For instance, he tells us that Duke blows up some pregnant women and then makes a joke about abortion. And I agree, that's pretty darn offensive. But is it funny? We don't know, the reviewer doesn't tell us the punchline.
I've watched a couple of videos and it looks like there's a few funny bits. Heck, even Duke signing a copy of his book "Why I'm So Great" to get extra health seems like it could be chuckle-worthy.
Sure, that is an offensive word, but that's not my problem with it. I was practically in tears laughing at a Tosh.0 skit the other night that was basically a 5 minute long gay joke. But it was witty and original. Just saying the word hasn't been edgy or made me laugh since about the 6th grade.
I'm not saying we should ban this game. But I do think there is a very big difference between the reviewer not liking this kind of comedy and the reviewer being humorless. I love comedy, I pay to see live standup all the time, practically the only things on my DVR are comedy, but I would never buy this game. Their 'funny' and my 'funny' are two entirely different things.
This is it. I think people don't realize they've grown up and what they found funny when playing DN as a child is simply not funny anymore. After all kids are easily amused.
I'm a fan of nearly all types of comedy and don't mind the mindless, 'tasteless' humor types. That said, the demo was tasteless AND unfunny. Considering Gearbox and 2K's recent track record, it's not too surprising -- they've been relatively mediocre at best lately.
As is, he sounds like a straight laced bore.
I mean his first reaction was to kill the women - and then shout down the game for it - considering they explode exactly 5 seconds after the dialogue ends, so yeah, really tried to avoid that huh..
Also, my favorite bit:
"Duke, what's happening to us?"
"Looks like you're... awkward pause fucked."
If that's any indication, I completely sympathize with the reviewer.
For those who don't have the 50min to watch it. Both of the guys commentating don't like the game at all. It's supposed to be boring and archaic, and then there's the lazy humor...
I thought Borderlands was fantastic. It can be a grind at times, but it's a really well done FPS-as-RPG. The four-player co-op was icing on the cake.
But when he started going on about the checkpoints, health, shooting, chopping, loading and level design... my willingness evaporated.
If you are looking for a ZP review a genuine one isn't up as of this exact minute - there is a review of DNF on the site but it's a 'tribute' of sorts from September 2010. I look forward to Yahtzee's take on the real thing.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/reviews/3541-Top...
The game has a 50% on Metacritic, so I'm personally reluctant to give it the benefit of the doubt.
I also liked the fact that this is one of few FPS's that actually got me killed a couple of times lately.
While I haven't played the game myself, I'd like to point out to the author of the article that if attempting to describe why a something isn't funny, the best weapon in your arsenal would be humor, not simply sticking up your nose in disgust (though one could mix that in).
That said, a lot of the jokes in the game sound pretty straightforwardly shitty and weird. However I'm trying to imagine the author describing a Louis CK comedy set, a dirty comic I find hilarious, and I'm fairly sure he could ruin that in short order, so I'll hold off on my judgements.