Yahtzee on Braid

By: Derek Yu

On: August 28th, 2008

I’ve got a backlog of new indie games I want to tell you about, but ‘til I find the time you’ll have to hear our friend Yahtzee yap about an “old” one (so totally not old). Does anyone else wonder whether he’s wearing clothes while he records these? No? Uh, me neither!

Posted in Community, Videos | Tags: JonathanBlow, Yahtzee

Hypersapien

I caught this wednesday when it came out. Yahtzee is always great.

I was thrilled the other day when I found out that Braid is coming to the PC. I am XBox-less.

And apparently it was announced a couple months ago. Why does nobody tell me these things?
Skofo

My brother’s name is Adrian.

He WTF’d.
Dord

Why do people find rehearsed fast talking funny? It’s an act :P
Benzido

What the hell is wrong with an act?
Dord

It lacks successful humour, like buying a liver-failure patient a brewery.
Towerofprostitutes

Well, we don’t care. I still think it’s funny as hell.
Patches

Isn’t comedy an act? I mean, isn’t that what comedy is? Granted we all get a chuckle at another’s unscripted misfortune, but reviewing a game in such a way as to incorporate that sounds pretty difficult.
quack

It’s also clever with the words and pictures and such. He rants more than he used too, but he’s got a good grasp of what makes good gameplay. See also “The Art of Theft” except for the first part of Level 4.
gsm

pfft. why do people think games are fun? they’re not real, you know.
Dord

Why does everyone think I’m a huge tool? I mean, it’s so obvious that I am, but why do people think so?
Seitharo

Ah yes, Yahtzee, what a funny fellow, if you just concentrate on the fast-talking part, and ignore that the actual arguments he pulls are absolute bollocks.
NotYahtzee

Actually his arguments are spot on usually when he’s not being sarcastic, and he hit Braid right on the money in his review. Watch and listen. He’s complimented Braid very well pointing out all of it’s best parts and successfully showcasing all of it’s worst parts (there aren’t many, but what there are he talks and jokes about). This review is the witches tit and everyone who enjoys/enjoyed braid will enjoy the review… or not, because they’re a total fucking Llama insemination expert.
anon

the doors that make the key ‘break’ don’t actually make it break.. its only on the levels where time goes in the flow of the direction you walk.

time needs to go *forward* to unlock a door, and obviously if your trying to walk backwards through a door that isnt *green* in a level where the flow of time goes depending on which way you walk.
Anarkex

Yahtzee’s pretty funny, and I disagree with him a lot. I can’t hate him directly, since he found something he does well that people find entertaining, and he gets paid for it…I can’t do that! I can, however, rage at the braindead masses who take his opinions as objective fact. The man makes many good points, but he’s far from impartial and often his reasons for liking or disliking a game aren’t backed up very well. To treat his videos as anything more than comedic and occasionally insightful rants is to give far more credit than is due.
http://www.mawsoft.com/blog/ impossible

WELCOME TO MY WORLD MOTHERFUCKERS!
Adrian

Dick move xD, you got the point again Yahtzee.
gulo gulo

yahtzee is the mark e smith of videogames
corpus

Anarkex, I suspect that Yahtzee would also rage at “the braindead masses who take his opinions as objective fact,” if they do indeed exist.

Or are you, perhaps, sensationalising things somewhat?
chutup

I like Yahtzee’s reviews, both for their humour and for their incisiveness. As he points out in one of his videos, he’s a critic. His job is to criticize stuff. Most game reviewers with a good game will just praise it constantly and gloss over any flaws, whereas Yahtzee deliberately seeks out these flaws, forcing players to examine the games they like in more detail. It’s like the Socratic Method. If you can watch Yahtzee review your favourite game and afterward say “Yeah, everything he said was true, but it’s still a good game.” then you know it really is a good game. But if Yahtzee’s reviews get to you, perhaps you didn’t enjoy the game as much as you like to think.
Sninnyer

Cave Story review rip-off.
Sninnyer

Also, did everyone already know about Portal: The Flash Version and nobody told me?
PHeMoX

Lol, I don’t put much trust in anyone who has an ad of World of Warcraft at the end of his or her movies.

I think the review was pretty good, but the broken key part just wasn’t right.
EE

First time I heard a Yahtzee review. I think it was amazing, but only due to the spot-on pictures. They’re just too clever!
//EE
http://www.0xdeadc0de.org/ Eclipse

LOL at the end there’s written:
i wish this game had been shit, then i could have used the line “Jonathan Blow? More like Jonathan Suck!”
Cheater

@PHeMoX: You mean the World of Warcraft he hates? WHAT HAS THE ESCAPIST DONE!?
corpus

Yeah, that the company he works for tries to make money from his work can hardly be construed as an indication of his own legitimacy or trustworthiness.
Valkyrie

@Sninnyer

Then you probably didn’t know about this:
http://portalmaps.wecreatestuff.com/
ZeppMan217

Oh my Braid. Great review.
Gutter

Zero Punctuation sucks now that the Escapist plastered ads all over the video. Yatzee used to sometime have those cool little productions at the end of the videos, but now it’s all ads.

Weird how the Escapist cannot send the guy copy of games out in the States as well. We get that Yatzee is in Aussie, wtf does he have to buy his own game to review…
http://toadsanime.deviantart.com Toadsanime

Darn it! Quite off topic, but my computer decided to completely screw me over late last week. Due to it, everything on my computer cannot be restored. On top of that, all the back-ups I’ve been doing have been messed up by the fault of my Dad.
In short, that means I have to trudge around the internet again for several months, attempting to gather up the 1100+ games I had. This, in turn, means I’m missing out on all the new releases. I may be behind for a while… bah!
Sninnyer

@ Valkyrie: goddamn, that rocks!! Too bad I uninstalled Portal yesterday, but it’s still on my Steam application list of games so I guess it’s just a re-install away.
Highwinder

I wish he would review his own damn game.
Dusty Spur

I half-want to watch this, but I’m afraid I’ll hate it as much as all his other reviews.
Anarkex

@ corpus: You ever check the comments section or message board thread under his videos? There are plenty of kids for whom yahtzee’s opinion is the decision on whether or not to buy a game.
XboxSucksAnyway!

Yahtzee’s review was very entertaining and it pointed out everything one needs to know about Braid!

Braid was a great game but now it SUCKS! Why? Not because the game sucks, but because EVERYTHING Microsoft sucks! Why? Because my system just got the RRoD! This is the 3rd FUCKING 360 I’ve gone through! How the’heck’n’the’fuck can the system be so fucking flawed! I’ve played it maybe 1 hour a night, if that, and I’ve only had this one for 6 months!

Anyway, Fuck You Microsoft and your shitty fuckin system. As far as I’m concerned it’s PS3 and Wii from now on!

Bring Braid to those systems (as I can’t wait for the PC version and I already bought it for the fucking 360!), So bring to one of those systems or fuck Braid as well, only because it’s available on the shittiest fuckin console ever made!
Zombie Pixel

Well, if we’re never ever going to see another Arsecast (Which I much preferred) then Zero Punctuation will have to do.

I suspect the Yahtzee hatred is mostly the JRPG and Nintendo fanbase that provides the bulk of amusing crybaby posts in the Escapist comments section.
Cheater

@Gutter: Yahtzee still does his “productions”, check the Lego Indy and the one after it.

Also, at least according the the Halo 3 video, The Escapist does buy Yahtzee the games he reviews.
Phasma Felis

**corpus:**
*Anarkex, I suspect that Yahtzee would also rage at â€œthe braindead masses who take his opinions as objective fact,â€ if they do indeed exist.*

*Or are you, perhaps, sensationalising things somewhat?*

Actually, Yahtzee does in fact rage at those people. Constantly. Read his website sometime.
Al Gore

gulo gulo – nah, Yahtzee is his own animal.
Medieval

Yahtzee is fekin oosum.
magallanes

Yahtzee is like Robin Williams, this can be very amusing for a while but sooner you will find that almost all of the fast monologue is just garbage and the rest is average with some clever but occasional phrase. Or you could say, it’s funny because you only get a part and the rest you assume that must be funny.

For example, in this video he repeated some facts two times (or 3 or more) again and again.

Is Zero Punctuation funny?, may be yes or may be not, its up to you but for heaven sake, it is not a dogma, it’s very debatable, against a big company this can’t do any damage but for a indie can hurts a lot, in the same way the “Dead Poets Society” did screw a entire generation of poets.
Hardcore

People who go on about not liking Yahtzee are usually just jealous. Why? Well, why would you even talk about Yahtzee if you don’t like him. A simple “I don’t like his stuff” would suffice but people seem to go on long enough that they sound passive-aggressive concluding that they either A.) Are in LOVE with Yahtzee and don’t want to come out of the closet about it, or B.) They’re jealous of his popularity.

No matter which one it is, I would recommend that these people just chill out and enjoy his “works” or avoid them and let the people who do enjoy them go on doing so without a lecture.

And yes, I agree with XboxSucksAnway, Xbox does suck! I’ve been through 2 RRoD’s as well, fucking Microsoft!
corpus

Phasma Felis, you know that you were agreeing with me there, right?
Guy

Detek, are you not wearing cloths when you record your reviews? or when you watch reviews of yatzsomething guy.