This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews a pair of recent indies -- Viewfinder and My Friendly Neighborhood.

Viewfinder and My Friendly Neighborhood – Zero Punctuation

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This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Viewfinder and My Friendly Neighborhood.

If you subscribe to The Escapist Patreon or YouTube memberships, you can view next week’s episode, on BALDUR’S GATE 3, right now!

For more major games Yahtz has reviewed lately, check out Remnant 2, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy XVI, System Shock (2023), Diablo IV, Street Fighter 6, Amnesia: The Bunker, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

And check out Yahtzee’s other series, Extra Punctuation, where he’s recently talked about not wanting to save the world anymore and “BioWare” face in Final Fantasy XVI.

We have a merch store as well: Visit the store for ZP merch.

Zero Punctuation Transcript

Viewfinder really impressed me when I saw it at GDC, and at the time my back really hurt from running between hotel rooms like an amnesiac wifeswapper and I was in the early stages of complementary muesli bar overdose, so it was starting from the back foot. It was a sort of Superliminal situation where the first time you see the game do its thing you react like a very credulous person watching David Blaine standing on one foot. “OH MY GOD HOW DID YOU DO THAT. HOW DID YOU BE SLIGHTLY OFF BALANCE FOR THREE SECONDS.” In Viewfinder’s case, you pick up a 2D picture, you hold it in front of your face, and then the world becomes the picture. It’s hard to do it justice in text, but trust me, it’s like being smacked across the eyes with a very interesting book. And then you get a polaroid camera and take your own pictures with which to solve lateral thinking puzzles – oh, forget those stupid graphics card demos showing off how accurately they can depict some blank-eyed hoojimatwat’s split ends and acne scarring, this is what makes ME say “Now that’s impressive tech.” But my fear was that, again like a Superliminal situation, that once we had the full game in our hands we’d play through it once and then go “Right, what’s for tea?” and never think about it again once we’re eating our evening sausage roll.


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Author
Image of Yahtzee Croshaw
Yahtzee Croshaw
Yahtzee is the Escapist’s longest standing talent, having been writing and producing its award winning flagship series, Zero Punctuation, since 2007. Before that he had a smattering of writing credits on various sites and print magazines, and has almost two decades of experience in game journalism as well as a lifelong interest in video games as an artistic medium, especially narrative-focused. He also has a foot in solo game development - he was a big figure in the indie adventure game scene in the early 2000s - and writes novels. He has six novels published at time of writing with a seventh on the way, all in the genres of comedic sci-fi and urban fantasy. He was born in the UK, emigrated to Australia in 2003, and emigrated again to California in 2016, where he lives with his wife and daughters. His hobbies include walking the dog and emigrating to places.