What gameplay feature can ruin a game within 1 hr?

[lacktheknack]

An open world game without a good map and/or fast travel system...

Looking at you Far Cry 2, who in the right mind puts all the fast travel stations on the edges of the map all the quests are given in the centre town you idiot!

Don't even get me started on the fucking map! At least it taught me that driving while map reading is the worst idea ever. Both irl and in games.

To be fair, there WAS a bus station right next to the town.

OT: A boxing glove punching me in the face through the monitor every second or so. Turns me right off.

 

[bluepanda 492]

Anytime a game throws a boss fight at you with absolutely no warning and generally when your about dead. Also boss fights that become almost impossible due to your character build, such as you specialize in fire damage then the boss is fire immune.

 

[CleverCover]

Bad Voice Acting.

If I'm not already invested in a story and I get wind of really god awful horribad voice acting, the game flies out of the console faster than the wind.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Just...why?

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't remember them saying Luke was a prodigy.

Not in those exact words, but otherwise....

 

[The Wykydtron]

An open world game without a good map and/or fast travel system...

Looking at you Far Cry 2, who in the right mind puts all the fast travel stations on the edges of the map all the quests are given in the centre town you idiot!

Don't even get me started on the fucking map! At least it taught me that driving while map reading is the worst idea ever. Both irl and in games.

To be fair, there WAS a bus station right next to the town.

OT: A boxing glove punching me in the face through the monitor every second or so. Turns me right off.

Yes, a bus station in town that can still only take you to the edges of the map, it makes all the locations that aren't near the edges of the map (most of them, it's a big map) bloody annoying to get to.

Then your car gets blown up and you're stuck sprinting to some speck on the horizion until the gods smile on you and send a truck for you to steal

 

[Alcari]

Non-puzzles, that serve to do nothing but make you waste time. This can be because you're either pixelhunting in an FPS, or because the game requires you to make numerous perfect jumps in only one specific section (Duke Nukem forever).

Super-sudden quicktime events that happen extremely rare, and in the middle of cutscenes (the new CODs). Here are you, watching a cutscene, having a drink, when suddely *HIT X NOT TO DIE*. You drop your glass, reach for your mouse/controller, but nooooo. Too late, have fun watching that 5 minute cutscene again.

Autosaves before cutscenes, intro. (God of War and many others) Yes, it's good that you remind us what to do before that one bossfight, but after 15 times I think I know the briefing and am sufficiently intimidated by its fearsomeness.

 

[geK0]

When games try to use the WOW questing format.

WOW wasn't popular for it's lazy quest writing, Im not sure why some developers don't understand that = \

"Go kill 15 boars, k thanks bye"

The game that did this which bugs me the most is Borderlands

 

[Darkbladex96]

Quite funny that I thought about this topic about 5h ago after I played 1h of the following game:

Force Unleashed 1. Since the force is a feature of nearly all Star Wars games I count it here.

The poor balance of the force in this game killed my fun in it. From the beginning it is so much better than the lightsabre (seriously, why can people take two hits of this thing?).

Because they are made out of Spectacularanium. KotOR explained it in the tutorial section when you ask how you'd survive against a Dark Jedi. I forgot the actual name of the metal Vibroblades are made out of, though. But they make armor out of it too.

Cortosis.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

If a game has platforming in a 3D space, you better give me control of the camera.
Main offender: God of War

Pissed me off to no end.

this. that is god awful annoying, the worst thing is "HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHERE I'M DODGING/JUMPING?!?!?" *me jumps into a tiny rock that lets me be 1 hit k.o.'d, or i accidently jump off a cliff hidden behind the camera angle*

 

[DustyDrB]

If a game has platforming in a 3D space, you better give me control of the camera.
Main offender: God of War

Pissed me off to no end.

this. that is god awful annoying, the worst thing is "HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHERE I'M DODGING/JUMPING?!?!?" *me jumps into a tiny rock that lets me be 1 hit k.o.'d, or i accidently jump off a cliff hidden behind the camera angle*

Don't forget when the camera angle suddenly changes mid-jump. Gaaahhhh!!! Bad idea covered in bad idea sauce and stuffed with bad ideas.

 

[Darkbladex96]

puzzles that require extreme lentghs of time to complete for no real reason.
Puzzles that require boxes to be pushed.
Vehicle based games with terrible vehicle mechanics

 

[Tax_Document]

Tutorials, I have been gaming for about 16 years ... I know x is jump and pushing forward on the analogue stick will make me move forward. Stop making me endure these trivial trials and make them skipable.

I was like that until I picked up Hearts of Iron 3.

I wanted a tutorial so much... I picked it up by playing Ireland endlessly, (They're relatively out of the war if your not in the Allies).

 

[SonicMTD]

Mass Effect Franchise: Vehicle Sections. Really killed the fun. I get you're trying new things but come on don't make it worse than the first game.

Ace Combat Franchise: Going for realism. Let me explain. One of the reasons why Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is one of my favourite games is how it's like an anime movie done right. From the character models, to world of the story, to soundtrack. It had me gripped from "Shorebirds" to "The Unsung War". So why do I start disliking it? Right after Ace Combat 5 Namco followed up with Ace Combat Zero. It had a lot in common but they ditched their anime style for more live action. Then they ditched the world of the story to ours (America and Russia, instead of Osea and Yukitobania). I have yet to try Event Horizon so I'll wait but I dunno it's not the franchise I fell in love with.

MOST GAMES: Collectible sections. I get it you need something to fill up space but adding them really becomes a royal pain. Some of these games don't show the locations on games map which means you'll need to intuitively know where it is. Infamous and Assassins Creed both had this problem (they at least fixed it in the sequels) La Noire I really really disliked with the golden film canister bits.

Oblivion: Conversation minigame (aka WHEEL OF STUPITY) nuff said

Alice Madness Returns: DOLL HEAD PUZZLES!! I wish this game did better but it's a new game with old school habits. (It's got really freaking long platforming sections, that doesn't do well in a market of FPS's and rockband)

Way Of The Samurai 3. So many endings with no clear way on what I have to do to get them all.

Borderlands. It grew really really stale on single player.

Red Dead Redemption: Levelling up took forever online

 

[Snotnarok]

Spamming quicktime events, was interested in Ninja Blade, then I played the demo and it's literally QTE the game. God of War might be the only game that ever pulled off QTEs properly.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Gears of War and his awful story writing...
I only played the first one and I still thinking that there are some cutscene missing, because I still don't know the fuck is suposse to be going on in that game. Don't know who I am shooting or if they actually deserved, don't know what are the characters motivations or backstory. I am still not sure what the name what the fucking final boss was... The game never tell me anything.

Well, my boy, allow me to politely explain the plot in the simplest way possible:
Marcus Fenix is a soldier in goofy looking space armor trained to hide behind walls and spew ludicrous profanity at aliens.
Trying to find any more of a plot is actually a challenge.
OT: Really bad glitches. I don't mind the occasional glitch or two, but when they're so bad that you think "did anyone even playtest this?".

 

[Lunkis]

Games that expect you to play strictly for the sake of leveling up, not to have fun.

When content is purely based off how much time you put into a game, it's more of a job and less of an actual game.

Remember when we used to play video-games for fun?

 

[RanD00M]

Pro tip, the stuff that you guys are talking about aren't gameplay features. Two of you are talking about bad voice acting, one is talking about a character trait, and one is talking about a game holding your hands.

If a game has a narrative, I count that and anything related to it as a gameplay feature, as I'm the kind of person who will buy games based on plot and narrative. I never buy a game because it has an awesome multiplayer (Battlefield 3) or great graphics (Crysis); to me, a game's narrative element will be the determining factor. Immersion into the game environment is important as a major feature, and can both compensate for or tear down the technical gameplay elements. There is no reason a good game should not have a decent story and good voice acting, especially if it's not a puzzle or platformer.

That doesn't change the fact that it isn't a gameplay feature, and as such has no business in this thread.

 

[Mariakko]

Lets see:
-Escort missions
-Unskippable cutscenes, Especially if it's a long one one right before a boss fight. Yeah I mean you Kingdom Hearts.
-No third person camera controls
-Quick time events
-Randomly input driving sections in shooters, Halo was the only one who did it well

 

[Hexenwolf]

Gears of War 2. No, you may NOT do anything else while you've got your two fingers up to your ear to hear your comm. I mean, it's not like you've been talking to Anya JUST fine the entire freaking game.

If I recall, you can actually push select to cut those conversations short. Ditto any scripted squad chatter. I mean, it's not like they ever tell you you can do that, but you can. It's actually pretty funny, because Marcus will interrupt them with en "Enough!" or other equally rude statement.