6) WWII RTS games with health bars on units. Remember the Close Combat games? Those were awesome! Tanks didn't "take damage until they died." Instead they became immobilized, or their crews bailed, or were just plain knocked out. Squad performance was based on how many guys were left in the squad, as well as other factors. Some units would flat out refuse orders (favourite gaming moment - Asking a British Paratroop squad to assault a Panther, so others units could flank. The squad commander responded "You're Mad!" and buggered off!)
That's all I've got for now.
You know, that made me consider another personal pet peeve of mine - World War 2 games. It's not so bad now but when there was a slew of them in the early-mid 2000's. There's only so much Nazi-shooting one can stomach. I can't enjoy the genre anymore because it's been done so many times. And alterations of the formula don't work either. "World War 2... With magic" was basically Wolfenstein (the more recent one), and it sucked. I just want the concept of the WW2 shooter to die.
GTFO. It was a great multiplayer experience and I think only Quake was played more at LAN parties that my friends and I hosted.
mrt144 on
0
DunxcoShould get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered Userregular
6) WWII RTS games with health bars on units. Remember the Close Combat games? Those were awesome! Tanks didn't "take damage until they died." Instead they became immobilized, or their crews bailed, or were just plain knocked out. Squad performance was based on how many guys were left in the squad, as well as other factors. Some units would flat out refuse orders (favourite gaming moment - Asking a British Paratroop squad to assault a Panther, so others units could flank. The squad commander responded "You're Mad!" and buggered off!)
That's all I've got for now.
You know, that made me consider another personal pet peeve of mine - World War 2 games. It's not so bad now but when there was a slew of them in the early-mid 2000's. There's only so much Nazi-shooting one can stomach. I can't enjoy the genre anymore because it's been done so many times. And alterations of the formula don't work either. "World War 2... With magic" was basically Wolfenstein (the more recent one), and it sucked. I just want the concept of the WW2 shooter to die.
GTFO. It was a great multiplayer experience and I think only Quake was played more at LAN parties that my friends and I hosted.
2) Games where sidequests resulting in over-levelling. Okay, I am definitely something of a completist, but it does become dissappointing when you return to the main story line after running a few errands to discover that you now stride amongst your enemies as an unstoppable collossus. All dramatic tension is lost.
This describes Crisis Core perfectly. I got to a huge boss battle that should have been epic and amazing, but I was able to win by casting one spell three times. Seriously. The battle took less time than random encounters in some of the harder missions.
Other than the price of the games and accessories I would like to have and my lack of free time:
- Level/spell/skill grinding in RPGs. I've mentioned this before on another thread but that's the only reason why I haven't beaten FF6 Advance since I'm trying to get my party members to learn the good spells so they stand a chance in the final area. Lost Odyssey is kind of like that for me on the 4th disc only it involves a minigame (those who played it will probably understand which part)
- Limited continues are a pet peeve since it's just a remnant of the arcade days where you had to put more coins in the machine just to keep playing. I've already paid for my copy of the game so why do I have to start the whole game over if all my lives are used up? This is the one gripe that I have with Contra 4 which is an awesome game but it's already difficult enough with the bosses, enemies, and levels. They should have just given the players infinite continues.
- Unskippable cutscenes as well as any cutscene that cannot be paused. This irritates me when I've already seen the cutscene but have to sit through it again.
- Lack of save points in RPGs. I don't have all the time in the world to go through a big long dungeon or area in just one sitting.
- Lack of dependability on the "run away" option in a turn based RPG. Unless a character has an instant runaway ability, my party usually fails to run away in those fights and ends up wasting a full turn.
Unless it's horribly executed, which it probably will be.
He didn't say it was in a stealth game.
Yeah, I'm just saying I wouldn't mind it in a actual stealth game, which is where you're most likely to find it.
Well, that and GTA
Namely GTA, and InFamous.
I'd be fuckin 2 stories up, hiding behind a planter, and I'd still get seen.
And GTA, you'd follow the schmuck for 5 minutes, the fail controlscheme would stop you as your foot crosses a building, and BAM the guy knows the foot is attached to someone following him.
Or you'd tail someone, and out of the 9 cars all following him, apparently I'm tailing him.
This is a recent one for me since I started playing Secret Agent Clank on the PSP, but cramming a game onto a platform clearly not meant for it. Secret Agent Clank is very obviously a PS2 game. It runs fairly well on the PSP, but controlling a floating camera with the PSP shoulder buttons can fuck off and die. As can not being able to hold a shoulder button to switch between regular movement and strafing.
One thing that has always pissed me off beyond reason is water levels. This goes all the way back to playing Sonic and Mario as a kid. In Sonic, I wanted to run really fast and do loops and shit, then they stick you in Labyrinth Zone and the game suddenly isn't fun anymore. As if that wasn't bad enough, they repeated it in every single Sonic game, ever. Same for Mario. I want to run around jumping on bad guys and hopping between platforms, but as soon as you put me in water, you remove both of the elements that make the game fun for me.
Fast forward several years. I'm getting into Tomb Raider for the first time. I come to a pool. The pool is the entrance to an underwater tunnel that is impossible to traverse before you air runs out without prior knowledge of the layout . To make it worse, Tomb Raider II had levels set in an oil rig, containing a large ammount of water sections, and a goddamn sunken ship! Then to vomit in your Weetabix just that little bit more, Tomb Raider III has levels that add a cold-meter to the whole affair, lowering the time you can actually spend in the water to a few seconds.
There are other examples. Metal Gear Solid 2 had the underwater section in the flooded lab. Who exactly placed the mines in this lab is unclear. There's just no good reason for it to be there. GTA San Andreas narrowly avoids my wrath in this area by making the swimming section mercifully brief. Half-Life avoids it by making the underwater sections actually manageable.
Sonic water levels are okay because he just looks so disappointed in you when you let him drown. Also because in Sonic 3 (I think) you could run on top of the water if you were going fast enough. Hydrocity Zone. I think that one was in 3.
Games that throw tons of information and/or items at you, but have terrible interfaces for managing it. RPGs have had this problem since day-fucking-1 and most of the new ones still can't get it right. For example, why is it so damned hard to compare items in most of these games? It's not like this problem hasn't been solved in several hundred ways.
Games that don't implement basic UI idioms. Mass Effect 2 doesn't let you double-click with your mouse or use the scroll wheel to scroll through lists, for example.
Meaningless fetch quests. I am busy saving the country/planet/solar system/galaxy here. No, I don't want to bring you an item that you are too lazy to get yourself.
While I appreciate that cover mechanics are far better in the new wave of shooters, every environment has turned into a jumble of crates and chest high walls.
Perfectly Cromulent on
0
Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Games where church and/or the head priest turns out to be the bad guy.
Can't I just play one game where my character keeps his/her faith in God and not get scrutinized for supporting the root of all evil, and then proceed to beat the shit out of an old man in white robes?
Didn't Final Fantasy Tactics avoid this somewhat?
Uh, no.
Not at all.
The Jesus allegory turns out to be the "bloody angel".
The final boss is literally an angel with wings.
haha yeah this is a huge thing in Japanese games.
I get why it's a good (well, solid) trope in Western games/films etc., but not why it's so popular in Japanese media.
edit: aah goddamnit everyone posts so fast
Culture. Religion is a much stronger force in daily life for Japanese than it is for most "Western" nations.
I was under the impression that this was the exact opposite of the case.
Namely, the religion plays very little part in the public consciousness except as an excuse for a bunch of different fun traditional festivals. Not only that the religions that would in be play in Japan and friends are radically different from the religions depicted in such games - from theological structure to earthly organisational structure.
What is in play is the Japanese fascination with everything Western - random bits of english, obscure or perverted references to religion, wearing a baseball cap inappropriately. These all have a certain coolness cache with a Japanese audience and it's largely because of this that it's a rule of cool style inclusion.
That said, it's not like during the very European time period in which most fantasy relating to deicide or corrupt churches is based wasn't a time in which the church was not incredibly powerful nor incredibly corrupt, so there's an unintentional grain of truth there, anyway.
The other irony is that this originally appeared as a subversion of another common trope - the priests were alwasy good, helped the main character randomly and usually saved the game for the heroes. Then, BAM turns out those mild mannered saving guys are actually trying to kill you all.
Apothe0sis on
0
Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Unless it's horribly executed, which it probably will be.
Well, that depends. I can't think of a single time in which that particular mechanic is fun. Or any game that isn't a dedicated stealth game wasn't hive inducingly terrible.
If it's a long section without checkpoints it's terribad regardless of whether it's a Stealth game or not. It's also rarely a matter of you having to completely avoid detection without any other options for recovery or a bit of leeway in terms of skirting their field of view for a time.
But when it's an awful insert into another game then the genre whiplash makes it all the worse. Especially when you have no particular abilities that make it interesting. It's just a "sit and wait"/"walk slowly behind" sort of deal. If you're climbing walls and sticking to shadowy rooves because you're awesome then it's a much better proposition.
But the sandworm section is Darksiders was ridiculous nonsense. But that paled in comparison to the awfulness that was teh jailbreak section of Lost Odyssey aboard the White Boa. What the hell was that about?
I still think one of the best examples of religion played straight in games is the Call of Juarez series. It feels geninue, especially Ray's guilt and his struggle between wrath and redemption.
The Japanese are always trying to kill off their gods, it's like some Klingon thing. :P
manwiththemachinegun on
0
Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
I love the Silent Protaganist, when they're really silent anyway.
Dead Space was awesome, Isaac's silence only contributed to the terror and isolation of it all. A+
Peeve: when a game lets you create your character's appearance, but only look at it in a limited way from the creator. Nothing worse that starting a new game of whatever and realizing that your character is ugly in a way you didn't expect.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
I'm throwing my hat in with those who are displeased with the lack of consideration of colourblindess. Mass Effect 2 is the most recent offender in my book. The red crosses in the hacking minigame take me ages compared differentiate relative to the speed of movement of the segments.
I like it when puzzle games have a colourblindess option that adds shapes on top of the puzzle bits. This is very helpful and maintains attractive colourschemes.
Unblockable never ending juggles in fighting games. I'm looking at you Killer Instinct. Let me land on the ground you goose!
I was such an asshole when I was 10 or 11 and that game came out. I used to use the Eyedol cheat and juggle people in the air until time ran out. Someone really, really should have punched me in the mouth. It was also possible with Orchid if I remember correctly, but it was a little harder.
I'm throwing my hat in with those who are displeased with the lack of consideration of colourblindess. Mass Effect 2 is the most recent offender in my book. The red crosses in the hacking minigame take me ages compared differentiate relative to the speed of movement of the segments.
I like it when puzzle games have a colourblindess option that adds shapes on top of the puzzle bits. This is very helpful and maintains attractive colourschemes.
Seconded. Although my colorblindness isn't terrible so sometimes the mode option is worse than the regular.
Games released for consoles and PCs where the PC version doesn't support game controllers. Double frustration if it's a sequel and the last game DID have controller support.
Games released for consoles and PCs where the PC version doesn't support game controllers. Double frustration if it's a sequel and the last game DID have controller support.
You just reminded me of one of my biggest peeves: M&K elitism.
Some of us prefer using a controller for most of our PC gaming, but that doesn't make us monsters!
Games released for consoles and PCs where the PC version doesn't support game controllers. Double frustration if it's a sequel and the last game DID have controller support.
The flipside of this. Games released on the PC that have console versions and the developer didn't spend any time making the PC version "feel" like a PC version. Borderland's menus; why does my scroll wheel not work in you?
Games released for consoles and PCs where the PC version doesn't support game controllers. Double frustration if it's a sequel and the last game DID have controller support.
You just reminded me of one of my biggest peeves: M&K elitism.
Some of us prefer using a controller for most of our PC gaming, but that doesn't make us monsters!
I think that stems from a "time and place" idea. There are times where I think most people agree that a M&K is much superior, such as in an FPS. On the other hand, there are games where having a gamepad, or joystick, or steering wheel, or what-have-you is obviously superior.
Though you'll get no pity from me if you're playing an FPS with a controller.
L Ron Howard on
0
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I still think one of the best examples of religion played straight in games is the Call of Juarez series. It feels geninue, especially Ray's guilt and his struggle between wrath and redemption.
The Japanese are always trying to kill off their gods, it's like some Klingon thing. :P
Well Japanese gods aren't special like western gods. They can die like any other creature, it's just a lot harder to make it happen. They can often go bad as well.
It's a different look at religion.
China has a similar thing going, where their gods are basically just super powered people in the sky, with all the foibles of people and don't particularly judge or pay much attention to humans. Doing their own thing.
Goku was a monkey king who crashed a banquet of the gods and then ate all the peaches on the tree of immortality. This naturally pissed off the gods so they punished him by putting him under a mountain (for eternity).
You'd never hear a legend about a devil going up to heaven and busting up the place: the western God is unassailable and "perfect". Even Satan basically got smashed before his war got anywhere. The implication is that if you go against the christian/catholic god, you get owned. There's no winning.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Posts
GTFO. It was a great multiplayer experience and I think only Quake was played more at LAN parties that my friends and I hosted.
... You played Wolfenstein 2009 at a LAN party?
MY MIND HAS BEEN BLOWN!
I'd love to see a Wolfenstein-themed Company of Heroes game.
This describes Crisis Core perfectly. I got to a huge boss battle that should have been epic and amazing, but I was able to win by casting one spell three times. Seriously. The battle took less time than random encounters in some of the harder missions.
- Level/spell/skill grinding in RPGs. I've mentioned this before on another thread but that's the only reason why I haven't beaten FF6 Advance since I'm trying to get my party members to learn the good spells so they stand a chance in the final area. Lost Odyssey is kind of like that for me on the 4th disc only it involves a minigame (those who played it will probably understand which part)
- Limited continues are a pet peeve since it's just a remnant of the arcade days where you had to put more coins in the machine just to keep playing. I've already paid for my copy of the game so why do I have to start the whole game over if all my lives are used up? This is the one gripe that I have with Contra 4 which is an awesome game but it's already difficult enough with the bosses, enemies, and levels. They should have just given the players infinite continues.
- Unskippable cutscenes as well as any cutscene that cannot be paused. This irritates me when I've already seen the cutscene but have to sit through it again.
- Lack of save points in RPGs. I don't have all the time in the world to go through a big long dungeon or area in just one sitting.
- Lack of dependability on the "run away" option in a turn based RPG. Unless a character has an instant runaway ability, my party usually fails to run away in those fights and ends up wasting a full turn.
Many recent console games actually don't even let you choose saves -- you only have 1 save per account/storage device.
Wasn't Enemy Territory an offshoot of Return to Castle Wolfenstein? That was some pretty excellent multiplayer. I had legitimate fun with every class.
'Follow this person, but DONT LET HIM SEE YOU!'
...
'HE SAW YOU! DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN!'
Meh, not unreasonable in a stealth game.
Unless it's horribly executed, which it probably will be.
He didn't say it was in a stealth game.
Timesplitters 2 Tokyo level.
"Don't let him see you!" with security cameras. In a first person shooter.
Yeah, I'm just saying I wouldn't mind it in a actual stealth game, which is where you're most likely to find it.
Well, that and GTA
The ironic part is these are rarely ever actually in pure stealth games.
I never asked for this!
Namely GTA, and InFamous.
I'd be fuckin 2 stories up, hiding behind a planter, and I'd still get seen.
And GTA, you'd follow the schmuck for 5 minutes, the fail controlscheme would stop you as your foot crosses a building, and BAM the guy knows the foot is attached to someone following him.
Or you'd tail someone, and out of the 9 cars all following him, apparently I'm tailing him.
FUCK those missions.
Well, if there are, I sure haven't seen them.
Thief
I think Splinter Cell had a missions like this.
Technically the Hitman games frequently require you to do this, though not always as "Missions" per se. And there are alternatives.
Fast forward several years. I'm getting into Tomb Raider for the first time. I come to a pool. The pool is the entrance to an underwater tunnel that is impossible to traverse before you air runs out without prior knowledge of the layout . To make it worse, Tomb Raider II had levels set in an oil rig, containing a large ammount of water sections, and a goddamn sunken ship! Then to vomit in your Weetabix just that little bit more, Tomb Raider III has levels that add a cold-meter to the whole affair, lowering the time you can actually spend in the water to a few seconds.
There are other examples. Metal Gear Solid 2 had the underwater section in the flooded lab. Who exactly placed the mines in this lab is unclear. There's just no good reason for it to be there. GTA San Andreas narrowly avoids my wrath in this area by making the swimming section mercifully brief. Half-Life avoids it by making the underwater sections actually manageable.
I was under the impression that this was the exact opposite of the case.
Namely, the religion plays very little part in the public consciousness except as an excuse for a bunch of different fun traditional festivals. Not only that the religions that would in be play in Japan and friends are radically different from the religions depicted in such games - from theological structure to earthly organisational structure.
What is in play is the Japanese fascination with everything Western - random bits of english, obscure or perverted references to religion, wearing a baseball cap inappropriately. These all have a certain coolness cache with a Japanese audience and it's largely because of this that it's a rule of cool style inclusion.
That said, it's not like during the very European time period in which most fantasy relating to deicide or corrupt churches is based wasn't a time in which the church was not incredibly powerful nor incredibly corrupt, so there's an unintentional grain of truth there, anyway.
The other irony is that this originally appeared as a subversion of another common trope - the priests were alwasy good, helped the main character randomly and usually saved the game for the heroes. Then, BAM turns out those mild mannered saving guys are actually trying to kill you all.
Well, that depends. I can't think of a single time in which that particular mechanic is fun. Or any game that isn't a dedicated stealth game wasn't hive inducingly terrible.
If it's a long section without checkpoints it's terribad regardless of whether it's a Stealth game or not. It's also rarely a matter of you having to completely avoid detection without any other options for recovery or a bit of leeway in terms of skirting their field of view for a time.
But when it's an awful insert into another game then the genre whiplash makes it all the worse. Especially when you have no particular abilities that make it interesting. It's just a "sit and wait"/"walk slowly behind" sort of deal. If you're climbing walls and sticking to shadowy rooves because you're awesome then it's a much better proposition.
But the sandworm section is Darksiders was ridiculous nonsense. But that paled in comparison to the awfulness that was teh jailbreak section of Lost Odyssey aboard the White Boa. What the hell was that about?
The Japanese are always trying to kill off their gods, it's like some Klingon thing. :P
Dead Space was awesome, Isaac's silence only contributed to the terror and isolation of it all. A+
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
He was so well done, I hadn't really thought of him as a silent protagonist until now.
Twitter
I like it when puzzle games have a colourblindess option that adds shapes on top of the puzzle bits. This is very helpful and maintains attractive colourschemes.
3DS: 1521-4165-5907
PS3: KayleSolo
Live: Kayle Solo
WiiU: KayleSolo
I was such an asshole when I was 10 or 11 and that game came out. I used to use the Eyedol cheat and juggle people in the air until time ran out. Someone really, really should have punched me in the mouth. It was also possible with Orchid if I remember correctly, but it was a little harder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JJ0AltxiiA
Seconded. Although my colorblindness isn't terrible so sometimes the mode option is worse than the regular.
Games released for consoles and PCs where the PC version doesn't support game controllers. Double frustration if it's a sequel and the last game DID have controller support.
You just reminded me of one of my biggest peeves: M&K elitism.
Some of us prefer using a controller for most of our PC gaming, but that doesn't make us monsters!
Twitter
The flipside of this. Games released on the PC that have console versions and the developer didn't spend any time making the PC version "feel" like a PC version. Borderland's menus; why does my scroll wheel not work in you?
PSN : Bolthorn
I think that stems from a "time and place" idea. There are times where I think most people agree that a M&K is much superior, such as in an FPS. On the other hand, there are games where having a gamepad, or joystick, or steering wheel, or what-have-you is obviously superior.
Though you'll get no pity from me if you're playing an FPS with a controller.
Well Japanese gods aren't special like western gods. They can die like any other creature, it's just a lot harder to make it happen. They can often go bad as well.
It's a different look at religion.
China has a similar thing going, where their gods are basically just super powered people in the sky, with all the foibles of people and don't particularly judge or pay much attention to humans. Doing their own thing.
Goku was a monkey king who crashed a banquet of the gods and then ate all the peaches on the tree of immortality. This naturally pissed off the gods so they punished him by putting him under a mountain (for eternity).
You'd never hear a legend about a devil going up to heaven and busting up the place: the western God is unassailable and "perfect". Even Satan basically got smashed before his war got anywhere. The implication is that if you go against the christian/catholic god, you get owned. There's no winning.