If you could change one mechanic in your favourite games....

[MiracleOfSound]

What would you pick?

I'd...

Have aim down sights in Fallout 3

Change the knife in COD to a 2-hit kill

Make the interrogations more fair in LA Noire

Remove instant fail missions from Assassin's Creed series

Get rid of Mass Effect 1 and 2's resource gathering

Lose the stagger effect in Elder Scrolls

 

[HDi]

Probably the hacking or photography in Bioshock.

Not sure what I'd replace them with though.

 

[Shadow flame master]

I'd take away the repetiveness of Super Mario Sunshine,
Have Donald and Goofy actually help in fights in Kingdom Hearts 2
Not loose so many rings in the Sonic series
Drop the number of Triforce pieces needed to be found in Wind Waker

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I'd remove the baggage weight system from The Witcher 2. It just makes holding crafting items more difficult than it should be.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Probably the hacking or photography in Bioshock.

Not sure what I'd replace them with though.

How about, I dunno, ATTACKING the enemies to learn about how to beat them? I seriously wonder why it never crossed the developers minds that fighting things to learn about them makes more sense than aiming a camera in the middle of a gunfight.

 

[DustyDrB]

Replace Mass Effect 2's regenerating health with the first game's health system. That's actually my only substantial gripe about the second game.

Red Dead Redemption: Press A (or tap it repeatedly) to run. Game designers had the whole "tilt the stick forward slightly to walk, and all the way to run" back in the 90s.

 

[Austin Howe]

In Final Fantasy VIII, I'd get rid of the draw cap, so I could draw more than 9 spells at a time, thus further incentivizing drawing (because by drawing, you can make drawing easier, the ability to draw is tied to the magic stat.)

 

[ComradeJim270]

Put Fallout 2's companion system in Fallout.
Make the inventory system in Mass Effect less exasperating.
Make enemies in STALKER (SoC and CS) easier to sneak up on so the knife is useful on something other than boxes.

 

[goronlink8]

Change assassinations in Halo and Assassin's Creed to quick-time action events to give them more interactivity.

Change AC:B's multiplayer (I like it, but it isn't very exciting which is what I like.) to match the campaign's combat system.

I would also make the knives in COD turn into a little combat circle where you both pull out knives, no other person can attack you, and when you kill them it shows some really complicated, but awesome looking kill method(unarmed, pistol whip, knife, headshot, whatever). When in the little circle it takes 4 knives to kill and no regeneration while in it.

 

[Akytalusia]

i'd change the narrative in xenogears disc 2 to actual gameplay.

 

[Gregg Lonsdale]

Improve the Weapon selection/selling menus in Mass Effect so that I don't have to trawl through it for half an hour every time I finish a mission. I like collecting and upgrading different kinds of weapons in games, so the way they scrapped the whole thing for ME2 kinda annoyed me.

And make the stealthing in Crysis/Crysis 2 more challenging.

 

[CodeOrange]

If you could change something in your "favorite games", then I'm afraid to say that your game is either dated, or just not very good at all. Just saying lol...
OT: Noting that my all-time favorite game, ff9 doesn't have many faults, if any at all that are noticeable; i'd instead comment on games that I hold with high regard.
Bioshock - The safe bug, should have not existed at all...
League of Legends - Make the community not so shit.
Civ 5 - Up the variation/difficulty.
COD 4 - If the dev team didn't abandon it after like 3 months after release and FIXED the game to make it viable in competitive play (it's basically an instant kill CS with broken guns, grenades, perks, ect). Too bad the sequels didn't balance these issues to appeal to console gamers and bad players.
Could be more, but I forget.

 

[CodeOrange]

Change assassinations in Halo and Assassin's Creed to quick-time action events to give them more interactivity.

You'll find that a lot of people here have distaste for quick time events no thanks to Yatzhee Croshaw.

But honestly, the assassinations in Halo Reach are far too quickly done to have any quick time events. It would make the game more frustrating than entertaining.

QTE Require no skill. It's just an unnecessary hurdle that slows down the game and serves to ruin immersion, just because you're feeling a little slow that day. Since they depend on reflexes, they can be near impossible, or incredibly easy, both of which are equally frustrating. From a developer's point of view, it could be used as a tool to enhance gameplay, but when they become tedious and rote, there's simply no point in having them. The only exception to this rule is when a game is built around them, however the game then becomes no more than trial and error. Heavy Rain is an exception to this, however due to their incredibly slow pace, I'd sooner call them Real-Time Events than anything else.

Probably the hacking or photography in Bioshock.

Not sure what I'd replace them with though.

How about, I dunno, ATTACKING the enemies to learn about how to beat them? I seriously wonder why it never crossed the developers minds that fighting things to learn about them makes more sense than aiming a camera in the middle of a gunfight.

Thank God, I've finally come across someone else who thought the camera in Bioshock was fucking retarded. It just made some of the fights extremely frustrating, what with trying to Metroid Prime scan take pictures of them. They could have replaced it with experience or something. As for hacking - Bioshock 2 replaced that nicely, I so wish we could have had that in BS1.

As for me - I wish that, um, I dunno at the moment. Any other time I could pick any game out of my ass and point to it as a mechanic that should change, but I can't think of anything that hasn't been said.

The photography wasn't tedious at all, however it did increase the difficulty of battles, WHILE adding a new mechanic to the game that wasn't about killing everything. Bioshock is a cover-based shooter after all, so putting yourself in danger to take photographs was still really fun. Photographing turrets/guard bots was just ridiculous though. From a dev's point of view, it subtlety adds RPG elements (it's fun leveling up your research level, isn't it?) in an original way, in a game that normally wouldn't have RPG elements. You must admit, you didn't see the photograph coming, didn't you? Also, comparing a new game to a long running franchise which needs to remain fresh (metroid) is an unfair comparison.

 

[TheLoneBeet]

I would add:

- Iron-sights into any FPS (or any game that involves shooting from the first-person perspective but isn't necessarily an FPS).

- Addition system from Legend of Dragoon into any melee-turn-based RPG.

- Improve teammate AI in every game where you cannot take direct control of them. I'm sick of dying while my teammates stand next to me shouting "Do you need healing?" (or whatever variation of it)

I'm sure there are more but I'm sort of tired..

 

[ChupathingyX]

Rockstar need to stop making us tap a button repeatadly to run, it gets really annoying.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

The system of throwing explosives in VATS in Fallout 3 and vegas. Not really that useful to set up a throw then have the dynamite move in slow mo while the enemy runs towards you :|

 

[spartandude]

KotOR- change morality metre to The Witchers choices and consequences style

Oblivion- Mother Fuckin Level Scaling

Medieval 2 Total War- 2 things id change, the pope
and make diplomacy remotely decent

 

[Evaheist666]

Prevent any JRPG from lasting more than 20 hours.