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[Tizoc]

FUCKING OMOCHAO (Sonic Generations)

You can turn the little fellow off you know from the Options before starting/continuing your game, so if you've still got him On...

hurray thread rename.

Mega Man X5 was pretty bad about this, as well. I REALLY don't need someone telling me like 4 times per stage to watch out for X Y and Z.

Hmm don't remember that from X5, then again I prob. just skipped them?

Worst offender this generation.

Huh?

 

[Tuck]

CoD.
Press X to reload.
I KNOW. I'VE KNOWN FOR FOUR FUCKING YEARS NOW. SINCE COD 4.
Same thing with "Hold Right Stick to Hold Breath"
FFFFFFUUUUUU

Hah, my friend just said the same thing to me today when I told him about the Skyward Sword intro.

 

[Muffdraul]

I noticed this a lot when I was playing Assassin's Creed Revelations and replaying the previous ones right before that. They basically never stop showing you the tutorial messages for certain moves, no matter how many times you've done them, no matter how late in the game.

 

[WrenchNinja]

What I've played of Skyward Sword, it's definitely that type of game.

It doesn't help that the teeeeeexxxxtttt movvveesss slowwwwly.

 

[McNum]

Reminds me, Spider-Man 2 for PS2's tutorial actually treats you like an idiot. On purpose!

"Now, jump off this skyscraper."
*Spider-Man jumps off*
"Do you do EVERYTHING people tell you to? Oh, and you're falling fast towards the ground. Might want to do something about that."

More tutorials should mock the player... Then again, this is the game where you're told that if you find ALL the hidden hint markers, they'll say something different afterwards. Which they do. They all say "Something different."

 

[R_thanatos]

I will be alone , mostly because many of you avoided this title BUT BATMAN&ROBIN ( psx ) is the worst offender ever.

"Press X to guard"
"guard is use to guard"
( timing is off , you get hit by the ennemy )[during the tutorial] What's the point of a tutorial where i'm forced of being hit by the ennemy ?

"Press Circle to jump"
"you cannot jump"
"Jump is used to progress across space where you can't walk"
(meanwhile, since you were already jumping during those prompts, you're.... forced to fall and restart that section )

CONGRATS !!
So glad the team behind this is dead

 

[ViewtifulJC]

All of this gen.

Obligatory.

What would the tutorial be for Mega Man, lets be honest? Press this one button to jump, press this other button to shoot, and this select button to select weapons. Biff bam boom

 

[Dunan]

I noticed this a lot when I was playing Assassin's Creed Revelations and replaying the previous ones right before that. They basically never stop showing you the tutorial messages for certain moves, no matter how many times you've done them, no matter how late in the game.

I found it to be a nice little touch seeing gameplay tutorial stuff shown during the loading screens in AC1. It didn't get in the way of the actual game, and at the same time it kept the instructions in your head. Also, sometimes you forget a game mechanic after learning it and then not using it for a long time, and those little reminders helped.

 

[SykoTech]

Well except Nintendo games of course. That would be too easy.

Well, there go all of my big memories.

But most recently, Sonic Generations. Here's a game that brings back gameplay from 20 years ago, yet this robot that won't shut up is all over the place along with a ton of button prompts. Pretty sure I didn't have all that back when I was two, yet I made it through Sonic games just fine.

Thankfully, you can turn it all off. What Nintendo can learn from Sega?

 

[StMeph]

The one game I can think of that didn't really bother to much with a tutorial was Witcher 2 and I loved it. I died once trying to figure out the controls but after that I was rolling around and slashing fools, blocking and casting signs. It was great, the game didn't treat me like an idiot and let me use my experience with games to figure most of it out.

annnnnd then I came to here and other sites and all I saw was moaning about how hard the prologue was because they didn't tell you what to do and how to do it. The reviews also complained about it, nevermind that I believe people who get paid to professionally play games should actually know how to play them for the most part.

Quoting because it's being skipped over by scrubs who whined about it before.

For whom developers without brass balls are making these design choices in other games.

 

[Om3ga]

Ctrl + F, Skyward swo.... oh shit it's in the OP. I think this game was trying too hard to be accessible. I'm loving the game, but it's just annoyances like this that can ruin the experience a bit.

The biggest annoyance though is non skippable text! You can barely even speed it up... But thats not what this thread is about.

Most games this generation do quite a bit of handholding and babysitting, nothing can hold a candle to SS though. This a new level of hand holding that I hope doesn't return for the next Zelda game.

 

[Snakeyes]

Every Uncharted game. The whole game is a thinly veiled straight line from start to finish.

 

[Lindsay]

lol'ing at this Zelda stuff. The sloooooow text crawl, unskippable scenes, and what stuff is an what to do is what made me quit OoT after less than an hour or something.


I hate how in Phantasy Star Portable 2 doing HARD mode story missions the game will still pause during the tutorial screens. Except those screens are only present in the normal difficulty version of those missions. In hard mode the game pauses but nothing pops up. I'm playing hard mode for crying out loud which was unlocked when I beat the game the first time! I know what to do! Really annoying since they're pretty decent for MP grinding. -.-

Most games this generation do quite a bit of handholding and babysitting, nothing can hold a candle to SS though. This a new level of hand holding that I hope doesn't return for the next Zelda game.

Its only gonna get worse! Zelda went from a slow paced adventure game to a snails paced *camera zooms out shows you everything coming then your navigator tells you how to traverse it* game.

 

[thomaser]

The reason it is like it is in Skyward Sword is that a very large number of people who buy Zelda-games never manage to play through them. Nintendo spends a lot of time testing their puzzles, levels, bosses and so on to make sure that anyone can pass them eventually, and most people are simply not good enough to figure everything out by themselves. So we get all of these tutorials and hints just to make sure that even the bad players can get through. It's bad for all of us who have played every Zelda-game, but necessary for everyone else.

I'll never forget the time I recommended Wind Waker to a man in the late 30s, and he came in a couple of days later to complain about the game being too hard. He couldn't figure out how to get out of Outset Island...

I agree that Nintendo should implement a "are you familiar with Zelda?"-mode to let us "experts" figure out things by ourselves.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

One that stands out from early this gen was Enchanted Arms, that shit had a tutorial on how to climb a fucking ladder (yes, press X!)

 

[MidnightCowboy]

As much as I love the games, the platforming in Uncharted is pretty much holding forward and pressing X a bunch of times.

 

[dragonlife]

One that stands out from early this gen was Enchanted Arms, that shit had a tutorial on how to climb a fucking ladder (yes, press X!)

It was a joke because Asuma is a fucking idiot.

 

[WickedLaharl]

The beginning of asscreed revelations is the most recent offender for me. So annoying.

I mean I've played this game 3 times already dammit.

 

[WillyFive]

I turned off Omochao before I started the game, but it made the game sound incredibly empty, so I turned her on again just to hear her talk.

 

[06nbarnhill]

Huh?

Ya the person claiming FF XIII is an offender is smokin somthin.

Twas m first console FF game and I think that part of the game was masterful.

 

[sublimit]

The vast majority of this generation with a few exceptions like the Souls games.

 

[Medalion]

Skyward Sword apparently according to GAF, but I don't mind it some of the time

 

[Treemonkeys]

While I see what you are saying, cover is used in DXHR to scope out your surroundings without being seen. It's a vital part of stealth and very much not stupid. It may not be as cool as the good old lean keys from DX1 or Thief, but it's far from stupid.

I think it's stupid too, so I have to agree with him. It's giving you an out of body experience to make stealth easier, in a game where the AI already makes it stupidly easy.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Most games do this but after playing the Sonic Gen demo and hearing this all the time:

FUCKING OMOCHAO (Sonic Generations)

I was like NOPE. Not going to try any of your shitty Sonic games ever, Sega. No matter how people say they are "great" or "breaking the Sonic cycle". Furries can keep that character but I am not going to touch it with a 5 foot stick.

 

[Tain]

The first huge offender I can think of is Okami, but there are countless games that do this.

 

[X26]

Splinter Cell: Conviction

 

[Tain]

Most games do this but after playing the Sonic Gen demo and hearing this all the time:




I was like NOPE. Not going to try any of your shitty Sonic games ever, Sega. No matter how people say they are "great" or "breaking the Sonic cycle". Furries can keep that character but I am not going to touch it with a 5 foot stick.

to be fair, you can and should turn him off in the options menu

 

[PetriP-TNT]

to be fair, you can and should turn him off in the options menu

I can also ducktape Big The Cat out of the screen but nope.

 

[Tain]

one of these is more reasonable than the other

 

[sixghost]

Huh?

The game takes 20-30 hours to introduce you to a battle system that's not as complicated as it first seems, and takes no longer than 5-8 to learn. 15 hours in they are still forcing you to fight with only 2 party members at times which makes the combat much much less interesting. Maybe 30 hours in they finally let you upgrade as you wish and select your party members and leader.

Combine that with the complete removal of any sort of overworld or exploration from the first 30 hours and it makes you feel like they don't trust you to do anything other than hold the left stick forward and mash A for 30 hours.

 

[Haunted]

99% of modern FPS games also assume that you have never played a game of this type before, regardless of whether I start at the lowest or the highest difficulty setting - meticulously explaining the most basic shit every single time. Add to that the increased linearity of the most popular shooters demanding that the player be shepherded through small areas with no sidetacking (as that tends to break triggers) - so to keep him on that narrow track you have
1) people constantly shouting at you what to do and where to go
2) reading these instructions and having them constantly displayed and
3) a big fat arrow on your HUD and the minimap.

Impossible not to feel slighted and like you're a stupid fucking idiot while playing.


First thing I did before playing Sonic Generations is turn that shitty helper and all the button prompts off. Really an option that should be available in all games.

on my way into the volcano temple i have to collect all the key parts, but when i enter the hot/player burning area, fi tells me that i will not have to go this way to find the key parts ...
of course i was ignoring her and then found the key parts when i moved right in the area she told me not to go -_-

No, she says that you shouldn't really go in there because it's too hot. Then adds that if you absolutely have to go, you should double-check your dowsing directions so you don't go the wrong way. I just played that part, so it's still fresh in my mind.

 

[Muffdraul]

I found it to be a nice little touch seeing gameplay tutorial stuff shown during the loading screens in AC1. It didn't get in the way of the actual game, and at the same time it kept the instructions in your head. Also, sometimes you forget a game mechanic after learning it and then not using it for a long time, and those little reminders helped.

I'm talking about when you're in the act of exploring a tomb or whatever, and as soon as the way forward means doing a backwards wall jump, the tutorial box pops up. Not only is it unneeded since I've already performed that move a fuckton of times during the game so far, but it's also overly hand-holdy, assuming I'm too stupid to figure out how to progress on my own. If they insist on this "no player left behind" policy, they could at least put something in the code to track the number of times you've pulled the move off and forego the tutorial. i.e. "OK, this guy has already successfully performed the backwards wall jump 20 times. Apparently he gets it."

 

[LightOfTruth]

insert Ubisoft game here

 

[DR3AM]

i actaully like the press X to reload in CoD because it tell me when im running out of ammo

 

[Fuu]

Obligatory.

That was great.

 

[cuyahoga]

Kirby Air Ride

 

[Ferro]

The biggest offender for me Castlevania Lords of Shadow. The text at the top of the screen with the shimmering glow would pop up all the time with the most basic stuff. You come to a gap and it will point out that you have to jump (and this in like chapter 2 way past the tutorial part) I don't really know if it does that for the rest of the game because I stopped playing shortly after I I had to do a fetch quest where you have to find 4 or 5 purple crystals while a girl would keep telling you every 5 seconds how many more crystals you have find. That was really annoying.

 

[Blizzard]

It may not really fit in the thread, but since people were mentioning games pausing, it was super annoying in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit when you would be trying to race with friends and two things would happen:

1. If you crash/take out someone, the view switches to like, a mini cutscene thing as it happens, and THEN you can start playing again. This is in the middle of a high-speed race. Maybe it doesn't happen in multiplayer but I just remember it being kind of ridiculous.

2. In between two races, you have to wait a minute or two while 3 people in the lobby let the unskippable, slow, new car video play. Then you can start another round.

 

[BGBW]

Really Nintendo? I need that guard to tell me the same unskippable shit over and over if I fall off a cliff?

Well stop ignoring him and listen to what he says i.e. stop jumping off cliffs. Clearly his repeated warnings have made no impact on you which is why everyone else has to suffer. You'll never reach knighthood now.

 

[RoboPlato]

The biggest offender for me Castlevania Lords of Shadow. The text at the top of the screen with the shimmering glow would pop up all the time with the most basic stuff. You come to a gap and it will point out that you have to jump (and this in like chapter 2 way past the tutorial part) I don't really know if it does that for the rest of the game because I stopped playing shortly after I I had to do a fetch quest where you have to find 4 or 5 purple crystals while a girl would keep telling you every 5 seconds how many more crystals you have find. That was really annoying.

You should really keep playing. The first two chapters are kind of sketchy but that game is absolutely fantastic. One of my favs this gen.

 

[2th]

All of this gen.

Obligatory.

that was 20 minutes of my life i do not even want back. damn that was good and makes me want to play some good old fashioned 16 bit games.

 

[Sinatar]

Most modern day shooters:

- You're going down a straight "hallway" (whether that be a forest, city, whatever).
- You have a minimap with the objective marked, which yes is straight ahead.
- You have a gold star on your screen marking the objective again.
- You have NPC's talking to you over the radio/whatever telling you where to go.
- There are NPC's fighting with you, once of which has a giant FOLLOW over his head.

Again all to go down a straight linear path.

 

[Necronomikon]

Post-2006 games?

Fixed!

 

[Pinko Marx]

has anyone said FFXIII yet?
because FFXIII.

 

[K.Jack]

On the polar opposite end, I think The Last Remnant could have used some serious tutorial, for that freaking battle system.

I enjoy figuring out little details on my own, but it forever feels like there something awesome which I'm too blind to realize.

 

[Vustadumas]

Something that recently bugged the shit out of me, is when you click the upper right hand corner "X" to minimize Origin, and that annoying ass pop-up comes up, telling you that Origin is still running. Grrrrr. So unnecessary.

 

[Jive Turkey]

I found Zack & Wiki's constant hand holding to be so intrusive I couldn't finish the game. For those of you who haven't slogged through that piece of crap here's what happens:

I found a tool! Sweet!

Oh...It's just the Slither Gripper. I've used these before. It was the first tool I've ever found I know how to use this.

WHY? Why are you still teaching me how to use this damn thing? Why can't I turn this off? Why is there a short yet unskipable scene every time I switch tools? Most importantly why is there a naked half-man in the corner demonstrating the proper motions the entire time?

 

[Alex]

Ghost Trick, and several adventure games in general seemingly love to outright solve their own puzzles for you if you take more than 30 seconds to complete them.

For otherwise competent games, not much tops the multi hour intros of the last two Zelda games though. Giant blemishes in pacing and design on otherwise fantastic games.

 

[deim0s]

What I really miss is stuff like optional tutorial levels. Something like what was in Splinter Cell 1, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex 1. They give you a quick runthrough of all the games major game mechanics, but are completely optional. Nowadays, devs want to integrate them into the beginning of the game and make them mandatory.

Because this makes a 3hr game feel a bit longer.

Uncharted 2 annoyed me with something like "hold L2 to lob a grenade" then locking the controls. I could've done better with the shotty that I am using at the time.

 

[plc268]

FUCKING OMOCHAO (Sonic Generations)

Woah. Holy shit, why bother even playing the game if the game is going to tell you exactly what to do?

I mean, stuff like that is fine, if you relegate it to a "very easy" difficulty level, or at least make these hints optional with them turned off by default.