Things that annoy you - Gaming Edition

Tutorials that insist on making you press every single button when explaining the controls, and don't allow you to skip to the next section.

I literally can't use the mouse scroll wheel and the amount of games that map zooming in/out to it as well as a secondary option of PgUp/PgDn yet insist you try both during the tutorial is ridiculous, I started playing Lobotomy Corporation yesterday and genuinely haven't a clue what I'm doing as I had to skip the tutorial entirely due to not being able to use the scroll wheel s well as press g and h (onscreen keyboard) when prompted to do so.

Enemies levelling to the player's level.

Absolutely dire mechanic

.

jawa2 wrote:Enemies levelling to the player's level.

Absolutely dire mechanic .

I wonder what game this could be in reference too :lol:

Those branching paths in linear games.

Do I go left or right to find the secret? Oh strawberry float, I progressed the story and now I can't go back.

Games that change their rules to serve the designers intent, this kind of gooseberry fool:

* Enemies that become invincible
* Infinite/impossible respawns
* Enemies that can detect you when in states where you were previously confirmed as hidden
* Obvious climbable spaces that you can't get to even if they meet all the established criteria for what the character can traverse
* Enemies that appear even when established mechanics told you nothing could be there
* Enemies that become deaf because some NPC needs to shout story at you

etc.

It's just such a crutch for the designer and rips all feeling of immersion from the player: "by the way you're playing a game and we're in control asshole!"

The Last of Us was the most recent example that really let itself down on this front and this kind of thing was the core reason I could never really get behind it as a "classic"

YouTube

Tutorials that are unskipable in like the 7th sequel to a game where they all play the same.

Tutorials where if you don't do something exactly how they want you to do it you can't progress but after that you can finish the game never having to do that exact thing again.

Oh loads. LOOOOOOOOOADS. (Caution: the following may contain intentionally exaggerated outrage and will not contain anything that goes beyond annoyance into anger, i.e. UbiSoft.)

- Choices in games. Do I look up a walkthrough, or do I have to replay the whole bloody thing in order to get the good/canon ending? Or is there no canon ending and I can’t see the entire experience ‘as intended’ without several replays? I’m a busy man, I don’t have time to play your game thrice to see all the content.
- The current tendency towards procedurally generated levels. Level/world design is the most important art in gaming IMHO. Giving it to a computer suggests you shouldn’t be making games.
- Unskippable tutorials and/or cut-scenes. Why would you!? (Kerr beat me to it I see.)
- Fetch quests that require you visiting any one location more than twice. Compounded in the case of games with lousy fast travel.
- If your lead female character’s got breasts the size of small moons and armour that shows them off, your male lead had better be wearing nothing but a bulging pair of boxers or your game is Doing It Wrong.
- WII U PORTS WII U PORTS WII U PORTS
- Most things Nintendo does in some way or another to be honest. Metroid, Paper Mario, rehashing old games but then saying it needs to think of something innovative for any future F-Zero, limited time releases, Paper Mario, Star Fox, artificial scarcity, Paper Mario... take your pick.

When my man's got a different weapon in the cutscene to what he was just using 30 seconds ago in game.

Balladeer wrote:- Choices in games. Do I look up a walkthrough, or do I have to replay the whole bloody thing in order to get the good/canon ending? Or is there no canon ending and I can’t see the entire experience ‘as intended’ without several replays? I’m a busy man, I don’t have time to play your game thrice to see all the content.
- The current tendency towards procedurally generated levels. Level/world design is the most important art in gaming IMHO. Giving it to a computer suggests you shouldn’t be making games.

These first two are so frustrating :lol:

Have you ever considered that the intended way to play a game containing choices might be only once and to not see all of the content?

Also claiming to be a busy man who doesn't have time to replay games but sinking all your time into JRPGs... :shifty:

Got one!

I’m a (recovering (slowly)) completionist so that ‘intended way’ really doesn’t work for me. As for JRPGs, at least I’m seeing something new in the world at most turns. (Apart from on those fetch quests. Which, as mentioned above, can get in the sea.)

> Cut scenes you can't skip.
> Cut scenes you can't pause.
> Checkpoints that take you back to just before a boss fight or other event, but also include an unskippable cut scene as well, forcing you to re-watch every time.
> Boss fights.
> Infrequent checkpoints - means you always end up losing progress if you have to leave a game for whatever reason, and/or you constantly have to re-do things you've already done if you die. I don't have the time or patience for re-doing things I've already done.
> Sections (or entire games) that rely and trial and error.
> Awkward or weird save mechanisms - just let me save whenever I need to, I don't have the time or patience to re-do things I've already just because I needed to stop playing at what you've decided isn't an ideal point.
> Branching paths where picking one moves the game on and leaves you unable to go back to explore the other path.
> Even in linear games with no branching paths, moving around an area or level and a cut scene or something triggers when you reach a certain point, but you haven't finished exploring the area (and of course, you can't go back).
> Enemies that have different rules that apply to them (i.e. they can shoot through walls and you can't).
> Enemies that level with you - definitely one of the most annoying.

Games which include impossible or almost impossible battles for story purposes, but are happy for you to use up all your items in the process.

Games filled with "pop-culture references" in lieu of good writing / games which "poke fun at tropes" while employing said tropes.

Literally every single explanation of the mechanics in any game from Japan.

*Freeze gameplay*
*Popup with 3 pages of text and still images*

I'll throw in some that no one else has mentioned:

> Fast travel. It's an immersion breaking design crutch.
> Audio logs. Lazy world building and/or story delivery and I'll end up standing still so I can pay attention making them complete pace breakers.
> Dialogue choices that don't match what your character actually says and the tone/meaning is completely different to what you intended.
> "Essential" NPCs who can't be killed in an RPG for no other reason than to save designing for that eventuality.
> Losing to literal children online.

> swat aside boss inside ten seconds
> cut-scene depicts a close battle or your character on the losing side

Spindash wrote:> swat aside boss inside ten seconds
> cut-scene depicts a close battle or your character on the losing side

Oh god I HATE this so much

Playing fallen Jedi, and you face off against the main villain about half way through the game, supposedly to get your arse kicked... except I didn't. I parried and dodged every single attack, to the point where I'm pretty sure I could have beaten her there and the without taking a hit, yet I got half the health bar gone and it had a cut scene where someone came in and saved me from an apparent certain death situation. I was winning the fight ffs :lol:

That Super Seducer 3 exists. As hilarious as it is.

The fact that survival games exist

Protagonists who the story isn’t really about

Games that regurgitate the same kinds of sidequest without much thought. I'd rather have around 40 or so decent ones throughout a game than 100's of the same thing at different levels. Recently finished Ys IX and the side quest in that we're handled really well.

Choices are also something that are almost always handled really awkwardly. It just breaks immersion when everything comes to a standstill while trying to think of what to say next. I much prefer them to be more playful with less consequence.

There are tons more but most of them have already been brought up here lol.

Things that annoy you - Gaming Edition

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