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Catalix · Jul 20, 2015

Vorpal said:
The thing that annoys me is when voice clips/audio samples are attached to the actions you'll be using most frequently. I picked up The Legend of Dark Witch on 3DS and the character yells "YA" every time a shot is fired (which, in a Mega Man style game, turns out to be pretty much always).

You can turn that off in the audio options though, thankfully.

This was the absolute worst in Silhouette Mirage. Almost all of your main actions are tied to an annoying voice clip. REFLECTOR! REFLECTOR! BAM! BAM! BAM! POWER PUNCH! REFLECTOR! Unfortunately, I don't recall there being any audio options. Great game, but that shit was torture.

Another nuisance is when free-roaming NPCs are constantly blocking your path. Your AI parters have the properties of a brick wall in TLOU, in more ways than one.

SomTervo · Jul 20, 2015

Risev1 said:
Unnecessary crafting mechanics. Seriously, it's like every game that comes out nowadays has to show that it has depth by including crafting in a way that feels very contrived. Most of the time, for example, you're walking around, find bandages, then open up a couple of menus to craft a health kit with those bandages. Can I ask what did this accomplish exactly? Why did I have to craft it in a meaningless manner instead just finding a health kit lying around?

Crafting is nice when it forces a difficult choice on the player. For example, in Last of Us, you have to decide whether or not you'd like to create a health kit or a molotov, each using the same materials but both having totally different uses. It made sense and actually added depth. .

See, I generally like crafting systems, but I fully agree with this post. It must be a lot of work for developers to shoehorn in something which only barely helps their gameplay. I thought Far Cry's was decent because it encouraged you to explore the world, and TLoU's was great but then Dying Light has a giant crafting system based on hundreds of blueprints you can collect, for almost no reason. Seriously, there must be 250 craftable items in the game, and I never crafted more than... Four? Maybe five. Medkits, lockpicks, a certain type of bomb, and one type of distraction item. Those items aside, I never used one of the other 246 craftable blueprints. I still had a fantastic time with the game, but it would have really been worth hugely streamlining the system, ala TLoU, where there are maybe 8-10 crafting ingredients only and items based on those.

It's really annoying when you boot up a new game and, there it is, 'Crafting' in the menu. Assassin's Creed has one of the worst. There is absolutely no need for it. Please I would much rather do stupid side missions/assassinations to unlock new kit. I don't want to hunt and craft. It's not bad gameplay in itself but it doesn't gel with the rest of the game mechanics at all. At least in Unity they got rid of it and made it buy/unlock based (which is what I wanted).

Catalix said:
Another nuisance is when free-roaming NPCs are constantly blocking your path. Your AI parters have the properties of a brick wall in TLOU, in more ways than one.

See, people really complained about this in TLoU, but it never happened to me. Not once. In 5+ playthroughs.

Then my gf started it a couple of months back and was instantly getting blocked by Ellie and becoming really frustrated.

I don't know what it is, but the pace of the game just gels with me. I seamlessly and painlessly go through it every time, I'm totally at one with it. Pity that's not the experience a lot of people have.

Burger_Baron said:
I would love a game where you patch up/bandage visibly the shot area after you have been hit, and the bandage would stay.

This happens in The Last of Us and, IIRC, Left 4 Dead. Get wounded - use first aid kit - character applies bandage - bandage stays on until death/new scene.

In both games, though, they only ever apply the bandage to their left arm. Still, it's a solid compromise. It would be such an unnecessary amount of work to create animations/decals for bandaging every separate body part.

jeemer · Jul 20, 2015

Sayad said:
In your face guessing mechanics in fighting games, MvC3's DHC

(I'm guessing this was meant to be TAC)

I'm gonna go with unskippable cutscenes.

It also bothers me when I have to sit through multiple developer/publisher idents before I can play a game. I don't mind it on first load, but it should be gone after that as standard. It's daft having to manually do it through steam (where possible)

Arulan · Jul 20, 2015

Quest Markers.

I can't begin to describe the atrocities this has wrecked across all of game design. It's ironic how much the idea of open-world gaming has thrived in the minds of developers and players alike, but video games now are perhaps more linear than they've ever been. I'm generalizing a bit, but quest markers are a plague to quest design, open-world design, and player freedom and agency to name a few. The difference between a game that expects the player to think for themselves and is designed accordingly to provide information and agency based on the player's choices and improvisation is worlds apart from one which only asks that the player follow the arrow to the next part of the quest. Even more sad is that it has gone almost entirely unspoken by critics and most players, as if playing without markers was some chaotic antiquity that cannot be bothered with in modern design.

Just to make it clear, because someone always responds saying to just turn them off: Turning them off doesn't fix a thing, the entire game's design is effected by this decision. Villagers don't magically assist you with directions in a game built for markers and numerous other things.

StrangeTaco · Jul 20, 2015

BouncyFrag said:
The 'skin rash' curse imposed on you in Hand of Fate's last level has ruined, until then, what had been a very enjoyable game.

Yeah died three times in a row due to starvation and nothing else, extremely irritating.

Alo81 · Jul 21, 2015

Kinyou said:
Traffic cones come in all shapes and sizes.

Might want to rethink that one...

Burger_Baron said:
One annoying thing I just remembered is that when you get shot in some TPS games, you get visible bullet hole to lets say torso(Max Payne 3), but PC doesn't react to it at all. It sometimes looks painful and I wish I could do something about it, especially when the wound stays there for a while.

On the other hand, if the wound would close up on it's own it would look silly too.

I would love a game where you patch up/bandage visibly the shot area after you have been hit, and the bandage would stay.

I believe MGS3 does this.

Funnily, there is a (I imagine) bug in the game with the arrows of the Fear. If he shoots you with an arrow, it sticks in your body and you need to go remove it in the medical menu and treat it. However, you can actually just do all the treatments except removing the arrow (apply antiseptic and bandage, etc) and it'll naturally heal after a little in game time. For the rest of the game, since the wound is healed, the arrow will stay stuck in your body. So you can walk around the rest of the game straight hedgehog mode if you let yourself get stuck with tons of arrows and only partially heal them.

He1nekenP1ss · Jul 21, 2015

Any section in a game when your character is weak/injured/drugged, and youre forced to advance at slow speed (for more than a few seconds)

SomTervo · Jul 21, 2015

Arulan said:
Quest Markers.

I can't begin to describe the atrocities this has wrecked across all of game design. It's ironic how much the idea of open-world gaming has thrived in the minds of developers and players alike, but video games now are perhaps more linear than they've ever been. I'm generalizing a bit, but quest markers are a plague to quest design, open-world design, and player freedom and agency to name a few. The difference between a game that expects the player to think for themselves and is designed accordingly to provide information and agency based on the player's choices and improvisation is worlds apart from one which only asks that the player follow the arrow to the next part of the quest. Even more sad is that it has gone almost entirely unspoken by critics and most players, as if playing without markers was some chaotic antiquity that cannot be bothered with in modern design.

Just to make it clear, because someone always responds saying to just turn them off: Turning them off doesn't fix a thing, the entire game's design is effected by this decision. Villagers don't magically assist you with directions in a game built for markers and numerous other things.

Fantastic, fantastic post. Wholeheartedly agree.

In parallel I'd add the minimap in open world games. Often ruins quest design and engaging level design.

As an aside, and I hope no-one reading poaches this, but I drafted a design for an open world game where you had to take your map out like an item, and the more you looked at it the more damaged it got. The image literally got more crinkled and more creased and eventually bits fell off and ultimately it would be unreadable. You had to save your maps and treat them with care. If you went on a long journey across the overworld you might eventually lose your map and have to use the sun/moon and directions from NPCs. You had to go to a cartographer to buy a new map, and they were fairly expensive. Worth carrying 2-3 of them.

What's more, there were no quest markers or mission markers. You could just ask any NPC in the game for directions (ala Outcast), it would give you a big directory of people and places you could ask about, and they would point you over, the camera turning to face the direction. Once on-site the main character would say things every few minutes for tips/mission prompts, and the level design would lead you through.

nick_b · Jul 21, 2015

Might be a polarizing opinion but I hated having to press "E" to pick up ammo in Wolfenstein: TNO. It took me out of the game. Basically turned every firefight into kill dudes then run back and forth mashing "E". Sometimes streamlining isn't a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I am all for health packs and other old school sensibilities but this issue was so frustrating to me.

Soodanim · Jul 21, 2015

nick_b said:
Might be a polarizing opinion but I hated having to press "E" to pick up ammo in Wolfenstein: TNO. It took me out of the game. Basically turned every firefight into kill dudes then run back and forth mashing "E". Sometimes streamlining isn't a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I am all for health packs and other old school sensibilities but this issue was so frustrating to me.

I'd extend this to all games where ammunition is weightless, and even to currency. The best mod I ever installed for Skyrim was AutoHarvest, because it let me automatically pick up arrows and gold without disrupting play. It's something I miss in games like Fallout 3/NV now that I've played with it, although it's understandable in New Vegas with its Hardcore mode.

SomTervo · Jul 21, 2015

nick_b said:
Might be a polarizing opinion but I hated having to press "E" to pick up ammo in Wolfenstein: TNO. It took me out of the game. Basically turned every firefight into kill dudes then run back and forth mashing "E". Sometimes streamlining isn't a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I am all for health packs and other old school sensibilities but this issue was so frustrating to me.

I don't think this is polarising at all. There's a fine line to walk where things being too automated, or not automated enough.

In Wolfenstein's case, things are definitely not automated enough. You had to hit the button to pick up bloody everything. Or MGS: Ground Zeroes where you might have three pick-up-able items right next to each other and you have to position the camera to choose the right one.

Then there's Minecraft where it's too automated. You automatically pick up any loose object if you walk over it. So if your friend dies nearby in co-op and you have a cluttered inventory, you pick up all the shit they drop instantaneously and have to sift through your inventory to find their junk. Which is so annoying.

I like the half-way house of Uncharted and TLoU. In those there are very few things you can pick up and you don't need to be looking at them to do it - the character will always bend and grab the item, making it feel like a real mechanic rather than just a meaningless button press. It's got good tactile feedback in comparison to most pick-up mechanics.

captainnapalm · Jul 21, 2015

The disguise system in Hitman Absolution. Single-handedly ruined the game for me, took away all the freedom from past Hitmans.

Vincent Grayson · Jul 21, 2015

At this point, any goddamn game putting weather/blood/etc effects on the screen in 3rd person.

Stop it. Seriously. It adds nothing, and annoys the fuck out of me.

EloKa · Jul 21, 2015

half of the stuff breaks into 1 billion pieces just by looking at it.
the other half of the items are the most durable stuff in existence.

GTA is an example: "okay I crushed through everything, now let's take the short cut and smash through that little wodden fence"

Rektash · Jul 21, 2015

Audio logs.

If you don't wanna put in the work to tell a story, I won't put in the work to follow it. Admittedly this is more about story telling though. Game design in general should always be there to support your storytelling as well as the other way around. There shouldn't be a clear divide between the two.

SomTervo · Jul 21, 2015

EloKa said:
half of the stuff breaks into 1 billion pieces just by looking at it.
the other half of the items are the most durable stuff in existence.

GTA is an example: "okay I crushed through everything, now let's take the short cut and smash through that little wodden fence"

The classic 'Tree Vs Car' conundrum.

Batman: Arkham Knight handled this well.

Nothing

nothing

can withstand the Batmobile's might. Except for the steel-reinforced building walls/foundations, which is fair enough.

HYDE · Jul 21, 2015

Skidd said:
No dedicated jump button. (in Legend of Zelda games)

I hope this gets changed... Bloodborne Dark Souls Demon Souls does it right.

hipsterpants · Jul 21, 2015

Weapon degradation. I shouldn't be punished for adventuring around by having to either make my way back to an NPC or use a limited number of repair kits/items. I'm looking at you Witcher 3.

Markitron · Jul 21, 2015

A game with a tonne of quests only showing me 1 a time on the map. SERIOUSLY ENOUGH WITH THIS. You have to constantly switch between your map and quest screens and change your active quest just to see which is closest.

The Witcher 3 and Borderlands are the prime offenders here, why can't my untracked quests show up as faded out or something?

KarasuEXE · Jul 21, 2015

When Japanese fighting games/RPGs have translated menus and subbed cutscenes, but what the characters are saying during the combat isn't subbed. Damn it, I want to know what he is yelling during the combo!

Caronte · Jul 25, 2015

Single trigger for multiple companion phrases. Seriously, why developers?

This is annoying to me because it just feels so stupid. You make your writers write some funny lines or interesting insight for a RPG companion. The game will probably have 10+ companions. And what do you do? You put a single trigger on the map so the player will only hear/read the comment of a single character, no matter the size of their party. Want to the read the rest? lol, play the same area multiple times until randomly one of your other companions say their fucking line. What a stupid, stupid way to waste a writer's work.

Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Mass Effect and probably more. They are all to blame for this.

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