Hunt Down The Freeman (Zero Punctuation)

[@Nick-mp1zh]

Fun fact: that pitch black cave is another example of the game not telling you about abilities you have. At one point you walk over a pair of night-vision goggles and the game never tells you that you picked them up or how to equip them

[@b3rz3rk3r9]

@@drifter402 Wow. Both of these fun facts didn't at all make me feel sympathetic. In fact, similar to learning beyond the Nazi Regime's face values, it actually made me hate the game even more.

[@MasterCharlie104]

@@grfrjiglstan Nope you really can't pick it up again. I saw on stream Yahtzee pressed the button to light it only for the character to throw it away and no matter how many times he pressed the use key he just refused to pick it back up.

[@scottgrey3337]

@@MasterCharlie104 Actually, having watched another reviewer, you can pick it up. Of course, this isn't Yahtzee's fault, it's just another simple but mind-numbingly frustrating way the game fucked up.

[@imaginaryfanboy]

that ending got way too real

[@Heavysweating]

why are you everywhere

[@rollrcoastrbacon2725]

Because 90% of what he said IS REAL! The golden age of vintage games is long over and we now all live in a bleak unending dark age of oversaturated markets, overpriced games with flawed design after twenty years of industry development and no way out. Welcome to gaming of the next century

[@weirdcaster1679]

we just gotta stick with SGG/other great indie devs and hope that everyone else follows

[@TheTwit1995]

We're begging to believe

[@ingonyama70]

Every age ends. We just have to wait it out.

[@Videogamer96_]

The ending to this sounded like a genuine frustrated and upset Yahtzee

[@thesuperthingymabob8209]

yeah screw john romero

[@darksol2178]

I really dont think that was sarcasm or a joke(definitely played up). It mirrors alot of what hes said in the past on his Lets Play Channel he used to upload to. Plus i think most journos and hobbyists for video games are genuinely getting fed up with the direction Triple A has been going, and the absolute pile of nonsense Steam burries every decent release under. I quite agree with his sentiment.

[@ahandsomefridge]

He's got a point to be frustrated about though. A lot of the AAA 'charm' is just hyperfocussing on money making buisiness models nowadays. The only way to avoid it is to not play those games (which is perfectly doable btw).

[@Videogamer96_]

Sincere Flowers Lol no, been here since 2010. This is a broken Yahtzee wondering what's happened to his favorite game franchise and favorite game company

[@Miata-to-E36]

I felt the same way when he said all that it’s like we don’t have a good story anymore we have to have something happening every minute or the game is considered bad by critics and they give call of battlefield modernline 15 black ops zombies dlc 3 redux a 10/10 while actual good story driven games are in the back of gameinformer with a underpaid and overworked critic that just finished his beer

[@CMGThePerson]

And this is why Portal 2 ended with actual bloody closure

[@Monolith308]

CMG The Person hunt down the Wheatley?

[@blazerburner38]

@@Monolith308 no.

[@bobdude0987654321]

I mean, it would have if it didn't take place in the same world as Half-Life, implying that Chell has been released into a Combine-controlled world armed with an unshakable will to live and a portal gun.

[@blazerburner38]

@@bobdude0987654321 50,000 years later, half life 3 would've taken place by then and the combine would be gone.

[@blazerburner38]

@nigge r Considering there's no sound and only a wheat overrun grassy area, it suggests that the combine are gone and so are humans.

[@i_just_got_here]

Hi there from the future, Yahtzee just named Hunt Down the Freeman his Worst Game of the Decade... surprising absolutely nobody

[@RyB305]

Roee Rosenzweig hello from slightly farther in the future, help

[@blake-81]

And now, there's a new Half Life (Not 3), which surprised the underpants off literally everyone...

[@amannamedsquid313]

@@blake-81 And Black Mesa is finally finished.

[@Zelousmarineinspace]

Roee Rosenzweig Should have been FFXIII

[@CMGThePerson]

A Spider demon that likes chocolate you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain

[@mrsuspicious1743]

"If you listen real hard, you can actually pinpoint the moment his heart rips in half"

[@MrLCGO]

Apparently the reason this got published because the guys behind it actually payed for the license. Most of their budget went into that instead of you know, hiring people who know what they're doing.

[@indieWellie]

MrLCGO so this is kind of like that ET for the atari 2600?

[@MrLCGO]

Indignant Wellington Yep if Atari used most of what was left of the money to pay KZbinrs to voice ET and Eliot!

[@vincereterram8150]

Dare I say? That honestly makes ET the better game.

[@Jacob-lv6zy]

MrLCGO But the fact that Valve is even in the first place allowing people to pay for the license to use characters from one of the worlds most treasured single player experiences of all time is so soul crushing in the first place. Truly a sign that they have absolutely given up on even trying to publish Half life 3.

[@h.t.6442]

I don't know if that fact makes the situation better or worse.

[@DrUSB]

90% of all soldiers are voiced by Pyrocynical.

[@Axl4325]

I know this is old but would like to point out that development direction was so bad that he had no idea what they were doing, they had a clusterfuck of a discord and every now and then told him "Record these lines" then went "Wait those lines don't work anymore we need these new ones" and didn't even know what was going on, best thing? They told him to record his lines as he would normally speak in his British accent, he was voicing an Asian character

[@jeskler]

@@Axl4325 That was I hate everything, not Pyro, Pyro played the random friendly non-combine guys scattered around the game.

[@unapersona100real6]

@@jeskler also that soldier who tells you that you were detected by the aliens

[@MegaZeta]

@@Axl4325 Uh, thanks for the update about whoever that guy is

[@MegaZeta]

@@jeskler Oh, well, we wouldn't want to mix up those important... men? Going out on a limb here I know

[@ahmednasser8214]

Fun fact: Alex from I Hate Everything did some VA work on this turd with barely any knowledge about the plot. Basically he was sent a script and was told to send audio recordings of his lines and that's that. Quality content, guys.

[@lyca0n535]

@@EETDUK he also was asked to swap accents midway through recording and the game includes both his fake American accent and normal accent because the dev is special

[@MasterCharlie104]

Oh and lest we forget the NDA contract he had to sign was just an email and replying to it counted as a signiture.

[@rerecycled7507]

@@HeroSword_P Brits and Asians have pretty similar skin colors though. Whatever your point is.

[@hiiambarney4489]

Pyrocynical as well

[@MasterCharlie104]

@@rerecycled7507 Speaking as a Brit who is as white as the driven snow I have yet to see an Asian with my skin colour.

[@renewagain6956]

"It's probably safe to blame John Ramero." One of the end cards is for Yahtzee's review of Diakatana... well played.

[@FeedbackRokker227FNAF5]

That single line is the perfect example of how to handle serious tone in comedy

[@MasterCharlie104]

I would like to point out this game started as a failed Indiegogo project that only made $12 from a single backer. That alone should have indicated that no-one wants this and maybe it's time to call it quits but nope, somehow the director managed to get funding and made it anyway.

[@SurprisinglyDeep]

Lol the power of the human spirit can allow anyone to achieve their dream...even if that dream is not worth pursuing

[@vladimirlestrad3120]

I’d like to know how this one person got the funds to make this game, cuz that’s money that could be used for something so much better like charity, or a lifetime supply of Twix.

[@darkerbit]

The director said he got money from "an investor", who is, not even fucking kidding, his dad

[@oz_jones]

@@darkerbit son, I am disappoint

[@srbrant5391]

@@darkerbit That makes the whole thing even _more_ depressing.

[@pajamapantsjack5874]

Imagine if Yahtzee had voiced a character.

[@Luciffrit]

Lets not just imagine but make it a reality... Kidnap him like a saturday morning cartoon and force-feed him brussle sprouts until he shits green straw then hold a mic to his face and ask him how he's doing... THEN *said while inhaling* put it in an uninspired asset flip and sell it on steam... and constantly bring up the ordeal in the comments section of his future videos!

[@chasestanek5253]

Kanashe ._.

[@chasestanek5253]

O no

well, you could listen to his audiobooks, he voices his characters pretty well.

[@peterwhite6415]

id ratehr he voiced a character ina show or cartoon base on one of his books then doing that

[@srbrant5391]

“Sarcasm leaking from his mouth like hastily stolen cake.” That is officially my new favorite simile.

[@lordgeovan]

What happened to you? What happened to us? To the people we were supposed to become? You were the Chosen One! You were supposed to destroy this bullshit, not join them. You were supposed to bring balance to the industry, not leave it in darkness. You were my brother, John Romero! I loved you.

[@dr.suckfudge340]

I'm stealing "You were supposed to destroy this bullshit, not join them"

[@pokemonmanic3595]

John Romero: *making Daikatana* I HATE YOU!

[@nekotyrant1629]

So... who's brave enough to tell Yahtzee the guy who made this game now has a job at Activision/Blizzard?

[@Krebons1200]

You, apparently. At least, if he ever saw this.

[@Mr_T_Badger]

Does he still have that job after the scandals I wonder.

[@felinusfeline5559]

So THAT'S why Warcraft expansion went down the tube!

[@ArmorFrogEntertainment]

given the state of Blizzard, that makes perfect sense.

[@AlwaysANemesis]

What happened to you? What happened to _us?_ _To the people we were supposed to become..?_

[@katylar]

#whathappenedtous

[@Carlos-ln8fd]

Hoopdy i actually cried when i heard that

[@lukessummerguitar]

He knicked that = kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4e7nGCfgJp6nbc

[@AlwaysANemesis]

It was a really fucking good line, that I thought deserved to be emphasized. Because Jesus, it makes you think a bit.

[@richardlionerheart1945]

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE

[@trevormcguffee3922]

"Kitty Pryde my way out". Best line of the whole video.

[@mentelgenvideos4624]

5:19 that was far too impassioned to be entirely satire

[@360tbag6]

it's sad an true..i cry everytime

[@bigfatcarp93]

Yahtz was always a big Half-Life fan. In those few seconds, we, the fanbase, allowed him to be our voice.

[@britishnerd3919]

At least we still have Black Mesa.

[@ThatGenericPyro]

Well, ​Black Mesa isn't exactly a *mod* anymore, it's it's own game now... As a diehard fan of HL1 I think they're doing a fantastic job and deserve some kind of compensation for their work, I happily bought it back when it first came out on Steam. Remaking one of the best FPS games ever made is no easy feat, much less doing it as well as they have and even trying to make it BETTER than it was before! Xen especially is way cooler nowadays and I'm really glad we're finally starting to get to play it thanks to the public beta (the Gonarch fight alone is so much more interesting), it's genuinely good stuff! Sure, it sucks that the original version will never see Crowbar Collective's take on Xen and that you have to buy the 2015 release for it, but at the same time: These guys've spent well over 10 years on this project (completely on their own time & out of pocket, btw) just because of how much they love Half-Life and have actually done a great job taking us back to where it all started... *Hunt Down the Freeman did not and asked for more money.* Thing is: One's a commendable fan effort which is absolutely worth the $20 just for giving them the support to make more, and the other is a lame cashgrab that took the piss out of a beloved franchise (and only got away with it for like 2 seconds because of how starved for content Valve's fanbase is).

[@harrymontgomery4585]

@Madalin Grama True! But Half Life was one of the greatest games of all time. Bringing it up to scratch in terms of modern day graphics (And doing the original game justice) is definitely a good idea to begin with, and from what I understand it was well executed as well. Even a quick glance at reviews is showing that the game is now acclaimed from critics and consumers all over the internet. What they essentially did was take a good game and make it better, it's hard to find an argument for how that could be a bad thing.

[@ducktummy]

And here we are now, with Half Life: Alyx, a banger sequel and then Black Mesa properly being complete.

[@Peusterokos1]

@@ducktummy 13 years and 1000$ for a retcon.

[@jaxxbakliy8999]

@@Peusterokos1 You dont need a valve index

[@legoworksstudios1]

Rather than put this in the Bottom 5 of 2018, may I suggest another Zero Punctuation Lifetime Achievement Award for Total Abhorrence?

[@battlion507]

David Taylor Jeez, that bad? But is it worse than Ride To Hell Retribution if HDTF was released the same year with RtHR?

[@MasterCharlie104]

Well one of them currently occupies the White House.

[@Jacob-lv6zy]

David Taylor No, atleast you can justify this games badness at it being a badly produced indie game that just happen to have the ”half-life” universe in it sold on steam. Ride to hell was made by an actual gamecompany in the 2010s that presumably was playtestet, cleared for released and sold for retail gaming prices. That game is something of a miracle

[@MasterCharlie104]

Jacob Lindborg Even so there are bad indie games that are at least playable. Plus you also have to look at all the shit going on behind the scenes. Like how the director’s a big whiny baby who censors all criticism, or how they decided to hire KZbinrs with little to no voice acting experience to voice the characters, or how most of those actors (and indeed most people who worked on the game) haven’t (or in IHE’s case) refused to be paid, or how most of the game’s assets were stolen, or how it’s 20 bucks on Steam despite the fact it looks like it was made for less than a dollar. Overall this game was made by a group of people who had no clue what the hell they were doing, had a bad attitude to the project and released one of the worst pieces of crap you’ll ever see. So yes, I think it has a decent shot at Lifetime Achievement for Total Abhorrence.

[@chrisschirripa5917]

Back from the Future, and I’m here to tell all of you that it’s his Worst Game Of 2018.

[@AmatsuKona]

"Ovarian cystically bad" that's awfully specific.

[@doombringer5267]

Ahh, classic Yatzhee. Starting a point with an exsitencial crisis about the gaming industry, and finishing that same point with "it's probably safe to blame John Romero" XDPlease never change, Yatzhee.

[@TheTHREEkoalas]

I've seen plenty of videos about the degradation of the games industry, but Yahtzee just made me actually sad about the future of gaming.

[@boiledheadcrab1678]

TheTHREEkoalas Same, bit of an irony that the one guy that makes me laugh a lot made me cry so much. Ah well, at least I have Rami Ismail's phone num-- WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE CHANGED IT AGAIN?!

[@iancolesketcham278]

Boiled Headcrab hu

[@MegaZeta]

Come on, dude, the standard KZbin screeching idiot-pandering hysteria about the "degradation" of the games industry is pretty far from Yahtzee

[@ignaeon]

If he actually cared he'd have used the example of "downtrodden quality indie" to highlight a game that's actually overlooked and not a breakout smash hit that is far from buried. the fact that he didn't is part of the answer to the question he posed.

[@joaoassumpcao3347]

@@ignaeon While A Hat in Time is not an underground game only known by 4 people, it isn't a smash hit either. It's a critical success but I've met plenty of people who are into games and into indie games in particular that never heard of it. The indie community doesn't need this kind of pettyness, my dude

[@Talik13]

Maaaaannnn Prince of Persia and the Sands of Time was the first game to make me sad when it ended. I was like "oh shit, It's... over" and I found my 13 year old self feeling attached to characters for the first time.

[@doomguy_vr9797]

Seeing that you put in a hat in time puts warmth in my heart. Thank you.

[@constantin3886]

Man that ending is almost Shakespearean

[@khiemnguyen8395]

No joke

[@liquidpestar8099]

'That all resemble a 3 year old's drawing of mysterio from spiderman' I'm fucking dead

[@zabaoth]

RIP in pepperoni.

[@AdlyLeksono]

619 likes tho.

[@01oo011]

Wait wait wait... so... you have to pay... actual money for some randos fan fictions...?

[@captainwilts2244]

Not Alpharius 25 fucking dollars. 25. TWENTY MOTHER FUCKING FIVE DOLLARS!

[@hjy2187418]

Kanashe das because the launch disaster so they lower the price ( which is still asking a lot )

[@xotube2206]

Yes Not Alpharius... Yes.

[@galapagos6186]

It's for science man!

[@sarafontanini7051]

and not even good fanfiction, more like shitty fanfiction where the portagonist is more or less the villain but because the writer's the insane the narrative jumps through hoops trying to convince you 'oh no this is a cool guy, this totally someone you'd like to meet in real life'

[@DaDMonDCB]

Going through ZP in order again, and I'm reminded of his level of emotion and enthusiasm he had for Spec Ops (HUUUCGH) The Line. He gets that deep here, like with few other games (except maybe Amy), but for the exact opposite reason.

[@TheCorrodedMan]

Jesus,he got so serious near the end that he actually used _punctuation_

[@whereisspacebar2991]

Man, that got real at the end there.

[@RinqMasterLP]

"What happened to you!? What happened to us?! I don't know, but it's probably safe to blame John Romero."

[@pyrojinn]

Those last words hit home to me. I had such high hope for the game industry, thinking that in a few years it’s going to replace tv completely as a media platform. Now it’s mostly big ass “triple A” companies chasing short-lived trends that can make them the most money possible while ditching the artistic and entertaining aspect video game original had down the drains. What have we become?

[@39Chevy]

Jinn P yro I see what you did there.

[@YorkJonhson]

As depressing and frustrating as corporate greed is, there's at least a little bit of a silver lining in knowing that there are still creative devs out there trying their best, especially with indie studios that exist in a way that never would have worked out twenty years ago. My hope is that when/if people finally get burnt out on blatantly manipulative business practices and stop buying the same things over and over again that the industry can finally back off from recycled Triple-A schlock and start experimenting with smaller and more unique projects again.

[@ahandsomefridge]

I don't know what 'we' have become, but I have become an explorer of the AA and 'less A' games that lack obnoxious buisiness models. And I already was a retrogamer, there's always that.

[@retrogamelover2012]

@kanashe Yeah, yeah. You don't need to bash that over our heads like we're all drunk on 'Member Berries or something. }:^( Besides, even then, the amount of extortions weren't NEARLY as despicable as they are now, with this "games-as-a-service" bullshit. Really, it's arguably worse than it was 20 years ago, because we've let this bunch of shortsighted, corporate fat-cats just get away with so much manipulative bullshit, that we might as well be perpetuating all these pessimisticly misanthropic views on the state of humanity.

[@damiansmith5294]

Kanashe I feel like you play Call of Duty, and thought Infinity War was a good game.

[@srbrant5391]

“Ovarian-cystingly-bad” is such a great descriptor.

[@marcosperez6962]

"what happened to you?what happened to us? to the people we were supoused to become?"damn yahtzee i didnt need those feels, not today

[@casualcraftman1599]

1:58-2:07 Thats more hilarious knowing that IHE voiced a character in this game.

[@Baconkiin]

Also Pyrocynical and Keemstar

[@Bali6161]

who?

[@Baconkiin]

I Hate Everything, Pyrocynical and Keemstar

[@BlackM0ngoose]

What's up American Nation, it's your President Killer Keemstar! Let's get riiiiiiight into the national crisis!

[@PancakemonsterFO4]

Blackmongoose when keemstar becomes president America must be really going to shit

[@sugarhighmegaming5008]

I really do enjoy when Yahtzee takes the time to actually comment on the industry as a whole. He’s absolutely right, what the fuck is happening to the industry? How many games from how many genres have micro transactions and loot boxes now when they worked perfectly fucking well without them? I’ve heard the notion that games cost more to develop... which is probably false. You can look at their financial reports. Contrary to what AAA monetary practices would lead you to assume, they aren’t struggling to turn a profit. They’re bigger and making more money then ever before. More importantly, how the hell can it be changed? People who are passionate about artistic integrity and expression seem to very rarely end up in a position where they can actually preserve it. In other words, the people on the board of these companies are not the same people who actually play the games. They’re corporate shills who look at the entire industry through the lenses of spread sheets and financial projections... -man.- The only solution I can think of would be an impossibly large and well funded influx of passionate investors who are adverse to the idea of “form” over “function” in that the form is the artistic medium, and the function is the generation of revenue. Edit: to clarify. Not fucking likely.

[@felix_forrester]

It's a naturally-cancerous end result of DLC as a concept gone out of control. "What's the most money we can get from the same game from the same customers?"

[@sugarhighmegaming5008]

Zetsu Banned I actually think it’s the prevalence and massive money being made in the mobile gaming industry. Candy crush for example has made a disgusting amount of money, more than $800,000 a day at times. That motivation, piggybacking on the good will of the gaming community generated in the Gaming Renaissance Yahtzee briefly mentioned that occurred during the early 2000s. This started off with little things. Big chunks of DLC for 20-30 bucks a pop... then, when they pitched the idea of hyper-cheap DLC, 1$ a piece, 5$ a piece, etc... it was an easy transition from that, to actually monetize basic mechanics of the game. Like progression, rewards meant to be earned, etc.

[@sugarhighmegaming5008]

Kanashe I’m a naturally cynical person, so that is a possibility. But I don’t think it’s the truth. Or at the very least, it’s not a universal truth.

[@sugarhighmegaming5008]

atur chomicz I haven’t.

[@SPM0717]

Sugarhighme Gaming The only solution there's gonna be is when it all blows up in publisher's faces, probably through another gaming crash.

[@zer00rdie]

HL3's been reset from scratch atleast 4 times. Like you said, "Back when Valve were actual game developers".

[@peacemaker63604]

And now it is officially shitcaned, with the lead writer having to publish the plot as heavily edited fanfiction at the insistance of valves lawyers.

[@notenoughmemes1847]

@@peacemaker63604 Didn't that whole thing become pointless after Half Life: Alyx retconned the ending to a point where it left a way out for the series to continue?

[@peacemaker63604]

@@notenoughmemes1847 I wouldn't know, i never played or watched a playthrough of that game.

[@milastarr4347]

In John Romeros words "I don't care how deep that texture is. Gaming is about gameplay, you don't need graphics or story."

[@gebs123]

"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." - John Carmack to the person making the backstory for his video game

[@hannessteffenhagen61]

I mean, he's right, kind of. Graphics and story enhance the experience of course, but the gameplay is the foundation on which both rest. If you have good graphics that makes for good screenshots, if you have a good story that makes a great source for a fan wiki, but if it's not tied to gameplay you really should've just made a movie or a book instead.

[@chazzergamer]

While I do agree that good gameplay has fallen to the wayside in favour of graphics and story, to say that you don't need story or that it can't add anything to a game is total rubbish,. If we take this attitude we wouldn't have games like Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear, Last Of Us, Shadow Of The Colossus, Dark Souls and many other influential games that have shaped the craft. The secret lies in the relationship between gameplay and story, both need to be in sync with each other. Both gameplay and story should inform each other without derailing either.

[@MegaZeta]

LMAO

[@srbrant5391]

That sounds disturbingly similar to the philosophy of another fallen hero of an artistic medium with the first name of "John."

[@nopushbutton]

Hunt Down The Freeman is essentially like if the parody mod Checkerboarded Hopez was both 100% serious AND sold for real money. For reference, that was a mod that claimed to have restored Half Life 2 beta content and displayed, on its mod page, a screenshot of the Hydra monster. Ingame, the maps were messy rips from HL2 beta leaks and the screenshot on the mod page was just a texture on a wall with the words "Im sorry about the hydra" next to it. Actually, no, it's different. Checkerboarded Hopez actually HAD what it depicted on its mod page, to some extent...

[@Megaspartan23]

I recommend playing Black Mesa. At least that's a mod with real effort put into it

[@LifeWulf]

Will Xen _ever_ be finished?

[@LuckXvaati]

Now if only motherfucking Xen would be added. They were doing so good up to that point, but apparently Xen is a Great Wall of China level roadblock.

[@acbthr3840]

They literally decided to build their own version of zen from scratch, so I can wait TBH. Did you play the one in the original half life? Its shit.

[@ahandsomefridge]

It's pretty darn good. Even though I'll always prefer HL1 and Opposing Force to any other Half-Life content. I don't even mind Xen too much (it's not really good either, but eh). Except for the end boss, that was one anticlimactic frustrating piece of shart. Very curious how the Black Mesa team will fix that one up.

[@antonioklaic4839]

Acb Thr I had to cheat my way out of the headcrab boss because it bugged out and didn't want to drop down from that tunnel. Basically you can blow up a hole near some of those aggressive plants.

[@BumbleCrumble1072]

That last part made me sad and depressed.

[@thattypicalslimy8548]

That steamed hams half life 2 mod> hunt down the Freeman.

[@deployedkitty]

Thanks for making me google that. It was definitely worth a watch.

[@yourethatmantis5178]

Gordon Freeman! At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

[@thattypicalslimy8548]

0utta S1TE May I see it?

[@Alexander-gb4rr]

Emmm... No.

[@mitchellporter9841]

Turns out Yahtzee was right about the tomato sauce bottles.

[@LabrnMystic]

That "steal some more cake" is now my new favorite.

[@Speedyolrac]

I have never heard him so angry. Wow, this hit a soft spot.

[@deployedkitty]

He's actually been a lot angrier than this some years ago, but I can't seem to remember which game it was that made him foam at the mouth and shoot daggers from his eyes. I mostly remember the preciously few positive reviews he's done.

[@johntibz]

Yahtzee used to love Valve ("If you have to copy someone, copy Valve, I love those guys" Resistance 3 review, 2011), back when there was still a possibility of the Half Life story being finished. Now that's it been nearly 11 years since the last installment, I think it's safe to say that the last feelings of fondness have been worn away. They're more just the people who run Steam in my eyes, instead of actually being a developer/publisher.

[@SilverKnight16]

You never heard his Kane and Lynch review.

[@sIeeperagent]

0:18 Come on Yahtzee we all know Valve doesn't give a shit about tf2 anymore either they should just rename themselves to the DOTA 2 company atleast then it would be honest.

[@Miata-to-E36]

Its really depressing as a die hard TF2 fan I mean jungle inferno was nice but like what now

[@Wobble9000]

Sleeperagent Don’t forget CS:GO and its skinconomy , along with the upcoming artifact and its cardconomy.

[@Miata-to-E36]

Wobble9000 I mean the community does that shit right? So at least they look good 99% of the time while tf2 got shit like the potassium bonnet

[@Keldiur]

Hype plays Today the community does 99% of the work for TF2 as well....

[@Miata-to-E36]

Keldiur we don’t get those updates near as much as cs is what I was trying to say 99% of the time i see streams updating something and it’s csgo cases or something and the one time it’s tf2 I get exited I don’t get that feeling with cs anymore

[@randomguy-tw6fg]

oh god here we go

[@ahandsomefridge]

You literally read and quoted my mind

[@CrazyAceking]

4:26 for the best speech you'll hear on the current state of gaming

[@danielschroedinger2090]

Honestly i think in part he used the opportunity to flex his ( non cock reference based ) writing on us. And i am grateful for it.

[@MegaZeta]

Let me fill in what your social awkwardness won't: it's hyperbole directed at a remarkably poor video game and choice by Valve. It's time for the children of the Internet to grow out of the phase where they think in some magical past age (a span of years that contradicts whatever the person next to you picks out) the video game industry wasn't as greedy, cynical or stupidly derivative of recent successes by others. If anything? It's _better_ now than, say, when Nintendo had its '90s chokehold.

[@bsh819]

​@@MegaZeta Isn't that a very poor comparison though? The point Yatzee made was exactly that Half Life represented a turning point between the state of gaming in the nineties and early noughts. I'm not sure if you mean gaming as a whole is better now or just the AAA industry. The later is what's being referenced in the video..

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

The ending of this episode is easily the saddest thing Yahtzee has ever done. There's just nothing funny about it (hence the thrown-in nod to John Romero). Valve truly have absolutely no shame at all. Nintendo may be harsh, brutal tyrants who defend their intellectual properties from even the most loving and dedicated of fan tributes, but at least it's because they CARE about them and demand they be respected, like an overprotective father who uses a shotgun to scare away even the tidiest and most-wholesome boy who shows up on his doorstep wanting to take his daughter to the movies. Valve's attitude to Half-Life, one of the greatest gaming properties of all time, is more like a neglectful father who's fine with letting his mates gang-rape his little 8-year old daughter whenever they come around to watch football as long as they brought enough beer to go around.

[@calmasura9681]

Yea I agree, i believe it's because Valve is content to sit back and siphon millions off all the games being sold of steam, instead on focusing on making industry-shatteringly good games like they used to before they "sold out".

[@boiledheadcrab1678]

Joel Yew I no longer trust non-indie developers because of this sort of shit. 😞 Unless they're Bethesda because doom 4 Oops wait, fallout 76, never mind then. But seriously, think of 1 triple a developer that HASN'T gone down this cynical, cash-grab route and continues to consistently put out good/amazing games to this day, and I'll give you a fucking diamond encrusted BLOCK OF PURE PLATINUM.

[@calmasura9681]

@@boiledheadcrab1678 shoulda thought about your reply before ya answered. CDPR! Now gimme that platinum!

[@ottoleois9323]

@@BJGvideos He might have meant publisher. And even then, the one "good" publisher Paradox Interactive is Swedish and tries to support its games while also appealing to the fans that made them so big.

[@themadhammer3305]

@@ottoleois9323 I've seen arguments saying Paradox are bad because of the volume of DLC they release that includes feature people think should already be in game. Had it not been for what GTA online turned into and the shitstorm over mods in single player GTA V, I would argue rockstar consistently put out games that are at least good and have yet to release one that totally fucks off their entire audience like Bethesda did

[@HypnoPantsOnline]

I'm dying, as soon as you said John Romero I started laughing and still haven't stopped please send help--

[@wokeupinapanic]

I like when you get real, and speak directly from the emotion hole in your gut. We need more voices saying that shit, and doing more to quell the numbing

[@michaelbarney4060]

"You merely adopted the wall" Aaaaand I'm dead

[@PleasantWhale]

1:40 To anyone who hasn't seen this game. Yahtzee means this literally. There are parts where zombies are just laid out in a straight line. Like the level designer got lazy and was like, "Eh just switch to place enemy tool and spam a line of zombies right here... There, done..." It's awful. Like someone from Gmod spawning in a bunch of zombies to fight cuz they're bored so they just spam a line of'em. We're talking THAT level of poor enemy placement.

[@brucebruceish]

lol David Mitchell. Now I gotta watch Peep Show in its entirety ... again.

[@OnDavidsBrain]

Can we all just agree that the real Half Life 3 is Half-Life Full Life Consequences? At least that was funny.

[@SomeKindaSpy]

No. And stop confusing Half-Life 3 with Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

[@kem0n0.kokomo]

Yes.

[@sernoddicusthegallant6986]

its the best we will ever get

[@Rando_Shyte]

Man I need to watch that again

[@PhoenixFireZero]

@@SomeKindaSpy Semantics-wise, that's about as important a distinction as "that's not a pegasus, it's a hippogriff"

[@Soul-Hook]

You know shit's about to get real when you hear Yahtzee getting passionate.

[@SleepSoul]

I like the implication near the end that this game smothered A Hat In Time, almost as if it didn't totally flop by comparison.

[@Gestersmek]

Simon The Human You may be forgetting about the other 1675 games that came out after A Hat in Time.

[@TheTSense]

I think the massage here is that games don't get well kown by being good, but by being bad. Because if they would, we would never even heard of EAs last Starwars online Casino or Hunt down the Freeman. And there would be A Hat in Time Posters in the streets. Most people *should* not even know the name of the last EA game because they talk about A Hat in Time so much.

[@loonachan]

The point is, I didn't even know about AHIT or most of the actually good games that came out until some KZbin personality mentioned them. If Steam were run right, games with a huge amount of critical acclaim would be front and center and not buried underneath a mountain of shovelware, but instead I have to rely on a fucking algorithm and hope that it "recommends" actually good games to me. And when the next new good game comes out, I won't know about it until it's a month+ old, because just clicking on "new releases" is pointless.

[@MrProthall]

The point is that there are HUNDREDS of games released on Steam. Every. Fucking. Day. Sure, A Hat in Time might do well because there is a lot of interest around it, but I bet you money that there are at least 5~ games per day that are equally great and well made, but get drowned by the other 195 games that are absolute dogshit.

[@TheKrigeron]

MrProthall 5 games per day eh? What are today's picks?

[@1Diddums]

Game's whole existence always felt like a: *Little Timmy fights his para social reality by featuring all his favourite role models in his borrowed IP game.*

[@TheKoprusInspiration]

Ending was sad. I miss when the industry was full of creativity and the focus was on making an enjoyable experience. Now it's flooded with greedy corps. looking to maximize profit with the same generic games

[@MrTrombonebandgeek]

Matt if there is a silver lining to this, indie games are the creative center nowadays. With a lot of crowd sourcing sites around, there can be a lot of great games coming out. But i wont deny that AAA game companies are really screwing people/gamers over in terms of quality

[@PsyrenXY]

@@MrTrombonebandgeek Because they're beholden to shareholders and investors instead of players.

[@MegaZeta]

Kid, prepare to have your eyes pop out of your skull on bedsprings: _the video game industry has always been full of greedy corporations looking to maximize profit by copying each other._

[@MegaZeta]

@@MrTrombonebandgeek Most indie games are brainless copycat efforts too.

[@MegaZeta]

@@PsyrenXY Every single video game company of any side is beholden to its investors, whether that's your uncle's neighbor's best friend or a holding company with a controlling interest. This fantasy fairy la-la-land of "beholden to players" has never existed in the entire history of the industry. If a game is successful, you as a "player" (consumer) are of no importance whatsoever except as one small part of an aggregate of dollars on a balance sheet. If a game isn't successful, it matters even less what you think.

[@LayZKimochi420BlazeIt]

4:50 Yahtzee finally broke

[@101Crock]

Schattenstolz He broke long ago.

[@lutherholayeahme7449]

He broke in Halo Wars

[@SenyiKimmo]

That ending broke my heart. I grew up with Half Life, and to see it become what it has now after 2 decades is just heart-wrenchingly sickening.

[@14hourz82]

#everythingwrongwiththevideogameindustryisjohnromerosfault

[@MrCookieFish]

also lootboxes??

[@GBD1000]

John Romero’s**

[@14hourz82]

GBD1000 apostrophe Will ruin the hashtag

[@wormwoodbecomedelphinus4131]

"Hunt Down the Freeman" should be titled "watch Valve gleefuly take a big steaming shit over our already dead hopes for Half Life 3"

[@TheL0rd0fSpace]

The best part about the "mod problem" he mentions is that a lot of big name youtubers got convinced to be a part of this project. They were probably the only ones with the competent mics.

[@Daladari]

4:33 The soul crushing reality I live on a day to day basis.

[@Julian_Pepper]

0:57 Minor fracture detected. Morphine administered.

[@stopthattimerave]

Second to last line hurt. Me too, man.

[@Anothergingerguyontheinternet]

"YoU fuCkEd uP My fAce!!!" *Blam* What beautiful writing.

[@deltad3592]

That was the best ending to a Zero Punctuation ever

[@FreedomFighterEx]

Oh wow, he sound bloody angry in this one. I agree with the last part. What the flippy flop wrong with the industry?

[@alexmackelly3222]

Better question, what is wrong with gamers? If it wasn't profitable, the bloodsuckers wouldn't do it. We are the ones that still buy games.

[@FreedomFighterEx]

That is half true, the main point is; they know how to exploit people's mind, even it is unethical but that is not what they care. They care the green paper in your pocket. Hell, Blizzard hired psychology expert to give them an advice how to make lootdrop in Diablo 3 so addictive, and make you crave for more stuff from lootbox in Overwatch to the point people with weak mind couldn't resist to buy it to get what they wanted. Some game do shady shit like you can't get some drop from random reward/lootbox until after you open it 50 times or exclude you to get certain stuff from free lootbox. Cosmetic lootboxes aren't fine like everyone else defending it. Stockholm syndrom is strong and exploitable.

[@ultgamercw6759]

I have taken it up on myself to become a game developer and start making games for the love of it. I can't say if I will make a game as ground braking as half life but I will give my all to do so. I'm still training but I will make game the best I can when the time comes. I also resist buying games with loot boxes as they are braking gaming. I encourage anyone who loves video games to avoid any game with loot boxes.

[@Silverhawk100]

People with Business Degrees got in charge of high-level decision making. After which the focus shifted from how do we make this product sell the best to how do we make as much money as possible? The difference is subtle but very real. One emphasizes quality or at least customer-relations and the other emphasizes volume and customer psychology. This is also how some wildly successful tech companies suddenly just tanked in quality; because the creative forces behind the innovation left or were forced out and a more conventional CEO takes over. They start making tiny compromises to quality in favor of boosting the bottom line, shift the emphasis from a user-focused experience to a corporate-focused one and all of a sudden they hemorrhage users. Short term profits vs long term profits.

[@ryansmith3448]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[@TylerMcVicker1]

They restarted it a bunch, and continue to do so.

[@SomeKindaSpy]

You say that like that's all that happened.

[@barthvader95]

0:18 Yeah, that's the high-priority thing for Valve. Team Fortress 2. Yeah...

[@andrewjordan8253]

Hunt down the Freeman is like a Gmod save. You can tell someone just downloaded a bunch of mods and put them into some random map

[@DB-su4ke]

watching this and IHE’s video about his experience with the game one behind the other is the perfect combination of suffering and weariness

[@loveshankme]

Hunt Down the Reason to Buy this Game?

[@spacebutter1121]

Dr. Loveshank okay that was very funny.

[@executioner_ecgbert884]

Hunt Down the Romero

[@cpob2013]

for my funeral i want a ZP review of my life

[@solsingularity106]

Jesus, Yahtzee. Way to make me look back at my life...

[@Mark-hk2qk]

This is why I prefer air conditioner games than fan games

[@halfastudio]

The ending touches my none existing soul.

[@cjnyc117]

Funny thing is, Valve just added more TF2 hats yesterday.

[@AuburnWasTaken]

did anyone else notice how the plot of HDTF is suspiciously similar to MGSV, as are a lot of the cut-scenes?

[@elinfini]

Then it's no coincidence why they listed Hideo Kojima under "Special Thanks"...

[@oscarmccormack1611]

Auburn Except, for it's gaping flaws and overstuffed runtime, MGSV managed to make a fun game, with brilliant level and mechanical design. Hunt Down the Freeman has no real positive qualities.

[@lsarenkir]

but mgs v actually feel cool, epic, fun and shits while this crap is just pathetic

[@hoodedman6579]

+Oscar McCormak So, did you fail to see the word "plot" or what?

[@worldofthought8352]

Knowing how blatant the plot similirity makes this worse because the game stopped trying to strive for it's own story and instead copied aspects from another game. Furthermore MGSV came out in sep 2015 which means this team decided on their "story" sometime after it's release and is telling at when they started full development of this "game"

[@philismenko]

0:22 knowing what happened, yeah that's basically what did it

[@twisted-t]

This game would make an awesome prank gift for your mate or a fuck you gift for a bloke you hate.

[@kattastic9999]

My favorite phenomenon in Zero Punctuation is the washed out grey tinted piss they have to use because the background is already piss colored

[@SpyHunter89]

In a very specific and weird way, I'm kind of thankful this game exists. As I see it, Hunt Down the Freeman inspired Valve to finally get off their collective duff and make Half-Life: Alyx, to show everyone how a Half-Life interqual should be done.

[@imtoddhowardandimadeskyrim6553]

Half life alyx probably got worked on for way longer than hdtf. Alyx has probably been worked on since 2015 if not 14.

[@clearKermit]

@Escapist Been watching your videos since the early days and I have to say you hit the nail on the head with the hijacking of the video gaming industry and certain studios' attitudes. What had such potential for creativity and intellectual stimulation has been sidelined for the purpose of financial gain and the deliberate dumbing-down of the consumer. Just like with potentially groundbreaking games such as Spore, which in Alpha were shown to have realistic and maybe even biologically accurate components (Wright had mentioned this in development) microscope-looking cell stages to advanced features such as dragging your recent kill as a carnivore creature to a safe place to finally crawling your way up to a burgeoning civilization. Games used to require determination and challenge us to think in different ways to overcome difficult situations and enrich our perspectives, but now they seem to serve (mostly) as a grotesque vector of instant gratification that seems to be vacuuming the next generation into a virtual hole. I hope things can turn around someday but part of me thinks the industry is just too far gone.

[@JimPlaysGames]

What did John Romero do?

[@kenway2333]

JimPlaysGames Everything

[@Miata-to-E36]

Mainly make everything a over the top shitstorm with controversy spewing out his coked up ass and made daikatana

[@Thobeian]

JimPlaysGames yathzee has a video about that: Daikatana Basically John Romero, like other "auteur" game designers kind of spoiled the idea of AAA publishers funding and promoting the somewhat niche or experimental ideas of a single person/tightknit team, in favor of massive games that are designed by committee to appeal to as many people as possible. That's my take on it, at least

[@trevormcguffee3922]

To sum it up: Daikatana. That whole screw up a reason why the cautious attitude toward innovation in gaming today started in the first place and you know the rest. Same for the more cautious advertising. And the failure of trying to turn Dallas into a major hub of the game industry is to blame on Daikatana clash and burn.

[@MAskedGoblin]

He made me and many others his bitch.

[@killer1one1]

That ending rant is everything I've been wanting to say about games in recent years but didn't know how to articulate. Well done.

[@voidburd1305]

That last bit of dialogue felt like a very genuine and emotional plea, only to be self-consciously end-capped with a joke, framing it as an afterthought, so as not to be preachy. Sort of like saying "haha just kidding" after you notice people staring at you.

[@jujumana]

Preach! For real though, 100% agree.

[@ianswanson332]

I'm apparently two years late and most of the zero punctuations I've watched (and I've watched a lot) have been satirical and funny but this is the first where he actually seems pissed off at what he has a reviewing. Like holy shit

[@SpankSandwitch99]

Wow. That was some heavy shit by the end.

[@calvinjluther]

Yahtzee shitting on Freedom Planet warms my heart.

[@magnex9173]

That's such GENUINE rage at the end, omg

[@MrHorthoren]

I quite rarely upvote things because it shows I actually enjoyed something. I'll just leave it at that and the fact that I upvoted this.

[@miklostoldy7448]

Anyways, who's here after dat Half Life: Alyx trailer?

[@overflow5940]

me

[@MegaZeta]

I wonder who still thinks it's _Half-Life 3_ after Valve has explained in no uncertain terms that _Half-Life: Alyx_ is not _Half-Life 3,_ understanding that even if they do that loudly and repeatedly, some amount of people will still get mad when _Half-Life: Alyx_ turns out not to be _Half-Life 3_

[@paulovinasrocha6166]

@@MegaZeta that is the nature of the half life fanbase

[@danielvestergaard1692]

Mega Zeta well actually HL Alyx turned out to be more than you are guessing at and has been received very well

[@daruistube2007]

@@MegaZeta HL:Alyx is basically Half Life 1.5 since it takes place before HL2 and after HL1

[@mrjohnnyjohnster3940]

It's like the world's about to come full-circle and soon we'll see kids playing out on the streets with sticks and hoops. Remote control USB powered sticks and hoops covered in flashing LED lights, but sticks and hoops nonetheless.

[@boiledheadcrab1678]

MrJohnnyJohnster Ow... ☹️

[@MegaZeta]

I'd say your point is dumb, but you don't have one. It's like saying "pretty soon, we'll have flying cars! They'll be flying with their wheels touching the ground, but eheheh clever me!!"

[@Eisaku2]

One of your best reviews yet, good sir. You make me less sad that Carlin is dead.

[@TheGuardDuck]

Best rant I've heard in a while...