Zero punctuation: Fallout 3

MystaEB said:
Zero Punctuation should never be used as a reliable resource when deciding whether or not to buy a game; his reviews are only really good for a few laughs, nothing more.

Fallout 3 is great game, worth every penny and VATS is great. Plus, if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you. A friend of mine didn't like it, didn't use it, but still says the game is the best he's played in the last couple of years.


Actually, it is explained. Both in game and in the manual. V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), is a feature of your pip-boy. And it's not like there are no penalties. Yahtzee makes out that VATS makes the game too easy and has no consequence. All rubbish. You have to spend AP, and you don't start with a huge amount. Also, your weapon condition deteriorates much quicker in VATS than when free shooting.

VATS is a breath of fresh air in a shooter like this, it allows for some interesting and more tactical situations. Hell, you can shoot missiles and grenades out of the air if you are quick enough. Plus, who doesn't like slow motion mutant head explosions?
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lol, it has no consequences, losing AP means nothing as you ONLY need it for vats, nothing else at all. So you use VATS< it doesn't harm you in any way at all. Also its not explained, it doesn't say anywhere how your pip boy, a wrist based laptop, is able to freeze time and take total control of everything, because it can't, its ridiculous, its a tiny computer.

Games where you can pause combat to work on your tactics, while the enemy can't make zero sense to me. You have turn based combat, where both the AI, or an alternate human have a chance at combat, then you get your go, normally RTS style games or what not. Or you have realtime combat, both is just, stupid. Imagine Counterstriker where you can simply pause everyone else, get your headshot, and continue, it would be a joke. Its two essentially mutually exclusive styles mixed together. Its a novelty to me, personally in any game ever given the chance of aiming myself, or turning to D&D style % based combat I'd take the former. If the game has the former it has no need for the later. A novelty limited use thing like max payne maybe, but two main combat systems in one game felt wrong to me.

Yes its a great game, and yes you can choose to ignore VATs, but that doesn't somehow mean you can't talk about it. He has every right to say how stupid it is, as do I.

I also get the feeling that in an RPG, it feels wrong to have such a overpowering ability in combat. It feels rather like a dumbing down console feature to draw in a larger crowd than Oblivion, as shooting on consoles , FPS style combat is harder on a console and this is an inbetween feature.
 
MystaEB said:
Zero Punctuation should never be used as a reliable resource when deciding whether or not to buy a game; his reviews are only really good for a few laughs, nothing more
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Why not? he will give an honest review of all the things in a game that are likely to annoy the **** out of you after an hour of play. Passing them off as "small things" unworthy of attention of reviewers is just giving developers a free pass to shoddy releases and poor attention to detail. Not to mention that most of his reviews don't just focus on such things and if you listen past the quircky pop culture references being used to put down a gameplay mechanic, ZP will often give you a good insight to the history of developers and how thats lead up to making the game in the review.

That he chooses to present his reviews in a comical fashion doesn't diminish their quality and critique of the games in question. Some of the best reviewers in magazines such as PC Gamer / Zone often present in a comedic way. You really shouldn't under estimate how much of an impact he will have on gaming, already game developers are walking away from his reviews with tears in their eyes knowing they can do better rather than their usual *phew* at some 80% slap on the wrist they will recieve from almost all other reviewers who will let them get away with murder.
 
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Haven't read ZP yet but if Fallout 3 isn't a top 3 contender for GOTY then I'll eat my hair, Clarkson style. It's the first game I've been thoroughly and utterly addicted to since...well WoW I guess over a year ago. There's just so much content going on in the Wastelands and no two play throughs feel the same.

Bethesda have made just an awesome job of conserving the feel of the original games whilst successfully porting it to a 3D 1st/3rd-person perspective.

The engine is also smooth as silk with everything on high, and some of the panoramic views looking out onto the Wastelands from a hilltop is really something quite breathtaking to look at.

This is how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. should have been.
 
drunkenmaster said:
lol, it has no consequences, losing AP means nothing as you ONLY need it for vats, nothing else at all. So you use VATS< it doesn't harm you in any way at all. Also its not explained, it doesn't say anywhere how your pip boy, a wrist based laptop, is able to freeze time and take total control of everything, because it can't, its ridiculous, its a tiny computer.

Games where you can pause combat to work on your tactics, while the enemy can't make zero sense to me. You have turn based combat, where both the AI, or an alternate human have a chance at combat, then you get your go, normally RTS style games or what not. Or you have realtime combat, both is just, stupid. Imagine Counterstriker where you can simply pause everyone else, get your headshot, and continue, it would be a joke. Its two essentially mutually exclusive styles mixed together. Its a novelty to me, personally in any game ever given the chance of aiming myself, or turning to D&D style % based combat I'd take the former. If the game has the former it has no need for the later. A novelty limited use thing like max payne maybe, but two main combat systems in one game felt wrong to me.

Yes its a great game, and yes you can choose to ignore VATs, but that doesn't somehow mean you can't talk about it. He has every right to say how stupid it is, as do I.

I also get the feeling that in an RPG, it feels wrong to have such a overpowering ability in combat. It feels rather like a dumbing down console feature to draw in a larger crowd than Oblivion, as shooting on consoles , FPS style combat is harder on a console and this is an inbetween feature.
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Yeah, but since you need to recharge your AP, most of the time you can only take out 1 or 2 enemies tops in a fight. Most of the time, especially if you are fighting a group of enemies; you won't be able to use VATS for each one of them. So it doesn't make the game too easy or anything. Plus, it deteriorates your weapon condition much quicker, but I see you chose to ignore that.

Like I said, it's a nice change; you can knock the weapon out of the hand of the strongest bad guy and then dispatch the rest. I don't care whether it is unrealistic or not explained in detail, it's fun. I'm not looking for some kind of ultra realistic shooter from in Fallout, because that's not what it is. It's an action RPG, not a First Person Shooter. I don't care that the VATS system is ridiculous, because let's face it, the entire game is pretty far fetched. In a derelict wasteland filled with mutants, robots and vaults under the ground the last thing I'm trying to work out is the inner workings of VATS.

Basically, if you don't like it, fine, but I think it's unfair to call it stupid and nothing more than something to dumb the game down for console tards, because it isn't. I like a realistic shooter as much as anyone here, but VATS is an enjoyable system that breaks from the norm and I feel it suits the style of the game well. It's polished and, most importantly, fun and satisfying to use. I don't understand why people think it's some kind of an insult to their skill as a gamer or something.

Spektor said:
Why not? he will give an honest review of all the things in a game that are likely to annoy the **** out of you after an hour of play. Passing them off as "small things" unworthy of attention of reviewers is just giving developers a free pass to shoddy releases and poor attention to detail. Not to mention that most of his reviews don't just focus on such things and if you listen past the quircky pop culture references being used to put down a gameplay mechanic, ZP will often give you a good insight to the history of developers and how thats lead up to making the game in the review.

That he chooses to present his reviews in a comical fashion doesn't diminish their quality and critique of the games in question. Some of the best reviewers in magazines such as PC Gamer / Zone often present in a comedic way. You really shouldn't under estimate how much of an impact he will have on gaming, already game developers are walking away from his reviews with tears in their eyes knowing they can do better rather than their usual *phew* at some 80% slap on the wrist they will recieve from almost all other reviewers who will let them get away with murder.
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The problem is that, yes, he is right a lot of the time, but because it's not fashionable to do a review like that which praises games, he has to focus on nitpicking because otherwise he will lose the majority of his viewers. It's not funny to rant on for 10 minutes about how great a game is, only to rant about how bad a game is.

You can't use him as a valid resource, because apart from a couple of games, he hates everything and can't see the good in anything. He generally only focuses on the bad points, if he didn't, it wouldn't be as funny as it is. He's basically the other side of the reviewer coin. You have your big websites like Gamespot and IGN, who seem incapable of noticing the bad points in games most of the time, and then you have Yahtzee who is incapable of noticing the enjoyable parts of a game most of the time. It's easy to see the bad in something, harder to see the good.

Put it this way, I'd never base a decision of whether to pick up a game or not based on one of his video reviews. Never.
 
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drunkenmaster said:
Games where you can pause combat to work on your tactics, while the enemy can't make zero sense to me.
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It wouldn't work in a twitch-shooter because all the skill the player's avatar has is a direct representation of the player's actual skill.
In a game like Fallout however, your character has stats which determine things like accuracy. If the player is very good, or very bad at something like aiming under pressure, it would throw all the stats out of the window. There's no point levelling up your character as a sniper if the actual player can't aim to save their life for example. VATS is there to let you role-play a character with a certain skill-set despite the fact that the user may not personally have that skill-set.
 
platypus said:
I can't play Fallout 3 :(.

Had to request they remove it from my account because the camera motion gives me migraines.
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Just play in first-person mode?

I almost never use the 3rd person perspective, other than to quick-check whether I'm wearing the right armour (I always switch to the utility jacket or the lab coat to repair / hack, then forget to put my armour back on).
 
He's possibly one of the funniest people i've ever seen, and a linguistic genius imo. I'll check out the review later this eve.
 
Oh come on people. He write some good reviews but to get more publicity he rips into great games.

Actually i just watched it. Thats a very good review (for him), he just doesnt like to say he likes it because of all the stupid people who will ' quick to the internets'
 
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He openly admits he's more a critic than an actual reviewer, that's his job.

I found the beginning of the Fallout3 'review' quite hilarious! :D
 
He says in his Interview about Super Smash Brothers that he's just a critical reviewer ... and that if you like a game you should carry on playing it regardless of what anyone else thinks. It's just a a bit of humor really, no need to take his work as the holy grail ... although some of his points are quite true :p
 
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