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[Zabka]

So Gordon Freeman has more depth because when Alyx talks to him he just stands like a dummy without as much as nodding in agreement, really?
Yeah, no.

You're supposed to talk out loud to the characters as you play. Don't you have any imagination?

 

[Codeblue]

Dual Analog in certain games. It's pretty much mandatory to have both thumbs on both sticks at all times yet controls are still mapped to the face buttons.

 

[Salsa]

Illusion is a better word IMO.

agreed

 

[Jerk]

Wait, are you another Jerk or are you Jerk 2.0 with a different avatar and downgraded username?

Same dude.

 

[frogg609]

So Gordon Freeman has more depth because when Alyx talks to him he just stands like a dummy without as much as nodding in agreement, really?
Yeah, no.

I always make him nod. Maybe I'm just weird.


My turn: 85+ dollar "collector OMFG limited special editions" of games that come with crap. I wish when we get our wallets raped that the artbook was bigger than a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper folded. Or I could get a disc of the music, and not a download code for some pre-compressed MP3s. If you want me to oogle you're art, print it big enough to see you cheap bastards. Or heck, look at something like the Bioshock 2 Collectors for how a special edition should be done.

 

[Shanlei91]

Mute protagonists - they make me feel like I'm on a Universal Studios ride.

Lack of customizable controls - I hate going from one FPS to another and the sprint button is somewhere completely different.

Inability to bring a guest on the same console online with me - Halo does it but for some reason almost every other game refuses to admit that I have friends in the same room as me.

Praise of GTA-style city sandbox games - They are all just the same four missions repeated over and over. Yet people love it, they praise it, they boo a game when they hear it's linear. I always felt sandbox games could be made with a simple mission editor and hearing Infamous 2 sports an editor players can use only confirms that suspicion.

 

[qq more]

HUD in games that aren't:

1) Flight sims

2) Your are the Terminator

How can devs not see how they ruin immersion with this ridiculous convention from 1980's arcades?

Wait, what? What about platformers like Mario? Mega Man?

I hope I am just reading your post wrong.

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

1) When I press start, the game should pause. I don't care if I'm playing, watching a cutscene, on a load screen (auto-pause as soon as the loading is complete); if I have to suddenly leave for whatever reason, I should be able to do so.

2) I should be able to save and quit at any time (during gameplay, at least). I don't mind if the save file is deleted upon reloading (preventing you from making a safety net whenever you feel like it), but similar to my first point, if I need to stop playing, I need to stop playing. Don't penalise me for that.

3) Let me skip cutscenes. Being forced to watch a bad cutscene repeatedly after dying is excrutiating.

4) Let me skip tutorials. I don't always need to have my hand held.

5) Get rid of the lives system. It was established by arcade games to milk people of their money, and older games that compensated for their short length by making the game incredibly difficult and requiring you to restart if you failed too many times. We should be well past this by now. Being made to replay a particular part of a level/whatever when you die is fine, but having to go back and replay even more when you've died an arbritary number of times doesn't make things any more difficult; just a waste of time.

6) Don't have "points of no return" in open-world games, ESPECIALLY if you're not even going to tell us about them. Nothing is more infuriating than reaching a point in a game and then suddenly realising that you can't go back, because you've passed a point of no return, and saved. On a similar note, if you only get one chance to do something, let the player know.

 

[ultron87]

- Unpausable cutscenes
- Cutscenes that get skipped on a single button press

Every game with cutscenes should pause them the first time you hit start. There should then be a menu that has "resume scene" and "skip scene" as options.

 

[BIONIC-ARRRMMM!!]

good job reading

Maybe Orwell should've made Winston a mute in 1984 (even though he can really talk lolz), so I can feel the depth of his character and his emotions towards what's happening to the world.

Spoiler

I used the example because you like the book reading type, nothing more

 

[Augemitbutter]

stuff that's impossible to figure out by playing the game normally and a guide is necessary. rpgs love to do this, but that's not the only genre infested by this atrocity. i despise every programming asshole on the planet doing this.

dlc, online passes and all the other crap that will hopefully crash the industry soon.

doom and gloom everywhere.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, pretty much the Valve-style mute protagonist thing somehow being more "immersive".

Also, WRPGs have good stories while JRPGs have shitty stories. Boggles the mind when you consider the typical Bethesda/BioWare tales that people are quick to apologize for in the western press.

 

[Mik2121]

Not quite the games themselves, but still related...

All the people that think they know oh so much about gaming and the gaming world and try to make some stuff sound like a fact when it's just another opinion usually far from the truth.

This isn't just related to game 'journalism' but also random people like in this thread.

 

[The Technomancer]

Maybe Orwell should've made Winston a mute in 1984 (even though he can really talk lolz), so I can feel the depth of his character and his emotions towards what's happening to the world.

Spoiler

I used the example because you like the book reading type, nothing more

The problem is that the opposite is just as bad. Having a voiced/cutscene-active character just reminds you that you aren't actually controlling the character, you're just a little id that takes over for the shooty sections.

 

[BIONIC-ARRRMMM!!]

I always make him nod. Maybe I'm just weird.

I do that sometimes too haha

 

[Salsa]

Maybe Orwell should've made Winston a mute in 1984 (even though he can really talk lolz), so I can feel the depth of his character and his emotions towards what's happening to the world.

Spoiler

I used the example because you like the book reading type, nothing more

That's cool, i was using hemingway in a "less is more" way.

We agree to disagree, there's nothing more to it.

 

[Myriadis]

People who think that games are unplayable because of the graphics annoy me.I am currently playing Goemons Great Adventure and Mega Man 2 for the first time and I'm really enjoying it,thank you.

 

[NullPointer]

stuff that's impossible to figure out by playing the game normally and a guide is necessary. rpgs love to do this, but that's not the only genre infested by this atrocity. i despise every programming asshole on the planet doing this.

This keeps me from playing most hardcore Japanese titles, as that seems to the norm.

 

[Neuromancer]

I hate FPS's where characters talk. Who cares about immersion, it's annoying!

Duke Nukem gets a pass, that's about it though.

 

[SoulPlaya]

Save points. In 2011? Come on, I've got things to do, and I can't wait another 20 minutes for another save point.

 

[HK-47]

Also I hate the recent trend of conversation options not actually reflecting what I'm going to say.

 

[Seda]

Why do 90% of all JRPGs have only one battle theme? You spend most of the game battling.

Some games are really good with this (Tales of, The Last Remnant, Tri-Ace games) but some are exactly as you mention (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy generally).

I guess my contribution is that I don't like regeneration in modern FPS game,s which I saw has been mentioned a couple of times in the thread.

Splitscreen. Kill it now.

I agree for splitscreen competitive. But splitscreen co-op is awesome.

In fact, I will never buy an FPS without some sort of splitscreen co-op, be it campaign or just some separte missions. Easily improves the replayability.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Also, most WRPGs and JRPGs have shitty stories.

Fixed.

Edit: Wait, were you calling out people who subscribed to that?

NVM then.

 

[BIONIC-ARRRMMM!!]

That's cool, i was using hemingway in a "less is more" way.

We agree to disagree, there's nothing more to it.

Sure thing, I hate arguing online

 

[SneakyStephan]

DLC
30 fps
no splitscreen in racing games (what the what?)
screen tearing
bugs bugs bugs (especially a nono on consoles with fixed hardware)
everyone is a winner design
60 dollars (at least give me a proper manual and a proper box if you are going to try to charge me an arm and a leg).

 

[BobsRevenge]

The glorification of killing people isn't really considered creepy by most gamers (including myself).

 

[Fimbulvetr]

The glorification of killing people isn't considered creepy by most gamers (including myself).

Probably because, when most games try to acknowledge death caused by the protagonist and show that it's not all good, it becomes extremely jarring. See: UC2, AC2, etc.

 

[Swifty]

Wait, what? What about platformers like Mario? Mega Man?

I hope I am just reading your post wrong.

I think Dennis' point was that heads up displays break the immersion in games which don't have a physical construct in place that explains why you're receiving information readouts. For example, modern fighter jets have glass panel HUDs that display your altitude, navigation steerpoints, attitude, and velocity. In Metroid, Samus's helmet has a HUD painted on her visor.

In other words, in makes sense that the Master Chief has readouts showing him his ammo, current weapon, and shield levels since he wears powered armor while Sgt. Razmirez, with his standard issue kevlar helmet, probably shouldn't be getting all that info.

 

[bj00rn_]

- Forced music (Can't turn music down or off) like in Call of Duty or Halo: Reach
- Ice-skating animation (Feet not locked to the ground)
- Floating guns (No visible body/feet) in FPS
- Checkpoints..
- Checkpoints RIGHT BEFORE a cutscene or any animated sequence
- Non-skippable cutscenes

...Hmm, well to be fair I guess some of these are not really accepted amongst gamers, but for some odd reason they are still accepted by a large number of developers.

 

[Lonely1]

Dual analog for FPSes.

 

[ultron87]

- Ice-skating animation (Feet not locked to the ground)

This is a technical limitation more than anything else.

 

[7threst]

Maybe for most English gamers it is not an issue, but it used to piss me off that 'subitles' in the option-menu most of the time is turned off. Maybe that is to create some sort of 'cinematic experience' or something, but I think it's really annoying. Now, if I play a new game, I always enter the option menu first and go over every option.

 

[Forkball]

Why can I carry only 30 different items, but I can carry 99 of the same item?

 

[SneakyStephan]

Dual analog for FPSes.

Ding ding ding winner.
Report at the front for your prize.

 

[Seda]

Now, if I play a new game, I always enter the option menu first and go over every option.

I think a lot of people do this.

Yeah, it gets really annoying having overworld background music constantly being interrupted by the same old music theme that in no way blends or matches the ambiance or atmosphere of your current surroundings. Imagine, walking through a dank, dark cavern with ominous music in the background then... UPBEAT BATTLE THEME!

I wonder why JRPG designers haven't put much thought into developing more dynamic music that takes into account of the current overworld and has an appropriate predefined battle track that can seamlessly be played after the overworld track stops. Then it won't seem like you're listening to a different and disjointed track.

Also, most JRPGs worth their salt do acknowledge this. My favorite example would be Zanarkand and Bevelle dungeons in FFX (which is a funny example, because FFX largely is a violater of having only one main battle theme.) But then for every ToV there's a Infinite Undiscovery, lol.

Also, just thought of this. Characters always shouting their battle moves in the exact same manner in Action JRPGS (like Tales/SO). They should at least record the move's name a couple times for variety, and allow for some more general "take this!" general battle shouts.

SIDE KICK DIMENSION DOOR SIDE KICK DIMENSION DOOR SIDE KICK DIMENSION DOOR

 

[Seda]

edit: sorry double post

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

That's the generally accepted opinion I would say, and I find that opinion baffling.

IMO the less shit on the screen, and the more the developers can "hide" these necessary elements in plain sight while reducing clutter the better.

 

[Soulscribe]

Cheesy catchphrases in fighting games. They have the resources and time to write better lines, get better voice actors, etc. WHY oh WHY do we always settle for these ridiculously bad and campy victory statements? Soul Calibur is one of the worst offenders. Well they all are.

"BEWARE MY POWER"

"JUST KIDDING!"

 

[Danneee]

Extremely low quality stories.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

I think people now -- given their lament with the plethora of paid DLC -- will look back nostalgically at what I'm about to say, but it's always been odd that people embraced locked out content at all, especially when talking about modes, levels, or characters in multi-player games. "I like the feeling that I'm being rewarded for playing," or "it compels me to keep going forward" are excuses that, when taken at face value, are admissions that the game in and of itself wasn't rewarding enough on its own to play just for the sake of playing.

Maybe it seemed like a not terrible idea the first time you were playing through something, but good lord did it suck when you'd find yourself attempting to play the game and, for whatever reason, the save file with everything unlocked wasn't available. And developers and gamers alike often defended this as a good design philosophy!

 

[ultron87]

Also, most JRPGs worth their salt do acknowledge this. My favorite example would be Zanarkand and Bevelle dungeons in FFX (which is a funny example, because FFX largely is a violater of having only one main battle theme.) But then for every ToV there's a Infinite Undiscovery, lol.

I just wish that JRPGs with fairly regular battles would resume the Overworld theme instead of restarting it after every battle. I can think of a few dungeon or overworld themes that get really cool a minute or so in, but you only ever hear the first thirty seconds.

Or even better, they could do some crazy dynamic transitions from Overworld -> battle theme -> victory theme -> Overworld. *swoon*

 

[Marleyman]

Nintendo first party games.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Wow, reading through these comments I can't help but wonder how come I disagree on MOST of the points some of you guys make instead of merely some. Maybe I am just stuck in the 90's

 

[TheOddOne]

Nintendo first party games.

...whut?

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Maybe it seemed like a not terrible idea the first time you were playing through something, but good lord did it suck when you'd find yourself attempting to play the game and, for whatever reason, the save file with everything unlocked wasn't available. And developers and gamers alike often defended this as a good design philosophy!

Are you also talking about stuff like unlocking new abilities as you play the game? Because what you're suggesting could effect game balance, as well as tutorializing.

 

[Marleyman]

WAT.

I have tried over the years to recapture what made them special in my youth but it just doesn't work. To each his own; just answering the question that was given honestly.

 

[dave is ok]

I prefer mute protagonists until video game writing catches up with good TV or film.

Silence is preferable to snark

 

[Akuun]

- QTEs
- 5 unskippable logo screens before the game starts
- DLC
- People talking while fighting in fighting games. You don't have to say something every single time you do a move.
- Highly polarizing moral choices. You are either a huge goody two-shoes or a completely sociopathic and sadistic asshole.
- A obsession with being "gritty", "xtreme" or "edgy"
- An obsession with overly orchestrating everything the player goes through, or an obsession with not giving the player any direction at all (sometimes removing any incentive to play the game). Too much of either one is bad.
- Forced online multiplayer in games that do not need it
- Obsession with being realistic
- Forced or halfassed references/tie-ins with other games in the same series.

 

[BobsRevenge]

Probably because, when most games try to acknowledge death caused by the protagonist and show that it's not all good, it becomes extremely jarring. See: UC2, AC2, etc.

Probably because the game forcing you to do it basically throws you into a deliberate and authored cognitive dissonance. Which is, imo, something designers shouldn't do. At least in UC2 I didn't really see any artistic significance to it. Seemed like tossing a bone out to the people who called out the first game for having such an every-man killing dudes like it was cool. hahaha

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Are you also talking about stuff like unlocking new abilities as you play the game? Because what you're suggesting could effect game balance, as well as tutorializing.

I'm talking mainly about things like unlockable characters in a fighting game. I'm not talking "Metroid-style" level progression.