Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
It's funny.  Laugh. Entertainment Games

Game Commentary, With Funny Added - Zero Punctuation 36

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is described as a "British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder." That melange of Python and Steve Irwin has combined, somehow, to produce some of the most hilariously insightful games commentary I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. Via Gamers With Jobs I came across Croshaw's first video review on The Escapist site, all about the the Heavenly Sword demo and the Resident Evil 5 trailer. He talks a mile-a-minute, does his own wonderfully primitive animation work, and manages to walk that tightrope between jerk and brilliant with seeming effortlessness. He's slated to put one up every week, and since the first post has released a look at the cult classic Psychonauts , and some cutting commentary on the console war. Go watch, please; just make sure you can a.) use NSFW sound and b.) won't get looked at weirdly for laughing aloud.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Game Commentary, With Funny Added - Zero Punctuation

Comments Filter:
  • Huh...? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31, 2007 @06:37AM (#20422815)
    Everybody raise your hand if you thought "Game Commentary, With Funny Added - Zero Punctuation" was a reference to the usual kind of articles here at slashdot :)
  • WTF is Twing-Twang? And do I really want to see that on my new HD-TV?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Thansal ( 999464 )
      WTF is Twing-Twang? And do I really want to see that on my new HD-TV?

      Yes.

      Hey for 3 reviews, it is amusing. Admittedly, it is only 3 reviews. Let us see if they keep it up.
      • Re:Twing-Twang? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Ford Prefect ( 8777 ) on Friday August 31, 2007 @07:59AM (#20423411) Homepage
        There are another [youtube.com] two [youtube.com], pre-Escapist reviews on Youtube. Which are great also.
        • by l0cust ( 992700 )
          Thanks for those links. Loved all the reviews so far. Fucking Hilarious stuff. I am in a cafe so I was trying not to make an ass out of myself by bursting into one of my "demonic laughs" (according to one of my friends) but I totally cracked up at the last one where he says the only way he would buy that game is if it came down to the budget price, and they threw in another game, and a cake, and Belgium.

          ...Still trying not to look at the face of all the people staring at me like I had tits at my back.
  • Psychonauts, yay! (Score:3, Informative)

    by LarsWestergren ( 9033 ) on Friday August 31, 2007 @07:13AM (#20423061) Homepage Journal
    If you didn't listen all the way to the end, it is worth repeating -
    PSYCHONAUTS IS AVAILABLE FROM STEAM REALLY CHEAP [steampowered.com]! If you don't buy it, you have forfeited your right to ever again complain about lack of originality and fun in games.

    While you are at it, so is Vampire: Bloodlines, which with the unofficial patches is a really good game these days, the new Sam and Max episodes, and Bioshock, (but if you haven't already heard about the last one and how good it is you are probably dead).

    • by BarneyL ( 578636 )
      PSYCHONAUTS IS AVAILABLE FROM STEAM For far more than you will pay elsewhere!
      There corrected. Same goes for Bioshock, Vampire: Bloodlines and Sam & Max.
      Add to that if you don't buy the Steam versions you can always sell them on again.
      • PSYCHONAUTS IS AVAILABLE FROM STEAM For far more than you will pay elsewhere! There corrected.

        All right, perhaps you could bother to tell us where then?

        I found Psychonauts for $3 in a local bargain bin a year ago, I bought all three remaining copies and gave them away, but most people will not find older games in shops...
        • by BarneyL ( 578636 )
          Google is your friend [google.co.uk], learn how to use it.
          It can also be found directly at amazon, e-bay and via various other obscure stores on this internet thing I hear the young people talking about these days.
      • "Add to that if you don't buy the Steam versions you can always sell them on again."

        True for all execept bioshock which limits you the number of times you can register the software with the anticopy software drm that comes with it.
    • If the video is to be believed, the game also has numerous gameplay issues and smacks of a cheap, twitchy platformer at times. How is that original and fun?

      If I want wacky ideas with poor execution, I've got plenty of that scribbled in my sketchbooks. Although I guess I'll buy it eventually; you could say the same about Shadow of the Colossus, which I also own.
    • MEAT CIRCUS!

      (sorry about that, suffered some brain damage trying to complete that level)
    • My problem with Psychonauts is that most games that are lauded for their "originality" turn out to be pretty damned boring and uninteresting when I actually sit down to play them. This happened to me with Beyond Good and Evil-- I tried to complete that game three times, and each time I just gave up when it got super-boring. Same deal with Knights of the Old Republic, which is supposed to be some great RPG, but just bored me. Given this, I'm more inclined to deliberately avoid games that people talk about th
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31, 2007 @07:20AM (#20423107)
    • One of the things I really hate are links to a page where you have to click a link and browse around to find the content (I couldn't). Your link got me straight to the content, and I didn't have to disable adblock!

      Thank you.
  • OMG. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Aladrin ( 926209 ) on Friday August 31, 2007 @07:24AM (#20423129)
    Okay, for those that didn't read the end of the summary, I am going to quote it:

    "Go watch, please; just make sure you can a.) use NSFW sound and b.) won't get looked at weirdly for laughing aloud."

    Seriously. It took all I had not to laugh out loud about the newest rant about consoles... It's amazingly true and with him speaking so fast and the video actually having content at the same time, it's non-stop funny. (Well, okay, the beginning is a bit weak.)

    Oh, and he's right about Psychonauts... That was an excellent game.
  • by NexusTw1n ( 580394 ) on Friday August 31, 2007 @07:45AM (#20423299) Journal
    It's a standard comedy genre in the UK. Fast delivery, fast edits, initially pioneered by Victor Lewis Smith in the 80's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j39oSM9ppo [youtube.com]

    These days Charlie Brooker carries the torch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB70wuweyQI [youtube.com]

    Ben is brilliantly funny, but owes more to these two men than Monty Python.
  • I'm not sure what's wrong, but when I go to the site, I don't find anything. No article, no link to an article, no link to an external item (like a sound), no player to run an external sound, nothing. It certainly is funny that the article is completely missing. :(

    But I use Netscape, maybe it has some wierd feature that doesn't work. So I then tried the site on Internet Explorer and the Flashplayer comes up. Which is damned funny, because Flash does work in Netscape. So I have no idea why this doesn't
    • by Petrushka ( 815171 ) on Friday August 31, 2007 @08:37AM (#20423719)

      I'm not sure what's wrong, but when I go to the site, I don't find anything. No article, no link to an article, no link to an external item (like a sound), no player to run an external sound, nothing. It certainly is funny that the article is completely missing. :(
      Disable Adblock, and laughter will magically emerge from your mouth. :)
    • by Danse ( 1026 )

      But I use Netscape, maybe it has some wierd feature that doesn't work. So I then tried the site on Internet Explorer and the Flashplayer comes up. Which is damned funny, because Flash does work in Netscape. So I have no idea why this doesn't work.
      Make sure you have javascript enabled for the site and for videoegg.com as well.
  • He needs to team up with Ms. Webb. You know I was always afraid that I would turn back into a tv watching freak like my parents. TVTonic is doing this. It is scary. I can sit on my couch and watch funny videos and then learn how to make funny videos on my couch. Without cable but with a cable modem of course.
  • Yes, I'm in camp A. Want me to describe what genre it is? FUN. That's the genre. Yes, there's adventure elements. Yes, it's a platformer. Yes, there's shooting. But, primarily, it's FUN. Funny as hell, Fun as hell to play - it's one of those games that when people who game don't own it, I (a) try to hard-sell them on it, and (b) wonder what's wrong with them that they didn't get it originally. When you play it, there's this goofy smile on your face. Why it didn't sell better is beyond me - I bough

Truly simple systems... require infinite testing. -- Norman Augustine

Working...