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[phosphor112]

BF3 loadout screen.

I can't stand that I can only view one weapon at a time. At least the in-game loadout screen shows a grid of weapons.

BF3 everything screen. The fucking UI while playing is just icons in your face telling you where EVERYTHING IS. Fucking glowing letters as well.

HEY I WANT TO SHOOT SOMEONE. THANKS GAME, I'M AT POINT B.

Oh, I want to kill someone!? THANKS GAME I KNOW THERE IS POINT A 300m AWAY DIRECTLY BEHIND THIS GUY.

 

[rar]

http://youtu.be/xO8Uf7kWO-g?t=10m33s

http://youtu.be/OrA_Mwu4KTk?t=5m9s

i meant what is appealing about a ui or hud that looks thrown together? how would it not be better if the ui design was consistent and visually pleasing? especially when they're pushing shootmania to be an esports title. it's important that it looks legitimate to a casual stream viewer who is watching the game for the first time. i don't think it's beneficial if the hud looks it was slapped together in a few days by a programmer for a university project

 

[fabricated backlash]

Look at that sexy black and blue gradient. 10 seconds in photoshop.

Only if you fuck it up twice and have to hit undo and redo it with a different orientation.
Gradients. My old design teacher used to fail students using gradients in any of their work.


But since this thread is about User Interfaces, which is primarily a functional category, much less an optical one (unless it actually is detrimental to the functionality) I'd say that pretty much every RPG on consoles has had god awfull UIs. Front and Center are Bethesda and their absolute shite UIs for both Oblivion (yay, PC menus navigated with a pad) Fallout (a bit better, but the PIP boy graphical style meant that it's visuals became actually detrimental to it's usability)

Mass Effect 1 gets an honorary mention for actually managing to rivaling Bethesdas abominations with much less items, options and complexity to go around. Quite a feat.

BF3 everything screen. The fucking UI while playing is just icons in your face telling you where EVERYTHING IS. Fucking glowing letters as well.

HEY I WANT TO SHOOT SOMEONE. THANKS GAME, I'M AT POINT B.

Oh, I want to kill someone!? THANKS GAME I KNOW THERE IS POINT A 300m AWAY DIRECTLY BEHIND THIS GUY.

Another very good example of visuals getting in the way of functionality. With BF3 the UI really get's the shit end of the stick.

Oh, let's throw some more dust on your glasses so you have an even harder time seeing shit.
Why have some glowing letters, slow loading menus, unwieldy loadout customization as well.
But boy look at dem grafix.

 

[lazer_bean]

the UI in dark souls is just too big. I like it otherwise but they should have made it smaller.
Also, i hate the fact that while resting at on bonfire, you cant drop the items that you're carrying in the bottomless box or you cant consume souls. No, you must do that before resting or exit the bonfire , do what you gotta do and get back to the bonfire.

anyway, it's not too bad but it could have been better

 

[spats]

Even though I love the game, Killzone 2's seizure inducing menu. Not the worst, but a good case of more is less.

Yeah, I love that menu.

 

[Ryaaan14]

Came to make sure Halo 4 was posted. Good.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they decided that was an acceptable UI.

 

[Havok]

Why is Halo 4 in here? It looks really rad and the only flaw that comes to mind is that isn't as snappy as it could have been.

Because it's a ridiculously huge step back in functionality and elegance from past Halo games, which had best-in-class UI? Because fundamental things like the postgame carnage report showing the overall score for a match are missing? The UI for that game is a great example of a developer prioritizing form over function and performance.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

So are me and Kanye West the only ones who get emotional about fonts

Because seriously, fuck a good 2/3rds of font choices in games. It's at its worst in scifi and fantasy games, but it's a plague everywhere. Modern Warfare 2's multiple fonts on screen at once were barfy.

 

[Goldenroad]

So, this thread would have me believe that around 50% of the worst video game UI's EVER came out in the last month or so. Am I the only one that doesn't really buy that?


I also just don't care that much about a UI so it's hardly something that sticks with me after I finish a game regardless of how bad they are.

 

[see5harp]

So are me and Kanye West the only ones who get emotional about fonts

Because seriously, fuck a good 2/3rds of font choices in games. It's at its worst in scifi and fantasy games, but it's a plague everywhere. Modern Warfare 2's multiple fonts on screen at once were barfy.

I don't even mind serifs but whatever they used to do with those Elder Scrolls games is an abomination. Readability while maintaining some sense of style within the game is the sweet spot for me. Those FF remakes on iOS basically use high res helvetica and it looks worse than oblivion to me. At least Oblivion fits the look of the setting and menus.

I also just don't care that much about a UI so it's hardly something that sticks with me after I finish a game regardless of how bad they are.

I really don't care if it's a game I am enjoying like Halo 4. Once you are in a match there's no big deal. For games like Mass Effect 1, it was irritating to constantly manage inventory with the huge list, but it was by no means gamebreaking.

 

[BrokenEchelon]

What is with every HD Japanese ever picking fonts where the t e x t i s s p a c e d o u t a m i l e a p a r t i n a b l a n d a s f u c k s a r i f f o n t?



L O A D I N G . . .

 

[Deified Data]

Had no problem with this UI. So much better than Skyrim's. Maybe it's because I play on console, and Oblivion's UI is sort of designed for console-use.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

I don't even mind serifs but whatever they used to do with those Elder Scrolls games is an abomination. Readability while maintaining some sense of style within the game is the sweet spot for me. Those FF remakes on iOS basically use high res helvetica and it looks worse than oblivion to me. At least Oblivion fits the look of the setting and menus.

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't think all games need to be in Helvetica or anything. I just think that you can fit a font into a game in an aesthetically pleasing way without just going "well durr it's a fantasy game so swoopty handwriting fonts!"

Pixel-art games with big crisp fonts on iOS are equally the worst.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Had no problem with this UI. So much better than Skyrim's. Maybe it's because I play on console, and Oblivion's UI is sort of designed for console-use.

Skyrims was also pretty bad, but it does not make this one good.

 

[Ollie Pooch]

Borderlands 2 PC inventory interface is fucking awful. Not sure if it works any better on consoles or not.

Was going to post this. Its awful - in coop it's borderline unusable.

 

[Deified Data]

Seen some worthy entries, but you don't even know the horror of:

Oh my God. I didn't know anyone else on GAF ever played this game.

 

[WiiredShawn]

So are me and Kanye West the only ones who get emotional about fonts

Because seriously, fuck a good 2/3rds of font choices in games. It's at its worst in scifi and fantasy games, but it's a plague everywhere. Modern Warfare 2's multiple fonts on screen at once were barfy.

I'm with you on font choices. I never was attracted much to Oblivion's interface because of the "medieval" serif fonts. I liked Skyrim's UI better if only for this reason.

Also, seeing the PlayStation All-Stars UI seriously made me do this (also, I've been looking for a place to use this GIF):

That is crazy bad. Like, I am utterly shocked that it passed QA.

 

[Ricker]

Both Witcher games have pretty awful UI's...

 

[see5harp]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't think all games need to be in Helvetica or anything. I just think that you can fit a font into a game in an aesthetically pleasing way without just going "well durr it's a fantasy game so swoopty handwriting fonts!"

Pixel-art games with big crisp fonts on iOS are equally the worst.

I do like what they did in Halo 4 with menus and fonts. It isn't exactly readable because of how stylized it is in game, but it looks slick. To be fair to Bethesda, I've never really loved their choice of fonts or the way their menus work. I thought Fallout was pretty strange for the first few hours.

 

[Snuggles]

Had no problem with this UI. So much better than Skyrim's. Maybe it's because I play on console, and Oblivion's UI is sort of designed for console-use.

The one major advantage it has over Skyrim's PC UI is the visible character model in the equipment menu (showing equipped weapons, armor, et)c. I love that shit. Drag and drop item equipping/unequipped is always appreciated too.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Had no problem with this UI. So much better than Skyrim's. Maybe it's because I play on console, and Oblivion's UI is sort of designed for console-use.

Horrendous on PC. I loved Morrowind's menu, you could resize and close parts of it that you didn't want to see, and the inventory worked wonderfully.

 

[Haunted]

Lots of bad designs here

Ninja Gaiden 3. Vertical fucking writing. When you have to tilt your head to read menus, it's not a good sign.

but this is the one that actually made me go what the fuck.

 

[John Rabbit]

you cant drop the items that you're carrying in the bottomless box or you cant consume souls. No, you must do that before resting or exit the bonfire , do what you gotta do and get back to the bonfire.

anyway, it's not too bad but it could have been better

uh, the only time you can access the bottomless box is at the bonfire...

Why do I need a map of the entire track?

i actually appreciate this in racing games. i'd like the option to turn it off once i've gotten proficient at the tracks, but i like seeing whats coming up and where the other racers are in relation to me.

Why do I need to know how fast I'm going?

because it's fun.

Had no problem with this UI. So much better than Skyrim's. Maybe it's because I play on console, and Oblivion's UI is sort of designed for console-use.

oblivion's UI on console is a total disaster. tabs within tabs? a completely asinine crafting interface? almost every button does some menu-specific action? it really shouldn't be that complicated. skyrim handled it much better (for consoles, SkyUI is what it should have been for PCs and even that is more fun to use with a controller).

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Biggest waste of 30 dollars ever, you can't even pick items up. The sole reason I stopped playing this game. Well.. that and it ran like crap on my computer.

For god's sake put the name of the game in your post!

 

[Deified Data]

Horrendous on PC. I loved Morrowind's menu, you could resize and close parts of it that you didn't want to see, and the inventory worked wonderfully.

Morrowind's customizable menu was definitely superior, I agree. Minimize all the screens you never used and enlarge the ones you use constantly.

 

[Conciliator]

I like Playstation All-Stars UI, it's retro

Spoiler

of a time when uis were terrible lolololol

.

I've made it my mission on these boards to whine about Assassin Creed's III's UI, and I will do so again. It is so bad. And what makes it worse is that an organization of hundreds of people, who have successfully made entirely acceptable UIs for previous games in the same series before, all agreed that this UI is good. I mean, they had to, right? Ubisoft is not going to say "let's make a terrible UI on purpose because it's funny." That sounds like a Cactus kind of thing. What the fuck happened? It is one of the modern world's foremost mysteries.

EDIT: Exception is the 'crafting' UI, which I KNOW was purposely designed to be as god awful as possible. There is simply no other rational explanation for its existence.

 

[Snuggles]

but this is the one that actually made me go what the fuck.

they needed to save room for that sweet silhouette on the left

 

[lazer_bean]

uh, the only time you can access the bottomless box is at the bonfire...

yes. i meant if you're equipped with a sword for example you cant drop it in the bottomless box, you must have it unequipped and then you can drop it. But you cant unequip while at the bonfire.

 

[Diprosalic]

Playstation All-Stars UI is just lazy but at least it works, Halo 4 is so much worse. It made me angry while playing it.

 

[NameGenerated]

Halo 4's 'lobby' UI is bad, but I got used to the main 'card' stuff pretty quickly.

 

[Odrion]

Had no problem with this UI. So much better than Skyrim's. Maybe it's because I play on console, and Oblivion's UI is sort of designed for console-use.

Yup. On the other hand: SKYRIM. Holy shit that UI is awful for EVERYONE. Did Microsoft fucking design it?

 

[chubigans]

Really disliked Ridge Racer Unbounded (sorry for the crappy pic):

They decided to wrap some of the UI elements, such as position and time, as projections on the side of the track. The problem is it's (a) incredibly distracting in a racing game, (b) not providing any useful info that's not already in the main HUD, and (c) is constantly ahead or behind the HUD on screen, which leads to two different totals on screen at any given time.

Gah!

 

[PflargBlarg]

You've gotta be kidding me. BL2 was way more user friendly than BL1.

Maybe, but I played all the way through Borderlands 1 and had a great time.
I got Borderlands 2 with a video card and played it literally for 45 minutes before I wanted to rip my eyeballs out. I haven't touched it since then.

 

[KevinCow]

Borderlands 2 PC inventory interface is fucking awful. Not sure if it works any better on consoles or not.

This reminds me:

Borderlands 1 on consoles. When you played it split-screen, they didn't change the interface to fit half the screen. No, they just used the same interface, still the size of the full screen, but you could only see half of it at a time and had to move it back and forth with the right stick.

 

[Odrion]

Maybe, but I played all the way through Borderlands 1 and had a great time.
I got Borderlands 2 with a video card and played it literally for 45 minutes before I wanted to rip my eyeballs out. I haven't touched it since then.

Nah, I really dislike B2's interface as well. Sure, you had to deal with the fact it was designed to be used by a controller, but at least Borderland's UI followed logic.

 

[Sophia]

Isn't that shot of Oblivion the Darnified UI? Pretty sure the actual default UI on the PC side was even worse.

 

[Sentenza]

Biggest waste of 30 dollars ever, you can't even pick items up. The sole reason I stopped playing this game. Well.. that and it ran like crap on my computer.

Looks actually a lot better than most inventories in games today.

 

[Doctor Decimate]

PS All-Stars.

i've seen better mock-ups on here that look one hell of a lot better than the final product

 

[Deleted member 102362]

Isn't that shot of Oblivion the Darnified UI? Pretty sure the actual default UI on the PC side was even worse.

Correct. The default UI has much larger font.

 

[soqquatto]

What is with every HD Japanese ever picking fonts where the t e x t i s s p a c e d o u t a m i l e a p a r t i n a b l a n d a s f u c k s a r i f f o n t?



L O A D I N G . . .

my short answer would probably make me lose my posting privileges forever. I hate japanese titles with a passion, working for a localization company. JP developed titles usually have inane lenght restrictions in text, like 30 characters x 3 lines, no autowrap function. hoping to fit anything there is pointless. stupid-spaced characters are used because they "like" (there must be a better explanation but I prefer this one) double byte characters instead of single byte, those generally fit better with kana and kanji. as a side fun effect to that, a double byte letter is effectively different from a single byte letter - meaning they won't show up in a search if you don't use the correct version. stupid all around...

 

[see5harp]

my short answer would probably make me lose my posting privileges forever. I hate japanese titles with a passion, working for a localization company. JP developed titles usually have inane lenght restrictions in text, like 30 characters x 3 lines, no autowrap function. hoping to fit anything there is pointless. stupid-spaced characters are used because they "like" (there must be a better explanation but I prefer this one) double byte characters instead of single byte, those generally fit better with kana and kanji. as a side fun effect to that, a double byte letter is effectively different from a single byte letter - meaning they won't show up in a search if you don't use the correct version. stupid all around...

Truly enlightening.

 

[soqquatto]

Truly enlightening.

my bad, I get easily carried away. shortest polite answer was supposed to be "they use the wrong letter version because they think it looks better"

 

[jasonng]

Oh my God. I didn't know anyone else on GAF ever played this game.

I have. Spent a good amount on that game too. Made myself a few sprites that became popular among friends (my favorite was Metaknight from Kirby). Nostalgia is hitting me hard, I totally forgot about this game.

 

[PAULINK]

I guess no one played Dead Island on the console. It felt like it was optimized for the pc and then they ported it over to consoles with the most sluggish input lag I have ever experienced in a menu. It was one of the factors that made me stop playing.

 

[see5harp]

my bad, I get easily carried away. shortest polite answer was supposed to be "they use the wrong letter version because they think it looks better"

No I wasn't even trying to be sarcastic. I honestly thought they just liked to pick the dumbest looking fonts because their localization teams just had horrible taste.

 

[Zips]

On Vita:

As much as I like the game...PSABR

Its functional...but the barest of bones

Did the same people work on these two menus or something?

 

[Xav]

 

[Salsa]

The Playstation Battle Royale ones look pretty bad, but I don't think this is good either.

I like all the Smash Bros UI stuff a lot. Even if it can be somewhat confusing at first glance, at least its aesthetically pleasing and fits with the whole thing (announcer screaming all the time, big stadium-like event going on, etc).

and yeah fuck this stupid-ass shit:

 

[Sophia]

That's not really fair. These are dated screenshots and examples of very poorly designed custom user interfaces. Here's a much better example of a custom UI

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

As someone mentioned earlier this year. Modern Warfare 2's UI is a mess. Dunno how BOII turned out.

Too much shit going on.

Sting makes FPSs?!?