The Best, Worst and Blandest of 2021 (Zero Punctuation)

[@theescapist]

Watch this week's episode of Zero Punctuation on the games he didn't review in 2021. www.escapistmagazine.com/2021-roundup-of-games-i-didnt-review-zero-punctuation/ Watch it early via KZbin Memberships.

[@trollingboy9729]

I for sure thought Shin Megoomy tensei 5 was gonna be #1 worst

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

I'm always excited to see what visuals or sound effects you use for every Best, Worst and Blandest number on those videos. Champagne sound effects, water cooler, and a toilet was clever. Looking forward to the creative ideas next year

[@jonathanjollimore4794]

About death loop thing sorry I had open my big mouth

[@SaURoN-lh1dl]

They've done it. Ubisoft has finally gone from topping the Blandlist to becoming the background it's written on.

[@lagg1e]

Committee designed drivel. Also see: Ubisoft.

[@cameronfraser7042]

Reminder that Ubisoft employs sexual predators

[@finlaywallbanks7304]

Farcry 6 is not deserving of that, I'd be surprised if half of you have it a chance

[@Veristelle-]

@@finlaywallbanks7304 It's decent, but a rare exception from Ubisoft. Some of the usual issues, but a fun romp otherwise. They really miss the mark alot, the past while, ergo their meme status.

[@speedracer2please]

@@finlaywallbanks7304 yeah I was pleasantly surprised, nobody I know even gave it a chance. Which I can understand, but it's a shame

[@Shogunisdead]

You know it was a bad year when a Ubisoft sandbox didn't even make it on the bland list.

[@E1craZ4life]

I mean, he only reviewed one Ubisoft sandbox game last year; perhaps he’s finally come to grips with the fact that they won’t be getting any better in the foreseeable future.

[@Shogunisdead]

@@E1craZ4life this is true.

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

Considering Ubisoft should be put in front of a firing squad for pushing nfts and being shameless sex offenders/covering up abuses that have gone on in the company for more than a decade, they should be happy when people people don’t give them the time of day.

[@farhanmahalludin]

Eh every recent Ubisoft games have been bland so far. Might as well call it Zero Punctuation Blandest Game of the Year List presented by Ubisoft.

[@Shogunisdead]

@@vinnythewebsurfer yea.... hopefully they go down hard and a bunch of the good people from Ubisoft form new studios. Fingers crossed.

[@Dethmaster64]

I hope SWERY keeps making games just to keep making Yahtzee’s worst lists a little more colorful

[@Powertampa]

He is the one kid that sits in the corner eating glue, but you are not really sure it is glue or just an elaborate prank with lemon water and powdered sugar. A wildcard in some respect, but not in entirely a bad sense. You gotta have one of those once in a while to maintain your capability to look over the fence.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@Alucard-A-La-Carte It's still amazing what an absolute dumpster fire deadly premonition 2 was. I remember when people were jealous and angry about it being a switch exclusive boy how that changed real fast.

[@YukoValis]

knowing SWERY he probably makes his games just to be on Yahztees list. The man is the most interesting kind of mental.

[@ToyKeeper]

... or he could maybe step aside and let someone new have more attention. There's no shortage of great game designers to fill his place.

[@YukoValis]

@@ToyKeeper Here is a neat notion for you. More than one person can make a game at the same time.

[@SavageGreywolf]

I think it says a lot about how long this year feels like it's been that I didn't even remember Bellend Dunderhead was released in 2021.

[@comradesam3382]

Ikr? It feels like 2 years ago

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

Have we not been in a pandemic for the last decade?! Maybe it's just because I feel like I've aged 10 years in the last two. And 2022 starts off with two companies talking about NFT's, oh it's going to be a rough one.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@Svenger Mc. Spazzy It's true, sqeenix little announcement was about as reassuring as being told to drop em' and spread em'. No one and I mean no one should be touching NFT's at this point. And if you had in the past you should immediately and very vocally renounce that past endorsement. There is nothing besides greed behind any of it,period.

[@cloverandanais]

I know i totally forgot about banal thunderpants 🌙

[@First-Last_name]

I hardly even remember badlands thunder pants any more 🏜👖

[@gulpirak]

Even the sound effects with which each entry is introduced is comparatively subdued compared to Yahtzee's previous end-of-year videos. He really wanted to nail his beginning point home.

[@SergioMach7]

I actually like the transitions for this years. The worst one IMO is still 2014, cutting too quickly.

[@TheGrayMysterious]

The greatest takeaway from this video IMO is that liquid sound effects are surprisingly satisfying to my ears

[@GoodStoutCoke]

That champagne pop though.....

[@StephySon]

@@GoodStoutCoke sooo yummy

[@techbug4359]

Dude, agreed

[@cantsleep7760]

saaaame! total asmr

[@zackkelley2940]

Should I be worried that I immediately identified the sounds as a champagne bottle being uncorked, a culligan water cooler, and a toilet being flushed?

[@KeithFraser82]

I like that Yahtzee stealthily finally gave away the actual ending of Twelve Minutes (the one he covered up in the review by describing it as "the main character is a dog molester").

[@demonintellect9834]

Wasnt it just that you were fucking your sister, you were the killer, and then it straight pulls an "it was all in your imagination" bullshit?

[@MerryGamer]

@@demonintellect9834 precisely!

[@kellerw4800]

How?

[@MoskalMedia]

Where did he give away the ending? I must have missed it in the review.

[@KeithFraser82]

@@MoskalMedia That's the clever bit, it's not obvious unless you know the ending already. Clue: it was the sentence containing a shocking word beginning with the letter "i".

[@monkeeee]

The blandest category is growing exponentially each year

[@nicolasrededeo805]

Enthropy

[@xcellentcreations3312]

Honestly i don't mind back 4 blood, at least it's better then evolve.

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@xcellentcreations3312 the question is why play B4B when I can just play L4D2 again, there are still people playing it...

[@xcellentcreations3312]

@@danilooliveira6580 Well its an improvement over Tuetle rock's evolve

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@xcellentcreations3312 at least evolve tried to do something new, B4B is just a worse version of a game that already exists and you can play for a fraction of the price.

[@SarcyBoi41]

Based on that little zinger at the end of the credits combined with the surprisingly positive review, I can't tell if Halo Infinite was an honourable mention for the best games list or the bland games list...

[@CalicoJackal]

It's both awesome and mediocre. In fact, that's the title of The Act Man's upcoming campaign review.

[@MrMegaMetroid]

If halo infinite, in the state its in reaches even the top 1000 of any best games list, throw the whole industry away. It doesnt even deserve the blandest list. That game is an insult to peoples intelligence. Or rather the proof of the lack thereof, depending on how you look at it. They fucked up everything 5 fucked up, but worse, but because the art style is pretty now, noone cares. Urgh

[@aelechko]

@@MrMegaMetroid most long running halo fans I’ve talked to absolutely loved the new one. Looked boring and samey to me.

[@randomyoutubeuser7315]

Thought the story was boring, so I ditched it till after I had went around doing side quests and collectibles. And genuinely couldn’t put it down after that decision, until I returned to the story. I put it back down very quick.

[@DNAOrbb]

@@MrMegaMetroid Halo Infinite Multiplayer is the best we have had since Halo 3. Don't know/care about the story. Single player shooters aren't my thing.

[@octaviocuesta1155]

Every year I look forward to one thing and one thing only: the sound effects Yahtzee will use for the good, the bad and the bland.

[@the-engneer]

Your life must suck

[@guguy00]

@@the-engneer Tbf considering the circumstances circa January 2022, there isn't much to look forward to

[@the-engneer]

@@guguy00 Why base your future around bad events in the past ? There is still plenty of good in the world if you just put your phone down/get off the internet, and take a look around what's going on in your community

[@guguy00]

@@the-engneer Jesus that was a joke.

[@E1craZ4life]

I hope one year the best games will have a trumpet fanfare, the blandest games will have chirping crickets, and the worst games will have shattering glass.

[@maxmaxwell3785]

Now just need the every zp from 2021 and the year will finally be complete

[@theescapist]

Saturday.

[@brendanwhalen3607]

Yeah there's a playlist that has all of them but also has some really off-putting stuff added in.

[@flipthebuzzard]

Now reffered to as: Saturday, yay👍

[@Christobix]

@@princess_intell I think it's great they're posting them and am thankful for it. That said, it shouldn't consume a lot of time now that they know in advance they're going to make them; presumably Yahtzee now saves/sends them a copy of each video, without the intro and outro as he's making the original videos over the year - which would be what, a couple of seconds per week, typing in a different filename while you make an exra save during editing? Then all they have to do come January is to merge all these videos into one in order and put the standard intro and outro around it and it's done.

[@TheSimmus]

@@theescapist this comment has the same energy as Sony when they were revealing the PSOne price. "299."

[@lichstein7972]

That Champagne pop is the most satisfying thing I've heard all week.

[@SiaNekoAnime]

I was a little surprised to see Balan at the top of the worst list, considering how surprisingly lenient he was in the actual review. Edit: how did this become so popular wtf

[@USMC49er]

It's bad. Really bad, when the game can literally kill with its epileptic flashing lights during the final boss, deserves to be #1.

[@Web720]

Probably with fresher eyes, because everybody was dogging on it.

[@IfOUGHTpIRANHAz]

It’s not a bad game. Just no one played it or if they did, didn’t care that it was a kids game.

[@sunlitsonata6853]

I think it was more a Ride to Hell Retribution situation where he was more baffled by its many, many, MANY questionable design decisions than anything else and no other game could truly match its batshit thinking It might’ve been a mess but I imagine the employees at both companies were treated well. Naka’s still doing mobile games and Arzest seem to be doing fine, so nobody was really hit that hard by its failure. Honestly kind of a feel good worst game of the year compared to the competition

[@TheDeadmandoo]

If it was only a little more Bland, at leas then it could have been the Balandist.

[@i_just_got_here]

Holy shit. The first time Ubisoft didn't get one of their "games" into the Bland 5.

[@j97n75]

But not because ubisoft started making good games.

[@i_just_got_here]

@@j97n75 obviously

[@Vashthestampdee]

I know, I'm scared too

[@peter3664]

Couldn't we just argue that Ubisoft didnt release any new games this year? They keep telling us they have but then it's the same game we played in 2013.

[@Merumya]

Too bland to be remembered for the list

[@faustlican5566]

Bland-a Claus really did leave a turd in all of our stockings last year. It was hard to summon a great deal of enthusiasm even for Yahtzee's top 5 best.

[@SaURoN-lh1dl]

Really sums up the year as a whole, doesn't it?

[@GBDupree]

Heck the honorable mentions at the end seemed to have MORE enthusiasm to them than the actual top 5, like they are all interchangeable in position and barely made it past the Bland list. Even I'm struggling to think of any game other than Metroid Dread that could fit the top 10 best, and I wasn't as in love with that game as some other people were. I guess Halo is 2nd, despite its glaring issues I still had some fun. And RE Village would be 3rd despite having flaws in every aspect of it, at least its playable. That's pretty much it.

[@McFatson]

Hey Yahtzee, your sound effects for the three award types are crisp, brief, and they never feel like they're taking up my time by the 5th go-around. I appreciate it. Best annual episode yet.

[@MrKouzan]

Psychonauts 2 was legitimately how you make sequals. Sure it might not be the original but it also means after waiting for so long for it to come out a new generation gets to experience it. Man I love psychonauts.

[@YorkJonhson]

Psychonauts 2 might be the only sequel I can think of where I waited over a decade and wasn't disappointed. It's a bit apples and oranges whether I actually prefer it to the original or not, but it's a game with clear passion behind it, making me remember what I loved about the first game without simply wallowing in references to it. It feels like a genuine step forward for characters that I loved back then and still love now. Funny when it wants to be, and sincere where it needs to be.

[@HOkayson]

Having never played the original back in the day, should I play number 1 first or just pickup number 2 now?

[@YorkJonhson]

@@HOkayson The first game has aged in terms of its mechanics (the combat can be stiff, and the later platforming sections get frustrating when they up the difficulty) but I'd still recommend it if you're interesting in the story and creative level design at all. The sequel does have a story recap if you really want to skip ahead, but the original is a classic if you can look past a few of its less polished aspects. Memorable worlds to explore, solid humor, fun characters, etc.

[@HOkayson]

@@YorkJonhson hmm, ty for the info, due to lack of game time these days I might resort to watching the scenes from number 1 on KZbin or something & then diving into number 2. Not ideal, but probably better than trying to play 1 & never getting through it.

[@OneAndZer0]

As somebody who backed the sequel after googling "psychonauts 2 news" at least once a year since the original came out, I'm so fucking happy that game is good. I think I actually have more criticisms than most, but I still loved it. Made me tear up a couple times too.

[@TheLaLeeee]

1:04 The Forgotten City was this year's Obra Dinn for me. I finished them both in almost one sitting in 1 day. It even got me interested in learning about Roman history.

[@immortalzealot9725]

Forgotten City was easily the most memorable other than Outer Wilds DLC. Everything else phoned it in.

[@JABRIEL251]

Glad he acknowledge Ender Lillies. I'm surprised it wasn't part of the best, he seem to think well of it.

[@koheikyouji]

It was my GOTY, but I will settle for an honourable mention I remember in the stream of it he kept going on about how much the animation bugged him, but no one else seemed to agree with him on it. Might just be a personal thing. But even so, he liked it despite the issues and thats good enough for me ^_^

[@geldonyetich]

Happy to see some more Psychonauts love. Resigned to see more of the same mistakes being made elsewhere in AAA.

[@FoxyCAMTV]

Psychoneurosis 1 was better or atleast my memories of it.

[@hazukichanx408]

@@FoxyCAMTV It's not just nostalgia or memory failure, Psychonauts 1 was and still is a vastly superior game in almost every respect. You can just buy it on Steam and play it right now and (after a brief moment of turning the resolution up from the default 320x400 or something) confirm that yes, it was funnier, broader, deeper, more coherent, had better gameplay, more interesting powers, more likable characters, more imaginative worlds... the undersea sequence didn't wow me like it did ages ago, sure, but it still made me go "Ohhh yeah, that was in here too... good times." And also Raz wasn't a total frigging wuss with no ability to stand up to bullies back then, which is odd since in the canon itself, it's set about three days earlier.

[@eunaoseibrother467]

@@hazukichanx408 no way gameplay is pure JANK in Psychonauts 1

[@danielplainview2584]

@@eunaoseibrother467 The gameplay isn't that bad. It's pretty fun and the Lev ball is great.

[@petarnikolov3227]

Actually, Ballan Wonderworld is the Spiritual successor to a PS1 game most people wouldn't remember: Bubsy 3D.

[@heresjonny666]

Hang on, I just got the joke about the extra punctuation about Dark Souls talking about the decline of gaming...Unstoppable decline from a golden age is literally what dark souls is about. Yahtzee you fucking genius.

[@drewforchic9083]

I was about to say this'll be an easy win for Hades until I remembered that no, that was 2020. Jeez, 2021 really failed to make any impression on me games-wise.

[@thrownstair]

Artful Escape kind of wins by default because my favourite game of the year was also Hades and I didn’t start playing Psychonauts 2 or Inscryption until this year.

[@Shaltinanwenor]

Ender Lilies was nice and so was metroid dread (though they were both mentionned in the "afterparty" thing) (Really enjoyed Lilies) FFXIV Endwalker was certainly a high point but it's an mmo expansion so not sure it counts F.I.S.T Forged in Shadow Torch (ew backronym) is also a perfectly functional metroidvania if you like dieselpunk (which I do) And uh other than that I can't really think of a game that released 2021 that really blew me away

[@christophero3869]

Lol 2020 was the year when Hades and Spiritfarer made me say, “Oh my god, I REALLY like indie games! I’m gonna start playing tons of indie games!” and no, turns out it was just those two lol

[@immortalzealot9725]

Forgotten City is amazing. Also It Takes Two is simply great. And that's about it.

[@rezonance4937]

Ah yes, when all other reviewers falter and even the independent ones, yahtzee is here to remind us, yes, yes we can have a high standard in videogames

[@ccggenius]

ALL others seems a bit exaggerated... what about James Goddamn Fucking "Stephanie" Sterling Son? Truly Squirty Plays is the apex of faffing about with Steam Greenlight trash. And... something about Boglins I guess? I dunno where I was going with this...

[@EGIMSL]

@@ccggenius I know this is a meme, but I honestly am of the opinion that their content is just too political to entertaining 90% of the time. I do like some of their videos but I can only take so much of the “I’m genderfluid, get over it,” it “big companies are evil,” or “video game management is in an unchecked age of financial and sexual abuse” before it just gets depressing. I agree with probably 80% of what they say but I just can’t watch it for that long.

[@Austinuztantine]

That was a really mature way to explain your feelings man, I wanna tell you that before someone jumps in like a chimp

[@paulrus-keaton439]

2:59 If there was a very specific change of hats we would've had a sneaky 'Waiting for Godot' visual gag here.

[@nedpeters8408]

I'm really surprised Cruelty Squad didn't win, or at least get special mention.

[@brian3634]

Yeah, Cruelty Squad was unique, subversive, and had surprisingly tight gameplay. I feel like it should've easily made top 3.

[@guineverehaas2427]

I haven't played the game personally, but from what I remember of Yahtzee's review on the game vs the others I saw I don't think he completely "got" the game when he played it. Cruelty Squad is a bit obtuse and the mechanics of the gameplay don't all make sense at first glance, so I don't exactly blame Yahtzee for not getting it. It just kinda feels like his first impression of the game was like his first impression of dark souls, in that there was a lot going on and he didn't figure it all out and much of the depth sad lost on him. (Cruelty Squad is not at the same level as Dark Souls though, I'm just drawing a comparison)

[@Currrby]

Thank you for commenting this so I didn’t have to

[@nedpeters8408]

@@guineverehaas2427 Were you watching his review or his livestream? I heard the livestream was like that, but in his review he said he started off not getting but eventually figured it out. My impression was that he thought it was a perfectly playable game with a strong subversive plot and all-in-all an effective expression of nihilistic rage.

[@jonofthehill]

twas a bad game.

[@NoName-xv5nn]

“My therapist told me to cut down on Soulslikes,” huh? They’re gonna be stressed out come February, then

[@utisti4976]

As much as I really hope Elden Ring is going to be phenomenal, I'm starting to get a little worried. I hope they can pull the open field concept off.

[@E1craZ4life]

I suppose the fact that the very first game he reviewed went straight into the bland 5 should’ve been read as a bad omen for the year.

[@xdjrockstar]

More so than that fucking insurrection anyway.

[@BlueBeast125]

Nice reference

[@NameAvailable]

I’m so happy another book is out, I own all the audio books and a few of the print copies. Yahtzee is seriously a talented author and I look forward to each release

[@SnuSnuDungeon]

We might actually have hope this year everyone. Ubisoft didn't make the worst list or blandest

[@faustlican5566]

Ubi...soft? Oh yeah, they are some kind of game publisher right?

[@BenedictMHolland]

No. They are a business that allows management to rape, sexually assault, abuse, and underpay staff. Whatever they produce doesn't really matter when senior HR directors know that managers are drugging and raping women and the CEO either doesn't know (total incompetence) or doesn't want to know (accepting abuse happens).

[@KeithFraser82]

Did Ubisoft actually release any games this year? Jiminy Cockthroat games seem to have been a bit thin on the ground.

[@waidwml2166]

@@KeithFraser82 to my knowledge it was just Far Cry 6

[@KeithFraser82]

@@waidwml2166 That's the one, I remembered after posting my comment.

[@Igorcastrochucre]

For those keeping trakc, this is the first year since its inception that the Blandest list has not featured a Ubisoft game.

[@ShroudedWolf51]

Going by how they are only capable kf regurgitation, it hardly feels like it's worth acknowledging their existence, really. Also, it's not forget. Ubisoft, like Activision-Blizzard, has spent over a decade coddling and protecting abusers and sex pests. And now are going all in on shoveling an environmentally devastating scam into all of their products.

[@EvilPikachu]

Love how Yahtzee thinks he can steal jokes from classic British comedy, in this case Red Dwarf. Not sneaking that past me, sir.

[@ozymandiasramesses1773]

It's about time someone stepped up and said something about this. Tell Rob Grant he's gotta lawyer up.

[@ajthevillageidiot]

I remember a visual novel that literally stole an entire section of black adder (pigeon court case).

[@Palora01]

Excuse you... it's called a tribute :D especially in the US of steal every good show idea from oversea A

[@KnifeyMcEdge]

@@Palora01 Why did the British build a time machine just to make "The Office" appear to have been made before the original starring Steve Carell?

[@MrSmegheneghan]

At least they're not blatant rips? Since I didn't really _realise_ there were one (maybe two) jokes or possible references to existing jokes that I thought could be pinched from RD until I was made aware that there were such references to be found in the video.

[@syndere6755]

Time to build a really clever and unique game about lettuce to prove that slug right, and Yahtzee wrong

[@MegSonic]

Congrats to House of Ashes for breaking the Dark Pictures Anthology's "winning" streak by not ending up on the Blandest List

[@agawaga7559]

The Halo mention got a good laugh out of me at the end

[@mayman3310]

It's a clever double entendre after thinking about it for a bit

[@sleipnir_8364]

I came expecting Persona 5 Strikers. Thanks Yahtzee. That Persona 5 explanation stream was amazing.

[@lookd.east123]

The most important question in the intro was about the hat

[@czardeaner7713]

I remember when my lucky underpants also finally kicked the bucket. I kept the torn remains in a drawer because I wanted to frame it one day; figured the glow in the dark snowflakes would make it look cool on the wall at night.

[@CohesiveSteak5]

Surprised to see Guardians of the Galaxy wasn’t on the bland list. I guess Kickstart my heart must be Yahtzees one weakness.

[@albertrhodes2640]

I was low-key expecting Inscryption to crop up here. Great list as always. I still need to check out Psychonauts 2.

[@CallMeFi]

That's because he has not and will not play Inscryption. He's said in a couple of podcasts the he's not interested in the deck building loop

[@tokatonton4425]

While I may be new to Yahtzee, I've been binging him all day and couldn't help but squeal like the the excited man-child I am when I saw he effectively praised Ender Lilies by saying the only real bad thing about it was the strain on the eyes. Which is appropriate because I'm pretty sure the game is colorblind except for the occasional bit of red.

[@Madderthanjoker]

Inscryption also deserves a mention, that game slapped harder than any alcoholic step mother could.

[@Yuhara_rev]

Some parts of the list really surprised me. I didn't think psychonauts 2 would get #1 best, as yahtzee didn't like the writing as much as the first one and the gameplay didn't change much. I also didn't expect artful escape to get a spot on the best ones, with how the gameplay is on that one. Expected ender lilies to get a spot instead, but I get why yahtzee's trying to limit the soulslikes for the list. Lastly blimey, I didn't remember that outriders was 2021, my god.

[@elliskaanjones4976]

he didnt say he hated the writing tho, he just said he preffered the more cynical and carefree approach of the first one.But i think it was pretty clear he loved the game.

[@Yuhara_rev]

@@elliskaanjones4976 Yeah I know, but still at the end of the psychonauts 2 episode he's showing more "of course I recommend it, it's more psychonauts" than "this is my GOTY, you bastards should play it or else" energy.

[@speedracer2please]

Finally, Psychonauts 2 gets some credit! I'm playing It Takes Two and enjoying it, but it just seems like the co-op version of that with a less developed story. Also very sneaky to spoil a game without specifying which game it is so it's not a spoiler lol

[@melimsah]

*waits with anticipation for the full 2021 compilation to fall asleep to throughout 2022*

[@kenpachielric]

You do that as well, fuck I thought I was the only one

[@rorysparshott4223]

Saturday cometh

[@Aaano]

Back 4 blood couldn't hav been blurred amymore without becoming a red/black blob of a square and still not been predicted in that trophy cup

[@shiknobi2055]

I got a bad feeling that 2022 will give Yahtzee a whole lot of mad starey face, at least we'll get Elden Ring

[@philiphart4146]

I fully anticipate Yahtzee pissing all over Elden Ring regardless of its objective quality because, to be blunt, I think he's officially reached his career burnout point. I earnestly hope that he can transition from reviewing games to more content like Extra Punctuation where he can talk about his big-picture ideas about game design, because it seems like he doesn't hate himself when doing the latter.

[@FlakkerDPS]

@@philiphart4146 if he does it im fully expecting it's gonna be because of the open world element and other more user friendly mechanics introduced like the existence of a map. but hey, fromsoft is reviving it's mech series, maybe that'll give 'em a breathe of fresh air

[@mohandasjung]

Oh boy!

[@philiphart4146]

@@FlakkerDPS Yes, I'm certain that will be the rationale. But I suspect the REASON will be that he's burnt himself out on reviewing.

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@FlakkerDPS what is basically where Jiminy Cockthroat games shine, a huge and varied world full of different things to explore and for you to play with the good gameplay and no real straight line guiding you from one point to another. its just a huge theme park of pain and suffering for you to enjoy. its what made BotW good. but either way I feel like a good way to start hating something you enjoy, is trying to make money out of it. it doesn't matter that you like games when 90% of the tiem you are forced to play to completion things that you hate. I would also start to feel miserable, I mean, I work with art and I feel miserable when I'm working.

[@kingvideogames]

Kind of surprised that there was no mention of OMORI. Thought it would have been a sneaky last-second spot a la Undertale.

[@jaderotaski1]

I legitimately made me happy that Persona 5 strikers was on the best list; solid combat and story and amazing music.

[@aphexgothicc]

love how the font for blandness is calibri. very well chosen

[@lodaceva1741]

Metroid Dread definitely made my top 5 this year, even as Yahtzee points and stares with the face again.

[@danilooliveira6580]

I mean, its one of those cases where if you like the genre then its awesome, if you don't then it will inevitably be just a well made game with nothing special to show. he himself said its a perfectly fine 2D platformer

[@dlahouss]

After other m, they had me at "Samus has three lines and two of them are in chozosian"

[@TitaniumDragon]

Metroid predates that era of games, though.

[@AnimationStudio225]

Imma just suggest you try a weird a game called “space station 13”. The short explanation is that everyone has a job to do that literally keeps the station functioning because in this game the station really feels alive. Not only in the physical sense that you can literally rip the floor boards and find wiring and tubes that have actual use, but also in the societal sense as everyone is part of a system where if one part fails, the others starts having to catch up. It isn’t exactly newbie friendly so it doesn’t have a huge audience but the fans that are there are passionate.

[@VicStrange9]

You just sent me back to that SsethTzeentach video.

[@piemaster1288]

Definitely a lot of bland games this last year, though I'm surprised Far Cry didn't make the list given how he basically said it was like the game was trying to fall asleep the entire time.

[@umarthdc]

This year's top blandest list could have been 15 games long easily

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

Speaks to the depressing state of the video game industry that even that wasn't quite bland enough to make the blandest games list.

[@UmJammerChelle]

@@Sir_Uncle_Ned Saint's Row 2 had a feature where your character will randomly sing along to a song on the radio that differs based on which voice actor you choose for your character's voice. Can't think of any other game that does it other than maybe Saints Row 3, but I can't remember if that was only for a scripted scene only or not.

[@ShroudedWolf51]

Going by how they are only capable of regurgitation, it hardly feels like they're worth even acknowledging at this point. Plus, let's not forget. Ubisoft, like Activision-Blizzard, has spent over a decade coddling and protecting abusers and sex pests. And now are going all in on shoveling an environmentally devastating scam into all of their products.

[@piemaster1288]

@@ShroudedWolf51 True. Better to just ignore them completely and avoid buying their nonsense so they give up on it.

[@Apemopo]

7:53 having played through good ol' BLUDDBORNN again that little end message read pretty funny unspecified deity, or some say unspecified deitym

[@nentendoboy12]

Man it was a pretty bland year. I had to keep pausing after every single pick because I struggled to remember pretty much any of these games and had to go look them up. That's a bad sign.

[@2BChaos]

Okay but seriously that bit about miswriting the date on all our papers for the next couple weeks is sooooo true.

[@WeirdoGeek]

Honestly, I was surprised by some his choices based on his original reviews of them, like The Good Life.

[@mooncake8717]

Nice little touch throwing in a Fez again when talking about the Good Life.

[@Dw7freak]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Yatzee about the whole "2000-2010 was best era for gaming". The PS2/Xbox generation had all the classics we pine for current games to be like yet they can never live up to, while the PS3/XB360 generation was where online gaming fully came into stride. When those games get a remaster or sequel, they sell in droves and everyone loves them again, but only as long as corporate meddling doesn't break the game and they add excessive bullshit to the remasters, like microtransactions *angry stares as ActiBliz*.

[@bigbruno2232]

Yeah I agree also. Hasn’t been the same since. At least we still got indie games.

[@danilooliveira6580]

the PS2 era was when a lot of studios were pumping games like crazy trying to get something new and different to create a new niche or to one up the other. there are a LOT of terrible stuff from that era, but also a lot of very memorable things. the PS3 era beyond was when the studios started settling down on the formulas that worked and stopped taking too many risks, and it just went downhill from there. but of course there will always be a pearl in the dump, specially if you like a lot of different genres. I mean, we did have the indie game golden age after the PS3 era, and following a very similar arc as the PS2 era in a way.

[@mattd.5254]

That's just because most current gamers were children / teens during that era. Its nostalgia & survivorship bias - we remember the good games and forget that there was also a bunch of shit.

[@rivercruz9695]

It's why I always feel like the Wii was the genuine last big creative stride for Nintendo. There are hints of it now on the Switch but there pretty few and far between.

[@Krysnha]

Indeed, i really have to think hard, for a modern game i like, and i think, in Valkyria chronociles one, motorsport manager, dragons crown, battlefleet gothic armada, those games are the only ones i would love to play modern, and maybe battlestar galactica deadlock, outside those, every game i like is old, really old, not a single modern game calls mi atention, i remember when PS2 was around and i watch in mi local electronic center and the amount og PS2 games, was hughe, creativity and fun was all around, and now, nothing, games barely came out and they are always more or less the same

[@OpalRhea13]

P5 strikers was a lot of fun and I will stand by it

[@deebzscrub]

That was an impeccable description of how I felt playing RE8

[@tivvy2vs21]

I only played 4 new games this year so deltarune c2 (if the rest is this good it'll be better than undertale) Nmh3 (fun) Cruelty squad (wanna play it more but my PC can barely run it) Neo twewy (might end up on my favorite games of all time list later on) Also got smt5 for Christmas and haven't played it yet, got the prinny presents collection and played a chunk of phantom brave and wanted balan wonderworld until I played the demo

[@belltowersubductions5104]

Wow, I didn't think that Yahtzee could somehow get even *more* exhausted and depressed with the games industry, but somehow, he managed it.

[@SnivyTries]

Welcome to the 2021 games industry, where innovation exists only in our dreams and even the Big Names like CoD and Battlefield are being released with less effort than indie games 20 years ago, where the thing with the most love and care is Friday Night Funkin. (Seriously, why is Vanguard so poorly balanced? Why is BF2042 so badly made?)

[@xcellentcreations3312]

4:03 Oh my God! I have the same hope I have!....well except for the sink making lager thing

[@dkranda]

I think I heard yahtzee say he didn't think he'd get into a deck-building game like Inscryption and hasn't played it. It's too bad because it was a really creative and fun game.

[@tnarwhal]

Hopefully he mentions it in the 'games I didn't review' video, but yeah it's a shame. May be GOTY for me Edit: upon watching said video, he mentions it in the outro gag, and how he's not going to review it. Oh well

[@deanofcool]

@@tnarwhal me too

[@pauloandrade925]

as a persona 5 Fan im SOOOO HAPPY PERSONA 5 STRIKERS WAS IN YATZEE S TOP 5 YAY!

[@MoonTiger88]

Glad to see someone actually puts Persona 5 Strikes on a top 5 list, it's a great game :)

[@taffetatwist2194]

Am I alone in feeling my skin crawl uncontrollably every time the Champagne pop and bubble ASMR sound came up?

[@PaperFlare]

At least Q1 of this year looks more interesting than pretty much all of 2021 combined. Let's just hope they deliver.

[@mohammedsami6907]

Yahtzees Games of 2021 Best Games: 1. Psychonauts 2 2. The Forgotten City 3. It Takes Two 4. Persona 5 : Strikers 5. The Artful Escape Blandest Games: 1. Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond 2. Outriders 3. Back 4(for?) Blood 4. Kena: Bridge of Spirits 5. Resident Evil: Village Worst Games: 1. Balan Wonderworld 2. Werewolf: The Apocalyspe: Earthblood 3. OddsWorld: Soulstorm 4. The Good Life 5. Twelve Minutes See you for next years list.

[@quetzalthegamer]

I'm so glad he put "Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond" in this list. I've never seen a game so clearly piss all over its own subtitle. It definitely deserved its spot in this video. I still remember Yahtzee's scathing injunction when summarizing his review: "In summary, 'Medal of Honor: Tea and Biscuits', get the fuck out of my glorious world of tomorrow with this PS3-era bullshit."

[@ArcienPlaysGames]

That Soulstorm take is incredibly valid. It's a game I desperately wanted to love. The amazing cutscenes, the beautiful animations, the crisp soundtrack and honestly, the great story, is absolutely overshadowed by the awful gameplay and gameplay features. The last thing an Oddworld game starring Abe needed, was many methods of direct offense. In the old games, you exclusively had to rely on stealth, the environment, the chant, and the rare grenade to get around. Now you have to craft weaponry, make-shift explosives and tools to do so in most cases, which takes up way too much time and pulls you away from the immersion that the old games were otherwise known for. It simply is the polar opposite of what made the old Oddworld games stand out. You were in an awful situation and had to rely on your cunning, and use what little of RuptureFarm's arsenal you could get your hands on against it. If you had nothing, good luck! Now, you have an abundance of items that you NEED to use. Everywhere. Everytime. It's such a damn shame.

[@thatakwardlatinguy8773]

Seeing Re Village on the blandest made my heart weak, but I forgive you for having Psychonauts 2 as best game of the year.

[@Oklines]

For real, village and psychonauts 2 would be my best games of the year lol. I get why some people don’t like village but it still breaks my heart to hear, I love love loved that game lol

[@edmundaubrey322]

I sort of agree with RE Village, started strong but the latter half was a drag and I found it pretty boring. Felt like a massive drop off after the haunted fetus house. Psychonauts 2 is amazing though!

[@realtalk13]

@@edmundaubrey322 This is exactly it. RE Village has a fun, campy intro and a genuinely frightening 2nd act, but the last two acts are basically RE4 redux and that 2nd act isn't even original as it apes all of its inspiration from Silent Hills PT. If most of your game is just rehashing older (and better games), then yeah, on the bland list you go.

[@kadabraguy9846]

Ngl given his review I don't think it belongs on any of the lists, but especially not blandest. If it has a section that's really good and a bunch of others which are really bad, that's not bland at all lol

[@utisti4976]

@@edmundaubrey322 Village was a constant 9/10 for me until the last act. The only point in the game where it dropped off for me was during Chris's section. I hated that section. Looks cool, I understand why they did it, but I hated it. The last boss was pretty cool though.

[@draskirondaar]

Funny thing about The Forgotten City, and how you compared it to a Skyrim quest. It's very first version was actually a mod for Skyrim, under the same name, before eventually being remade as a standalone game.

[@PatrickHogue493]

Not a single mention of Returnal, even in the honorable mentions. Genuinely shocked by that.

[@danielsherwood3880]

Same. I thought it'd be 3rd or 2nd tbh

[@RacingSnails64]

5:53 That quadrupal row of Outsiders when listing possible negatives in games got me good.

[@wheatthins4.222]

Glad to see the forgotten city made the best list, I really liked that game

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

My predictions for 2022: BEST: #5 - Tunic #4 - Stray #3 - Not for Broadcast or Evil West #2 - Elden Ring #1 - Cult of the Lamb BLANDEST: #5 - Horizon Forbidden West #4 - Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin #3 - Scorn #2 - Bayonetta 3 #1 - Babylon's Fall WORST: #5 - Return to Monkey Island #4 - God of War: Ragnarok #3 - A Plague Tale: Requiem #2 - Gotham Knights #1 - The Callisto Protocol

[@theconnected7234]

Forgotten City is a gem that made me actually care about other people's well being. Who cares if they were digital lol

[@PatronRBLX]

This video came out just after I finished Spec ops the line, was awesome to see it pop up almost immediately.

[@DatBoiUKno]

I feel Yahtzee would have felt Inscryption to be a breath of fresh air if he’d tried it, if he could get past the card game portion.

[@LordKhabal]

“Oh ffs, why are you still even here?!” Glad I wasn’t drinking when that last one popped up, lmfao 🤣🤣🤣

[@sunlitsonata6853]

I feel like Yahtzee's gonna try to find some way to put Sonic Frontiers on either the Bland or Worst list in 2022 even if it's better than most purely out of disdain for the series. Be back in a year to find out if I'm wrong.

[@kadabraguy9846]

Better than most open world games or better than most Sonic games? Because "better than most Sonic games" is a really low bar to clear, I could see it being better than Forces and Unleashed and still be a bad game lmao

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

I feel like you'll kiss its ass no matter how flawed Sonic Team's latest attempt to reinvent the franchise. But hopefully, they actually get the time they need to create something good again.

[@sunlitsonata6853]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 oh don’t get me wrong if the game turns out to be tosh then I’ll absolutely turn around to say it deserves it, but if by some circumstance it actually is an improved game he’ll still find reasons to be fundamentally against it because But they did internally delay the game a whole year for polish and have Ian Flynn writing the story so there is that going for its favor.

[@giloguy101]

So that's the second Persona game to hit yahtzees top 5 Guess it goes to show that good visuals, likeable characters and a banger sound track goes a long way.

[@Doorisessa]

4:18 I think that, 20 years from now, when the videogame industry is remaking the biggest hits of this decade, people will look back and say that this decade is when videogames peaked, because such is the way of nostalgia. In other words, Yahtzee, I think the fact that you think videogames peaked between 2000-2010 mostly just means that you're getting old.

[@Doorisessa]

@@lasarousi Maybe. But people are _always, always_ saying that 'X was when Y was at its best', and it doesn't matter what X and Y are, people say this about literally everything. All the time. So odds are on my side that this will turn out to be the case here, too. And why do you think I was talking about gacha games rather than, say, shadow of mordor or breath of the wild? I am most reminded of a reddit post recently where someone complained that Disney and pixar films have lost their charm, and were at their best in the 90s. But they held up Inside Out as an example of the deteriorating quality of these kinds of films, and completely forgot about the endless shitty disney sequels in the 90s. Time will tell, I suppose. Unless we all die.

[@Potidaon]

No one is immune to sentiment and bias. Not even Yahtzee. Heck, esp. not Yahtzee.

[@tuseroni6085]

least he put in that last bit, cus i took game design advice from a slug in a burning dumpster in the middle of a busy street and he told me to focus on the primary gameplay loop, subsequently my frogger inspired game involving moving a burning dumpster with a slug in it across a busy street will be available on steam as soon as i can be arsed to make it.

[@CheesecakeMilitia]

I thought Psychonauts 2 fell into a good-but-short-of-great category, where I was sad when it ended without expanding on the interns and Raz's Family in the same way the original's camp kids got resolution to their own stories in the end. It's way more polished than the original so it felt better to play throughout, but it didn't end up generating as many memorable moments for me. Metroid Dread had a similar problem where its gameplay elements were polished far beyond any prior 2D Metroid, but the story was silly nonsense that the devs obviously had to rush. Hell, I guess you can lump It Takes Two into the same boat. Maybe that's why Forgotten City especially stood out to me this year - it had by far the best writing of the new releases I played.

[@kev25811]

Inscryption was my game of the year. Then I played Before Your Eyes. Now I'm very conflicted. Inscryption was just a mind-blowing fun crazy experimental mess that I loved. BYE is just so great wrenchingly earnest and emotional. Short. But I don't think I'd have wanted it to be longer.

[@robertyoung3594]

Did yahtzee not play inscryption? Amazing game which feels right up his alley

[@deanofcool]

It was definitely my goty.

[@kenpachielric]

Glad to see love for ender lilies n metroid dread at the end

[@Gerbsert]

even if we think modern games peaked a round a decade ago, vr games have nowhere near reached their best. the amount of potential in vr titles is exciting to think about

[@immortalzealot9725]

I think 2019 has the best games of all time. Covid hit but we're not done yet and VR has about 100 years to go.

[@willowarkan2263]

I love that the medal of honor box art could only be more beige if it were a simple beige rectangle, fitting for blandest of the year.

[@triangularfish6487]

Will we ever see omori covered 😔

[@cooldudeachyut]

I really enjoy the liquid pouring sound.

[@KeithFraser82]

Maybe Yahtzee should start an ASMR channel.

[@withroaj]

This is my favorite year in review again. I may agree more with others, but this one just does it right.

[@OdinCasts]

I was expecting the Halo Infinite bit at the end to say: + Grapple Hook - Things that aren't the Grapple Hook

[@Norrikan]

_"Gaming may already have peaked ten to twenty years ago."_ - Well, he's not wrong, I'd say. I honestly can't even manage to work up the interest to look into buying a current gen console.

[@nohomers100]

I'd say he's wrong. PS4 had some of the best games I've ever played. Bloodborne, Spider Man, the Doom games, DMC5

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@nohomers100 all of those games are direct derivatives of other games, just saying...

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

Gaming peaked during the ps1-2 era or something. Ever since consoles because worse PCs, things have just got worse and worse to where we are today.

[@-bold5999]

@@danilooliveira6580 but what about FPS renaissance in recent years- Dusk, Snap the sentinel, Memoirs of magic, Hedon, Rekkr etc?

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@-bold5999 isn't most of those games just going back to older formulas ? at least dusk, its literally a homage to older shooters, even with the graphics.

[@fabianocarbono]

Im surprised to not see Valhein in this video..not sure in wich category, but it was one of the most played games of the year. When I would look back to 2021 games, for sure I will say: ahh the year of Valhein

[@kilroy987]

I was impressed with It Takes Two's technical aspects (so many game mechanics, level design), but the story was atrocious. It could have been heartwarming, instead it's two bickering parents who kill a stuffed elephant to make their daughter cry. If people liked it because it gave them something to do together, that's fine, but there could at least have been an acknowledgement that the game utterly fails at how it attempts to "solve" the issue in an agreeable way.

[@hollandscottthomas]

I played through it with my partner and the whole time we were like "Yeah, nah, y'all should probably go through with the divorce". And on the second playthrough (with swapped characters) we skipped every cutscene possible. But otherwise, solidly entertaining game with some brilliant design.

[@chadschmaltz9790]

I agree that the devs have a talent for making two player co-op games where each character feels unique. It Takes Two did a good job of introducing new mechanics that were situational making the game not feel repetitive. The story was definitely the weakest point of the game and seemed to drag on for much too long. I will say that the part inside the tree was probably the most interesting, mainly because it was completely unexpected.