Praised Game mechanics you don't enjoy.

[BloodSquirrel]

Dialogue wheel -_- It was bad in ME2 and I'm guessing it's just as bad in DA2.

Edit - As for why, it's simple: It makes no sense. I guess I'd rather have a wider range of dialogue in text than have three options spoken. Hell The Witcher puts both together and it's like peanut butter meeting chocolate!

I just want to see what I'm actually about to say. I hate selecting "I love kitties!" and hearing my character say "Man, kitties taste great!".

 

[Torrasque]

3) Monetary systems where you can easily max out your cash and buy everything worthwhile in the game by halfway through. It either makes the whole money system worthless or means the rest of the game is a breeze.

Diablo 2 money was like that. Except you never used it for anything of worth really. Sure you could buy random items from Gheed, but they were never that good, and ridiculously over-priced. Money was only ever used for keys, tomes, potions, and the occasional random good thing.

4) The ratings systems. I'm not saying 5-year-olds should be playing CoD (they should be playing Bulletstorm; that game is awesome), but the rating system has forced demographics on the industry. As a result, instead of asking what you put into the game to make it better, companies ask what you put in the game to ensure that it stays in the game's targeted demographic and/or take out to prevent shrinking that demographic. It's the same reason all the crap out these days in the movie theaters is PG-13 and thereby has PG-13 content, and why Sucker Punch was balls.

Most of the time, ratings get put onto games after they are made. So a game that is meant for <13 year olds, gets a rating that applies, and a game that has tits, blood, and violence, usually gets an M rating. Very very few games actually modify their content to fit a certain rating, but movies do this frequently.
Off-topic, Sucker Punch was great, and while I would have liked it to be a bit more graphic, I think it takes away from the artistic merit of the movie to include blood and boobs when it is not meant to be there. Considering Zack Snyder has been a huge part of 300 and Watchmen, I don't think he is squeamish in any way, and therefore meant Sucker Punch to be the way it is.

6) Art games. I'm not at all saying good video games cannot be thought-provoking, beautiful, stark, brilliant, etc. But a game whose commentary about games, gamers or life in general being bleak is more important to it than the gameplay is just begging to suck.

Yeah, I agree.
A game that tries to be a piece of art but has shitty gameplay, is a shitty game.
I play games because they are fun, I'm not going to pay ~$60 for something that looks pretty, when I expect it to be fun.

7) Replayability. I know it's easier than just making more game to give you a little perk if you play the same thing over and over again, but that gets real boring real fast. If you give me a four hour game and tell me it has millions of hours of gameplay because I can play through it with my character's hat tinted a new shade of green every time, I will at most play it once or twice and definitely hate you.

Mega-agree. I'm ok with replaying a game maybe once or twice over, if it is a new difficulty or dramatically changes the game so it is like a new game, but when it took me >100 hours to complete the game, I'm not going to play it all over again with a female avatar just to get 10 nerdpoints. Same goes for your #8 point about achievements.

9) Realistic female characters! This generally means really thin, snarky women with small breasts. Oddly enough this almost never means a female character of normal (i.e. more than four days away from death by starvation) weight. Unrealistic female characters tend to be women who are of normal weight but only because they have an anorexic body and forty pounds of fat in their boobs.

But what about teh womens?! Not all women like being objectified as Tifa apparently... ? I don't really care about how realistic/unrealistic characters look because its a game

10) Casual! Yep. Tends to mean about as much fun as business casual Friday.

Halo is my casual shooter, and I like being able to pick it up after 2 weeks of not playing, and still be pretty good at it. I know what you mean though; "casual" games usually get me playing with people who have no idea how to play because they have played it for about 10-20 minutes...

 

[Torrasque]

are there actually any praised mechanics? I don't read reviews any more, so I don't really know...

Its much more fun to throw poo than flowers.

 

[Aureliano]

9) Realistic female characters! This generally means really thin, snarky women with small breasts. Oddly enough this almost never means a female character of normal (i.e. more than four days away from death by starvation) weight. Unrealistic female characters tend to be women who are of normal weight but only because they have an anorexic body and forty pounds of fat in their boobs.

But what about teh womens?! Not all women like being objectified as Tifa apparently... ? I don't really care about how realistic/unrealistic characters look because its a game

Thanks for the responses here. Thought I'd add: I'm not saying I don't want women in the game. I'm really just saying that I don't actually like anorexic women at all, small-breasted and snarky or busty. I'd honestly prefer busty if she had anything like a personality, but best would be a woman who is healthy and not dangerously underweight, regardless of cupsize.

 

[Torrasque]

9) Realistic female characters! This generally means really thin, snarky women with small breasts. Oddly enough this almost never means a female character of normal (i.e. more than four days away from death by starvation) weight. Unrealistic female characters tend to be women who are of normal weight but only because they have an anorexic body and forty pounds of fat in their boobs.

But what about teh womens?! Not all women like being objectified as Tifa apparently... ? I don't really care about how realistic/unrealistic characters look because its a game

Thanks for the responses here. Thought I'd add: I'm not saying I don't want women in the game. I'm really just saying that I don't actually like anorexic women at all, small-breasted and snarky or busty. I'd honestly prefer busty if she had anything like a personality, but best would be a woman who is healthy and not dangerously underweight, regardless of cupsize.

My comment on this point was simply for the lulz since I found your point funny. I agree with your further explanation though. No one likes anorexic womenz >.>

 

[The Apothecarry]

Final Fantasy's play-style gets too old too fast for me.

I always felt the dialogue wheel needed more options, not just three and Go Back/End.

 

[Bostur]

Real time combat in strategic/tactical games. No I don't really hate that, a lot of great RTS games was made, but I hate the fact that it meant the death of turn based games.




One mechanic that really needs to die in a fire is the introduction of WoW raiding into RTS games. Yes I'm looking at you Dawn of War. Having to give my units order to move out of fire is really the stupidest idea ever. Especially when the squads are perfectly aware of the situation.

Imagine the seargeant of a squad calling the brass on the radio:
"Excuse me sir, we are facing this badass boss thing. Don't worry we are in cover as you ordered, but he is lighting up the ground with fire. I think this is bad because it kind of hurts a lot and I was thinking maybe we should move out of it, but I'd like to get clearance from command first.

If the soldiers are that stupid they very much deserve to die.

 

[Keela]

I'd be okay with the dialogue wheel if only it gave more relevant information about what option your choosing. I'll always remember the time I was playing Mass Effect and accidentally ended up having sex without ever having intended, or for that matter wanting to, all because of unclear dialogue options. That should never happen. EVER! It's just plain poor design.

Alpha Protocol did it a bit better by making each option correspond to an emotion or action at least. Had I know one dialogue option was 'romance' after all I never would have pursued that option in the first place. But it's still a messy system I simply don't like.

Yup, that's my peeve. Only an annoyance really, I still really like the Mass Effect series, but it does annoy me constantly.

I had a similar situation in ME2 on Jack's loyalty mission when she's trying to decide whether to shoot that one asshole at the end.

I'm making this up as I go, since I don't remember exactly what was said, but my dialogue wheel went something like this:

Dialogue wheel:
Killing him is wrong (because I am a massive vagina). (Paragon)
It's not my decision to make. (Few things seem to be in my mind.) (Neutral)
We can't risk him restarting these experiments (because we tener las cohones necessary to make these tough decisions). (Renegade)

I naturally picked the renegade option, and Shephard's dialogue went a lil' sumthin liek dis:
Shephard: "If you're too big of a weakling to waste this ***** and do the universe a favor, I'LL DO IT FOR YOU!!!"

Jack looks at the man on his hands and knees in front of her, hesitating.

Shephard: "DO IT!!!!!!!"

Jack, clearly remorseful, shoots the man in the head.

WTF, bro? That situation just exploded all of a sudden from that failure of a conversation tree! Was the dev forgetting his happy pills?

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I just used Modern Warfare as an example. :x The game itself is garbage.

 

[Super Toast]

Console controller. (as opposed to mouse/keyboard)

I don't know about that. Playing a fighting game, racing game or platformer is nigh impossible without a gamepad.

 

[Choppaduel]

Console controller. (as opposed to mouse/keyboard)

I don't know about that. Playing a fighting game, racing game or platformer is nigh impossible without a gamepad.

this is what you should have quoted...

[HEADING=1] In FPS:[/HEADING]
Console controller. (as opposed to mouse/keyboard)

because its key to my opinion and addresses the issue you raised.

 

[Frotality]

hmm..this is an inctance of the grass always being greener; i used to hate that i had to sneak around with low health until a found a health pack, but now with regenerating health there is no challenge; it went from one extreme to the other, from low health crippling me to low health being another 3 seconds behind a wall. it was better when the game actually challenged me to maintain my health instead of making me invincible if i hid from every second bullet.

i never liked the dialogue wheel though. apart from inevitably not representing what you actually say, it organizes your options into far too impersonal categories. if all we're allowed to see is the apparent jist of what we are going to say, then it feels less like im actually choosing to say it more than im a little guy on the character's shoulder going, "hey, be an asshole. okay, now be nice. now be neutral."

 

[cgmetallica1981]

Regenerating health is awful, takes a great amount of challenge from a game and also can change the experience from fun and fast paced to tedious, slow and boring. For example, I would much rather be playing on a level where I have full health and have to search for a health pack so I can regain a little bit than having to hide behind a rock for a few seconds, pop up and kill an enemy, taking cover and then so on.
Second, instant-kill, quick knifing in games is very frustrating. I very rarely (probably 1 out of 1000 kills, probably more, no exaggeration) use the knife feature in games. It's just amazing how I can pump 15 bullets in a guy and he will just run through them and swing his knife at me like I was a fly and kill me.

 

[thom_cat_]

Oh, I never said anything about ironsights, that's fine with me. Iron sights are on Left Trigger/Right click and both are very easy to push and it doesn't break immersion at all. Or breaks anything, for that matter, though clicking the right analog stick/pushing z to zoom are both just fine provided I don't have to hold them either.

But I, personally, hate hold to crouch because in a shooter there are already a few things I'm worried about, and concern over keeping one certain button held that's not comfortable to hold not only makes it harder to control, it breaks immersion as well. I have beaten a few different shooters on PC (Half-Life, FEAR, Halo 1) and I still have a hard time getting my pinky to reach CTRL. I don't see how that could be comfortable, so most of the time I'll reassign crouch to shift. Oh, and consoles and PC's both have buttons.

And in my opinion the tension between health bars and regen health is about the same, but I just like regen health better because I don't have to be arsed with finding damn health packs.

Also, stop being elitist. It makes you look like a prick. If you want to be an elitist hipster, at least don't rip off your arguments from all the other fucking elitist hipsters.

I added the ironsights bit just for the sake of it.

Hard time reaching CTRL? Shift is sprint! You can't re-assign that D:
Let me get a camera...

Spoiler: complicated stuff

[http://www.UploadScreenshot.com/image/295521/8425268]
like that, but if I was sitting down my fingers would be bent and my pinky wouldn't stick out at all.

Just because we all have the same arguments doesn't mean we're ripping them off others. It means we all have the same argument. I fail to see how this has anything to do with hipsters as well... I may be elitist, but that doesn't make me a hipster and neither does that make me wrong

Spoiler: Lastly, I couldn't help but notice your reason for probation, so I shall answer to that thread you created in this spoiler :)

Hello, Escapist! After debating it for about a week, I've finally created a blog and have a first post! I'm just wondering if you have any tips or hints for me?

I'd advise to get a host and a proper design.
There are lots of unappealing blogs out there to compete with, and what's going to attract people to yours?
My blog is for my own personal release, my friends, and for people to randomly stumble across, and I provide many reasons for people to stay or check up on it on intervals, whether that's my art, my opinions or my gaming.
It depends what audience you want, if you want something more focused what makes you special? There are many places to find reviews of things, many places to talk about devices and gadgets.
Anyway, A good way to start is to actually set up the site visually first. People aren't going to bother reading something if they don't find the site appealing to the eye at first glance.
Maybe, get a proper header, or a name that isn't so convoluted. "believer258's Technology (& Other Stuff) Blog" doesn't really have an appeal outside of yourself and people who recognise your name... and how many people do?
Space shit out with images too! Eye candy is a must
So yeah, check out my blog if you want (it's on my profile)

 

[Custard_Angel]

Cover based combat... So boring. Bring on the Serious Sam/Painkiller style mass execution sessions.

Bloom lighting... Fuck you bloom. You're just an excuse to be lazy with textures.

NPC support... If the opponent AI is bad I don't expect you to do anything other than get in the way. Just let me handle this.

Regenerating health bars... I know its been an industry standard for a long while, but I miss standard health bars. I see the merit, but it just makes games lack urgency and pressure.

"Realism"... Fuck off. It's a game. I don't believe anything is real about games like Call of Duty, because if someone actually attempted to perform a quick snipe with a .50 calibre rifle in mid jump they'd soon find themselves flat on their back from the recoil. And dead. And ridiculed by enemies who can't believe the shit they just saw.

Quite obviously my experience mostly relates to shooters.

 

[Amondren]

"ITS A AMBUSH QUICKLY GET BEHIND THESE CHEST HIGH WALLS THAT ARE CONVENIENTLY PLACED IF THEIR ARE NONE USE THE BODIES OF OUR FALLEN COMRADES ANYTHING FOR A WALL!"-Marcus Phoenix

 

[Drummie666]

Most dialouge systems really aren't that good, like the fallout 3 or mass effect systems. The Alpha Protocol dialogue system is definitely the best one so far.

I don't know if it it's been praised precisely, but I hate, HATE aim assist. Whoever thought that horseshit up should be shot and lit on fire. It's normally not that big a problem, as most games that have it also have an option to turn it off, but then there's CoD. I've only played MW2, and y'know something? Despite some pretty big flaws, it had some decent multiplayer... well... Search and Destroy was good anyway... occasionally... Anyway, the point is that aim assist is horribly unintuitive (to me anyway) and was the number one thing that made me stop playing. Yeah there was the not very good level design, unbalanced weapons and perks and the fact that 90% of the people playing the game are wankers, but permanent aim assist was #1 on my list.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Respawning enemies piss me off immensely. That's probably the biggest reason I can't stand Call of Duty's single player.