Let's all point and laugh at our favorite laughable plot moments from games, like gaping plot holes, lazy plot devices or obvious deus ex machina. Needless to say, there will be spoilers.
Half Life 2: Even the best game ever isn't safe: in the last chapter, the plot demands that Gordon Freeman gets captured. Did the writers have any good ideas for making this happen? No. Very no. The best they could come up with to connect the dots between 'Gordon kicks arse' to 'Gordon gets captured' is to have him voluntarily get into device for holding prisoners. Twice. Here's an idea Mr PhD smarty pants: Why don't you not do that? Maybe you should just hold onto the back of it, instead, so you can actually get off of it?
Fallout 3: Making fun of this is too easy. You've reached the very end, and you have to activate a panel in a control room full of deadly radiation, choosing to either sacrifice yourself (in an obvious attempt to make you a Christ figure) or cowardly sacrificing someone else. Except there are no less than 3 possible people you might be with you who are totally radiation immune who could do it without any problem. One of them is virtually impossible to miss following the main plot. Less than a couple of hours ago they probably just offered to use their radiation immunity to walk into a room full of radiation to retrieve the GECK. But now they won't now becausethat would ruin the forced ending umm they don't feel like it. It's destiny, baby!
Fable: This had one long ingeniously lazy plot device: the Heroes Guild. Or more like the Plot Advancement Guild. What exactly is the Heroes Guild anyway, if not a bland plot device to keep the plot moving? Let's compare it to Oblivion: guilds give you quests, and you have good guilds and evil guilds and guilds for stealing things for profit or for studying and using magic and so on. They have purposes of their own that actually make sense. In Fable? Too hard. Let's just roll it all up into one generic guild and make its primary purpose seemingly to tell the hero where to go next and give them their choice of quests on cards to save on actually having to make them go out and talk to people. Whether you're pure as new snow or more power hungry and sociopathic than the Big Bad and no matter what your skills are, we're the guild for you! As long as you aren't the Big Bad, of course.
Half Life 2: Even the best game ever isn't safe: in the last chapter, the plot demands that Gordon Freeman gets captured. Did the writers have any good ideas for making this happen? No. Very no. The best they could come up with to connect the dots between 'Gordon kicks arse' to 'Gordon gets captured' is to have him voluntarily get into device for holding prisoners. Twice. Here's an idea Mr PhD smarty pants: Why don't you not do that? Maybe you should just hold onto the back of it, instead, so you can actually get off of it?
Fallout 3: Making fun of this is too easy. You've reached the very end, and you have to activate a panel in a control room full of deadly radiation, choosing to either sacrifice yourself (in an obvious attempt to make you a Christ figure) or cowardly sacrificing someone else. Except there are no less than 3 possible people you might be with you who are totally radiation immune who could do it without any problem. One of them is virtually impossible to miss following the main plot. Less than a couple of hours ago they probably just offered to use their radiation immunity to walk into a room full of radiation to retrieve the GECK. But now they won't now because
Fable: This had one long ingeniously lazy plot device: the Heroes Guild. Or more like the Plot Advancement Guild. What exactly is the Heroes Guild anyway, if not a bland plot device to keep the plot moving? Let's compare it to Oblivion: guilds give you quests, and you have good guilds and evil guilds and guilds for stealing things for profit or for studying and using magic and so on. They have purposes of their own that actually make sense. In Fable? Too hard. Let's just roll it all up into one generic guild and make its primary purpose seemingly to tell the hero where to go next and give them their choice of quests on cards to save on actually having to make them go out and talk to people. Whether you're pure as new snow or more power hungry and sociopathic than the Big Bad and no matter what your skills are, we're the guild for you! As long as you aren't the Big Bad, of course.
