Film criticism

Forgotten Son · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:42 am

I think Yahtzee is semi-useful as a game critic. One just has to bear in mind his differing standards. Even if he finds fault with pretty much every game, the level of his vitriol when compared to the positives he finds in it make it fairly easy to tell whether the game is worth playing.

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:11 pm **Posts:** 14822

boo boo wrote:

I don't hate him, I think he's talented as an entertainer. But he's an absolutely fucking dreadful critic. I don't consider him a critic at all, but many people do unfortunately so I still judge him as if he was one. I don't mind that he is hilariously biased against pretty much fucking everything not made by Valve, critics can be biased all they want. Critics are supposed to be honest however, and Yahtzee is all about accentuating the negative for humor, he's even said that nobody likes it when he praises a game, so he gives people what they want.

And that's fine as long as people take what he says with a grain of salt, his whole shtick is to play up the "cranky british guy who hates everything" stereotype for all it's worth, and sometimes he just happens to make legitimate criticisms, but most of the time he's complaining about the most harmless things and the impression I always get from watching his reviews is that he is just plain sucks at every game he ever plays.

Most of my hatred is aimed directly at his retarded fanbase. Despite the fact that him not liking ANYTHING is his whole shtick, The Escapist is still crawling with complete fucking idiots who inexplicably go to the guy for their consumer advice, for whatever fucking reason. That just fucking infuriates me considering how this guy either sucks horribly at doing research on games or deliberately makes shit up for the sake of being funny.

I mean his review of Monster Hunter Tri seemed to suggest that he had only played the tutorial. And yet despite the high amount of praise that game has received from gamers in general, some stupid asshat will say "Thanks mate, I was planning on getting this game but because of this review I'll pass". That shit makes me so fucking angry and I'm dead fucking serious. It makes me want to punch a British fuckhead right in his fuckhead fuckface.

People are so devoted in their fanboism to one douchebag and taking everything he says as the word of God, that they are willing to deprive themselves of something they know they might fucking love just because one sophisticated troll pretends to hate it for attention? They don't even bother to see what actual sincere people might think of the game and THEN make a decision? I mean seriously how fucking hard is that?

Man, if you know anybody who is like that, euthanize that person IMMEDIATELY. People like that just depress me so much I want to abandon the medium entirely.

The sheer magnitude of Japanophobia among his fans is so bad that I think he does himself serious damage by not disowning those people at every opportunity. Another thing that makes it harder for me to like him is all the people who try to convince me he is actually sincere about every game he reviews. If so that just makes him come off an incredibly boring prude, not as some radical revolutionary. I don't find people like that to be interesting.

But he most definitely applies legitimate criticism to games and how games are designed (often in the context of the relationship of gameplay and story). Yuo are correct in that it is important to ignore his obviously over the top bits. I'd also note he often complains about games being to easy. I would never go to him to recommend any game (well unless he loves the game then chances are it's probably really good). He's very upfront about his biases and what he likes and dislikes. And you correctly identify his idiot fanbase as a problem. The Japanophobia is kind of funny because their are obviously multiple Japanese games that he really likes (Earthbound for instance). Mainly I never read the comments though. I don't think yahtzee is nearly as disingenuous as you think he is nor do I think he's trolling. I just think he has a very specific set of standards that aren't most people's standards and askes pointed and important questions about the construction of video games and their designs (while of course doing it in a humorous way).

boo boo · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:36 pm **Posts:** 10850

The thing is, if he really is like that, it only makes him useful for recommendations if he DOES come out and praise a game, I'm talking about idiots who say they'll pass on a game because he doesn't like it. Despite the fact I can probably count the games he likes on both hands, and he'll dismiss a game for any pety reason.

He'll diss a game for being linear, he'll diss it for being sandbox, he'll diss it for being hard, he'll diss it for being easy, he'll diss it being part of any genre he dislikes (fighting, jrpg), he'll diss it for being part of an established franchise. My personal favorite is when he goes after Nintendo fans for wanting more of the same, while bitching about the lack of Half Life expansion packs. His hypocrisy is funny for comedy, but if you judge him like a serious critic it's pretty ridiculous.

Yeah he makes good points from time to time, but it's so obviously an after thought, he only comments on some aspect of a game if he can joke about it, otherwise he'll ignore it. He ignores many aspects of the games he reviews, he says "if he ignores it that means it was a positive". And that's pretty lazy if you were to rate him like a serious critic.

As far as raising important questions about game design, Extra Credits is far superior in pretty much every way. They're nowhere near as funny, and they're much more on the optimistic side of things, but their videos are all about that subject, I've learned way more about what works and doesn't work in game design from them than I ever have from Yahtzee.

Forgotten Son · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:28 pm

boo boo wrote:

He'll diss a game for being linear, he'll diss it for being sandbox, he'll diss it for being hard, he'll diss it for being easy, he'll diss it being part of any genre he dislikes (fighting, jrpg), he'll diss it for being part of an established franchise.

There are examples of him praising games that fit the attributes you just mentioned. He never dismisses games for being any one of these things, instead he explains why they're mediocre/bad examples of that kind of game or why they're too hard or too easy.

Anyway, we should really take this to the video game section.

boo boo · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:36 pm **Posts:** 10850

Yeah. I guess I should make a thread and then we can move this discussion there.

Forgotten Son wrote:

boo boo wrote:

He'll diss a game for being linear, he'll diss it for being sandbox, he'll diss it for being hard, he'll diss it for being easy, he'll diss it being part of any genre he dislikes (fighting, jrpg), he'll diss it for being part of an established franchise.

There are examples of him praising games that fit the attributes you just mentioned. He never dismisses games for being any one of these things, instead he explains why they're mediocre/bad examples of that kind of game or why they're too hard or too easy.

Only he isn't very good at explaining a games flaws at all. And since he loves to exagerate minor or non existant flaws (in SSB Brawl you have to UNLOCK stuff, the horror) wether or not something he complains about in a game is legitimate is not something you'll know for sure until you played the game yourself.

That's really the only point I'm trying to make. By all means, watch his videos, laugh and nod when you agree. But for the love of fucking God, DON'T take what he says as the final word, and definitely don't pass on a game you think you might like just because he didn't.

I'll see idiots say they'll pass on a game because he did a video on it, even if he praised the game, because they commented before anyone could possibly even watch the whole video. I'll see people who used to rave about how awesome a game is completely flip after Yahtzee trashes it, and not only go on about how awful it is, but attack anyone who sees any shred of virtue in the game. And then when he does praise a game, his fans will bitch about that too. His audience consists entirely of fucking tools who flat out refuse to enjoy anything. It's a little fitting too, isn't it?

boo boo · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:36 pm **Posts:** 10850

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=3093

Move stuff there.

ClashWho · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:45 pm **Posts:** 19385

Sherick wrote:

corrections wrote:

Anyway most painful scene in any Harry Potter movie? Easily the sequence at the end of 6 where they all raise their wands up in the air lit after Dumbledore dies like they're at some fucking rock concert. Way to take one of the most emotionally compelling moments in the books and turn it into a cliched and crass piece of shit.

THANK YOU

Pales in comparison to the "NOOOOOOOOOOO" from Revenge of the Sith, though.

ClashWho · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:45 pm **Posts:** 19385

Forgotten Son wrote:

The Sword in the Stone, Sleeping Beauty, Tim Burton's Batman and Terminator 2 were probably the films I watched most as a kid.

For me its the original Star Wars trilogy, Aliens, Predator and Die Hard. That's more like middle school, though. I didn't watch many movies when I was younger than 10 or 11.

ClashWho · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:45 pm **Posts:** 19385

boo boo wrote:

corrections wrote:

boo boo wrote:

IMO the Star Wars prequels are mediocre at worst. They're not terrible. It's just that the original films left such a lasting impression that even if the prequels were really fucking good the fandom would have been disappointed and pissed off anyway. So since the films turned out just ok and failed to live up to any of those expectations, it's somehow become more inexcusable than the Holocaust in the eyes of fans.

I can think of far worse bastardizations of beloved franchises.

Why do you think so?

Because nerds are unpleasible.

Then why did we like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings so much? Not to mention Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, the first two Spider-Man movies, the first Iron Man movie, The Avengers, etc. We seem pretty pleasible on occasion.

Sodacake · **Posted:** Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:17 pm

Boobs is doing his thing where he reads one or two negative comments about something and demonizes an entire subculture for it.

ClashWho · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:45 pm **Posts:** 19385

corrections wrote:

I actually don't mind Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban.

As someone who read none of the books and watched all of the movies, I think that one is BY FAR the best of the series.

pink · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:42 pm **Posts:** 5002

ClashWho wrote:

For me its the original Star Wars trilogy, Aliens, Predator and Die Hard

This was mine + T2 and Jurassic Park

wantabodylikeme · **Posted:** Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:47 pm

this is the worst thread of all time here

boo boo · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:36 pm **Posts:** 10850

Sodacake wrote:

Boobs is doing his thing where he reads one or two negative comments about something and demonizes an entire subculture for it.

Of course.

ClashWho · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:45 pm **Posts:** 19385

wantabodylikeme wrote:

this is the worst thread of all time here

Elaborate.

Film criticism

Who is online