Has Yahtzee ruined you?

[pretentiousname01]

I have had the same reaction, in fact I have been buying less and less games because of it. I need to start spending my disposable income again.

Send it to me I'll help you.

OT
I enjoy watching the videos. I was always a fan of the more "negative" reviews. I don't need to be told a game is good by any stretch. Certain things I expect. God of war to be a gruesome gore violence fest. Bioware to have awesome characters and writing. Music games to boring.

Its when games savagely ruin something. Too human's death scene. RE5's well, everything. That I start sidestepping.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

I agree with a lot of what he says. I have a lot of the same complaints that he does, only I don't speak nearly as fast. I mean, I can still think a game is good despite some of the problems he points out, but it doesn't make the problems any less obvious.

 

[feeback06]

No, not really. I just kinda take Zero Punctuation as entertainment and not much else.

 

[Star Pancakes Muthaf]

sort of, My parents own a video shop so i don't pay for them anyway

 

[Nostalgia Ripoff]

Not really. Money is tight these days so I have to be damned sure that I'm going to like the game. For example, I'm going to get Bulletstorm when it comes out, and nothing Yahtzee can say is going to change my opinions. NOTHING.

 

[Blind Sight]

Not really, I was picky to begin with, but I like to think that my pickiness has a bit more consistancy then Yahtzee's, which seems to be all over the place and somewhat hypocritical at times. I don't really use reviews to dictate whether I buy a game or not, I prefer just playing demos and figuring it out for myself. If there's no demos, sometimes I'll just make an impulse buy, it works for me sometimes, and other times it doesn't.

 

[scythecow]

ZP is a great series. Yahtzee hasn't ruined me at all, his scathing reviews and nitpicking actually fosters my interest in games somehow.

I've always had a critical mind towards bad writing, bad voice acting, cliches and plot holes. It's hard for me to take most games, movies and TV shows seriously. Often the moments that are supposed to be most dramatic seem to be satire of themselves. Then a lot of games don't take themselves seriously to begin with and sometimes that works better.

If anything, it only opens up new avenues. I can enjoy really terrible things for comedic value, and I still enjoy things that are actually good. Story and characters aren't everything anyway. That's more important to a novel than a video game.

For instance, I loved the gameplay of MGS2. Raiden was a whiny little ***** and the game might've benefited from having 90% of the cutscenes and dialogue removed, but it's still one of my favorite games. MGS1 is the same deal. Could anyone manage to take all the ridiculous drama in those two games seriously? Worst of all, Hideo Kojima's addicted to breaking the fourth wall! Still, there was so much to make fun of that it just made it even better.

Resident Evil 4's story, voice acting and dialogue were downright hilarious - also one of my favorites. What happens when a video game tries to have a professional, in-depth story? You get Heavy Rain and MGS4.

I feel like Starcraft (including Brood War) did one of the best jobs with story and pacing while still having great gameplay... cliches and space marines, but I think it was pretty well-written.

 

[lacktheknack]

Nope. His Mirror's Edge review is pure trash (although still funny), and if I can't see three quarters of the problems in such a "DESPERATELY FLAWED FECAL WATERSLIDE", then I'm clearly not massively influenced by his critiquing.

 

[Glamorgan]

So, I am a huge fan of Zero Punctuation (seriously, who isn't) and I usually agree with Yathzee's views, at least in terms of what I look for in a game like good gameplay and story.

Recently however, I have been noticing that whenever I start a new game or pick up one I haven't played in a while, I start seeing flaws or annoyances that I wouldn't have noticed before. After watching ZP for the last 3 years I start seeing games the way Yahtzee would, finding all these flaws that wouldnt have mattered to me before. I dont really know if this is a good or bad thing though I find it harder to get into games i normally would have liked.

So, my fellow escapists, have any of you noticed this change in perception as well? Even without ZP's influence, have you ever changed how you view, play, and enjoy games?

EDIT: I don't think I was clear I meant that my initial analysis of games has been influenced by ZP, I don't make decisions based of what he says. I often disagree with him.

Do you think it is possible you are just noticing the flaws on your own? Not because of Yahtzee?

But I haven't, no.

My avatar is totally better than yours

 

[Dane Tesston]

I can't really say it he has. That's mostly because (and this is just my opinion) I just can't take the guy seriously.

 

[badgersprite]

No. Not at all. I've always been kind of a discerning gamer when it comes to what I buy, because I don't have money to waste and I know which games interest me, and I'm always focused on RPG-style games (which Yahtzee usually seems to hate) because they're basically my bread and butter. So, when I do buy a game, I usually already know that it's generally considered of above-average quality, which cuts out a lot of the irritation factor.

I don't nitpick at games. I love games way more than I hate them. So, if something is bothering me in a game, it's usually either because it's so glaring that it's unavoidable, or because the game is so bad/boring that I'm actually thinking about that sort of stuff.

The only things I will nitpick in a game are characterisation, message, political undertones and story sort of things, because that's my primary area of interest in the outside world. That just comes naturally to me. It may not bother anyone else, but I tend to notice things like bad (from my perspective) or annoying voice acting, sloppy writing or lack of engaging atmosphere, but I can still be pretty forgiving on that front depending on the genre.

If it's a sandbox game, I'm not going to be expecting the story to come along and smack me in the face every five seconds. I like taking it slow. If the game itself is kind of camp and not meant to be taken seriously, or is at least funny in how over the top it is, then that forgives a lot too. Like, there were some really stupid moments in Resident Evil 5, but I found most of them amusing enough that it didn't have a negative effect on my experience. And it was still better than the movies, so...

Yeah. I'm very forgiving. And Yahtzee has never changed my opinion of a game based on his reviews, nor has my opinion of a game made me dislike Yahtzee for giving it a bad review. People like different things, and, since we can't read other people's minds (yet), all we can give are our own experiences.

 

[Weaver]

ZP has not effected me at all.
I've been a game nit-picker for way longer than ZP has been on the net

 

[Flunk]

Nah, Yahtzee hasn't ruined me. I was a over-critical jerk long before he posted his first online video. He hasn't really swayed my opinion unless it's away from the jRPGs but I'm not sure that it's not the actual games that are at fault.

The entire genre doesn't seem to have made any progress since Final Fantasy VII, which makes it look like it's regressing based on the progress the more actiony genres have made. When it came to SNES games I pretty much played every jRPG available. This year my favorite game is Mass Effect 2, maybe it's time to give up on jRPGs?

 

[Fr]anc[is]

He's not really a reviewer to me. He's a comedian, and damn good at it. He even sort of says so in one of his early videos, nobody likes him when he's nice. I bought Bioshock 2 after watching his video, and I still liked it more than the first

 

[KungFuCthulhu]

Yeah, my standards for games have changed since i started watching Zero Punctuation but he's not the only one who's influenced me.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

Sure he's made me think a bit into the games and notice things that I wouldn't have, but I wouldn't say he's ruined me.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Nope. I was a harsh game critic long before I saw Zero Punctuation.

 

[Brad Shepard]

Nope, because he just looks for every little thing that is wrong with a game, I love JRPGs, for the story alone, gameplay couldent matter to me, i dont let Yatzee influence me whatsoever.

 

[Madara XIII]

Nah... Mainly because I have good taste in games and the few games I do have he doesnt agree with (Mainly the Metal Gear Solid Series) I say ABLOOGY WOOGI WOO to him on his opinion of MGS.

Other than that I love a considerable amount of his reviews.