The Video Game Critic

You guys know I always talk about special features I'm going to put together (and rarely follow through on) usually in the form of lists. I have another idea: My Favorite Things About Video Games. Also, My Least Favorite Things About Video Games.

I was going to put them together without your input, but then I thought "what if I forgot some really obvious ones??"

So here are the ideas I have so far:

Favorite Things:
Bonus points that appear right on the screen
Red barrels
Smashing crates
Rapid-fire shooting
Anime art
Smart bombs
Guided missiles
POW blocks
Speed bursts
Automatic ledge grabbing
Invincibility

Least Favorite:
Mandatory installations
Updates and patches
Tutorials
Icons can't I tell what they are
Escort missions
Games that don't tell you when they save
Unskippable/unpauseable cut scenes

Let's hear your suggestions!!

Favorite things:
Finding a good deal
Maxing out a character in an rpg
Beating a game
Finding all the items
Beating my friends in multiplayer
Playing a game with a good story

Least favorite:
Installations
Dlc
Updates
Broken games

Favourite:
Chip music (especially from Sega)
The sound of an extra life
Blue, blue skies and red shoes
Unboxing a new console

Least favourite:
Required internet connections

Gonna keep it simple

Favorite--finding tricks the developers never intended.
Least--games with too many "what do I do?" Moments

Least - The boss you cannot beat, and the game stops being fun.
Most - Beating an RPG with ludricrusly overpowered heroes with othing else to do.

scotland wrote:Most - Beating an RPG with ludricrusly overpowered heroes with othing else to do.

Agree! A friend of mine in university used to get mad when I'd talk about way, way,way over-leveling characters in RPGs, which is how I always played. He was like "it's not how it was meant to be played. *snark snark snark*"
I always thought finding gameplay loops that let you over-level as easily as possible was EXACTLY how it was supposed to be played. Gaming the system is basically the best proof you understand what an RPG is doing in my opinion. If you can figure out the system well enough to take advantage of it, you have really figured it out. What's the alternative? Doing exactly what the designer imagined and playing paint-by-numbers, with exactly as much difficulty at each point as was "approved" of by someone?

scotland wrote:Most - Beating an RPG with ludricrusly overpowered heroes with othing else to do.

Yep. I always do this as well. Grinding way past the point necessary keeps me going sometimes.
Pretty much any rpg I'll find out the best way to max out stats and then get to work asap. Some of my favorite completions include all max chrono trigger, earthbound, Baldur's gate, ff7 characters. Using the item glitch in ff7 was probably my favorite to max out all stats.

I think my favorite thing about video games is... having fun.

Rev wrote:

scotland wrote:Most - Beating an RPG with ludricrusly overpowered heroes with othing else to do.

Yep. I always do this as well. Grinding way past the point necessary keeps me going sometimes.
Pretty much any rpg I'll find out the best way to max out stats and then get to work asap. Some of my favorite completions include all max chrono trigger, earthbound, Baldur's gate, ff7 characters. Using the item glitch in ff7 was probably my favorite to max out all stats.

I'm playing "Secret of Mana" right now. It seems like this will be an easy one to do this in. My characters seem to be leveling up something (their weapons, weapons skills, and levels) every time I walk more than three or four screens.

Most favorite:
- Adrenaline pumping music when something is about too happen
- Boss fights (as scotland said, unless those fights are impossible...)
- Sonic the Hedgehog running...

Least favorite:
- long loading times!
- text that is too tiny too read
- crappy map system/getting lost/(as voor said: too many "what to do now?" moments)
- Sonic the Hedgehog talking...