Favorite Video Game Plot Holes

[Assassin Xaero]

Half the zombie games out there: where did the zombies/infection/whatever come from?

 

[Ordinaryundone]

In Metal Gear Solid 2, Liquid Snake says, that Big Boss was "In his late sixties when they made his clones."
But in Peace Walker, it is officially revealed that Big Boss is 39 years old in 1974, which means he was actually 37 when they made his clones.
The only way to explain this is that Liquid (or Ocelot) completely sucks at math.

Eh, its not really a plot hole so much as a retcon. In MGS3 they wanted Big Boss to look exactly like Solid Snake, which forced them to de-age him quite a bit from his previously established age.

It's not really a plot hole, just something i don't quite understand

in Lost Odyssey, why the hell does Jansen stick around?
everybody hates him (bar Ming but even she never says anything nice to him)
Seth even keeps kicking him up the arse constantly all the way through the game
Ming, Sarah, kaim and Seth have to stick around to beat Gongora, i get that
Mack and Cooke have no family other than kaim and sarah so they have to stick around
Sed is Seth's son and has a ship which the others NEED
and Tolten needs Gongora defeated so he can reclaim his kingdom
But Jansen? i just don't get it, there's no reason whatsoever for him to be there
he even moans that he doesn't want to be there any of the time

Cause Gongora was a huge cock to him and Jansen felt like getting revenge. Also, he's in love with Ming.

Or he's got nothing better to do, maybe? Jansen didn't seem like the type to really have big plans for the future. Once he'd found a circle of friends and a girl he was actually in love with he had no problem sticking around. I never really got the impression that the rest of the party disliked Jansen, except for Seth at the beginning. He's just a doofus, and though they occasionally tell him off for saying something dumb, I get the feeling most of the party liked him just fine. I mean, none of the party outside of his family ever say anything nice to Kaim either, but I wouldn't say they dislike him.

Halo Reach - How do all the Spartans now how to use Coventent weapons/viechels that they've never seen before.

Who said that the Spartans didn't know how to use Covie tech? Reach wasn't the first battle of the war, not by a long shot. And they recognized Covenant soldiers the moment they saw them.

 

[baddude1337]

The crazy number of inconsistencies/retcons in Halo games, such as Noble being mainly Spartan 3's even though nobody knows about them, and theres even a Spartan 2 on the team. How all the spartans seem to have regenerating shields even though chief is the only one who actually has the armor to do that, and that fact that it is Spartan 3's who are using this armor, How the Spartan's in Halo Wars have shields even though they hadn't been invented yet. That's just a small number of the many problems.

Don't start! The fanboys will fucking eat you alive for that blasphemous statement! Trust me, I know, I said the same thing about the inconsistencies in later Halo games (after 3) on one thread, and I had flamers writing entire essays, nay, entire thesis papers on why a statement similar to your own is completely wrong!

As much as I like Halo, the universe did get a bit convoluted toward the end. I can't name anything in the first three games or the first few books, but after that it's gone haywire...

I know. It's just a shame because the universe is very appealing to me but all the random crap is just crazy. It also bugs me how the marines armor seems to change EVERY game.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

They say that Jak is his descendant but it is heavily implied by the sage/otsel characters that Jak IS Mar as well as his descendant. I.e he time travelled back built haven city and fathered a child who then fathered a child until Jak was born.

Basically they imply that he is his own ancestor. So the timeline looks like this:

-Jak is born the descendant of mar and grows up in a city at war with metal heads.
-He is captured but later saved by the resistance and future Jak.
-Child Jak then opens the temple of mar for future Jak who is too tainted to do so himself.
-Future Jak saves the city
-Child Jak is sent back in time to the past with the young green sage as his guide/mentor.
-Events of Jak+Daxter 1
-Jak, Kiera and Daxter repair the old time machine and activate it this allows the metal head leader entry into the past world from the future and his conquest begins creating a stable time loop.
-Jak is sent into the future and saves the city while picking up artifacts Mar left behind in the past
-Jak saves the world from the Dark Makers
-Jak time travels to the past with the otsel makers for unknown reason
-???
-Jak (Mar) travels back to the past to build Haven city and temples that he had already used in the future by using mako. He leaves behind his armour and other artifacts.
-Jak (Mar) fathers children one of whom is the ancestor of Jak.
-Jak is born the descendant of Mar and grows up in a city at war with metal heads
It's clever but it makes your brain hurt.

"The fate of the world, nay, all worlds depends on you, Philip J. Fry... er, I mean Jak."

 

[Little_grim]

Any CtF game: Why can't you teleport with a flag?

Teleporting with a flag will rip a hole in the space time continuum... Come on buddy... didn't you take science in high school.

 

[mireko]

Mass Effect 2 & Dragon Age 2: If you played the Kasumi Loyalty mission, you may have noticed a statue of an Ogre from DA:O/ DA2. If that was there then it could be argued that Ferelden and it's Earth coexist with Shepard. Looking closely at default, Male Hawke, you can kind of see something familiar:

-image-

My current theory involves Hawk being a son of Shepard since Shepard's Earth is ours IE: no biotics/ magic until after the discovery of Mass Effect Drives. That one isn't a plot hole: just an insane theory.

Actually.. If Mass Effect is set in our universe (I'm assuming it is), then that universe would have contained Dragon Age at some point. Why they would have a statue of an enemy from a game that is centuries old is a completely different matter, maybe it's an acquired taste.

Come to think of it, that leads to something even weirder. Since BioWare and Dragon Age existed centuries ago in the Mass Effect universe, we can assume Mass Effect (the game) did as well. The only conclusion is that they can predict the future and all the events of the game will actually happen.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

The crazy number of inconsistencies/retcons in Halo games, such as Noble being mainly Spartan 3's even though nobody knows about them, and theres even a Spartan 2 on the team. How all the spartans seem to have regenerating shields even though chief is the only one who actually has the armor to do that, and that fact that it is Spartan 3's who are using this armor, How the Spartan's in Halo Wars have shields even though they hadn't been invented yet. That's just a small number of the many problems.

Eh, the Shields examples can really be attributed to gameplay. Sure, they could have used the stamina excuse that ODST had, but I suppose they decided to simply call a spade a spade and just have shields. Bungie's motto in these regards seems to be "the games are the canon, everything else defers to them". Plus, Noble is a special example of a Spartan squad, so its perfectly reasonable to assume they have better armor than your typical Spartan III.

As for them actually being Spartan IIIs, how is that a plothole? Its not like they go around telling everyone; in fact, its possible that nobody on Reach can tell a difference between, say, Carter and Jorge. To your average UNSC, a Spartan is a Spartan. As for having a Spartan 2 on the team, I don't really know why they bothered, but it doesn't really bother me. Jorge seemed to have a connection to Reach beyond simply being stationed there; its possible he volunteered to serve on a squad based out of it. Or maybe he just liked the team itself. There are many reasons why he'd choose to work with Spartan 3s, and we don't know enough backstory on the character to really choose one.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Spoiler: quote wall

Jak and Daxter: Oh man, time travel right? So it is hinted strongly that:

Spoiler

Jak is in fact Mar

Jak runs around picking up pieces of Mar's armour and then time travels a bit with the otsels. When he emerges from whatever it was he was doing in the past he still has the armour on.

Spoiler

If he is mar and he picked up Mar's old armour in the future then he must have left it at some point in the past

What's going on there?

There are also a few involving the child that is Mar's descendant in the future and what happens to him.

I can explain this one. In the game they say Mar was old. I can't remember how old but enough that he died a while back. Jak is his decendant. That little kid IS Jak. They sent him back to the first games location to protect him until he was old enough. Wether they knew he would find another time machine or just hoped to get him out of danger is still a question.

Okay I'm going to assume everyone that wants to play this game has already so without spoiler tags:

They say that Jak is his descendant but it is heavily implied by the sage/otsel characters that Jak IS Mar as well as his descendant. I.e he time travelled back built haven city and fathered a child who then fathered a child until Jak was born.

Basically they imply that he is his own ancestor. So the timeline looks like this:

-Jak is born the descendant of mar and grows up in a city at war with metal heads.
-He is captured but later saved by the resistance and future Jak.
-Child Jak then opens the temple of mar for future Jak who is too tainted to do so himself.
-Future Jak saves the city
-Child Jak is sent back in time to the past with the young green sage as his guide/mentor.
-Events of Jak+Daxter 1
-Jak, Kiera and Daxter repair the old time machine and activate it this allows the metal head leader entry into the past world from the future and his conquest begins creating a stable time loop.
-Jak is sent into the future and saves the city while picking up artifacts Mar left behind in the past
-Jak saves the world from the Dark Makers
-Jak time travels to the past with the otsel makers for unknown reason
-???
-Jak (Mar) travels back to the past to build Haven city and temples that he had already used in the future by using mako. He leaves behind his armour and other artifacts.
-Jak (Mar) fathers children one of whom is the ancestor of Jak.
-Jak is born the descendant of Mar and grows up in a city at war with metal heads
It's clever but it makes your brain hurt.

So... if Jak is his own grandfather... is that some sort of incest? This has been a point of contention amongst many fans of the old Jak games, and I don't think Naughty Dog meant for Jak to be his own ancestor, but here it is.

But why can't Damos' mother and father be someone else? Does Jak's ancestor have to be himself? Couldn't it be two random people from somewhere?

Nah it would only be incest if he displaced his natural grandfather to sleep with his grandmother (classic grandfather paradox) instead he is fathering a child with a woman when he would not otherwise have existed.

Deimos has to be descended from Jak because Deimos states that he is a descendant of Mar and is the father of Jak. As Jak is Mar he must be Deimos' ancestor.

 

[baddude1337]

The crazy number of inconsistencies/retcons in Halo games, such as Noble being mainly Spartan 3's even though nobody knows about them, and theres even a Spartan 2 on the team. How all the spartans seem to have regenerating shields even though chief is the only one who actually has the armor to do that, and that fact that it is Spartan 3's who are using this armor, How the Spartan's in Halo Wars have shields even though they hadn't been invented yet. That's just a small number of the many problems.

Eh, the Shields examples can really be attributed to gameplay. Sure, they could have used the stamina excuse that ODST had, but I suppose they decided to simply call a spade a spade and just have shields. Bungie's motto in these regards seems to be "the games are the canon, everything else defers to them". Plus, Noble is a special example of a Spartan squad, so its perfectly reasonable to assume they have better armor than your typical Spartan III.

As for them actually being Spartan IIIs, how is that a plothole? Its not like they go around telling everyone; in fact, its possible that nobody on Reach can tell a difference between, say, Carter and Jorge. To your average UNSC, a Spartan is a Spartan. As for having a Spartan 2 on the team, I don't really know why they bothered, but it doesn't really bother me. Jorge seemed to have a connection to Reach beyond simply being stationed there; its possible he volunteered to serve on a squad based out of it. Or maybe he just liked the team itself. There are many reasons why he'd choose to work with Spartan 3s, and we don't know enough backstory on the character to really choose one.

It's still a bit weird, seeing as the Spartan 3's weren't even known to the 2's, and seeing as all the 2's grew up with each other, he must have thought something was up as he did not know any of them.

The shield thing still doesn't make sense in terms of the lore. Gameplay I understand but it still makes no sense.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

WTH does Ratchet let himself be pushed around like a retard even though he has an arsenal of weapons, gadgets, nanotech, and armor that would allow him to take down a battlecruiser?

I complained about this in an earlier thread.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

-blah-

-words-

While playing Mass Effect and looking around at planets, some of them are labeled as being on reserve lists since they could one day harbor life (it's in there: those planet descriptions can get a bit wordy). I think the planet on which Dragon Age takes place is a planet that is in Council Space so therefore, The Council has made it illegal to interfere with it (which didn't stop certain people). It's strange that humans would evolve up on Earth and the Earth of DA:O/DA2 but it could be that the Humans, Dwarves and, Elves are all different versions of a singular species, with the main humanoid species living in a sort of transitional period between Darwinian extinctions.

...

I feel like a nerd for thinking this deeply into those universes...I think I need to dull myself on cartoons for a while.

 

[Lieju]

Resident Evil is full of them.
-Why does Wesker hate Chris?
-What happened to the virus that brought Wesker back? They all just decided the virus that gave you superpowers without any ill effects just wasn't worth it?
-What happened to Sherry/Steve/Billy a number of characters really.
-a bunch of timeline-stuff that doesn't fit
-why is the architecture crazy and how come the player can always find the convenient emblems and cranks and stuff?
-Good timing on the part of the protagonists sometimes, like how Chris and Jill just manage to get to Spencer right when Wesker is there.
-The whole of Resident Evil Zero

 

[Srs bzns]

Pong - The story makes no effort to even exist.

Borderlands - Not so much plot holes as massive annoyance in the story.

Halo Reach - How do all the Spartans now how to use Coventent weapons/viechels that they've never seen before.

Half Life - How does a random scientist have the power to destroy everything in his path?

1. Inorite?

2. Elaborate please?

3. The Human Covenant war was going on for 20-25 years prior to the Reach Invasion.

4. I don't play HL *gasp!* But I'd say it'd be kinda dull if he spent the whole time running through labs from various monsters.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

It's still a bit weird, seeing as the Spartan 3's weren't even known to the 2's, and seeing as all the 2's grew up with each other, he must have thought something was up as he did not know any of them.

The shield thing still doesn't make sense in terms of the lore. Gameplay I understand but it still makes no sense.

Well, once again, Bungie sees the games as the foremost source of canon, with books and other EU coming in second. If a game says that a Spartan 2 was on a squad of Spartan 3s, then thats just the way it is, and it can be retroactively inferred that, obviously, not all Spartan 2s were ignorant of the Spartan 3s (which, really, makes more sense to me than having them be completely unknown). The best example, of course, is Halo: Reach itself. Its completely different than The Fall of Reach in nearly every regard, but for now is regarded as the actual events of the battle. Games overwrite EU canon-wise. Ditto with Shields on Spartan 3s and in Halo Wars, but I think that was more a retcon of gameplay necessity than a deliberate story retcon.

 

[mireko]

-blah-

-words-

-things-

Humans evolving on multiple planets isn't entirely unfeasible if the climate is similar, really. We have many examples of organisms acquiring similar traits without ever coming into contact with eachother. If the planet with Ferelden/Kirkwall/etc is a lot like Earth (and it seemed to be in DA), then humanoid life is entirely within the realm of possibility, since the human form was optimal enough for our species to survive here.[footnote]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution[/footnote]

You're right, this theory does lead to some interesting questions, why don't humans on Earth experience the Fade? Is the Fade somehow connected to the planet itself? Is magic related to Element Zero? Are Biotics actually SPACE MAGES?!

Are the Reapers machines infected by demons? That would explain why Harbinger (probably a hunger demon, since he sucks so much) failed where Sovereign (possibly a pride demon, he does spend a lot of time saying humans couldn't possibly understand his intentions) nearly succeeded.

EDIT: Although you're right in that it would be weird or at least unusual to have so many similar sapient races on one planet. I'm not sure about that part, let's just say a wizard did it.

EDIT EDIT: Wait.. Lyrium = Element Zero!

Now I feel like I'm a nerd.

 

[Harveypot]

Ok, I know this is video game plot holes, but I'm just going to have to hijack this for a moment and turn to book/movie plot holes.

Harry Potter: Why don't they ever use the Time Turner to fix stuff?

A bigger question is, why didn't Hermione brew up more Felix Felicious (luck potion) during 6th year and summer break after? Lucky Potion would have been a really effective weapon in the fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named[sub][sub][sub]Voldemort[/sub][/sub][/sub]. Even if the trio didn't use it themselves, there was a window of opportunity during the end of year 6 when she could have left it in the Room of Requirement or something.


Read book 7.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Resident Evil is full of them.

-Why does Wesker hate Chris?

Chris screwed up his plans in RE1 and in RE: Code Veronica, and on other occasions. He's been a pretty constant thorn in Wesker's side since Raccoon City.

-What happened to the virus that brought Wesker back? They all just decided the virus that gave you superpowers without any ill effects just wasn't worth it?

Well, it was untested, for one. Birkin and Wesker had an idea of what it would do, but Wesker using it on himself was its first real trial. Also, Birkin did most of the work on it, and was killed in RE2 presumably before he could make more.

-What happened to Sherry/Steve/Billy a number of characters really.

As far as the ending of RE3 goes, Sherry is in the hands of the government and Barry is either with his family in Canada or helping Chris and Jill. Steve is dead, as far as we know. No real evidence has been given to him being anything other than dead.

-a bunch of timeline-stuff that doesn't fit

Eh, its RE. This isn't exactly classical literature we are dealing with.

-why is the architecture crazy and how come the player can always find the convenient emblems and cranks and stuff?

As far as RE 1, 2, and CV to a degree, the architects who designed the buildings were certifiably insane or working on a commission to make everything as obtuse as possible for security reasons. Usually both.

-Good timing on the part of the protagonists sometimes, like how Chris and Jill just manage to get to Spencer right when Wesker is there.

Movie logic. Its not a plothole, just plot-contrived conveniences. After all, we wouldn't have gotten a cool fight scene if they'd just shown up to see a dead guy in a wheelchair.

-The whole of Resident Evil Zero

Well, I'm tempted to say "Its RE" again, but honestly, yeah. It was pretty dumb. Though I do find the idea of Rebecca going on this huge adventure and saving the day, just to show up at the Spencer Estate and have everyone treat her like dead weight to be hilarious.

 

[starwarsgeek]

Resident Evil is full of them.
-Why does Wesker hate Chris?

-What happened to the virus that brought Wesker back? They all just decided the virus that gave you superpowers without any ill effects just wasn't worth it?

-What happened to Sherry/Steve/Billy a number of characters really.

-a bunch of timeline-stuff that doesn't fit

-why is the architecture crazy and how come the player can always find the convenient emblems and cranks and stuff?

-Good timing on the part of the protagonists sometimes, like how Chris and Jill just manage to get to Spencer right when Wesker is there.

-The whole of Resident Evil Zero

-Chris and Jill stopped him from successfully esacping the Spencer Mansion with the BOW combat data when he defected from Umbrella. I never finished Code Veronica, but I'd assumed Chris got in the way there too.

-Wesker's virus did have ill effects. He has to take regular injections to keep the mutations under control. Also, RE5 revealed that Wesker's entire life was manipulated by Spencer, so maybe the virus was specially created for Wesker and would simply kill anyone else.

-There's a good chance that Sherry will pop up in that multiplayer spin-off they announced recently...one playable team is a US special ops group, so their ending will probably involve recruiting Leon and/or kidnapping Sherry. Besides, this isn't a plot hole, it's just something that isn't covered in the plot.

-What timeline-stuff doesn't fit? Not doubting it; it's just that some examples would be appreciated.

-It makes snooping difficult, if I remember correctly. REmake had notes from the guy who built the Spencer mansion; I seem to recall the notes mentioning that Spencer wanted the mansion like that...and the man is obsessed with cranks, apparently.

-That's not a plot hole...that's just plot. Besides, that was actually pretty crappy timing on their part, considering how that fight went.

-Never played RE0. Specific examples please?