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[Shift!]

Version specific changes to games. Buying a game at launch means you can do the "super awesome friends list achievement" or "bomb surfing glitch;" getting the game a month later means everyone has already ditched the game because their favorite character was patched/nerfed or buffed.

I'm usually very amorous and intimate about games but, that turns me right off. I shrivel up like a prune.

 

[mxgt]

Forced walking sections are the complete opposite of enjoyable gameplay and storytelling.

 

[uceenk]

puzzle even if it was simple thing to solve

 

[redcrayon]

Skill trees and RPG systems in games that don't need them.

Ubisoft towers and endless pointless tat collectibles in games that don't need them.

Please stop making all AAA titles identical.

I don't even think that's petty, it's a genuine criticism of the section of the AAA industry that thinks 'rpg elements', sidequests and collectible bloat are now an essential feature in what used to be just action games. All it does is add bars to fill to see numbers get bigger to tell the player they are getting stronger via the grind, as a replacement for encounters that encourage the player to see they have become stronger through growing skill and experience.

 

[thesonovabeach]

The obligatory "dream" sequence in cinematic games where near the end you dream about your friends/family to show your main character is very insecure, by making you pushing the left stick and nothing else.

- God of War 3
- Life is Strange
- Uncharted 3 (although it has a bit of shooting)
- Max Payne 1 and 2
- Mass Effect 3
- GTA V

Some of these examples are a bit different but please find another way to develop your characters.

 

[AgentLampshade]

Sure I can make [Plot device] for you. Just bring me the materials that no shop has in stock.

 

[Blitzrules240]

Forced stealth in a game not advertised as being stealth.

 

[GRIMREEFZ]

when im adjusting a PC graphic options and the max settings are different, like some max out at "high" and others will say "ultra" - very

 

[iceblade997]

Flinching from taking gunfire that temporarily impedes your control.

Frequently being knocked back or pinned down (complete with QTE mashing to break out of it) in FPSes. Dying Light comes to mind. Fuck those volatiles.

This was my issue with God of War HD. It's very easy for enemies to get me in a cycle where I'm constantly taking damage because I get hit, flinch, and just as I'm about to recover I get hit again.

The one that I dislike most is no autosaves, forcing you to use save points. My gaming time is limited and often "when you can get an opportunity" so if you're going to force me to use save points I have no way of budgeting how long I'll be able to play, and in those circumstances I'm not going to play your game else I run the risk of having to lose progress when I can't keep playing. There are too many other games to play that don't use this system.

It's okay if the game uses them btu has them very frequently, like Tales of the Abyss, but if they're infrequent (God of War HD being another example) then I'm really not inclined to bother.

 

[Aureon]

How is that not a petty issue? The justification you gave contradicts your point. It's a seemingly inconsequential compromise, which on the surface, is very minor and easy to shrug off, but in a game where every interaction and animation is perfectly executed, this petty or minor flaw is exacerbated.
Edit: Apologies, reading your post again I realize that you are questioning whether it could be fixed, not whether it was petty, which is a fair point - maybe it was unavoidable.

Yeah, i edited for clarity five seconds after posting. Had originally written "petty" instead of "solvable"

The issue is that it's not really a flaw, it's (in all likeliness) a very conscious tradeoff.

 

[MysticLeviathan]

I'm playing Fallout 4 and the poor grammar in the loading screen game info things, not sure what to call them, bugs me. You're a AAA game with a multi-million dollar budget, yet can't have proper grammar? Super petty, but super annoying imo.

 

[AlStrong]

startup videos, especially with maximum volume (e.g. Darksiders)

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Grounded attacks being air unblockable in fighting games.

Spoiler

Yes, its Guilty Gear. Yes, it was Axl. Yes, I know about faultless defense. Yes, I jump too much and, yes, I'm still salty about it.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Forced slow walking sections annoy me so much. I want to play the game at my pace, please.

I do have to say though that if I'm alone I'll constantly talk my thoughts out loud so I never saw it as odd when video game characters did that, I'd likely do the exact same in their situation.

.

 

[Omegasquash]

Now, something that has always bothered me - why are we not making use of the clock and calendar now built into all consoles to deal with this. I'd understand if say, it registers you haven't played for a week so it shows you the message again, but if it doesn't detect that week has passed, it shouldn't. Seriously, I have had this idea forever.
In the same vein, if I don't touch a game for a week or maybe longer, I feel it might be nice for it to offer me the option to go through the tutorial again, so that if I touched it for 30 minutes then forgot the controls, I could refamiliarize myself.

Options/Settings -> Item Description Reminders -> Chests | Enemy Loot | Cut Scene

I'm not a UI expert, or even novice for that matter, but a simple toggle like that could save potentially real time.

 

[Triforce141]

Whenever an RPG makes only the current party or Pokemon you had out when the battle ended gain XP.

 

[Jhn]

People speaking over each other. Drives me fucking crazy.

Horizon, which is an absolutely incredible game in almost every other regard, is really bad with this.
You always manage to trigger voice samples from different NPCs and Aloy herself all the time, and they all garble together to a confusing, incomprehensive mess.

"But hey" I hear you inject, "almost all games do that to some degree, whats the big deal with horizon?"

Well, throughout the game, a lot of lore is told through voice recordings you find. And as you find them, you may trigger them to play in the background while you keep rummaging around. Sounds convenient, right?
Right, but later in the game this becomes increasingly annoying since the playback of these clips don't stop Aloy from talking to herself or participating in conversations. Both the audio recordings and these location-triggered conversation events are placed so densely that, if you don't make an active effort to never actually progress when you're listening to something, you're going to be treated to a near-constant cacophony of voices and conversations, garbling together in an incoherent stream of garbage.
It makes me unreasonably angry.

 

[DrArchon]

Forced walking sections are the complete opposite of enjoyable gameplay and storytelling.

This. I know 99% of the time they're there to hide loading screens, but at this point, I'd rather have the loading screen. Chances are the loading screen will be shorter than your exposition dump.

 

[Big Blue]

When subtitles are automatically turned on. I would lose my shit if this was the standard on Blu-ray.

 

[BiggNife]

When subtitles are automatically turned on. I would lose my shit if this was the standard on Blu-ray.

I'm actually the exact opposite. It annoys the hell out of me when subtitles are off by default and the game doesn't ask if you want them on before starting a new game.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Floaty movement. I couldn't stomach Fable 2 because it felt like the MC was always walking on ice.

 

[OfficerRaichu15]

Games with forced tutorials like Pokémon

 

[Flarin]

When an RPG doesn't have a built-in hour count. RPGs usually take a long time to play through and I love to know exactly how long I've been playing them for. Annoys me to no end when they don't have that.

Not in-game per say, but one petty gaming-related thing that I hate is boring spine art for game boxes. One of the biggest offenders is Final Fantasy. Almost always it's just plain white background with black font. Could you put in any less effort? Most people stack games on their shelves with the spine out and that's what you'll see when you look at your shelf. So many companies put cool art or the logo on the spine, and other don't care at all. Annoys me to no end.

 

[sublimit]

Forced walking.

 

[Hoo-doo]

NPC escort missions where your run speed is too fast, yet your walk speed is too slow.

 

[Spikematic]

'Production Babies' credits.


Ooohhhh, you managed to breed. Well done, nerd.


Maybe I would not have found your game in the bargain bin a month after release if you spent more time crunching and less time horn-dogging.

What an uncouth comment. Made me laugh anyway. I'm a bad person...

 

[CAR105 3]

Long hair that dissapears when you put on a hat/helmet

 

[Big Blue]

I'm actually the exact opposite. It annoys the hell out of me when subtitles are off by default and the game doesn't ask if you want them on before starting a new game.

I hate subtitles if the game/movie is in English, it's distracting.

 

[SUPGUYZ]

I talk to myself when I am alone. Especially when I am solving a problem, it helps to concentrate and find new ways to solve it

Same here!

 

[TheChamp]

Cutscene -> walk twenty feet -> cutscene. You don't need me to do that for you game. You just go ahead and finish what you're saying and then I'll carry on.

THIS the most annoying part of Final Fantasy X at parts you are just watching the game

Annoying unskippable minigames.. looking at your Blitzball

 

[Glass Shark]

Terrible fonts in menus.

 

[LinkSlayer64]

I hate subtitles if the game/movie is in English, it's distracting.

I think the needs of the deaf community outweight your annoyance.
or better yet, do what Jak and Daxter did, press square to enable/disable subtitles.

 

[tayls129]

When you start a new game and the loading screen already has gameplay tips on it. It just feels cheap.

 

[Okami Haundo]

I think the biggest (petty) thing for me are games that have too much dialogue that's easy to cut off. I don't want to feel like I need to stand in one spot for 5 minutes just to hear what a certain character has to say.

Honorable mention goes to shitty achievements/trophies. If a developer decides to include an achievement/trophy system, I consider it to be part of the game. As a result, shit like "kill 50000 enemies" just feels like phoning it in. At that point I'd rather they just go without.

 

[TheChamp]

Massively long tutorials that are unskippable... just let me learn as I go after playing the games before or games like this I have a rough idea already

 

[xrnzaaas]

Press X to start. Especially annoying if the game connects to the servers only after you've pressed the button.

 

[ZSeba]

High heels everywhere. Particularly in otherwise solid, protective and lore friendly armors.

I can relate to this

 

[thenexus6]

Main character constantly talking to themselves, basically ruined Horizon Zero Dawn for me.

 

[ebullientprism]

Anytime you do an "interactive" cutscene. Basically just hold forward on the controller while the game vomits exposition.

And of course it is always games with the ABSOLUTE worst writing that do this the most. MGSV's opening hour is the worst recent example I can think of.

Let me skip your shit tier writing.

 

[Spine_Ripper]

Menus/inputs not reacting fast enough. Sometimes I have to press a button twice instead of once. THE WORST

I fucking hate this with a passion. Especially on the arcade/high score type of games where you gotta restart for perfect runs.

PAUSE
*press down, X*
game unpauses, dead, time to watch a drawn out death animation

 

[sugarless]

Jarring sound effects for frequent actions. For example. the sound effects that play in Breath of the Wild when you open the scope (and maybe when you open the map) are too intrusive given the frequency with which you do these things. They're these atonal multi-layered collections of notes that start to drive me insane if I have occasion to use these features multiple times in quick succession.

 

[Neverforget]

Manually switching between keyboard and game pads. Why isn't automation the norm is beyond me.

Unstoppable cut scenes.

Definitely this one as well.

 

[Orochinagis]

Spain subs on my LATAM game
Collectibles because their open word is empty
MC becoming a killer machine out of nowhere but is sentimental frágile to hurt people

 

[SOLDIER]

I was actually going to make a similar thread about Horizon.

I cannot freaking stand hearing Aloy's quips when I'm collecting resources.

I know it's petty, I know she doesn't say something every single time.

But what annoys me is how pointless it is. You collect branches (essentially ammo) and she'll say something like "stocking up" or "more for the trail".

It's like playing a Resident Evil game where Leon says "bullets for my gun" every time he picks up ammo.

Every time there's a new update for Horizon I keep hoping for a "turn useless fucking dialogue off" option.

 

[Big Blue]

I think the needs of the deaf community outweight your annoyance.
or better yet, do what Jak and Daxter did, press square to enable/disable subtitles.

Are you serious?? I'm not saying get rid of subtitles dude, I'm just saying don't make it the default.

 

[Alo81]

No ragdoll interaction in Dark Souls II hugely soured my experience with the game and it still bums the hell outta me.

This drove me nuts in Dragon's Dogma. Totally agree.

On PC one of the first things I did when the game was moddable was make a "running takes no stamina/half stamina" mod, and a "you have 10000 encumberance instead of 300" mod. Hugely benefitted the game.

 

[Dec]

I get pretty pissed if a mouse-driven game has no hardware mouse support. There are cases worse than others (even though absence of this option annoys me always) like Puzzler World which runs at like 30 fps and the mouse is also tied to that frame rate. Like the entire game is clicking on things, if that feels bad the whole game feels bad.

The obligatory "dream" sequence in cinematic games where near the end you dream about your friends/family to show your main character is very insecure, by making you pushing the left stick and nothing else.

- God of War 3
- Life is Strange
- Uncharted 3 (although it has a bit of shooting)
- Max Payne 1 and 2
- Mass Effect 3
- GTA V

Some of these examples are a bit different but please find another way to develop your characters.

Man those dream sequences were so bad in Max Payne.

 

[jm89]

Not having the option to use the r1 button for shooting in an fps instead of the shitty ass r2 button.

If it wasn't for the ps4 button remapping i will seriously not buy your game.

 

[Savantcore]

Are you serious?? I'm not saying get rid of subtitles dude, I'm just saying don't make it the default.

But then the hard of hearing would miss out on everything until they can turn subtitles on, stuff like the opening cinematic and all that. Games that let you toggle realtime do it right.

 

[Ban Puncher]

Boot screens being replaced with epilepsy warnings.


Epilepsy warnings aren't fun and don't get me pumped to pwn noobs.