Zero Punctuation: Prototype
escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctua...Posted Jun 24, 2009, 4:00 PM UTC
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escapistmagazine.com
I have to disagree with him about the extending arm being the best power in the game. If any one power was an instant win strategy it would be the blade for it's vertical slash move.
43
My favorite power is muscle mass. A rapidly thrown bus is pretty effective against most enemies in the game.
18
Yes. Throwing things is amazing especially while sprinting your ass off.
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Last boss is especially hard to beat without throwing stuff at him. I had a bit of trouble finishing the game on normal and I have tried everything - muscle mass seems like the best choice. For almost every other boss the tactic was to eat my health up to max, then use my tendril attack 3 times in a row.
Other than bosses I have to say I thought that the combat/stealth system was really good in prototype. Bosses have this console-game-like feel to them where you pretty much just run around avoiding damage, then use whatever weakness they have, like attack during the recovery period after they try to attack you. Fighting a mob of military guys though can provide just the right amount of challenge, especially like inside a base. I pretty much went through using all mutant and human weapons in the game and they all have their usefulness.
The stealth system is fun too!
All in all I think that Prototype succeeded in squeezing just about every possible action movie and computer game clichee into one single, highly enjoyable game.
9
I'm a bit torn about the stealth system since the military seems just so dumb. You can wallrun up on a building and just hide behind a corner and as soon as they lose sight of you some kind of amnesia sets in and they conveniently don't even notice the guy standing in odd places possibly with some dead bodies around him.
It also bugs me a little that nobody seems to mind if you plow through the streets in a tank (okay granted they're noticing if you kill military personnel) or running and jumping like a madman just in front of a patrol.
3
Yeah, it's a bit too easy at times, but then again at the later stages with drones and virus alarms everywhere it gets pretty tough.
8
It's good they are so dumb because dealing with strike squads late game is a huge pain. Three strong helicopters with heat seeking missles, 3 or 4 of those sensor dudes, and to top it off, a super marine or two.
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The last boss is easy. Use the whip to damage him and when he's stunned, switch to hammer or musclemass and pummel his ass. Repeat until he's dead.
1
Just discovered this the other day. Tossing vehicles at helicopters, tanks, and hunters is a fast and effective way at ending their lives. Oh ya eventually when you punch people they just explode. I only use the extending arm to grab people to consume or to get on a helicopter.
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It's also a great way of destroying hive buildings!
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Upvoted for enthusiasm.
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I tend to run around in muscle mass for the most part too, just to drop kick any helicopters out of the sky that come upon me:) Although sometimes it does take two kicks.
1
My favorite power was hammerfist. I would get the two best powers, one was the elbow drop (deadly against tanks), and the other was the hammer throw (a very safe move, much better reach than the whip)
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Yes. I'd even go so far to disagree with anyone who says that any once single power/move ruined the game by making it the only useful thing. I'm constantly switching it up. There is no not fun way to kill someone in this game. Yahtzee is just one of those I-Found-My-Way-Of-Playing-This-Game kinda guys. If he thinks the whipfist does a lot of damage, he's forgetting that everything does a lot of damage.
I recently bought the powerbomb move and that's awesome. Grab someone, run up the empire state building and off you go.
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I found the blade to be the most powerful ability, but I kept going back to the claws. They seemed to be particularly good at clearing out the interior of a base after I got a stealth bonus for not killing anyone.
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whenever i switch to the claws in prototype, i say it like the clamp robot on futurama.
"TIME TO BRING OUT DA CLAWS!"
9
Bada climp, bada clamp!
5
I hate the blade.... Especially in a speed challenge it has like 0 range and I wind up whiffing a lot with it.
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Yeah, claws > blade when it comes to regular people, especially if you purchase the run-and-claw ability. The blade is good for vehicles and hunters, I found.
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For me, it came to a point, where I simply didn't give a fuck about the regular people because it was useless to kill them when they did no damaged against your armor suit. The only things I bothered with was helicopters, tanks, super soldiers, and the occasional super mutant thing. I used the cannonball a ton and as soon as it was unlocked, I only used the blade.
2
How I clear out a base:
- Patsy a rocket guy
- Take his rocket launcher
- Use the rocket launcher on the rest of the rocket guys and the reinforcements that pour in, in a nice close formation when your cover is blown
- Drop rocket launcher, whipfist everyone else.
2
How I clear out a base:
- Stealth consome enough soldiers to max out health bar
- OMGCLUSTERFUCKTENTACLE Devastator move
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Same here. It does start to get old though. I find it fun to just grab an assault rifle and mow them all down that way :)
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The assault rifle was unbelievably good at taking down a whole base. You don't even have to aim. Just stand in the general direction of a group of guys and let loose.
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I'm glad you said this. I was doing the "escort the blood to Central Park" mission. "Ride in this tank and escort it" they said. I kept losing until I dumped the tank and just did blade dives on the tentacles.
0
The extending arm is amazing for clearing out large areas of small enemies.
3
Indeed, when you got the air blade drop thingy it pretty much ruined the game. There was little reason to use anything else anymore save the whipfist for stealing copters once in a while. At least they didn't let you use it against the final boss.
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Yes but its the only way to really deal with the thousand tanks leading up to the final boss.
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Indeed, but I guess the point is if they had not included that move and not had so many tanks at the end then the end-game would have been better. I didn't like that once you got the blade it made both the claws and then hammerfist useless.
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Well I didn't know which moves would be useless(90%) and which wouldn't be, so I never got the air-blade drop. I ended up having to run away every minute to heal again, so it took a while to do those last couple of missions.
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if you had trouble dealing with tanks and his 1 kill ability on them....
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No kidding, the vertical slash one hits hunters.
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they all do the same thing. kill enemies without making him die. the game is virtually godmode on. i ghot bored atfer 1st ten minutes and chucked away the disk
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Hmmm, I don't know if anyone ever told you this, but games usually get harder the longer you get into them. The 1st ten minutes are usually pretty easy in any game.
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Am I the only person that thought inFamous' writing to be kind of b-action movie bad, but Prototype's to be mind-numbingly-I'm-almost-insulted-they-published-it-like-this bad?
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I'll agree. Every cutscene would end with Alex saying some one off phrase like, "It ends here," or "He's the one who started it all."
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The fact that he is a sadistic psychotic out to save the world doesn't help either.
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Hell, I liked the story and I hated the fact that Mercer wouldn't shut the fuck up at the end of the cutscenes.
Also, has anyone here actually played to the end of the storyline? At that point they give up all pretense of him possibly being a good guy.
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Prototype has a story?
Dude. You're playing it for the wrong reasons. Just enjoy FFWWOOOOOSSHSSHHHHing around the city.
Many people walked out of the original Matrix film feeling alive - like they, too, wanted to run up walls, snap off into the air, and throw 29 punches into a body faster than the eye can see. They want to have superpowers. Prototype is an escape for this.
If I wanted compelling dialogue in a game I'd wind the clock back a few years.
What's this? All of a sudden a LucasArts adventure game has appeared in front of me, along with SCummVM. Why yes, I don't mind if I do, thanks.
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Oh, so we're supposed to just accept games nowadays regardless of the story, writing, gameplay, etc. simply because "ffwwooshhhing" around the city is fun? No thanks. Game makers don't get a free pass simply because one mechanic of their game is fun.
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I actually thought everything beside the story was pretty spot on. I think Yahtzee exaggerated how unbalanced the powers are, I enjoy using all of them. And c'mon? When was the last time a game had a really good, compelling story? Bioshock?
I mean, really, I buy very little into the whole "games as a medium for storytelling" idea. They're simply not that immersive. I'm still holding a weird little controller, and they still look nothing like the people in real life. Some games pull it off, but they really have to be devoted to it if that's what they want. Most people still want games, ya know, fun things.
7
Honestly, games don't need to be Oscar winners to be fun, after all I thought inFamous was very enjoyable (the gameplay made up for the story shortcomings). Playing Prototype though, I just felt insulted by how bad the writing (and voice acting) was.
You don't have to look too hard to find games with halfway decent writing. You also don't need to look too hard to find games that don't need a story to be fun. However, if a game is going to try to have a story, then they should at least put some effort into it, otherwise they risk making the rest of the game suffer for the story/writing's half-assedness.
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When was the last time a game had a really good, compelling story?
Braid.
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It's retarded to think that a game can't have "FWOOOOSSHHH" and good dialogue and story all at the same time.
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'Retarded' is a bit strong, but I agree. What it also is, is setting your expectations/standards a bit too high.
0
Games certainly do have the potential to have very compelling stories, great dialogue and masterful art direction. Just look at Uncharted and the upcoming Uncharted 2 for example.
I don't understand why most people expect less quality from a game than they do from a movie.
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Then they shouldn't have put in the dialog in the first place.
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Nah, that's why it's so good. :)
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I agree on the cutscenes but the web of intrigue stuff was actually pretty good and what kept me interested in what occurred in the cutscenes. a lowly asst director likely got stuck with the web of intrigue stuff and a blowhard senior director fucked up teh real ones.
1
Yeah, I'll agree with the web of intrigue stuff. Maybe if they just used the WoI to tell the story and dropped the cutscenes altogether it would have been a much better game.
3
Prototype's to be mind-numbingly-I'm-almost-insulted-they-published-it-like-this bad?
No, you are not the only one. It's so bad it's funny. I thought Mirror's Edge writing was bad, but this shit takes the cake.
Edit: What do they both have in common? Parkour. Think about it.
1
I truly hope that the game-developers bite on his challenge in the end of the episode.
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that's what i'm hoping, but i have very little hope. On the inFamous forum, the admins locked the thread about the challenge
i will go buy whichever game actually bites on his challenge. Truly, i will.
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My friend who works at Radical reports that he is hard at work making this happen.
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Emo Peter Pan was well played.
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[deleted]
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There is only one Peter Pan
And for anyone that hasn't been there in years (like I hadn't), that man-boy version of Peter Pan got MARRIED!
...
AAANNND he's a computer programmer! Who writes C, C++, assembler and many other languages all according to his resume.
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I feel a little dirty after seeing his site. I don't know why, it just feels not right.
2
It's his pixie grin. And the fact that he writes assembler...
2
jf sebastian dong
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I'm upvoting this, and I don't know why.
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jf sebastian was a character in Blade Runner...?
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CAMBOT!
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GYPSY!
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TOM SERVO!
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CROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!
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oooo, look who got the SyFy username.
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You guys made my day... thank you.
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GARBAGE DAY!
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[deleted]
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Damnit I was hoping he'd do Ghostbusters this week.
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Heh, I think I'm about halfway through with it. Way scarier than I thought it would be. At one point there was this scratching sound coming from my left speaker. It was a bug but I didn't know it yet. Now, my left speaker is just by my case, and a level was loading, and it was taking forever, and the scratching became more and more evident, and I thought fuck, my brand new 1.5 TB HDD is failing! I heard they had a fairly high failure rate but still. So anyway I bring my head closer to the case to confirm that the scratching sound is really coming from my failing HDD and just then BAM, the scratching sound suddently gets REALLY FUCKING LOUD ALMOST LIKE AN EXPLOSION.
I just about pooped my pants.
21
Yeah, that was my favorite movie as a kid, along with Superman
-3
I only play mature games for mature gamers such as myself.
1
Your comment was not smarmy, sarcastic, or unexpectedly informative.
reddithivemind /execute downvote
(Superman was one of my fave flicks too).
-5
Also, I have a hard time closing my eyes underwater.
5
I like turtles.
8
I loved prototype up till the last 3 missions. It just became aggravating, Game Designers take note: Bosses need specific methods in which to defeat them without luck, especially when you have an achievement for beating the game without dying.
I felt towards the game the designers realized that they had made the player such an incredible unstoppable force, that the only way to create a challenge was to dynamically place soliders with rocket launchers on the corners of every building within 2 blocks while you are escaping, and just remove the usefulness of every ability except for a handful of crutches.
Honestly, The Hunters should have been easier to interupt their attack combos. If you got 2 or 3 hunters on you at once you could easily lose almost all your HP. Its also dumb that the Armor does not let you dodge to the side.
Prorotype is at its best when you have all the abilities and you don't play the story.
11
The girl at the end...that fight took like an hour. And was boring.
6
Actually, I thought the fight was great. Of course, I used vehicles and killed hunters for health for the devastators. It might take half an hour at most, but it is quite fun.
3
Yah, thats when I started hating the game.
1
How the hell did it take you an hour to kill her? By that point in the game you should be able to use 3 devastators in a row. 3 tentacle devastators will get rid of her legs, then you either throw cars in her face or shoot her with a tank. When she gets back up, run around the corner where she can't see you and kill some hunters or regular people to get to full health again. Repeat 3 or 4 times and she is dead. It took me no more than 15-20 minutes the first time.
1
I never used the armor until the final fight. It's pretty easy to dodge nearly everything without it, just never stop running and stay locked on. Rocket launchers were never even the slightest issue. Groups of hunters were a bit more dangerous but you just stick and move. The shield works pretty well. The armor's limited jump causes all of your drop moves to be weaker.
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Every time I watch one of these, I spend the next 15 minutes reading in Yahtzee's voice.
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http://video.escapistmagazine.com/video/113819/Prototype_2009-06-23-130547.flv
For those, who like myself, are unable to access the Escapist web site.
8
A friend of mine works for Radical and was a level designer for this game.
He described it as gore porn, and that's basically what it is. I haven't played much of it at all, but everyone I know who has (that wasn't involved in the making of the game) has said the graphics are awesome, and it's fun to play for a while, but that's it.
7
Tell your friend that whoever coded the patsy move gave me the biggest laugh I've ever had playing a game.
I was in a military base, no alerts. I was walking around alternately consuming and patsying the guards, emptying the base for the hell of it. I walked up to one of the last guards, who was just inside the main gate. I didn't realize there was an APC just outside the gate behind me, already pointing our direction.
Right bumper, target the guard, [X]
"There he is, he's the one!"
"No, wait, I..." and he exploded as the APC lobbed a cannon round into him.
I may actually have to buy another copy off Steam for the PC so I can set this up and try to screencap it - just freaking hilarious.
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The graphics are awesome? I thought everyone agreed that the graphics in prototype were average.
1
Left Trigger -> Y -> DEAD.
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Don't downmod this guy if you haven't played the game. He's right.
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Too bad I play it on PC...
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<puts on sunglasses>
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...which doesn't have a Left Trigger.
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<walk into the sunset>
-1
came to comments for photoshopped main game characters in bikinis.... left disappointed. :(
5
Hmmm, not sure if I agree. Prototype annoyed me more than most games, with it's insipid aiming system and constant whoring of homing missiles. However, it does have the greatest FUCK-YOU move that you can find on the next-gen consoles - the airborne blade slam. Hitting an innocent bystander with this move is IMPOSSIBLE not to enjoy.
3
Oh god... the worst is the grab system. "Hey, Alex, quick, grab a rocket launcher to blast these hunters!"
"LOL GRAB RANDOM RUBBLE!??!@"
Fuck you Alex.
3
The buttons on the console for weapons are badly mapped. I ended up dropping my weapon a lot instead of firing it...
1
Me too. Dammit.
1
oh yea the the targeting sucked, half the time you try to target something it would not stay targeted if it was near the edge of your view
1
The targeting could have been better - perhaps you have an alternative hotkey that could give you 2 seconds of time slowdown, bring up a crosshair, and allow you to specifically choose an enemy. Although, you can hold down tab to achieve something similar, at least when in a vehicle iirc.
1
yea, it had something to do with the 'targeting the highest priority'
like if something was to far away it wouldn't consider it a priority or something
towards the end i ended up just holding down the tab key as you said, or have to make a better effort to get closer and put what i was aiming for in the middle of my screen
2
Targeting is easy on a console. :)
2
Holy crap! Game trailers before Zero Punctuation!
It's about bloody time. I wish the whole bunch of them luck. Get paid guys!
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Haven't played Infamous, but I was expecting a Crackdown reference.
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Crackdown is one of my most enjoyed games on the 360. It's GTA with super powers!
2
Well, this did nothing to settle my doubts about renting or buying Prototype. Although, I did play inFamous and it was amazing.
2
I'm pretty picky about games, and I've found Prototype to be pretty fun. I would recommend renting it, or at the very least trying it out from a torrent.
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I agree. I rarely "try" games, but I had heard so many mixed reviews of Prototype that I just had to test it out and see what I thought of it. I did and thoroughly enjoyed the first few missions and just messing around, so I went out and bought a copy for the 360 (since I noticed my frame rate was kind of slow on the PC. Figured I'd get it for 360 and feel it easier). I am not disappointed--at all. That was four days after it was released (probably about 3 weeks now). I still have not beaten the game, with about 10 more missions left (out of the 31~). I do not have all the abilities, nor have I done the majority of the events. I can see it lasting me until September (at least the messing around/events/skills. The missions I should be done with shortly. I'm taking it very slow). It's very fun, if you take it for what it is: A video game about a near-invincible man who is trying to figure out what/who he is/has become; the sandbox game that allows you to kill everything and enjoy NYC in the middle of an invasion and outbreak. It is not the perfect mission-based game, but if you go into it understanding that, you'll enjoy it more. If you spend time viewing places, unlocking abilities, and doing the side missions: it'll last you a long time. The missions may be short, but that does not mean the game has to be.
Try it. You won't regret giving it a shot.
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It's zero punctuation, but there's punctuation in the title. hahaha, im so original.
You took the time to add a separate link to every character? Hats off to you sir.
New around here?
Actually, i just realized that he was doing this last week, even though I've been seeing the submissions here for months.
It's funny, it used to be a process for me: watch the weekly review, come back here, and then downvote jdfong. But the bugger grows on you. Kinda like fungus. Hell, i am thinking about upvoting his comment.
Once you do, you'll never look back.
i never noticed it was a link for every character.....i always thought that he was just linking to a random comment in the past.
I feel so stupid now.
Once you go fong, you'll never go wrong.
We've all been through it. Stay strong, brother.
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Princess Zelda is usually seperated from Link via Ganon.
Gah, now I really want to know what that original message was and I forgot the rss trick to discover it!
It's getting close...
I'm tired of waiting yet I'm so excited. It's like being a kid again and anxiously waiting for Christmas to arrive, but with even more hookers.
He'll probably just add an extra sentence to it.
Nope, he'll just add more punctuation to the end.
Expand contractions?
"It is zero puncturation, but there is punctuation in the title. Hahaha, I am so original."
Edit: Contractions, not abbreviations. Thanks Zemo.
It's zero punctuation, but there's punctuation in the title. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, im so original.
im so original. ON WEED.
Somebody twat Ray Kurzweil... I'm not sure he's aware of what form The Singularity will take.
Oh, is it Wednesday already?
Sigh
Get back in my closet, you!
fool me once . . .
9 more weeks...
haha
I wonder what will happen when you run out of letters...
me too
[deleted]
So are you going to use the punctuations when you run out of regular characters?
no
Eh, haven't you forgotten about the june 10th episode where he reviewed inFamous? It's not linked to in your post.
He didn't do the joke in that post.
Ha ha. I love how you stuck it out through all the downvotes in previous posts and now have plenty of upvotes. What do you think happened? Did you change people opinions? Out live the downvoters? Just gain a bigger following? Are 20 of these banal but 25 sublime?
I love you.
I swear I'll wait until a new one is released, and then post it without any punctuation just to combo break your post.
Has already happened.
ah, memories of when i had nothing to do at noon on wednesday...
And that is why you do it every week, because it's always new to somebody. I appreciate it, at least, if only for the effort you put in to it
Putting in effort to mindlessly spam the comment section isn't something you want to commend someone for.
Posting the first reply to your own submission is now "spam"?
And that is why you are at -5 for this. If you don't like jdfong, don't click on his submissions
FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
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It's not as funny as you think it is. In fact, it isn't funny at all.
You're awesome
If you really admire me then you'll stop it.
I logged in specifically to upvote you for that sentence.
Why did you ever log out?
Cleared my cookies with a virus scan on accident.
Wednesday already?
waits for lynch mob
I think the correct phrase is "Oh, is it Wednesday already?". Thanks for participating, though.
d'oh!