Oh, look, Yahtzee has a new Nintendo console and he doesn't like it. I'm soooo surprised to hear this. Maybe what would be good would be to spend 30% of the review whinging about the console, say it's time to talk about the game, and then spend 30% of that remaining time using the game to whinge about the console some more.

Yeah, I too am disappointed in that design decision to have people look down to view the contents of a box they opened, unlike the much more realistic simulation of previous games, because the normal practice for a cardboard box is that you hold it up parallel to the floor and the contents magically stay rooted in place while the box itself becomes semi-transparent so that you can see through it at the same time as you are seeing into it.

Caramel Frappe:

Azure Knight-Zeo:
That's the problem with a "serious" zombie game like this, after you introduce them you can't really add anything new exept for more intense encounters. You can't introduce, say, fly-men once you've established this is a "conventional" zombie outbreak. This is probibly why Resident Evil made it aobut bio-weapons, to add giant snakes and lizard-men giving the game some variaty.

Exactly what I was going to say.

This game seems to be as realistic as a zombie game can get, and because there's no bio weaponry involved or say genetic mutations ... the zombies are left to be as they appeared from the start. Once you're set with weapons along with experience- you're going to tear through the game. I'm also a bit sad that the game is so short .. I figured it'd be at least 10 hours or 12, since it was to be the Wii U's spotlight game.

But Capcom's other zombie game did it without other mutants by using crazy humans. Then there is the Walking Dead game.

Three hours IS a long time to play non-stop.

The first time I did that, I couldn't walk straight for twenty minutes.

I was hoping someone had pointed this out in the comments but I guess this isn't as well known as I think it is. ZombiU is not a new IP, it is a Remake of sorts of an old computer game by the name of Zombi. As for YC's comments on the game, it seems he enjoyed it for the most part, but was disappointed with the late game.

GoddyofAus:
As a reformed PC gamer who couldn't give a fuck about the console wars, I really am starting to wonder if there is ANYTHING Nintendo can do to satisfy Yahtzee.

Make good hardware. Make good games. Drop pointless gimmicks (which would be part of the first two, anyway). Make the next DS have tits and be on fire.

Negatempest:

Bindal:

Negatempest:
ZombiU WANTS you to not look on the TV for the purpose of getting in the way of your Line of Vision to increase tension.

You know how they also could have achieved the "loose sight of surrounding"-thing? BY HAVING A FREAKING GUI ON THE SCREEN BLOCKING SAID VIEW!

Yes, we as gamers want more ****/stuff on the screen. So if I get this straight. You want alot of clutter on the main screen? I'm glad for the second screen so the clutter doesn't block my field of view. And yes I have played so many games like GoW, Bayonetta, DMC, CoD where the clutter on the screen hid enemy movement and got me killed a few times. I, at the time, accepted it as the limits of a console. Now that we got a console with a second screen on the controller to free up the screen more...you complain? A clutter-free screen video game is hard to come by, and the Wii-U is helping to fix that and I couldn't be happier.

Ever heard "Inventory Screen"? Something that every game ever used? And nobody complained about it "blocking the screen"? In fact, it is 100% possible to keep the screen clear in normal gameplay and still have a GUI for your oh-so-wanted 'immersion by blocking Line of Vision'. Dead Space did that already! Absolutely no GUI whatsoever during gameplay UNTIL you open your inventory. Similar to a lot of other games (some had some few GUI, some had none - BUT ALL WORKED)

TheSchaef:

Yeah, I too am disappointed in that design decision to have people look down to view the contents of a box they opened, unlike the much more realistic simulation of previous games, because the normal practice for a cardboard box is that you hold it up parallel to the floor and the contents magically stay rooted in place while the box itself becomes semi-transparent so that you can see through it at the same time as you are seeing into it.

Who said anything about realism? No, seriously?

I thought we were talking about functionality.

WaitWHAT:

Stabby Joe:
Wait, there are still people who think the British Monarch is an active political entity?

'Muricans. 'Muricans everywhere.

I wish this site let me insult people.

But no, ZombiU was made by a FRENCH developer, not american, please know what the hell you are talking about.

Am surprised he gave even mild credit to the game because Yahtzee's general opinion on anything with Nintendo's label on it is "lol Nintendo sux".

Of course, he DID spend half the review bitching about the Wii U instead of the game, so I guess it's just par for the mediocre course these days. Can't spend the review demonstrating genuine original concepts and humor, can we? Let's bitch about a company I don't like, my fans haven't gotten tired of that yet, I'm sure! This is why I loved your GW2 review (despite being a huge fan of the game) which managed to keep things on the actual topic, but found this review almost pathetically mediocre in terms of humor (despite not even OWNING the game) mainly because you ran out of faults so quickly that you had to spend the third act of your review crawling back to the console hardware for more things to bitch about.

I know you're going for comedy here, Yahtzee, but you're starting to become the Carlos Mencia of video game comedy, beating the same old boring stereotypical jokes as if they're still somehow funny. "Nintendo sux and iz 4 babiez har har har". "Gamers are entitled har har har". And so on. Yes, some of them are true but that doesn't excuse you from recycling the same fricking joke ad infinitum. Be original for once. The "Nintendo sucks" joke is way beyond a dead horse, it's already thoroughly decomposed.

Zachary Amaranth:

TheSchaef:

Yeah, I too am disappointed in that design decision to have people look down to view the contents of a box they opened, unlike the much more realistic simulation of previous games, because the normal practice for a cardboard box is that you hold it up parallel to the floor and the contents magically stay rooted in place while the box itself becomes semi-transparent so that you can see through it at the same time as you are seeing into it.

Who said anything about realism? No, seriously?

I thought we were talking about functionality.

Uh, the game developers? They made it pretty clear they were aiming for realism over functionality. Something which every other critic in the gaming community seems to understand just fine.

And the tactic of realism over functionality isn't actually all that unusual, nor did Nintendo "invent" it. In fact, one of Yahtzee's favorite games (Silent Hill 2) employs this same tactic, giving you intentionally shitty combat controls to help immerse you in the world and add to the despair you feel in being unable to defend yourself from these monstrosities. And this is a fact that he even admits to himself in his own review of other games in the Silent Hill series (along with other horror games he's reviewed). But I guess it's okay for him to do that because, hey, it's not a Nintendo game, right? Let's beat that dead horse some more, lolololol.

They are selling slower than psvita where i work... and that is bad to be clear <.<

Price is a bit mental on the old wiiu and tbh i also hate motion touch screen meh that it is but meh who cares to much to moan about today :P enjoy it or hate it i'll stick to my pc, ps3 and yes pokemon dsi adiction(i hate the irony i never palyed this as a kid and now my ocd loves it).

At 40 seconds in I couldn't help but wonder "what the hell is Mr. Wonderful doing in this review?"
Still, great review as ever.

I don't think Yahtzee dislikes the Wii U as much as he hates gimmicks, and having to use the gamepad as your sniper scope is about as gimmicky as it gets. That's why he's always honing in on Nintendo - Nintendo loooooves their gimmicks. He's made fun of the Kinect and the Move as well, but since those are optional things, he's not having to constantly deal with them. Regardless, he's spot on about the tablet; holding that thing with one hand gets kind of irksome after a while. I know it's the size that it has to be, but it's still pretty uncomfortable to game with it.

Doesn't seem like he disliked this game, which is more than ZombiU can say where other critics are concerned. The game has been universally panned, so the fact that Yahtzee had a lot of positive things to say about it is interesting. I'm gonna give it a rent if I get the chance.

CriticKitten:
Am surprised he gave even mild credit to the game because Yahtzee's general opinion on anything with Nintendo's label on it is "lol Nintendo sux".

I get a feeling people who say this haven't spent much time actually paying attention to what he said.

Uh, the game developers?

Unless Yahtzee was one of the game developers, that doesn't really matter.

Was Yahtzee one of the game developers?

No? So when the poster was going after Yahtzee based on those claims as though presented by Yahtzee, referencing points that Yahtzee specifically made, and claimed realism, it was pointless?

Awesome. Your technicality still validates my statement.

Sheo_Dagana:
I don't think Yahtzee dislikes the Wii U as much as he hates gimmicks, and having to use the gamepad as your sniper scope is about as gimmicky as it gets. That's why he's always honing in on Nintendo - Nintendo loooooves their gimmicks. He's made fun of the Kinect and the Move as well, but since those are optional things, he's not having to constantly deal with them. Regardless, he's spot on about the tablet; holding that thing with one hand gets kind of irksome after a while. I know it's the size that it has to be, but it's still pretty uncomfortable to game with it.

Doesn't seem like he disliked this game, which is more than ZombiU can say where other critics are concerned. The game has been universally panned, so the fact that Yahtzee had a lot of positive things to say about it is interesting. I'm gonna give it a rent if I get the chance.

Also, Nintendo fans are more likely to get hostile and/or defensive about their system, so there's a certain level of confirmation bias in the process of seeing all this "hate."

If XBox or Playstation gamers were as militant in defending their consoles, the apparent bias would go away pretty quick.

And yeah, Yahtzee came off as fairly positive about the game. Considering he's supposed to hate Nintendo, you'd think he'd be more hostile. I mean, the game has a metascore of 77 on both Metacritic and Gamerankings, and as we all know, on the four point scale, that's pretty crappy.

>.>

The cricket bat makes it sound like a silly little fun game. The 3 hours that the controller holds a charge is more than enough time to play ANOTHER zombie game.

Actually, I rarely play for more than 2-3 hours in a sitting. However, I'm well aware that I'm in a minority on that one. Plus, the break in between play sessions is usually only an hour or so, so unless that gamepad recharges like crazy, it's still not gonna work.

As far as the Wii U itself- at this point, control gimmicks don't really phase me much. I just want good games. I'll play the Wii U like I do any other system- 3 exclusives I'm dying to own before I commit. Honestly, things are looking good for the Wii U- I want Rayman Origins and the Wonderful 101, so they only need 1 more to get me looking for deals on it. Still gotta wait for the tax return next year though- and a composite cable. I've decided not to upgrade my TV until me and the fiance work out the whole wedding/house thing (that way I can keep it on hand for the old school systems.)

I see the Nintendo Defences Force is out in full force.

A lot of people on Twitter that I follow seem to like the Wii U quite a bit. It's nice to heard some "counter-arguments".

Most of Yahtzee complains, which I agree with, are pretty much what I expected. Nintendo is still riding the gimmick train. I suppose after the "success" of the gimmicky Wii and DS. Why wouldn't they do it again? The 3DS's gimmick didn't turn out too well though, I'm quite sure it's only selling because of it's brand - and the lack of brand of it's competitor.

Wait, you mean sniffing hair doesnt count? D:

FelixG:

WaitWHAT:

Stabby Joe:
Wait, there are still people who think the British Monarch is an active political entity?

'Muricans. 'Muricans everywhere.

I wish this site let me insult people.

But no, ZombiU was made by a FRENCH developer, not american, please know what the hell you are talking about.

Blimey, someone's been handing out the irony blinkers left right and centre.

CriticKitten:
Am surprised he gave even mild credit to the game because Yahtzee's general opinion on anything with Nintendo's label on it is "lol Nintendo sux".

Of course, he DID spend half the review bitching about the Wii U instead of the game, so I guess it's just par for the mediocre course these days. Can't spend the review demonstrating genuine original concepts and humor, can we? Let's bitch about a company I don't like, my fans haven't gotten tired of that yet, I'm sure! This is why I loved your GW2 review (despite being a huge fan of the game) which managed to keep things on the actual topic, but found this review almost pathetically mediocre in terms of humor (despite not even OWNING the game) mainly because you ran out of faults so quickly that you had to spend the third act of your review crawling back to the console hardware for more things to bitch about.

I know you're going for comedy here, Yahtzee, but you're starting to become the Carlos Mencia of video game comedy, beating the same old boring stereotypical jokes as if they're still somehow funny. "Nintendo sux and iz 4 babiez har har har". "Gamers are entitled har har har". And so on. Yes, some of them are true but that doesn't excuse you from recycling the same fricking joke ad infinitum. Be original for once. The "Nintendo sucks" joke is way beyond a dead horse, it's already thoroughly decomposed.

He's been doing this shit for years, and making the entire gaming community more cynical and dickish with his vast influence. It's kind of ridiculous.

To be honest, this review actually received a good share of praise before the usual downfall. I feel good about his points and I still really want to play this one.

All in all, good review style this go around, very entertaining with facts and figures.

BiH-Kira:
So wait, Yahtzee actually likes the game?

And I have to disagree with the semi-transparent inventory. I hate that shit. It's never transparent enough or it's too transparent. And the point of it was that you can only focus one or the other. To keep the tension up.

In which case you could just have the inventor pull up on the TV screen whilst the game is still running. Only thing is, if that happened on a PS3 or 360 game, it would be considered a flaw. But put it on a secondary unit and suddenly it's called innovation(?)

Terramax:

BiH-Kira:
So wait, Yahtzee actually likes the game?

And I have to disagree with the semi-transparent inventory. I hate that shit. It's never transparent enough or it's too transparent. And the point of it was that you can only focus one or the other. To keep the tension up.

In which case you could just have the inventor pull up on the TV screen whilst the game is still running. Only thing is, if that happened on a PS3 or 360 game, it would be considered a flaw. But put it on a secondary unit and suddenly it's called innovation(?)

No you couldn't.
If you put in on the screen, you can see the inventory and only the inventory. On the WiiU you can see both, but you can focus only on one. You can always look back to the TV to see what's going on.
If you make the inventory transparent, there will be absolutely no tension because you can see both all the time.

A Smooth Criminal:

canadamus_prime:
At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no, as far as I know, they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

EDIT: There I fixed it, so EXCUSE ME, PRINCESS!!

Magichead:

nima55:
Yahtzee doesn't like the Wii U? No shocker there. Pretty sure there is nothing Nintendo could do to make him like them. Oh well I'm off to play ZombiU again.

A quality he has in common with anyone not; under 12, over 50, or possessed of the ability to constantly ingest ripe, fresh turds over and over again because they have a little "N" sticker on them.

When Nintendo can produce more than two good games per-generation that aren't targeted at young children or Generic Middle-aged Mother of 3's, they might start to earn back some of their credibility.

As I'm sure your ego needs the boost that comes from beating up the big company, sure why not

canadamus_prime:

A Smooth Criminal:

canadamus_prime:
At least they're trying to do something different. Still not buying at WiiU though and not because I still think that tea tray of a controller is poorly designed.

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

http://kotaku.com/5960459/10-things-about-the-wii-u-that-were-loving-or-hating
Look guys! a non-existent website. An unbiased one at that

nima55:

canadamus_prime:

A Smooth Criminal:

I know you've never even held the controller. You looked at it and said "it's too big". All those people who say that it feels good, ergonomic and natural? Obviously in your world they don't exist.

I've never heard anyone say it feels good ergonomic and natural so no they don't exist. ¬___¬
Besides it's not as though I'm slamming it into the ground, but I do think the controller is poorly designed.

http://kotaku.com/5960459/10-things-about-the-wii-u-that-were-loving-or-hating
Look guys! a not existant website

Ok ok, now I know they exist. Sheesh! ¬___¬
For fuck sakes, why is everyone picking on me? It's not as though I'm a hater or anything. Hell I used to love Nintendo, almost fanatically so, but I'm not going to ignore what I think are questionable design decisions. And as I said on another thread, I'm a hell of a lot more forgiving than most. So get off my back already!

Zachary Amaranth:
Who said anything about realism? No, seriously?

I thought we were talking about functionality.

Functionally, a second screen gives you more screen space to observe your environment, rather than obscuring them with overlays.

If we're talking about functionality, this would have been a favorable comparison on the part of the Wii U. It's rather like wondering why we need two sets of shoulder buttons on a controller when we only have two index fingers. Are dual analog sticks on a controller that also has a D pad and 10 other buttons also a solution looking for a problem?

The bottom line is, there are now more tools to add to the gameplay equation, which pushes the "semi-transparent overlay" argument into the realm of aesthetics.