Things you hate about modern games...

[tony_good]

Artificial light reflections. It was cool the first time I saw one (I think Sonic Adventure), but Christ what an annoyance! And so many games have them. Why? If I never see another light relfection in a game, it'll be too soon.

What about the reliance upon the analog stick for primary control? Since 1985 (or so) when the NES was first released, the directional cross has proved optimal for character control. Some will no doubt disagree, as analog makes it easier to move fast or slow, but whatever happened to the days when you used the d cross and pushed a button while moving to run/sneak/etc.? Isn't that much easier than not knowing precisely how much pressure to use and accidentally making your character walk when he's supposed to tiptoe past an enemy?

Graphical pop-in. Man, this is getting out of hand. I can't tell you how many times I have been flying my helicopter/airplane in San Andreas, only to crash into a tree that wasn't there a second ago!

The analog stick/buttons are also a nuisance. In the above-mentioned game, I was just about to finish my 11th of 12 Firefighter missions when using the right analog stick to move the water nozzle, I accidentally pushed R3, cancelling the whole God damned mission! L3 and R3 are lousily placed buttons, and the whole concept of pushing down on a stick sucks.

Any others you'd care to mention?

[poloplayr]

3D is vile.

2D is divine.

[lurpak]

they are all the same..

seriously, doom clones, you can pick up any 10 random games for the PC especialy in your local game store and 5 will be a 3d shooting affair 1st person view FFS move on !

[Cryomancer]

Few quality Japanese games coming over, and the ones that do ebing slowed downed, priced up, and rendered unplayable by english voice acting.

[Balusilustalu]

Character's feet slipping all over the place. Somehow this never bothered me in 2D platform games, but in 3D games it just looks so pathetic!
Developers go to great lengths to achieve realism but leave this area completely unchartered. Watching a 3D character slipping and sliding as he/she 'skates' across terrain completely ruins any attempts at believability.

Give me a good 2D game over a 3D one any day.

[towerofsong]

I hate the fact that most modern games have to have stupid tutorial levels before they even let you access the main game. grrrr

[Satac]

Unskipable Cutscenes. RPGs like Golden Sun are really a pain in the ass - they force you to watch a (stupid) 5-10 minute cutscene and put you into a boss battle without saving first. When you lose the battle you have to watch the scene again...

[squidblatt]

Dark, stubbly heroes who inhabit a dark, stubbly world.

And the fear of stats. And automaps. Wasn't part of the fun of Wizardry being able to map out a level on graph paper? There's more interaction there than pressing a button for a partial look of where you've been for the last minute. Exploration used to mean more back when a tablet of graph paper was a necessity.

[Xantan the Foul]

I hate the fact that most modern games have to have stupid tutorial levels before they even let you access the main game. grrrr

I second, third, fourth, and fifth that!

Would it be so hard to just ask "Would you like to actually play the game, or have us bug you about what button to press to swing your sword?"

[Tatsu]

Dark, stubbly heroes who inhabit a dark, stubbly world.

And the fear of stats. And automaps. Wasn't part of the fun of Wizardry being able to map out a level on graph paper? There's more interaction there than pressing a button for a partial look of where you've been for the last minute. Exploration used to mean more back when a tablet of graph paper was a necessity.

I definitely disagree about this one! Outomaping is one of my favourite features in dungeon crawlers. Maybe because I have a bad sense of orientation but I hate games withtout automap.

[fergojisan]

The price. :D

I'm more of a retrogamer than anything. I have a GBA, and that's it. I just spent 18 bucks on a used copy of Super Mario Advance, and that's the most I've paid for a game in a looooong time.
I like Burnout 3 though. :-P

[EnemyZero]

its all been done, at least when saturn and ps1 even DC came out 3D was new - outside of pc games but now everything is just a rehash of another game, very boring, give me mario 3 over gta anyday of the week

also all the attention to graphics compared to gameplay - how many times have you read a review on a game and it says " this game is truely fun and amazing but the only downside is the graphics are a little outdated so we give this 6 out of 10....stuff like that is annoying

[jdc]

I would like to complain about the entire industry latching onto "the clone of the moment". It seriously hampers the available variety. Not everyone wants to drown in FPS for months on end. The one weakness of the XboX, IMO.

Tutorials are annoying for me as well. I also am getting sick and tired of the overall cheapness of the A.I. in order to make gameplay "last". There are FAR too many modern games that start out with a bang and hook you....but end up sitting unfinished on a shelf due to either tedium or over-the-top difficulty. The games are far too long....I lose interest with SO many games before I finish them. The Bard's Tale is a great example of this. Grand Theft Auto games......a case of a great game giving you TOO much to do....shorten it by a few days and maybe I'll finish it before I head onto something else. It drags on for too long.

[otterpop]

Collection tasks in 3d platformers. In most 2d platformers it was enough just to get to the end of the level, defeat a boss, move on.

Now you must move through the level, collect 100 coins, finish, then play the level all over again, this time accomplishing a different, equally boring goal.

I blame Mario 64 for starting this.

[boatofcar]

Collection tasks in 3d platformers. In most 2d platformers it was enough just to get to the end of the level, defeat a boss, move on.

Now you must move through the level, collect 100 coins, finish, then play the level all over again, this time accomplishing a different, equally boring goal.

I blame Mario 64 for starting this.


I disagree with this-it's done to give games this thing called "replay factor." Most of the time, you can beat the game without completing every objective on every stage. Extra goals are put in to give you a reason to come back to the game after you've beaten it.

I really hate the non-silent protagonist in games, especially RPG's. Back in the 8 and 16 bit days, the character you played was silent, and the NPC's talked, which gave yo uthe feeling f actually "being" the hero. Now, you've got some whiney brat that is supposed to represent you (I'm talking about FFX here), and to me it destroyed any sense of jumping into the game, as it were. Unfortunately, I think this is now the norm, because with the exception of Dragon Warrior 7, every new RPG I've played has the character you play babbling away. Bring back the silent protagonist!

[kainemaxwell]

Collection tasks in 3d platformers. In most 2d platformers it was enough just to get to the end of the level, defeat a boss, move on.

Now you must move through the level, collect 100 coins, finish, then play the level all over again, this time accomplishing a different, equally boring goal.

I blame Mario 64 for starting this.
I'll second that one.

[Ernster]

The thing I hate about modern games is that there 3D..nuff said.

I feel like I gotta force my self to play a modern game, its just too much effort.

[VGfan]

Collection tasks in 3d platformers. In most 2d platformers it was enough just to get to the end of the level, defeat a boss, move on.

Now you must move through the level, collect 100 coins, finish, then play the level all over again, this time accomplishing a different, equally boring goal.

I blame Mario 64 for starting this.

That's stupid considering it was in some of the most popular 2D platformers before Mario 64 came out.
The DKC series and Yoshi's Island for example.

[Lady Jaye]

I have no qualms about modern games. The only thing that still badly needs to be improved upon, IMO, is the camera within the game. Sonic Adventure 2 is infamous for its sometimes spotty camera, but even Katamari Damacy has that problem at times.

[SirDrexl]

3D is vile.

2D is divine.

LOL [Imagines Gordon Gekko (poloplayr's avatar) saying those words]

The graphical pop-in isn't nearly as bad as it used to be. Compare Super Mario Sunshine, with its huge draw distance, to Mario 64, where you had to be a certain distance away from the coins to be able to see them.

Analog stick control isn't just about moving at different speeds, but also being able to move in any direction instead of being limited to 8 directions. It's a good thing IMHO, but I suppose they should allow you to move with the D-pad if you want to (assuming it isn't needed for something else like switching weapons).

About the analog stick buttons-it depends on what it's used for. It works fine for sniping in Halo, but in other cases it's annoying. I use one of the alternate control schemes for Metal Gear Solid: Substance just because the default has you push the left stick in to switch to 1st-person view. I've only played the Xbox versions of the GTA games, which do not use the stick button to cancel missions. I don't know if I would have the patience to keep retrying them without accidentally pushing in the stick.

Aside from the cutscenes you can't skip, one thing that bothers me is when they neglect to include shadows under characters. It just makes them look fake, as if they were cut and pasted onto the screen.

[Zoe F]

That's stupid considering it was in some of the most popular 2D platformers before Mario 64 came out.
The DKC series and Yoshi's Island for example.

For the most part in the 2D platformers, the items weren't horribly out of the way of a straight forward path through the level. Plus, you could collect all of them in one play through the level. Games like Mario 64, and I love Mario 64 by the way, forced you to go through the level multiple times no matter how good you were. That's why the idea got annoying.

[BIGMIKE]

i liked it a lot better when it only cost me a coin to play. nowadays i gotta blow a check to have a nice time :angry:

[VGfan]

For the most part in the 2D platformers, the items weren't horribly out of the way of a straight forward path through the level. Plus, you could collect all of them in one play through the level. Games like Mario 64, and I love Mario 64 by the way, forced you to go through the level multiple times no matter how good you were. That's why the idea got annoying.

Yes technically you could collect all of them in one play through but it can be pretty hard and time consuming, so you are most definitely going to end up playing through them a few times anyway.

It also depends on what you consider "collecting" in Mario 64. Is it only the coins or is the stars as well?

The truth is most of the stars in the game just involves going from the start point to the finish (in the form of a star instead of a flagpole), exactly like the older Mario games.

[djbeatmongrel]

the only thing that bugs me is sequals and the relliance on them. i wanna see more effort put into GOOD making original titles.

[Richter Belmount]

What I dont like about modern games is the lack of ideas , like just playing mega man x8 and compare it to x1 , it sucks especially cause of the lack of new ideas.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Price....people who damage the DVD or CD's easily

Controllers...too many buttons make TOR JOHNSON MAD!!! Argh!! me Want SNES/Genesis controllers back!

Games are becoming shorter these days...people complaing RPG's aren't long enough....yet I'm happy as hell when I finished Secret of Mana or Phantasy Star IV

Online gaming...I don't like much...because lately there are too many trolls and hackers out there to ruin your fun.

GH/PH/PC re-released titles that come in shitty green-silver-red-yellow boarders...ruining the value of the game, but the original release shoots up to 3-5 times as much

No more pride is taken into their work as much...if the game feels incomplete...just make a REMAKE or a Director's Cut :) (But what about my old game? NO! WRONG! BUY IT AGAIN!)

Collector's Edition/Special Edition <--- I'm sick of it...stop making so many in limited quanity so we can get screwed out of having the full package deal

Systems that don't come with games....what a rip man...back in our day we could get two controllers and a game or two....and we're set!

Systems that don't come with RF Switches anymore...when it used to be AV Cables and an RF Switch was included with SNES and Genesis

Memory Card crisis....remember when PS2 had a shortage of Memory Cards? How friggin lame....should have built in a harddrive like Xbox! Now that's solid

[The Plucky Little Ninja]

The linear nature of so many modern RPG's drives me nuts. Many of them don't even have a world map anymore. FFX and Shadow Hearts have you running in a straight line for 30+ hours.

And on that note, MAKE SOME MORE INNOVATIONS FOR RPG COMBAT. That active time system was bad ass when it first came out, but enough already. Grandia 2 is the only RPG i've ever played where combat was the most exciting part of the game.

[yoursisterspretty]

Since most everything is 3D, the camera bothers me the most especially in adventures and platformers. Then there's the whole memory card thing. Like with Nintendo releasing the 59 first and then the 251 and 1019. What the hell? Rip-off (well it is Nintendo..). Loading time used to bother me. But I guess the #1 thing on my list is just the lack of 2D games. *sigh* The good 'ol days. =)

BTW, I actually LOVE collect-o-thons. And am killing for a new one. I'm thinking about hunting down Banjo-Tooie since I've never done that one.

[WanganRunner]

I actually like the limited edition stuff.

I wish we'd get more of it. The Japanese, and even Europe, still get way more if that kind of thing than the US does. Halo green xbox? Ghey....Where's our LE 2nd Anniversary white one? That's what I wanna know....Where's OUR Twin Snakes Foxhound Gamecube?

We get screwed all the time on stuff like that. For some reason they don't think that kind of limited-run stuff will sell here, when it obviously will.

Anyway, back on topic. Why modern games suck:

-My biggest gripe is that no one takes advantage of the technology. Where's our console-based, broadband-ready, online Pokemon game where we catch shit and trade online? Why the hell can't they do that? They SHOULD have done it 2 years ago, it SHOULD have launched with the fucking Gamecube, it'd have been the most popular MMORPG in history. Hard drives are another thing, no one's taking advantage of those either. Where are the games with downloadable, upgradable content? PC games have been doing this for years, it doesn't hurt profitability. I mean, 1080i and 5.1 audio are all well and good, but I'm talking about the technology that actually drives gameplay, not just what makes the same crap prettier and sound better.

-Everything is too character/franchise driven now, rather than gameplay driven. Mario DDR? Mario NBA Fucking Street? What's next? Just put a Mario plush next to your TV and play normal DDR, retards....

[Lovely Assistant]

A few things. One, most modern games are all eye candy and crappy story lines. Sure, games look pretty and all, but hell, a crappy story just ruins it all. It's like all people care about lately is "zomg! preety three-dee graphics!" Give me an old school 2D game any day.

B, Most games have you playing a guy. Ugh, and the ones that do have you playing chicks(*coughFFX-2cough*) the chicks have clothes that are originally tagged for a 12 year old to wear. Is there some deal with having to have the female get less and less clothing as she gets "stronger"?

D, The harvest moon series. Don't get me wrong, love the games and all, but I find it odd that only one of the Havest moon games we've gotten has had the option to be female(I think it was one of the GameBoy games). And there are a few games that the Japanese get that are for girls, but we never get them. It annoys me SO much, cause I want to play the chick. I really haaate having to play guys in games.

And lastly, Princess Maker. We never see these games unless translated by someone. Sure we get the anime bases on the games, but when it comes to the games themselves, It's like someone's like "No! can't have that!" Maybe I'm just weird with this one, but I enjoy those types of games, cause I'm strange like that.
But that's just my two cents.

[Push Upstairs]

As someone else mentioned...talking characters.

Silence is golden. (casts evil eye on Mario)

Very few characters are tolerable with thier constant talking.

[Lord Contaminous]

Long movies in RPG's. And if it had a skip feature, you're playing mental tug-o-war.

For instance:

I'm falling asleep on a movie in Xenosaga, and 2 clones of myself appear on my shoulder.

Clone #1 with horns and a tail =Skip it. That shit is boring. You want to get the game over with!

Clone #2 with wings and a halo =Another clone of myself with wings and a halo -Watch it. If you skip it, you'll never know what the story is. And you'll get a suck ass ending. Good things come to those who wait!

[YoshiM]

Before I leave my 2 zenny on what I dislike about modern games I do have to touch on a few things said earlier (to bring things more to perspective rather than have a total "well back in the day...." situation).

Price: you can't compare yesterday's price to today's price. Games today are actually cheaper than they were years back. I never thought of it (until someone brought it to my attention) that inflation plays a big role. The April 1989 issue of Video Games and Computer Entertainment magazine reviewed Tengen's Gauntlet for the NES and listed it as having a price of $44.95. In 2003 dollars (as my inflation calculator only goes that high) that would be $66.69. For a bigger contrast, the Atari VCS launched in 1977 at a price of $199 (if I'm not mistaken). In 2003 dollars that would have been $614.64.

Cranking out the same games (example: FPS): this situation has been going on for a long time. In the 70's it was pong games. In the early 80's there were a lot of shooting games. Mid to late 80's and very early 90's the platformer explosion took place. Then came the fighting game craze along with the Tetris knock-offs. Can it suck? Yes, I agree it can. The fighting game explosion was one of the reasons I shifted gears in the 90's to computer games (which also became clogged with FPS and RTS games later on). It's "the norm" and it's a wave we have to ride out, sifting through the clones to find the diamond.

Now, with that out of the way...

-Cameras: I second/third/forth/fifth on that. Last generation I could understand camera issues. 3D was a pretty new concept for the home and there were going to be some growing pains. However once the next gen rolled around you'd figure those problems would be gone. Wrong. A great example is Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. If you got into a fight in a room with columns you gotta hope you don't get the camera stuck behind one of those as you couldn't see a thing. Mario Sunshine is another great example.

-Light glare. I understand the idea of "making the virtual environment more realistic" but this is just absurd. For example: you are driving your virtual car at breakneck speed and then all of a sudden your view is practically totally obscured by a simulation of the sun getting into your eyes whichs causes you to ram into a side rail during a turn. In real life when the sun or light gets into your eyes one can typically squint to see through it, put on sunglasses to cut the light down or flip the visor down to block the light. Can't do this in a video game which makes the situation frustrating.

-Sequel-itis: I think this is worse than genre beating. At least with a genre clone the developer of the game has a chance to inject a fresh experience on top of something tried and true (like platforming, for example). With sequels you pretty much have to keep the experience similar to the previous title or you might lose your audience, not unlike what kinda happened when Zelda 2 and Super Mario 2 came out (in these cases the audience wasn't lost but both games got negative feedback for being a bit "too different" than their predecessors). Rather than ending a series on a high note and then moving on to something else, companies want to squeeze every last penny out of a series as they can even after the game jumped the shark. The Tomb Raider series is a wonderful example.

I've got other issues that stem from last gen that haven't been taken care of (lack of difficulty comes to mind along with things that have already been touched on) but this has gotten long enough :)

[crazyjackcsa]

I dislike having to play througha game multiple times to get everything. The worst 3 for me.
SSX and tony Hawk games: I have to beat the game with every character so I can max the stats and play wo player.

Sonic Adventure 2. You want me to invest 70+ hours in a Sonic game to get all A ratings? NO!

[goatdan]

The only big thing for me is that there aren't too many arcade type games anymore. I love games like Tempest 2000 and Robotron X / 64, but there just aren't that many made any more.

The other thing that I hate is that too many games is that they almost require the strategy guide to beat. I really like the feeling of progressing through a game myself, but I HATE how a lot of games leave you hanging on what to do next and you have to look it up elsewhere or just run around aimlessly. I was playing Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy and I got to one point and I couldn't figure out what to do next. After spending an hour wandering around trying things, I checked on a strategy guide about what to do, and it even said that the part I was at was nearly impossible to figure out.

I wish that games did what Earthbound did for when you get stuck -- you can go to a hint part, pay to get a hint on what to do next and then set off again. It wouldn't feel as cheap to me as looking it up online.

And lastly, I want more good 2D platformers!

That's about it though. I can't gripe too much as I think a lot of newer games are very fun.

[Aussie2B]

Few quality Japanese games coming over, and the ones that do ebing slowed downed, priced up, and rendered unplayable by english voice acting.

I totally hear ya. The worst thing about modern games by far is the slow yet painfully clear death of Japanese gaming in the US. Remember when Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Mario, Sonic, etc. were king? Those were the days. I had developed a preference for Japanese games before I was even old enough to realize that the games I was playing came from Japan.

The next biggest problem is the lack of originality and the constant stream of rehashed sequels. This is especially annoying in the realm of Japanese gaming since unusual titles rarely make it to the States these days. All we get are the same old tired series that sell off of pure name recognition alone. I mean, I like most of the big Nintendo series games that have come out for GameCube, but it's very hard to get that excited about them when I've seen it all before. I'd be just as happy turning on my N64 and playing Mario 64, F-Zero X, Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64, etc.

[tony_good]

I forgot to mention, as impressive as a lot of 3D games are visually, man do I miss old-fashioned sprite graphics. :(

Take a look at some of the arcade games released about 10 years ago, like Alien vs. Predator. Those sprites are simply awesome, and now we'll never know just how far 2D could have gone since 3D made them obsolete.

Where was the outcry over the death of sprite games? Who would've thought the horrendous first gen polygon graphics (i.e. Tomb Raider, Virtua Fighter, Tekken) would evolve and replace what we'd played for over 2 decades?

Somebody tell me there's been a console game released in the past 5 years that is solely sprite based (NOT counting Mega Man Anniversary Collection)...

[Leo_A]

Using horrible modern music (Think things like RalliSport Challenge's songs, thank God for custom soundtracks) rather than real videogame music.

[digitalpress]

Somebody tell me there's been a console game released in the past 5 years that is solely sprite based (NOT counting Mega Man Anniversary Collection)...

How about the last 5 months?

Try Alien Hominid. Or Viewtiful Joe 2.

[Kroogah]

now we'll never know just how far 2D could have gone since 3D made them obsolete.

Somebody tell me there's been a console game released in the past 5 years that is solely sprite based (NOT counting Mega Man Anniversary Collection)...

The answer to both of those statements is the Guilty Gear series.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

now we'll never know just how far 2D could have gone since 3D made them obsolete.

Somebody tell me there's been a console game released in the past 5 years that is solely sprite based (NOT counting Mega Man Anniversary Collection)...

How about Disgaea or the other Nippon Ichi games.

[SegaAges]

Character's feet slipping all over the place. Somehow this never bothered me in 2D platform games, but in 3D games it just looks so pathetic!
Developers go to great lengths to achieve realism but leave this area completely unchartered. Watching a 3D character slipping and sliding as he/she 'skates' across terrain completely ruins any attempts at believability.

Give me a good 2D game over a 3D one any day.

i second that one. you say that resident evil is realistic, they walk and move correctly, but when you go to aim, and then turn around while aiming, they will slide around micheal jackson style

[NESaholic]

I like simplicity, 2d stuff,todays games are too complex in controls,too much buttons and indeed alot is based on the same idea and looks the same,plus i dislike the 3d stuff as well.
Still not all are bad ofcourse,i play new generation stuff too.

[Jorpho]

The endless march of new technology, and the incompatibilities that result from everyone else trying to keep up.

I've also never read a review of a recent video game that extolled the wonder and beauty of a fantastic camera that's always in the right place at the right time. It's not something I've had much experience with myself, though.

[Iron Draggon]

The total lack of art. In the good old days, backgrounds were "painted" now they're just "textured". Characters and enemies consisted of sprites that were "drawn", now they consist of polygons that are "textured". Almost everything in modern games is either "textured" or "rendered", which means that all the "artist" did was choose a premade texture from a catalog and slap it on a model. And those premade textures are usually made by scanning a photograph of something and digitizing it, in much the same way that digitized characters were created in the old days. Take a pic, slap on a tex, done. Yeah, real creative. What happened to video games as art? There used to be tons of games where the sheer artistic beauty of them was one of their main selling points. Now there's just tons of games where anybody with a decent photo editing program could slap a new texture onto a model over the existing texture and gee, you can do it too, looks just like factory! I'm not knocking modders by any means, because I'm a modder too, but come on, anybody can do it in today's games, it's literally copy & paste! In the old days, if you had no artistic talent, then you'd better be a damned good coder, because those were pretty much your only two choices. But now just look what we have, lighting specialists, shadowing specialists, all very talented people no doubt, but hardly what I would call true artists. There's way too much focus on realism, and not enough on fantasy, I say!

[jdc]

Just to see how far we've come, I cracked open that nice WD Arc The Lad box set yesterday and started playing.

It really DOES blow away most of the shit that we've been fed lately....on all counts. I've never played it before. The game is fun, fast paced, and addictive. This goes back to the day when you played a game straight through from beginning to end....and enjoyed yourself.

Really interesting....there must be more honesty in the gaming world as of late. For a fair number of months now, almost every new release that has been featured in OPM has has an astonishingly low review score. Don't believe me? Go check for yourself. Most every new release seems to be not worth our time or money.