And the willing suspension bridge of disbelief came crashing down....

[Camaranth]

So Escapists, has your own knowledge ever broken your willing suspension of disbelief?

It may not be a deal breaker, you can still enjoy the game, movie, show, book whatever but something just niggles at the back of your mind? Has something ever been so wrong that you just couldn't enjoy the subject matter anymore?

Recently I learned that the LD-50 (lethal dose for 50 percent of a population) for ionizing radiation for humans is 4 Gray or 400 rads. Playing Fallout 3 and my character is suffering radiation poisoning at 600rads. so either she is very very lucky or she is Dead!
Like I said not a deal breaker it just bothers me.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I never completed Valkyria Chronicles.

I was promised a War time epic.

What I got was a bunch of angsty kids playing dress up.

I got to a cutscene where there was a pig with wings and just said, "That's it. I'm done".


I just couldn't take the game seriously.

 

[Therumancer]

I'm not sure if the "radiation points" your taking are supposed to coorespond to real world rad levels. Rather that's the numbers the pip boy is breaking it down to, with a "lethal" range based on what it reads your tolerance as. I get the impression from various events that it is supposed to literally include a bio-monitor.

So the limit might be around 400 rads, or whatever is specific to your character, but the Pip Boy uses a differant, personalized scale to put it into perspective for it's user, and is simply using a larger number to more accuratly convery the rad levels.

It's also important to consider that they DO have drugs that remove rads, or give people radiation resistance. Vault Dwellers might be innoculated to some extent against radiation as an additional precaution, and it might somehow trasfer to the offspring. This wouldn't apply to The Courier in New Vegas though, so the theory doesn't match up.... but it could explain the Protaganist of Fallouts 1-3 (seeing as the Fallout 2 character is a tribal directly descended from the Fallout 1 hero).

 

[VoidWanderer]

I remember watching the movie 'Secret Window'. I thought it might be good, until the opening credits displayed that it was based on a novella by Steven King. So I figured that there would a supernatural element that would haunt the protagonist, and since he was in a relationship, her life expectancy had plummeted drastically.

 

[dyre]

I get slightly annoyed when people in movies fire weapons with endless magazines, or overuse full auto. But I get over it

 

[darth.pixie]

The Neverending story...once I read the book, the movies were forever ruined for me.

Also Assassin's Creed for some reason. It just makes me give funny looks to my monitor even though I like the game and think it's pretty good.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I tend to get thrown by the little things in games:

Like how, in Oblivion, slashing a dagger fatigued you, but running around in a suit of full plate didn't.

Or how, in Fallout 3, when scavenging in the DC ruins I could be encumbered by picking up a coffee mug and clipboard, but not by the 4,382 5.56 rounds, 1,399 .308 rounds, 8,634 5mm rounds and 31 missiles I was carrying.

And how, in Metro:2033, when one guard spotted you every single enemy in the entire subway station network new where you were, even if you then killed the guy with a suppressed weapon and successfully hid again.

My current bug-bear is Battlefield 3, whose enemies can see you even if you're lying prone in a patch of deep shadow with your tac-light switched off and have the uncanny ability to headshot you despite the fact that, from where you are, they are merely an indistinct pixel in the far, far distance.

 

[RuralGamer]

MW2; the fact the Russians don't even use Russian weapons most of the time, or indeed weapons they would probably ever use; that was really the dealbreaker for me in terms of campaign, but really the tip of the iceberg in terms of issues I had with its campaign.

Oblivion's psychic hivemind guards broke me out of my immersion in that game.

The telepathic AI in Empire: Total War ultimately ruined that game for me when they knew exactly where to strike with no units in the area; their omniscience in general infuriates me.

 

[Frostbyte666]

Megashark vs Giant Octopus. I was looking forward to a 'good' b-movie while drinking with mates that at various points each of our suspension of disbelief bridges were blown sky-high and we all got on the soap box at 1 point or another to rant. None of the main characters had the decency to die even.

Also Oblivion with telepathic guards and the auto levelling with you.

 

[AstylahAthrys]

In any RPG that you can carry equipment, I just sit and wonder "How the hell can I carry 3 full sets of armor, 5 swords, 2 shields, 10 books, 100 potions, 15 bows and 500 arrows?" That particular reference is to Oblivion, though you get how it can apply to other games.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The Neverending story...once I read the book, the movies were forever ruined for me.

Why? I've seen the movies (well the first 2 anyway) and read the book and it didn't ruin them for me.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The film Rio. It takes place in Rio which almost never happens in kids movies and stars maccaws which I absolutely LOVE. The thing is, it also stars Tracy Morgan and, George Lopez who I absolutely can't stand. Anything with either of those two alone is enough to keep me away but together? GAH!

 

[RGman]

I recently went throught a Doctor Who marathon (all 6 seasons from the 2005 series), just to see what the fuss was all about. Obviously I liked it (I endured 6 seasons in less than a week after all), but, as with any story based on time travel, it can get very stupid very fast. I know it's a fantasy show more than anything, the word "science" could be replaced by "magic" and the sonic screwdriver could be renamed as a magic wand and it would make no diference at all, but even then it's hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

 

[Rawne1980]

Only thing that makes me sigh is watching action films and seeing people fire off dual handguns.

For 1, handguns are not that accurate to start with but have a slight kick back to them.

And for 2, firing off one in each hand would mean whoever is shooting would hit nothing but the sky.

On top of that they never seem to reload or they have a clip that doesn't need reloading until the shootout is over.

 

[Xanadu84]

The 2 biggest things for me are conveniently placed exploding barrels and gunk on the lens.

Exploding barrels might be fine in really silly, cheesy action fests. But if a game is going for even a slightly serious atmosphere, then once I see an exploding barrel, I immediately stop thinking about what is going on, and start picturing designers looking for places to place exploding barrels so players can feel cool, in spite of the fact that storing barrels that can explode in any of these locations makes no sense. Besides, what exactly is in these barrels that makes then explode into giant shrapnel filled fireballs? Even shooting a propane tank will usually not result in an explosion. And if you MUST include an explosive barrel, it should be a decisive moment of an unusual application of the enviornment. When you use them constantly, it manages to become boring and unbelievable at the same time.

Also, when something is on the lens, like a splatter of blood or a hunk of mud, my brain says, "Oh yes, that is right. There is a camera there, because this is all filmed on a stage/designed on a computer, and I am in a fictitious fantasy world, where my perspective if that of a passive observer" It is the very definition of breaking suspension of disbelief. Ill give tongue-in-cheek flicks like Tarentino a pass because weird embellishments fit, and video games that take place from a first person perspective that use it to signify the characters perspective at least have a logical reason, but for most other situations, I interpret gunk on a lens as attempt to be artsy by purposefully making an amateurish mistake in failing to keep the damn lens clean.

 

[darth.pixie]

The Neverending story...once I read the book, the movies were forever ruined for me.

Why? I've seen the movies (well the first 2 anyway) and read the book and it didn't ruin them for me.

Second movie was awful, though. And if it wasn't meant to be the second part of the book, that would have been fine, but it was. First movie was good, second was rubbish, third movie was, well, even worse. If I hadn't read the book, I might have just let it off easy and not think about what might have been.

 

[Phasmal]

How psychic the Oblivion guards were always bothered me. There's nothing more annoying than sneakily commiting a crime in complete darkness without being seen and then being arrested the next time you ask for directions.

Also, how easy it is to explode cars in every game with exploding cars ever. The mythbusters episode when they tried to blow up the car by shooting the tank pretty much ruined that for me.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The Neverending story...once I read the book, the movies were forever ruined for me.

Why? I've seen the movies (well the first 2 anyway) and read the book and it didn't ruin them for me.

Second movie was awful, though. And if it wasn't meant to be the second part of the book, that would have been fine, but it was. First movie was good, second was rubbish, third movie was, well, even worse. If I hadn't read the book, I might have just let it off easy and not think about what might have been.

Well I found the second movie made much more sense after reading the book. It still wasn't done very well, but I could at least see where the pieces fit together. As for the 3rd movie, well the less said about that the better.

 

[Rylot]

My roommate was watching Battle: LA. I couldn't get into it and started picking it apart and ruined it for the both of us by the end. That movie was just so stupid I couldn't take it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Every movie or TV show that tries to do something on the topic of games or computers does it wrong, and since I'm close to the topic it's always a poke in the eye.

And anything that CSI does, they just try really hard to do everything opposite of reality, I'm just surprised they don't walk sideways or with their ears.