Praised Game mechanics you don't enjoy.
- Thread starter Daymo
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A friend of mine said it was terrible. But I will inevitably rent it what with all the free time I'm going to have this summer.Straying Bullet said:
gotta go with kill streak rewards. if someone gets a nuke they don't need a nuke.
i would however approve a reward system based on if your getting massive killstreaks but your team is failing you. this evens up he game a little. it would be even better if you just got a power-up or something to give to your teammate so it gives him a boost and you can't dominate the game even more.
i would however approve a reward system based on if your getting massive killstreaks but your team is failing you. this evens up he game a little. it would be even better if you just got a power-up or something to give to your teammate so it gives him a boost and you can't dominate the game even more.
the dialog wheel. The idea is great, the problem is that evil/renegade options are like flipping a coin, you can't tell whether you are about to hurt someones feelings or beat the living crap out of them.
regenerating health, it's if it heals you to lets say 1/3 of you total health so you don't have to charge into a room with 1hp left but for the rest plz bring back medkits
regenerating health, it's if it heals you to lets say 1/3 of you total health so you don't have to charge into a room with 1hp left but for the rest plz bring back medkits
Cover system is a fantastic idea, it's just still new. Slowly we're improving on it, destructible cover is the first step (/cheer @ Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the upcoming BF3), it means less reliance on cover while still utilizing it. But I know what you mean when it's "hide or die", Modern Warfare series has that going. I don't mind it too much there though tbh.Daymo said:
Gotta say, depends on how it's done. I loved ME2, didn't enjoy DA2. Jennifer Hale might've had something to do with that though <3. I did very much enjoy KOTOR/DA: O range of options, DA: O in particular did a very good job of creating the illusion that you always had a pile of choice that mattered. Can't say I felt that in DA2, but I don't blame the dialogue wheel for that seeing as I massively enjoyed it in ME2.Daymo said:
Anyway, OT:
QTEs. It depends on how they're used, but there are very few instances where I enjoy them.
Using left/right mouse buttons for QTEs sometimes can be fine - I'm thinking Bulletstorm/Modern Warfare 2 climbing (those feel less like QTEs and more like performing an action that's just bound to those keys + they make sense cause they're bound to your arms respectively) and Mass Effect's good guy/bad guy interventions (those were just fucking awesome and a great addition to dialogue imo).
I also don't mind them in something like Batman: Arkham Asylum where you have a QTE to defend yourself (counterattack) and the like. However, on the whole, used the way they usually are, they are the worst gameplay mechanic in all of gaming imo. I'm talking about the ones that turn combat from active to a passive cinematic with "click button to keep cinematic moving". TFU's boss fights are a perfect example of this.
I honestly can't imagine how QTEs on the whole can be praised by anyone, yet I've come across a good number of people (mostly console gamers, no that's not an insult, it's a statistic) who do.
I only sorta have to agree with the dialogue wheel because the concept is all fine and dandy, but with Bioware's variant (have yet to compare it to someone else's version) it often happens my character says something completely different than I expected him to say - and that often causes trouble. I also don't like that the answers are very blatant the "good", the "bad" and the "neutral" answer, morality rarely is a black-white gradient, but apparently Bioware can't convey that complexity - at least not for me. Hell, they could even make it so that the player holds a button during the conversation, button 1 for automatically selecting the good answer first, button 2 for the neutral one, etc.
Maybe part of this dislike also comes from BioWare's character animation. I'd rather stick to Morrowind's dialogue options and imagine the acting than actually seeing it and breaking my legs in the uncanny immersion-sucking valley.
I don't actually think regenerating health received a lot of praise, but maybe I've been listening too much to The Escapist forums and Yahtzee here. Personally I strongly dislike it. Whenever I'm down to 1 HP it's like adrenaline activates and suddenly nothing can stop me till the end of the level, I think more strategically, my aim improves, my reaction time shortens, it's amazing and /tense/. A feeling that regenerating health cannot accomplish for me.
The exception to this is regenerating health ála Dark Project. Yes, Dark Project did indeed have regenerating health. It activated when drinking a health potion, the health of the potion wasn't applied instantaneous, but slowly over time, making it impossible to rely on the potions in tight situations. And that's good, that forces you to think different and be more careful. Games that challenge your brain without making it obvious are always welcome.
Now for something original - and debatable - lack of cutscenes. Of course it would be ideal if there were no cutscenes and the game could just flow, but often when developers try to rip out cutscenes, they fail and the player character is forced to watch something unfold before their eyes and can't leave the room or whatever until the de-facto-cutscene has finished.
Cutscenes where cutscenes are due. Cutscenes aren't inherently bad, you just have to find the right execution and time for them. If you're stuck with just the vision of your own character, that narrows down the possible decisions for the writer that might want to jump to the other side of the conflict to flesh out the enemy or something. Pretty cutscenes can also work as a reward after levels. If they're prerendered videos they can also be extremely pretty without straining the hardware.
Something that bugs me a little: Playing through the game on an unlocked difficulty. It's optional, so I can just say I personally don't enjoy it, it's not like I want to kill the feature. It just sometimes gets a little frustrating when you get an unlocked extra you want to try out, but - and that's my problem with this - the freshness of the game is gone and it's not that fun to play. When I played through a game, I usually don't touch it and often even uninstall it, play something different and at some point rediscover the game and it recovers some of its freshness, maybe I can even see it through different eyes after all this time. But more often than not I'll have uninstalled it by that time, so the unlocked difficulty (or whatever extra the game gives you after it has finished) is already gone.
Maybe part of this dislike also comes from BioWare's character animation. I'd rather stick to Morrowind's dialogue options and imagine the acting than actually seeing it and breaking my legs in the uncanny immersion-sucking valley.
I don't actually think regenerating health received a lot of praise, but maybe I've been listening too much to The Escapist forums and Yahtzee here. Personally I strongly dislike it. Whenever I'm down to 1 HP it's like adrenaline activates and suddenly nothing can stop me till the end of the level, I think more strategically, my aim improves, my reaction time shortens, it's amazing and /tense/. A feeling that regenerating health cannot accomplish for me.
The exception to this is regenerating health ála Dark Project. Yes, Dark Project did indeed have regenerating health. It activated when drinking a health potion, the health of the potion wasn't applied instantaneous, but slowly over time, making it impossible to rely on the potions in tight situations. And that's good, that forces you to think different and be more careful. Games that challenge your brain without making it obvious are always welcome.
Now for something original - and debatable - lack of cutscenes. Of course it would be ideal if there were no cutscenes and the game could just flow, but often when developers try to rip out cutscenes, they fail and the player character is forced to watch something unfold before their eyes and can't leave the room or whatever until the de-facto-cutscene has finished.
Cutscenes where cutscenes are due. Cutscenes aren't inherently bad, you just have to find the right execution and time for them. If you're stuck with just the vision of your own character, that narrows down the possible decisions for the writer that might want to jump to the other side of the conflict to flesh out the enemy or something. Pretty cutscenes can also work as a reward after levels. If they're prerendered videos they can also be extremely pretty without straining the hardware.
Something that bugs me a little: Playing through the game on an unlocked difficulty. It's optional, so I can just say I personally don't enjoy it, it's not like I want to kill the feature. It just sometimes gets a little frustrating when you get an unlocked extra you want to try out, but - and that's my problem with this - the freshness of the game is gone and it's not that fun to play. When I played through a game, I usually don't touch it and often even uninstall it, play something different and at some point rediscover the game and it recovers some of its freshness, maybe I can even see it through different eyes after all this time. But more often than not I'll have uninstalled it by that time, so the unlocked difficulty (or whatever extra the game gives you after it has finished) is already gone.
I agree. Having to consciously think about holding down a button to crouch can sometimes be distracting (that sounds sarcastic but I mean that sincerly). I can't really see the advantages of having to hold down the button.believer258 said:
Uh... first person shooting I guess.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy FPSs. In fact many of my favourite games are FPSs (Half Life 2, Bioshock). But I like those games for other things beside the shooting.
At the end of the day, click-on-enemy doesn't strike me as a great game mechanic. If that's all a game has then I will probably hate it.
EDIT:
To convince someone in DA:O all you had to do was click the option that had "(Cunning)" or "(Persuasion)" stuck on the end.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy FPSs. In fact many of my favourite games are FPSs (Half Life 2, Bioshock). But I like those games for other things beside the shooting.
At the end of the day, click-on-enemy doesn't strike me as a great game mechanic. If that's all a game has then I will probably hate it.
EDIT:
Uhh... what?John Marcone said:
To convince someone in DA:O all you had to do was click the option that had "(Cunning)" or "(Persuasion)" stuck on the end.
You aren't really waiting for it. As you said, they are still options. There were times I wouldn't pick the coloured paragon/renegade choices as I felt they didn't fit the character I was playing.John Marcone said:
That's a little oversimplified I think. It's like saying that 'press A to jump' or 'hold trigger to accelerate' isn't a great game mechanic. If you strip something to it's barest elements, of course it isn't going to hold up well.Zhukov said:
I was just talking about this! I miss health being a finite thing you had to be a bit more worried over than "Oop. I got shot. Oh well, better hide for a sec... and okay, back to the fight." Good call.oplinger said:
And for the record, no. I NEVER EVER EVER wanted regenerating health on any FPS...
Personaly, I've never liked the idea of a leveling system in any sort of multiplayer game without measures to make sure your level 1 ass doesn't get paired with a level 50 tank-driver or something.
It makes me even more pissed off when it gives you barely anything at Level 1. Like in Black Ops - I tried playing the online multiplayer the once, starting at level 1, and after one battle, I just said "fuck it" and never turned back. It just encorages the bullying of new players, and makes it harder to get into the game. I mean, yeah, fight enough battles, and you'll actualy be able to choose your fucking weponry, but I'm not ready to be mr. target face untill I reach that magical point!
It makes me even more pissed off when it gives you barely anything at Level 1. Like in Black Ops - I tried playing the online multiplayer the once, starting at level 1, and after one battle, I just said "fuck it" and never turned back. It just encorages the bullying of new players, and makes it harder to get into the game. I mean, yeah, fight enough battles, and you'll actualy be able to choose your fucking weponry, but I'm not ready to be mr. target face untill I reach that magical point!
Open worlds. Not every game HAS to have a Open-world you know. It can be done right, mind you. And when it is, it's usually great. Fallout:NV, Just Cause 2 and Minecraft come to mind.
But when done wrong, it make the world seem unfocused and pointless. Fallout 3, Far Cry 2.etc.
But when done wrong, it make the world seem unfocused and pointless. Fallout 3, Far Cry 2.etc.