Zero Punctuation: Prince of Persia

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 31, 2008

Filed under: Movies 20 comments

Yahtzee reviews Prince of Persia this week. I don’t usually embed ZP since everyone knows where to find it if they want it, but I thought it provided a nice compare & contrast with Reset Button.

(And if by chance you’ve missed the ZP bandwagon, I do need to give you a heads up: Strong language ahead.)

To those who keep emailing me saying, “You should make more movies”:

I’d love to. Ideally, I’d love for it to be sponsored by someone. The more the movie gets spread around, the easier it is to get that “someone” interested. I’m currently fishing around for sponsorship. We’ll see if anyone bites.

 


From The Archives:
 

20 thoughts on “Zero Punctuation: Prince of Persia

  1. Rustybadger says:

    I think you should get EA to sponsor you. That way they could claim that they’re obviously not the bald-faced liars and thieves you make them out to be, or would they really be willing to give you their money? Win-win!

  2. Rustybadger says:

    And since this is the first time I’ve ever had a frist post, I’m taking the second one too!

  3. Xpovos says:

    Interestingly he makes a lot of the same points you did; albeit from a totally different view.

    Between the two of you, I’ve been convinced to go buy it. So that’s something at least.

  4. Strangeite says:

    I know this is going to sound like sacrilege within the hallowed halls of Twenty Sided; but, if you bought yourself a used Mac I think you would be shocked how much easier it would be to make your movies using iMovie.

    Edit: And you might just get rich by writing an app for the iPhone. The iPhone SDK is a free download. That idiot who wrote iFart is making about $15,000.00 a day. Seriously.

    Edit 2: I haven’t had a programming class since Freshman year of high school and my stupid app has made me about $1000 and I only put about 10 hours into writing it. It is amazingly easy.

  5. Shamus says:

    Strangeite: I’m actually not a Mac-hater. I’ve never had one, but if I get the chance I’ll certainly take it.

    Currently, the biggest hurdle would be where to put the thing. 2 PC’s, PS2, PS3, XBox 360, Gamecube. And that’s just MY workspace. My wife is running a Linux (Ubuntu) laptop, we have another Ubuntu machine in the kitchen, plus the eeePC’s my girls have, which have some unidentified strain of Linux.

  6. Strangeite says:

    You should be aware that it looks like new MacMinis are coming out next week, which means that the current line of MacMinis will be discounted. You can use your existing keyboard and monitor and set it on your desk. The footprint is only about the size of a CD jewel case.

    Just food for thought. Writing apps is the new Dotcom bubble.

  7. pwiggi says:

    “Unidentified strain”? Linux – the bacteria you WANT to get!

    The eeePC’s OS is Xandros, with a customized Window Manager:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC#Software

  8. Telas says:

    Definitely a nice compare and contrast.

    RE: iFart. Nobody ever lost money underestimating the taste of the American consumer.

  9. David says:

    I was surprised to see Yahtzee be so negative about the new PoP. To me it really did seem to be the good stuff about Sands of Time, without its incredibly boring combat, and also without the annoyingly complicated combat of the later games.

    (I.e. it seemed to me to address his complaints. Oh well.)

  10. Shamus says:

    David: After I watched the video, I was still trying to figure out if it was positive or negative. He sometimes brings up flaws not because they are a big deal, but because it’s funny to talk about them., (I’m not faulting him. I do the exact same thing in my comic.)

    I actually think this is a bonus layer of meta-comedy. Read the comments afterwards and see the people trying to wring some sort of meaning out of the thing. The beauty is in how many people see what they expect.

    “Ha! I knew this game was going to suck!”

    “Oh man, he kind of liked it! I’m going to buy it right now!”

  11. David says:

    @Shamus: That’s a good point, actually. He did conclude by saying he’d recommend it. I was just sort of sidetracked in my perception of the review by the proportion of the time spent ranting about the bits he didn’t like.

  12. David says:

    Thinking about it, I suspect my view was shaped largely by Yahtzee opening by saying that it’s still not as good as Sands of Time. This provided sufficient dissonance with my own view…

  13. mrmurphy says:

    David:

    As ever, in reviewing, there are all kinds of intangibles. Does Sands of Time get any bonus points for being the “first”, in your mind or does it get weighed on the same standard as all the rest?

  14. Mark says:

    How about the “I am Rich” application? That still cracks me up.

  15. Marmot says:

    I liked it but I probably missed a ton of references. Do chicken/turkeys play a prominent role in Prince of Persia or what? :)

    Happy New Year btw!

  16. Chris says:

    Re: David, the thing that I noticed with Yahtzee’s review of PoP is that he addresses issues that aren’t the main point of the game. He attacks the stylization of the characters, how far they’ve gone from the origins in the series, how he finds the combat boring, etc.

    However, the main segment of gameplay is simply in the parkour element, as he stated. He is completely fine with this. Overall, that means the majority of game time is spent having fun.

    I think I’m learning to cope with the fact that Yahtzee is an overly critical ass and just find humor in his stuff again. I like Prince of Persia, and this didn’t come off as “BLARGH I HATE YAHTZEE!”. Though I still want to kick him in the crotch for Too Human.

  17. Allan says:

    Regarding sponsorship, have you asked the escapist yet? They are already carrying your comic.

  18. Kevin says:

    What I heard was “Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch… I guess it was okay.”

    Still, he is occasionally hilarious. Overall, Escapist should be glad to have this.

  19. mark says:

    No offence intended here, but I dont think videos will work for you the same way as they do for yahtzee. He’s a british english speaking badass who swears his tits off and rips into any game put in front of him, for any and all of its flaws, even if he loves it. You always seem to take a balanced approach, telling us what you DO and DONT like like. Also, possibly because I am british, you sound like a total geek to me. :P

  20. deoren says:

    Loved the video, thanks for making it! The example of the PS3 controller being more complex (although I like complex) than a car was awesome!

Thanks for joining the discussion. Be nice, don't post angry, and enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*

You can enclose spoilers in <strike> tags like so:
<strike>Darth Vader is Luke's father!</strike>

You can make things italics like this:
Can you imagine having Darth Vader as your <i>father</i>?

You can make things bold like this:
I'm <b>very</b> glad Darth Vader isn't my father.

You can make links like this:
I'm reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader">Darth Vader</a> on Wikipedia!

You can quote someone like this:
Darth Vader said <blockquote>Luke, I am your father.</blockquote>

Leave a Reply to Rustybadger Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.