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Small quirks in great games that bug the shit out of you.

What's a slight oddity in a game that puts you off way more than it should?

I was just thinking about this last night while playing Vice City Stories: Every time I left my apartment, the first two, maybe three vehicles were ALWAYS police cars/motorcycles, and I ALWAYS had to walk at least a block before I found a vehicle I could actually steal.

After failing a mission like 6 times, I started getting really frustrated even though it's barely even worth considering a flaw. Ended up turning the game off over it, but that's just because I have no attention span.

You?
 

Dascu

Member
No log in Zelda games showing you which Heart Pieces/Skulltullas/Poe Souls/Etc. you've found already. Running around Hyrule frantically looking for something you might've missed can be very frustrating. The bug log from Zelda TP was a step in the right direction.
 

MegaTen

Banned
I'm very open-minded about playing and enjoying as many games as I can, so I'm usually very tolerant in terms of a game's little flaws.. but the first thing that comes to mind is Dead Rising's save system. Oh, and Sonic(next gen) loading.
 
Headshots not being immediately lethal in Deus Ex- Invisible War... that drove me batshit insane.

Also the bizarre ragdoll physics that engine utilized... you see it in that game and Thief 3.
 

BojTrek

Banned
For me it is fans in MLB, NBA, NFL games that have the same animation and exact timing of the animation or clones in the audience...

2K Sports is getting very good at having fans do different things at different times... but normally it drives me insane...
 

adelante

Member
Auto-grabbing ur enemy in Streets of Rage get to me sometimes...i'd find myself in between two henchmen but because I'm "busy" grabbing one's head, it takes a teeny bit more time for me to turn around and face the other to kill him.
 
Marcus in Gears of War.
The best one was during the whole "LOOK AT ALL THAT JUICE" segment. I'm hiding behind a rock and one of the elites hits Marcus with a torque arrow. Just before the arrow explodes Marcus runs up next to me and blows me up but he doesn't so much as flinch.

Quite a few 2D shooters.
Whenever I die and have to grab all of my powerups. Hearing some variation of "POWAH UPPOOH" x425432? is so annoying...and embarassing if other people are watching. :(

revolverjgw said:
Also the bizarre ragdoll physics that engine utilized... you see it in that game and Thief 3.

That was the best thing about Deus Ex 2. No offense to the maingame or anything but I had loads of fun killing people and tossing their corpses at guards. The Xbox version was loaded with weird bugs(you could kill people by throwing them in the shower..what?) and it was by far the best 4.99 I ever spent.
 
Another one- in NHL 94 for Genesis, too many backhands. You'll throw the puck back to the point and the animation for the one-timer for a D-man was often a freaking backhand. Bugs me.
 

mgoVEX

Member
"LOOK AT ALL DAT JUICE!!!"

Bad save points and cuts scene that you couldn't skip through.

I had Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi and the Japanese voiceover option was great, but having to go through the menus and choose it each time instead of it just saving the settings was a pain.
 
One more... the sheathing animation in Final Fantasy 12. It lasts like half a second, but over the course of 70 hours that half a second was multiplied by about a million and it added up and drove me nuts.
 
revolverjgw said:
One more... the sheathing animation in Final Fantasy 12. It lasts like half a second, but over the course of 70 hours that half a second was multiplied by about a million and it added up and drove me nuts.

The best was when there was a treasure chest nearby and 90% of the time I tried to open it while sheathing and brought up the battle menu instead.

Not the worst FF ever but it certainly made me want to think that during those occurences.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Context sensitive A button in 3D Zeldas... I've frequently "rolled" when I meant to "pick up"... annoying.
 

Bulla564

Banned
In Okami,

Maybe there was a way to "turn it off", but after the 15th hour, having to click through the "function" of the same items you had picked up 20 times already, was annoying as hell.
 
Gears of War:

Despite the graphics trying so hard to convince you of the game's realism, dead people could be kicked around easily like a rag doll. Oh, and after you cleared a section, your teammates who needed to be healed earlier just got up and were fine again.

That bugged the HELL out of me.
 

Tieno

Member
The sound of the SMG and the stationary guns in (Halo and) Halo 2. It just sounds so off, like some toy. One of the only things I dislike about the games.
 

Oneself

Member
NSMB: Repetitive soundtrack
Lost Planet: Collecting energy to keep warm near lava
Okami: S l o w
t e x t
s p e e d

Gears of War: CPU ally reapearing next to you in single player mode / or resurecting once a room is clear.
DOA series: Cheap AI
Burnout Revenge: Single race? Time attack?
 

-Rogue5-

Member
Dead Rising's save system.

Gears of War for pretty much everything except the graphics and the "it" factor. I like the game so much, even though it's got some hefty problems.
 

winalot

Member
When you have to hear the same lines of dialogue over and over or other such things that drag out a much used process, like in a shop for example, Viva Piñata being the most recent offender in my collection.

Bad save points, like Gears and also RS:V from what I've heard. Another thing about Gears, too many commands on one button so the game can end up second guessing what you want to do...and get it wrong.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Poor looking guns/hands in first person shooters. If you spent the whole game in this perspective, and an element which is ALWAYS present on screen looks terrible in motion, it really ends up detracting from said experience. FEAR is a great example of what I'm talking about.

It also exhibits another problem which annoys me and that is a lack of weight in character movement.

Another thing about Gears, too many commands on one button so the game can end up second guessing what you want to do...and get it wrong.
I loves me some Metal Gear Solid, but those games have the same problem. They rely so heavily on pressure sensitive button presses that it becomes easy to mistakenly perform an action you did not intend to. Not a huge issue in single player, but it pretty much ruins MG-Online...
 
dark10x said:
Poor looking guns/hands in first person shooters. If you spent the whole game in this perspective, and an element which is ALWAYS present on screen looks terrible in motion, it really ends up detracting from said experience.

Oooh, good one. I remember playing Condemned when the 360 launched and the main character's gnarled up, wooden hand was scarier than anything else in the game. Okay, maybe not.
 

theBishop

Banned
winalot said:
Bad save points, like Gears and also RS:V from what I've heard.

Man, Resistance is kicking my ass because of its checkpoints. I was determined to beat it this weekend, but when i died on this bridge and had to go back and redo 15 minutes of bombardment, i just put it down.
 

Durante

Member
Strategy games where you, as the host of the game, have to check some "ready" box to launch a game. It's just such a nonsensical design choice. Always bugs the hell out of me. (And my resultant rants greatly amuse my non-CS-studying, non-hardcore gamer friends playing with me)
 

Oneself

Member
Oh I totally forgot two of the features I hate in most games:

Flashlights that shuts off after 30 seconds in "dark" games.. come on, you can quickly turn it on a couple of seconds later. Batteries don't work like that. That's completely stupid.

Shooters with a maximum of one weapon at a time + melee and grenades. (except for Condemned cause it was well done)
 
Archer said:
The AI for the Call of Duty series SUCKS.

The animation in COD bothers me, something about it is hauntingly unnatural, especially the way bodies drop after they die.

I also hate how it depicts a war devoid of blood and guts. Not because I'm a sicko, but because... something just ain't right. It's too sanitized and fake.
 
Hitting Triangle in Resistance to activate an elevator and instead hitting it with my rifle butt.

Travel times in WoW. That's a big thing, actually, not a little thing.

GTA again... when all of a sudden, a lot more of whatever model of car I'm driving shows up all over the place. Limited Ram = boo.
 

Tieno

Member
dark10x said:
Poor looking guns/hands in first person shooters. If you spent the whole game in this perspective, and an element which is ALWAYS present on screen looks terrible in motion, it really ends up detracting from said experience. FEAR is a great example of what I'm talking about.
I played the 360 demo of Fear and the walking animation felt all messed up. Especially when you stopped. Felt like I was drunk, walking like a duck.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
RPGs often have slow ass text that can't be sped up. That is, unless you push a button, but this button usually also activates things, so if they stop talking you might start the covnersation over again, or if they give you an option you'll select the first before you even realize it's there.

In some Zelda games a skip button will skip past the ENTIRE conversation, not just one window of text, so you have to go through slowly if you want to know what they say. In Dragon Quest 8 they had an ok skipping function, but sometimes it wouldn't let you use it. It's text has this annoying rattling sound it made as it typed out, and I don't like how it would start to type out new lines and make the rest scroll up as you were reading it.

Why can't they just be like Final Fantasy? One box of text at a time (it types to fill the box, no scrolling), you read it, you push a button for the next box (or sometimes line). It's simple, goes at your pace, is easy on the eyes to read and it works. You can also skip through and not accidentally start over again, and there are even options to adjust text speed.

Another one is in Splinter Cell 2 and a couple other games: Oh, I just SNIPER SHOT YOU IN THE FREAKING EYE but it doesn't hurt because you have a helmet on. Riiight...

No log in Zelda games showing you which Heart Pieces/Skulltullas/Poe Souls/Etc. you've found already. Running around Hyrule frantically looking for something you might've missed can be very frustrating. The bug log from Zelda TP was a step in the right direction.
Especially the Poes in TP, ugh. I quit with something like 4 left.
 

JB1981

Member
not being able to walk when crouched in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, or using the sniper rifle (worst use of sniper rifle controls in any videogame ever).
 

D.Cowboys

Neo Member
In Doax2. Things that happen similiar to this. When a girl gets knocked down and the other partner can't move even though you are pushing the right analog stick. In other words freezing my actions so the AI can catch up. There is no reason for me not to be able to move Hitomi over to the middle of the court after the girl I am playing is knocked down.

Same thing with PSO, when using certain guns you had to stand there for a little bit before you could move even though you were done firing.

Things like Gears of War when the dev implements "cool" instead of practicality. The CNN camera while running is just plain lame and controls like shit. Makes it harder to do what I want.

I want my character to do what I want when I want. If I am legitimately attacked I have no problems. Things in Ninja Gaiden where the frames skip and I get caught by Doku even though he wasn't close enough to grab me.
 

Grifter

Member
How can anyone hate the resurrecting AI in GoW? Do you want to rez the idiot AI every time? A problem though is that you don't wake up for free in co-op, which leads to bugs when the story's supposed to kick in.

I get aggravated real easy by minor things but the save system in DR was clearly part of its design and adds to the experience.
 
DeaconKnowledge said:
Breath of Fire - I hated it when you took out the boss meter and he still didn't die.

Yes and instead the boss goes into Ultra-mode and starts doing party-wiping attacks..dumb as hell.

That fight with the guy just
before the giant robot is sunk into a volcano
was just about the worst boss fight ever in an RPG.

I can't really bag on anything PSO..except for the DROPRATES(more like DROPRAPES lolol). I mean seriously some of the drops are like 1 in 65,351. In WoW even some of the hardest drops to get have at least a 1% chance.
 
Grifter said:
How can anyone hate the resurrecting AI in GoW? Do you want to rez the idiot AI every time?

I had to do it every time in Rainbow Six and I didn't mind. It added to the realism. When they got up all of sudden, it felt...fake.
 

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
Zelda: Majora's Mask. I'm playing it through again right now (can't find a Wii T_T) and it's a great game. The little sidequests really make you want to finish this quest as you see how everyone's living their lives.

But two things bug me. The saving system is pretty weird and basically means that you have to play for an hour or more before you "really" save, and so if you get a power failure or if your N64 crashes (it used to happen to mine for some reason) or something then you're totally screwed. Or if you think you've gotten everything and play the Song of Time, only to realize that you missed one thing at the end, so you have to do it all over again just to get it. It's really annoying, even if it only happens to you once.

The other one is a smaller gripe about the masks. Late in the game you have to switch between so many masks and use their instruments so often that it gets a little clunky, with all the pausing and reconfiguring in the menus. Makes me wish they used the d-pad for masks or the Ocarina or something.


And on a totally unrelated note, Gradius V won't let you skip cutscenes. The game's MEANT to be replayed over and over so why can't we skip them?
 

D.Cowboys

Neo Member
Another one is the AI will be able to do anything just to stop you from getting a perfect score. The first Topspin was notorious for this.

Constant screens before even playing any type of console games
Hey guess what? I know I am playing xbox360, Playstation3 or Nintindeo Wii.
I don't need to see any company or studio logos everytime I boot up a game.
 

tehrafe

Member
D.Cowboys said:
Another one is the AI will be able to do anything just to stop you from getting a perfect score. The first Topspin was notorious for this.

Constant screens before even playing any type of console games
Hey guess what? I know I am playing xbox360, Playstation3 or Nintindeo Wii.
I don't need to see any company or studio logos everytime I boot up a game.

wow, you got a Nintindeo Wii? I heard those are hard to find these days...
 

Luckett_X

Banned
Certainly of recent note was Zelda TP:

- Rupee Description. Yes, I've resumed a save. Oh good, now it will tell me each and every ****ing time I pick up a different coloured rupee. ARRRRGH.

- Warping. Every single god damn time, having to turn back into a human afterwards. This game was in the can long enough for surely some genius at Nintendo Fun HQ to realise repeating the same god damn menu command just to get back to human Link is not fun. At all!
 
Drawing seals in DoS -- so retarded
Aiming in GTA games -- How can simple effective aiming be so hard?
Random NPC in RPGs like say FFIV -- the ones that sometimes move around a lot, and sometimes block off the path where you want to go. It really pisses me off.
Blue Shell in MKDS -- Has made me slam my DS too many times to count.
Feeding animals in Okami -- that retarded out of place cutscene drove me nuts
"Point Wii remote at the screen" in TP -- Man, soo irritating.
 
this is a real dumb little thing to be mad at but it still kinda bugs me.

In Splinter cell: chaos theory co-op (one of the best co-ops ever)...when you do the move to try to lift ur partner up and your partner is standing in front of you...the game will not let you do it because apparently your partner is standing in front of you while you do the animation and it for some reason...blocks the animation...so your partner has to move away from you just so the animation of the move will go through. It's a really small and dumb thing...but when my friend and I are trying to hurry...it's an annoyance.
 
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