What is your #1 gripe about video games?

[Doppel]

I was sitting through a cut-scene again today after dying in a game, forced to watch the damn thing again, and so mine is forcing a person to watch a cut scene they've already seen with no way to skip. This is really an unforgiveable fault in game design. I think most developers have realized this today so it's a rarity.

[shortylickens]

Have you posted this same thread in every forum?

[Sulaco]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too many to choose just one.

Although,

-QTE
-Overuse of scripted sequences/triggers
-Shitty DLC

...are perennial losers

[RedRooster]

Loadtimes, no question.
If they could make those instant, man, I'd get almost 33% more playing in instead of just waiting all the time.
I don't care about story or scripting or whatever, that's how the devs choose to present their game/story, so I'll play as they intended and decide if I enjoy that or not.
But waiting for all that stuff to happen sucks.

[Geosurface]

I hate when a pc game lacks options like the ability to bind any action to any key this sometimes happens with numpad which I use instead of wasd.

Or if it doesn't support Xbox controller or designating secondary monitor to display game, etc

[Doppel]

Originally Posted by shortylickens

Have you posted this same thread in every forum?

Please troll somewhere else.

[rayfieldclement]

I cannot see the text in some games. Granted I own a 17-19 inch tv with VGA, HDMI and compnent S-Video on it.

[kache]

Meaningless adition of crap content just for the sake of longevity.
This is making Dragon Nest a real pain in the ass to play lately.

[cmdrdredd]

Fetch Quests. "oh you want the key? Well you'll have to retrieve my jacket I dropped over there." Next quest "Oh you need the sword? Ok then go get my cake from the fridge which is guarded by a troll."

That and the fact that Nintendo still hasn't learned how to do voice acting. I mean, there are a ton of awesome voice actors in Japan. Surely they can afford to hire a couple for their next Mario or Zelda game, even if the main character doesn't speak.

[mmntech]

-QTE
-Digital rights management
-Games that aren't adequately QCed before launched (buggy). No excuse for this on consoles, when all the hardware and software is uniform.
-Sloppy PC ports of console titles
-The low quality of most games for portable consoles, for no apparent reason. Portable games always seem to get second class treatment.
-Save points, because I have a life and want to be able to save whenever I want, not when the game wants.
-Escort missions, trying to keep some idiotic NPC alive

[waggy]

Originally Posted by Doppel

I was sitting through a cut-scene again today after dying in a game, forced to watch the damn thing again, and so mine is forcing a person to watch a cut scene they've already seen with no way to skip. This is really an unforgiveable fault in game design. I think most developers have realized this today so it's a rarity.

this is one of my biggest gripes. I stopped playing FF games because of it. when you spend more time in cut-scene's then the game? yeah time to find a diffrent game.

you don't need a cut scene every 5 minutes (that last 5 minutes). Also ones that force you to watch the same damn thing over and over again with not being able to skip it? fuck you (think spell's in FF games).


a good cut-scene is great. they should be used to tell major shifts int he story.

[Zorander]

Currently playing through Mass Effect 3. Way too many (unskippable) cutscenes, which are also hollywood cheesy. I like cutscenes, esp. from the early CD-ROM days, but this is a case of too much of a good thing.

[reallyscrued]

Quick time events, by far.

This is how you know businessmen are now designing games, not gamers who happen to be in the business of gaming.

It's not an interactive movie, dipshits. Let me play my game. Repeatedly tapping 1 button when a dog lunges at me or something stupid like that is just lazy game mechanics. Don't have anything interesting to put at this point in the storyline? Then don't put anything.

[Doppel]

Originally Posted by Zorander

Currently playing through Mass Effect 3. Way too many (unskippable) cutscenes, which are also hollywood cheesy. I like cutscenes, esp. from the early CD-ROM days, but this is a case of too much of a good thing.

But if I'm not mistaken you don't get forced to watch cut scenes in ME3 you've already seen, do you? I don't really mind being forced to watch one once as part of the story, but if I die I do not want to watch ANYTHING again. Nothing! Because it's like extra punishment. I still remember a cut scene from mass effect (the one where the big ant is stuck in a container that can be blown) and see the guys run in from various directions, since i Kept dying in that room.

[Cerb]

Originally Posted by RedRooster

Loadtimes, no question.
If they could make those instant, man, I'd get almost 33% more playing in instead of just waiting all the time.
I don't care about story or scripting or whatever, that's how the devs choose to present their game/story, so I'll play as they intended and decide if I enjoy that or not.
But waiting for all that stuff to happen sucks.

What do you play where 1/4 of the time is spent loading?

Originally Posted by mmntech

-Save points, because I have a life and want to be able to save whenever I want, not when the game wants.

Save points to prevent save-scumming I don't mind, but you should always have access to a suspend save option, if you might need to go more than a few minutes between save points.

-Escort missions, trying to keep some idiotic NPC alive

If it was a smart NPC it wouldn't need to be escorted . I like those kinds of missions, if they're done well (IMO, every game developer about to implement such a mission should have to play the old X-Wing and TIE Fighter games, first, just be sure they have a handle on it).

Me? Forced dumb tutorial modes integrated into the beginning levels/missions. Either let me skip it, make it really quick (IE, most strategy and tactics games), or integrate contextual help into the game's UI.

[Doppel]

Originally Posted by Cerb

If it was a smart NPC it wouldn't need to be escorted . I like those kinds of missions, if they're done well (IMO, every game developer about to implement such a mission should have to play the old X-Wing and TIE Fighter games, first, just be sure they have a handle on it).

Yep, I like them when done properly. When the NPC is f-ing retarded and made of glass it sucks but other times, in some games, it's an interesting time. I played TIE fighter but cannot remember much of it I DO recall playing wing commander a great deal and being frustrated trying to defend mother ships sometimes.

[RedRooster]

Originally Posted by Cerb

What do you play where 1/4 of the time is spent loading?

BF3 for example. I turn on my XBox, takes 20ish seconds to load the dashboard. Click Play Game and the cd spins up, then all the unskippable splash screens and loading of your profile and stuff takes 2-3 minutes. Then quick start a multiplayer game and thats another 30 seconds. Literally, from hitting power on the XBox, its takes almost 5 minutes to start shooting somebody. Then in between games or worse if you back out of the server. And that's with the game installed on the hard drive even.
I have just barely enough patience since the game is fun.

[exdeath]

EA and Activision turning everything into brainless ADHD shooters and hack and slash games. Some dialogue and an inventory dumped into a shooter doesn't make it a RPG.

[cl-scott]

My biggest gripe is that the game industry seems to have forgotten the fundamentals of gaming. People may take issue with it, but at least my perception is that about 70-80% of a game's budget seems to be dedicated to graphics, and then whatever's left over is spent trying to slap something barely playable together. There are plenty of games from the NES/SNES/Genesis days that are still more fun to play than some game with a couple million dollar budget today.

Then a sub-gripe on this, or at least an associated one, is that then the game companies refuse to acknowledge this very simple and fundamental truth. They will point the finger everywhere but at themselves, and pull stupid movies like tacking on DRM, which just exacerbates the issue rather than addressing it. It's been shown time and time again that piracy actually DRIVES sales, and people who pirate are often some of the biggest spenders.

So I would like to see game companies go back to the days where graphics were secondary to gameplay, and to stop trying to reduce everything to a reproducible formula. I get that it's a business and the aim is to make money, so I don't begrudge a little milking of established franchises, but set aside some money for some more experimental games. Games which may not be huge sellers, but might appeal to a number of people.

[sactoking]

First-person shooters. I hate 'em and they dominate the marketplace.

[gorcorps]

Too many f'ing games and not enough f'ing time

[SandEagle]

random encounters
backtracking
repetitiveness (button mashing)
boring storyline
i miss 2D games with scrolling layers
lame graphics
less than stellar soundtrack

[smakme7757]

The cops in the new NFS Most Wanted. You can't get away, even hiding does't work. It's insanely annoying.

[cmdrdredd]

What about games putting worthless or ridiculous achievements and trophies to artificially increase the length of the game.

[Dumac]

Telling instead of showing. Just shut up and let me play already.
Dumbing down because of "wider audience" and "playtesters".
Pressing start skips a cutscene instead of pausing it
No option to quit anytime/regularly (for a single player game)
Almost all DLC
DRM
Bad ports/lack of settings for PC version