This week’s Zero Punctuation takes on Ghostbusters The Videogame. Yahtzee’s not afraid to take on games and films with a deeply devoted and sometime rabid fan base to task. It’s an ugly brawl and he manages to pull Star Trek and Dr. Who into the fray.

Although I may not always agree with his opinion, I always enjoy it. Yahtzee isn’t afraid to cut anyone down to size including himself.

You can view the Zero punctuation videogame review archives on The Escapist.

You may recall that in the Zero Punctuation: inFamous vs. Prototype video review, Yahtzee said he couldn’t honestly choose a winner because they were equally fun. Then he issued a challenge to the developers saying he’d base which game was best on whichever studio submitted “the best picture of the other game’s main character wearing women’s bra.”

To everyone’s surprise and delight, both Radical and Sucker Punch took up the gauntlet. The die is cast, the submissions weighed and a winner has been declared.
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Having run completely dry of any other Zero Punctuation material, Yahtzee has turned in desperation to the bottom of the bin and set his sites on The Sims 3. If you’ve watched Zero Punctuation, you know not to expect the glowing recommendation he gave inFAMOUS. However this could be the funniest, most painfully accurate review ever from a certain point of view.

The Sims is a highly controversial, emotionally charged subject in the Sines household. The kids and I really enjoy it while Shawn… he just realized he’s been channeling Yahtzee all this time.

Zero Punctuation is regular weekly feature on The Escapist.

After last week’s stellar review of inFamous, Zero Punctuation pits Cole McGrath and his thunder god impression against Protoype. The main character Alex Mercer is more of a “you are who you eat,” type of guy.

I thought this comparison piece of InFamous and Prototype was rather inevitable actually. Early on in their development cycles I often became confused over the two games only being able to straighten it out because one main character eats people and the other… doesn’t. What with all the government interference in the natural order of things coming back to bite them in the ass, in Prototype’s case literally, they seem very similar at first glance.

A more detailed Impression of inFamous is available on Gaming Today.

So, every week the slavishly obsessive video game public saunter over to the escapist website to line up in morbid fascination ready to hear the idiot savant ramblings of critic and “commentarian” Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw skewer and lambaste the most recent game releases. Big game or little, he usually has something particularly biting to say in his punctuation-less rants and only rarely does that amount to anything but sidways praise for a title. This week it looks like one of those rare occasions when the stars, moons and hormones align to see the personality spout true praise for a title sprinkled with minor niggling and an admission the game is worth playing.

The target of his slight admiration: Sony & Sucker Punch’s inFAMOUS. The review itself is worth watching not because I agree with him on almost every point (which I do) but because its a rare event when the Zero Punctuation master has to work to tear a game apart.

Yahtzee speaks out on the whole Duke Nukem Forever fiasco. For me watching his diatribe on that epic Fail is like watching Falling Down. Yahtzee says everything I want to, but can’t; at least not without violating the safe for work and family guidelines we attempt to maintain.

I think Yahtzee’s vision of Duke Nukem Forever would be loads more interesting than anything 3D Realms didn’t come up with. You have to hand it to them though, they managed to get paid to sit and spin for years without producing anything more than concepts and screenshots. That’s very clever indeed. Watch Zero Punctuation: Duke Nukem Forever after the jump.

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Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is at it again, this time reviewing the latest stealth genre game Velvet Assassin.

Having recently finished the game myself, Yahtzee and I tend to agree on most of his critical points, especially the strange choice by German developers Replay Studios to needlessly have you run and gun (in a nightie) through the last mission. While the core gameplay borrows ideas from such notable franchises such as Hitman, Splinter Cell, and Thief, it does try to give itself an edge by attributing a “psycho killer bitch” angle through its heroine.

Adding strange to the already strange was the marketing of this game as “inspired by real life events of Violette Szabo.” Violette Summer (the game’s psycho heroine) seems nothing like the historical Violette Szabo. In this regard, I’d have to say Szabo’s surviving daughter made a good choice by disassociating herself with the game completely.

So did Yahtzee like Velvet Assassin? You’ll have to watch the video below to find out what he has to say about killing more Nazis, the real Violette Szabo, blood soaked lingerie, crotch stabs, trial-and-error gameplay, and, of course, the Emo look of the 40’s.

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This week’s Zero Punctuation takes on Valkyria Chronicles. This classic RPG is a PS3 exclusive so some of you may be unfamiliar with it. The reference to Valkyries in the title might tip you off to the storyline if this wasn’t a Japanese RPG. Weirdly enough, you’d be on the right track. Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based JRPG filled with androgynous, angst ridden heroes in a World War II like setting.

Anyone unfamiliar with Zero Punctuation should brace themselves considering JRPGs are one of Yahtzee’s “favorite” genres.
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It’s been awhile since Yahtzee Croshaw tackled a game where he had almost nothing negative to say about it, but that was all before he picked up Left 4 Dead. He brings his usual wit to this review of the game, but all in all the worst he says about it is that it gets repetitive (which is true, though it still hasn’t gotten old to me). For that reason, I’d say this is probably the most positive review Valve could hope for. If you’re stumping a man who actively looks for minute flaws in all games, then you must be doing something right.

Unfortunately, the embed code The Escapist has for the review doesn’t seem to be posting right, so you’ll have to go here to watch it.

Zero Punctuation has returned yet again this week with a review for EA’s free-running video game experiment, Mirror’s Edge. The game has so far received mixed reviews from gaming enthusiasts who don’t relay their opinions through simple images synced to a voice over, so you can imagine how Yahtzee feels about it. There are plenty of flaws to be prodded in this game, from the disorienting first-person perspective to the unnecessary combat to the uninspiring story. As he points out though, the game was partly produced in the name of experimentation, which drives developers to create more engrossing experiences, so it’s not all bad. I just hope EA’s next experiment feels a little more satisfying.

UPDATE: The embed code for the video still doesn’t seem to be working so you’ll have to go here to watch the video.