List of episodes[]
SR (Semi-Ramblomatic) Episodes for Second Wind[]
Where Did All the Stealth Games Go? episode marks the final video essay under the Extra Punctuation branding, as on November 6, 2023, Yahtzee would announce his departure from the The Escapist and Gamurs and move on to Second Wind.
EP Episodes for The Escapist[]
There's Not Much Role-Playing in Role-Playing Games These Days marks the final Extra Punctuation column as written essays only, transitioning to video essays in 2021.
EP Essay Columns for The Escapist[]
| Date of Column | Title |
|---|---|
| 2017-04-17 | There's Not Much Role-Playing in Role-Playing Games These Days |
| 2017-02-14 | Will Resident Evil 7's DLC Manage to Mess Up What the Game Fixed? |
| 2017-01-17 | The Problem with Freemium Games |
| 2016-12-06 | Dishonored 2 Shouldn’t Be Encouraging Comparisons to Thief |
| 2016-11-08 | Suggesting Some Fixed Dialogue for Gears of War 4 |
| 2016-10-18 | This is How You Fix RPG Sidequests |
| 2016-09-20 | Predicting What’s New on the Nostalgia Horizon – The PS1 Era |
| 2016-08-23 | id Software’s History Parallels the Seven Ages of Man and the History of PC Gaming |
| 2016-08-16 | There’s More to Comedy Games than Just Comic Relief Characters |
| 2016-08-02 | Let’s Get Indie Games Away From the Idea of a Small Child in a Scary World |
| 2016-07-19 | It’s Hard to Get Nostalgic About Games You Didn’t Grow Up On |
| 2016-07-05 | Why Do We Keep E3 Around, Anyway? |
| 2016-06-21 | Investigating Overwatch‘s Stingy Loot System |
| 2016-06-07 | Interactive Narrative Means Choosing How Invested You Really Want to Be |
| 2016-05-24 | Enough of Making Video Games into Movies Already |
| 2016-05-10 | Remaking Old Games is a Fool’s Errand |
| 2016-04-26 | Why Do Branching Storylines Never Deliver on Their Promises? |
| 2016-04-05 | Are Games Losing My Interest, or Is it Just Me? |
| 2016-03-22 | Stardew Valley’s Relationships are Really Rather Off-Putting |
| 2016-03-09 | Early Access Isn’t Right for Every Game |
| 2016-02-23 | Gravity Rush Indulges the Need to Fail at Flying Around |
| 2016-02-09 | Xenoblade Chronicles X Actually Uses the Wii U Gamepad Well |
| 2016-02-02 | Assassin’s Creed Needs to be Interesting, not Trendy |
| 2016-01-12 | Get Out of Your Comfort Zone for 2016 |
| 2015-12-22 | Why Is Every AAA Game Hero Suddenly Your Dad? |
| 2015-12-15 | Battlefront is Barely Multiplayer At All |
| 2015-12-01 | Rise of the Tomb Raider Feels Like A Second Origin Story |
| 2015-11-17 | AAA Games Have Stopped Innovating |
| 2015-11-10 | Assassin’s Creed is Officially Running on Fumes |
| 2015-10-27 | Undertale May Be This Year's Best Written Game |
| 2015-10-20 | The Super Mario Apocalypse Will Never Arrive |
| 2015-10-06 | How to Make A Slasher Video Game |
| 2015-09-22 | The Perfect Generic Game is Mad Max |
| 2015-09-15 | Gotta Love Metal Gear Solid |
| 2015-09-01 | The Problem With the "Walking Around Simulator" |
| 2015-08-25 | Upon The Mary Sue Character in Video Games |
| 2015-08-20 | The Worst Part of Each King;s Quest Game |
| 2015-08-11 | Tembo the Badass Elephant is a Bit Desperate, Isn't It? |
| 2015-08-04 | What if the Godzilla Game Had Benn Good? |
| 2015-07-28 | How Intuitive Does A Game Have to Be? |
| 2015-07-21 | I Never Did Like Yoshi's Island |
| 2015-07-14 | Inside the Development of Hatfall |
| 2015-07-07 | Here’s Whats Wrong With Alone in the Dark: Illumination |
| 2015-06-30 | Did You All Forget To Be On Guard Against E3? |
| 2015-06-23 | On Being Deliberately Offensive |
| 2015-06-16 | Should Games Arbitrarily Withhold Content? |
| 2015-06-09 | The Plight of the Mary Sue Character in Games |
| 2015-06-02 | Turning to Turn-Based for Stealth and Other Types of Gameplay |
| 2016-05-26 | The Highs and Lows of Gaming in Virtual Reality |
| 2016-05-19 | Pondering Adventure Games and Gameplay in Modern Gaming |
| 2016-05-12 | How to Pass the Time While Waiting to Play A Game |
| 2015-05-05 | Narrative Continuity of Fighting Games is Convoluted, Especially Mortal Kombat X |
| 2015-04-28 | Alternatives to the Glut of Metroidvania-Style Platformers |
| 2015-04-21 | Will Half-Life 3 Outlive Public Interest Because of Development Time? |
| 2015-04-14 | Bloodborne May Seem Like A Dark Souls Game, But Be Warned |
| 2015-04-07 | The Annoying Tendency To Mix Styles of Play In A Single Game |
| 2015-03-31 | Why You Should Be a Bit Disappointed With Ori and the Blind Forest |
| 2015-03-24 | The Exploitative Nature of Crafting in Video Games |
| 2015-03-17 | Why the N64 Majora’s Mask Could Not Be Made Today As a AAA Title |
| 2015-03-10 | The Current Trend of The Anticlimax in Video Games |
| 2015-03-03 | Why Completing All Objectives And Finding All Secrets Are Meaningless |
| 2015-02-24 | Taking On Remastered Games And The Effects of Nostalgia |
| 2015-02-17 | A Review Scoring System That Would Work |
| 2015-02-10 | Expanding the Game: The Semantics of Standalone |
| 2015-02-03 | How You Can Make a AAA Game Like Today’s Developers |
| 2015-01-27 | Five Nights at Freddy’s and the Nature of the Jumpscare |
| 2015-01-20 | On the PC Master Race and the Language Police |
| 2015-01-13 | The Talos Principle Comes Out of The Myst and Through a Portal |
| 2015-01-06 | The Honorable and Dishonorable Game Mentions For 2014 |
| 2014-12-30 | The Grand Unifying Theory of Games: Adding More Depth |
| 2014-12-16 | Making Faces – A Bioware Story |
| 2014-12-09 | A New Commandment for Developing Games With RPG Elements |
| 2014-12-02 | Trying to Make Sense of Assassin’s Creed: Unity‘s Main Character |
| 2014-11-25 | The Latest Scourge of AAA Game Design |
| 2014-11-18 | Sunset Overdrive and Applying The Rules of Comedy |
| 2014-11-11 | How Bayonetta’s Gender is Relevant to the Game |
| 2014-11-04 | Why The Evil Within Fails on Multiple Levels |
| 2014-10-28 | Why Were Shadow of Mordor and Alien Isolation So Good? |
| 2014-10-21 | The Compelling Story Within a Story in Shadow of Mordor |
| 2014-10-14 | Just What Exactly Does the Triforce in Zelda Do? |
| 2014-10-07 | What Defines the Games of Suda 51 and Swery65 |
| 2014-09-30 | Destiny Ushers in a New Era of Blatant Cash Grabs |
| 2014-09-23 | How to Make The Sims Double As A Corporate Workplace Simulator |
| 2014-09-16 | Should Every Game Allow You to Choose Your Gender? |
| 2014-09-09 | Life After Doom – Video Games’ Visionaries |
| 2014-09-02 | The Theory That Will Tie All Video Game Stories Together |
| 2014-08-26 | Sacred 3: If Someone Asks If You Are a God, You Say Yes! |
| 2014-08-19 | How Firefall Changed My Mind About MMO Shooters |
| 2014-08-12 | Is the AAA Console Games Market Heading for a Crash? |
| 2014-08-05 | Taking On “Detrimental” Isometric Game Design |
| 2014-07-29 | The Sexual Awakening of Ness in EarthBound |
| 2014-07-22 | Is That Castlevania in Your Pocket? |
| 2014-07-15 | The Lazy Storytelling of Modern Games of Warfare |
| 2014-07-08 | If You Are Going to Hate on a Game Company, Do It For the Right Reasons |
| 2014-07-01 | Building a Legacy by Standing on the Shoulders of Giants |
| 2014-06-24 | Playing Favorites in Wolfenstein‘s Semi-Branching Story |
| 2014-06-17 | Watch_Dogs: Too Much Sandbox, Too Little Game |
| 2014-06-10 | What the Hell Is Going On With E3? |
| 2014-06-03 | On FMV in Games, Gore and Giving a Middle Finger to Censors |
| 2014-05-27 | Immersion in Games: Are You Into It? |
| 2014-05-20 | Collective Guilt and Beauty in Games |
| 2014-05-13 | Why Nobody Has the Time to Make Greenlight Work |
| 2014-05-06 | Taking Lessons From South Park – How To Not Ruin an Adaptation |
| 2014-04-29 | MMO Adaptation Will Ruin What You Love About Your Favorite Franchise |
| 2014-04-22 | Ground Zeroes is Only Worth What You’ll Pay For It |
| 2014-04-15 | The Totally Hipster Elements in inFamous: Second Son |
| 2014-04-08 | Triple-A Ain’t What it Used to Be |
| 2014-04-01 | Dark Souls 2: Of Missing Monsters and Bustling Bases |
| 2014-03-25 | Lords of Shadow 2 Might Have Been Good, Had Dracula Been Evil |
| 2014-03-18 | Thief Would Have Worked Better With a Bigger Sandbox |
| 2014-03-11 | People Make Games, Not Development Studios |
| 2014-03-04 | Bad Timing – How Clocks in Games Ruin the Fun |
| 2014-02-25 | A Beginner’s Guide to Dark Souls – 7 Steps to Sucking Less |
| 2014-02-18 | What Has Nintendo Done Right Lately? |
| 2014-02-11 | The Nostalgia Factor |
| 2014-02-04 | The Magic of Old Adventure Games |
| 2014-01-28 | Why Do We Love Survival Games? |
| 2014-01-21 | Hardware is Gimmicks |
| 2014-01-14 | Of Dragons & Ruined Cities |
| 2014-01-07 | Serious Game Fatigue |
| 2013-12-31 | To Hell With Comments |
| 2013-12-17 | Context, Challenge and Catharsis |
| 2013-12-10 | The Trials and Perils of Returning to PC |
| 2013-12-03 | The Design of Consuming Shadow |
| 2013-11-26 | Complacency in Storytelling |
| 2013-11-19 | Assassin’s Creed Doesn’t Have Much of a Story, Does It? |
| 2013-11-12 | Keeping Batman Original |
| 2013-11-05 | Wind Waker is Still the Best Zelda, and You’re Surprised? |
| 2013-10-29 | Beyond: Two Souls vs. The Stanley Parable |
| 2013-10-22 | Let’s Compare Lost Planet 3 to a Good Game |
| 2013-10-15 | GTAV’s Characters Are Just Bad |
| 2013-10-01 | A Machine For Pigs: Daddy, Please Don’t Kill Me |
| 2013-09-24 | Sexy Characters |
| 2013-09-17 | Your Character Could Be Anyone |
| 2013-09-10 | The Dangers of Dialogue |
| 2013-09-03 | Coming Around to the Wii U |
| 2013-08-27 | Bureaucracy-Em-Up |
| 2013-08-20 | Remaking the 90s |
| 2013-08-13 | Of Metaphors and Mario RPGs |
| 2013-08-06 | Bad Games Can Give You Good Ideas |
| 2013-07-30 | When Open World Goes Wrong |
| 2013-07-23 | Why Do We Even Care About Animal Crossing? |
| 2013-07-16 | Why Can’t Comedy Games be Funny to Play? |
| 2013-07-09 | Killing is Too Easy |
| 2013-06-25 | Remember Me Could Have Been So Much More |
| 2013-06-18 | Gunpoint Game Makes For Great Action Movie Moments |
| 2013-06-11 | Sony’s Not Ready For User-Made Videos |
| 2013-06-04 | Metro‘s Bullets Make A Better Currency |
| 2013-05-28 | The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race |
| 2013-05-21 | Your Game Music is Bland and You Should Feel Bad |
| 2013-05-14 | Why Exactly Do We Care About Star Wars? |
| 2013-05-07 | It’s Time For Mortal Kombat vs. Everyone Else |
| 2013-04-30 | Nintendo Needs To Reboot Mario and Luigi |
| 2013-04-23 | We Really, Really Don’t Need New Consoles |
| 2013-04-16 | No, BioShock Infinite‘s Ending Doesn’t Suck |
| 2013-04-02 | SimCity Was Never Meant To Be Online |
| 2013-03-26 | A Quick Time Event By Any Other Name |
| 2013-03-19 | Games With Fake Wars Are Stupid |
| 2013-03-12 | A Storytelling Crysis |
| 2013-03-05 | Colonial Marines Developers Should Own Up to Screwing Up |
| 2013-02-26 | Real Horror Games Don’t Need Co-op |
| 2013-02-19 | Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the Confusing JRPG |
| 2013-02-12 | A Game’s Replay Value is Like Chocolate Sauce |
| 2013-02-05 | And The Winner Is…. |
| 2013-01-29 | Does Online Multiplayer Always Make Sense? |
| 2013-01-22 | Hotline Miami Is Nuts, FTL Is Gambling |
| 2013-01-15 | The Death of Mario |
| 2013-01-08 | Seriously, Console Wars Are Pointless |
| 2013-01-01 | The Upcoming (And Pointless) Console War |
| 2012-12-18 | To the Shooters I Treated Badly |
| 2012-12-11 | Humor and Realism Don’t Mix |
| 2012-12-04 | Black Ops 2 Is Like A Rich Jerk |
| 2012-11-27 | How to Title Your Stupid Sequel |
| 2012-11-20 | The Assassins and Templars are Idiots |
| 2012-11-13 | Get Rid of the Dang Arrows |
| 2012-11-06 | Save Scummer |
| 2012-10-30 | Idle Chatter Builds Character |
| 2012-10-23 | It’s About Characters, Stupid |
| 2012-10-16 | Sports Nerds Are Nerds Too |
| 2012-10-09 | Hating Multiplayer Creep |
| 2012-10-02 | Reliving Gordon Freeman’s Worst Day |
| 2012-09-25 | How to Be a Nethernaut in Minecraft‘s Hardcore Mode |
| 2012-09-11 | The Motivations of Death |
| 2012-09-04 | Problems With The Sandbox |
| 2012-08-28 | It’s All In Good Humor |
| 2012-08-21 | The Summer of Arcade Sucks |
| 2012-08-14 | Valve’s Making Up Half-Life Along the Way |
| 2012-08-07 | Spider-Man’s Knickers |
| 2012-07-31 | Plot Inversions |
| 2012-07-24 | Traditional Adventure Games Are Rubbish |
| 2012-07-17 | Crossing Spec Ops: The Line |
| 2012-07-10 | First Person Platforming |
| 2012-07-03 | Excessively Excessive |
| 2012-06-26 | What Not to Hate About E3 |
| 2012-06-19 | Drop The High Scores |
| 2012-06-12 | F’ing Up Isn’t So Bad |
| 2012-06-05 | Why Randomly Generated Content Sucks |
| 2012-05-29 | What Ethnic Group Will Replace Nazis? |
| 2012-05-22 | Pirates Are Way More Interesting Than Elves |
| 2012-05-15 | Prototype‘s Story Holes |
| 2012-05-08 | How to Become a Game Journalist |
| 2012-05-01 | Kid Icarus: Uprising and Hurt Nintendo Fans |
| 2012-04-24 | Big Studios Can’t Produce Good Horror Games |
| 2012-04-17 | Why Easy Games Fail Yahtzee’s Game Theory |
| 2012-04-10 | The Growth of the Zombie Myth |
| 2012-04-03 | When “Dark and Edgy” Goes Too Far |
| 2012-03-27 | Mass Effect 3 Gets An Ending |
| 2012-03-20 | Syndicate Gets Gimmicky |
| 2012-03-13 | How to Make ''Neverdead'' Better |
| 2012-03-06 | Elves and Dwarves Don’t Define Fantasy |
| 2012-02-28 | Why Movie Adaptations of Games Suck |
| 2012-02-21 | Survival Horror on a Cruise Ship |
| 2012-02-14 | Escorts Aren’t Free |
| 2012-02-07 | Roleplaying The Old Republic |
| 2012-01-31 | Sonic the Poacher |
| 2012-01-24 | Death Mechanics and Dark Souls |
| 2012-01-17 | The Not Quite Best Games of 2011 |
| 2012-01-10 | Non-Violent Game Idea: Puppies in Hell |
| 2011-12-28 | Skyward Sword |
| 2011-12-20 | Assassin’s Creed 2.85 |
| 2011-12-13 | Context, Challenge and Gratification |
| 2011-12-06 | Too Many Options in Skyrim |
| 2011-11-29 | What Is the Matter with You People? |
| 2011-11-22 | Uncharted 3 Should’ve Tried Harder |
| 2011-11-15 | Battlefield 3 Is Scary |
| 2011-11-08 | The Sandbox Killed Batman |
| 2011-11-01 | What Kinect Can Do |
| 2011-10-25 | Sidequests Good and Bad |
| 2011-10-18 | Shooters of Yore |
| 2011-10-11 | Manly Vs. Macho in Gears |
| 2011-10-04 | Hating Warhammer 40k and Space Marine |
| 2011-09-27 | Weapon-Crafting That Works |
| 2011-09-20 | Driver San Francisco‘s Silliness Works |
| 2011-09-13 | What Human Revolution Got Wrong |
| 2011-09-06 | Golden Era of PC Gaming |
| 2011-08-30 | Time for Gaming’s Physical |
| 2011-08-23 | Why No Couples in Games? |
| 2011-08-16 | Game Stories Demand Focus |
| 2011-08-09 | The Rise of Rail Roading |
| 2011-08-02 | Keeping Old Games Intact |
| 2011-07-26 | Mixing Single and Multiplayer |
| 2011-07-19 | Alternative Games |
| 2011-07-12 | A Hard Weapon Is Good to Find |
| 2011-07-05 | Yahtzee Could Have Written Duke Nukem Forever |
| 2011-06-28 | What is Mature Anyway? |
| 2011-06-21 | Upcoming Games Won’t Suck, Hopefully |
| 2011-06-14 | The Big E3 |
| 2011-06-07 | L.A. Noire Is a Bad Adventure Game |
| 2011-05-31 | New Team Fortress 2 Classes |
| 2011-05-24 | Action Is Not Finisher Porn |
| 2011-05-17 | Not All Sequels Suck |
| 2011-05-10 | Building Sequels Badly |
| 2011-05-03 | Getting Innovation Wrong |
| 2011-04-26 | An Invisible Protagonist |
| 2011-04-19 | How ''Yakuza 4'' Grabs You |
| 2011-04-12 | Pokemon 100 Percenters Are Mad |
| 2011-04-05 | Roleplaying Homosexual in Dragon Age 2 |
| 2011-03-29 | Death in Videogames |
| 2011-03-23 | BAFTAs Are Bollocks |
| 2011-03-15 | Why Regenerating Health Sucks |
| 2011-03-08 | Let’s Talk About Let’s Play |
| 2011-03-01 | Hybrid Multiplayer Mess |
| 2011-02-22 | What if We Leveled Backwards?! |
| 2011-02-15 | Dead Space 2 Is No Resident Evil 4 |
| 2011-02-08 | American Box Art Sucks |
| 2011-02-01 | What Minecraft Is Missing |
| 2011-01-25 | Molyneux’s Unfocused Innovation |
| 2011-01-18 | On Multiplayer |
| 2011-01-11 | Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions |
| 2011-01-04 | Epic Mickey Offers No Choice |
| 2010-12-21 | Splatterhouse in Australia? |
| 2010-12-14 | The Little Touches in Assassin’s Creed |
| 2010-12-07 | The Best Iphone Games |
| 2010-11-30 | Why We Love Zombies |
| 2010-11-23 | Force Unleashed 2 Is Too Much |
| 2010-11-16 | Fallout: New Vegas |
| 2010-11-09 | Enslaved As It Should Have Been |
| 2010-11-02 | Shaky Cam Games |
| 2010-10-26 | A Handy Glossary of Yahtzee Terms |
| 2010-10-19 | Dead Rising 2 |
| 2010-10-12 | More on Halo: Reach |
| 2010-10-05 | Sanity Meters |
| 2010-09-28 | On Silent Protagonists |
| 2010-09-21 | On Endings |
| 2010-09-14 | Duke Nukem Forever |
| 2010-09-07 | Hideo Kojima and Women |
| 2010-08-24 | Don't Use the Word "Gamer" |
| 2010-08-17 | On Exploration |
| 2010-08-10 | On Arty 2D Platformers |
| 2010-08-03 | On RTS Games |
| 2010-07-27 | On Time Travel |
| 2010-07-20 | Super Mario Galaxy 2 |
| 2010-07-13 | On Difficulty Levels |
| 2010-07-06 | On Kinect and PlayStation Move |
| 2010-06-29 | What Sands of Time Gets Right |
| 2010-06-22 | Boss Fights |
| 2010-06-15 | Red Dead Redemption |
| 2010-06-08 | The Common Mistakes of Horror Games |
| 2010-06-01 | Monster Hunter Tri |
| 2010-05-25 | Male Protagonists |
| 2010-05-18 | Character Names |
| 2010-05-11 | Stealth |
| 2010-05-04 | Silent Hill: Shattered Memories |
| 2010-04-27 | Videogames as Art |
| 2010-04-20 | Revenge |
| 2010-04-13 | Kratos |
| 2010-04-06 | Yahtzee vs. the JRPG |
| 2010-03-30 | Betrayal |
| 2010-03-16 | On Audio Logs |
| 2010-03-09 | Interactivity |
| 2010-03-02 | Dante’s Inferno |
| 2010-02-23 | Connectivity |
| 2010-02-16 | Goth Mercenaries |
| 2010-02-09 | Space, Flying and Space Flying |
| 2010-02-02 | Character Design |
| 2010-01-26 | Darksiders |
| 2010-01-19 | Role-Playing Games |
| 2010-01-12 | Best of 2009 |
| 2010-01-05 | On Nazis |
| 2009-12-22 | Demon’s Souls |
| 2009-12-15 | On Remakes and Nostalgia |
| 2009-12-08 | On His Voice |
| 2009-12-01 | On Multiplayer |
| 2009-11-24 | On Dialogue Menus |
| 2009-11-18 | Uncharted 2 |
| 2009-11-10 | Guitar Hero: Rock Opera |
| 2009-11-03 | A Study of Tim Schafer |
| 2009-10-27 | Mario & Luigi |
| 2009-10-20 | Wet |
| 2009-10-13 | Scribblenauts |
| 2009-10-06 | On RPG Elements |
| 2009-09-25 | On the Left 4 Dead Ban |
| 2009-09-18 | Supersoldiers |
| 2009-09-11 | On Generic Games |
| 2009-09-04 | On Sequels |
| 2009-08-28 | ‘Splosion Man |
| 2009-08-21 | Silent Hill 2 |
| 2009-08-14 | The Conduit |
| 2009-08-07 | Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood |
| 2009-07-31 | Wii Sports Resort |
| 2009-07-24 | Red Faction: Guerilla |
| 2009-07-17 | Overlord 2 |
| 2009-07-03 | Yahtzee’s Prototype vs. InFamous Challenge |