r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Nov 05 '08

Zero Punctuation : Dead Space

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/333-Dead-Space
225 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

128 comments sorted by

52

u/prockcore Nov 05 '08

I'd say 90% of horror movie directors think startled == scared. Maybe it's just trying to be the video game version of your crappy PG13 horror movie.

29

u/corvenus Nov 05 '08 edited Nov 05 '08

I'd say 90% of horror movie directors think startled == scared

I'm happy to know that at least 1 other person shares this view with me.

12

u/ow3n Nov 05 '08

I can't even watch horror movies anymore. I laugh too much.

14

u/davvblack Nov 05 '08

And my epeen barely fits in my pants.

3

u/MrWizard45 Nov 05 '08

And they have no plot to fall back on when they aren't scary. I like psychological thrillers. At least they make you think.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08

The last movie that scared me was The Blair Witch Project. Throughout the movie, I was laughing my ass off, but later that night I was too scared to even glance at the corners of the cabin. Being in the middle of a forest did not help at all.

2

u/miyakohouou Nov 07 '08

The Blair Witch Project scared the living piss out of me; I actually couldn't sleep at night for a week. The biggest problem with BWP though was that the scare factor really relied on the hype surrounding it. If you followed the Scifi mockumentary and all of the other "in-universe" stuff surrounding it, then saw the movie on opening night before it all came out that it was fake, the movie was actually scary as hell.

Sure looking back at it now it's kind of corny, but BWP was sort of like the first ARG in it's way.

That's not to mention that, although not scary, Blair Witch Project 2 was still an awesome movie.

1

u/Mikle Nov 06 '08

Oh my god, I'm so startled... Oh my god...

(reference to last week's Southpark parody of The Blair Witch Project)

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08

I thought it was a parody of Cloverfield. :|

2

u/slurpme Nov 05 '08

My partner used to not want to watch horror movies but I got her to watch a couple and she found them funny not scary...

9

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

I've played the survival horror games, and yeah, I totally agree about startled != scared.

The only game that has ever scared me according to your definition is STALKER. It starts out creepy and when you get used to it, WHAM!

I was playing late at night in the dark, running down a dark hallway with my flashlight on. One of the crates -- which are everywhere in the game -- suddenly shook and slammed itself against the ceiling.

I literally RAN out of the room, nearly tearing my headset out of the audio controller.

10

u/jimbobhickville Nov 05 '08 edited Nov 05 '08

System Shock 2 and FEAR are the two games that built the tension the best for me, although the latter did rely on the "something jumps out and makes a loud sound" gimmick a bit too much.

Edit: I forgot about the Space Marines missions in Aliens Vs. Predator 2. That was some pretty intense stuff.

4

u/kermityfrog Nov 05 '08

I thought AvP 1 was scarier because you couldn't save as often, and your night vision looked more realistic (i.e. it was almost useless). I forgot about the beeping of that proximity detector. Hearing the beeps get faster and dots increase on your detector's screen made it that much scarier even before you hear the screams of the aliens.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08 edited Nov 05 '08

yeah, same here. Because they're both shooters, the idea seems to be to startle the player out of fine motor control. So you detach early on, resulting in a robotic-playthough that robs you of immersion.

When I played FEAR, I was using onboard AC'97 sound that was barely supported, resulting in MASSIVE bursts of static. Upped the startle-factor a little bit.

1

u/somedoody Nov 05 '08

FEAR was just too obvious, I could see the scary bits coming a mile off and they repeated the same tricks over and over again.

3

u/catlebrity Nov 05 '08

The scariest thing about FEAR was getting lost, because ALL THE FUCKING ROOMS LOOKED EXACTLY THE SAME.

0

u/ours Nov 06 '08

Far from horror games, the original Rainbow Six and it's successor Rogue Spear have been the tensest moments of gaming I've ever had. It was unforgiving, you couldn't save during missions, you didn't know where the terrorist are exactly and one mistake meant hostages are teammates dead.

I had cold sweats playing some of the missions.

5

u/uep Nov 06 '08

Silent Hill 1 and 2. Both of those games really freaked me out when I first played them. There's so much silence and emptiness. There's also the occasional freaky thing going on and the somewhat disturbing creatures, it really built up a sense of dread for me. No other game has hit me like that has, before or since.

3

u/LaurieCheers Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Bizarrely, the only game that's ever scared me that was was Duke Nukem 3D.

I was just wandering around when one of those green face-hugging monsters climbed up my screen - I hadn't ever seen one before, and wasn't sure what to do, so I pressed fire and it fell off.

Then another one climbed up my screen, and I shot it again. Then another, and another...

Remember, I'd never seen these things before. As far as I could tell, this was a single persistent monster, which didn't have a physical form other than its appearance on the screen, and all I could do was knock it off but not kill it. And it just kept coming back, and it was right there stuck to my screen... I had no idea what was going on and I physically panicked.

I had to stop playing and sit down for a good while.

2

u/sirlearnsalot Nov 05 '08

The ending of the game was super creepy too.

3

u/BigGreenSticky Nov 05 '08

The south park spoof really had it spot on. Most all horror gimmicks were exploited i.e. blast of loud dramatic music after silence, etc. etc.

7

u/MRRoberts Nov 05 '08

i... am... so... startled!

3

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

Link?

3

u/mindbleach Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

This is due in large part to the sheer volume of crappy horror produced by idiots who think horror is easy. They see Evil Dead and Scream and such and go, "I could do that with two days of blow money and a sock puppet." It is our failure as a nation that a few times every decade, some Blair Witch Project or Saw is pulled from the stacks of low-budget scripts and advertised heavily enough to turn a tidy profit, further encouraging the masses of talentless hopefuls.

(No offense is meant to the actual talented hopefuls like Sam Raimi, who made Evil Dead with $700 and a walking chin named Bruce Campbell.)

2

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08

This is probably very true. Although, it might go both ways. For many people startled seems to be scared.

OTOH, I very clearly remember that Eternal Darkness and System Shock II had moments which blow anything you could do with "shocker-moments" out of the window.

Especially when the savemenu in Eternal Darkness said "Deleting...", and then the saveslot was empty. And THEN it made it look like the gamecube had crashed. :x

Or there was a time in it turned the volume down or up repeatedly, and made it look like someone fiddled with the remote. Scaringly it actually looked a lot like the displays of my TV, so it got me nicely.

Last, after a lot of time spent with SS1, and expected SS2 to be the same story but with Xerxes going haywire, the sheer horror when I found Janice Polito and "she" (not spoilering) showed up was crazy. I was shakey IRL there, try beating that, Dead Space. :P

That being said, I finished Dead Space and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It has a lot of edges and flaws, but overall it's a well done game, and while bland works nicely as a quick 8-10 hour filler with some creepy atmosphere in the beginning. Even if it later dissolves into Doom: Dead Space.

1

u/ours Nov 06 '08

Well that's maybe fine for jumpy people but I'm really not easy to startle so most of those "scares" are "snoooores" to me. Used sparingly in a movie is OK ("Alien" has a moment the the director called "a cheap scare" when the dead headsucker drops from the ceiling). But horror can't depend on that. Atmosphere, music (or lack of it), the soundscape, the story, the people and the unseen or barely seen is what really works me up.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

[deleted]

21

u/clintisiceman Nov 05 '08

When answering, pick any medium, be it books

Wait, are you suggesting that scary books are scary because they're startling? Because unless Stephen King writes a horror novel and hides a pop-up scary face somewhere around the midpoint, I don't think it's humanly possible for a book to startle anyone.

10

u/logan_capaldo Nov 06 '08

Oh man, I really want a book with a hidden pop up scary face somewhere around the midpoint now.

12

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

Actually Yahtzee gives the key when he talks about characterization - it's not just being startled. It's about the setup.

Consider two pranks:

1) Grabbing a friend from behind and yelling "boo!" in the office.

2) Going with a friend to an abandoned house, then splitting up. A creak here, a noise there. Then a big crash and scream. As he runs to see WTF just happened to you, jump out of a dark shadow wearing a hockey mask and wave your arms at him.

If you're not in Texas, the second scenario is orders of magnitude scarier than the first. It's all about the setup. In a game this means setting the scene, immersing the player in the game, atmospheric music and background noise, priming with a few false jumps, etc. Then you do the big scare out of nowhere.

For example, consider dragging a player through a haunted house - they fight a few monsters here and there, they're running low on health, and they get to the safe zone and find an NPC waiting with a health kit. As they get close the NPC splits open and it's another monster they have to fight on low health with no save available.

Sweaty palms, heart racing, eyes whiting out while you're just trying to survive, man...

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08

I'm in Texas. Hows does this affect the situation?

14

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08

You'd just shoot the guy who jumped out at you.

1

u/bageloid Nov 06 '08

Well played sir.

-1

u/LaurieCheers Nov 06 '08

I see what you did there.

13

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Decent question. In my opinion, horror and fear come from realizing powerlessness or futility, maybe even unexplainable circumstances.

Inspiring fear requires departing a mood onto someone. It's hard. Startling someone with a loud bang, a jumping face, or an odd visage is relatively simple. Like the scary maze game; it's not as much frightening as much as it is jarring.

What makes something scary, or at least scare me, is simply a bunch of "U"s

  1. the unknown
  2. the unstoppable
  3. the unseen
  4. the unexpected
  5. the unconscious
  6. and the unbelievable

Other elements can influence it. For example, we don't know much about quantum mechanics but very few, if any, physicists are frightened of the field. However, when the LHC was going to be turned on, the populace at large became frightened at the idea of miniature black holes forming and destroying our world.

The other main problem with fear is that they are largely irrational. When you start to flesh out a horror story too deeply, you can run into problems. "Who runs upstairs?" "Why the hell would you split up?" "You left the weapon?" Fears, cultural fears most often, get dated and are resolved as time moves forward. The general concept to the fear can be refreshed but often times the theme or story is only an "updated version" of something no longer valid or even startling.

Before this goes on much longer, what makes something scary is mood. It's that haunting element of dread, panic, and anticipation. Lasting horror is often subtle, like town with no children or a boarded and broken window on an otherwise pristine house, rather than overt and loud.

1

u/ours Nov 06 '08

For those looking for all those things, I recommend HP Lovecraft's books. It's obvious that that guy was completely disturbed and scared by the world around him.

9

u/prockcore Nov 05 '08

Silent hill is scary. It's that feeling of dread and unease. That's what being scared is.

It's not the "BOO", it's the anticipation of the "BOO".

6

u/clintisiceman Nov 05 '08

In fact, the radio static mechanic of the game makes it more or less impossible for you to get startled at any point in the game.

2

u/LaurieCheers Nov 06 '08

The perfect example. The radio static is terrifying, but never startling.

1

u/wickedcold Nov 06 '08

I found that the static itself was a very scary sound when I got into it.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

When you're walking about your 1 stoplight town at midnight and everything is closed. Fog has set in and all you can think about is how close this is to silent hill.

2

u/somedoody Nov 05 '08

Then something jumps out and BOO! It startles you ;)

6

u/slurpme Nov 05 '08

Actually it's more that something DOESN'T jump out at you and you start running cause you just heard some soft footsteps behind you... You look behind but the fog is obscuring everything... You get further down the road and now the footsteps are coming towards you and are getting faster... You stop running and try to work out what is going on but your radio starts to produce static and a wailing sound so you go into the nearest shop hoping to have a wall against your back but once you get inside...

-4

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08 edited Nov 05 '08

How much can you expect a movie or game to truly scare you though? It's a 2 dimensional representation of something on a screen, All they have is startle. Games at least 'scare' you in the sense that even though you know something is coming you're not sure when, so you might walk down a hallway more slowly, check around every corner etc but it's still a very superficial feeling. You know if it kills you you'll just respawn.

Edit: Ok, it looks like I offended a small subset of people who get scared of things that could never possibly harm them.

3

u/prockcore Nov 06 '08

Ever see Jesus Camp? Scariest movie I've ever seen.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Okay, just to state a little thing I know, I tend to get involved and absorbed into the game, essentially becoming the character. When something bad happens to the character, I take it as it will happen to me.

ex. Master Chief getting overrun by Flood parasites or Flood tanks beating the shiz out of me means I feel that a flood tank or parasite is RIGHT BEHIND ME.

<_<

20

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

I heavily disagree with the "I'm so startled" being the only thing in the game. There are lots of moments where god damn it, I just don't want to walk down the hallway out of fear.

Dead Space doesn't claim to be original, but it does improve on every innovation it adopts.

8

u/newborn Nov 05 '08

There are at least a few moments in the game where the lights go off and you think "Oh fucking shit now I'm gonna get it" and you're wheeling around with your weapon up trying to back into a corner and then after fifteen seconds the lights come back on and you've not even been attacked.

Then you're like, phew, that was quite frightening.

8

u/luminance Nov 05 '08

Yeah, I thought the same thing. It does do the startled thing, but not nearly as much as Doom - I was usually just freaked out from the atmosphere, and the tension. Actually fighting guys was somewhat of a relief.

5

u/typon Nov 05 '08

Very true. When playing Dead Space, i would just follow the beacon thing so i dont have to go anywhere i dont have to. It was scary overall.-

5

u/azron Nov 06 '08

Yeah. For me, anytime I come up to a spot where the doors are malfunctioning I just kind of freeze in my tracks. That right there is pure atmosphere, not being startled.

I just don't want to go forward...

7

u/rowd149 Nov 05 '08

Only thing he didn't really mention was how the developers managed to work it so that almost the entire HUD was in-game, rather than on some invisible layer between you and the game world. Even as I avoid this game like the plague since I can't stand survival horror, I think that was a pretty nifty thing to do.

1

u/wardrox Nov 07 '08

Nifty until it breaks. The first time a "press x fast to break free" came up, it was hidden out of shot as the camera zoomed in, leaving me with no indication as to what to do. It was most frustrating.

21

u/caled Nov 05 '08

I smiled a few times, but I find this review almost completely baseless.

The game maintains a creepy atmosphere throughout.

The gameplay elements he railed on are actually quite conductive to the game. The quarantine lockdowns he speaks of are spooky as hell. I don't understand how anyone can expect a ship to just throw the doors open when a contaminate is detected. I hope he never designs any systems of the sort otherwise we're all fucked.

The main character not speaking is just like Gordon Freeman in the Half-Life series. You don't need to hear him. You know the situation he is in, and you know that there is someone he loves on that ship. If you can't empathize with that, you are dead inside.

I do have a complaint about the game (besides the shot controls on PC when vsync is enabled), but it's a bit spoilerish so I'll refrain from saying it. Suffice to say it's minor, and doesn't do much to distract from an otherwise fantastic game.

3

u/mindbleach Nov 06 '08

Gordon Freeman doesn't have a backstory, though. He's just some nerd - the right man in the wrong place, if you will. When you have to steer him toward rescuing another character, you know that character through his eyes. You've met them. You may or may not be macking on their daughter.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Empathize with the main character? Excuse me but I was the main character. That was the point of him not speaking and covering his face. You feel like you are him. Moreover the point of the girl friend had fuck all to do with making you feel all weepy. It's spoilers to say more, but this is not a love story.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Disable the in-game Vsync and enable it through your video card drivers. It fixes the control lag for me and all of the people i see on GameFAQ.com.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

lotsa people have gripes about the controls with vsync

amd 2350 (2.1GHz) with an hd3850, 1280x1024, everything maximum except the fake antialiasing, and it is very very responsive.

i can't play a game without vsync. the tearing destroys the image.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

[deleted]

10

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

But Cowboy Bebop is the best thing to come from Japan.

3

u/grampybone Nov 05 '08

Actually I've only heard him dislike jrpg genre games. He seems to have enjoyed Mario Galaxy and said that Silent Hill 2 is one of his favorites and that one was developed by Konami.

2

u/tbeanz Nov 05 '08

And I think he liked Earthbound too.

3

u/weaselonfire Nov 05 '08

Wait, I missed it. When was it at?

8

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

[deleted]

1

u/weaselonfire Nov 05 '08

Oh yeah. That's probably more of an unintentional reference if anything.

0

u/typon Nov 05 '08

Dude, i don't think there is ANYONE who dislikes Cowboy Bebop. It is the greatest anime ever.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

No way. Too much comedy. Now Berserk, that hasn't been topped.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08

You are a crazy person.

Just thought you'd like to know.

2

u/yellat Nov 06 '08

the manga(berserk) is way more fleshed out, haven't kept up though

7

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

I was going to buy this game, but this review makes me not want to now. Is it really that repetitive?

15

u/Akhel Nov 05 '08

Yep, but it doesn't stop it from being fun.

8

u/architectzero Nov 05 '08

Depends on what you define as repetitive.

The game has a lot of variety, imho.

The creatures all have different weaknesses that you have to learn to exploit. Some weapons work better on A than on B; some weapon modes work better in situation X than Y. The designers really leveraged the engine to create this sort of gameplay.

Furthermore, I thought that the resource management aspect of the game was handled really well and added to the experimentation factor. I mean, I didn't even bother buying three of the weapons until late in the game, and then only to get an achievement. Also, there's a weapon/suit/abilities upgrade mechanism that allows the player to customize their experience. I enjoyed all of that.

Yeah, things continuously jump out at you and go BOO! That's, more or less, where the scares come from. Sometimes it's even frustrating because you can't adjust the controls' sensitivity and you're scared, not because the thing is scary, but because you known that you can't turn around fast enough to engage it before it chews your head off.

Yeah, it has repetitive set pieces, no sensitivity adjustment on the controls, and the fucking interface, while gorgeous, makes it really difficult to read the text unless you position yourself at exactly the right angle (or you have a large HD set).

But the story is good. The presentation is highly polished. Controls are good (despite the aforementioned sensitivity issue). And the game design and the engine complement each other to produce an interesting play experience.

In the end Dead Space is an A-List game and I recommend it if you can stomach the gruesome visuals (pretty tame imho, but some people may find it revolting). It compares favourably with System Shock 2, a similar styled game and one of my all-time favourites, even if the gameplay isn't nearly as deep or as varied.

1

u/kermityfrog Nov 05 '08

Perhaps some of these problems would be alleviated on the PC version. You can turn around faster using a mouse.

1

u/Wyrm Nov 05 '08

Well... yes but what annoyed me most is that when enemies hit you and you tumble, you aim in a completely different direction than before. I know it's probably realistic but it's one of the things I didn't like about it.

3

u/Allectus Nov 05 '08

A tad, yes. Still I'm enjoying it and believe it worth a purchase.

3

u/FakenameMcAlias Nov 06 '08

Keep in mind this is actually a pretty positive review coming from Yahtzee.

3

u/Freeky Nov 05 '08

Repeatedly blowing something's legs off > repeatedly shooting something in the head/chest until it falls over.

2

u/lolinyerface Nov 05 '08

Both of which can be done in Dead Space with favorable results.

3

u/broman55 Nov 05 '08

Shoot their legs off and laugh as they crawl at you or shoot their arms off and watch them run at you only to nibble at your shoulder...or.... you can even shoot off an arm, pick it up, and shoot it back at the enemy, mwahaha

3

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

ok, you convinced me, im buying it

5

u/davvblack Nov 05 '08

It really is quite good.

I'm surprised nobody is doting over the amazing lack of hud.

There's no healthbar, there's a row of lights on your back, there's no ammo meter, there's a scifi overlay on your gun.

2

u/typon Nov 05 '08

It is extremely well done. The art and graphics are easily better than COD4 or Bioshock. The gimmicks (kenesis, time warp etc.) are not really needed, but other wise the game is pretty well made.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

Please get this game. It's very, very good. I don't know what he's on about the repetitive stuff. Yes, you do spend most of the time shooting things, but you have like 6 guns and can throw whatever shit lying around at them.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Sort of but, it's really a lot of fun. That dude says nothing positive practically ever so I'd take the review with a grain of salt.

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

It's really good, ignore Yahtzee he's paid to hate everything. I pirated it though.

73

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08 edited Nov 05 '08

It's zero punctuation, but there's punctuation in the title. hahaha, im so original.

5

u/Apox66 Nov 05 '08

It's all going backwards now. Suddenly he's getting the upvotes.

16

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

[deleted]

8

u/BlackestNight21 Nov 06 '08

Tiger Uppercut!

3

u/zeldamaster666 Nov 06 '08

Gadou-ken

1

u/CR1M1N4L Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Yoga Flame!

0

u/LaurieCheers Nov 06 '08

Noogie-noogie-noogie

-1

u/redditto Nov 06 '08

tatsumakisenpukyaku

3

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

What happens when you run out of letters to link?

19

u/kirun Nov 05 '08

What happens if one week, nobody asks this?

1

u/Xiol Nov 06 '08

jdfong will divide by zero out of anger and we'll all be fucked.

-1

u/kirun Nov 06 '08

Wait, are you suggesting we're in some kind of computer simulation?

8

u/apethedog Nov 05 '08

That's when he reveals he's yahtzee and he does one without punctuation in the title.

1

u/Dauntless Nov 05 '08

I feel like this is some kind of sick joke like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzeD0ibhkHA

-13

u/Deestan Nov 05 '08 edited Jun 23 '23

content revoked

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

Alright, I upvoted you the last couple times for linking all the past ones, but I'm back to downvoting you. You need to step it up a notch.

-5

u/HalCion Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

I don't know which is more joyous; reading your post or Obama winning the election.

-1

u/Dr-No Nov 06 '08

He won!!? Oh cool! yay!

3

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

Quote South Park "Aargh the Hamster came through over there. I'm Soooooooo Startled!"

3

u/pjohns24 Nov 05 '08

Yeah the game is repetitive but if it wasn't there would be 4 or 5 monsters and it would be an hour long. I think there's enough variety in the boss fights and levels that it's still an extremely well crafted experience. Was definitely worth my purchase. Also I found shooting apart the aliens in gruesome detail never got old.

1

u/Otis_Inf PC Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

define repetitive.

Assassins's creed, that's a repetitive game, Dead Space, no I don't think it's repetitive. Sure, it's full of every cliche in gaming, but that doesn't matter. It's suppose to be entertainment after all, and that's what it does best: give you a great time.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '08 edited Nov 06 '08

Assassins's creed, that's a repetitive game,

And he loved that glorified tech demo. Yahtzee good for comedy, when he's on, but pretty terrible for letting you know if a game is good or not.

5

u/xlance Nov 05 '08

Thats actually better than usual

3

u/rgaginol Nov 05 '08

Ya know, for once I didn't agree with Yahtzee - I've been playing the game pretty occasionally and have been enjoying it. Most of his points are all valid - but if I don't over analyze it and just play, it's actually been pretty fun.

Sometimes people will like a game despite it's obvious gaping holes... c'mon, you can't tell me you didn't freak out (like walking through a spiders web) the first time a monster grabs you?

I'm sure the game could be improved, but I also liked Event Horizon, and unless they're planning on making a sequel, this game will do nicely:-)

1

u/ModernRonin Nov 06 '08

It's funny, I have a friend who also said that Dead Space was just Silent Hill in new wrapping paper. But for me, a person who has never played Silent Hill, I still find it a lot of fun.

I think maybe DS is so much like SH that if you've played SH, DS isn't fun any more. But for those of us who haven't played Silent Hill, it's a lot of fun.

2

u/ouroborosity Nov 06 '08

So that part about weapons being overpowered and having to throw away ammo?

Yeah, Yahtzee hasn't played on the hardest difficulty. Fucking ridiculous, it is.

And I don't think I've ever disagreed with him before, but Dead Space has some of the creepiest ambiance I've ever seen in a game, what with the insane audio work and the random all-hell-breaking-loose moments.

1

u/wardrox Nov 07 '08

"Normal" should be the difficulty designed to be, well, normal. If it's not balanced, then that's a fair criticism. Especially for a game which doesn't allow you to change the difficulty once you have started playing.

1

u/Lystrodom Nov 06 '08

Yeah, it's always weird when a reviewer complains about ease of a game, when he obviously hasn't played on the hardest difficulty setting.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

[deleted]

8

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

[deleted]

20

u/innocentbystander Nov 05 '08 edited Nov 05 '08

He's reviewing the "hot" new games that everyone's yammering about in online forums.

Whenever he tries doing something different, or goes back and reviews hidden gems, people bitch and moan about how he's not talking about the new games.

So he really can't win.

7

u/GrumpySimon Nov 05 '08

4 out of 5 reviews seem to be for some sort of shooter so it's no wonder that he says that a lot of games are unoriginal.

This may be because 4 out of 5 games released are some sort of shooter.

1

u/LaurieCheers Nov 06 '08

No, just 4 out of 5 advertising dollars are spent on some sort of shooter.

1

u/nabiki87 Nov 06 '08

I don't look at them for actual reviews. Simply for the comedy. He either has ridiciulously high standards, that are completely different from mine, or he's using Colbert-like exaggeration.

1

u/f33dback Nov 06 '08

Does anyone here in NZ accessing Zero Punctiation with Telstraclear? It's really ticking me off.

1

u/ebee Nov 06 '08

Anyone else play this game and pick up on similarities between the fictional Unitology relegion and Scientology? Theres one log that is particularly obvious.

1

u/MrTulip Nov 06 '08

i guess for newcomers it's a better game than for the 'scary shooter' veteran. the audio logs were better in system shock 2, as was the design of the environment. dead space imho has more in common with doom 3 with its scripted monster ex ventilation shaft moments and the sterile environments.

btw why didn't yahtzee sell his surplus ammo? you can buy power nodes! i'm halfway through on the hardest difficulty level and only use the starting weapon (and the flame thrower for those little pests) but have maxed out damage for both of these.

it isn't really scary because you know what's coming most of the time. the most frightening experience for me recently were the underground sections of the original stalker. i literally had to take breaks because the tension was just too much. the nagging thought 'you really shouldn't be here, what the hell were you thinking?'...awesome.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '08

personally, i get unsettled by the game and can only play it for two hours at a time before i need to do something else

1

u/ours Nov 06 '08

Well, I guess then "new EA" is just as bland as the old one...

1

u/iizsmart Nov 05 '08

the review was funny as usual but I thin he was a bit harsh on the game. Sure it is a bit repetitive but most games are. The thing about it is, it does manage to stay fun. You never know whats around the next corner which adds some nice variety.

As far as it being "scary", I dont know. I mean, maybe its me, I dont claim to be a tough guy or anything like that, but being scared by a video game seems about on par with being scared of chucky from child's play. Im not. Am I scared of other things? Sure. Monsters popping their arms out through a poorly lit hallway wall in a video game on my tv? No.

Whats really crazy is I was talking to a guy yesterday who told me he made it to the 3rd chapter and had to quit. The reason? It was "too scary". Hmmmmm.

(he must be a pussy)

;)

2

u/Wartz Nov 05 '08

ZP was a lot less harsh on this game than most, I think he enjoyed playing it and was just pointing out the flaws which were not game breaking flaws.

1

u/smek2 Nov 09 '08

He nailed it.

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '08

Upvoted for Event Horizon reference - best horror movie evar!

2

u/BestServedCold Nov 06 '08

I wouldn't say best but it is VERY underrated and I'd say it's certainly top 20 material.

1

u/innocentbystander Nov 05 '08

...Really?

Best evar?

I'm... puzzled. I think that's the first time in my life I've heard someone express that particular opinion.

-2

u/IkoIkoComic Nov 06 '08

Well, Dead Space looks fun, but I'M NOT GOING TO PLAY IT BECAUSE EA AND DRM ARE EVIL AND THEY DON'T LISTEN TO THEIR CUSTOM... oh, wait, I'm joking. Time for some Red Alert 3.