF LIKED IT!

 

[-Dragmire-]

I was waiting to see what he made of the whole look-at-your-controller-for-inventory-management thing. In most games it certainly would be annoying and pointless, but since this is survival horror, this sort of thing accomplishes the all-important task of keeping the tension high since having to look away from the TV screen gives the zombies a chance to sneak up on you, making even navigating a menu a something of a nervous prospect. Maybe Yahtzee figured that ZombiU doesn't deserve a thumbs-up for it because he figures every other WiiU game is going to shoehorn in touchscreen-based menu systems for far less useful reasons... which will probably soon prove 100% correct as the WiiU's library expands.

I'm just curious what happens to the gimmicks like looking away from the screen for inventory stuff if the player is currently streaming the game to the controller. Will these games not support streaming or will the devs implement the mechanic on the controller in a way that undermines the use of 2 screens?

 

[Bvenged]

Analogies of monarchy and just the entire show was great. Best Zero Punctuation of the year, I think!