The Witness & Bombshell (Zero Punctuation)
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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This week, Zero Punctuation reviews The Witness & Bombshell.
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![Cody Johnson - I'm Gonna Love You (with Carrie Underwood) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yy9PuYMU29g/mqdefault.jpg)
"The weapon upgrades are less significant than a pubic louse in cancer ward" - Yahztees best line to date
"I'm more of a junior jumble man myself"
Nyeh heh heh.
+Chocl8215 Exactly my thoughts
-_-
Oh undanktail~
+Chocl8215 finally someone gets it.
Ooooh, you wily sod.
The further forward you go, the further back the fun is found.
Yeah, I agree with Yahtzee on the Witness as far as the mountain went. I had lots of fun figuring out all of the puzzles on the island in that sort of Eureka I just remembered where I put my keys last night kind of way and felt super proud of every one that I correctly solved because I enjoy that sort of thing but when I was presented with more of the same puzzles in the moment that I was going to be told why the hell all the people on the island mysteriously turned to stone and instead was greeted by more of the same albeit harder puzzles I lost interest and went to bed, only to solve a couple of those puzzles in my sleep, as you do, which only led me to even more frustrating puzzles and no answers and I haven't really played the game since even thought I would like to finish it. It's a game made specifically for the kind of people who enjoy the thrill of figuring out a puzzle and then solving it and it's pretty unashamed in that sense so anyone who says it's really good or really bad, take with a grain of salt because it is a very specific genre that appeals quite a bit to some people and very little to others. To counteract one point the good old Yahtzee made, part of the fun (for the puzzle solver type) is figuring out what rule needs to be followed in order to solve the puzzle, and I think they did a pretty good job of giving very easy tutorial like puzzles at the beginning of an area to let you in on the mechanic before giving you any actual puzzles to solve with said mechanic.
Hello from seven years in the future. I love this game, but in part because it does never actually explain anything at all, even if you finish it. So if you haven't already learned this, I tell it to you now so you don't accidentally try to finish it!
Not gonna argue with the Witness critique, because it's definitely not a game for everybody. Did make me chuckle when he complained that the puzzles are disconnected from the pretty environment, though. Honestly I've never seen a game where the puzzles and the environment were so closely intertwined.
@@trequor yeah it's always hilarious to watch puzzle games be overly pretentious, or fail to be funny.
Portal is the king of puzzle games.
@@adamj4759 Not arguing with Portal’s status as king of puzzle games. It’s better in some ways, but it seriously doesn’t come close to integrating with the environment as The Witness. The only time it even integrates them at all is at the end of Portal 2. Seriously, in what other game do you solve a puzzle by noticing the sound of your footsteps as you walk through a maze, noticing the shadows cast by a tree, or by standing at different locations to see sunlight reflect off of metal?
"personally I am more of a junior jumble man"
Isn't that an undertale quote?
Yep
Lol, you so nailed the Witness. I like the game, but all it is justified.
And BTW, *NO, there is no story at the end, and NOTHING to tight it all together*
(Yes I know the secret ending. No, It does not help)
If anything the secret ending makes even less sense than flying away in a fucking elevator.
Secret ending?
ya, you can get it in less than 10 minutes into the game.
how?
When you get to the first gate at the very beginning of the game DO NOT OPEN IT! Use the sun as a starting point for an environmental puzzle and the antenna on the gate as a trail, when done right, the gate will open into a brand new place!
I loved The Witness but this review is fantastic.
The Witness is probably the most polarizing game I've seen in quite a long time. Many people see the game as an outstanding and intricately-designed atmospheric puzzle games that captures them like a Disney movie captures a toddler, while the rest see it as trite and pretentious garbage that isn't worth anyone's time.
Beh it's usually like that with walking simulators.
True. I could be wrong, but I think this is the first walking simulator that released with some hype behind it (only because of Blow's name)
+ingeniousclown Gaming Didn't notice it but wouldn't be surprised given his eh popularity i guess? Well regardless people will never agree on something like: it's just another walking sim with like five interesting puzzles overall.
I don't see what is pretentious about the game itself. If you had no knowledge of Jonathan Blow, heard his interviews about the game or known that they delayed the game by at least 2 years, then I can't think of any way in which it is pretentious. I guess I am in the middle. I was excited for the game and was one of the reasons I pre-ordered a launch PS4 because I thought it was going to be a launch title or be released shortly thereafter. I'm about 300 puzzles into the game and have enjoyed figuring out the puzzles. While I had higher hopes for the game, I'm not disappointed either. I plan to finish the main puzzle quest and most of the side puzzles but probably won't bother 100%ing it if I can't locate everything in a reasonable amount of time. Should have been $19.99 instead of $39.99 or whatever. Also a 7/10 or 8/10 would have been better than the 9/10 ratings.
+FireMrshlBill if you like the game then more power to you the part that annoys is people who are like: this is the best puzzle game since the beginning of time. I tried it, got bored, refunded but I can see the appeal.
"Made by Jonathan Blow. Ironically, it sucks."
Or fittingly, it blows.
I was just thinking that another video is about to be posted here.
junior jumble? no time, another settlement needs our help, here, let me mark it on your map.
You think Junior Jumble is tough? You ain't seen nothin, because Senior Jumble's where it's at.
Yahtzee is the man of infinite analogies.
Yahtzee review Huniepop for the lulz
You need to play Spooky's House Of Jumpscares!!! It's a really good horror game!!
Wait he wishes that the witness puzzles actually integrated with the environment? Who's gonna tell him?
Undertale reference! Fandom universally climaxes at the same time!
I think they should release the review of Undertale as a separate vid. Just "Undertale is a good game.", roll credits.
Well it’s out now
PEACHY FUCKING KEEN
Gee Yahtzee, I thought you'd be more into the CROSword!
PEACHY-FUCKING-KEEN!
I wonder how quick the Escapist would fall apart if Yahtzee would leave.
+DiggingUpGraves I give them five minutes.
+Daedra Sheogorath id give them at least half a day, that's when the lady of the asleep people will wake up and realise.
+DiggingUpGraves For like a year Zero Punctuation were literally the only videos they were uploading (to RUclips)
He is was and always will basically be all the escapist is, so pretty godamn fast considering most people don't even go to the site anymore since they started putting these up on RUclips.
Which reminds me that I really should cancel that premium subscription.
+pikistikman AND THANK GOD FOR THAT
Would've been funny if Yahtzee actually got to the end, stepped into the magical elevator and... erm, spoiler alert.
Got transported all the way back to the very beginning and seeing all his puzzles undone.
For a second I thought you meant in bombshell
unless you 100% it and find out ye the player were play testing a vr puzzle game and achieved mild insanity of following lines and dots
@@prcervi Wait, seriously, that's the way the game ends? The big reveal is that it was a puzzle game? I sure am glad I don't know what Jonathan Blow looks like, else there's be some risk of an assault charge in my future. Christ.
@@lexslate2476 There is a subset of players who'll never get to see that ending, because they never discover one specific easter egg - one that wasn't necessarily meant to be discovered, and which is one of the major spoilers of the game. Can the secret hotel ending even be considered an ending by that reasoning?
@@stepexgd6628 secret endings are still endings, and how long does a spoiler warning last? it's been 3 years and that ending has been posted to youtube over a dozen times already
I wish that in the Witness, instead of the solved puzzles staying put, maybe they magically turned into another part of the environment (ie, the bridges becoming actual bridges instead of flattened puzzles forming a path across, podiums turning into small trees or weathered statues). Would've made completing everything a kind of magical immersive experience, without needing any story behind why.
you have to not have actually played the game to think this sugestion makes any sense whatsoever
@@chao3948 wow you're right how did you know Sherlock?
@@athousandfeethigh you are saying that as if you not having played the game was something you outright stated in your comment?
I actually liked the bridges made of puzzles. Didn't enjoy the puzzles themselves though.
Ending all gender politics debates in the comments section by adding a subtle Undertale reference.
This man js a GENIUS.
+Just “AtticusZed” Atticus Zed it most likely wasnt an undertale reference, but hey, he referenced an extremely old newspaper game that was in undertale for a second, SO IT MUST BE UNDERTALE!!!!! XDDDDDDDD NYEH HEH HEH XDDDDDD XD XD PAPYRUS XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD
***** Varied tastes, dickweed. >:U
+Just “AtticusZed” Atticus Zed I sense a flame war abrewin'
Bacon Invader Nah, it wasn't a genuine insult. I'm just giving the guy a hard time. :p
Sorry,I didn't know there were people who could calmly respond to comments on the internet. :P
I live a meaningless, empty life day in and day out, curled up in the fetal position in a corner. But then, once a week, a light comes to me, it speaks to me in a sarcastic, disinterested tone and I feel. My life is given meaning for five glorious minutes. Then, the light fades away, and I resume my life as a meaningless sack of flesh.
Cool!
+Tyler Hume fucking edgy bro.
+Tyler Hume you know you could just make a zero punctuation marathon and watch every single video he has made, and that will probably be the best day of your life.
+Tyler Hume And I so very much wish those five glorious minutes isn't interspersed with a cheap attempt at grabbing viewership in the form of "Judging X by the cover".
+Tyler Hume So the president's speeches give you life?
"positive role model for young women with grenade lunchers" made my day
"grenade lunchers"
Nailed it!
ah yes, grenade lunchers, the mythical beasts who only eat personal explosive ordnance
@@hunt1ngh0und No relation to the Rocket Lawnchair from Metal Slug
"The P.M.S" lmao wtf were they thinking?
+Abel Villa (The Cynic)
Lolololo so funny, right guys?
+Abel Villa (The Cynic) They were thinking that it was pretty funny. Which is kinda is.
+Abel Villa (The Cynic) They should have been honest, and just called it The Cringe.
***** How!? Pretty sure calling a rocket launcher after such a thing would be worthy of a very brief, very light chuckle regardless of feminism existing.
Not everything has to be so esoteric.
This comment thread inspires headdesk. No sensibility can be administered. -_- drat
Didn't bombshell start as a duke nukem game before they lost the IP?
Yes, it did.
yep
That would explain a lot, except why Bombshell isn’t a FPS
Shelly is a rejected Duke Nukem Forever character.
Ion maiden: she’s a new fps protagonist on the original build engine from 3d realms. ...actually looks fun, time will tell. Check steam.
I thought I was alone on the witness, my enjoyment with the game was on a steady decline the more I went on. It's just not fun or fulfilling. And just like yahtzee, as soon as I saw one more fucking puzzle inside the mountain I shut the game off and have not gone back.
Nothing like a gender swapped Achilles for a protagonist.
He's been waiting to use that opening joke since he reviewed Braid.
The Witness certainly could use some ambient music. The ONLY music in the game is during a totally optional challenge area. You pop down a record player's needle, the record plays some classical music, which is the timer for solving a series of totally random puzzles (the themes are the same in each set, but the puzzles are themselves randomized). There are two pieces of music (the first one escapes me), and the second is "In the Hall of the Mountain King," which is being used here as the warning that your time is running out. It does make the puzzle solving a bit more tense, because as the music starts to speed up, you start to panic a bit. I've gotten through the challenge twice, but that's because I enjoy brain teaser puzzles. It's not for everyone, but I think it's good.
There is music also as you approach the nominal end sequence, reminiscent of an organ in an ethereal church service. I would maintain the silence (in terms of music) of most of the game, in the context of the presence of music in the parts you and I mentioned, is centrally thematic. Music playing during the game itself would detract from the loneliness and the search for meaning central to the game's themes. Other games have also explored the importance of silence in exploration--if I remember correctly Shadow of the Colossus is a great example of this, giving you music only to accompany the boss battles in the game, and you spend the rest of the game confronted with silent ambiance.
“Congrats on getting through that bowl of dog food player. Here’s your reward, another helping of dog food.”
I see that you too watched the video...
@@ArcaneAzmadi Hey if I wanna quote my favorite line in the comments, I’m free to.
I love this. Jonathan Blow is a hack.
Junior Jumble? That's for baby bones!
GameFace Referential humor is a crutch.
@@greatgoblin3065 Ouch
@@greatgoblin3065 Maybe, but isn't pointing that out here a bit like chiding a casual music fan for singing karaoke? 🤷🏾♂️
KniGhTKrawLeR9 karaoke isn’t a crutch?
There's actually a ton of environmental puzzles in the Witness, however the're all optional and easy to miss.
Also, while I enjoyed the game, all his criticisms of it are fair =)
Did you miss the part where he mentioned he completed all the areas and got all the laser beams to activate?
@@randomness928 Truly profound genius
@@antonlindstrom8373 The puzzles of which I speak do not activate the laser beams, you can activate all of them without completing a single of these puzzles.
A surprising amount of reviewers missed all the environmental puzzles, which were absolutely the coolest part of the game
@@willowpets They're rather sneaky, I didn't notice them myself until near the end of the game. I obviously saw the squiggly lines all over the environment, but I thought they were hints for later puzzles. It only occurred to me to try clicking them much latter on.
Did any of you catch the secret third ending involving Rich Evan's pee?
XD no where?
Wud I do to/with/where
What's going on with Rich's piss?
Of Bombshell? Yeah!
Damn this is one of the most cynical reviewers I've ever seen. I like it.
damn I remember in the Braid review he lamented that Braid was actually pretty good because he wanted to make a pun on Johnathan Blow's name, he'd been holding onto that one for a while lmao
Oh yeah, the Witness didn't have music... I didn't even notice. Personally I think having one or two tracks that looped would have just driven me insane and I'd have turned it off anyway.
Or maybe they could've actually made a full fucking soundtrack. That would've been better.
+Jacob Thomson
but then you wouldn't be able the hear the unique variety of 1,100 footstep sound effects
+ɢᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴅᴜᴅᴇ™ Kek
Honestly, your reviews are not only incredibly in-depth and laden with good points, they're also hilarious.
So much snark. So little time.
It’s funny to see how far along Bombshell came by downgrading like crazy to the Build engine and actually taking time to make a fun game
i got here quick. wait. undertale references already?
+whereismybike Let us pray for more.
+whereismybike*The sight of undertale references fills you with determination*
+whereismybike h0i! i'M Undertale Reference!
KuroroSama42 hOI!!!!
+Bram06 undertale is a good game * ending music *
These are the prime example of 5 min videos that eat your whole day away in laughter
Turns out Bombshell was supposed to be a Duke Nukem game...except 3D Realms sold the Duke Nukem IP to Gearbox back in 2010. Gearbox sued, 3D Realms changed the game to not include Duke Nukem.
Bombshell has a sequel now. It's an FPS in the Build engine called Ion Fury. They were going to call it Ion Maiden, but the band Iron Maiden sued them. At this point the lawsuit is still ongoing, but they changed the name and released the game anyway.
I knew yahtzee wouldn't let me down on The Witness.
I feel like the puzzles in that game should be in a paperback book sitting on the coffee table next to some crosswords and sudoku puzzles.
They're mostly fine puzzles, they just don't feel like enough to carry a game, or even tie into the abandoned amusement park island. The best you get are "overlays" hidden somewhere nearby the puzzles, which are not at all hinted at and you have to know that the reason you're getting the puzzle wrong is because of a hidden element you have to go find. Pretty much turns half the game into a hidden object game.
Playing through the game, I thought most of the puzzles were just a matter of sussing out the more or less irrelevant rules and only a few really required thought to puzzle out the elements. Those few puzzles I enjoyed. But most of them I found to be a nuisance of guesswork.
Oh, look, another reviewer who didn't notice the environmental puzzles littered everywhere throughout the island. Y'know, the ones that require you to constantly look at the world around you in a new and interesting way in order to spot the hidden patterns, which is essential to understanding the game's subtle narrative about perspective.
But I'm sure it was an intelligent and well-thought idea, making the existence of one of the game's core mechanics not only a secret, but a super-duper secret that you're not allowed to spoil. Ensuring a great majority of your players slog though a textureless, uninteractive world is a revolutionary idea. If it wasn't, then Blow might not be Indie Game Jesus.
Holy crap, it's like they made Duke Nukem with a female character.
I think bombshell was supposed to be duke nukem game,but it was scrapped.
it started out as a Duke Nukem game, but Gearbox but a stop to that since they now have the rights to the character.
I got the Witness because I liked the idea of a game where there's only cereal box puzzles.
I started hating the game 30 minutes in.
Frankly I find Portal had the best female protagonist. She never spoke and she never did anything without the approval of the man in her life, namely myself.
+Nathan Higgins Yeah, about that... you were Chell. Like, she was your avatar. You weren't bossing her around, you were experiencing the world through her.
Now there is a little bit of woman in you.
+Malcom Chase My good sir, I do believe you missed the god-damn point of the fucking joke.
Alex Shannon I thought the "Now there is a little bit of woman in you." would add levity to the comment so it wasn't taken so seriously.
But truth be told, I bet anything that a few people in this comment section will think that the only way to make a cool female protagonist is to go full silent hero like Chell or early Samus.
Nah, she doesn't spend enough time in the kitchen.
+ThePlayer920
I resenet that remark. She was dutifully persuing a delicious cake for almost the whole length of the game.
Ooh boy Undertale reference now I too must make an Undertale reference look at me give me your attention screw you dad
+Mr. Stretch That got freudian REALLY fast
Dark...
...like your dad.
But the environments DO come into play with puzzles! THERE ARE PUZZLES THAT ARE FUCKING AWESOME IN THE LANDSCAPE!!! Plus it doesn't NEED to explain the puzzles directly cause it takes like 5 seconds to figure out the theme.
oh goodie. more graph paper
When i saw the name i thought it was about a game whose story involves a witness to a crime and a loose cannon cop called Bombshell
'puzzles don't integrate with the world'
that's actually just wrong
"The puzzles don't integrate with the lovely environment"... Ummm
Fair enough though, it's far from a perfect game and everyone's entitled to an opinion lol
+Tharsshanan2 Why did you need two comments to finish one thought?
+Anastas1786 I'm not sure...
+erybotond ...but I want to make this a joke.
+Anastas1786 Thatwould probably be because he commented before finishing watching...
Yahtzee rather-stealthily lifted a line from an old Penny Arcade comic there - "bubbles with non-specific rage" vs "smoulders with generic rage" from a strip about Prince of Persia 2.
Looks like Yahtzee joined the club of finding the way to the secret ending in the Witness SO easily that he didn't even notice it WAS the secret ending.
....He really didn’t, it sounds like he never even noticed a single secret puzzle. The secret ending isn’t in the mountain.
Less significant than a public louse in a cancer ward. Truly he is a master of his craft.
Jim Sterling got his own channel, which was greatly to his benefit because people knew what they were in for. Before I felt like the jimquisition was out of place and felt weird, now I watch every episode of it. You should make your own channel too and your popularity will most likely increase and this channel will be nothing, because your content is the only quality content left on this pathetic channel. You're better than this, make your own thing.
+crestfallenllama
He has his own channel...
+crestfallenllama he does let's plays with his buddy
+RandomGamerCory and they aren't that good
+julian1000 Actually they are pretty funny, he just never advertises it. It is so down played and the episodes are obviously too long. It could be a legit channel with some editing or something.
+crestfallenllama Praise the sun? more like... PRAISE THE SUN!
Sounds like Yahtzee ALMOST got laughing at the space-bar bit :D
Yeah, The Witness isn't for everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed it because I like solving puzzles without reason. I also really enjoy playing Portal 2 community chambers.
The issue isn't the puzzles, it's that the puzzles are completely divorced from the environment. Ask yourself this: Is there any reason for this game to be a game, rather than just a puzzle book?
Alexander Freeman Nope! But it's more amazing this way :)
I disagree. It really feels like Blow (idk if that's how you spell his name) spent 8 years on the set dressing rather than adding anything of actual substance to the game. Then again, he's always been a bit of a pretentious auteur.
Alexander Freeman The set dressing is nice but it is certainly not what took 8 years. All of the puzzles I played were very cleverly design and I appreciated how they always challenged me. It seems clear to me that most of the time went into designing the puzzles. It felt like they really understood how I thought and actively disabled paths I would naturally take to force me to try something else. It was very enjoyable. A friend of mine had the same thoughts.
I can't say I agree. The only part of the puzzles that ever tripped me up were the "guess what JB wants you to do here" bits, which isn't really a puzzle.
Unless the game is intentionally pointless, such as that's the way they designed it but gave it an addictive gameplay loop like visceral, weighty combat or an addictive movement system, then just running around feeling blissful can be a great point to a game, examples I liked were original Crackdown, original Prototype, etc. Or something like the Earth Defense Force game series. I love the air raider, calling down devastating arty and air strikes. Hell, I was able to drop a giant multi-story tall mech and literally punch god in the face. Pointless? Yes. Fun? Fuck yeah.
which pod cast? maybe the drunken peasants?
no scotty is trash but praise jim ass still waiting on my dinosaur shirt
haha we are friends now XD
fucking mems
Dinoaur
I have a green dinosaur
He says he finished the game , but most of the puzzles do interact with the environment. Also the story is offensively bad and if he'd have gotten to the end he would have known that.
But "The puzzles don't integrate with the lovely environment" .... It's wrong.
This game truly starts when you get +1 on your save file.
The Witness really doesn't have a plot at all; it's mostly just pretentious quotes from various sources.
That's what's disappointing to me about it -- I was looking forward to a game full of logic puzzles tied together with an interesting plot. Something with more thinking than a walking simulator, like Myst or similar games. But the story just wasn't there at all.
+BelatedGamer I mean, it sort of does, but it's hidden in six audio logs in a secret area of the game. It's a shame, they could have told so much of the story through the scenery if they had pulled it off well.
Yup it was just a way to show off aesthetics and add some deep quotes hidden every now and then. I feel like it was all made by a logic major with a grudge and his philosophy major dropout roommate.
The inside of the mountain I've heard is the best part of the game. They start switching up stuff pretty hard in there.
Completely unsurprised Yahtzee didn't like The Witness. I loved Braid and even I couldn't stand The Witness. First game I've refunded on Steam out of sheer boredom/frustration. Great visuals, but the lack of any sense of direction or tutorials for new mechanics in the puzzles ruined anything that could have been fun.
+OgreSamanosuke Funny. The lack of tutorials is one of the best things about this game. Figuring out how the puzzles worked was extremely rewarding.
+Judicator11 Except it's not rewarding in the slightest. It's like learning a language that The Witness created constantly figuring out what each letter or symbol means just to apply it to more puzzles and more then more and some more. That is not rewarding, that is the game blowing itself. The snake eating it's own tail, and you come out none the wiser. A crossword puzzle can teach you new words to apply in everyday life. Same for word searches, hell even Professor Layton can teach you some real life tricks and applications.
The Witness doesn't. It is self masturbatory, and it is doesn't care that that you aren't in on the language it speaks.
Judicator11 The game completely has tutorials. It's usually those sections of 5 panels in a row that are super easy to solve to try and educate you on a mechanic. But some of them are so fucking obtuse as to being worthless. I'm not even counting all the puzzles that are entirely based on noticing some random facet of the environment to figure out.
@@alphen9676 ...did you seriously just say that people play crosswords to learn words??? People play pure puzzle games for the satisfaction and “a-ha!” of solving the puzzle. Understandable if you don’t get satisfaction out of that - that just means this isn’t the game for you, but you can’t just deny that it isn’t a huge draw for people. Nobody completes a jigsaw puzzle so they can see a pretty picture.
"the puzzles don't integrate with the environment at all" missed the entire part of the game where the environment is the puzzle
The picture of Freud fucking killed me. :D great work as always.
Undertale reference? Interesting........
Why did you leave that statement. trailing off?
It was his GOTY
Buffalo Ruffalo Honestly no clue. Put it up to a pathetic sense of humour befitting of a 14 year old.
+Holy Mackerel the Third Actually the witcher 3 was yhatzee's GOTY...
+huzi37709 Completely and utterly wrong.
I do so miss the little quips he would put into the credits and the funny five frame, text-free comic that they would overlay. I wonder if the videos on escapist's website still have those... or do they just embed youtube videos like everyone else does now?
2:03 Wondering now if "twat-finder General" is a minor reference to Monkey Dust
Myst works because the puzzles are varied and the walking serves to connect pieces of the puzzles. The Witness should take notes.
The Witness is one of the most anti-game video games of all time. And by that I mean it gives no reward to the player, and the further you delve into the game, the more you regret trying to proceed. It's extremely boring and lifeless, nothing stands out about it. Everything about it is just awful
+Elite Scruffy said with discontent as he was blinded with the positive reaction that had been given by the target audience of the game he was playing.
+Elite Scruffy "Everything about it is just awful"... *loses all credibility with one simple statement.
I see you didn't player enough pretentious art games. Try something from Tale of Tales.
inoffensive coddler I take it you didin't discover the Obelisk puzzles.
+Elite Scruffy The reward is solving puzzles.
If you don't find that rewarding it's fine - it's just not your type of game. It doesn't make it any more "anti-game" than picking any assortment of video games you like and saying that the particular game mechanic isn't rewarding for me.
2:51
Well, Gary Larson probably isn't, considering the particular placement of his comic screwed him over at one point.
To watch a pretty enviroment, I would go take a walk. Haven't find a single walking simulator that I like.
Try Stanley Parable.
The Witness isn't a walking simulator though.
Bombshell would make a fun Let's Drown Out episode.
Did anyone read that "I like Virginia Woolf" line with a bit of a metal scream-y voice?
5:30 Sounds like the sort of boss monster Steven Joyce would love to fight.
"Twat-finder General"
Wonderful. Don't mind me, just pocketing that one real quick
i dont think yahtzee found the other puzzles
+Spirit Of Hatred It's a shame when people don't find those, they were by far the most fun part of the game IMO. Actually required paying attention to the environment and such.
If people aren't paying attention to a game, is it their fault for being bored? Or is it the games for being boring?
Alexander Freeman Depends on the game. In this case, it basically completely contradicts something that Yahtzee says during this review: For a lot of the puzzles, you DO need to pay very close attention to the environment. Granted, these puzzles aren't needed for 100%.
It's not Yahtzee's responsibility to force interest in something completely bland and dreary. Compare to Portal, which has plenty of secrets hidden about which are fun to find because the environment if intriguing and blends with the puzzles.
Alexander Freeman Obviously, but he himself admitted that the environment was really interesting. His problem with it was that actually solving puzzles involved looking away from said environment and staring at a wall for awhile, which is exactly the opposite of what the environmental puzzles do.
If this is about secrets, Witness has tons, but it isn't. I think we're arguing completely different points here.
Fom a conventional writing perspective, every detail in a story should be there for at least 2 reasons that do something,, from the following list (in no particular order)
1. Set the scene (ie, characterizing the environment that the scene takes place in)
2. Characterize the person doing the describing. (ie, what they notice, and how they describe it to themselves.)
3. remind the audience of something
4. Foreshadow
5. support the theme
6. Symbolize
7...And a few other things, which I can't immediately recall from my writing classes.
If you don't do at least two things, then the detail usually feels flat. It's the difference between
A. "There was a black man at the door."
B. "My homie JayBoy showed up at my crib."
C. "Master Joseph rung my doorbell at noon sharp."
Same number of words in each line, but the first is a flat description of scene, while the second and third describe the scene, characterizes the narrators, and suggest the social relationship between the narrator and the person at the door.
Gender almost always is easily a part of #1: it sets the scene as a concrete detail. Which is fine: pretty much every character (with certain exceptions) in a scene has a gender that is usually easily definable, and so it's as necessary to describe the physical environment as is height, weight, hair color, and so on.
The second easy thing most (written) stories can use gender for is to characterize the narrator (ie, the way the narrator thinks of women by how they describe them.) For video games, that sort of perspective part is kind of hard, as video games are usually done in an over-the-shoulder, 3rd person limited omniscient view; thus, the player/audience gets something of a 'neutral' perspective of the scene. (Hotline Miami being an interesting exception, as I believe it implies that the PoV character is on drugs. Similarly, the Arkham Asylum scenes where Batman has been hit by the Scarecrow's fear toxin is a basic example of a PoV character with a definite bias to his perceptions.)
As such, for most games, the only other easy thing to do is to characterize the woman herself - that is, to use it as an intrinsic part of the backstory that defines the character. (note that this is an issue with visual mediums in general, not just video games. But for movies and plays, you have an actor that is trained to communicate that sort of subtext using visual and auditory cues, so it's a bit easier to do.) And that's an issue in Bombshell - her gender doesn't seem to be relevant, aside from an occasional allegedly witty one-liner or visual gag. As such, it ends up feeling flat and unimportant, which leads us into the next point:
Flat and unimportant details is either a sign of bad writing, or it's a sign he writer is inadvertently communicating something they didn't mean to.
For example, if an author keeps on describing a character as "black", but doesn't seem to do anything with it - they are either just being an inexperienced writer, or they think they ARE communicating something, such as the likelihood of the character enjoying rap music and having a criminal record (or whatever vision of 'blackness' the author has in mind.)
And yes - this is very often implicit bigotry, as the author has a vision of race/gender/politics (or whatever) that they assume is so obvious that they don't need to explicitly state it.
Getting back to Bombshell - in this example, it's entirely likely that the addition of gender is just flat - they chose a gender, and it doesn't matter. (EDIT - yet they seem to keep reminding the player of it on a regular basis.)
However, by doing so, and then not doing anything with it, is likely both an example of bad writing, and mildly sexist "I don't know what to do with this detail, so I'll go over the top and make her exactly like a an uninteresting male protagonist, only with breasts, and then call it a wrap."
And in sort of a twisted way, that would be fine...had they actually done something with the idea that it didn't matter. Asking and examining the question "does sex and gender matter in this scenario - and if so, why?" is pretty much what modern mainstream Feminist Theory is about.
For example - comparing and contrasting her behavior with a more realistic version of a woman; or having a man that took the role of the stereotypical love interest, and had him do all the (stereotypically female) role in the game. Then having some sort of in-game discussion or examination to see what happens and what the consequences would be of that. Or maybe even a deconstruction of the typical action hero as a male power fantasy, and contrasting that with a female power fantasy might look like. Or even going with the very idea of action hero as patriarchal construct, or whatever.
Note that I wouldn't necessarily agree with any of the tentative conclusions one might draw from this (after all, it's just a hypothetical video game that I'm imagining), but I would certainly be WAY more interested in something like that, then what Yahtzee apparently reviewed. As it is? It just Just really bad writing, and probably a bit of implicit (or not so implicit) sexism of the "I don't know what to do with this detail, other than turn it into softcore fanservice" sort of thing.
In all likely good the game was written by someone who was told to make the character female and make it as obvious as possible too avoid another feminazi rage fest. So they took it the opposite and alienated anyone not a feminazi. As a result the vast majority of people find the game to be shit. Since quite frankly feminism doesnt need to exist anymore. We live in an equal society. We have lived in an equal society since the late 90s. The same exact opportunities exist for both men and women. Sexism is like racism. It wasnt an issue until Obama got into office. And before you say Obama isnt racist name one time Obama has stood up for a white person. All I can think of are examples of him turning a blind eye or streight up actively being racist. Tje result? American racism is back with a vengeance. Before Obama I wasnt afraid of someone with a different skin color then me. Now? I get nervous when I am in am elevator with someone of a different race. Point is people need to acknowledge when the fight is won so it can stay won. Feminazi arent making things easier for women they are making things worse.
Last time i came this early....kidding im a virgin
You don't wank?
+Gavin subtle way of calling someone a wanker award goes to....
+Gavin Ummm that doesn't count...unless you dress you hand up with wigs and such. However that counts against you.
+Adam Bonaparte Wigs are only the beginning...
"Wait, a ZP I haven't watched yet?" I'm always randomly clicking those videos in the hopes of seeing something I missed. Then I realized it came out exactly now.
A new Zero Punctuation?!
26 minutes ago?!?!?!
HUZZAH
+MusketWalrus Hyeh heh heh
I should go through and collect the ending quip from all of these. in this case 'flying penis monsters'
Do it!
Regarding "The Witness", I must say that in retrospect I immensely enjoy
the colossal misfire of the "puzzles do not integrate with the
environment at all" statement. :P
This is still one of my favorite Fully Ramblomatic episodes for me.
It's funny how his description of bombshell can be applied to any movie with a female lead in the last couple of years...
it's funny, I literally told people bombshell would be one of those "Girl power!!! I can beat any man just using a tampon, and terrible writing! !" games.
so..uhh..take that guys who got all politically correct.
+Bp Elliott
nope, but the guys who I somehow offended by having no interest in the game, and literally explaining the way they were likely going to portray her were very pro woman.
they couldn't stand the idea of a man having no interest in played a game that was all about tough women.
Junior Jumble master race
The makers of Bombshell were apparently so lazy that they used a generic revolver model and made the cylinder bigger. Don't believe me? THE DAMN CYLINDER CLIPS THROUGH THE TRIGGER GUARD. Look at the thumbnail! You can see the clipping issues!
I, personally, like dog food.
4:15 - Fucks sakes, nobody remembers Duke's Major being a clone of Duke.
Fuck the Witness! I played through the whole ordeal to finally figure out what’s up with all the statues and shit and it just STOPS... nothing! No explanation! Because the route is the goal or some shit! Fuck this! It’s the finale of Lost all over again... ☹️☹️☹️
Love your reviews but you really need to finish the games before you review them, the environment ends up being a huge part of the witness
The Witness must be the first game Yhatzee and I disagree about. Bummer it didn't click with him, because it sure as hell did with me. It shouldn't work on paper, but it does beautifully.