Review: Zero Punctuation
- Thread starter ultimatechance
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Soooo....to summarize and eliminate several paragraphs of text, Zero Punctuation is entertaining and interesting, but somewhat hyperbolic in its criticisms and probably not used as a sole source of data for the actual contents of a game. I'm not sure if you intend to write for a living or not, but if so, brevity is an important creature to get across.
That said, you're setting up a rather narrow definition for what constitutes a valid review. As a total evaluation of a consumer product, I'd tend to agree that Zero Punctuation doesn't do a very good job, mostly because I think any person would have a hard time hitting all the finer points of a game's design, presentation, and technical implementation in five minutes without boring us all directly to death. However, if you open up your criteria for what constitutes "valid" criticism to include the sort of point-by-point analysis that strikes on all of these tiny, niggling flaws, Zero Punctuation does its job well. More importantly, you should understand that this is how at least one person actually experiences the world - I live this pretty much all the time. Part of it is conditioning from my job (I build software, which requires a degree of hyper-criticality to catch all of those pesky outlying test conditions that users do so love to leap directly into and break your marvelous tool) and part from whatever interesting mental disorder I have that makes me the way I am, but when I experience ANYTHING I mostly perceive the flaws. I can say with certainty that it hasn't stopped me from playing video games in general yet, and there hasn't been a single one that I've played to date that I haven't had a list of complaints about. You can still love something and rip on its every tiniest detail and failing - it's just different from the way that most people do their thing.
All that said, regarding Zero Punctuation as being somehow less valid because Mr. Croshaw has to tailor his reviews to be entertaining would be a grave error. Aside from the occasional factual error (or, more commonly, exaggeration - for instance, I don't understand how a human person with working eyes could confuse some of the environments in Oblivion with some of the other environments in Oblivion, as was implied in his review of that game, and there have been other issues cited in the past where rare bugs were exaggerated for the sake of entertainment), all the points that Yahtzee makes are valid, relevant, and important, and hey - somebody has to notice this crap, unless of course you want to suffer through the same annoyances in your games tomorrow that you do in your games today.
That said, you're setting up a rather narrow definition for what constitutes a valid review. As a total evaluation of a consumer product, I'd tend to agree that Zero Punctuation doesn't do a very good job, mostly because I think any person would have a hard time hitting all the finer points of a game's design, presentation, and technical implementation in five minutes without boring us all directly to death. However, if you open up your criteria for what constitutes "valid" criticism to include the sort of point-by-point analysis that strikes on all of these tiny, niggling flaws, Zero Punctuation does its job well. More importantly, you should understand that this is how at least one person actually experiences the world - I live this pretty much all the time. Part of it is conditioning from my job (I build software, which requires a degree of hyper-criticality to catch all of those pesky outlying test conditions that users do so love to leap directly into and break your marvelous tool) and part from whatever interesting mental disorder I have that makes me the way I am, but when I experience ANYTHING I mostly perceive the flaws. I can say with certainty that it hasn't stopped me from playing video games in general yet, and there hasn't been a single one that I've played to date that I haven't had a list of complaints about. You can still love something and rip on its every tiniest detail and failing - it's just different from the way that most people do their thing.
All that said, regarding Zero Punctuation as being somehow less valid because Mr. Croshaw has to tailor his reviews to be entertaining would be a grave error. Aside from the occasional factual error (or, more commonly, exaggeration - for instance, I don't understand how a human person with working eyes could confuse some of the environments in Oblivion with some of the other environments in Oblivion, as was implied in his review of that game, and there have been other issues cited in the past where rare bugs were exaggerated for the sake of entertainment), all the points that Yahtzee makes are valid, relevant, and important, and hey - somebody has to notice this crap, unless of course you want to suffer through the same annoyances in your games tomorrow that you do in your games today.
When you fail to properly give details on the positive points on the game, it fails to be a proper review to me. A proper review should give an unbiased opinion, that will help the viewer decide on whether to get the game or not. When you spend that time on making funny criticism, then it doesnt give a proper overview of the game, and may fool some of the clueless viewers into believing the game is terrible based on his video. It should be taken as the comedic show that he tries to be, and if you have seen the Bioshock and Psychonauts review, you would know that he could try and do a real review, but it wouldnt be nearly as entertaining. Hence why he doesnt try to, on top of time.cool_moe_dee_345 said:
There is also nothing that Yahtzee points out that an active forum hasnt already discussed. He just does it in a very satirical and hilarious manner.
PS: I signed up on this site to have some fun, and get my opinion out without fanboy riddled responses. I obviously dont plan to write for a living. If i make a sample review to apply for a site, then ill keep brevity in mind, but for now, im just writing this for fun. Im not taking any of this that seriously.
I don't actually watch ZP to find out if any game is good or not I just find it entertaining, of course I also don't put any stock in the opinion of movie, music, or food critics, because ya know what? There are lots of things I like that others don't and lots of things I don't like that others do. I have a gamefly account to cheaply find out if I like a game or not, and netflix does the same for me with movies. I return the ones I wasn't thrilled about and go buy the ones I like.
Agreed, the OP was very well thought out and articulate. It also highlighted some of the major issues I have with Yahtzee. I just wish he could return to the days of the Burnout
aradise/Call of Duty 4 reviews where his videos weren't just 4.5mins of inventive cursing.
L. Wrex
aradise/Call of Duty 4 reviews where his videos weren't just 4.5mins of inventive cursing.L. Wrex
Good review. Zero Punctuation is the reason I first came to the this site and it's the reason I come on every wednesday without fail. I agree that some of his reviews may be biased or not in-depth enough but he still manages to pick apart games in a very funny and clever way. I have found all of his reviews extremely funny and entertaining. I love some of the games that he has ripped apart in his reviews and that still doesn;'t make me dislike the review, if anything it makes me like it more (games like COD4, Dead Space, Fallout 3 and Oblivion being the games that I loved and he hated)
Lol, that was suprisingly dead on with the inventive cursing.Lycaeus_Wrex said:Agreed, the OP was very well thought out and articulate. It also highlighted some of the major issues I have with Yahtzee. I just wish he could return to the days of the Burnout
L. Wrex
Yahtzee is great, but we all must admit that it is hard for hat he does and sometimes it seems like he either got bored with the review and tried too hard or he wasn't in the right mood to do a review but did it anyway.
I, for one, accept that some reviews are sub-par whether you agreed with his opinion or not, but I understand that he can;t create gold every time.
For the most part he is great and I love to watch every video he makes. Sometimes he makes a really great episode, sometimes it is not so good in his standards, but I always eagerly await to see the next episode.
I even followed him before he went to Escapist and most of things he says remind me of a Mitch Hedberg if he was a game critic.
All in all, keep doing what you do Yahtzee and can't wait to see next week's show.
I, for one, accept that some reviews are sub-par whether you agreed with his opinion or not, but I understand that he can;t create gold every time.
For the most part he is great and I love to watch every video he makes. Sometimes he makes a really great episode, sometimes it is not so good in his standards, but I always eagerly await to see the next episode.
I even followed him before he went to Escapist and most of things he says remind me of a Mitch Hedberg if he was a game critic.
All in all, keep doing what you do Yahtzee and can't wait to see next week's show.
Good points about Yahtzee. I just assumed everyone thought the reviews were supposed to be joking. Never considered the possibility that anybody actually thought they were actual reviews. The thing I find Yahtzee's reviews useful for is the thing many develoers seem to have forgotten about assessing prior to releasing games lately: is it fun? Yahtzee's reviews seem to be guided by the issue of whether he had fun playing it or not, which is really what games are about in the first place.
Good review OP.
Good review OP.
I enjoy viewing his reviews for many reasons, one being that he has an unmistakably British humor with a perfect and fairly subtle Australian accent. He doesn't stick completely to the dark side of British humor but adds cheerful and well placed swear words which happily lead me towards suicide every time I realized I have committed one of his Cardinal sins. All this is underlined by unforgettable lines like "bullet kaplunk" which makes his arguments a lot more convincing. He even admits that a lot of his reviews where piled upon him by the public (despite his strange ability to resist falling into general trends that many other game reviewers tend to fall into). Concidering that i only discovered his game reviews recently they where still easy to understand (and although he drills his mind bending hate towards almost every game he is describing at break neck pace).
Yahtzee is more of a comic than a critic. But it's a welcome change from critics that only focus on the positive.
While I by no means watch an episode of ZP and become convinced it's a terrible game (Although I was half way through playing The Witcher when he reviewed it. Suffice to say I stopped playing for about a month), I can often agree with some points that he makes (Sonic is dead. Tomb raider games are all the same, GTA sucked ass, and whenever I play GoW2 I can't help but yell 'HOORAH'"
Also, I really didn't like that pilot episode of Game Damage. Watching the other two guys, it just seemed like every other gaming review show. It was refreshing to see Yahtzee there, but I had the unquivering feeling that he didn't want to be there.
If you're going to watch ZP every week then read one or two other reviews of the game he's done afterwards. Or an interesting thing to do is look at what game he reviewed, but don't watch the review. Then go play that game for a day or two, whatever, THEN watch the ZP.
I did that with Psychonauts and agreed with Yahtzee quite a lot.
While I by no means watch an episode of ZP and become convinced it's a terrible game (Although I was half way through playing The Witcher when he reviewed it. Suffice to say I stopped playing for about a month), I can often agree with some points that he makes (Sonic is dead. Tomb raider games are all the same, GTA sucked ass, and whenever I play GoW2 I can't help but yell 'HOORAH'"
Also, I really didn't like that pilot episode of Game Damage. Watching the other two guys, it just seemed like every other gaming review show. It was refreshing to see Yahtzee there, but I had the unquivering feeling that he didn't want to be there.
If you're going to watch ZP every week then read one or two other reviews of the game he's done afterwards. Or an interesting thing to do is look at what game he reviewed, but don't watch the review. Then go play that game for a day or two, whatever, THEN watch the ZP.
I did that with Psychonauts and agreed with Yahtzee quite a lot.
I enjoy Yahtzee's reviews a lot, and a lot of the time agree with him. He's a smart reviewer, but he does have a tendency to blast away at smaller details sometimes.
Think you got that one a bit backwards.Still some good points though. Pretty accurate review of the series.ultimatechance said:
I personally love Yahtzee's reviews, but I wouldn't take them as actual advice. The things he points out are generally true, and I can look back on a game and see those flaws, but they generally aren't things that I would actually criticize a game for, but are still things that I will laugh at when they are pointed out.
Yahtzee is brilliant because he points out the obvious stuff that we just haven't noticed before!
My problem with it all is that I watch it once only pay attention to the jokes, then I watch it again to actually understand what he's saying.