Thursday, March 15, 2012

Hey! Listen! (to this person): Ben Croshaw


I think I'll start yet another new series called "Hey! Listen! (to this person)" today. In this series, each time I will talk about somebody I find interesting to listen and pay attention to because they are either funny, awesome, intelligent, or any combination of the three.

Why? Because they are famous (on the internet and maybe moreso) for a reason and if you're a gamer and don't know about them then you are WRONG, because I want to remind everyone about their certain hatred for a certain fairy from a certain game (you know who you are), and because nothing else happened this week that interested me.

Except for a release date revelation that required me to change my pants. Twice. I'll talk about that when I'm damn well ready though.



The above video is one of the first of many, MANY others in a series known as Zero Punctuation, created solely by a man named Ben Croshaw. Most people know him by the name "Yahtzee" though, and the name of the series describes the style of the video. His game critique flies past you quickly, but it's still slow enough for you to understand and laugh at. Images are displayed along with what he's saying at any given time to assist you, and honestly, if they weren't there, he wouldn't be funny.

Yahtzee started making a couple reviews and uploading them to Youtube until he was recommended to escapistmagazine.com, and if you don't know of that website, you should fix that. For nearly 5 years now a new video review of a recent game (or whatever Yahtzee feels like if there isn't anything interesting) is released on Wednesday to the awe and rage of viewers. People have awe because they are too busy laughing at his dirty but wonderful humor, but sometimes they are stricken with rage because their favorite game just got shot down with a rail gun.



This is what I love about Yahtzee. He has said before that he is a critic first and foremost, so if he didn't point out every wriggling doubt and thing he didn't like, he wouldn't be one. His reviews are brutally honest, and that I can appreciate, because it can make even the most hardcore, level-minded fanboy of any game take a more objective look at the game they love so much. His videos are awesome if you are wanting to have a good laugh while learning a little more about the game you love or hate. The only downside about Yahtzee's videos for me personally though is that it can sometimes he is a little jaded for certain genres or game developers, like JRPGs and Nintendo. I do agree with most of what he says about them, but I think sometimes he's just a tiny bit too harsh and needs to lighten up and have some fun, but again, he's a critic, and it's what he does.


If you're interested in seeing more, head over to The Escapist's video gallery of all his videos, where you'll find over 200 (!) videos of games he's reviewed over the past 5 years. There are also a few on Youtube before he was hired, like the one below.



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