Zero Punctuation

I've commented before about how much respect and admiration I had for Roger Ebert, and about how it was his influence that taught me to be willing to do more than just pick apart details for the sake of picking them apart, but to use that to be able to recognize the truly excellent examples of media.  If I focus on how the water moves in one game, it's only because I've played Hydrophobia and saw how great water can look. It doesn't stop me from enjoying a game, movie, or book, though, when I notice a detail that I think could be done better.

But there's another kind of critic.  The kind that simply focuses on the negative, that believes that most praise anything deserves is "it's great or it's crap." 

And yet, somehow they can be some of the most insightful critics, sometimes, because they'll always be willing to step back away from the show and look at what's happening behind the scenes or out of the spotlight to find where the stage foundation has mold or the backdrop is just cardboard with sparkles on it and man, this analogy has become really strained.

So yeah, let's just talk about Yahtzee Croshaw and Zero Punctuation.

Located at one of my favorite video game (and other nerdy hobbies resource) The Escapist, Zero Punctuation is a video game review series where nothing is sacred, no topic is above criticism, and no joke is too vulgar.

Well, okay, I haven't heard him give his rendition of The Aristocrats yet, but he probably won't ever have an 8:00 slot TV show on a major network.

Yahtzee Croshaw, the author, animator, and voice of the series, is a fast-talking English-born Australian who has strong opinions and isn't afraid to bludgeon your opinions under them in the name of getting his point across.  He can come across as spiteful, hateful, and petty, but only to things that (he feels) really deserve it.  He'll strip a game down, point at all of its imperfections, and laugh in such a way that it encourages everybody else to laugh, too, but there's a big difference between Yahtzee and, say, Roger Ebert.

A critic like Roger Ebert, when he tells me he didn't like a movie, he usually expresses how it influenced him.  I'm able to take that perspective, compare it to how I usually feel about similar things, and draw a conclusion that will influence whether I want to see said film.  When Yahtzee rails against a game, I watch partly to know where the weaknesses are, but also because it really is fun to see someone deconstruct something that someone else worked so hard on, even if they're using a wrecking ball to do it.

However, there is a trait that they both have in common, and that reviews both have made for things I never in a million years thought I'd enjoy have lead to some of the best experiences I've had in their respective medias.

For instance, one of my favorite game series currently is the Saints Row series, and I'd actually be hard-pressed to tell you a game that does everything it wants to do as well as the third in the series.  It's not the most engaging story, it's not the most beautiful graphics, but it is pure, unadulterated fun, and I never would have tried it if Yahtzee's review of the second game hadn't piqued my interest.

There was also Just Cause 2, a game that will forever have a place on my game shelf, if only because there's something undeniably fun about hooking a person with a grapple line, tying the other end to a Jeep, and then driving off while dragging the guy behind me and then leaping out and parachuting to safety as I watch him scream and flail helplessly.  Again, this is a game I might have ignored originally, but Yahtzee's recommendation got me to try it.

Now, I realize I come off here sometimes as simply gushing about the people whose videos, shows, or movies I follow, and I'll say now that Yahtzee isn't a perfect reviewer.  I've disagreed with some of the language he's used (people who know me will know what kind of language I'm talking about), but I'm able to look past that as it doesn't happen often.  He can sometimes get on a bit of a soapbox and lose sight of the game he's even reviewing, though again it's rather infrequent.  I've also seen him hate a game or two simply because of the genre of game, without really explaining what his problem with that style of game is, which makes it hard to really connect with my own perspective on games.

Oh, and sometimes he seems to be so desperate to make a joke work that he'll stretch it out beyond any hope of being as clever as he wanted it to be and it tends to fall flat on its face, but there's usually another joke shortly afterward that starts to bring the humor back up again.

I will say, though, that it is nice to have someone with a public forum rail against some of the things in video games that I'm simply sick of and want to go away (looking at you, realistic war shooters).

I recommend giving an episode or two a try (particularly the original Duke Nukem Forever video, one of his flashback episodes or his Orange Box one to see how he handles a game he really likes, and then just pick a few at random).  With a lot of reviewers of video games not really willing to call out a company that often or having a bit of a double standard when it comes to properties being original (seriously, why is it that the Warriors series takes heat for being a similar game every time, but sports games really are the same thing every time but they get great reviews?), it's nice to have at least one lunatic standing outside with a pitchfork willing to burn the building down with everyone in it.

At least, as long as you're outside and you have enough marshmallows to eat that you can ignore the screams.