Video Game Pet Peeves

[figmentPez]

Everyone has some little things that bug them about games. What's been getting on my nerves lately:

1. Save game menus where the newest save is at the end of the list. Gah! I am sick of having to scroll down past old stuff to get to where I left off. I'm looking right at you Telltale! Such wonderful game design, horrible save menus. Other games have done it as well, like Fable: The Lost Chapters.

2. Games with control functions that aren't listed anywhere but the in-game tutorial. The worst offender I've come across lately is Far Cry 2, but I think I've run into the problem with Red Faction Guerrilla and possibly Batman: Arkham Asylum. I really like when games walk you through the interface in game, gradually showing you how to do new stuff. I find it works a lot easier than just a manual. However, Far Cry threw function after function rapid fire at me with little chance to use one before coming across the next. By the time I needed to change zoom on my map again I'd forgotten what key did it. It wasn't in the key-bindings, Gametap didn't have a manual available (and I didn't really want to have to Alt-Tab out of the game to read a PDF anyway), so I ended up having to press buttons until I figured out how on my own. (Once again, Fable makes this as well, only it has functions that are never explained at all.)


What annoying little bits are bugging you about games?

 

[GasBandit]

Drives me nuts when the first level of a game demonstrates how awesome your character is when fully unleashed, and then it takes it all away except for a blunt wooden knife and makes you build back up to badass all over again step by step... only to let you remain a complete badass for less than a half hour before the game is over.

 

[Necronic]

Can't stand "fake" complexity. Main one I remember is the wireframe models in SC1 that showed localized damage. Which meant fuck all.

Small fonts that can't be adjusted (go fuck yourself mass effect.)

Lack of balance in item drops and in game economy (mass effect again, but tons of games do this.)

UI UI UI UI UI UI UI UI UI UI. Fuck.

Not able to program my own keyboard layout (Fallout 3)

JRPGs

 

[Covar]

"open" ended games that are actually closed.

Invisible walls.

Bad Camera. It's 2010 already this should not be an issue.

Basically out of date game design. I'm not saying old games suck, rather when new games have problems that have been fixed/changed years ago. like invisible walls and save points.

 

[AshburnerX]

Any game where they give you two dozen moves to perform, but only one or two of them are actually worth using.

Any game that uses the excuse of Sandbox Gameplay to make up for a shitty story.

Any game that cuts content in it's Western Release or gets an expanded version we will never see in the US.

 

[Disconnected]

Autosave - I don't know why this ires me so, it just does. Though some games do this amazingly well. Others not so well.

Control set up hand holding. - I am an old coot that can actually sit and read a manual before playing a game. Wasting valuable kick ass game time with 'tutorial levels' is... well... wasting my time. Stop pausing my action and let me play. Side note, this development in game design came about because of you dang kids and your rock n roll being to impatient to read and jumping into a game only to be frustrated by the fact it isn't telling you how to jump.

 

[GasBandit]

Any game where they give you two dozen moves to perform, but only one or two of them are actually worth using.

.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Endless desert areas.

Underwater levels (and water temples).

 

[AshburnerX]

Endless desert areas.

Underwater levels (and water temples).

I disagree with Underwater stuff... if they do it right, it's awesome. If you want to see underwater areas done right, try Endless Ocean 1 or 2.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Endless desert areas.

Underwater levels (and water temples).

I disagree with Underwater stuff... if they do it right, it's awesome. If you want to see underwater areas done right, try Endless Ocean 1 or 2.[/QUOTE]

Aren't those just undersea life simulators?

I mean games that are mostly on-land, and then there's an underwater level somewhere in it with different controls, camera work, and sometimes an air meter to take into account.

 

[General Specific]

• Unskippable cut scenes.
• Huge bosses that have only 1 tiny weak point or are only vulnerable during certain times.
• SNK Boss Syndrome
• Bosses that are one-shot kills (I'm looking at you, Fable 2)
• Games that advertise a "morality" system that actually consists of choices between hug fuzzy bunnies or destroy the world
• Getting your character to a point of nigh invincibility only to be felled by a cutscene foe.
• Having a character equipped with a gas mask only to be taken out by poison gas. (KotOR 2)

 

[Gusto]

-No mid-mission checkpoints.

 

[phil]

I hate it when there's a spike in the difficulty. Puzzle games will do this every now and again. Levels 1-4 are a joke, and 5-9 are ok but when 10 comes around you might sit there for a half hour trying to even figure out what to do.

 

[GasBandit]

Games that require external "launchers," and/or have 3-5 unskippable video logos before the main menu. WHEN I CLICK THIS IT MEANS I WANT TO PLAY NOW KTHX BYE

 

[Espy]

Not being able to jump over a 2 foot high fence or hedge.




Seriously, what the hell? (LOOKING AT YOUR RE4 & 5)

 

[Cajungal]

I hate it when I lose.

 

[Gusto]

That fucking dog keeps laughing at me.

:angry:

 

[Cajungal]

What're you playing, Fable 2? You're paranoid, he's just barking.


....

 

[Gusto]

.

 

[David]

-Giving me a max inventory weight system, than telling me I'm over the limit for picking up a freaking blueberry.
-Areas so black that I can't see anything. There's "creating a dark setting" and then there's "I may as well be button mashing with the screen turned off."
-Making me learn skills that don't really do anything and are just as big a pain to learn as any of the more common skills.
-Creating stats that can essentially only be leveled by standing there and grinding an action. I don't wanna cast "minor health restore" on myself 1000 times in a row just to be able to learn the more useful version, or leveling up my sneaking ability by sneaking around in a circle next to somebody who's asleep.
-Giving me the "battle" music so I know something's charging at me, but giving me little or no way to see where it's coming from until it's right on top of me dealing damage.
-Level-scaled enemies. I don't want to get killed near the starter city at level 25 as easily as I do at level 1. If something's too strong for me, I should be able to come back after much experience and kick everything's ass.

 

[Silver Jelly]

-Giving me a max inventory weight system, than telling me I'm over the limit for picking up a freaking blueberry.
-Areas so black that I can't see anything. There's "creating a dark setting" and then there's "I may as well be button mashing with the screen turned off."
-Making me learn skills that don't really do anything and are just as big a pain to learn as any of the more common skills.
-Creating stats that can essentially only be leveled by standing there and grinding an action. I don't wanna cast "minor health restore" on myself 1000 times in a row just to be able to learn the more useful version, or leveling up my sneaking ability by sneaking around in a circle next to somebody who's asleep.
-Giving me the "battle" music so I know something's charging at me, but giving me little or no way to see where it's coming from until it's right on top of me dealing damage.
-Level-scaled enemies. I don't want to get killed near the starter city at level 25 as easily as I do at level 1. If something's too strong for me, I should be able to come back after much experience and kick everything's ass.

I think a game with these problems should be blasted into oblivion.

 

[Kitty Sinatra]

I just finished up an Oblivion clone called Two Worlds. It had a skill called "Unhorse Strike" which you used to unhorse your opponent . . . but I never saw a single mounted opponent during the entire game.

 

[Frank]

I just finished up an Oblivion clone called Two Worlds. It had a skill called "Unhorse Strike" which you used to unhorse your opponent . . . but I never saw a single mounted opponent during the entire game.

Jesus, you actually played through Two Worlds? I played the demo for 2 minutes and never bothered again.

Anyways

-Ice Levels, fuck em now, fuck em forever.
-Forced motion controls, whether it be not being able to use the classic controller in Wii Mario bros (don't give me that bullshit that the motion actions couldn't be mapped to sticks or buttons) or pretty much any Sixaxis segment of any games.
-Unskippable cutscenes directly before hard as fuck boss fights. There's nothing more rad than having to watch the same terrible God damn cut scene before the boss kicks my ass in 10 seconds.
-DRM
-Lack of decent manuals. Remember the Fallout game's manuals? They were huge, well made and generally hilarious. Baldur's Gate basically shipped with a video game players hand book for D&D. Now all we get are 4 stapled together black and white sheets.

 

[Hailey Knight]

It's because many people don't real the manuals anymore.

 

[Frank]

Nah, it's all bottom line thing. It's why during the age of large PC game boxes, they also stopped putting jewel cases inside, instead opting for the terrible little paper slip cases. Anything they can do to make 2 or 3 more cents a copy.

 

[Kitty Sinatra]

Jesus, you actually played through Two Worlds?

Yeah, and I even enjoyed it. The voice acting was atrocious, and it felt incomplete, but I enjoyed it.

 

[@Li3n]

-Lack of decent manuals. Remember the Fallout game's manuals? They were huge, well made and generally hilarious. Baldur's Gate basically shipped with a video game players hand book for D&D. Now all we get are 4 stapled together black and white sheets.

I for one wouldn't even mind if they where only in .pdf form...

 

[RealBigNuke]

You know, you can actually mod pretty much every one of those features out of Oblivion, David. Makes it a much, much more playable game. Ditto for every other game Beth's ever made.

- Uncontrollable, terrible camera angles.
- Fist weapons that take about 6 seconds to swing. (As in DMC and all of its million clone franchises)
- Gratuitous dimorphism ( Take your breastplate off and hand it to a woman, it becomes a bikini )
- Imaginary Armor (As in every Final Fantasy)
- When sneaking up behind something and shooting it in the back of the head fails to kill 100% of the time
- Games with horribly boring and inaccurate stealth and sneaking systems
- Games that disproportionately gimp pistols, even large caliber ones.

- Google-translator grade translations. Cheap shitty dub actors. Bad compression. Changing things for 'cultural purposes'. Nation-exclusive release dates. In fact, all the crap Japan pulls when they port games here and that we pull when we port to the UK. Fuck those guys. And us guys.

 

[AshburnerX]

- Gratuitous dimorphism ( Take your breastplate off and hand it to a woman, it becomes a bikini )

This has always bothered me too, especially when it's a game your supposed to play from the first person.

- Imaginary Armor (As in every Final Fantasy)

Agreed. It's one of the reasons I loved Legend of Legaia... you could actually see the armor!

- When sneaking up behind something and shooting it in the back of the head fails to kill 100% of the time

Agreed, with the exemption of when they give a good reason for why this won't work. (I.E. It's a robot and the parts controlling it aren't in the head, it's got more than one head, it's a skeleton and there's nothing inside the head to hit, etc.)

 

[Seraphyn]

- Invasive DRM, which basically boils down to anything beyond a cd-key/disc check.
- Unskippable logo's/cinematics.
- Inability to pause cinematics.
- Schizophrenic difficulty curves.
- Bland level design.
- Crafting systems that add next to nothing to the game.
- 'Sexy' armors.

 

[figmentPez]

- Half finished "side-quests". Especially those that should have been dropped from the get-go in order to focus on the main game. The Zelda series is a minor offender. The Kin-stones in Minish Cap and the enemy sculpture gallery in Wind Waker (why didn't they use the post boxes to mail in photos?) spring to mind. Other games, like Fable, have almost everything feeling like a hastily-finished idea that should have been fleshed out, if there hadn't been 50 other similar ideas being worked on in parallel.

 

[RealBigNuke]

- Half finished "side-quests".

I see your half finished side quest and raise you one half-finished ending. KOTOR 2 and lots of FPSs are guilty of that.

Oh, also:
- Hey, buy the sequel! endings. God of War and Halo.
- x3 for Hey, buy the sequel! Except first you have to buy a new console for $400!. Again, god of war, halo.

- 'Sexy' armors.

At the very least take away their entire armor value and give a 'chafing' damage-over-time effect.

Oh, and on that subject...
- Archer characters with gigantic breasts. Physics, hello?

 

[CynicismKills]

-Awesome skill on paper, useless ingame
Mass Effect 2's Infiltrator can stealth. You can get through never using it, and anytime I did my party just ran in like fucking morons anyway.

 

[Necronic]

Stealth mechanics/stealth builds being poorly balanced to either be unusable or I WIN buttons.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Sudden quick-time events during what has been for several minutes a normal cutscene.