Failed Concepts

[DigitalSushi]

Time Control. I have yet to see a game pull it off well.

Ouch, you just brought Timeshift into my head.

I really enjoyed Timeshift, the weapons felt really meaty and satifying to use.

Support characters that you have to interact with, never implemented well enough for me to not want to murder them myself;
Emma Emmerich, die *****
Ashley whats her face from RE4, luckily you can put her in a corner and she'll stay there
Navi, shut up!
Slippy "do a barrel roll" frog, firstly you can tell me what to do providing you can go for 2 seconds without getting shot and secondly its called an aileron roll, you douche.

and as much as Half Life 2 pulled them off so well I still want to murderize the rebels half way through their
"reload doctor free" <<< BANG! DIE!

 

[Vlane]

Wasn't there a thread like this earlier?

Oh well. Badly implemented game ideas: Adding a storyline to an MMO unless you can actually pull it off, which to this day I have not seen. Arcady life systems where you get a game over after 3 lives or something similar.

Lunia and SMT Imagine kinda pull it off. I haven't "beaten" one of these but they at least have a story with cut scenes (which is rare in the MMO genre). I'm also sure that SMT Imagine has a good story because it's a SMT game.

 

[CapnGod]

weapon degeneration. its just annoying no matter what game its in.

it doesnt feel right when it breaks before it kills any enemy (RE outbreak)

and it always costes about three kidneys worth of cash to repair it in RPGs.

Far Cry 2 did it quite well.

Diablo 2 did it well, and I don't think Diablo was all that bad, either. It wasn't ultra-intrusive or anything. Just a thought.

Also, I resent the implication that I'm a barely functioning retard for enjoying Spore. It wasn't perfect, but I wasted a lot of time playing that game, and had a lot of fun doing it. Hell, at one point, there were five people in my house playing that simultaneously. A bunch of college educated people, too...

 

[RAWKSTAR]

Pokemon Ranger.
Thats a failed concept right there.

 

[geldonyetich]

There are no failed concepts, merely poor implementations.

 

[swampboy32904]

Have you ever played battlefield 2142? I thought it was pulled off nearly perfectly in that game.

 

[swampboy32904]

I kinda thought that guild wars did a good job implementing a story.

 

[Iron Mal]

Balance in multiplayer shooters, we had this down and perfect at one point (a prime example being 007: Goldeneye for the N64) but in recent times it appears that the concept of fairness and equal chance has gone comepletely out the window.

Take CoD4 for example, a game that is frequently commended on having excellant multiplayer yet it goes without saying that the game is perhaps a bit too slanted towards the hardcore and has an elitist attitude about it.

Giving mail order explosives, radar and choppers of doom to players who are doing well may sound like a reasonable reward at first but when you are on the recieving end of 3 airstrikes in a row followed by a chopper you will clearly see how this is simply a way of kicking less experienced players while they're down. (If anyone reading this works for infinity ward, allow me to suggest that next time you give these bonuses to the losing team in order to even things up a bit).

 

[mhitman]

space ship battles, i haven't played one that i found enjoyable

 

[Vlane]

Wasn't there a thread like this earlier?

Oh well. Badly implemented game ideas: Adding a storyline to an MMO unless you can actually pull it off, which to this day I have not seen. Arcady life systems where you get a game over after 3 lives or something similar.

Lunia and SMT Imagine kinda pull it off. I haven't "beaten" one of these but they at least have a story with cut scenes (which is rare in the MMO genre). I'm also sure that SMT Imagine has a good story because it's a SMT game.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Lunia. I recall watching my brother play it a few times and the cutscenes were intriguing but I don't remember anything about the story so I don't know

Also, forgive my ignorance but I've never heard of SMT Imagine.

Maybe you should give it a try. The open beta started a few days ago.

 

[leugim789]

2 words : collision detection

 

[twilinova07]

weapon degeneration. its just annoying no matter what game its in.

it doesnt feel right when it breaks before it kills any enemy (RE outbreak)

and it always costes about three kidneys worth of cash to repair it in RPGs.

Far Cry 2 did it quite well.

i havent played far cry 2 yet so ill have to check it out

and while im here, moral choices affecting outcomes. the endings are always so black and white. either the future city is happy-go-lucky with tulpis in every lawn or a scum hole where only the most bitter digenerates show there faces. wheres the "well my city is economicaly good but theres the occasional robbery downtown" outcome. ok so its boring but still...

 

[masterblaze0]

Using your jacket as an inventory.
Using the Right Analog Stick to hit things.
Pressing the Right Analog Stick to BLINK in First person view.

 

[meatloaf231]

Wasn't there a thread like this earlier?

Oh well. Badly implemented game ideas: Adding a storyline to an MMO unless you can actually pull it off, which to this day I have not seen.

Guild Wars, anyone?

When I say you can actually pull it off, I mean actually make you feel like the character you made is important, regardless of how good the story itself is. As Yahtzee said, gameplay and storyline should go hand in hand.

Bear in mind, I have not played Guild Wars and if Guild Wars does indeed do this I'll put it on my list of games to check out, but somehow, I really doubt it, it's just in the nature of an MMO to make your character feel like a nobody.

The character you make is pretty much the center of the entire plot. You're in almost every cutscene, and the story revolves almost solely around your actions.

I'd recommend the game, but read up on it further before you go buying it.

No monthly fees, though.

 

[Praelanthor]

Time Control. I have yet to see a game pull it off well.

prince of persia sands of time bro

 

[Sewblon]

Open World Game play. I have played GTA, The elder scrolls and Fallout 3 but so much potential always goes untapped. A game that takes place in a steam punk themed world ruled by people wielding light sabers and deathnotes in which you play a time traveler and can kill the rulers of the land, thrust it into chaos alter the space time continuum so that you wear never born and still complete the story would make more use of the sandbox concept then anything I have seen so far.

 

[xitel]

Time Control. I have yet to see a game pull it off well.

prince of persia sands of time bro

I already said, all it had was a rewind function and a "slow everything down" button

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

Giving mail order explosives, radar and choppers of doom to players who are doing well may sound like a reasonable reward at first but when you are on the recieving end of 3 airstrikes in a row followed by a chopper you will clearly see how this is simply a way of kicking less experienced players while they're down. (If anyone reading this works for infinity ward, allow me to suggest that next time you give these bonuses to the losing team in order to even things up a bit).

That's a "catchup" bonus, liken the item distribution being weighted to favour those behind in Mario Kart. Unfortunately, there seem to be three approaches with items/powerups/enhancements in multiplayer:

1. Reward the skilled. Give them items after a set threshold of kills, points, etc. Encourages the elite and makes entry into the game difficult.
2. Help the disadvantaged. This gives them a chance to counterattack and turn the game around. Greatly reduces the apparent need for skill to win.
3. Free-for-all randomness. This is the strategy used in Smash Bros. games, with occasionally the elite getting superweapons and continuing to dominate (they tend to get there that little bit faster) and often the weaker players picking up superweapons and getting a chance to turn it around. Unfortunately, it too reduces the apparent need for skill to win.

I'd say all of these aren't "failed concepts", just incredibly difficult and often broken concepts.