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Generally accepted things in gaming that baffle you

QTE sequences where the button prompts don't even theoretically match up to the action being performed.

For example in recent memory, Homefront. Press X to jump in
mass grave
. Not even going to ask why make it a QTE when you could do it yourself, but if it's got to be a QTE, why wouldn't it be the button used for jumping instead of reloading?

BIONIC-ARRRMMM!! said:
Mute FPS main characters are somehow more immersive
"It's like he's an extension of my actions!!" lolnerds
Pot calling the kettle black.
 
NullPointer said:
* Saving a game, then quitting only to see the warning message "All unsaved progress will be deleted!!!!!". What the hell? It always makes my heart skip a beat and wonder if I'm about to lose all my stuff. I just saved, or how about you save my progress yourself? I like how Borderlands does it - when you quit it says "All your progress will be saved". Thank you Gearbox.

* Games that autosave with checkpoints, but still require you to save the game when you quit or lose all progress. Halo, I'm looking at you.

* Dying and then reloading. Feels archaic in 2011.

* Asking us to press START from the game menu, when you can usually hit any button to proceed.

* Games that confirm confirmations. Lookin at you GT5.

* Load screens that are nothing but a blank screen or little spinning load icon. There are way too many games guilty of this. If I have to wait, at least show me something interesting or let me interact with something. Bayonetta nailed this.

* Games that let you do batshit stupid shit your character would never, ever do. Like walk directly off of a cliff, or jump backwards onto spikes rather than over there to that handhold. At least have the character in game try to stop you at first, or say "Nuh uh", or even look directly at the screen and ask you "What the fuck are you doing?"


I agree with most your stuff there but for the bolded, I am really thankful that you're not a game designer! :P

Personally what I hate is most is having all of those effects to supposedly replace what your eyes can do naturally. I also HATE shit splatering on screen when you're not a camera or behind a visor. I REALLY wonder how ANYBODY can find this even remotely immersive.
 
Santiako said:
What? It's the best kind of multiplayer.
No, it's stupid in its very design. Let's have an already HUD-infested screen be split in 2 or 4 pieces. Let's let everyone be able to see eachothers screen when playing against eachother. Lets downgrade the games visuals to make way for the extra screens, and lets make the sound an incoherent mess when everyone will hear evveryone shooting.

The most optimal multiplayer experience is one that either not requires splitscreen, Like Smash Bros. or LBP.

Or Online.
 
Long, frequent loading times

Low framerate drops

Most types of DLC

and enemies that never run out of ammo.
Fuckers.
 
NullPointer said:
* Games that let you do batshit stupid shit your character would never, ever do. Like walk directly off of a cliff, or jump backwards onto spikes rather than over there to that handhold. At least have the character in game try to stop you at first, or say "Nuh uh", or even look directly at the screen and ask you "What the fuck are you doing?"
Only type of game I can accept a character going against my input is the adventure kind like Monkey Island, etc.
 
Silent Protagonists

Reloading moves the perfect amount of ammo from your bag to your gun instead of actually changing magazines
 
Characters in JRPG's that do crazy shit during FMV or cut-scenes and never once demonstrate that power during regualr battles.

Punching a boulder... that still get me.
 
Ranger X said:
I agree with most your stuff there but for the bolded, I am really thankful that you're not a game designer! :P
Hehe. I'm not asking to remove the player's ability to do those things, only to put on some breaks. For instance, in some games if you try to walk off a cliff your character will hesitate like they're trying to keep from falling off - if you keep pushing you *will* go over the cliff, but you don't have to worry about accidentally jogging off a cliffside from casually moving about. And tomb raider-esque games where Lara knows she's about to jump directly into spikes - yeah, I think she should protest just a little bit, or shake her head, or glare at you first before you take the plunge. In some of these games that's exactly what they do.
 
ronito said:
Why do 90% of all JRPGs have only one battle theme? You spend most of the game battling.

Strong punches on trigger buttons?

Tales of Vesperia switches battle themes two times and also has a separate mini-boss and boss theme, it does a good job. :P
 
ShaneB said:
Floating gun FPS. Where is my body?
Absolutely this. I'm surprised Valve didn't keep legs in for L4D2. Looking down and things and seeing that you're just a floating gun really breaks immersion. Valve really needs to start putting in the rest of the body. Loved it in L4D and Crysis.
 
Unskippable text, dialogue, and cutscenes.

A friend of mine brought KZ3 with the move gun over last night. It made us watch some boring video about the KZ story before we could try out the gun.
 
I can understand not liking splitscreen but why would you want it killed? Unless you have a friend who forces you at gunpoint to play games splitscreen or something. More options are always a good thing.
 
Loading time on menus. Like, after title screen, "press start," then BAM, 20 seconds of loading. Loading what? Fucking... letters, words, fonts??!? WTF!?
and/or logging into EA servers, checking available downloadable content, WHAT DO I FUCKING CARE JUST CUT THE CRAP AND LET ME PLAY DAMMIT
 
BIONIC-ARRRMMM!! said:
Mute FPS main characters are somehow more immersive
"It's like he's an extension of my actions!!" lolnerds
.

This. I like almost every non silent character and merely tolerate Gordon Freeman because the gameplay and design make up for it.
Loved Tommy from Prey, he would often say the same thing I was thinking about "What the fuck?"
 
One thing I never got is games that have both a melee button and fists as a weapon choice (Crysis, for example). It's the same thing, isn't it? Remove the fists from the weapon scroll and let me scroll weapons faster.

Unskippable cutscenes or just a stupid way to skip them (start+select in FF13, I'm looking at you). Just let me skip them with A\X or something and let me rewatch them in a video room in some menu.

In racing games - right analog for both the gas and break pedal.
Complex menus, unnecessary cutscenes\videos (GT5 to all of those).
 
TheExodu5 said:
Lives.

Why does Mario still use lives?

This. So very much this. A lives system is meaningless when you hand them out like candy. But on the other hand, it's just fake difficulty if you have to replay what you already mastered if you run out.

Unskippable Cutscenes, unskippable logos, and not being able to save anywhere are all close seconds.
 
* Asking us to press START from the game menu, when you can usually hit any button to proceed.

Yeah, this one.

To take it in a different direction, if I want to quit in Darksiders, I have to hit escape, then click quit, confirm I want to quit, then I'm taken to the opening screen where I CLICK TO START, then click quit again, then confirm I want to quit a second time before it finally quits. It's a good game and all but could quitting have been made any more convoluted?

Double jump.

Yeah, why don't you say that to my face, tough guy? BOINK!
 
Achievement whores.
Harvest a numerical value out of it and then dump it as quickly as possible to start on the next.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Lives.

Why does Mario still use lives?
Like it a lot in 2d marios

it creates tension when you're only a few lives left from gameover and you finally clear that stage.

Sucks in the 3d ones though
 
Grand Theft Auto storylines

So you're this good guy, see? But, in order for us to justify all the free-roam gameplay elements and random killing of cops and innocent people during and not during the storyline, you're actually, really, a guy that knows that doing totally evil shit is a necessary evil in eventually achieving justice.

Every. Game.
 
anonymousAversa said:
This feature makes the game more fun since people don't have to die and then reload the game over and over. It decreases frustration and increases fun. That's the idea of playing videogames, to have fun.

If the levels aren't hard enough for you, increase the difficulty.

I completely understand why you may be against it, but this is just intended to explain why so it doesn't "baffle" you anymore. Not saying you have to like it.

Fair enough. I just find it baffling that practically every single FPS uses this system. Makes the game too easy when you can take 99% damage, hide in a corner to recharge for 10 seconds back to full health.
 
Count me in against the silent protagonists too. Red Dead is what really decided it for me. I'd rather play a character with their own motives and personality and viewpoint, (and voice!) rather than an everyman mute, or a cipher who is only fleshed out by conversation trees, equipment and stat point choices.

The silent protagonist along with the classic "You start the game not remembering anything" tropes are truly showing their age, but then again any technique can be used correctly, depending upon the game. These are just over-used and have lost their mana.
 
"My system died. Oh well, I'll buy a new one. I always have hundreds of dollars of spare cash lying around for my important hobby."
 
Buzzati said:
Grand Theft Auto storylines

So you're this good guy, see? But, in order for us to justify all the free-roam gameplay elements and random killing of cops and innocent people during and not during the storyline, you're actually, really, a guy that knows that doing totally evil shit is a necessary evil in eventually achieving justice.

Every. Game.

OSCAR. WORTHY. SCRIPT
 
ShaneB said:
Floating gun FPS. Where is my body?
This is becoming a bigger issue now that some games are demonstrating just how important a sense of body really is in an FPS, but my biggest complaint remains the 'midget vision' that is prevalent in so many FPSs (Killzone 2 stands out as I type this but is far from the only example).
 
Majine said:
No, it's stupid in its very design. Let's have an already HUD-infested screen be split in 2 or 4 pieces. Let's let everyone be able to see eachothers screen when playing against eachother.

The most optimal multiplayer experience is one that either not requires splitscreen, Like Smash Bros. or LBP.

Or Online.

You can't think of any reason why splitscreen is needed? Here's a list:

* Doesn't know anyone else with the game.
* Wants to play with family members.
* Great for parties.

It may not be convenient to play on the same screen but is almost the ONLY option for those who want to do the above. It's also great for co-op games (like Portal 2).
 
Buzzati said:
Grand Theft Auto storylines

So you're this good guy, see? But, in order for us to justify all the free-roam gameplay elements and random killing of cops and innocent people during and not during the storyline, you're actually, really, a guy that knows that doing totally evil shit is a necessary evil in eventually achieving justice.

Every. Game.

Winner.
 
Unskippable cutscenes and not putting checkpoints after them. Fuck you Gears and fuck you Arrival.
 
walking around houses/towns ransacking, stealing and destroying items and no one ever tells you off!!! infact its promoted as a good thing to do.....
 
rayner said:
Characters in JRPG's that do crazy shit during FMV or cut-scenes and never once demonstrate that power during regualr battles.

Punching a boulder... that still get me.

RE5 is a JRPG?

But yeah, this is the reason that one scene with the scissor sisters in FFXIII always annoys me.
 
And my all time biggest shooter pet peeve. Enemies that can see you through bushes or behind walls. Is it really that hard to keep enemy AI from seeing through bushes? Really?
 
The Notion, early in gaming and still rampant in a giant fraction of the gaming industry and fanbase that more challenge = better game.

Back in the NES days it seemed to be "the harder it is for you to see all my content the better!".

I never understood that philosophy, but I am emphatic enough to know that some crave their 'nightmare' modes.
 
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