Annoying, aggravating, the hate-mongering demon spawn of demented clown sadists. Call them what you will. We've all played them - those games that resulted in us having to duck out to the store to buy a new controller, because the one we were using now has bits of disk or cartridge lodged in it.
Was it teeth-grindingly horrible gameplay mechanics? A particularly loathesome main character? A stupidy McStupidpants plot twist of utter stupidity that totally ruined the story? A horrible, unbeatable level they forced you to repeat a thousand times until your thumbs snapped and you RAGE QUIT? Or was it just the worst, most unplayable game of all time with no redeemable qualities whatsoever?
Note: I know this topic seems to be inviting hot burny flames of fiery death and malice, but do try not to let it degenerate into that, and don't take it personally if one of your favourite games is mentioned. Okay, that's the disclaimer done! Allow me to get things started!
Final Fantasy XII. I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. To this day, I slobber all over Fantasies VII through X with gay abandon, and I even managed to laugh (and oggle) my way through X-2 without the campy sillyness of it making my brain explode. So imagine my shock and horror when I found the game series I loved had degenerated into mutilated clone of Ragnarok Online! Hey, check it out, I'm going to run around this desert area and poke a lot of cartoonish animals with my pointy sword in exchange for loot and EXP. And, look, now I'm running around a different desert area, poking a lot of cartoonish---eck...Oh, and, at risk of agreeing with everybody, Vaan is so insipid and unlikeable that he makes Cait Sith look charming and useful, but he fortunately fades into the background with a whiplash speed that makes me wonder why Square-Enix ever thought of including him as a farcical 'Main Character'.
As far as stupidy, stupidy, stupid of the Our Lady of Stupid Order of the Cult of Stupidity storyline twists go, True Crime: Streets of LA lost any right to have the words 'True' and 'Crime' in the title when I found myself shooting at the ghostly form of a Chinese dragon shooting flames at me, only a few stages in. Abruptly, I realised I wasn't playing the game I'd paid good money for, and I needed some ice to cure the sting of being thoroughly violated. The annoying game mechanics and tedious side missions had been grating on me since my efforts to play it as a reverse Grand Theft Auto backfired multiple times, and then they yanked the story right out of my hands in the stupidest of ways by deciding, "Actually, no, it's not a crime game, it's--" shit.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, it doesn't take much for a game to get on my nerves. I do, in fact, have a very short fuse when it comes to games, and the game mechanic that toys with my thin shred of tolerance more than any other (that I can think of) is the 'Pointless But Compulsory Racing Component!' (because I have the reflexes of a drowned rat). The PBCRC makes use of the ticking clock plot device with all the grace and subtlety of a neon pink elephant stampeding through my room on fire...and about as successfully as said elephant could design a game.
Mind you, this isn't true in all games. Assassin's Creed, for example - a game designed for speedy and accessible free running - made great use of its game mechanics in the 'capture the flag' side missions, as did (many) earlier Spider-Man games, where swinging around on rooftops offered lots of awesome, lulzy fun. But in GTA:IV, where the cars handle like fridges riding unicycles and have this curious proclivity to explode in balls of fiery death and forcing you to repeat this endlessly until you succeed? AARGH! *bloodvesselbursting* This wasn't the worst or even most annoying part of the game, but it was the exact moment where I got the distinct feeling that the game designer hated me and wanted me to go away.
There are a number of other games I could add to my list (for example, I've developed the theory that anybody who buys me a video game based on a movie is secretly telling me that they despise me and they hope I throw myself off a bridge) but my post is already exceedingly long and I'm starting to feel like a hairy-eared old man rocking back and forth in his chair shaking his cane and shouting at some passing kids for no good reason, so I'll step aside and open the floor to you now. Come on in and share your pet peeves in gaming! They don't have to be the worst games, but what are the ones that have just irritated the crap out of you, or suddenly ruined themselves for no good reason?
Rant away! =D
Was it teeth-grindingly horrible gameplay mechanics? A particularly loathesome main character? A stupidy McStupidpants plot twist of utter stupidity that totally ruined the story? A horrible, unbeatable level they forced you to repeat a thousand times until your thumbs snapped and you RAGE QUIT? Or was it just the worst, most unplayable game of all time with no redeemable qualities whatsoever?
Note: I know this topic seems to be inviting hot burny flames of fiery death and malice, but do try not to let it degenerate into that, and don't take it personally if one of your favourite games is mentioned. Okay, that's the disclaimer done! Allow me to get things started!
Final Fantasy XII. I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. To this day, I slobber all over Fantasies VII through X with gay abandon, and I even managed to laugh (and oggle) my way through X-2 without the campy sillyness of it making my brain explode. So imagine my shock and horror when I found the game series I loved had degenerated into mutilated clone of Ragnarok Online! Hey, check it out, I'm going to run around this desert area and poke a lot of cartoonish animals with my pointy sword in exchange for loot and EXP. And, look, now I'm running around a different desert area, poking a lot of cartoonish---eck...Oh, and, at risk of agreeing with everybody, Vaan is so insipid and unlikeable that he makes Cait Sith look charming and useful, but he fortunately fades into the background with a whiplash speed that makes me wonder why Square-Enix ever thought of including him as a farcical 'Main Character'.
As far as stupidy, stupidy, stupid of the Our Lady of Stupid Order of the Cult of Stupidity storyline twists go, True Crime: Streets of LA lost any right to have the words 'True' and 'Crime' in the title when I found myself shooting at the ghostly form of a Chinese dragon shooting flames at me, only a few stages in. Abruptly, I realised I wasn't playing the game I'd paid good money for, and I needed some ice to cure the sting of being thoroughly violated. The annoying game mechanics and tedious side missions had been grating on me since my efforts to play it as a reverse Grand Theft Auto backfired multiple times, and then they yanked the story right out of my hands in the stupidest of ways by deciding, "Actually, no, it's not a crime game, it's--" shit.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, it doesn't take much for a game to get on my nerves. I do, in fact, have a very short fuse when it comes to games, and the game mechanic that toys with my thin shred of tolerance more than any other (that I can think of) is the 'Pointless But Compulsory Racing Component!' (because I have the reflexes of a drowned rat). The PBCRC makes use of the ticking clock plot device with all the grace and subtlety of a neon pink elephant stampeding through my room on fire...and about as successfully as said elephant could design a game.
Mind you, this isn't true in all games. Assassin's Creed, for example - a game designed for speedy and accessible free running - made great use of its game mechanics in the 'capture the flag' side missions, as did (many) earlier Spider-Man games, where swinging around on rooftops offered lots of awesome, lulzy fun. But in GTA:IV, where the cars handle like fridges riding unicycles and have this curious proclivity to explode in balls of fiery death and forcing you to repeat this endlessly until you succeed? AARGH! *bloodvesselbursting* This wasn't the worst or even most annoying part of the game, but it was the exact moment where I got the distinct feeling that the game designer hated me and wanted me to go away.
There are a number of other games I could add to my list (for example, I've developed the theory that anybody who buys me a video game based on a movie is secretly telling me that they despise me and they hope I throw myself off a bridge) but my post is already exceedingly long and I'm starting to feel like a hairy-eared old man rocking back and forth in his chair shaking his cane and shouting at some passing kids for no good reason, so I'll step aside and open the floor to you now. Come on in and share your pet peeves in gaming! They don't have to be the worst games, but what are the ones that have just irritated the crap out of you, or suddenly ruined themselves for no good reason?
Rant away! =D
