Things in/about games that annoy you

[ríomhaire]

Fairly obvious thread. So here's mine:

• Games that keep switching between 1st and 3rd person, eg, Rainbow 6 Vegas. It makes it seems like the devs couldn't make up their mind as to what game they were making and I find it rather jarring to constantly change the perspective.
• Games where every location looks the exact same as everything else in that level, eg, Gears of War. Oh look, a lovely grey and brown courtyard *turns a corner* Wasn't I just here? Oh look more locust to shoot. Oh look another grey and brown courtyard.
• SP games that require online activation, eg HL2 and Bioshock. I'm on dial-up and I've been trying to get my copy of EP1 to work for about a week now, but to no avail. It's great. I left Steam running last night with the internet connection on. Guess how much updated it was when I woke up this morning. It was 0%. Steam is great.
• Games with savepoints just before [sometimes unskippable] cutscenes. 'nuf said.
• Games that break the forth wall constantly, eg, Metal Gear Solid 2. At the start of the game you get told every few minutes to press the use key to perform a certain action really removes you from the world.
• Games with just plain awfully written dialogue, eg about a million games but I'll just say Far Cry. I think this is even worse than bad voice acting (though these usually go hand-in-hand anyway.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

Cheap gameplay
God AI
Limited installs
Unskippable cutscenes
crap story
terrible gameplay
online activation
games that can only be registered once (ala steam)

 

[Lucid]

Games that have levels where you need to protect somebody... especially when that somebody manages to keep walking into the damn enemies rather than running away and dodging them!

Unskippable cutscenes.

The need to constantly micromanage things in an action game.(San Andreas, I'm looking at you. :angry: )

RTSes where the units run slower than snails.(CNC series and everything built on the SAGE engine :angry: )

 

[ríomhaire]

RTSes where the units run slower than snails.(CNC series and everything built on the SAGE engine :angry: )

You can turn up gameplay speed in all the 2D C&C games. I never have it on the default when I play them.

games that can only be registered once (ala steam)

Why would you need to register a game twice?

 

[Warbie]

Quick save/load - these be the devil.
Lack of consistency - be it in look, design, polish, physics ...
Uninvolving gameplay - the actual act of playing has to be fun and not grow stale. The second a game stops asking questions of the player, it has failed.

 

[Cavalry]

Overused Cover system.
Over powered guns
dinosaurs
shitty story
no story unless its a racing game
boo moments

 

[Deleted member 56031]

Why would you need to register a game twice?

What if you buy a used game?

 

[Xendance]

Can't stand games which give me choices, eg GTA 4.

It always makes me wonder what would happen if I chose the other one.

 

[Fliko]

90 minute unskippable cut scenes ;D

 

[ríomhaire]

What if you buy a used game?

Then you'd be an idiot for buying a used game that needs to be registered.

 

[taviow]

Games that have levels where you need to protect somebody... especially when that somebody manages to keep walking into the damn enemies rather than running away and dodging them!

This can be quite epic if done right. I can't think of any examples now though, but I'm sure there are games that do it right.

 

[Blackthorn]

Poorly optimized engines. I really don't see an excuse anymore.

Dual-analogue in games that have no need for it. Makes sense in shooters, nowhere else.

Saves before cutscenes.

Games that lack the ability to replay a specific part.

A lack of reward on completion. I miss the days when completing a game would unlock some massive gun, or special armour, that would allow you to exact revenge on all the parts you struggled on. Who didn't love the bandana/stealth armour from MGS?

 

[ríomhaire]

This can be quite epic if done right. I can't think of any examples now though, but I'm sure there are games that do it right.

Only good instance I can think of is defending Alyx while she turns on the generator in HL2, but that's not really an escort mission.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

Then you'd be an idiot for buying a used game that needs to be registered.

yeah ut i doubt the average consumer is going to know which exact games need to be registered. It's just another method of online activation which i already said i hated.

 

[Dog--]

I hate the fan base for alot of games, especially when they are yet-to-be-released games.. I mean.. It's a video game, a GAME. Get a life and wait for something useful. Yes we know games are fun, but there are a million BETTER things you could do other then waste your time thinking/waiting/watching/reading about some game. You won't have to do any of that shit when you play it.. Shit.

Oh yea, and ESCORT missions. They are gay. End of story, devs - cut it out, they are SHITTY missions. ALL OF THEM.

Games where the saving sucks, like those games where it just checkpoints you, so before a boss battle you'd have to go through like 10 minutes of gameplay, especially gay if the boss is hard. Or like in GTA4 where you die on a mission and have to drive to the location every time, what happened to trip skip from San Andreas?

 

[Viperidae]

Boss fights. They're never done right.

 

[kineaesth]

Cover mechanics, stupid health mechanics, lack of character development, crappy storyline.

 

[Gray Fox]

Grind/repetitive game play/ game play that doesn't present any new situations or challenge your mind

Cheap prolongation of a game

Anything that involuntary moves my view or character, it could be view jerk( when hit), move animation( like climbing), or hit ( like hitting a person AC or hits that push you)

Inability to save a lot/or if no save option exists, games that do not save often enough.

 

[elkaebee]

Pay to play.

 

[VirusType2]

everything everyone already said

also, bad sound effects - especially ones that you hear all the time.

Like in Gears of War - that click sound when it's time to reload. I still hear it in the trailer of Gears of War 2. I hope they change it, though I guess it's not that big of a deal.

 

[AiM]

Trial and Error gameplay.

 

[Saturos]

• Irritating copyright protection methods that punishes the honest players with a performance hit. F.E.A.R's SecuROM for instance. That game would perform much better without it and I'm half tempted to find a crack out there to remove it. It's a shame in this day and age when pirates give much better service than the developers themselves. I want to be an honest gamer. Hell, I already am if I purchased the game legally, so why punish me with SecuROM? It just doesn't work.
  Don't cry Monolith developers. You shouldn't have put that shit on your otherwise great game in the first place.
  
  
• Also, CD Keys > Steam for those with dial-up connections. Otherwise I wouldn't have an issue with it.
  
  
• Poorly optimized engines like Oblivion's GameBryo. No matter what you do, it's virtually impossible to run this game flawlessly for more than an hour without a crash. I've tried everything, which is why I gave up trying to perfect optimizations for this game myself and just save often. The sad thing is, with all the proper gameplay mods and fixes, I love this game. It's just that the engine is so shitty any way you slice it.
  
  
• Which brings me to another point. Developers, grow some balls and tell your producers face-to-face that a game isn't ready for launch if needed. Nothings more irritating than spending $50 bucks on a game only to discover that you actually need about another 4GBs worth of third-party mods to actually get the game working properly.
  
  
• Super long cutscenes every 15 minutes or so. I paid money to play, not watch.
  
  
• False harder difficulty settings meaning that the harder settings = enemies with more HP, character has less HP, medkits restore less. I f**king hate this approach. (i.e. Doom3, HL2, and just about every other modern FPS out there) I liked how it used to be in FPSs that the harder settings = more enemies to blast.

 

[elkaebee]

Hey, I downloaded the entire Orange Box, including Peggle, with a 40kbps connection that drops out every hour, ans had to re-download after my PC's memory got wiped.

Post has no point, but I felt it needed to be siad.

 

[Saturos]

Hey, I downloaded the entire Orange Box, including Peggle, with a 40kbps connection that drops out every hour, ans had to re-download after my PC's memory got wiped.

Post has no point, but I felt it needed to be siad.

40kbps? Try 26kbps.

How long did it take to download the entire OB? I can't just leave Steam running for two weeks though. I need my PC for other things besides games.

 

[elkaebee]

2 months.

 

[Saturos]

2 months.

That's hardcore. I commend you.

 

[elkaebee]

That's hardcore. I commend you.

I commend you also, dragon of nymphs.

 

[VirusType2]

annoying and/or repetitive looping music that never stops. for the most part - basically most of the old console games, even the good ones.

I'm playing RPG #3242 and it constantly playing some cheesy music in a town, then get in a battle, crappy music #2 starts playing. every time you finish the battle, it goes back to crappy loop #1 - from the beginning again!

in this case, we should have the option of turning the music off, making it quieter, or using custom music.

cheesy town music FTL. Annoying and repetative battle music FTL. after 6,232 battles, it still playing that ****ing endless loop while in battle.

 

[PvtRyan]

CD checks. It's no exaggeration that many of my games go unplayed largely because I don't feel like looking for the CD, swapping the old one out, finding its box, putting it in and then play. Fuck you, I got a HDD for the data that's faster than the DVD drive and it doesn't do a damn thing against piracy. Yay for Blizzard and Valve to getting rid of that stupid shit.

 

[Ravioli]

When there is a highly detailed area/spot and then everything is all low-quality. Like a highly detailed car wrech on a low-res low-detail street. Doesnt fit...

 

[VirusType2]

poor control schemes. often made worse by the inability to change them.

 

[Saturos]

poor control schemes. often made worse by the inability to change them.

Alot like the scenario where those poor fools who bought the PC version of Resident Evil 4, only to find out it was a direct port. Down to the control scheme even. ammirite?

Which brings me to another point.

PC games that have been con-sold, (Deus-Ex: Invisible War, I'm looking at you. :hmph

..and poor console to PC ports. Or games that were really designed for a specific platform, yet the devs see fit to release a half assed port version anyways in an attempt to cash in on that market.
(PC Resident Evil 4 for instance)

 

[VirusType2]

actually with a PC gamepad, I had no problem playing RE 4. The controlls felt just like they should.

All of the RE games were designed to use a gamepad. I didn't expect to, or want to use a kb/mouse.

I agree that the PC port should have used better textures. why they decided to use textures from an inferior version is unknown to me. It doesn't seem like it would have been any more difficult to use the highest resolution textures available. Stupid.

otherwise though, the game is fully intact, and it's a great game with great controls (if you have a gamepad) I'm not a poor fool either, I just don't want a gamecube.

Your point about poor ports stands though.

 

[Saturos]

actually with a PC gamepad, I had no problem playing RE 4. The controlls felt just like they should.

All of the RE games were designed to use a gamepad. I didn't expect to, or want to use a kb/mouse.

I agree that the PC port should have used better textures. why they decided to use textures from an inferior version is unknown to me. It doesn't seem like it would have been any more difficult to use the highest resolution textures available. Stupid.

otherwise though, the game is fully intact, and it's a great game with great controls (if you have a gamepad) I'm not a poor fool either, I just don't want a gamecube.

Your point about poor ports stands though.

/me's head explodes

You actually BOUGHT RE4 for PC?!

My condolences.

 

[LackingSaint]

Gameplay that forces you to try and do the same thing over and over again until you get it right. Often I stop playing games completely becuase of this.

 

[Jintor]

unskippable Cut-scenes.

 

[Rizzo]

Bad sound and look for shotguns.
Lack of dual pistols and uzi.

Not enough ammo.

I kind of like MGS when they tell me to take out my controler and plug it in to slot 2, or find Meryls codec on the back of the CD case.

 

[Kula Meenur]

Cheap gameplay
God AI
Limited installs
Unskippable cutscenes
crap story
terrible gameplay
online activation
games that can only be registered once (ala steam)

concur with all...especially steam...grr

 

[VirusType2]

/me's head explodes

You actually BOUGHT RE4 for PC?!

My condolences.

I don't get it. It's Resident Evil 4. the game of the year back then? It's teh same game. same graphics, same gameplay, same sounds, same everything. It used the PS2 textures in many places, but Game cube graphics in others. Either way it's a great game.

The only thing different is that the PC version has adjustable resolutions. It looks pretty slick at the highest resolution my monitor is capable of. So anyway, that means it's actually better than the PS2 version at least.

Not to mention it was only $20 when it came out for the PC. Brand new. I pre-ordered it.


You haven't played the game so you don't know what you are talking about, and that's probably why I don't know what you are talking about.


Maybe you are referring to the patchless non-US version? Some rendering bug in the non-US versions that was fixed in a patch.

 

[Paulaner]

I hate when RPGs become action-RPGs.