What features are videogames lacking that you rarely see?

[veloper]

1. WASD movement for topdown action RPGs is too rare.

Let's you use the mouse exclusively for aiming, whenever you want to, which makes a game more responsive and has absolutely no downsides.

2. Maintenance/corruption mechanics are missing in most newer strategy games.

Keeps a big strategy game from becoming effortless after you win a few battles.
Civilization (up till #4) always had it and civ4 perfected it, so it's not like other TBS developers never could have figured.

It's the ultimate proof that the game industry fears all change, that they'll ignore great improvements that are not really all that new and not hard to reinvent either.

 

[LilithSlave]

You see that gamepad over there? The one with two sticks on it? The poor right stick needs a little more love besides being just camera controls.

I agree with this, and am reminded of Nights into Dreams and how having two sticks confused me so much at first. But that I thought that using two sticks for different 3D controls was the future, at least of platforming.

I want that mentality to be back and actually matter. Sure, it feels like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at first. And a real mind bender. But once you'd get used to something like that, I think it would be awesome. There needs to be a LOT more 3D games with more complex movement.

Let's see, like Katamari Damacy. Did a really good job of using BOTH sticks for movement.

Admittedly, that stick works really well for camera movement. And it was one of the improvements of Kingdom Hearts II over Kingdom Hearts. Using the R buttons for movement in Kingdom Hearts could lead to some awful camera angle lockups. Which were (mostly) alleviated in Kingdom Hearts II thanks to the control stick and just designing some areas better for the camera, than say, Wonderland in the first game. Made you even wonder why they didn't do that to begin with.

It's as if we need 3 analogue sticks sometimes. One for camera angle, and two for movement.

Because you could DEFINITELY put two analogue sticks, both used for movement, to good use. I really want another freeform flying game like Nights into Dreams about it.

I think Karutomaru is alluding to the fact that the majority of "open world"-type games are but quest hubs. Sure there are sandbox features to mess around with, but to actually complete the game? It usually does boil down to finding the next quest giver. And if truly open worlds are what Karutomaru wants? Then I wouldn't want to be the one - nor on the team - that would build such a game.

Ah, World of Warcraft syndrome.

"Go kill 3 birds", total immersion.

What I think would be good is a big, dramatic, melodramatic, even(I don't see why people hate melodrama), war game that's open world. Something like, say, Final Fantasy Tactics, but an open world sandbox.

Oh hey, speaking of this sort of thing. You know what I want in an MMORPG? Role-Playing. I want to make a character who's dealings with their friends and family and politics mean more to the game than the level and armor of the their character. I want areas where interacting with characters are a more major part of the game than the monsters you fight, and meeting with a major political figure is more like a boss fight than taking down a tough monster. I want my character to die when they are killed, let my account level up, then, that'll pay for the fact my character has died, permanently. And if my character had friends and family, let me experience a nice funeral after they're gone. How about even just letting crafting be more important than the combat?

Most sandboxes, especially MMORPG sandboxes, feel fairly lifeless and unbelievable. Predictable and completely static, instead of dynamic. Heck, Terraria on a roleplaying server can feel more real than an MMORPG.

Oh hey, speaking of this, there needs to be more RPGs, where that grinding is not only not necessary, but impossible. I especially want that in an MMORPG. Chrono Cross was a game that made grinding impossible, and was still a good game. Why not try to do that in an MMORPG?

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

You see that gamepad over there? The one with two sticks on it? The poor right stick needs a little more love besides being just camera controls.

I agree with this, and am reminded of Nights into Dreams and how having two sticks confused me so much at first. But that I thought that using two sticks for different 3D controls was the future, at least of platforming.

I want that mentality to be back and actually matter. Sure, it feels like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at first. And a real mind bender. But once you'd get used to something like that, I think it would be awesome. There needs to be a LOT more 3D games with more complex movement.

Let's see, like Katamari Damacy. Did a really good job of using BOTH sticks for movement.

Admittedly, that stick works really well for camera movement. And it was one of the improvements of Kingdom Hearts II over Kingdom Hearts. Using the R buttons for movement in Kingdom Hearts could lead to some awful camera angle lockups. Which were (mostly) alleviated in Kingdom Hearts II thanks to the control stick and just designing some areas better for the camera, than say, Wonderland in the first game. Made you even wonder why they didn't do that to begin with.

It's as if we need 3 analogue sticks sometimes. One for camera angle, and two for movement.

Because you could DEFINITELY put two analogue sticks, both used for movement, to good use. I really want another freeform flying game like Nights into Dreams about it.

I'm kind of hoping for something like Ape Escape actually and it shows that the devs took the position of the fingers seriously. R Stick controls the gadgets, L1 centers the camera, action buttons select gadgets, R1 jumps, L stick moves, etc. It keeps in mind that the most used actions are mapped to the easy to access buttons. You essencially can preform 3-5 actions at once.

This makes me want to experiment with a 3D arena beat'em up using the L stick for movement, R stick for attacks, Hold L2 to aim weapons , Hold R2 to fire/tap to quickfire, etc.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Games have been missing open worlds. Xenoblade is the ONLY game of this generation that had a truly expansive world rather than a mission select screen.

...you talking JRPGs or games in general?

JRPGs...shall I point you to Tales of Vesperia?
Games...you haven't played an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game have you?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Removing hints from games completely. Nowadays the game just has to keep "press X to do Y" on the screen every time the opportunity for Y presents itself. Games keep telling you to reload, to go to cover, to jump etc. every single time like you can't think for yourself. Just removing that useless shit would make games slightly more challenging. Deus Ex: HR had the option to remove all hints and it was glorious.

 

[Lugbzurg]

You see that gamepad over there? The one with two sticks on it? The poor right stick needs a little more love besides being just camera controls.

Teabagging.

I'm kidding. But, the Geometry Wars games did have the Right Analog Stick mapped to what you would use to fire.

Anyway, I'd like the see character development. At least that isn't so... stupid. I'd like to not have to deal with so many Mary-Sues. Really, these people treat everyone like complete and total crap, and everyone just puts up with it, when they've got plenty of other people waiting in line who could be doing the job at hand much better and more cheerfully!

I'd love to see more Easter Eggs and references done in kind of the way the old Legend of Zelda and Banjo-Kazooie titles did it.

Also, intelligence. I am really starting to miss intelligence and challenge in games, these days. You just don't see it nearly as often, anymore.

 

[RustlessPotato]

A good Zombie survival game, where you fear your companions as much as the zombies, were food is scarce, were you have to sleep, were ammo can't be found everywhere, nor the convenient pipes or whatver "improvised" weapons.

Imagine also if you start playing without as much a clue of what you're supposed to be doing. Unlike bethesda games, where you have a main quest, you won't have one here. Maybe you'll find a clue in some abandoned house that there could be a group of survivors, but can you trust them ? Maybe you'll run into someone asking you to help him in exchange for food.

A game based on survival. It doesn't have to be zombies though. Maybe a virus or something that doesn't change the humans in a way you could see it, like a "the thing" based monster or whatever. Making you even more mistrustful.

Also, a good morality system that's not based on "points" or whatever.

 

[PinkiePyro]

environments/worlds so many games make the game world feel small or repetitive now I'm not saying all games need to have giant skyrim sized worlds but more effort does need to be put into them
just look at dead island not that great a game but it got snapped up at first becuse the environment seemed different that most zombie games (granted they over did the sewers later on but they did try)

but the most important feature would be..
better controls many a game falls flat over majorly bad controls and this pretty much quadruples with motion controls it doesn't matter how polished other aspects of your game are if the controls suck no one will play it past level 1