Zero Punctuation: Spiderman - Web of Shadows
escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctua...Posted Mar 4, 2009, 4:59 PM UTC
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escapistmagazine.com
I think he raises a valid point: if your game is called "Spiderman", maybe your "spiderman" should, I don't know, spider.
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Your comment reads quite well in Yahtzee's voice.
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maybe your "spiderman" should, I don't know, spider
Spider is a verb?
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almost any word can be verbed. lrn2 english
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Yeah, he sucks at Englishing.
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Verbing by association is a bit hard. Spider crawls, spiderman soars.
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It's short for "does whatever a spider* does"
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Ugh, what a horrible post.
I greet your downmods.
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did he actually use the word "faggot"?
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He's a British expat living in Australia, what he meant was "go beat up some cigarettes". Cuz cigarettes are nasty...some men like to suck on their butts.
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cigarettes = fags
strange meatball looking things = faggots
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He's a British expat living in Queensland, he probably meant what he said.
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he's gotta keep pushing the line
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"Combat is never going to be unique again. Fists, chains, ropes with spikes on the end, guns, swords, guns that are also swords, these are all roads well traveled."
Very true.
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How about a chain with a lightsaber on the end?
Or a boomerang with a gun at each tip? It would be called...wait for it...a BOOMerang!
Eh? Eh???
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Do you work at EA?
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No, but give me some time.
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Make it happen
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Replace the guns with bombs, and you can call it a Ka-Boomerang.
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If it blows up, it's not really a boomerang anymore.
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OK, so call it a Ka-(Not-really-a)-Boomerang.
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Shotgun on a boomerang. Boomstick-arang.
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Not neccesarily. As Portal shows, there are still options for game designers to mix it up on the combat side. Unfortunately, many developers look at Portal, and the lesson they take away from it is that they need more gimick guns.
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One thing that continually irks me about yahtzee's reviews (not that he or anyone else really cares, but I don't care that nobody else cares) is his readiness to attack anything that belongs in a franchise or "has a number after it". What, may I ask, is so wrong with franchises? What is so bad about sequels? In my eyes a series with two or more games in it is much more likely to be "good" (that being an incredibly subjective concept) if it has time to refine what it does and how it does it whilst retaining the link to the narrative and the setting established previously. I can never see why people rip on Star Trek or Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or Call of Duty or whatever franchise you care to mention because it's part of a franchise; that being kind of the point and all. It's good to have a setting you, the reader is familiar with, because then you can widen the scope of the story and characterization without having to create an entirely new setting and entirely new characters. People like continuation. I know I sure do.
So to reiterate: I can't see what's wrong with series and sequels. Am I right or am I unenlightened in some regard here?
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I think his problem with sequels is that, for the majority of sequels, instead of trying to improve and 'refine' the game they get lazy and just flog them out because they know people will by them.
There are of course exceptions, Half life, Call of duty etc. but for the most part they're are shadows of their former self eg tomb raider, any sonic game. Instead of getting the same crap we've had for the past decade, if people were forced to come up with new games they might be forced to think more creatively. Not that i think tomb raider is all that bad though.
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Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 (depending on who you ask) is better than Sonic the Hedgehog.
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Sonic 2 was so badass. I love the casino stage. It made the one from Sonic 1 look positively boring. My parents wouldn't buy me Sonic 3. :'(
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Both of them are better than the original, the question is which is better than the other.
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Sometimes it's nice to play more of the same if that same is still bloody good. Nintendo (for example) makes large amounts of money out of their first-party titles because of exactly that.
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I agree, sequels can be and are often times great. Tomb Raider is his punching bag of why sequels suck but doesn't really get into why other franchises shouldn't exist.
Something that I found weird was his main dislike of MGS was it's a "fans only club". Then, in his Skate 2 review, he goes on about how he respects the developer's choice to heavily cater to fans of the sport even at the exclusion of non-fans.
Did anyone else notice that?
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or Lord of the Rings
You keep your dirty hands off LOTR. It's one book split into 3 parts. It is not a series.
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{mode : "nerd"}
actually it's 6 books...
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I guess we are both wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings
I forgot.. It's a sequel to the hobbit.
The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II.[1] Although generally known to readers as a trilogy, Tolkien initially intended it as one volume of a three volume set, with the other volumes to be The Silmarillion and The Akalabeth; however, the other works were never fully completed and the publisher released in 1954-55 The Lord of the Rings as three books rather than one, for economic reasons.[2]
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The Lord of the Rings was split into 6 books (even in a single volume it's still listed as 6), however Tolkien did intend to create one entire (and very long, spanning thousands of years) mythology that flowed from creation until X... Interestingly LotR was only ever intended to be one small part of the whole...
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You mean 6 parts. It may have had 6 major parts but each part is not a book.
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That's how it's "named" in the books...
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6 books plus The Hobbit plus The Simarilon (sp?) plus the Children of Hurin plus all the War of the Ring setting games plus all the movie tie in games plus...
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Yahtzee seems to get a hard on for originality in the visual and story elements of a videogame, which is why he constantly praises games like Killer 7, and Psychonauts despite the fact that their gameplay is awful if not entirely generic.
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Unfortunately, many game studios take sequels as an opportunity not to innovate. Some companies do release original sequels (see: Valve). Most take it as an opportunity to relase a map pack and graphical update and charge $50 for it.
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I think that film and video game sequels are very different animals.
The stigma attached to movie sequels (apart from ones written with multiple installments in mind, like LotR) is mostly justified. That's because they're story and character driven, and it's very rare that you come up with something new worth saying after two or three sequels.
But story is much less important in video games. What's important here is gameplay, and if a formula works, there's pretty much no reason you can't keep pushing it out (with minor improvements to each edition). A large number at the end of a title in games is a mark of success, not shamelessness.
Well, usually. A company like EA isn't known for pouring its heart and soul into sequels. But I would never dream of lumping all sequels in with those. Everybody seems to agree that Killzone 2 is in a different league from its predecessor. I look forward to and expect one of the best experiences of this console generation from God of War 3. And some franchises like Final Fantasy reinvent themselves so thoroughly with each installment that I don't anticipate ever getting tired of them, so long as the quality stays high.
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Not necessarily, he liked fallout 3.
He just dislikes franchises that are obviously created solely for $, without any creativity or improvement.
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Lord of the Rings is technically ONE book. It was split into 6 by Tolkien based on the logical ordering of it, and got published in 3 physical books (2 books to a volume). Nowadays you can actually buy LotR all in one book and read it the way Tolkien intended.
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There's films, multiple books, a sequel, a prequel, a mythos, games, a tabletop game, and all sorts of things. That's a franchise if ever there was one. Don't get me wrong, I love the lord of the rings, but it's clearly a series/franchise. At least, it is now.
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So should I get the game or not? I'm amused but confused by this particular ZP.
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ok how about this? i LOVE the spiderman 2 game, but ultimate and spiderman 3 were weak, so how does this new one hold up?
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I never played Ultimate spider man, I thought Spiderman 3 was incredibly awful - and WoS reminded me a lot of Spiderman 3. This was my favorite Spiderman game wayyy back on PS one. It had an awesome combination of Doc Oc with the Venom symb. After that, the Spiderman games from the movie were incredibly weak even with the "better" graphics from a newer gen console.
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Yeah, I had the N64 version, and it ruled. Especially since the Monster Octopus battle was actually scary. And playing as Spider-Man 2099 was always fun, what with the stealth camo and all...
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There was a kickass Dreamcast port of this.
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He nails the web slinging spot on. Spiderman 2 web slinging has air tricks and they're awesome... there are no cool air tricks in Spiderman: WoS -- but it's still fun to just sling around.
If you really enjoy the whole marvel universe, you will really enjoy this game.
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If you want to follow the ZP standard this is a game you only buy and play if you have nothing better to do than sitting in a pile of flaming radioactive pooh while the radioactive pile of pooh and poison are cooling down.
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Are you 11?
Do you enjoy mediocre limited open world games despite the fact that a slew of other solid ones currently exist for purchase?
Are you still intrigued by the half decade old web slinging mechanics?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then perhaps the game is for you. However considering the plethora of vastly superior games available I would imagine not.
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Either rent it or buy it for <$20 used. That's about all it's worth. I rented it, got really stoned, and beat it in an evening. It's not difficult, so don't be surprised by the lack of difficulty. However, it was entertaining, which is what my ultimate judgment on a game always comes down to.
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There's better Spiderman games that have the same web-slinging fun (he alluded to this slightly). I'd say rent one that looks good and if you like it buy it.
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Purple became black when we where introduced to Death's home and garden in Mort. Even though it isn't really purple but what purple would look like if all the normal colours of the rainbow would look like if they where rendered in black. Anyone with a minute amount of imagination should be able to picture that.
I have to admit I have huge problems with pink in the black colour spectrum, but I'm working on it.
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Upvoted for awkward Discworld reference.
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Even if I dont always agree with this guy, he always cracks me up...always.
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Anyone else notice how each new episode seems to have more penis jokes than the last?
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OMFG JDFONG IS BACK!!!1 LET THE HEAVENS PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME
/fanboy w/ huge e-boner for jdfong
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I don't know what's worse, fanboys, or hateboys like you.
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definitely fanboys. i don't hate jdfong, i only hate fanboys.
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another week without that faggot jfdong ruining zp
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Wow. Did you even look to see who the submitter was?
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Whoosh.
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It's zero punctuation, but there's punctuation in the title. hahaha, im so original.
jdfong returns!
I cheered out loud (col?) when I saw he was back :)
YAYYYYY!!!!!! While the page was loading the thought of whether he'll be back flashed through my mind.
I wonder if I was the only one who downvoted every non-jdfong ZP in the interim.
I guess it helped that ZP has only been doing crap games for a month or so now, though.
you were not ;)
wow so you guys just downvote stuff because your BFF didn't post it? that's pretty fucked up..
Karma Points Per Week, Graphed
Locked in the peaks and troughs of that graph is a lesson to be learned. What exactly I have no idea.
This is set to be his most powerful showing yet.
That kind of looks like Blockbuster. Except it doesn't go up in the end.
Let's do this right ... Is it Wednesday already?
I seriously thought it was tuesday until I saw this post. For real.
actually it's thursday.
Already it is Wednesday.
Welcome back!
Ah, its the little things I've missed.
-hugcling- <3
I missed you so much! ;_;
It never ends, this shit! I love you.
It's not dead :D
:smiles:
HALLELUJAH!
This just made my day. Thanks for never giving up the dream. :)
We love you jdfong
Good to have you back.
Glad to have you back.
Only reason I click on the comments for Zero Punctuation is to see if you got to it.... never fails.
sniff
I missed you, man!
Horay for the triumphant re-conquest of that line by King jdfong! Huzzah!
What are you going to do when you run out of letters?
WOOT, where did you go anyway?
:) first ZP submission I have upmodded in a long while!
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What are you going to do after 20 more weeks?
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So are you going to start duping submissions and throwing e-drama fits again?
hell yeah, you ain't seen nothin yet
At least he's honest.
Start up the eHate machine!
What e-drama fits?
I meant it as tongue-in-cheek, but there was a big row between jdfong and another user over jdfong duping his submissions and getting the "glory" because the other user wasn't as known or popular.
jdfong basically took his ball and went home, thus depriving us of the sentence completion.
just to add some more info, a user figured out Zero Punctuation's naming URL scheme and was able to submit the review hours before the video went online. JDFong was of the impression that this was more or less cheating and then edrama occured.
oh, haha