Things in Video Games you Hate?

General and high profile video game topics.
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txsizzler
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby txsizzler » August 6th, 2016, 12:12 pm

For me, its games like Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, that absolutely REQUIRE you to have a Xbox Live GOLD account (which runs $9.99/mo, $24.95 3/mos, to as high as $99.99 for 2 yrs). Not only do you have to spend good money on the game, but to require online, regardless if you want to play solo or multiplayer? Pure BS!!!! Not only that, but EA has the audacity to add in "microtransactions" in the game, to plunder you for even more! Further, you also have to have an EA Origin account as well!
I have had it with EA. No more for me. They truly just do not care about the consumer with there crappy monopolies, and their money grubbing ways. I realize all companies are out to make money, but EA games feels like buying a car from a used car salesman.

matmico399
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby matmico399 » August 6th, 2016, 12:47 pm

DaHeck your post cracked me up and I agree. One of mine is buying a retro game like a SNES cart and realizing it has no password feature. I.E.: Super Star Wars. You have to play the whole game in one sitting to get to the end. Who the hell has that kind of time? Ugh!
:x

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » August 6th, 2016, 9:40 pm

The belief that being a good programmer/good game designer makes you good at everything else too.

It was easy to ignore sloppy writing when a programmer added a paragraph or two in the instruction manual, but when half of Shenmue was Ryo repeating back what he'd just heard to the worst actors in the world, while being an oblivious block of wood to his girlfriend, it was suddenly more fun to do the real thing than play the videogame version.

And Miyamoto's opinions on story are basically "Let's Donkey Kong like it's 1982!"

For every Hideo Kojima, whose amateur enthusiasm gives the Metal Gear series a sense of heart, there's a Yoshio Sakamoto, whose amateur enthusiasm took away Samus's brain and her courage.

For every natural comedian like Tim Schafer, there's a Michael Berlyn - but in the words of his most famous creation: "What could possibly go wrong?"

And don't get me started on the politics that get attached to the conversation. It's like asking for better writing somehow always gets caught up in arguments over whether more diversity either saves a script or ruins it. Hasn't Star Trek taught us anything? A bad script is a bad script, no matter who your main character is.

The other thing that drives me mad is artificial playtime. FFIV on the DS isn't a hard game. It's a tedious one. They've given you a million options, and then, out of pure laziness, or greed, or both, punish you with extra grinding for using over 90% of them. If you play without frequently breaking immersion to consult an augment guide, you're missing out.

Don't get me wrong - there is an audience for this kind of thing. It'd be a decent time waster as a free rom hack. But don't sell it as nostalgia. Even the original Japanese version of FFIV wasn't this ridiculous. It's just a crude bait and switch.

goldenband
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby goldenband » August 7th, 2016, 1:57 am

A few pet peeves:

  • Games that don't offer an instant "Retry?" option when it'd clearly be appropriate, but instead force you to go back to the main menu and re-input all your options/navigate a bunch of menus
  • Games where success or failure depends heavily on randomness, especially if there's a bottleneck late in the game
  • Games that waste my time in any conceivable way
  • Puzzle games with fixed time limits
  • Games with heat-seeking, instantly-respawning enemies
  • Games that throw an especially frustrating enemy at me that can't be killed
  • Games with UI elements that significantly obscure the playfield and can't be disabled
  • Games whose Hard mode simply consists of cranking up enemy HP to an unreasonable extent, rather than actually constructing a meaningful and well-crafted experience
  • Racing games in which other drivers seem more interested in thwarting the player than winning the race

Sut
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby Sut » August 7th, 2016, 5:00 am

Re-spawning enemies. This frustrates the hell out of me, you clear the screen slightly scroll back and the screen suddenly refills. I didn't have the patience for this back in the day and I don't have the reflexes for them now !

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 7th, 2016, 10:35 am

This topic is hilarious! Mainly because there's so much truth here!!

I'm going to have to incorporate some of these into my upcoming "rants" page. I will give you guys credit due.

Okay, my turn. A lot of times the game will offer you a choice like "continue" and "end", with one being yellow (for example) and the other white. So which one is the "selected" one?? Whenever you push left or right, they change. I see this with a lot of PS1 games and it's just horrible.

Sut
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby Sut » August 7th, 2016, 11:09 am

goldenband wrote:[*]Racing games in which other drivers seem more interested in thwarting the player than winning the race[/list]


Oh god yes this. WEC Le Mans and Battle OutRun two of the worse and most frustrating examples of this game 'design'.

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby DaHeckIzDat » August 7th, 2016, 9:43 pm

Just thought of another: boss fights you're supposed to lose. They do this a lot in RPGs as a way of introducing the main bad guy. You get the intro cutscene, you fight them, they hammer you into the ground, and the narrative continues. Problem is, there's rarely any way to know when this is happening. You'll probably think it's a real fight that you'll game over if you lose, and the game just went through a massive difficulty spike (which RPGs are nefarious for anyway-- another thing I hate). That leads to you wasting all of your healing items on a battle that literally impossible to win. You could literally just put the controller down and not face any consequences, but nooOOOoo, you're going into the next part of the game without a single HP potion because the game wanted to kick your butt IRL, not in a cutscene.

And while I'm at it, difficulty spikes. I never beat Final Fantasy X because of that crazy difficulty spike when you fight Seymour. Same with Final Fantasy XIII, the game was only moderately challenging until you get to Gran Pulse, and then suddenly you're an ant in a heard of elephants. Elephants who took an oath to destroy every ant they see. And yes, I know Pulse is technically the endgame area, but... freaking Barthendalus. He literally one-shots your entire party if you TAKE TOO LONG BEATING HIM. Is it really so difficult (heh heh) to make an RPG whose difficulty climbs gradually instead of staying them same and then, well, spiking?

Tron
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby Tron » August 8th, 2016, 11:07 pm

I agree w/ every point made so far.

Also I agree with Herschie on NES Monopoly as the best version on any system. The SNES & Genesis versions are probably 2nd & 3rd. Sadly PS1, PS2, Gamecube, GBA, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4 versions are all inferior & disappointing.

On topic: I hate unkillable characters in open world games. Unfortunately most games have them. Fallout 3 had a couple, but it wasn't too bad. Fallout New Vegas only had one & it's no coincidence that it's my favorite game. Skyrim and Fallout 4 had waaaaaay too many essential characters that couldn't be killed. It's totally stupid hearing how characters act scared to die when they can't. Fallout 4 had many escort missions with characters that couldn't die. It was so lame watching them fall down & then just get back up. Fallout 4 really sucked!

I hate when games have separate rules for the player than it does for the enemies you face. For example if your character touches the lava you die. While the computer enemy can stand all day on the lava.

I hate unnecessary story. If it helps tell the story then ok, but when the characters are just talking about the flowers or some idle chitchat I get bored. The best story is the one that gets played out in gameplay. Let the game play and let that be the story. It's frustrating when a game makes you lose certain battles or characters or whatever just to tell the story it wants the player to watch.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Things in Video Games you Hate?

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » August 9th, 2016, 8:09 am

Oh! Someone finally hates something I like!

I love when characters die for storyline reasons. I'll listen to random conversations, good or bad, if they're entertaining enough. I want to get lost in a holodeck, and at this point in time, whenever anyone dies in gameplay, there's usually no weight to it, no reason to actually care. You might as well just reset and try again until you get the result you want.

The AAA gaming industry has done an amazing job with car physics, and a horrible one with simulating authentic human emotions. Mindless cynicism isn't fooling anyone, even if it's easier for hack writing and by the numbers game design.

Besides, there's so much grinding that changing the context helps with the repetition.

With all that said, I do agree with you when I have less free time. It really makes no sense that we can't customize our gameplay experiences to favor full immersion or cheap arcade thrills.


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