Poll: Is Yahtzee serious?

[Bebus]

I think it is fair to say he has never made a point I have thought "that is just not true" to.

He exaggerates and he blows tiny things way out of proportion to give a negative image of a generally at least 'decent' game, but think about what he actually does: he plays most of a different game every week. He is probably sick of the bloody things, especially when he sees the same mechanics and graphics, day in day out.

So yes, I think he is serious. He never lies and is paid to make hilarious criticisms of tiny niggles. With the mainstream games industry the way it is, I can hardly blame him; I only play at most 6 different games a year (damn low paid job...) and even I get fed up of some of the things he harps on about!!

 

[drummond13]

I'd say he's serious.

At the same time, he's stated in the past that he's noticed a lot more people like his reviews when they're negative, so I think he focuses a lot more on the negative points for comedic effect. Rewatch the Arkham Asylum review, for example.

 

[ninetails593]

Well I'd say his style is more of a cynical comedy, so it's important not to take everything he says seriously.

 

[sean360h]

watch the Bioshock review he said that people dont like him giving a games good review
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/4-BioShock

 

[Kunzer]

He's not a reviewer, he's a critic. A reviewer will take a balanced look at a game and deliver an unbiased report. A critic will examine a game and pick up on all its flaws, glossing over the good and emphasizing the bad.

Yahtzee exaggerates for comic effect, but he's pretty on the ball when it comes to finding a game's weak spots.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

Also, I would encourage everyone to remember that "Zero Punctuation" is something we watch for entertainment.

 

[Michael Hirst]

He uses comedy as a means to make a point. I believe he's very serious in his opinons for example thinking games like Gears of War 3 are dull and that Just Cause 2 was the most fun game last year. He exaggerates problems with games but that's also to make a point, as a critic it's your duty to beat flaws over the head with a big stick, Yahtzee just makes his beatings funnier than you average critic and gets more viewers for it.

I find his reviews very informative even if I do have to take them with a pinch of salt unlike a lot of major games sites like IGN and Gamespot who have a broken scoring system and more often than not very poor content in the reviews that doesn't really translate the playing experience and overlook a lot of the issues with titles that are considered major releases, this is attrubuted to pay offs usually but there is something unusual about how critically acclaimed some of these major titles are which do absolutely nothing new.

Finally I like his ultimate goal when playing a game: Fun. Sure he's pessimistic and hate filled but when you look at some of his favourite titles, Painkiller, Just Cause 2, Prince of Persia, Resident Evil 4, Saints Row 2, you notice they're all good FUN games not dragged down by other elements or by wanting to be a film (Silent Hill 2 is an exception because while it's fun it's not on the same childish level of complete silliness as in some of the other titles)

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Why wouldn't he be? Being a critic sorta makes him required to rant about the bad things in a game. Several times he'll say that despite his critcism he still enjoyed or had great fun with a game.

But no game is without it's flaw, it's just about getting past them, i suppose.

And another thing... he seems to be a fan of the old school of game making so maybe some of the new features placed in games just takes away what he originally liked about them.

All speculations of course, since that's just my impression.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Why bother giving Yahtzee any attention? He's obviously nred-baiting, the same way that lady who publicly humiliated that world-champion MtG player did, then wrote an article about it.

 

[tharglet]

As one of these people who scans down reviews (of products, movies, games... whatever) to read the bad ones, I can attest that bad points tend to be more interesting to read or hear about, true or not, and I think Yahtzee feels the same.

Yeah there is a thread of truth to his points - if the game improved the points he talks about, he'd like it more - but it's not to say the game is terrible because of said flaws, or has no redeeming features.

Even with my favourite games, I could prolly come up with a couple of ways of improving it, for me... think the same pretty much goes for Yahtzee

 

[M-E-D The Poet]

He flings shit where shit flinging is called for

And he does it with a good humorous way to it

Either give him the ha-ha he craves for or gtfo I'd say (remembering : Each to his own in form of taste)


I wonder if his contract/job goals state " Taking the piss" .

I would not be too surprised by that haha.

 

[Zhadramekel]

I think he's serious but he does go OTT on a lot of points and he may prefer to point out the bad over the good of a game

 

[Uzi-Bazooka]

He said in a review that "My mission is to point out most games as the shit they are to highlight the few good games that break the surface."
And there you have it.

 

[PureChaos]

i take a lot of things with a pinch of salt, he's probably saying what he feels but exaggerating in a few areas to make the review more entertaining.

 

[MarrionetteMaster]

I like to think he's serious. Then again that could be because just about every review he's done I can agree with him 100% on. I strongly dislike just about ever game that's been popped out over the last few years. There may be just 10 or so I've enjoyed, but I'd rather just play classic games back when things felt more fun. Anyway to reiterate, yeah I think he's being honest with his reviews and he doesn't hate every game on the Wii. He mentioned both Galaxy games were good and fun, he even mentioned one of the CoD games being decent(solo not online obviously).

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

...Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out...

Well, right off the bat I'd like to point out that's not true. The only genres he has specifically stated to hating are JRPGs and RTSs, and even that wasn't entirely accurate as he's stated in his weekly columns. He hates the modern JRPGs that are obsessed with spectacle and angst, admitting to enjoying games like Chrono Trigger and (I think) some of the FFs pre VII. He's also said that he can acknowledge that RTSs may be good, they just don't float his boat so to speak. Regardless, it's fairly apparent that Yahtzee's points are serious and generally valid, and it's also slightly less clear that he doesn't hate every single game he reviews, he just sh*ts over all of them (quoting a podcast there, just to be clear).

 

[Pinkamena]

It's just comedy... I never take him serious.

 

[Lenin211]

He uses hyperbole for comedy and to emphasize things that he doesn't like in a game. There is no option other than "yes" and "no" in the poll however, and so I cannot vote in it.

 

[viking97]

in a podcast yahtzee said he genuinely hates everything he says he hates. although i don't recall him saying he hates third or first person shooters, and i distinctly remember him saying RTS is just something he's never gotten into for whatever reason.

strawmen are so easy to argue with because they don't argue back, i suppose.