Gameplay pet peeves.

[Jacco]

We all have that one game we love even though there is some aspect of the gameplay that infuriates us.
For example, Assassins Creed with it's wonky controls.

I love Halo and everything about it. But I picked it up recently and was reminded how much I hate the ammo cap they put in pretty much every Halo game but 1.

This is my pet peeve; when a game gives you so little ammo for the useful weapons that you spend fifteen or twent minutes just chipping away at the enemies with the shitty ones. Halo 4 was exceptionally bad about this and I see it as a cheap and lazy way to extend gameplay time and make it "harder." Halo 4 would be a 5 hour game if you weren't constantly running out of ammo for weapons that actually hurt the Promethians.

So what is your gameplay pet peeve?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Speaking of Assassin's Creed I'm still waiting for a crouch button in a fucking STEALTH game. The first game at least had "blend", the second game doesn't even have that (oh there's some contextual bullshit but you get the point). That's my pet peeve.

 

[FalloutJack]

I don't wanna chat or do other things while I'm playing a game. When I play a game, I want to PLAY THE GAME. The only exception is like with my girlfriend.

In-gaming? Lemme see... Ah yes. I can't stand time limits, ever, for any reason.

Now uhhh...shouldn't this be in gaming discussion?

 

[King Aragorn]

Speaking of Assassin's Creed I'm still waiting for a crouch button in a fucking STEALTH game. The first game at least had "blend", the second game doesn't even have that (oh there's some contextual bullshit but you get the point). That's my pet peeve.

Assassin's Creed and ''stealth'' don't exactly go together too well. At this point there are stealth elements in there just because the first had them, really.

 

[Foolery]

Speaking of Assassin's Creed I'm still waiting for a crouch button in a fucking STEALTH game. The first game at least had "blend", the second game doesn't even have that (oh there's some contextual bullshit but you get the point). That's my pet peeve.

I don't mean to echo Aragorn too much, but it's not a proper stealth game. At all.

It's closer to "Hey let's dress in the flashiest clothes with a ridiculous swagger, prance around the city like a gymnast, on rooftops where it's easy as fuck to spot someone, and stab people to death, while being able to kill 30 or more guards, no sweat, with a few simple button mashes, in broad daylight."

And you could do all that even in AC1 which feels a bit more subtle than the others.
But, yes. I too, would love a crouch button.

I love Halo and everything about it. But I picked it up recently and was reminded how much I hate the ammo cap they put in pretty much every Halo game but 1.

I felt Halo 1 lacked weapon variety in the earlier levels. The assault rifle and pistol gets boring pretty quick. There's also that awkward floatyness that the physics have, but I'm not sure if I like it or hate it. It kinda adds some quirky fun to the game.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Not a huge peeve because I haven't seen it too often but having to hold a button to run really annoys me (like in the Arkham games and I think Red Dead Redemption too).

Another one is instant death attacks in turn based RPGs. If it's a special ability of a boss then that's fine, but don't give it to a bunch of the low level enemies (I'm looking at you Shin Megami Tensei).

 

[PFCboom]

There are a handful of tropes that I see that... kinda irritate me.
The Rule of Three is a big one. Triforce, 3 spiritual stones, 3 goddesses, 3 goddess pearls, 3 plot coupons, needing 3 plot coupons to get one of the 3 plot coupons, 3 slots in a party, 3 combat roles... The list goes on and on.

<link=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CutsceneIncompetence>Cutscene Incompetence is really, really starting to get to me. Mass Effect, me be a vanguard with mighty Charge powers. Anyone who's played ME3 knows that there are a handful of situations where a Charge or two would've been reeeaaaally handy. Or, you know, any number of abilities. Or, you know, the freedom to shoot. Or move.
Hell, the game constantly taking control away from the character is getting out of hand. I think this is one of the reasons why games like Half-Life is as well-loved, just because you never fully lose control of your character. Okay, yes, movement is restricted sometimes but at least you can look around freely. Shoot, some games don't even give you that.

Don't even get me started on scripted hallway action sequences. Example: Tomb Raider (2013). A few times in the game, stuff will start crumbling all around Lara, but it's okay, because there's a convenient route right over there! Now, quick, run along this bridge! Good, now jump across the roofs and finish with a zip-line! Action, shmaction, that's just the game herding you, pushing the player character along instead of the usual pulling.
The difference between pushing and pulling, however, is that pulling is usually done through leading the player through the narrative. It's voluntary, and with a good narrative makes for an enjoyable experience. Pushing is... lazy. Oh, I'm sure it can be impressive. It's still lazy.

Action games that limit your choice of weapons. In the Uncharted series, I went out of my way, trying to NOT use AK-47's, until the very end when it was almost the ONLY weapon available. Deus Ex: Human Revolution REALLY handicapped my 100% non-lethal run by constantly giving me lethal weapons and ammo, while tranq darts and taser carts were few and far between.
On a related note, that's why I love Dead Space 3 WAY more than a lot of people. Universal ammo and the crazy-huge number of weapon combos available makes for what is, IMO, one of the most enjoyable shooters I've played in a long, long time.

I'd best stop before I realize how much I don't like video games.

 

[King Aragorn]

Universal ammo in Dead Space 3 ruined the concept of survival and being low on ammo, you know, for a survival horror series that's pretty important. As for Deus Ex, I always thought it was just part of the challenge that you aren't showered with ammo. The tranq/taser are instant take outs, there has to be some method of balancing and even then, I rarely ran out of ammo for it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not a huge peeve because I haven't seen it too often but having to hold a button to run really annoys me (like in the Arkham games and I think Red Dead Redemption too).

It's even weirder in RDR where you don't have to push forward the analog stick to enable running, you can sprint just by holding down a button without actually having to analog-walk.

Speaking of Assassin's Creed I'm still waiting for a crouch button in a fucking STEALTH game. The first game at least had "blend", the second game doesn't even have that (oh there's some contextual bullshit but you get the point). That's my pet peeve.

Assassin's Creed and ''stealth'' don't exactly go together too well. At this point there are stealth elements in there just because the first had them, really.

At least the first couple of games were billed as stealth games though, which in practice felt like a cop-out.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I absolutely despise the typical console-game-esque progression method of giving you new equipment at precisely the time you need it, for often arbitrary reasons.

For example, Tomb Raider (latest reimagining) - when you just happen to get the upgrade for the bow when you need it or you literally wouldn't of been able to get any further through the game (this happens more than once). Lara would've been stuck with nothing to do, had she not chanced upon the exact upgrade/item she needed at that time.

Or when you get the upgrade for your rope, exactly when you need it.

To me, it really disconnects me from the narrative, because it is just so impossibly coincidental that I get physically angry at it.

 

[Sarge034]

My biggest pet peeve is sluggish controls. Be it in BF3, Dead Space, or Resident Evil, if I say move I mean move NOW. That's actually the biggest reason I migrated to CoD back in the day. Oh CoD 4: Modern Warfare... If only you knew what you would spawn...

 

[Hunter Hyena]

When a game has a cutscene where my character is holding a different gun than the one I had out not even a second before

When my character in a cutscene doesn't do anything logical, like shoot a villain or use any skills they had shown

When a character gets cornered by one person with a gun despite eating bullets and shitting out death on 1000's of victims just seconds before

 

[Casual Shinji]

Time to get nit picky about The Last of Us.

The balance between strangling and shiving is utterly broken. It's supposed to be about weighing your options, right? Strangling takes more time and shiving is instant but breaks/wears down your shiv. But apart from that it takes a bit longer, there's really no down side to strangling as opposed to shiving. It doesn't make more noise or wear down your health or anything. I only ever need to shiv Clickers, and even then maybe twice in the whole game. The primary purpose of the shivs should be shiving, but the only reason to really have them is for the shivable doors. They really should've implemented a more comparable con for strangling, like enemies chipping away at your health as they're clawing at you.

And talking about strangling... Making it an inactive event instead of having to hold the button down was a rather odd decision for two reasons.

1) If I'm caught strangling someone by another enemy, I want the option to let go of my quarry so that I don't just stand there taking damage like a chump while I'm stuck watching the murder animation play itself out. Which is currently the case. And every other game with a stranglehold mechanic has this very option, so I don't know what was stopping TLoU.

2) It's much more immersive to have to hold down the square button while strangling, then to just press it once to start the animation.

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

Rockstar games have this annoying habit of making you continually tap the A/X button to sprint. Doesn't sound like a big deal, until you have to maneuver the camera around w/ the right stick... which is preoccupied with the sprinting.

Also, games that map too many functions to one button. Mass Effect 3 had sprint, take cover, vault, and revive all mapped to the A/X button. Try reviving someone right next to a bit of cover without vaulting or dashing away and tell me that isn't borked.

Also, obligatory QTE answer.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Stealing away control of the camera during gameplay. I absolutely hate the fuck out of it when games do this.

If it's not a cutscene, don't fucking steal the camera from me.

 

[King Billi]

This actually annoys me. AC stealth is primarily crowd steatlh. Granted there are places throughout the games where this isn't the case. However the very first footage from ACI showed exactly this. Crowd stealth. I don't get why so many fans of the series still don't recognise that.

I was just thinking that as well, isn't the whole concept of Assassin's Creed about hiding in plain sight? Thats why standing in a crowd of people or sitting on a bench makes you invisible, its not typically about slinking through the shadows.
That was always how I figured it was meant to be... at least before the games shifted almost entirely into swashbuckling adventure territory.

OT: Any linear or story based game that dosen't let you replay individual chapters/levels after you've completed the game forcing you to play the whole thing through from the beginning if you want to play a particular section you liked.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

having to tilt any analogue stick in a precise manner, only for the sensitivity to give up at the last moment, that drives me all kinds of batty.

Then there's having to have the right amount of sensitivity for using my mouse in any FPS, it has to be right or I'll feel like I've no accurate control over what I'm shooting at (Looking at you Planetside 2).

 

[Granfaloon]

Excessively long cutscenes are a big pet peeve for me. Nothing breaks the immersion more than having no control/not playing the game for minutes at a time.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Multiplayer progression systems. Specifically in terms of gameplay options a la unlocking loadout options in CoD. And it's not just my opinion here:

When players are picking from a pool of options, they are much happier with the decisions they make when provided all of the options simultaneously instead of sequentially.

You know, I am one of the many actually who really do like CoD's core gameplay. But I refuse to play online simply because of the progression system. Instead, I just play local games with people or bots where I have all the weapon and item options there at my disposal.