Tiny, insignificant details in games that really bother you

[Dalisclock]

That's something I brought up during Hidden's stream, "Hey look, the game is at least as advertised."

I also thought they should have had "Nector" be the blood of some eldritch old god that's slowly enslaving humanity and that you're hearing it's voice when you suffer from withdrawal.

I could go for a story like that right now... Fantastical things corrupting and enslaving through indirect, almost mundane, ways.

That sounds a little like Bloodborne and to be honest, I'd be totally there for it.

I didn't play it but Haze sounds like a game that could have been really awesome if they'd gone all in on the "Soldiers seeing war as a big video game" and "Are we the baddies?" angles, but you know, with good directing and writing, which it sounds like this game did not have at all. It could have been Spec Ops: The Line before Spec Ops: The Line.....though MGS2 already covered some of those themes.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

That sounds a little like Bloodborne and to be honest, I'd be totally there for it.

I didn't play it but Haze sounds like a game that could have been really awesome if they'd gone all in on the "Soldiers seeing war as a big video game" and "Are we the baddies?" angles, but you know, with good directing and writing, which it sounds like this game did not have at all. It could have been Spec Ops: The Line before Spec Ops: The Line.....though MGS2 already covered some of those themes.

Eh... it does go all in, it's just done very poorly and in a cliche manner.

 

[Dalisclock]

Eh... it does go all in, it's just done very poorly and in a cliche manner.

Fair enough. Maybe I should have just left it at Better Executed.

 

[BrawlMan]

Final Vendetta has no continues. There is no level select, and all the other modes are locked behind beating arcade mode. Even training mode! WTF?! The soundtrack is great and everything, but there was no reason for them not to have a regular continue mode. All I can say is avoid this game unless it's at a super cheap price. Because it ain't worth 20 something dollars, if they're going to do all that!

 

[BrawlMan]

Final Vendetta has no continues. There is no level select, and all the other modes are locked behind beating arcade mode. Even training mode! WTF?! The soundtrack is great and everything, but there was no reason for them not to have a regular continue mode. All I can say is avoid this game unless it's at a super cheap price. Because it ain't worth 20 something dollars, if they're going to do all that!

To further add to this, the game is only six stages long. That explains why they have everything unlocked behind arcade mode and have zero continues. There's a reason why making everything of the old school design does not work. That is old school in the worst way possible. It's outdated and unneeded. $25 for 6 stages is definitely too short. Even when you have co-op, that's still too short and lacking in replay value.

 

[thebobmaster]

I don't know how minor this is, as it really does bother me, but in the Guardians of the Galaxy game, during battle, you can build up a meter to do a team huddle. Encourage your team properly, and they all get a power-up for at least a while, complete with a random song from the soundtrack playing over the fight.

Emphasis on "random", and not all of the songs in the game fit an action-packed fight scene. Doing one with "The Final Countdown" playing in the background? Badass feeling. Doing so with "Karma Chameleon"? OK, kind of weird, but I can still roll with it. "Never Gonna Give You Up"? OK, now it's feeling silly.

 

[BrawlMan]

"Never Gonna Give You Up"? OK, now it's feeling silly.

The game designers are Rick Rolling the players! Call the cops! They're Rick Rolling players at random!

 

[Specter Von Baren]

The very conspicuous lack of even passing reference to Clockwerk in Sly Cooper 4. It was just bizarre how this rival, this enemy, this shadow of the Cooper family that hounded them for thousands of years isn't even referenced by any of Sly's ancestors. And I'm not saying they should have made it all about Clockwerk again, just that them deliberately avoiding mention of him at all just felt wrong.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

It's not at all uncommon for games to shrink down game worlds because of technical or development time limitations; The Division, for one, had a smaller but still believable recreation of downtown Manhattan. However, it's important not to bring attention to the fact that your world is unrealistically small.

There is a quest in Oblivion where the player is tasked with following a series of landmarks in order to find the entrance to a hidden valley. The only aid the player has is a hand-drawn map and a translation of a thousand-year-old diary of a soldier, describing a harrowing multi-day journey requiring rationing of supplies and being stalked and attacked by a pack of wolves.

In the game itself, all of the landmarks, as well as the entrance, are within sight of each other, and can be traversed with less than a minute of walking.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

It's not at all uncommon for games to shrink down game worlds because of technical or development time limitations; The Division, for one, had a smaller but still believable recreation of downtown Manhattan. However, it's important not to bring attention to the fact that your world is unrealistically small.

There is a quest in Oblivion where the player is tasked with following a series of landmarks in order to find the entrance to a hidden valley. The only aid the player has is a hand-drawn map and a translation of a thousand-year-old diary of a soldier, describing a harrowing multi-day journey requiring rationing of supplies and being stalked and attacked by a pack of wolves.

In the game itself, all of the landmarks, as well as the entrance, are within sight of each other, and can be traversed with less than a minute of walking.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game 2006) - Awards - IMDb

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game 2006) - Awards, nominations, and wins

m.imdb.com

“They” must’ve missed details like that when voting for this thing on Best Game Design, Best Writing, etc.

 

[BrawlMan]

Final Fantasy VII, Tifa's earrings. Why? Just why? She's a damn brawler doing cloak and dagger missions! Why is she wearing dangly earrings while fighting? I know that character design usually treats practicality as an optional feature, but with her as a hand to hand combatant, I shudder to look at those things. They're practically begging to get caught on something and tear her earlobes.

Blaze has a similar problem in SOR4. Which is even weirder, because in the previous games, she didn't wear earrings at all. So this is something specific, DotEmu did. I know these guys are French and all, but you got to be practical here. In one of the concept artworks, they were going to turn her into a smoker. I am so glad they abandoned that immediately.

 

[Xprimentyl]

It's not at all uncommon for games to shrink down game worlds because of technical or development time limitations; The Division, for one, had a smaller but still believable recreation of downtown Manhattan. However, it's important not to bring attention to the fact that your world is unrealistically small.

There is a quest in Oblivion where the player is tasked with following a series of landmarks in order to find the entrance to a hidden valley. The only aid the player has is a hand-drawn map and a translation of a thousand-year-old diary of a soldier, describing a harrowing multi-day journey requiring rationing of supplies and being stalked and attacked by a pack of wolves.

In the game itself, all of the landmarks, as well as the entrance, are within sight of each other, and can be traversed with less than a minute of walking.

Lol, that's always bugged me about those games. All these ancient ruins hiding ancient weapons, ancient enemies, long-lost treasures... and they're all within walking distance of bustling major cities and towns. Reminds me of The Goonies, a group of teenagers stumble upon a hundreds-of-years-old pirate ship surrounded by elaborate booby traps... and they rode their bikes from the suburbs to find it.

Still, not sure how they could scale it up more befitting the epic-ness the tales suggest, or if gamers would actually have the patience to go on truly epic, days/weeks-long quests to truly undiscovered/hidden places or if modern technology is even capable of such. What would it take to make procedurally-generated maps with Skyrim-level of quality?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Lol, that's always bugged me about those games. All these ancient ruins hiding ancient weapons, ancient enemies, long-lost treasures... and they're all within walking distance of bustling major cities and towns. Reminds me The Goonies, a group of teenagers stumble upon a hundreds-of-years-old pirate and surrounded by elaborate booby traps... and they rode their bikes from the suburbs to find it.

Still, not sure how they could scale it up more befitting the epic-ness the tales suggest, or if gamers would actually have the patience to go on truly epic, days/weeks-long quests to truly undiscovered/hidden places or if modern technology is even capable of such. What would it take to make procedurally-generated maps with Skyrim-level of quality?

What really bugs me about that whole thing is the 17th century relic they find in their attic is more than implied as using the bloody Summer Place as one of the three defining landmarks for finding the treasure trail.

 

[Dalisclock]

What really bugs me about that whole thing is the 17th century relic they find in their attic is more than implied as using the bloody Summer Place as one of the three defining landmarks for finding the treasure trail.

So don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Goonies as a Silly Adventure movie, but trying to think about how the hell any of this works makes a lot of it fall apart. Just the whole Pirate ship trapped inside a cave with a simple lever to open the cave and can only be reached through traps and.....it's a fun adventure campaign, but how the hell any of this would get set up and stay set up for 200+ years is quite dumb. Especially in a seaside cave which would cause all that shit to decay and fall apart long before then.

Also, having visited Astoria and Haystack Rock ( where the ship is apparently trapped ) , the immersion breaks just a tad when you realize those are a good 20-25 miles away from each other. That's a VERY, VERY long tunnel for pirates to build for no particular reason when, you know, boats exist, or at very least, you could just do a short tunnel to the nearby shore and call it good.

 

[Asita]

Blaze has a similar problem in SOR4. Which is even weirder, because in the previous games, she didn't wear earrings at all. So this is something specific, DotEmu did. I know these guys are French and all, but you got to be practical here. In one of the concept artworks, they were going to turn her into a smoker. I am so glad they abandoned that immediately.

...My ears hurt just thinking about how easily someone could snag those hoops on a jab. >_<

 

[Dalisclock]

...My ears hurt just thinking about how easily someone could snag those hoops on a jab. >_<

Talk about the least practical earrings

 

[Specter Von Baren]

So don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Goonies as a Silly Adventure movie, but trying to think about how the hell any of this works makes a lot of it fall apart. Just the whole Pirate ship trapped inside a cave with a simple lever to open the cave and can only be reached through traps and.....it's a fun adventure campaign, but how the hell any of this would get set up and stay set up for 200+ years is quite dumb. Especially in a seaside cave which would cause all that shit to decay and fall apart long before then.

Also, having visited Astoria and Haystack Rock ( where the ship is allergy trapped ) , the immersion breaks just a tad when you realize those are a good 20-25 miles away from each other. That's a VERY, VERY long tunnel for pirates to build for no particular reason.

True, true. That's part of why the movie is of its time and CAN'T, I repeat, CAN'T, be remade, you hear me Hollywood? It's a fantastic time capsule and a ton of fun but the logic behind it just does not work but most movies with ancient booby traps have this problem.

 

[BrawlMan]

...My ears hurt just thinking about how easily someone could snag those hoops on a jab. >_<

I forgot: Here is one of Blaze's clones, Megan, from The TakeOver.

​

While Blaze's other clone, Claire Sparks, from Final Vendetta is dressed way more practical.

 

[Dalisclock]

True, true. That's part of why the movie is of its time and CAN'T, I repeat, CAN'T, be remade, you hear me Hollywood? It's a fantastic time capsule and a ton of fun but the logic behind it just does not work but most movies with ancient booby traps have this problem.

Agreed. There's pretty much no way you've be able to remake it and have it work. It has it's charm the way it is that would be otherwise missing. I want to say the same thing about the Ghostbuster movies from the 80's compared to the two recent ones, but I haven't seen the recent ones.

 

[Dalisclock]

I forgot: Here is one of Blaze's clones, Megan, from The TakeOver.

​

While Blaze's other clone, Claire Sparks, from Final Vendetta is dressed way more practical.

Megan's Chest must be very warm and require extra cooling.