Things that you don't want to see anymore in modern games (but are still there)

[Emperor Megas]

I don't know if there have been a million of these topics or not, so I'm sorry if there have been, but are there things that you feel just shouldn't still be in modern games anymore but still pop up, and with annoying frequency? There are a few I really hate. Some are just annoyances, where as others are enough to make me shelf a game.

Poorly implemented Quick Time Events - I really don't like QTEs. I'm talking about the whole press the HUGE FLASHING BUTTON/DIRECTION ARROW SHOWN ON SCREEN type of thing. I don't mind them when they're a part of a combo system in an action game, like in Dante's Inferno and the like, but I'd still rather have the option of turning the HUGE GLOWING BUTTON on the screen 'off.' When you have it memorized, there's really no need for a HUGE BLINKING ICON, taking you out of the experience and constantly reminding you that you're playing a game.

I REALLY hate the kind that aren't a part of a fighting system though, like the ones that they keep putting in modern Resident Evil games. The QTE's were the ONLY thing that stopped Resident Evil 4 from being a perfect game, IMO. The QTE in that game are as bad to me as the rest of the game is good. That's how much I HATE them. I felt like most of them were just a cheap effort to add interaction to cut scenes where as I'd rather just WATCH a 10 second cut scene.


Long, drawn out boss fights - I'll admit, I'm an old school gamer who grew up on boss fights that could be over in mere seconds if you knew what to do, but that's not really why I hate drawn out boss fights. It's just sometimes I feel that they make them unnecessarily time consuming when there's really no reason to. If you have the patterns down, and you're dominating a fight, there's no reason to make it last 10 minutes when it can be over in like 2.

I don't even mean multi-stage bosses that go through several transformations/forms, that's fine. I'm talking about how slowly some bosses take damage. I'd rather a short difficult boss fight than a long, simple and/or tedious one.


No indication of how much damage boss enemies have taken - This is another peeve of mine. I was playing Binary Domain last the summer and I was actually sort of enjoying it with its limited enemy types and sterile, uninspired gray/silver environments, then I reached this part where I had to fight this giant robot gorilla several times in the same stage. At what's presumably the last area in the fight I was told by an NPC to use a stationary gun turret in a warehouse (that you have to carry ammo to), and I tried, but I swear it was the most frustrating thing I'd done in any game I've played this generation. I never beat the damn thing and after succumbing to frustration just decided to shelf the game. I have NO IDEA if I'm even damaging it, AT ALL, or how much I am IF I am.

In older shooters your shots used to make a different sound or visual effect when you'd hit a vulnerable spot letting you know you were attacking the right part. This is more subtle than a a huge glowing area on an enemy, which I don't think we need anymore in games (notice I don't like huge glowing indicators in games?) but I can't tell what's going on with this gorilla fight.


Non-skippable cut scenes - This one is self explanatory. Unlock the cut scenes and make them available in the options menu when you get to a new one, but please, make them skippable in game. I always watch them the first time, but I don't always want to the 2nd or 5th time through. Or, maybe I have limited play time and I want to cover more ground in a game before work and I can't sit through 5+ minutes of trite dialog. Just let me go back to it later already, please.


Stupid partner/team AI - I especially hate this in escort scenarios. How hard is it to program 'get out of the line of fire, don't walk when shit's going down...'RUN', and hide behind something when bullets are flying'?


Stupid, 'bullet sponge' enemy AI - The same way I don't want my team or the person I'm escorting to be a wind up toy, I don't want the enemies to be either. If I unload a clip into your arm or leg, maybe you should, like, I don't know, duck behind something, or move out the way at least? I don't mind this as much with shielded/armoured, or non-sentient enemies, but when you're some guy in fatigues or jeans and a wife beater (Bulletstorm), you really should duck and cover...ESPECIALLY when you see me COMPLETELY MASSACRING your buddies in the most HORRIFIC ways possible! Move; don't just wait for your turn, brah. :|

[kupomogli]

Iwata stated this a little while ago. Too much story in video games. Pick up the majority of video games and they're trying to force story down your throat left and right. Sure some of the story is good, but I'm going to say the majority of it is complete garbage. If you're not going to be able to push something of reasonable quality, then just don't even bother. Save yourselves the development cost and save the players from being bored out of their mind sitting through the garbage. Limit the story like NES and SNES games did and have the game mostly gameplay.

Fetch quests. Plz stop. Assassin's Creed games are so much fetch questy that the main missions themselves feel like a fetch quest. I was interested in Dragon Age Inquisition because I loved Dragon Age Origins and this was a mix of gameplay with a much larger world. When I actually played it though, it has what I call the Assassin's Creed effect, where there were quests scattered everywhere that were nothing more than please go talk to this person or please go get this item that I've marked on the map for you. You're doing nothing from going to point to point and these quests really have no redeeming gameplay value other than turning the game into a collectathon of bullshit.

Now I'm not a fan of Mario 64 but that's mainly because you're going across the same places to pick up new stars due to the stages being so small. However, even though I'm not a fan of Mario 64, the game atleast makes acquiring the stars more enjoyable than games like Assassin's Creed or Dragon Age Inquisition. Mario 64 actually has you doing some unique objective to acquire a new star. Same with Jak and Daxter, where you have unique objectives to collect orbs and power cells, although in the case of Jak and Daxter, you're in a much larger world. I didn't like the second Jak and Daxter because you traversed back and forth through the same area over and over, quit shortly after I started, and I've never played the third because I didn't finish the second. So even though I dislike Mario 64, it's not nearly as much as these pos games.

You can have a large world in a video game that's not purely fetch quests and is able to have meaningful side quests. Infamous has done it, Grand Theft Auto does it, etc, so why can't a single Assassin's Creed do it properly? It seems that all these games receive a massive amount of praise from the media and fans, that fetch quest type games that give no real value to the game other than mindless backtracking are the games receive the most hype or are the games most gamers want to play.

[Emperor Megas]

Not being able to re-map the buttons/controller layout - I don't know why ANY game that isn't rhythm based wouldn't allow this. It just seems like arrogance on the developer's part to me, not unlike making you sit through cut scenes that you can't skip. It's like they're going to force you to enjoy the game the way that they feel you should, not what's most comfortable to you, the consumer.


Not stopping the game clock when you pause - You play and get a phone call, or have to take a wicked shit or run to the store or whatever, and you'd rather just pause than save since you don't want to lose your exact spot. Later when you get past the stage/level/fire fight and you save another hour is now added to your game time. Seriously? I mean, it doesn't really matter (unless there are rewards for ending the game under a certain time), but come on, really?


Cut scenes rendered in real time that DON'T SHOW/USE YOUR CURRENT GEAR - I approached the control panel holding a pistol, wearing green amour, so why when the cut scene starts am I shouldering an assault rifle and wearing blue armor? I can't be the only one who hates this. How about when I trigger the cut scene event with a bone dry pistol, not even one left in the chamber, but during the cut scene I unload like 16 shots that I didn't have 2 seconds ago into some monster? Or I have a full clip before the cut scene but after it it's STILL full! At least in Silent Hill 2 James finds a clip to use during the closet rape scene when he starts shooting.


Bodies disappearing - At least in modern Resident Evil games the bodies dissolve impressively. It's science fiction, and they're all B.O.W.s, so I can excuse it, but do modern consoles really lack the memory to leave the damn bodies where they dropped in other games? Zombies, sure. You can't just render and leave THOUSANDS of obstructions littering the play field (which would add an AWESOME game play element to a modern zombie survival game, BTW), but when they're just aliens, or normal human solider, why do the bodies vanish when you leave an area for a second?

[Tanooki]

Love those two lists. I'd throw in also if I head shot your ass in a FPS **YOU DIE** some thing with a double tap to the chest when you're not wearing any form of armor. MoH and a few others really piss me off when I have to let an entire clip of a Thompson or whatever into some krauts or terrorists chest before he stops moving. It's DUMB, yet the higher the difficulty I don't have that luxury.

I'm with fetch quests, always hated those too kupo.

Another thing I loathe are collect-a-thon games where you're penalized if you don't get some lame amount of X item to open up the next section to do it all over again (Rare criminally near the top of the list for that one on N64 and later.)

In modern games I'd like above all, I'd even tolerate all the shit listed in this thread to this post, if they'd put a lot more quality games on physical media and more games from more genres. I'm tired of the the blockbuster budget whining if you only sell 4M units of a game not being enough playing it safe with FPS CoD clones, Assassins Creed type/knockoffs, and the other limited selection you see of the last couple generations. We had better variety even into the GC/PS2 era than we do now.

[Daria]

QTEs just feel like someone attempting to shoehorn arbitrary gameplay into an FMV sequence. If you really feel like the player's going to be bored watching your story segment then remove it, don't turn it into a pop quiz. That's tedious, not fun.

[YoshiM]

"Staging areas"- where you know there's going to be mass combat that seems to break the perception of a game world. I noticed it in mass Effect 3 where you move along normal looking hallways and such then boom- places with cover you can duck behind as the enemies start pouring out. Rinse, repeat. Bioshock Infinite had those areas where you could see large spaces of attack points or other helpful things Elizabeth could conjure upon so you knew it was gonna get ugly.

Formulaic...to the max.

[Tupin]

-QTEs. Shenmue did this right, but also caused over a decade of these.

-Poorly thought out political commentary. There are very, very, VERY few games that can actually make a non-sophomoric and poignant point about real world issues. Most simply aren't made by talented enough people so they're just pretentious.

-Hallways vs. sandboxes. Really, this is an East vs. West thing.

-IAPs. Enough said.

-Indie games that completely rely on Nintendo nostalgia for their whole existence. Yeah, you're sure pushing new heights with your "retro-inspired" platformer/clone of a Nintendo game from two decades ago. Truly you are the industry's savior, average indie developer.

[Tanooki]

IAP I can agree with which reminded me of DLC. Rarely is it ever treated with respect, mostly it's a ploy to rip off gamers because they can hold back designs for added stages, elements, characters, costumes or multiplayer maps and then charge $5 here $15 there, suddenly it's like you bought the game twice. A few years ago EA put out Tiger Woods for $60, ultimately you got like 25% of the game, and by the time you bought all the normally given people and courses it was like a $300 or a $500 game I forget, pure garbage either way.

I miss when people just made the game, finished the game, and released the game. If the game made a crap ton of fans and money, sometimes the company would (or would get a 3rd party) make a secondary expansion pack with a full set of stages, maybe some new gear with it, bulk, and usually for like 33 to 50% of the original game but the content merited it.


And along those lines -- consoles without internal storage because I want a modern game where it works totally right out of the box end of story.

Whatever happened to finishing a game an properly damn well beta testing the hell out of it so it worked? Buying most games these days early on basically makes you a full priced beta tester guinea pig. Wait a few months, buy it for $10-20 (or more) less and the patches will be done and it will work unlike for the suckers who wanted it right away. There's really NO excuse for this crap on a console, IE: a CLOSED SYSTEM. It's not like they need to beta test millions of combintations of RAM, CPU, GPU, MOBO, etc so it doesn't screw up for someone. Patches are a way of life and acceptable with a computer system since they're not stock, but consoles NO and handhelds NO.

[kupomogli]

^I agree with this. I have four PS4 games right now, Infamous, Dragon Age, The Last of Us, and Diablo 3. Every single one of them had a day one update. Diablo had other updates later which made the games difficulties harder and added ancient legendary items which are rarer versions of legendary equipment. There's even ancient legendary sets. So with Diablo, cool, we're getting more content, with the other games, I feel ripped off because I clearly got a game that wasn't complete the day it shipped and without these patches who knows what bugs and glitches are in the games.

Day one and season pass DLC. More than likely it's already been in the works prior to the game being released. It's probably something that was stripped from the game and is gong to be sold to you later. Or preorder only bonuses that is sold as DLC if you didn't preorder, and even contact that the developers slowly release to add more game time in hopes for players not to sell their copy of the game to Gamestop, etc.

Holding back content isn't going to stop the games from being sold back as used. If someone doesn't like the game you can release as much content each week as you want, not going to stop the player from selling it. Additionally if you think people are going to sell your game within a week so you have to slowly keep releasing content, then maybe you should put more content in the game from the start so we don't complete the game in four hours 75% of it being story we didn't care about.

[Tanooki]

Good argument, detailed better than I did perhaps by experience. I almost bought hat PS4 Diablo game but I figured it was meant for PC so when I saw a stupid deep sale on it and the addon that made it $30 total I had no motivation and now i'm even more glad I did. Diablo 3 when I installed it along with the addon package hasn't locked me out while it runs regular bug patches or upgrades/updates either. I don't mind it so much on a PC, I can pop online or something else in the meantime, but on a console it's a staring contest with the TV.

It's nice to see I'm not the only one mad about how most of the DLC stuff is handled or the annoying patching gets old. I often run into a bunch of people in denial or who are apologists over it and it just is mind blowing.

[Emperor Megas]

"Staging areas"- where you know there's going to be mass combat that seems to break the perception of a game world. I noticed it in mass Effect 3 where you move along normal looking hallways and such then boom- places with cover you can duck behind as the enemies start pouring out. Rinse, repeat. Bioshock Infinite had those areas where you could see large spaces of attack points or other helpful things Elizabeth could conjure upon so you knew it was gonna get ugly.

Formulaic...to the max.That's a really good one. I didn't really think about it, but when I'm playing a game that does this I ALWAYS think about it.

Entrepreneurship at the expense of the end of the world - WHY haven't we gotten past the whole thing where people who understand and agree that you're the world's ONLY hope are still SELLING you shit rather than just GIVING it to you (if not outright BEGGING YOU to take and use it), or at LEAST telling you how to acquire it (for free) somewhere else at your own peril? Now, I'm not saying that you should do away with shopfronts in games where there's a hero who's on an epic world saving quest, but for god's sake, at least make the venders skeptics, or unaware of the mission your undertaking, or of your 'messiah' status, at least. This is just lazy writing, IMO.

Merchant: ONLY YOU can save the world from the Dark Lord, Tyrran'ax, and it can ONLY be done with this enchanted, one of a kind glaive, blessed by the High Priestess, Antauwass Le'in IV...which I'll SELL to you for $1,000,300 monies.

HERO: Praises to you, noble merchan.... O_O Wait. "SELL me..."? Wait, what!?


AI Team members that can't use grenades - Ever notice team members never use grenades on games like HALO, Left4Dead, and Mass Effect? I've only recently played through the first Mass Effect, so I don't know if they've changed it in the sequels (or mapped grenades to an ACTUAL BUTTON, instead of 'back'). I read somewhere that it was too difficult to program AI grenade usage in Left4Dead, and I can see how it would piss a lot of people off if they died repeatedly at the hands of an AI team member's grenade considering how dangerous Molotov cocktails are in that game, but can't they just put it in there and give you the option to toggle it off if you don't want the feature?



Limited chatter dialog - Now I'm no game designer, or even a novice programmer, however you can't convince me that it would talk more disc space or studio time than is reasonable to record and include a few HUNDRED different things for your character, your teammates, and each NPC to say when you talk to them. There's no reason that NPCs in particular (who don't have anything vital to say to you) shouldn't say something different every single time you approach them. There's also no excuse for the same old tired "lock and load", or "bag 'em and tag em" lines, or whatever generic, uninspired shit your teammates say before or during a firefight. You have the opportunity to make a game truly cinematic and immersive with diverse personalities and banter, but here in 2015 characters STILL only speak the same 3 phrases over and over again, and with only one single recording of each thing!

Why only one sound byte of "Hello", when you can have: "Hello", "Hi", "Hey there", "What's up?", "How ya doing?", "How's it going?, "Heya", "How's it hanging?" "'Sup?" etc.?


UNLIMITED inventory - A lot of people may disagree with me on this one, but a game like Silent Hill: Origins (which you can argue isn't 'modern' anymore, I know) is one of the worst examples of this. It's actually a CHORE cycling through lots and lots of inventory that there's no way in hell you should be able to store even a third of in a room, much less carry around with you.

I don't mind having a large inventory stock in games, but when it's shit that you're carrying around ON you, especially in a game that's more based in realism (I know Silent Hill doesn't really qualify there, but there are other offenders), it's just plain silly. I don't like the magical item boxes from older Resident Evil games either, but carrying 20 portable televisions, a 6 foot tall intravenous drip stand, and 30 planks of wood, in addition to several guns and stores of magazines and shotgun shells, is just damn ridiculous.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

DLC endings are my biggest complaint.

Content that is marketed as "optional", but without it it makes the game virtually unfinished.

I'm looking at you, BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea.

[Emperor Megas]

DLC endings are my biggest complaint.

Content that is marketed as "optional", but without it it makes the game virtually unfinished.

I'm looking at you, BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea.I think I've only heard of one game doing this, and I think it was a Mass Effect game, but I could be wrong. Is this widespread? I can't see myself EVER purchasing an ending to a game.

[celerystalker]

I agree hugely with the DLC and patching on consoles. Make a complete game, then give me a sequel and I'll pay again. I will not pay for DLC, and I don't even want to download free patches. I want a finished product out of the box.

Biggest for me, though... DO NOT MAKE ME GET ONLINE TO PLAY A SINGLE PLAYER GAME. I should never have to do anonline check just to play a game offline that I've already paid you for. What happens when you stop supporting servers related to those games? It's the most backward DRM anti-piracy bull and I won't buy a game that does it, even if I want it.

[Tanooki]

[list] Entrepreneurship at the expense of the end of the world - WHY haven't we gotten past the whole thing where people who understand and agree that you're the world's ONLY hope are still SELLING you shit rather than just GIVING it to you (if not outright BEGGING YOU to take and use it), or at LEAST telling you how to acquire it (for free) somewhere else it at your own peril? Now, I'm not saying that you should do away with shopfronts in games where there's a hero who's on an epic world saving quest, but for god's sake, at least make the venders skeptics, or unaware of the mission your undertaking, or of your 'messiah' status, at least. This is just lazy writing, IMO.

Merchant: ONLY YOU can save the world from the Dark Lord, Tyrran'ax, and it can ONLY be done with this enchanted, one of a kind glaive, blessed by the High Priestess, Antauwass Le'in IV...which I'll SELL to you for $1,000,300 monies.


I disagree with the open inventory too, sometimes it's just better to have unexplainable junk like that. I'm laughing at your other one because I agree and so did someone else at one point in time. Ever play Quest 64? That game has you set out alone to save the world, and the land knows who you are and what you're up to. Because of this the designers let the inhabitants treat you in the appropriate way. Inns, goods, gear were all FREE and they'd be thankful for your efforts.

Result: Stuck up RPG snobs and the douche types who cling onto loud mouth people all protested the game was awful and that it was god awful design, threw out everything about what RPGs stood for, and every other weak halfass argument against shop keeps, item makers, treasure hunters and the rest who would normally rip you off blind or send you to your likely death to get an item to save their sorry asses and the world. I applauded the game for being self aware your hero was saving them all and as such treated him with proper reverence. The trolls clearly won, games don't do it still.


Also GOOD call celery -- I hate people who make games that do it without a solid good reason as to why to do it. The only game I have that forces online I believe is Diablo 3, but since it's tied to the online aspects at many levels I can understand that. But so many other games like the newest Sim City, Ubisoft on various titles, and quite a few others as some evil form of DRM make you have to be online or it won't work. This also annoyingly carries to quite a few tablet games that don't have online mechanics too which sucks.

[Ackman]

mmo-ism of all games.

Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 4

Collect 7 of this, 9 of that, kill 20 more turd rangers to get a 0.1 aiming improvement. etc etc All this useless busywork to hide the fact that the game is a **** fest. 40 hour collectathon, you have to play for 20 hours for it to get good so you have all the upgrades so they game is a press button to win game. No actual gameplay, I took the Far Cry 4 disk and stomped on it, **** this game and **** Ubisoft.

[kai123]

NO MORE TUTORIALS! Sorry I really hate tutorials in games. I would love to just figure it out or dare I say it have a conversation with someone about the game. Their is no mystery if you tell me how to do everything up front. The tutorial should be a seperate option at the menu not part of the game. "Oh, the left mouse button is shoot?" It gets old. Games are not that complicated.

[Gentlegamer]

NO MORE TUTORIALS! Sorry I really hate tutorials in games. I would love to just figure it out or dare I say it have a conversation with someone about the game. Their is no mystery if you tell me how to do everything up front. The tutorial should be a seperate option at the menu not part of the game. "Oh, the left mouse button is shoot?" It gets old. Games are not that complicated.

Friend, have you heard the gospel of Dark Souls?

[Zthun]

I think I've only heard of one game doing this, and I think it was a Mass Effect game, but I could be wrong. Is this widespread? I can't see myself EVER purchasing an ending to a game.

Ubisoft's Prince of Persia did this bull shit where they left out the Epilogue. Castlevania: LOS did this somewhat by leaving major plot holes between the last boss and when Gabriel was shown as Dracula. I'm farily confident there are others.

Mass Effect didn't leave out any endings. Mass Effect 3 just had an ending that everyone disapproved upon and complained so much about that Bioware released additional endings as free DLC.

[Tanooki]

Semi related but pre-download era. Castlevania 64 -- Castlevania Legacy of Darkness.

The story that leaked out, if EGM wasn't lying about it back in the 90s was roughly this. Konami of Japan had a profit level to hit for the year or take a dishonorable loss they didn't want to admit to. They took a game that was less than 1/2 done, patched together the Belmont/Fernandez girl game into a mostly working game Castlevania 64. A game very well known to have heaps of bugs with bad jump physics, camera killing you, collisions on objects that shouldn't have them and others that should and don't (ie you get crushed when you're not, fall into a hole when you have a wall.) Very blurry textures, super inconsistent framerate, rare occasional crashes too.

Less than a year later they released Legacy of Darkness, a game that had been previewed a good year earlier plus in magazines. The missing primary game of playing Cornell the wolf man and the secondary game *if you unlock it* of playing as Henry the knight who rescues children within the area (which has changed with age) within so many days/hours whatever it was. And then finally Castlevania 64's game after that, the last 1/3 of the game with the bugs resolved and also now game wide a 640x480 high res mode too.

They sold a beta, screwed people (myself included) and then put the real game out after. I nearly didn't buy it but after looking into it and finding it was the game we were promised I fed the beast. I hate I did it, but the game is fantastic while CV64 I could never finish with all the dumb bugs.

[kai123]

Friend, have you heard the gospel of Dark Souls?

Started with Demon's Souls and I haven't looked back. That series is exactly what I mean. The mystery was half the game for me.

[Gentlegamer]

Started with Demon's Souls and I haven't looked back. That series is exactly what I mean. The mystery was half the game for me.

The Souls game harken to a time when figuring out the game was part of the game itself.

[Emperor Megas]

I'll have to try these games. I'm always hearing about how brutally difficult they are, but everyone seems to enjoy them in spite of this...or perhaps BECAUSE of this?

[kai123]

I'll have to try these games. I'm always hearing about how brutally difficult they are, but everyone seems to enjoy them in spite of this...or perhaps BECAUSE of this?

I will be honest they are not really that brutal. If you grew up with any type of older games that didn't hold your hand then you will feel right at home. You have to learn how to play and what works where. You are not presented with a fire boss right after getting an ice weapon and so on. You have to pay attention which is something gamers today are not used to and it was a breath of fresh air for them. I think everyone should at least try it and start with Demon's Souls if you can. I honestly prefer Demon's Souls, then Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 was good but didn't have the same mystery the others did.

[digiboy]

Modern video games are too focused on being realistic. The age of the 3D game has become too concerned with making the video game an expression of the first person point of view. The whole point of a video game though is to get away from reality as it currently exists and enter into other modes of being, like 2nd, and 3rd person points of view when playing the game.

[PreZZ]

Unfinished, released games with infinite patches in the first weeks of release. Beta test the damn thing, and when its ready, release it. Looking at you, Halo:MCC

[Dr. BaconStein]

Intrusive IAP's and on-disc DLC are a no-no. Download services (Origin, U-Play, etc.) aren't going away, but hopefully there won't be more of them. Day one updates seem to be a problem that gets worse with time, but mainly on consoles. Probably the number one offender for me would be games like The Sims that require expansion packs in order to be fun*, or games that feel like expansion packs themselves.

*I was fine with it in 1 and 2, but from 3 onwards you can tell they were just being greedy. Now nobody even wants TS4 since we all know what's coming next.

[Tanooki]

Knowing EA they'd handle The Sims 4 like their Tiger Woods exploitation wrap. Back when they did the 2013 game they changed how they handled it. Before you got the game with the golfers and courses. They caught hell, and why? They sold a game for full price, kept back a lot of content, and ended up piecing out many of the formerly included courses for a charge in packs. Suddenly that $60 game was $110 or $127 depending which edition you bought, and all the while you'd get nagged online if you didn't buy the stuff because other people would have and you'd get excluded from stuff that was included in the 2012 release. That's EA for you, they take IAP style bitchery and puts it on a full blown console/computer game instead of on your phone.

Imagine the Sims 4, you buy it for $60, and you end up allowed maybe 2 character slots/houses, but any addition person/house is a fee. And then of course you have a game let's say with a 1000 items, but only 400 of them are included, the other 600 items will come in theme packages for $10 here $15 there. Suddenly to be able to play the sims with others online without punishment/exclusion it'll set you back a few hundred dollars.

[Gentlegamer]

The modern trend spearheaded by EA is to sell you $60 storefront software from which the user must buy DLC and microtransaction "consumables" to get the whole game.

[Tanooki]

Yup that's what I broke down and it's the sleaziest form of selling video games (console, computer, handheld) pulling that crap. It takes big balls charging full price for 1/2 of less of a game to then charge maybe double or more that cost to get it all. Stuff like Tiger Woods where just the year before was all there shows clear malice, not like they later figured, wow the Augusta course would be awesome.

I really don't buy EA games anymore at all, the WiiU was the last of it in how they burned WiiU owners with their grossly delayed Mass Effect 3 for $10 more than the Trilogy others got, then the bungled NFS game and so on. They're entirely untrustworthy and if you really wanted to dig, we could rip into how shitty ORIGIN is they force on all their consumers too. I'd love to play Dead Space again, but that's Origin saddled filth on PC so I won't buy it.

[Nz17]

I don't even mean multi-stage bosses that go through several transformations/forms, that's fine. I'm talking about how slowly some bosses take damage. I'd rather a short difficult boss fight than a long, simple and/or tedious one.

Dude, I completely know what you mean. The final boss battle in the PSP game Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? is a bane of my existence. Even if you know what you are doing, even if you avoid every attack and manage to stay on the meager platform in the middle of the stage surrounded by huge bottomless pits, it is all for naught if you can't button mash the hell out of the attack button in this fight. In every boss fight until this point you could stun the enemy if you bounced on its weak spot at the right time, and then you could hit it for big damage. But in this fight... NO! You can never stun the boss, so the most damage your attack can do is a tiny sliver of miniscule damage. You literally have to hit the boss over 100 (hundreds even?) of times to defeat him. You get 3 HP on your health bar if you aren't playing on the 1 HP 'hardcore' mode, but even on 'normal' (or do they call it 'casual'?) mode, if the boss hits you in the wrong direction you'll just die instantly anyway from falling into one of the two bottomless pits. Oh, and I should mention, YOU ONLY HAVE THREE MINUTES TO GET THESE HUNDREDS OF HITS ON THE BOSS. I hate that boss fight, and because I wasn't willing to cheat or use someone else's save file, I have never progressed further in that game. And that's a shame, because there's 50% more game content after that thanks to a neat new game mode with its own story where you play as a different character.



Non-skippable cut scenes[/COLOR][/B] - This one is self explanatory. Unlock the cut scenes and make them available in the options menu when you get to a new one, but please, make them skippable in game. I always watch them the first time, but I don't always want to the 2nd or 5th time through. Or, maybe I have limited play time and I want to cover more ground in a game before work and I can't sit through 5+ minutes of trite dialog. Just let me go back to it later already, please.

I hate cut scenes you can't skip! But let's add to that that I also hate non-skippable start screens, splash screens, and startup videos. Just go straight to the main menu! I don't care who published the game, who developed the game, what video codes you are using, nor do I want to see your 'fancy' startup videos! Save those for a New Game or the end credits. If you have to show them due to contractual agreements, make them as short as possible and skippable. And stop having us press start (or any other button) to bring up the frickin' main menu! Once the game boots, just show the menu. There's no reason to require pressing start every time!


I especially hate this in escort scenarios. How hard is it to program 'get out of the line of fire, don't walk when shit's going down...'RUN', and hide behind something when bullets are flying'?

Everyone who has ever played the Vermilion escort mission in VVVVVV knows exactly what you mean. That Vermilion character was one of the most useless, death-prone characters that a player has ever needed to rescue in a game.

[Tanooki]

You know what else is played out along the lines of the overly pointlessly long boss battle?

The overly long and brutal run up to the final boss which is worse than the boss itself, usually gets your ass beat near to death if not killed and depleted of your ammo/resources.

The game series Serious Sam is notorious for it. I've been screwing around with for the last few days Serious Sam 3 BFE and oh my god fuck this game on the last stage. You have these long canyons that are connected you go in and each few moments or so you walk, BOOM you have a fight that teleports in. The game is known for being DOOM like but with a lot of targets that come in waves or just keep popping up, it's expected. The last stage though they still do that, but the tonnage of enemies they throw at you really will out do the amount of ammo you have towards the back end before the boss. There's these huge walking horned dumptrucks like the barons in DOOM and only C4 or the cannon will take it down, and they throw so much of them at you with not much cover in the canyon you end up running out of ammo and being lit up like a torch. I'm fed up with it.

[ZP3]

I pretty much refuse to buy anything EA these days...I did splurge for Dragon Age: Inquisition on PS4, but that was simply because I was starving for an RPG...

After what they did to myself and my fellow Wii-U compatriots, I can never forgive.

[Tanooki]

ZP3 pretty much the same here, that was the final straw. I was considering Dragon Age, but again that would be giving them money so it's not happening. I can find just as nice stuff they didn't make on PC or PS4 still.

[Gentlegamer]

Speaking of Dragon Age, I don't think I've ever been as angry as when I found the NPC DLC Salesman in Dragon Age Origins.

Early in the game, some guy asked me to do a quest to save his family's tower, I accepted the quest, then the Xbox Live Marketplace purchase content window popped up, asking for $9.99.

I shut the game off and never played it again.

[Tanooki]

Wow I've never heard of something like that before. That's totally scummy, a new low I haven't heard of before in a console game. You get a thing that's in no way branded as 'extra' and you bother wanting to do a quest and then it asks for ten bucks. That's awful. I would have never played it again either. You really have to draw the line somewhere. I get it on mobile the games are like free or a dollar or two, and they do lay out the DLC charges everywhere clearly between the download site it came from to boxes in the menus of the game. But to do that on a full price console game and bump into like a standard event to panhandle goes too far.

[Emperor Megas]

Speaking of Dragon Age, I don't think I've ever been as angry as when I found the NPC DLC Salesman in Dragon Age Origins.

Early in the game, some guy asked me to do a quest to save his family's tower, I accepted the quest, then the Xbox Live Marketplace purchase content window popped up, asking for $9.99.

I shut the game off and never played it again.OMG! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Dude, that's HILARIOUS! ROFL

[ProjectCamaro]

Speaking of Dragon Age, I don't think I've ever been as angry as when I found the NPC DLC Salesman in Dragon Age Origins.

Early in the game, some guy asked me to do a quest to save his family's tower, I accepted the quest, then the Xbox Live Marketplace purchase content window popped up, asking for $9.99.

I shut the game off and never played it again.

Thank you for posting this, I was going to get the game but if that's how they do business then my money will be spent elsewhere.

[Gentlegamer]

Penny Arcade did a comic on Dragon Age Origins

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/2/23107/1186434-704358679_ayghy_l.jpg

I should add I bought the game the month it came out on sale at Best Buy, before any DLC announcements or major title updates. In other words, the game shipped with an in-game DLC Salesman.

[Tanooki]

You know one thing has been very clear I've noticed with EA games, the big ones that are franchises or franchises to be, they all end up getting game of the year editions like a year after the fact and they have a $20 price reduction and include all the DLC within the disc itself. It's a shame so many people don't catch onto that or are so damned impatient they just have to get online and lengthen their e-peen with instant gratification combat. I say stick to the screwballs whoever they are and wait, then you win. EA does it (Dragon Age, Mass Effect), Sony does it (Uncharted, Little Big Planet), Microsoft with Halo among things. Lots of the big name titles bake the gamer on purpose. So unless you really don't give a damn about DLC at all and it's a franchise where they don't gimp the game for it (Little Big Planet and Uncharted) it's not a problem. But when you get into EA pulling the crap they do with Dragon Age and Mass Effect for instance, that's a problem, and a really big problem for Tiger woods fans who buy less than half a game for $60 to buy the rest for over twice the cost.

[Gentlegamer]

I'm pretty sure EA hasn't released the Mass Effect games with all DLC included. I've been waiting for that.

[Tanooki]

I think they did in the Trilogy. Mass Effect 2 on the PS3 had all the DLC included. I played that game through all that added stuff. I would definitely not have paid for it as it wouldn't be worth the added dough, but as it being the real 'full game' it was all just nice being there.

[Emperor Megas]

Achievement notifications that pop up in real time without regard for what's happening on screen - I know that achievements are a relatively new thing in gaming, and I don't own an XBONE or a PS4, so I don't know if this still happens with the newer consoles, but I can't tell you how many times that damn XBOX360 onscreen achievement notification graphic and chime has appeared during a firefight, or a cut scene with subtitled dialog that it obscures, or some other situation that took me out of the gaming experience if only for 3 seconds.

I understand the benefits of having a standard notification placement and graphic, but you'd think they'd implement them better into the games, and code them to appear when the proverbial coast is clear. You know?



BULLSHIT, WTF endings - Right, that's broad so I'll be more specific. I recently ended Bioshock. I know, I'm late to the party, but I shelved it in 2011 (according to my last save file) because I just wasn't feeling it. I'm SO glad I decided to revisit it though, because it was easily one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a while. I had no idea that it was basically Dead Space under water. I LOVE Dead Space, it's definitely my favorite 7th gen IP, and once I took Bioshock seriously and realized the mechanics (and atmosphere) where very similar I didn't stop playing until the end. Which brings me to my problem. I don't want to spoil anything for any other late comers to the game so [SPOILER ALERT], but the ending I received was shorter than the damn attract mode video. I mean it REALLY left me wondering if I hit a button or something accidentally while it was going.

I fight the last boss again, and watched the ending again, and yep, it's just REALLY that short. I played through on the normal setting. If there's a better ending on a different difficulty setting or something, that's STILL fucked up that I got such a shit one. It's not like the game was a cake walk or anything (I rescued every Little Sister in the game), even though the final boss battle was about half as difficult as your typical Bouncer Big Daddy encounter. But I'd rather this than a long ass drawn out fight, which was one of the things I ranted about in another post in this topic.



'Leap of faith' camera sequences - I HATE when the camera doesn't show you what's in front of you and you're expected to outrun some threat, or take a jumping leap of faith into the void and hope (if it's your first play through) that you make it to where you needed to end up.

I'm playing Bayonetta, another game I shelved a while ago, and I reached a sequence on one of the earlier stages where there's a massive lava flow behind you and you have to outrun it while avoiding a few large enemies along the corridor you're running...but you can't look forward. There's only a 3 quarter frontward view, and an angle where the camera is looking at the front of your character. It's a very cinematic and stylized sequence, but it's terrible game design to make you navigate it. Just make it a cut scene already instead of having me die multiple times trying to figure out what to do and where to run.

[CDiablo]

I'm pretty sure EA hasn't released the Mass Effect games with all DLC included. I've been waiting for that.

Me too. Seeing this gen is the gen of remasters I have a feeling we will get the ME trilogy remastered(with all DLC) at some point for current gen.

I hate EA but they just have some IP's I cant resist. I love Battlefield(just bought the PC edition with all DLC for $30) and if Battlefront is worth anything, I will likely buy it on multiple platforms(friends are mostly on XBOX, though I prefer PC controls) at launch.
OT:


I would love if I could skip the cutscenes of every game. I dont think I have ever been invested in any games story or characters ever. Let people like me skip the story.
I know I am preaching to the choir here but pretty much every type of DLC and microtransaction needs to go.
I would also like to see unreasonable budgets go. This ties in with DLC, you shouldnt build a game off hoping x% of people are going to buy DLC. Too many games that are selling 3-4 million are coming back as financial failures.
Unreasonable development time lines need to go. Too many big name games are being shipped broken. Too many games need massive day 1 patches.
Adding achievements with DLC. Lots of folks love their achievements(I do to an extent). I would be heartbroken if I lost my XBOX badge for a game like Dark Souls(I got all achievements) if they kept adding new dlc with new achievements. Maybe I am a weirdo but some games I really feel good about finishing %100. To have that taken away behind a paywall sucks.
Delisting of games/DLC without warning. This one really gets me. We've probably lost the legal means to buy 50-100 games last gen and countless DLC expansions/items. Not only do they delist these things, they dont take the time to inform the gaming community. Put them on sale or in the very least inform people so you can get some last minute sales.

[Tanooki]

I have no idea about Mass Effect 1 or 3, but if you saw my last post I said I did have ME2 for PS3, and because it was released later on there and without ME1 it was handled differently. The game has an interactive comic to read/decide things to create the relationships and stories of the first game. But once in the real ME2 game all of it is there, DLC and all. I finished that game more or less entirely.

[mailman187666]

Referring to DLC and EA, my roommate is a huge hockey fan. Apparently in NHL 2015, they have you buying packs of cards (for reasons I don't know, cuz I don't play sports games). He has literally spent over $400 in "micro transactions" just to build his collection or stats or what have you. $400 could get you a new console, and he is paying this just for one game on the 360.

I don't fall for this shit. XBLA games, yeah, I'll get a game I really want for $15, or an add in for $10 here and thete. Hockey games that you are $400+ deep in on? Total waste of money. That could go into a savings account towards a new vehicle when the ole POS craps out on you.

[Gentlegamer]

Referring to DLC and EA, my roommate is a huge hockey fan. Apparently in NHL 2015, they have you buying packs of cards (for reasons I don't know, cuz I don't play sports games). He has literally spent over $400 in "micro transactions" just to build his collection or stats or what have you. $400 could get you a new console, and he is paying this just for one game on the 360.

I don't fall for this shit. XBLA games, yeah, I'll get a game I really want for $15, or an add in for $10 here and thete. Hockey games that you are $400+ deep in on? Total waste of money. That could go into a savings account towards a new vehicle when the ole POS craps out on you.

EA's FIFA games use the same card system and are the main cause of rampant account hacking on Xbox Live.

[kai123]

I wouldn't mind if they stopped porting all the old games from one generation ago and pretending it is something new and deserves to be full price once again.

[Gentlegamer]

I wouldn't mind if they stopped porting all the old games from one generation ago and pretending it is something new and deserves to be full price once again.

This is something I don't mind, re-releasing upgraded + all DLC versions of games is a great way to leverage a publisher's catalog, fill in release schedules while newer games are developed, and introduce great games from previous gens to potential new audiences. And often these "remastered" editions include multiple games in one sku.

[ProjectCamaro]

I look at the so called remastered games as the complete game so I don't mind them. It is nice getting all the DLC along with better graphics.

I waited to buy "Last of Us", "Tomb Raider", and some others when they were redone and on the current generation over buying the previous generation version.

[kai123]

This is something I don't mind, re-releasing upgraded + all DLC versions of games is a great way to leverage a publisher's catalog, fill in release schedules while newer games are developed, and introduce great games from previous gens to potential new audiences. And often these "remastered" editions include multiple games in one sku.

I guess I should have phrased that a little better. I am really talking about one game and that is Dark Souls 2. They showed us one thing for the graphics and gave us something else. Now they are like well here are better graphics now give us $60 again. It is annoying because they think DirectX 11 is some crazy feature. Fuck it Bloodborne will be out not too long after the "new" version. I just hate milking us. I bought the collector's edition for PS3 played through it. I bought the PC version and the season pass. Now this comes out. Makes me crazy. You can tell Namco has From Software by the balls. I mean the game isn't even a year old...

[Tanooki]

You're talking about the classic bait and switch tactics in advertising versus reality. The industry has done this since the dawn of home 3D gaming. I remember when Sony would on the backs of some boxes put pictures of the movies instead of game play to cover up the shittiness of the game itself, even Square would do it too, and often even Nintendo people would find suggestive angles in images to sell something that was dishonest. You couldn't cover the lie very well with box art in the 2D stuff because it was the game and that was it, but in 3D you open up lots of ways to sucker the buyer. I quit trusting boxes as the SNES era went out.

As far as the package deal stuff, I did the same as some of your others. Tomb Raider was a PS4 pick, as was the Last of Us (which annoyingly I dislike due to the controls of all things...why could they not have had it handle like Uncharted?!), and even on PS3 I snapped up those God of War packages and Ico/Shadow of the Colossus, LittleBigPlanet, Mass Effect 2. They were all cleaned up, bettered in many ways, and where it applies had all the DLC thrown in free too. I'm kind of done buying games new right off if I have any suspicion at all it will have DLC or a definitive edition later on. I'd rather wait a year and get $150-200+ in game+DLC that should have been included for usually $40-50.

[duffmanth]

Paid DLC and micro transactions.

[kupomogli]

A limited amount of letters for your characters name.

Dragon's Crown and Fantasy Life are good games, but one thing they have in common is that I have to limit my character's name. On Dragon's Crown it's eight letters and Fantasy Life it's six I think. The size that games are right now and you can't afford the space for players to have a longer name? It's an annoyance when I play but there aren't enough spaces for kupomogli, etc.

*edit*

Also now that I think about it. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call limits your name to four letters.

[Bubble_Man]

Something I've had an issue with for the last couple of gens is game series that were previously known for exploration going linear for the sake of "story." However, this trend seems to be reversing with the upcoming Legend of Zelda U and Final Fantasy XV.

[Emperor Megas]

a limited amount of letters for your characters name.

omg yes!

[Nophix]

QTE's- burn them with fire! Man I hate those stupid things!

DLC to fix unfinished games, or patches to fix what should have been a beta- what is with studios not finishing their work anymore? Day 1 patches, promised content becoming paid DLC, and generally just half arsing the whole thing. I'm ok with DLC, but don't yank out promised content and then sell it separately, and for God sakes finish the game so it WORKS!

[AMG]

QTE - Nothing breaks my immersion in a game more than button prompts flashing on screen.

[Tanooki]

I've hated QTEs since Dragon's Lair, and only more recently with God of War on PS3 and a few others have they been made only slightly less insufferable at least showing you what to push instead of just some flicker on screen. I'd love to know what they were boiling in their bong at Square-Enix when they put those in the boss fights on FF13-2 I've seen so far.

[Yago]

Save Points. As if it was not a big enough pain in the rump before, you would think developers these would have figured out that, when the player dies we DO NOT like starting the entire fracking level over. I can think of many games that have done it right. PS2 God of War at least the game auto-saved at the tough parts and you can try your hand as many times needed to get through it without losing progression and without being diverted back to your last save point. Often too many times you get 3 lives and have to back track. I'm too old and impatient for that crap anymore.