| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/civvie11.png]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:The Pinnacle of Online Entertainment]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"Sucks at ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}''."'' |
| 5 | -->-- '''Various''' |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ''Civvie 11'' (also known as ''Civvie's Dungeon'') is a Platform/YouTube channel focusing on video games. Civvie reviews retro games from the FirstPersonShooter genre, modern shooters inspired by retro FPS games, and the occasional film, typically [[VideoGameMoviesSuck adaptations of the games he's covered]]. His "Pro" series features humorous overviews of Civvie's experiences playing certain games. In other words, they're a scripted hybrid of a review and LetsPlay. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Most of the videos in the channel follow a loosely strung narrative where Civvie, or CV-11, is incarcerated in a facility run by the so-called 'Department of Special Corrections', where he is treated ''very'' inhumanely, but has access to a computer system and an unseen editor (CV-16, also known as Katie). Intros, outros, and various beats in between the actual game review are usually punctuated by gags about the facility. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | You can find his [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC21uZkfXpT8rPY-gPgMiCwA channel here.]] |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | !!Pro Tropes when, Civvie?: |
| 14 | |
| 15 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: |
| 16 | ** While he utterly panned ''VideoGame/BadDayLA'', he admitted the gag where you walk into a burning building to save a guy's girlfriend only to find a blow-up doll to be pretty good. |
| 17 | ** Hearing a self-deprecating joke in the DLC "The Doctor Who Cloned Me" for ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' has him speechless. |
| 18 | --->'''General Graves:''' [[CloneArmy So Proton's plan was to use clones]]... that's madness! [[VideoGame/DukeNukemForever That program]] was ''[[SelfDeprecatingHumor years]]'' away [[DevelopmentHell from being complete]]! [[invoked]]\ |
| 19 | '''Civvie:''' Holy shit, is that a joke? Like a good joke?! Like a subtle and- ''[All in-game audio stops]'' ...oh, my ''God!'' |
| 20 | ** He also gave credit for ''[[VideoGame/RedneckRampage Redneck Rampage Rides Again]]'' for a gag where Bubba robs [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis' grave]] and steals his outfit, resulting in the crowbar equivalent of a DopeSlap by Leonard. |
| 21 | ** He doesn't find ''Postal 2'''s satire really that funny, but a bit in ''Paradise Lost'' where you can interrupt Krotchy giving a lengthy exposition dump by shooting him, which [[NoSell barely phases him]] beyond annoying him that you're skipping it, made him bust a gut. |
| 22 | * AdaptationalHeroism: Discussed in his video of the game adaptation of ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'', which gives Seth Gecko, a ruthless criminal in the film, this treatment. |
| 23 | -->'''Civvie''' (sarcastically): Seth Gecko: Humanitarian! ''(plays a scene from the film where Seth coldly tells a hostage he doesn't care whether they live or die)'' |
| 24 | * AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Discussed in the video on ''VideoGame/LandOfTheDeadRoadToFiddlersGreen'', pointing out that the climax of ''Film/LandOfTheDead'' involves the zombies finding out they can cross the river into the city. ''Road To Fiddler's Green'' has the zombies already doing this to attack the city, despite taking place years before the film's events. |
| 25 | * AllStarCast: {{Invoked}}, for Civvie highlights ''Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition''[='s=] developers as being a match made in heaven: Creator/NightdiveStudios (known for making excellent ports of retro shooters) teaming up with Creator/NewBloodInteractive (which contains most of the original creative staff of the ''ROTT'' reboot) produces an extremely high-quality port of ''ROTT'' which, in Civvie's mind, is better treanment than what he thinks the game actually deserves. |
| 26 | * AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]]He suggests in his ''Tekwar'' video that William Shatner might be trying to get the protagonist killed on purpose, to offset the costs of freezing them--hence the near-total lack of support and the fact that the police will try to murder the protagonist if they have their weapon drawn. |
| 27 | * AmbushingEnemy: Discusses these in his ''Pro Doom: Plutonia Experiment'' video which he refers to as "Evil Traps." Basically, the player finds a key or useful item or weapon only to be beset by some very high-end monsters the moment they grab the prize. |
| 28 | * AnimationBump: The ''VideoGame/BlakeStone'' episode features [=AX3 and H4MM3R=] with some actual animation, showing them wheeling over to Civvie's cell and talking to him with some head movements. Most of the time otherwise, the two are just static figures. |
| 29 | * ApocalypseHow: According to what Civvie says, the world above might be a wasteland. It's never explained how the world died, or even why he's still incarcerated. Thanks to some Main/{{Lampshading}} on Civvie's part, he notes the fact he has far too many subscribers for the world to actually be over. Don't think too hard about how he can still react to incoming news like the failed launch of ''VideoGame/Fallout76'' in his ''Terminator: Future Shock'' review. |
| 30 | * AprilFoolsDay: |
| 31 | ** On the 1st of April 2019, Civvie uploaded a "Pro VideoGame/BrutalDoom" video... which turned out to be a review of ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' for the ''Virtual Boy''. |
| 32 | ** In the current universe (don't ask about the [[ContinuitySnarl continuity]], nobody cares) Civvie claims that he DID review VideoGame/BrutalDoom. The brief flashback shows that he thoroughly enjoyed it, a direct contrast from his earlier opinions (for the sake of the joke, obviously). However, the flashback shows him playing not Brutal Doom but a mod by the name of VideoGame/{{Trailblazer}}. |
| 33 | ** For 2021, he reviews an [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] bootleg cartridge by Color Dreams based on the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' franchise. It's a fake game, but jankily put together to seem like an example of TheProblemWithLicensedGames. [[invoked]] |
| 34 | ** For 2023, Civvie finally decides to review ''TNT: Evilution''... InTheStyleOf Platform/TikTok videos (and uploaded to Platform/YouTube Shorts), dragging it out by [[OverlyLongGag reviewing one level a day]]. A comment he drops early in the first map is that [[InterfaceScrew he actually is playing with a portrait mode aspect ratio]], and GoshDangItToHeck is applied very excessively, such as Pain Elemental being {{Sound Effect Bleep}}ed and later replaced with "Plane Elemental". |
| 35 | * ArchEnemy: |
| 36 | ** Capstone Software, for putting out nothing but terrible games. Often followed by Civvie sarcastically saying their tagline, "The Pinnacle of Entertainment Software", every time he mentions their name or some variation including "The Pinnacle of..." followed by a joke or major flaw common in their games. |
| 37 | --->'''Civvie''' (reviewing ''[=TekWar=]''): Capstone... they fascinate me at how utterly ''incompetent'' they were at making games. |
| 38 | ** Randy Pitchford, after Creator/GearboxSoftware released ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'' and it was found out that they were moving funds from that game over to ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', alongside the former's notorious false advertising, buggy mess of a release, and poorly written story. Other grievances include the entirety of Duke Nukem Forever, some mixed-bag quality levels in older Duke games, and generally being the living embodiment of grease. |
| 39 | * ArbitrarySkepticism: He is notably incensed in ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'' when Hiro claims that Superfly's suspicion of a graveyard is superstitious, yelling at Hiro "YOU'VE MET A GHOST TWICE!" |
| 40 | * AsbestosFreeCereal: {{Inverted}}: the double-wide can of [=NutraFuel=] advertises itself as "containing dark meat", which you probably would never have expected a drink to contain, so including it makes it seem less appealing. |
| 41 | * AscendedFanboy: Is now officially an NPC in ''Postal 4'' and the proud owner of 'Civvie's Crack Shack'. This is in reference to his SelfImposedChallenge of keeping the Postal Dude high for a week straight while playing ''VideoGame/Postal2.'' [[invoked]] |
| 42 | ** Partially stretches into CelebrityParadox since he also voices a caller named Doug on the talk radio show in the game. The voice of Doug from the call and Civvie at his seedy establishment are the same. Whether or not this is supposed to be a different person is up in the air, though it probably doesn't matter. |
| 43 | * AttentionDeficitOohShiny: In the ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' video |
| 44 | -->''[[MotorMouth And then you just jump off the ship and take no damage no impact compensation bullshit n-Oh my god that's the biggest demon I've ever seen! Is that the Icon of Sin? Man, the world is in some serious trouble let's get some sticky bombs]].'' |
| 45 | * AuthorAppeal: |
| 46 | ** Civvie's very fond of sprinkling music tracks from ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' throughout his episodes whenever it fits the situation or suits the clip. It's to the point he also uses two tracks ("Here Boy" and "How'd I Do?") as his intro and outro themes. When he actually gets to the game in question he details why. |
| 47 | ** Also to ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', referencing it as the musical gold standard met by the aforementioned, using "Final Toccata" during his breakdown of Hexen's cryptic Seven Portals, listing the steps needed to enter the Inverted Castle as a joke about Cruelty Squad's secrets, and mentioning the Clock Tower segments present throughout the series in American [=McGee=]'s Alice. |
| 48 | * BadassBoast: Given his writing style and subject matter, there are a few of these every so often. |
| 49 | -->'''Civvie''' (playing ''VideoGame/{{Duke Nukem 3D}}''): You were [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Schwarzenegger]]. You were [[Creator/SylvesterStallone Stallone]]. You were the baddest motherfucker alive.\ |
| 50 | '''Civvie''' (regarding the final boss of ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein''): I'm not saying that I'm going to beat Heinrichs' ass so hard that he wakes in another thousand years to find that the world is littered with monuments to the legend of a Yankee spy pushing some pre-medieval Germanic douces' shit in until it was leaking from his ears. [Beat] Because he's not getting up again. |
| 51 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Discussed in his ''VideoGame/DOOMEternal'' review, where he notes how vicious the game is at the start on Ultra Violence. As he puts it, too many players complained how [[VideoGame/Doom2016 the previous game]] was too easy and unbalanced and now ''Eternal'' is making them regret those words. |
| 52 | * BehindTheBlack: According to Civvie, one of the biggest issues in ''Film/DoomAnnihilation'' is the total inability of the characters to notice anything unless it's on the screen. |
| 53 | * BerserkButton: [[DownTheDrain Sewer levels]], due to their [[RealIsBrown boring visuals]], restricted gameplay and confusing layouts. Given that sewers were pervasive in shooter games of the 1990s, [[RunningGag he runs into a lot of them]]. While he never goes into the screaming fits you might expect from this trope, he makes his opinion clear by greeting them with a tone of disgust and keeping a running tally of the number of sewer levels encountered throughout the series... which is thrown off after the ''VideoGame/DarkForces'' video, in which he finds its sewer level to be so awful that he adds a whole ninety-two counts to the total. [[spoiler:This comes to a head when he plays ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' and finds its sewer level so horrid that he increases the counter to '''9999999''', declaring it to be the very worst sewer level in history and possibly one of the single worst levels in any FPS.]] |
| 54 | ** To a lesser extent, averting ShotgunsAreJustBetter in First-Person Shooters will really piss him off. He will dedicate entire sections in his video explaining why a game's shotgun is godawful if it's especially bad, as ''VideoGame/Doom3'' and ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' would show. |
| 55 | * BeyondTheImpossible: Thanks to some freak glitches he had never seen before involving hellhounds and dog treats, Civvie ends the main campaign in ''Pro Postal'' with a ''theoretically infinite kill count''. |
| 56 | * BlackBlood: |
| 57 | ** The ''Hatred'' episode sees Katie editing the footage to hue shift all red things (which includes the copious amounts of blood) to the advertiser-friendly green. |
| 58 | ** Inverted for laughs in the ''VideoGame/ChexQuest'' episode: for a gag, Civvie tells Katie to edit the footage so that the Flemoids -- normally an innocuous green slime color -- are turned bright red, then into a darker, bloodier shade of red. |
| 59 | * BloodyHilarious: In the F.E.A.R. video, Civvie shoots Norton Mapes in the face, which results in him spraying blood filled with Cheetoes everywhere which fills up first the scene, then his computer, then his cell, then the entire corrections facility. |
| 60 | * BodyHorror: A lot of the show's comedy stems from Civvie making a bad pun or angering his guards and being punished for it. There are copious references to 'the cold room', being flayed for the duration of an ad spot, and electric shocks. It would be gruesome if Civvie never really reacted beyond the immediate moment of pain or if the violence was shown on-screen. |
| 61 | ** During his review of ''VideoGame/BloodIITheChosen's'' expansion pack, ''The Nightmare Levels'', his ability to use his patented Creator/GordonRamsay quotes is replaced by two buttons. [=AX3=] assures him that one of the buttons will play one of the clips. When Civvie presses one of them, a gunshot is heard. Civvie screams in pain and begins to react in shock. The show then cuts out for what an intermission card says to be six months with a newfound unwillingness to press the button. |
| 62 | * BootstrappedTheme: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ6IBG2d1GU "Here Boy"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1ZOafpi5Eg "How'd I Do?"]] from the ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' soundtrack, commonly used as his intro and outro themes. |
| 63 | * BreadEggsMilkSquick: According to the message that appears on screen, the debate between Civvie and Cancer Mouse that gets cut out of the ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' review centred around "college students, the plight of unfunny boomer comedians, and the ethics of euthanizing the elderly." |
| 64 | * BreakingTheFourthWall: During the ''VideoGame/UnrealI'' episode, Civvie demonstrates one use of the Unreal engine: "haphazardly throw meshes and lighting together and call it a virtual set", while showing off his virtual set of his DOSC prison room. |
| 65 | * BreakThemByTalking: During the ''Outlaws'' video, where [=AX3=] gives Civvie a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and he sounds the most miserable he's ever been on the show. |
| 66 | * BreathlessNonSequitur: Upon seeing the cereal AdjacentToThisCompleteBreakfast in ''Chex Quest'', Civvie takes a tangent to describe how cereals generally appeared in commercials: "they would show like cereal and a whole pitcher of milk and orange juice and toast and a muffin and a whole bowl of fruit and then [[Advertising/CapnCrunch some fucking cum golems would steal your Crunch Berries]]." |
| 67 | * BrokeTheRatingScale: |
| 68 | ** The Sewer count often gets massive boosts based on how bad the level itself is, but the ''Redneck Rampage'' sewer level was so bad the count defaulted to 999999 and then became an ''error message''. |
| 69 | * BrutalHonesty: His ''Blood: Fresh Supply'' review. Even more when one considers that one achievement in the remaster references his ''Pro Blood'' series. It thankfully paid off when ''Fresh Supply'' was patched to fix a lot of the issues he had. |
| 70 | * ButtMonkey: Civvie has an [[RunningGag ongoing series]] entitled "humiliating the cyberdemon" where the classic ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' baddie gets killed in cheap and anticlimactic ways. This even continues when the Cyberdemon is replaced by the [[DegradedBoss Tyrant]] in ''VideoGame/DoomEternal''. |
| 71 | * CapitalismIsBad: A recurring theme when Civvie details the history/future of a game studio who made whichever game he's playing for a video is that capitalism ends up ruining them, usually via being bought and absorbed into a larger company to make games that Civvie likes a lot less than what they made previously. This gets lampshaded in the ''Chex Quest'' episode, in which he offhandedly mentions that the second episode of ''Chex Quest'' was ChristmasRushed[[invoked]] and that the brand was sold off later that same year. |
| 72 | -->'''Civvie''': "Guess what, motherfuckers, this video has corpo bullshit in it too!" |
| 73 | * CatScare: In the ''[=NecroVisioN=]'' episode, the DOSC siccs various monsters on Civvie because Katie is editing "[[Recap/MontyPythonsFlyingCircusS1E4 It's a man's life in the modern British Army]]" into the video and triggering the anti-Monty Python rule. The final time this happens, Civvie freaks out as sirens blare in his containment... but instead of some eldritch horror, only the dildocopter shows up to bother Civvie. |
| 74 | * CelebrityCameo: Creator/GianniMatragrano shows up AsHimself in the videos for ''VideoGame/TheFortressOfDrRadiaki'' and ''VideoGame/NightmareReaper'' (beyond [[ActorAllusion voicing the doctor in the latter]]). He also puts on a Creator/SteveBlum voice in the ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'' video ([[TheVirus not of his own volition, mind]]), with [=AX3=] implying that he's also a prisoner in the Department of Special Corrections facilities. |
| 75 | * CensoredForComedy: As part of a TakeThat to algorithms that suppress bad language, his ''TNT: Evilution'' shorts not only feature censorship of swears (and very inconsistently, at that) but also common words like "pain." This comes to a head during his evaluation of "Ballistyx", in which his dialogue is very, very vulgar -- describing visiting someone else's family reunion to have sex with all the women there -- which is contrasted against Civvie having to refer to their genitalia as "mommy boxes". |
| 76 | * ChallengeRun: Civvie has been known to dabble in these for certain games. |
| 77 | ** By far his most well known and memetic one was in the "Pro Postal" series, where he made it his mission to complete the ''entire'' game while under the effects of a Health Pipe. |
| 78 | ** For "Pro Doom", since he knew the game inside and out after playing it for years, he sets a series of guidelines for the videos, such as no mouse look, no saving (meaning dying would send him to the start of the level with only the pistol), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking drinking an expired can of Monster Energy after clearing an episode]]. |
| 79 | * CharacterShilling: One of his critiques of ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' is that the vast majority of characters have their only interactions with Duke being to talk about how awesome he is, barring a single StrawCharacter--he notes that, when combined with the game's general mediocrity, it results in the game feeling smugly full of itself in an undeserved way. One compliment he gave "The Doctor Who Cloned Me" is that its characters had a much broader spectrum of reactions to Duke (like Doctor Proton regularly appearing to smack-talk Duke or Dr Valencia being a MsFanservice who doesn't immediately want into his pants), and the DLC as a whole was more willing to make Duke the butt of the joke. |
| 80 | * ChekhovsGun: |
| 81 | ** In his ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' vid, Civvie asks everyone to remember Duke's angry "Not my babes! Not in my town!" rant for later. It comes up in the Hive where Duke cruelly jokes to the impregnated, captive Holsom twins that they're "fucked" to highlight how OutOfCharacter the comment is for Duke. |
| 82 | ** At the start of the ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' reboot video, [=AX3=] gives Civvie a present, which smells bad but can't be opened until past midnight. It becomes relevant when he gets stuck on the FinalBoss, during which Civvie opens the present for the solution: {{Cheese|Strategy}}! [[invoked]] |
| 83 | * CherryTapping: Upon reaching the end of ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior1997'', Civvie decided to try beating the final boss of a highly unforgiving first-person shooter with a massive arsenal of weapons to death with just his bare fists. To his surprise, [[SpringtimeForHitler this turned out to be a pretty effective strategy]], as Orochi Zilla's AI [[AIBreaker has a lot of trouble with hitting targets at point-blank range]] on the constantly shifting ground of where you fight him. |
| 84 | * ChristmasCreep: In the ''VideoGame/NecroVision'' episode's intro, [=AX3=] declares that Christmas officially begins on September 25th. |
| 85 | * ClusterFBomb: The ''Pro Doom II'' video has folders containing information on the new enemies introduced during the game. Whereas the other enemies get fairly informative run-downs, the [[MookMaker Pain Elemental]]'s entry is this. |
| 86 | -->Name: FUCK. Durability: FUCK. Threat level: FUCK. Rarity: FUCK. Summary: "Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it". |
| 87 | * ColonCancer: The ''VideoGame/SlayersXTerminalAftermathVenganceOfTheSlayer'' has two subtitles ("Slayers X: {{Manchild}} Review Video: Dawn of the X-Slayer"), and each chapter is likewise named to reference said game's likewise multiple subtitles. |
| 88 | * ContentWarning: |
| 89 | ** Displayed in the intro to his ''Pro VideoGame/{{Postal}}'' videos: |
| 90 | --->''This one gets pretty weird and you should know going in that neither Civvie nor the United States Department of Special Corrections advocates any of the actions contained in this video of [[SelfDeprecation some asshole paying a video game]]'' |
| 91 | ** The Halloween video on the GameMod ''Eternal Damnation'' replaces it with a special warning due to the DarkerAndEdgier nature of the mod. |
| 92 | --->''Okay [[SincerityMode so this is actually more violent and fucked up than you're used to for a ''Postal'' episode]]. Don't believe me? Well, you ought to since it talks about [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]], [[{{Gorn}} gore]], [[RapeAsDrama sexual assault]], [[CruelAndUnusualDeath extreme and frankly sickening violence]], and neither Civvie nor the Department of Special Corrections condones any of the actions depicted here because, as always, this is just [[SelfDeprecation some asshole playing a video game]] and you need to chill. Please Spook Responsibly.'' |
| 93 | ** The deliberately offensive ''Corkscrew Rules'' also gets a special warning: |
| 94 | --->''This one is even worse. This is probably the most offensive material you will see on this show. It includes senseless violence (naturally) and also pretty awful sexual content, racial and homophobic slurs, and any number of other things not endorsed by Civvie or the Department of Special Corrections. You've been warned.'' |
| 95 | ** He has another, far more serious one in ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' when he gets to the Hive, a level focusing on women being impregnated and killed by alien spawn. |
| 96 | --->''CONTENT WARNING: TURN BACK NOW. JESUS CHRIST WHY IS THIS IN A VIDEO GAME. SKIP TO 34:07 TO AVOID THIS, YOU WON'T MISS OUT ON ANYTHING IMPORTANT I PROMISE.'' |
| 97 | ** Civvie puts up an epilepsy warning when he's about to start the cyberspace level in ''Tekwar''. It's very warranted since the level is almost physically painful to look at, whether you have it or not. |
| 98 | * ContinuityNod: In his review of ''TNT: Evilution'', Civvie rhetorically describes something he refers to as "[[Literature/{{Goldilocks}} goldilocks]]ing", ie. visiting someone else's family reunion and having sex with every woman there to see who would be "just right" in bed. Goldilocksing gets referenced again in the ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}'' episode, in which he says that "the goldilocksing thing was only half-true"; but what elements of what Civvie described are true and what's fake is left up to interpretation. |
| 99 | * CoolAndUnusualPunishment: |
| 100 | ** Civvie gets buried alive under a mass of rejected blank collectible vinyls (which are [[ProductDisplacement most definitely not]] Toys/{{Funko Pop}}s) in the ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'' episode. |
| 101 | ** After a failed attempt to blow up the DOSC's nutraloaf factory in the ''VideoGame/{{UnrealI}}'' episode, Civvie gets sent to "the Clown Room" as punishment. Here, he's isolated while he tries to work on his next videos, at least until the AI called Clown starts intruding on the script and subjecting him to Platform/TikTok-esque shenanigans. |
| 102 | * CountryMatters: Not directly by Civvie himself, but while reading out a Randy Pitchford tweet in the VideoGame/DukeNukemForever video, a distorted clip from ''Film/{{Bronson}}'' of the titular character bellowing "SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU CUNT" plays in the background. |
| 103 | * CursedItem: His upgraded computer for ''Doom Eternal'' has a number of absurd upgrades: including an experimental cooling system designed for fusion reactors, a processor tied to the power supply with strands of John Romero's hair (for some reason), a 320GB vRAM video card, and a Runic stone from the Ruins of Sala'Kan'Tar. ''Something'' inside it has caused it to start bleeding. By his video on ''Postal 4'', the PC appears to have generated a form of sentience, though so long as it stays away from Civvie's bed and toilet, he doesn't really care. It all comes to a head during the ''Daikatana'' video, where [[spoiler: the computer sprouts wings and declares its intent to destroy humanity only to be taken over by the spirit of John Romero, who promises to bring humanity instead into a glorious future free of want and suffering... until [=AX3=] neutralizes it with a flamethrower and locks the computer away on another floor alongside other evils that have given Civvie grief in the past such as Steamboat Wendigo and ''Tekwar''.]] |
| 104 | * DamnedByFaintPraise: |
| 105 | ** In Civvie's ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' review, he calls ''Redneck Rampage Rides Again'' the best sequel to a Build engine shooter, with the competition being ''[[VideoGame/{{Blood}} Blood II: The Chosen]]'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever''. |
| 106 | ** When giving his history of the remake of ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'', he goes on a small tangent to note that the owners of the ''Duke Nukem'' franchise went out of their way to shut down any links between their franchise and the game that ultimately became the original ''VideoGame/{{Bombshell}}''. |
| 107 | --->"I can understand, ''Bombshell'' wasn't exactly critically loved, but it is objectively more than nothing, which is probably the best review that game ever got." |
| 108 | ** During his video on ''Terrawars: NY Invasion'', he at one point proclaims, with shock and disgust, that the game's sewer level is by far the best one in the game. He elaborates that while it does use all the classic annoying sewer level design tropes, those tropes come off as a breath of fresh air in a game where most of the levels are barely designed at all. |
| 109 | * DancingBear:[[invoked]] |
| 110 | ** He takes this view of ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'', noting that the main appeal to the game is its extreme level of technical sophistication for a game released on the same engine as the original ''Doom'', with things like horizontally-moving sectors, parallax scrolling, and a class system, while the actual "game" part is a slog. |
| 111 | ** He brings this up with ''VideoGame/ChasmTheRift'', noting that while the game is a rather good shooter on its own merits, the real intrigue to it is that it manages to pull off ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}''-level visuals despite running in a 2.5D engine--to the point that the only way to tell it's not true 3D is to realize that all the levels are suspiciously lacking in verticality. |
| 112 | * DartboardOfHate: His old cell had one with Randy Pitchford's face on it. |
| 113 | * DisappointedInYou: He has this reaction in ''Pro [[VideoGame/Postal4NoRegerts Postal 4]] - Friday'' when he learns of The Sister's existence and how The Dude got married to The Bitch over her. |
| 114 | -->'''Civvie:''' We're just going to pretend that this character existed this whole time and that The Dude married the other sister instead? Dude, you are really fucking your life up, I am disappointed in you. |
| 115 | * DownTheDrain: It's fair to say Civvie isn't a big fan of sewer levels. Look at RunningGag below. |
| 116 | * DramaticThunder: In the ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}} II'' video, anytime he says Creator/{{Activision}}'s name, lightning appears with the sound of a thunderclap. |
| 117 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: At the beginning of the ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' video, Cancer Mouse is crushed to death by a trap that Civvie set. However, due to some time-travelling shenanigans on [=H4MM3R=]'s part, he's alive again and as [[DoubleMeaning toxic]] as ever. |
| 118 | * EarlyGameHell: |
| 119 | ** Insofar as the first level of Doom's fourth episode can be considered such, playing on Hell Beneath on Ultra Violence gave Civvie a really hard time thanks to a cramped layout, dozens of shotgunners, a good few Barons of Hell and barely any healing items. But the grand prize goes to, as Civvie shows, ''Plutonia Experiment'''s first level, Congo. There, the player is immediately surrounded by shotgunners at the start, the next room has chaingunners ready to perforate the player, there are Revenants and Mancubi littered about the place and the moment the player fires a shot near the chaingunners in the aforementioned room, [[OhCrap it alerts the Arch-Vile]]. Yeah, as Civvie points out, ''Plutonia'' is for experienced Doomers looking for something new, and Congo shows it will start by lighting a fire right under the player's ass. |
| 120 | ** ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' is also an example of this. As Civvie points out, it's much harder than [[VideoGame/Doom2016 its predecessor]], and until you get some upgrades and get into the flow of the combat it will absolutely wipe the floor with you in harder difficulties. |
| 121 | --->'''Civvie:''' We all said Doom 2016 was unbalanced and too easy, and now we're paying for it. |
| 122 | ** He argues that much of the reason that ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'' has such a bad reputation is that most of its terrible cramped dark levels and weapons that kill the player more than the enemy are located in the first episode. Past that point, the level design opens up considerably and the weapons become much more generally usable. |
| 123 | * ElaborateUnderGroundBase: The titular Dungeon, which comes off as an [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-style]] laboratory/prison. |
| 124 | * EldritchAbomination: |
| 125 | ** The demon spawned from the stone of Sala'Kan'Tar that possessed Civvie's computer is this. Its mere presence alone began to infect Civvie's room with some sort of [[MeatMoss unidentifiable flesh muck.]] By the ''Daikatana'' episode, it absorbed enough of the game's power to take form and menace humanity... only to be nullified by the latent good spirit of Creator/JohnRomero hidden in the strands of hair Civvie somehow had. And then it gets neutralized by [=AX3=]'s flamethrower. |
| 126 | ** The Steamboat Wendigo is a part-flesh part-mechanical all demonic nightmare with the head of Mickey Mouse, and a stomach containing the tortured souls of all the properties Disney has bought. It appears briefly in the ''Dark Forces'' review where Katie's use of a MIDI version of the ''Star Wars'' theme briefly rouses its attention before Civvie implores her to stop. As of ''Daikatana'' it has been subdued and contained in a sub-basement level along with the aforementioned possessed PC and ''William Shatner's Tekwar''. |
| 127 | ** During the ''VideoGame/EvilDeadRegeneration'' video, ''something'' has started to affect the DSC. Whatever it is, it's clearly not good, and the only way to stave off its effects is a complicated ritual involving red candles and blood (preferably human). |
| 128 | * ElectricTorture: Civvie has a number of electrical nodes implanted in various parts of his body. If he doesn't do as he's told or gets out of line, they get fired up. |
| 129 | * EveryoneHasStandards: While it's unclear whether or not Civvie has committed any serious crimes (even if he [[spoiler: mentioned he committed homicide in [[https://youtu.be/jcuBwXFk5lM?t=646 his Blood 2 video]]]]), he openly objects to violence against children in his ''VideoGame/ShogoMobileArmorDivision'' review. |
| 130 | ** He also has a soft spot for dogs as shown in his ''Postal'' reviews and dislikes seeing them hurt. |
| 131 | ** He's genuinely disturbed by the entire Hive section of ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever''. ''Especially'' at Duke's nonchalant response to the whole thing. |
| 132 | ** To a lesser degree, he seems a bit put off by the treatment of the women in ''3D'', finding it rather creepy and out-of-place (though not nearly as explicitly bad as it'd get in ''Forever''). He also notes some irritation at the fact that the level designers had an odd habit of putting captured women in places where they're almost ''guaranteed'' to die horribly, such as next to explosives or in front of enemies with rapid-fire ranged attacks. |
| 133 | ** [=H4MM3R=] gets a moment of this in the introduction to the ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' 2013 reboot video; Civvie's offhand comment that he doesn't mind a Toys For Tots child dying for the sake of him receiving a Christmas present provokes a blunt response of "[[WhatTheHellHero what the fuck, Civvie?]]". Civvie retorts that [=H4MM3R=] has Civvie's brain, basically, [[HypocriticalHumor so he was likely thinking the same thing.]] |
| 134 | * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: |
| 135 | ** The oft-mentioned but never-seen Cold Room, a punishment often used on or to threaten Civvie and other inmates. As his review of ''VideoGame/{{Kreed}}'' reveals, it is indeed simply a room that is incredibly cold. |
| 136 | ** On ''VideoGame/AmidEvil'': |
| 137 | --->'''Civvie:''' This is the Painmaster. It's a master of pain. |
| 138 | * ExactWords: Civvie compliments ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000Boltgun'''s Servo Skull (a flying skull that gives him tips, commentary, and calculates the probability of plans being successful), saying that he wants one of his own, except not with a human skull attached. He gets exactly what he wants: enter stage right, the dildocopter, a flying assistant that doesn't have a human skull attached. Civvie proclaims his hatred of everyone upon seeing the thing. |
| 139 | -->'''Dildocopter''': "Probability of usefulness: 12%." |
| 140 | * FairForItsDay: Cancer Mouse attempts to have this trope invoked in relation to one of the many homophobic jokes in ''Corkscrew Rules'', an intentionally-offensive Russian ''Postal 2'' expansion. It came out in 2005. |
| 141 | * FakeDifficulty: His main reason for disliking ''[[VideoGame/FinalDoom TNT: Evilution]]'': he believes that the expansion as a whole doesn't understand how to properly use the game's enemy roster, in favor of simply scattering low-tier enemies ''en masse'' throughout very large levels. Rather than making the game challenging, he argues that this makes the game a monotonous form of hard, as most of these enemies force the player to take damage but at the same time don't provoke any strategy beyond "shoot the hordes of hitscanners". |
| 142 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in ''Petty Thief #3'', Civvie outlines that he has a very specific fear of turning a corner and encountering a "weird metal baby", which might seem like a weirdly unique thing to be afraid of to non-''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' fans. Six ''Thief'' episodes later, at the end of ''Petty Thief: The Metal Age #4'', Civvie encounters the Mechanical Cherub, which is exactly a weird metal baby, and gets freaked out by it. |
| 143 | * FreakOut: |
| 144 | ** Happens occasionally when he finds a glitch or some other issue so bad, so blatant, that words fail him. For example, in his ''VideoGame/HuntDownTheFreeman'' video when he finds out the path he's supposed to take is blocked by an invisible wall, or in the second part of his ''VideoGame/BloodIITheChosen'' series when he finally acquires the Napalm Launcher (one of the most devastating weapons in the first game) only to see it has been nerfed to oblivion. Expect a cavalcade of edited Gordon Ramsay shouting and swearing whenever this happens. |
| 145 | --->'''Civvie''' (In said ''Hunt Down The Freeman'' video): [[BlatantLies I'm not gonna freak out about this. I'm not...]] |
| 146 | ** The video on the ''VideoGame/Postal2'' GameMod ''Eternal Damnation'' has Civvie suffering one bad enough to require medication, after a sequence of events that involve a CrappyCarnival, a [[{{Fanservice}} fully naked]] [[SuccubiAndIncubi Succubus]], a train crash, [[DownTheDrain a sewer level]], various game glitches, and [[Film/SawI Jigsaw]] Gary Coleman attacking him with a [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]]. |
| 147 | --->'''Civvie:''' Medication Time! Medication Time... (25MG THORAZINE ADMINISTERED) |
| 148 | ** Another one briefly occurs in ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' after he witnesses the infamous "Looks like you're... fucked." scene. Not long after Duke ranted about how the aliens are gonna pay for stealing the girls again. |
| 149 | ** After losing his shit over a detail in Unreal 2 previously, the footage cuts to footage taken at a later date with a note that he was abruptly sedated. After something he finds even ''more'' mind-bogglingly awful to deal with comes up, the same thing happens, with the note that he ''volunteered'' for the sedation this time. |
| 150 | ** Has a couple in his ''Postal 4'' video, one when he discovers that ''he'' is the drug dealer in town, and another when he comes across the Sewer Count graffiti in the sewers, with its' count matching his own. |
| 151 | * FreezeFrameBonus: During the review of ''Film/TheCrowWickedPrayer,'' Civvie lumps in ''Film/TheHumanCentipede 2'' with the Direct-To-Video Disney sequels as examples of franchises overstaying their welcome. |
| 152 | * FunnyBackgroundEvent: |
| 153 | ** In the skit at the end of the ''Unreal'' episode, one of the prison cells in the background has an alien staring blankly out from it. |
| 154 | ** When Civvie volunteers for an electrical shock during the ''Blake Stone'' episode, you can see [[VideoGame/{{Hexen}} an Ettin]] in the cell for CV-10, [[{{Wallbonking}} attempting to pathfind against the forcefield and trying to reach Civvie]]. |
| 155 | * FunWithAcronyms: |
| 156 | ** The first of Civvie's shorts is titled "Platform/{{TIKTOK}} N' [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment TORMENT]]", or "TNT", which just so happens to be [[VideoGame/FinalDoom the subject matter of his shorts]]. |
| 157 | ** [=TikTok=]'s "Clown" TTS narrator is apparently short for "Creative Learning Operations Warden Network". |
| 158 | --->'''Civvie:''' "[[LampshadeHanging That acronym is more tortured than I am!]]" |
| 159 | * GagCensor: The Shrapnel City episode of his ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'' series features the ending audio snippet where Duke has sex. Black censor bars appear on the still image onscreen in an attempt to hide the audio, until the Youtube subtitles get censored as well. |
| 160 | * GenreTurningPoint: [[invoked]]His opinion of ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' and ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' is that they changed the FPS genre to the point of redefinition: |
| 161 | -->'''Civvie:''' Valve's first game was ''Half Life''. I think I once said in one of those old videos that may or may not share the current timeline, I don't know, that ''Doom'' was the ''Film/CitizenKane'' of video games, a claim I would like to walk back if I ever made it in the first place. Doom is more like the technical cinematic breakthroughs of the 1910s, like ''[[Film/{{TheBirthOfANation|1915}} Birth of a Nation]]''. Except instead of all [[ValuesDissonance the… Oh no…]] Instead of all [[TheKlan that]], it's wholesome demon-fighting. ''Half-Life'' is closer to the ''Citizen Kane'' of gaming. It is a critical mass, a point of no return. Where narrative in video games was changed forever. |
| 162 | * GoodBadBug: His buggy version of ''A Very Postal Christmas'' randomly gave him ''over 100,000 crack pipes''. Probably explains why his ''Postal 4'' character is selling them for only $10 a pop. [[invoked]] |
| 163 | * GoddamnedBats: [[invoked]]A RunningGag in Civvie's ''Franchise/{{Doom}}'' videos is his strong annoyance at having to deal with Lost Souls, especially when they get in the way and impede his progress. Needless to say, he was not happy when the second game introduced Pain Elementals. |
| 164 | * GoryDiscretionShot: An audio version: Whenever Civvie transgresses on whatever his jailors consider punishable, this usually results in the sound of an electrode charging up, then cut to the next shot before it discharges. |
| 165 | * GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The facility where Civvie is held is overseen by "Department of Special Corrections". |
| 166 | * GreaterScopeParagon: What Civvie can only begin to describe Creator/JohnCarmack as. Among [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm many other things]]. |
| 167 | * GroinAttack: In addition to most other electrical body-based forms of torture, Civvie apparently has nodes in his testes too. [=AX3=] and [=H4MM3R=] use these in the video for ''VideoGame/XMenTheRavagesOfApocalypse'', when Civvie refuses to keep playing due to a bug in the source port he uses [[GameBreakingBug despawning a plot-critical weapon piece, then taking the ones he had away when he dies and reloads to try to get it to spawn.]] |
| 168 | -->'''Civvie:''' So what now? So I'm supposed to not finish the game? That's not an option! Well, okay, it IS an option, but not for me.\ |
| 169 | '''[=H4MM3R=]:''' ''Finish the game, CV-11.''\ |
| 170 | '''Civvie:''' I can't, the game isn't gonna let me.\ |
| 171 | '''[=AX3=]:''' ''Initializing testicular nodes.''\ |
| 172 | '''Civvie:''' Look, it's not my fault-\ |
| 173 | '''[=AX3=]:''' ''Charging testicular nodes.''\ |
| 174 | '''[=H4MM3R=]:''' ''We're gonna shock your balls off, boy.''\ |
| 175 | '''Civvie:''' ...off?\ |
| 176 | ''One engine switch, three replayed levels, and several hours of weeping later...''\ |
| 177 | '''Civvie:''' So I switched to another ''Quake'' source port and started the whole thing over again because even though this is a bad game, it's not as bad as internal ball-tasing. |
| 178 | * HanlonsRazor: |
| 179 | ** Downplayed in regards to ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior1997'', which features an enemy type whose name is an ethnic slur, perving on anime characters [[YoungerThanTheyLook in their early teens]], and Lo Wang's... [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish particular speech style.]] He argues that the programmers of ''Shadow Warrior'' were [[InnocentlyInsensitive immature dumbasses messing with stuff they didn't research]] in a period where awareness of Asian sensitivity was rather low, rather than genuinely hateful-- it's hard to take a serious message from a game where the main character is a ninja with a nuke launcher. On the other hand, he finds most of Lo Wang's dialogue genuinely cringeworthy and doesn't blame anyone for disliking him and turning his speech off. |
| 180 | ** Acknowledged in his video on ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', where he claims he doesn't like ''Film/TheLastJedi'', but shuts down Cancer Mouse's attempts to steer the discussion towards politics or agendas by claiming it was just an incompetently-made corporate product, and Disney has no greater agenda than accumulating money. |
| 181 | * HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: The price of ''VideoGame/PerilousWarp'' is brought up a number of times as a point of reference for the cost of other things. In the ''VideoGame/{{Zortch}}'' episode he uses it to underscore just how cheap ''Zortch'' is for its quality, while in ''Blind VideoGame/{{STALKER}} #4'' Civvie illustrates the declining value of the Russian Ruble with it. |
| 182 | * {{Hitscan}}: Civvie usually despises enemies that use this attack type, especially if they have a rapid-fire weapon. |
| 183 | * HopeSpot: In the opening of the ''VideoGame/Prey2006'' video, Civvie gets told he's being moved into the "general population", which he naturally assumes means that he's being set free. A laser fence then appears and traps him within his new cell, with an outside shot revealing that the "general population" actually refers to the massive corridor of cells within the facility. |
| 184 | * HostilityOnTheSet: InUniverse, Civvie hates his producers/{{wardens|AreEvil}} [=AX3=] and [=H4MM3R=], who in turn inflict a variety of tortures onto him like electrocution, [[EyeScream "ocular perforation"]], and playing awful games. This is also Civvie's relationship with video editor Katie as the show has gone on, with the two actively digging at each other into the video, like Civvie forcing Katie to watch ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' to capture Gordon Ramsey clips, or Katie tricking Civvie into quoting Creator/MontyPython and getting him tortured for it. |
| 185 | * HurlItIntoTheSun: In the ''VideoGame/{{Zortch}}'' episode Civvie speculates that this is what you do to Flemoids; while ''Chex Quest'' insists that you're merely "[[NeverSayDie Zorching]]" them back to their home planet, Civvie points out that "you could be teleporting them to the upper atmosphere of their planet for all you know". Complete with a graphic of a Flemoid [[ExplosiveDecompression exploding in the vacuum of outer space]]. |
| 186 | * HypocriticalHumor: |
| 187 | ** In the "A Very Postal Christmas" mod for ''VideoGame/Postal2'' the Dude sends a reply letter as Santa mocking the kid's grammar, even though the Dude's grammar isn't much better. |
| 188 | --->'''Postal Dude:''' Dear Billie,\ |
| 189 | nice spelling, Your on your way to A career in trash disposal.\ |
| 190 | '''Civvie:''' Hey, how about if you're gonna criticize a child's spelling errors, use the correct form of "you're."\ |
| 191 | '''Postal Dude:''' (continued) How about I seand you a Fucking dictionary so you can learn to read and wright? I'm giveing your older brother the space ranger jet, He can spell!\ |
| 192 | Santa...\ |
| 193 | PS: Tell [[IBangedYourMom your mom to call me big Dady!]] |
| 194 | ** Civvie in his "Pro Doom: The Plutonia Experiment" video: |
| 195 | --->"I remember the first time playing as a wee lad and thinking, what the fuck is this? I was a vulgar child, but I grew out of that shit." |
| 196 | ** Civvie's reaction to the [[GainaxEnding ending]] of ''Kreed.'' |
| 197 | --->"That's a bold artistic choice, to not have an ending!"\ |
| 198 | [Credits roll] |
| 199 | * InstantlyProvenWrong: From his first blind ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' video: |
| 200 | -->"I fear nothing when I've got a shotgun." ''bloodsucker appears'' "Jesus Christ what is that!" |
| 201 | * ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: While he doesn't react to anything else the Bitch says about the Dude at the end of ''Postal 2: Paradise Lost'', he takes great offence to her saying the Dude can't complete a simple list of chores. |
| 202 | -->"I completed that list so hard the fuckin' world ended, and I still found time to fight the war on terror!" |
| 203 | * JesusWasWayCool: Jesus in "Christmas Grabbag 2" is depicted as a fellow inmate, speaking like a TotallyRadical surfer-dude, hoverboarding on a crucifix, and giving Civvie a Christmas game (albeit a pretty bad one). His dad says he can't do an exorcism until he gets his GED. |
| 204 | * LamePunReaction: |
| 205 | ** [=AX3=] usually tolerates Civvie's humor, but has a strict limit on puns. If Civvie makes a particularly horrible pun, expect [=AX3=] to vocalize the following phrase before firing up the 'nodes. It's also worth noting how [=AX3=] often sounds irritated when saying said line. |
| 206 | --->'''[=AX3=]:''' Actionable pun detected. |
| 207 | ** In the ''Alpha Prime'' video, Civvie wields a hammer while activating BulletTime and promptly cracks a [[Music/MCHammer "hammer time"]] pun. [=AX3=] shocks him, as usual, but Civvie then proceeds to also cue [=H4MM3R=] into the joke. [=H4MM3R=] verbally tears Civvie a new one, as he (implicitly) breaks one of Civvie's bones with a hammer. |
| 208 | ** The lamest pun reaction yet comes in the ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' video. While reviewing the game's history, Civvie notes that the main voice actor is named "Todd Susman. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Todd]]. [[Memes/AmongUs Sus]]man." Less than 10 seconds later, his noticing that the game isn't on Platform/{{Steam}}, only on Platform/GogDotCom leads to a pun that it's "a bit Todd Susman if you ask me". [=AX3=] considers this a level 10 actionable pun, the most severe so far at the video's release, and for this Civvie is immediately sent to the Clown room. Because the first time the Clown Room was used was when Civvie tried to nuke the DOSC Nutraloaf factory, this implicitly means that [=AX3=] considers bad ''Among Us'' jokes to be [[DisproportionateRetribution as bad as nuclear mass homicide]]. |
| 209 | ** By the ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein2009'' review, the pun detection system has been upgraded to an implant put onto Civvie's arm by [=AX3=], who's seen working on the implant mid-video. Civvie, after beating the Farm level, naturally makes a pun about the Nazis "buying the farm." Cue the implant shocking him and [=AX3=] declaring the system a success. |
| 210 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: As the narrative is about Civvie as a videogame video essayist, he repeatedly does this, such as his addressing the viewer at times and remarking that long segments that specifically concern his imprisonment at the [=DoSC=] is deliberately placed for the end of the videos so as to not bore the audience who isn't interested in that part. |
| 211 | * Letters2Numbers: The CV in "CV-11" is actually just Roman numerals for 105. You can see this in the outro scene for some videos, showing the DOSC prison, and where his neighbors on the floors above and below him are numbered CIV-11 and CVI-11. |
| 212 | * MadnessMantra: In his ''Kreed'' review: "See, a lot of these areas are copied and pasted (whole hallways and rooms) so it gets a little confusing..." He even throws a ''Film/TheShining'' gag with that sentence for good measure. |
| 213 | ** It sticks, too. He reuses the same sentence, said in the same tone, whenever the same thing happens in other games from then onwards. |
| 214 | * ManipulativeEditing: Done as a joke in his ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'' review, his editor making it seem like he's saying something that he's not in response to Civvie asking her to carefully edit the blood to be green to make sure it doesn't get flagged on Platform/{{YouTube}}. |
| 215 | * MajorInjuryUnderreaction: [[Film/{{Hellraiser}} Pinhead]] forces a hook through Civvie's hand... but Civvie's already been through tons worse so not only is the hook nothing to him, it's an outright ''break.'' |
| 216 | * MondegreenGag: In the ''VideoGame/SuperSeducer'' video, Richard asks a girl what she does and says she looks "a bit artistic," but because of his thick British accent, Civvie thinks he is saying "autistic." |
| 217 | -->"Well that's not nice. This isn't Website/FourChan. We prefer to say 'on the spectrum'." |
| 218 | * MidBattleTeaBreak: During his playthrough of the final dungeon in ''VideoGame/UnrealI'', there's an edited montage of all the places Civvie fights in... and in the middle of all of it, Civvie angrily screaming that he's using the corpse of a Skaarj to grow his Nali healing fruit. Complete with him watching the plant grow, very slowly. |
| 219 | * MindScrew: At the end of the ''Geist'' review, [=H4MMER=] claims that the subplot regarding Civvie being possessed by a Demon from the ''Evil Dead Regeneration'' review to the ''Hexen'' review was actually an alternate timeline all along...despite the fact that those episodes happened ''after'' the timeline reset in the ''Duke Nukem Forever'' video, ''and'' that Civvie actually brought the whole plotline up back in the ''Unreal'' review. Civvie, naturally, is completely confused by this, but [=H4MMER=] retorts that he's in no position to question it considering he had half his brain removed. |
| 220 | * MoonLogicPuzzle: Discussed when he played ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic''. He highlights just how obtuse and highly specific most of the progression can be, and that it's ''intentionally'' so as a result of Douglas Adams's influence. |
| 221 | * MotorMouth: Not as much as some examples, but Civvie speaks at an above-average tempo. |
| 222 | * {{MST}}: This web show is about critically dissecting games, interspersed with gameplay and skits at the Department of Special Corrections. |
| 223 | * MundaneSolution: So how does Civvie deal with a cursed unlicensed ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'' NES game? He rats the thing out to Nintendo who [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope C&D the thing out of Civvie's sight.]] |
| 224 | * MurderSimulators: Mentions that blaming the budding video games industry for violent actions was easier than doing so for the modern-day games industry and addressing actual social problems. |
| 225 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: In the ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' video: |
| 226 | -->'''Civvie:''' [Raven Software was] maybe not the most financially successful, but responsible for some damn fine games. And VideoGame/{{Hexen}}. |
| 227 | * NegatedMomentOfAwesome: In some internet review shows, when a host does battle with the villain they end up acquitting themselves passably or coming off as a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass. In the closing scenes of his ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' review, Civvie [[spoiler: faces off against the shadow demons while [=H4MMER=] goes back to the past. Civvie stays with the intent of going down in a blaze of glory. He doesn't even last a second before he's horrifically devoured off-screen. After all, he's a malnourished and mistreated unarmed man going up against EldritchAbominations, just because he's the host does not make him an exception.]] |
| 228 | * {{Newspeak}}: Used heavily in his ''TNT: Evilution'' series, as a means of mocking [=TikTok=]'s suppression of certain words in its algorithm and its users coming up with odd workarounds. For instance, along with the typical use of "unalive" to mean "dead" or "kill", he at one point claims to "un-like" a level. |
| 229 | * NoodleIncident: |
| 230 | ** In the ''Island Peril'' video, after a series of questions from [=AX3=] and [=H4MMER=] that got [[BreadMilkEggsSquick strange at the end]]: |
| 231 | --->'''[=H4MMER=]:''' Where's the stolen hydrogen bomb?\ |
| 232 | '''Civvie:''' I didn't steal a ''[[FalseReassurance hydrogen]]'' bomb. |
| 233 | ** At one point, Civvie grumbles that his sister's wedding was targeted by a drone strike. No further context is provided. |
| 234 | * NotBad: In his video on the first ''Duke Nukem'' expansion, he admits that "Randy Pitchford... did a good job", and then shudders. |
| 235 | * NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In his ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'' video, he swears he isn't making up that Creator/JohnCarmack wrote a program that logged how much time Creator/JohnRomero spent playing deathmatch games instead of working. |
| 236 | * NukeEm: Civvie keeps a counter of all nuclear warheads he uses. This started in his "[[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior1997 Pro Wang]]" series and has continued in his other videos. |
| 237 | * ObviouslyEvil: |
| 238 | ** Whenever Mikiko says anything menacing in ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}},'' a timer pops up counting down the gameplay time until she betrays Hiro. |
| 239 | ** In ''Pro VideoGame/Doom3'', Civvie snarks about how unsubtle [[MadScientist Dr. Betruger]] is in his villainy, nicknaming him [[Franchise/StarWars Palpatine]] due to their similar appearances and mannerisms. |
| 240 | * OddlySmallOrganization: The Department of Special Corrections is a massive underground United States-funded prison complex with hundreds of prisoners within its walls, wardens to manage all these homicidal prisoners, other staff for stuff like cooking Nutraloaf, and even [[ArtifactCollectionAgency a vault where they keep all the cursed objects from throughout the show]]. You can count the number of main characters with a single hand, and you won't need many more if you also include those with one-off or scattered appearances. |
| 241 | * OneSteveLimit: |
| 242 | ** In his ''VideoGame/HuntDownTheFreeman'' review, he says that Gordon Ramsay (see RunningGag) is the only Gordon we'll see in that video since Gordon Freeman is nowhere to be found in that game. Subverted when Civvie later finds out that one of the alternate endings has not one, but ''seven'' Gordon Freemans. |
| 243 | ** In the ''VideoGame/SlayersXTerminalAftermathVenganceOfTheSlayer'' review, he happens to see a billboard for "Uncle Frank's Big Dump". As it so happens, Civvie's uncle happens to be named Frank, and the billboard's appearance is enough to summon his power (even if they're not the same character). |
| 244 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: Discussed in the ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}: Cryptic Passage'' video where Cancer Mouse appears and begins to argue during an ad break about how ''Film/TheLastJedi'' proves "how Hollywood is trying to brainwash men into falling for strong women," and Civvie retorts, "I told you!... It's always about the fucking money! I'm sick of hearing about ''Franchise/StarWars!"'' |
| 245 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: He punctuates his disappointment in ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}: Fresh Supply'''s original release by refraining from using the Gordon Ramsey "It's fucking raw" clip that he usually uses for jank or bugs. |
| 246 | ** Civvie prefaces the section for ''Phantom Fury'' in his 3D Realms Vibe Check by completely breaking {{Kayfabe}} to explain the difficulties of conveying intent when playing as a character that doesn't want to be hosting the show he's in, to point out how he really doesn't like [[CausticCritic ragging on games that aren't entertainingly bad]], and to make clear that his bile towards the game comes from ''genuine'' frustration towards Slipgate Ironworks and the mismangement of 3D Realms. |
| 247 | * OutOfHolidayEpisode: Civvie's episodes on ''VideoGame/NecroVision'' and ''VideoGame/{{Geist}}'' are Christmas themed, with Civvie being detained in a tundra rather than the usual DOSC cell. They were published in October. |
| 248 | * OverlyLongGag: |
| 249 | ** As part of his intro to ''Hexen II'''s expansion pack, Civvie shows the pack's intro cutscene, but with a bunch of characters that weren't actually part of it added in. |
| 250 | --->'''[=AX3=]'s narration:''' "Eidolon, the last of the Serpent Riders, is defeated by four unlikely companions. The paladin. The assassin. The crusader. The necromancer. [[ArtifactMook The Ettin]]. [[VideoGame/QuakeII The Makron]]. [[Film/DollarsTrilogy The man with no name]]. Literature/TheInvisibleMan. [[RunningGag The grease man]]. The 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. Music/BruceSpringsteen and the E-Street Band. [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos The black goat of the woods with 1000 young]]." |
| 251 | ** The end of the video for ''VideoGame/SlayersXTerminalAftermathVenganceOfTheSlayer'' has Civvie ask a long, drawn-out barrage of questions about the ''Slayers X'' setting. He doesn't even let the credits music cut him off, and it lasts a good full minute in total. |
| 252 | * OverusedRunningGag: |
| 253 | ** In-universe Civvie is forbidden from using Gordon Ramsey's "It's fucking raw" clip after [[invoked]][[ObviousBeta peppering it]] all over his review of ''[[VideoGame/{{Blood}} Blood II]]''. Daring to do so anyway results in immediate punishment, usually electrocution. Similar bans are in place for Creator/MontyPython references and [[IncrediblyLamePun bad puns]]. |
| 254 | ** In-character, Civvie himself hates the Sewer Count running gag. If whatever game he's playing {{Shoutout}}s ''Civvie's Dungeon'' by referencing the Sewer Count, he's not going to be happy about it, and depending on how he feels, Sewer Count references will incur additional points to the Sewer Count. |
| 255 | * PanopticonOfSurveillance: Civvie's new jail cell starting with the ''Prey'' video features one of these: the prison cells are observed by a tall, lit-up tower with windows facing every direction, but the people inside just barely visible. |
| 256 | * PetTheDog: |
| 257 | ** Has expressed a distaste for making videos based on {{Game Mod}}s, mainly because he doesn't want to be harsh toward amateur developers who made and released their work without pay. He'd end up breaking this rule specifically to heap praise on the ''Death Wish'' mod for Blood. |
| 258 | ** He's quick to point out when a game suffered from ExecutiveMeddling, such as ''VideoGame/BloodIITheChosen'' being shoved out the door in an [[invoked]]ObviousBeta state or Marvel forcing ''VideoGame/XMenTheRavagesOfApocalypse'' to be ChristmasRushed. In these cases, his jabs against the developers are half-hearted while his real anger is directed toward the publishers. [[invoked]] |
| 259 | ** Notably, this was enough to overwhelm his traditional loathing of Capstone, with him refusing to review ''Corridor 8: Galactic Wars'', an unreleased game that had an early build leak online. The build in question was so unfinished that it was using ''Doom'' sprites and the ''Duke Nukem 3D'' menu as placeholders. |
| 260 | ** Civvie is quick to pull the trigger on his "Sewer Count" RunningGag due to his distaste for the level archetype. But when ''Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project'' subverts the sewer level trope by leading into a well-made abandoned subway level, Civvie is impressed enough by the execution to take one off of the tally while complementing the devs. |
| 261 | * PolishedPort: [[invoked]]Civvie's opinion on ''Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition''. He believes that every ''ROTT'' fan will want this port, it vastly exceeds his expectation for what a ''ROTT'' port should have strived for, and his video title admits that he's shilling the game. |
| 262 | * RefusedTheCall: Civvie doesn't wanna get in more trouble than he's already in and he doesn't want anything detracting from reviews, so when a classic internet reviewer subplot tries to start up, he does as much as he can to distance himself from it. In particular, when [=H4MM3R=]'s son from the future tries to warn him about Uncle Frank's plague in his ''Future Shock[=/=]Skynet'' review, Civvie mistakes him for inviting him on an adventure to stop Todd Howard from making [[VideoGame/Fallout76 a bad game]], he refuses, tells the thing to "go back to whatever Website/ChannelAwesome production [he] came from" and has [=H4MM3R=] destroy him. |
| 263 | * RelaxOVision: After beating ''[[VideoGame/FinalDoom The Plutonia Experiment]],'' the ending text states that Hell has gone back to "[[AccidentalInnuendo pounding bad dead folks instead of good live ones.]]" Civvie asks Katie for a pic of a demon banging UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Katie instead posts a graphic of some cute kittens with the caption "[[NoJustNoReaction NO. NO. NO. NO]]. [[SickAndWrong NO. NO. NO.]]" Civvie concedes.[[invoked]] |
| 264 | * RobotBuddy: Played with, with his cell guards, [=AX3=] and [=H4MMER=]. While both have their moments of playing along with Civvie's gags, [=AX3=] is neutral to the whole ordeal, and [=H4MMER=] remains outright antagonistic whenever he can reasonably get away with it. |
| 265 | * RoguesGallery: According to the ''VideoGame/Prey2006'' video, Creator/{{Bethesda}}, Creator/ElectronicArts, [[Creator/GearboxSoftware Randy Pitchford]], [[Creator/TakeTwoInteractive 2KGames]], Capstone, and Literature/MaryPoppins form this. Indeed, Civvie 11 frequently takes potshots at them for [[ExecutiveMeddling bad management of their titles]]. Except for Mary Poppins, for whom it's unclear why he detests her.[[invoked]] |
| 266 | * RunningGag: |
| 267 | ** The Sewer Level counter, which increases for each one Civvie comes across. Though it isn't exactly linear, with exceptionally bad levels (and on rare occasions, levels that stand out as more sewer even if they aren't necessarily bad by sewer level standards, such as Hrot's sewage treatment plant) adding more to the counter. [[spoiler:The counter breaks after the abysmal sewer level in ''Redneck Rampage'' [[RunningGagged and briefly disappeared]]...until "Realms Deep Roundup", when Civvie notices [[ShoutOut a "Does this sewer count?" graffiti tag]] during the sewer level from ''White Hell'', which causes it to [[RiseFromYourGrave rise from its grave]].]] There exist other counters for various other recurring things that happen on the show: |
| 268 | *** The amount of [[NukeEm nuclear warheads]] he has fired in games. This practice started with his playthrough of [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior1997 the original Shadow Warrior]], hence why the counter is accompanied by a Lo Wang voice clip whenever it makes an appearance. |
| 269 | *** An additional counter, introduced in his ''VideoGame/DarkForces'' review is the "Stupid ''Franchise/StarWars'' Names" which is for exactly that: Star Wars names he finds to be just plain silly. Pic from ''VideoGame/JediKnight'' raises it once on his own, but then it shoots up by five when Civvie reveals the guy's full name is Picaroon C. Boodle, and that his species is "Kowakian monkey-lizard." |
| 270 | ---->'''Civvie:''' Go home, ''Star Wars'', you're ''drunk.'' |
| 271 | *** If Creator/GianniMatragrano makes an appearance, that'll increment the uncommonly-seen "Gianni Counter". |
| 272 | ** Clips of Creator/GordonRamsay shouting "It's fucking raw!" from ''Series/HellsKitchen'', for the times he comes across a glitch or bug that could have easily been fixed if the game got a few more months of development time. Used heavily in his ''VideoGame/BloodIITheChosen'' and ''VideoGame/HuntDownTheFreeman'' reviews. |
| 273 | ** Whenever a really awkwardly-done model comes around, it's met with a clip of Beetlejuice shouting "Nice fuckin' model!" and honking his crotch, sometimes skipping right to the honking. |
| 274 | *** Taken up to eleven in his ''Duke Nukem Forever'' review - when he shows the awfulness of Duke's jumping animation, [[spoiler: it then goes into the beginning of White Zombie's "More Human Than Human," with the honks timed to the music itself.]] |
| 275 | ** Whenever Civvie takes a cheap shot at someone, like William Shatner in his ''[=TekWar=]'' review, or Creator/JohnRomero, a little Steam Achievement-looking icon pops up in the bottom right corner with the person he's talking about with the title "Cheap Shot". |
| 276 | ** When Civvie mentions Creator/JohnCarmack, he refers to Carmack by such titles as "sentient galaxy brain meme," "hyper-advanced artificial intelligence," "death-frightening psion capable of seeing through the illusionary world before our eyes", "benevolent architect of the post-[[TheSingularity singularity]] simulation", " Time displaced neural net processor [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots covered in what the top military scientists in the 1960s could pass for human tissue]]", "Earth-stranded [[VideoGame/HalfLife1 Nihilanth]]", "[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey monolith]] constructor", and "[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking juvenile delinquent]]."[[note]]This is accompanied by a true story of how Carmack broke into a school using [[KillItWithFire thermite]] to steal computers at ''14 years old''.[[/note]] |
| 277 | ** Similarly in videos whenever Randy Pitchford is brought up, Civvie will mention that he is greasy. The ''Pro Nukem [=3D=] - Alien World Order'' video has him rapid-fire a bunch of Randy grease jokes when the developers of the game mention being able to say anything about him and get away with it. |
| 278 | ** Speaking of Randy, anytime Civvie utters the phrase "badass," an image from [[https://twitter.com/duvalmagic/status/723544994062196737?s=21 one of Randy Pitchford's tweets]] of him wearing sunglasses that say "BAD ASS" on them flashes on-screen. |
| 279 | ** Also, any time something happens in ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'' that's so blatantly buggy or unfinished, he inserts the time Randy said that the game "[[BlatantLies is like a 7, 7 and a half]]". |
| 280 | ** Within the video for the video game adaptation ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'', Civvie asks Katie the editor to find a way to sprinkle in as much of Cheech Marin's infamous "pussy" speech from the movie throughout. |
| 281 | ** Anytime Katie gets Civvie into trouble, expect Civvie to shout "Katie you bitch!" |
| 282 | ** Anytime in his ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' review that anyone (Civvie or otherwise) refers to the modern Doomguy as "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Doom Slayer]]", a riff from "BFG Division" fires up. |
| 283 | ** In his ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'' review, [[ObviousJudas Mikiko]] has a "Betrayal Countdown" appear above her head whenever she says something suspicious (or whenever Civvie lampshades how obviously suspicious her dialogue is).[[invoked]] |
| 284 | ** In his ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' video, any time Civvie mentions the "Big Gun", [[Music/{{ACDC}} Brian Johnson]] flashes on-screen. |
| 285 | ** Speaking of which, he dubs any of [[VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad Big John]]'s appearances with Music/{{ACDC}}'s "Big Gun". |
| 286 | ** Anytime a game made by Capstone Software shows an egregious example of bad game design, he exclaims "Capstone: [[MadLibsCatchphrase The Pinnacle of X]]." |
| 287 | ** When Civvie has to speed up gameplay footage, jump-cut over repetitive footage, or anything similar, he plays the World 5 music from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' with an "X Minutes Later" card. |
| 288 | ** The act of treating several of these as RunningGagged is itself a running gag; whenever the Department deems a particular joke or reference as overplayed, they'll start punishing him for lapsing into it, to varying degrees of acceptance or defiance. |
| 289 | --->'''[=H4MM3R=]:''' No [[Creator/MontyPython Python]]! |
| 290 | ** He has a tendency to call areas that have particularly difficult and grueling fights "hell rooms". |
| 291 | ** For ''VideoGame/{{DOOM}}'' games and wads like ''VideoGame/Doom64'' and ''VideoGame/{{Sigil}},'' Civvie will dramatically read off their edgy "[[Creator/JohnRomero Romero]]-esque" level names to metal music. |
| 292 | ** Within his video of ''VideoGame/BlakeStone'' he makes a running joke of referring to the main character each time with a different name with the structure of <common English first name> <type of rock>, such as "Nigel Basalt" and "Chad Feldspar". |
| 293 | * SanitySlippage: His ''Kreed'' (an ''extremely'' janky and buggy Russian FPS) review begins with a note from Katie: |
| 294 | -->"This video has been reconstructed from several sessions recorded before CV-11 was voluntarily escorted to the cold room. I've done my best to put it together from notes and recordings taken before his breakdown. Nine hours into the game, his notes became erratic and incomprehensible. His final message: [[AndIMustScream I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST KREED]]." |
| 295 | * SaveScumming: Generally avoided during videos, particularly the Pro series, since he finds it "dishonourable". That said, he absolutely makes exceptions for games that lose his respect due to overtly high unfair difficulty, extreme jankiness, or just not being fun to play in general. |
| 296 | * SchmuckBait: In the ''Duke Nukem Forever'' video: |
| 297 | -->'''Cancer Mouse:''' What's that?\ |
| 298 | ''[camera cuts to some censored, indescribable thing, which is clearly placed on a mousetrap]''\ |
| 299 | '''Civvie:''' Oh, that? Well, Cancer Mouse, that's a ''[rapid fire SoundEffectBleep]''. Katie, bleep some of that out, people will get super butthurt if I start making fun of ''[bleep]''. [[invoked]]\ |
| 300 | '''Cancer Mouse:''' That sounds delightful!\ |
| 301 | '''Civvie:''' I know, right? It's there. It's all yours.\ |
| 302 | '''Cancer Mouse:''' Oh! I think I'll... [[DelayedReaction that's a mousetrap]].\ |
| 303 | ''[=[=][[KansasCityShuffle cue the actual trap]]: [[DeathFromAbove a 10 ton weight that splatters Cancer Mouse into a paste]][=]=]'' |
| 304 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Civvie references this trope during ''Pro [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Plutonia Experiment]]'' where he refers to "Nope rooms," i.e. rooms where the player will open them up, see a completely unreasonable number of demons on the other side with no gain from fighting them, immediately shout "Nope!" and turn right back around. While most Doom wads have rooms with a large number of demons, ''Plutonia Experiment'' pulls not a single punch in this regard. |
| 305 | * SelfDeprecation: |
| 306 | ** In his ''Doom 64'' review: |
| 307 | --->'''Civvie:''' '2 console games in a row? What happened to you Civvie, you used to be cool.' I was never cool. |
| 308 | ** He has absolutely no problem violently murdering the character he voices in ''Postal 4'' and pissing on his corpse. |
| 309 | ** While reviewing ''TNT: Evilution'''s level Shipping/Respawning, he complains that it looks like shit. Clown responds that content doesn't need to be interesting to be suitable for consumption; Civvie replies that this is why he's allowed to make ''Thief'' videos. |
| 310 | * SelfImposedChallenge: [[invoked]] Some of his Pro Series videos include this, such as Civvie's attempt to maintain his crack addiction in ''VideoGame/Postal2'', going through all of ''Doom'' without saving (dropped when he got to Episode 4) or his attempt to spare all the babes in the first and third episodes of ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' (this last one was stymied heavily by a particular room that placed one right in the firing line of two Battlelords). |
| 311 | * {{Sequelitis}}: [[invoked]]His video on ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' at one point goes off into a rant about how the franchise has a record of this. |
| 312 | -->"You guys wanna know what pain is like? Marathon the ''Hellraiser'' movies; I ''dare'' you to find a series with worse sequels!" |
| 313 | * SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler:[=H4MMER=] attempts to send his son back in time to prevent a cataclysmic disaster at the hands of Civvie's Uncle Frank. However, because said son looks and talks like a skinless T-800, he is summarily blasted to pieces by the past [=H4MMER=]. After the cataclysmic event happens and Civvie points out how stupid it is to send a freaky skeleton-esque ''Terminator'' into the past in the middle of a government facility, [=H4MMER=] proceeds to send himself back instead to get enough of an awkward pause in the action to explain things.]] |
| 314 | * ShapedLikeItself: From his ''VideoGame/{{Cryostasis}}'' review: |
| 315 | -->'''Civvie:''' I'm using a slow World War 2 -era rifle which you reload with the speed of someone pushing a clip into a bolt-action rifle with big padded gloves on. |
| 316 | * ShooOutTheClowns: Civvie's satanic PC briefly shows up in his ''Doom Eternal'' video before Civvie shouts it out, outright saying that he's ''not'' going to have a side plot for a game he'd been so looking forward to. |
| 317 | * ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Civvie believes this firmly and indubitably, to the point that he claims in one video that a bad game can sometimes be saved by a good shotgun. When ''Doom 3'' makes the mistake of averting this, he reads it the riot act. ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' got it even worse, to the point that he even did a CallBack to the ''Doom 3'' one. |
| 318 | * ShoutOut: Civvie has a habit of spouting out pop-culture references. |
| 319 | ** During the ''Doom 64'' video, while reading the intermission text for 'Even Simpler', he segues into one of the lines from [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Rorschach's journal]] before cutting back and noting how much edgier Doomguy has become. |
| 320 | ** At one point in his ''Doom Eternal'' video, Civvie notes how the purple slime occasionally found throughout the game only slows you down, and doesn't do anything cool like [[Film/GhostbustersII animate the Statue of Liberty.]] |
| 321 | ** During his ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' review, Civvie momentarily gets teleported into an episode of ''WebVideo/RosssGameDungeon'', and earlier throws in a reference to [[WebVideo/FreemansMind Ross's most popular series.]] |
| 322 | --->'''Civvie:''' ''(after clearing trenches and blowing up a tank in "Surface Tension")'' It's not as elegant as [[Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance "Modern Major General"]], but it'll have to do. |
| 323 | ** Also in the ''Half-Life'' review, Civvie reminisces about how one of the models for the scientists was referred to by fans as "Einstein" before ''WebVideo/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware'' gave it the name "Dr. Coomer". Later on, he also mocks a HECU soldier with a familiar phrase from the series. |
| 324 | --->'''Civvie:''' ''(watching a HECU grunt die to a Barnacle)'' Look, [[VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce Adrian!]] Ropes! You can use those to get your brains eaten. |
| 325 | ** The review of ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'' is subtitled "[[Literature/RedDragon The Great Green Dragon]]" and quotes Francis Dolarhyde's "great becoming" speech. Civvie quotes the novel again when describing the Nintendo 64 controller, lampshading the Thomas Harris reference. |
| 326 | ** When rattling through conspiracy theories over the end credits of his Varginha Incident review, the last sentence he gets out before being taken down by security is, "[[Film/TrueStories Do you run out of Kleenex, paper towels, and toilet paper at the same time?]]" |
| 327 | ** With ''VideoGame/NosferatuTheWrathOfMalachi'' he comments on the odd off-tempo footstep sounds that [[Literature/{{Dune}} "at least we won't attract the worm"]]. |
| 328 | ** During ''VideoGame/CrueltySquad'' when it turns out hitmen were sent to the player character's apartment due to a clerical error, Civvie says it was because [[{{Film/Brazil}} because the form had the name "Tuttle" instead of "Buttle"]]. |
| 329 | ** Civvie initially refers to Lucy from ''Beyond Sunset'' as [[WebVideo/Max0r "Jane Sunset."]] |
| 330 | ** When griping about ''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'''s [[StealthBasedMission forced stealth sequence]], which was something of a period trend for gaming in the early 2000s, Civvie growls "Which was the [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] style at the time", simultaneously shouting out to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (including a clip of Grampa Simpson saying the line) and content creator ''WebVideo/MattMcMuscles'' (whose series ''Wha Happun'' uses the same quote as a RunningGag, and which Civvie has guest-starred on before). |
| 331 | ** Civvie's unwanted [[RodentCellmates Rodent Cellmate]] Cancer Mouse seems to be a subtle reference to the unkillable (but beloved) Mr. Jingles from ''Film/TheGreenMile''. |
| 332 | ** The intro to ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' has Civvie go on a brief tangent about other potential adaptations from magazines into video games, in the process showing a magazine featuring the house from ''VideoGame/MyHouse''. |
| 333 | ** He consults [[WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters Tobin's Spirit Guide]] about the poltergeists in ''{{VideoGame/STALKER}}'' and then again about the Spectres in ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}''. |
| 334 | ** Civvie references Website/ThisVeryWiki in the ''Strife'' episode, in which he guesses that the Loremaster boss is "the nerd who runs TV Tropes". (It's true, but supposed to be kept a secret.) |
| 335 | * ShownTheirWork: The clock-drawing test given to Civvie by [=AX3=] in the ''VideoGame/YouAreEmpty'' video is a real neurological test, used as the robot describes. The 'real' version of Civvie's test is consistent with severe neurological damage/dysfunction, which is reasonable for him considering that [[WhoEvenNeedsABrain half of his brain is missing]] (with bits used to power [=AX3=] and [=H4MM3R=]), let alone the other traumas he's suffered during his imprisonment. |
| 336 | * SignatureScene: [[invoked]]It's the RunningGag of ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', "that one scene everyone remembers, you know if you played it", referring to [[spoiler:the part where the player character gets turned into a strogg]]. |
| 337 | * SincerityMode: During ''3D Realms Vibe Check'', he takes a minute to actually turn off the schtick for the video to the point of showing a little bit of how his virtual set in the Unreal Engine works, and to both thank his viewers for allowing him to continue making the show as a full-time job, but also make it clear that if he is going to make a video about a bad game, it needs to not just be bad, but entertainingly bad, and he ''REALLY'' doesn't want to make videos trashing indie developers for any reason unless they absolutely deserve it. It also sets up why he goes so hard in on Slipgate Ironworks and their influence on 3D Realms; their shovelware approach to game development could, in his opinion, potentially [[invoked]][[CreatorKiller kill 3D Realms for their bad practices]] a second time, and he cannot abide by that. |
| 338 | * SitcomArchNemesis: |
| 339 | ** Randy Pitchford is one due to the 7 and a half out of 10 mess that was ''Aliens: Colonial Marines'', aiding in the downfall of ''Duke Nukem Forever'', and ensuring that good Duke Nukem games like the ''Megaton Edition'' and ''Manhattan Project'' are taken off of store shelves for a long time to come in favour of Randy's own cursed version. |
| 340 | ** Capstone, The Pinnacle of Entertainment Software, provided the bulk of the DOS Trash that Civvie suffered through in many of his videos due to their growing, ruinous incompetency. |
| 341 | * SoOkayItsAverage: [[invoked]]His opinion of both the story campaigns of the sequels to ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}''--while he acknowledges their technical competence and decent level design, he also finds both games rather boring and uninspired, noting their lack of interesting setpieces and showing noticeable distaste at the change to pure science fiction as opposed to the first game's LovecraftLite atmosphere. When talking about ''VideoGame/QuakeII'', he states that it's not groundbreaking and the quality is homogenous, with no high or low points, but it's still a perfectly serviceable shooter; when covering ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', he is in utter bafflement that the game's director wanted to revisit the Strogg storyline instead of the much more celebrated eldritch atmosphere of ''Quake''. |
| 342 | * {{Squee}}: In the third part of "Beneath ''VideoGame/{{Dusk}}''," his reaction when he finds out that Stephan Weyte (the voice of [[VideoGame/{{Blood}} Caleb]]) voices the final boss. |
| 343 | * StandardFPSGuns: Discussed in the ''Quake II'' episode, and believes that game [[TropeCodifier codified]] the traditional gun loadout in Creator/IdSoftware games: "The ID Arsenal" consists of a pistol, shotgun, super shotgun, light automatic weapon, heavy automatic weapon, rocket launcher, rapid-fire EnergyWeapon, Railgun, and {{BFG}}. |
| 344 | * SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: [[invoked]] |
| 345 | ** His view on the ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' DLC "The Doctor Who Cloned Me": he hated the original game top-to-bottom, but thought the DLC was much better. He claims to see ''DNF'' as a fundamentally flawed game and therefore "Doctor Who Cloned Me" could only do so much, but believed that the level design, the new weapons, the writing, and ''especially'' its treatment of Duke's character had all hiked up substantially when compared to the original. Sadly, this ultimately just made him hate the main game all the more since all the improvements made in ''The Doctor Who Cloned Me'' showed Civvie WhatCouldHaveBeen. |
| 346 | ** While he still didn't consider ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage Rides Again'' to be particularly good, he still found it ''vastly'' preferable to the first game, due to having improved level designs, more conveniently placed keys, and some legitimately enjoyable levels. |
| 347 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Civvie finally puts his escape plan into action at the end of the ''Unreal'' video, and [[spoiler:nothing happens. Turns out, when you've been {{foreshadowing}} this event throughout your ''publicly-available'' videos, the people keeping you prisoner ''might'' just catch on. As such, the bots reveal they thwarted his plot ''months'' ago.]] |
| 348 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In his video on ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'', Civvie dedicates an extended rant to how much he hates Norton Mapes, an engineer who is depicted as a FatSlob, a DirtyCoward, and a traitor. Katie then sets up a series of footnotes proclaiming that Civvie doesn't hate Norton Mapes because he's been told that he looks like him, that he looks totally different from Norton Mapes, and that he hates being compared to Norton Mapes and gets angry every time someone do it, so you should never do it. |
| 349 | * TakeThat: |
| 350 | ** Cancer Mouse is essentially one towards content creators with alt-right talking points. |
| 351 | ** Civvie has tossed out jabs at Creator/ValveSoftware and ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', comparing their effects to Nazi Germany in how ''Half-Life'' effectively wiped out the ''Doom'' and ''Duke Nukem'' style of shooters in favour of narrative-driven, linear experiences. [[spoiler: A FreezeFrameBonus in the first ''Pro Blood'' video shows he actually considers ''Half-Life'' his third favorite shooter, right under ''Blood'' itself.]] His full video on ''Half-Life'', though, is much more positive, and he goes so far as to compare it to ''Film/CitizenKane'' in terms of [[OnceOriginalNowCommon how impossible it is for people today to recognize how innovative it was in its time]]. He clarifies more precisely that while ''Half-Life'' did deal a serious blow to "boomer shooters", this was largely due to lesser developers taking the wrong lessons (for example, [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom the harsh linearity]] of ''Half-Life'' was an actual major theme of the story, not just laziness).[[invoked]] |
| 352 | ** Civvie also had a few words towards [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lieberman Joe Lieberman]] in his ''Postal Redux'' video. |
| 353 | --->'''Civvie:''' Hey, do you remember Joe Lieberman? ({{beat}}) That's OK, nobody else does either. |
| 354 | ** Not only is his video mocking the trailer for ''Film/{{Slenderman}}'' obviously an extended one, calling it a step in "Hollywood's never-ending race to the bottom", but when explaining that Slenderman isn't scary anymore, he shows off a number of [[{{Expy}} Slenderman-esque characters]] to show how frequently the concept has been ripped off... and includes Creator/MaxLandis among them. |
| 355 | ** He's taken several pot-shots at Website/ChannelAwesome, particularly in his ''Terminator: Future Shock'' Review and ''Pro Blood''. |
| 356 | ** In his ''Videogame/NightmareReaper'' video, he snarks on Music/IronMaiden and their lawyers for the ''VideoGame/IonFury'' lawsuit. |
| 357 | --->'''Civvie:''' ...That's another Early Access game down. And pretty soon, Ion Mai- I mean, ''Ion Fury'' is coming out, despite the best efforts of greedy old lawyers who should advise their clients to start making albums again ''that don't contain at least one absolutely embarrassing song''. |
| 358 | ** In the same video, he takes a shot at Anti-SJW-type gamers. |
| 359 | --->'''Civvie:''' Finally I found a main character in a video game I can identify with- oh no wait she's a girl never mind. |
| 360 | ** He also had a small one against fellow reviewer [=GManLives=] and his glowing review of the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' in spite of some early bugs. Otherwise, Civvie considers him "a scholar and a gentleman." |
| 361 | --->'''Civvie:''' I dunno how many didgeri-doobies [=GMan=] is smoking, if you wanna buy this, understand that it fucking pains me to say this, wait until they patch it. |
| 362 | ** In his ''VideoGame/TerminatorResistance'' review, he takes a shot at [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow Angry Joe]] for raging at such a trivial detail as the laser colors. |
| 363 | --->'''Civvie:''' I gotta give this game credit, those Terminators are beautifully modelled, spot on. Really, everything seems to be crafted with love, and care, and reverence for the Terminator franchise [...], right down to the plasma blasts and the sound effects. I'm kind of enjoying this, and ''not freaking out because the lasers are red instead of purple''. (Cue clip of Angry Joe screaming about the lasers). |
| 364 | ** His ''Terminator: Future Shock[=/=]Skynet'' video has him tell [=H4MM3R=]'s weirdly animated intrusive T-800 future son to "go back to whatever Website/ChannelAwesome production [he] came from." |
| 365 | ** In the end of his ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' video, he wonders if in the brainstorming sessions for ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' the devs decided against naming it "Doom Forever" because ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' sullied that subtitle. |
| 366 | ** Unsurprisingly, ''Tekwar'' sees a lot of these directed at Creator/WilliamShatner. In particular, Civvie notes that he's been [[StealthInsult "acting [his] age"]] on Twitter. |
| 367 | ** His Patreon contains a joke goal for the production of "The Civvie Movie" if he reaches $100,000 a month, an obvious pot-shot at the infamous ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' movie that was never produced despite being promised as a goal for Spoony's Patreon. |
| 368 | ** Randy Pitchford is a recurring punching bag of the show, thanks to his questionable handling of the Duke Nukem IP and outright lies during the development and promotion of ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines''. |
| 369 | ** In the ''Zortch'' episode, there's a moment where Civvie [[AudienceParticipation asks the viewer to vote whether they eat hot dogs lengthwise or widthwise]] via their Platform/{{Ouya}} controllers. All five of the votes are in favor of eating them wide, which convinces Civvie that people who watch the show on an Ouya are disgusting. |
| 370 | * TakingTheBullet: In the ''SHOGO'' review, Civvie essentially has Sanjuro do this to protect a child NPC from Kura's [[ArtificialStupidity hair-trigger AI]]. |
| 371 | * ThatCameOutWrong: |
| 372 | ** Civvie's description of a [[DemBones Revenant]] assault in ''Pro Doom II'' takes a wrong turn after he begins describing the tight situation. |
| 373 | --->'''Civvie:''' The bit where you're plowing through Shotgunners and get assaulted by Revenants, it's intense, its uh... its really a butt clincher, as are all situations where you get ambushed by these boners. It's a real pain in the ass, leaves you sore and tired I'll tell you what. ''({{beat}})'' [[LeftItIn You know what, just cut all of that, that was garbage]]. |
| 374 | ** In his ''[[VideoGame/DukeNukem3D Pro Nukem: Shrapnel City]]'' video, he enters what he thinks is an abortion clinic: |
| 375 | --->'''Civvie:''' ...This means this chick outside is totally consequence-free and I've been handing her hundreds this whole time, which is more than enough to pay for... you know what, I'm just gonna ''terminate'' this joke... ({{Beat}}) [[EveryoneHasStandards OH GOD!]] - Some viewers may not be totally in agreement on the abortion issue, which is fine, 'cos I'm gonna blow this place up... ({{Beat}}) (''panicking'') OH GOD, THAT DOESN'T WORK EITHER! PLEASE DON'T BLOW UP ABORTION CLINICS! |
| 376 | ** When discussing ''Chex Quest'', Civvie at one point describes that he's "spooning these Flemoids". He means that he's [[ImprobableWeaponUser using a spoon to zortch them]], then promptly realizes that it doesn't sound right to say that -- accompanied with a photo of a woman affectionately cradling a dakimakura with an image of a kissing Flemoidus Commonus on it. |
| 377 | * TranquilFury: Civvie suffers this when he learns (from a fan, after 20 years of playing ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'') that Pig Cop Tanks can be destroyed by running up behind them and pressing their [[SelfDestructMechanism self-destruct button]] instead of having to actually fight them. |
| 378 | -->'''Civvie:''' ...knowing this now makes me so angry that I'm ''actually fucking numb'' from it. |
| 379 | * VideoGameCaringPotential: It's rare but when the game presents a moral and kind option he may or may not take it, it usually depends on the context. Here are some examples: |
| 380 | ** During his review of ''Hedon'' and reaching a point where he has to poison a Warg just to gain access to the room it was guarding, has him mostly silent but what (presumably) forces him to try and look for another way was a Minotaur Guard giving her a judging stare. [[spoiler:Which involves him doing a bunch of other errands and exploring the entire hub map to find a potion that puts the Warg to sleep instead]]. |
| 381 | ** Nearing the end of his third review of ''Nightmare Reaper'', he is given the choice of [[spoiler:either sacrificing the player character so that the girl's innocence can be reclaimed or take over the psyche (which is a bad idea considering the player character is a rather homicidal bloodthirsty maniac). While he bemoans it, he ultimately takes the former option.]] |
| 382 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Absolutely adores this trope, being a fan of the ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'' series and all that. If the game will allow him to be a dick or a menace to anyone (innocent or not) then he'll be willing to try out the option. [[EveryoneHasStandards Although he has his limits]]. |
| 383 | ** In "Pro Doom 3", he makes it a point to kill any friendly NPC he comes across if he can. As he points out, the Marine is canonically the SoleSurvivor of the demonic invasion, so he might as well cut out the middleman. |
| 384 | * ViewerPronunciationConfusion:[[invoked]] |
| 385 | ** PlayedForLaughs in the ''VideoGame/{{Hedon}}'' video. Early into it, Civvie brags that he knows how to pronounce it correctly -- "Hee-Don", as opposed to "Head-On". Cue Katie editing the Advertising/HeadOn advertisement into the video, under threat from [=H4MMER=]. |
| 386 | ** {{Lampshaded}} in the ''Quake II'' episode: |
| 387 | --->"Make sure to pronounce 'Strogg' (Str-ah-g) as 'Strogg' (Str-oe-g) because someone will bitch about it in the comments." |
| 388 | * VocalEvolution: In his earlier videos, Civvie's voice was a lot deeper. Around the time of the Pro Postal series, his pitch began to gradually lighten, eventually reaching his more recognizable cadence around Apocalypse Weekend and Paradise Lost. In canon, Civvie figures it's a result of [=H4MMER=] choking him a little while he sleeps as revenge for hitting him down the stairs. |
| 389 | * VoiceClipSong: The ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'' video ends with one based on a video from Creator/UweBoll of him criticizing other filmmakers with harsh language. |
| 390 | * WeReallyDoCare: Shortly after ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'''s remaster, ''Fresh Supply'' came out, Civvie quickly reviewed it and lashed the remaster for its lack of polish. When the game updated to fix many of the stated issues, Civvie uploaded another video [[JerkassWithAHeartOfGold showing how grateful he was]] that the people behind the project really cared. |
| 391 | * WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: At the end of the ''Redneck Rampage'' episode, Civvie starts wondering what happened to the pig Leonard and Bubba were searching for before abruptly getting interrupted by the end credits. |
| 392 | * WhoEvenNeedsABrain: Two-quarters of Civvie's brain were extracted to power [=AX3 and H4MMER's=] systems. He's not dead, but he seems kind of perturbed by thinking about it too hard. |
| 393 | ** Tries asking for the part of his brain back before [=H4MMER=] from the original timeline is destroyed, but he gives up because they're in the middle of a dramatic sacrifice speech. |
| 394 | * WholePlotReference: The FramingDevice of the videos - a man being held prisoner and is slowly driven insane by being forced to consume (frequently bad) media with two robots to keep him company (one of which is avian, the other one stout) - is a nod to ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. |
| 395 | * WorstWhateverEver: His video about ''VideoGame/OperationBodyCount'' (a Capstone game, see ArchEnemy above) is subtitled "The Worst Shooter Ever". |
| 396 | * WorthIt: Civvie takes a cue from a narrative device from Starship Titanic, the ability to adjust the robot's behaviour to make them more compliant, as an excuse to beat up [=H4MMER=] for a bit. He knows he's going to pay for it but it felt good, and sure enough, damaging government property ends up being the excuse to keep him imprisoned in a later episode. |
| 397 | * YankTheDogsChain: At the end of the ''Unreal'' video, Civvie [[spoiler:finally unleashes his plan to set off bombs in the [=NutraLoaf=] factory and escape. [=AX3 and H4MMER=] reveal that not only has it failed, it was thwarted months ago. They could have immediately told him the moment they caught his plan, but decided to wait for Civvie to actually put it into action to screw with him]]. |
| 398 | ---- |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext WebVideo / Civvie11
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
