One of the things that was for a time lost, but is slowly returning is the idea that objectivity is a vain goal. Once a long time ago people understood that all regardless of their credibility media came with a slant and they calibrated their sensibilities to compensate. Knowing your reviewer, or to broaden the scope further; knowing your source, is an essential part of being a thinking consumer.
Zero Punctuation is a review show. It is a biased, caustic review that vastly overemphasizes things that you or I might never even notice, much less care about, but it is still a review. It is not a review that can be taken alone but what it does is offer a different opinion, a different perspective. I can read ten IGN, Gamespot, Gamespy, Game____, or whatever else reviews and I can honestly say that if you swapped the bylines I wouldn't be able to tell. ZP is impossible to mistake for anything but ZP. The humor is a welcome sweetener to make the actual reviewing enjoyable but there is a worth while and nutritious core to the show. It is a core that you need to take well salted, but that should be true about anything.
Long story short if you are lazy and cannot be bothered to do more than take people at their word ZP is good only for a chuckle. If you have the savy and discerning mind that can extract truth from a constellation of differing perspectives then ZP is a vital stop in your quest for an accurate review. Why? Simply because it isn't like the others. It may be wrong, it may be petty, it may be biased against something you like, but if you know the reviewer, which you should because he wears his allegiances on his sleeve, then there is a great deal that can be learned.
An Important Part of a Balanced Diet
One of the things that was for a time lost, but is slowly returning is the idea that objectivity is a vain goal. Once a long time ago people understood that all regardless of their credibility media came with a slant and they calibrated their sensibilities to compensate. Knowing your reviewer, or to broaden the scope further; knowing your source, is an essential part of being a thinking consumer.
Zero Punctuation is a review show. It is a biased, caustic review that vastly overemphasizes things that you or I might never even notice, much less care about, but it is still a review. It is not a review that can be taken alone but what it does is offer a different opinion, a different perspective. I can read ten IGN, Gamespot, Gamespy, Game____, or whatever else reviews and I can honestly say that if you swapped the bylines I wouldn't be able to tell. ZP is impossible to mistake for anything but ZP. The humor is a welcome sweetener to make the actual reviewing enjoyable but there is a worth while and nutritious core to the show. It is a core that you need to take well salted, but that should be true about anything.
Long story short if you are lazy and cannot be bothered to do more than take people at their word ZP is good only for a chuckle. If you have the savy and discerning mind that can extract truth from a constellation of differing perspectives then ZP is a vital stop in your quest for an accurate review. Why? Simply because it isn't like the others. It may be wrong, it may be petty, it may be biased against something you like, but if you know the reviewer, which you should because he wears his allegiances on his sleeve, then there is a great deal that can be learned.