Age old problems that developers just can't seem to get fix.

[scarab7]

For those of you that have kept up with video games long enough to see a "Next Gen" come around, then I hoping you'll understand what I'm talking about when I talk about persisting video game issues, so I'll name a few.

Camera angles: I used to read the magazine Game Pro for a good six years, and the biggest and oldest fault they've pointed out were camera angels. I know developers my think highly of their work, and some with good credit, but I find a lot of games are coupled with sketchy control that put you in the coffin, then the camera fails making it the nail that seals it.

Really esoteric events: Don't know what esoteric means? Game try to create a flow, and many do it with a multitude of challenges most evident in platformers, even present in Doom (Both D3 and old school doom). Developers seem to forget that not every customer will think like they do; by no mean do I mean everyone needs to think alike to play certain games, just that at times, puzzles become so complicated the clear solution isn't clear to anyone. Think results some strange contradiction of having to stop playing a game and seek help to progress in the game. Thanks to the internet I'm sure less people are buying game guides but it seems strange that games won't provide a obvious, or even complicated answer to some of their content.

A game breaking bugon't take this literally, I don't mean the game will stop working permanently and you have to buy a new one, I mean something causing you to back track either in game or via loading a previous save. While I can completely accept certain bugs, I get infuriated with reoccurring bugs in areas of games that prove the most popular. Like playing the roof top mission over? Too bad when you jump you get random freezes. Like grinding levels in the dragons den? Too bad, your stuck in the door for the fifth time.I know there is a lot of stress to develop and launch a game, but I think testing fully loaded content would be a priority and easy.

Personally these are my big threes not just pet peeves but big factors that really have killed some games for me. If you have your own feel free to mention them, I know I forgot a few. I not just hoping for specific game issues, I want to see some posts with problems we can see in both today's games and yesterdays.

Another big thing, anyone know why? It's given that gimmicky games like movie games and sellout development teams make crap games, why do I see respectable games with these problems? I'd blame lack of testing, time/money constraints, but I have the feeling it can't just be that. Thoughts on it?

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I gotta say Story. Gears of war 1 and Splinter Cell COnviction has this down ,but other really amazing games dont.

 

[Glover09]

I have another one, immersion. When a game can pull you in and make you think and feel like you are in the game. Granted, different people have different interest, but in general immersion seems to be one of my biggest issues.

 

[Tharwen]

Getting stuck on doorframes and rocks. Seriously, has no-one bothered to make some code that lets you step over or around these things?

 

[geddydisciple]

I have one that could be fixed and has been in many games but i still find one of these everyonce in a while and it drives me nuts. A very long unskippable cutscene right before a boss fight. When you die you have to watch the damn thing again. At the very least it should be unskippable the first time and skippable everytime after that.

 

[Chamale]

Sucky AI that can't navigate, or that becomes magically impervious to damage at certain times. It's stupid that even in modern games, a character occasionally charges into a wall for several seconds. I've seen it happen in Call of Duty 5 and 6, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, and many other games, but it was never a problem when fighting AIs in Battlefield: 1942.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

I would agree with camera angles but I hate games where you play the mute protagonist. Also FPS' where you can't cover but your team can WTFrenchToast? Also invisible barriers. Don't show me something and I can't access it because of some imaginary wall

 

[Soviet Heavy]

A game where your marine allies are too busy chasing butterflies to drive the warthog in the right fucking direction.

 

[Cody211282]

Team mates that doesn't get out of your way making you stuck in a corner(had this happen a few to many times in KOTOR and Dragon Age

 

[Paulie92]

Retarded allies, like Mass Effect where they stand behind you shooting into your back for an entire fight or Rainbow 6 where they follow you into a room and block the exit until you order them away or pretty much any ally you get in a Bethesda game.

 

[Veylon]

There's really no reason to have an unskippable cutscene. In Ninja Gaiden 2 (NES) you could skip them simply by pressing Start. Why don't modern games seem to have this feature?

How about games that ratchet up or down the difficulty? This is something that the Megaman Zero games used and it's pretty well used.

Another feature would be allowing multiple routes to victory. In Mario 64, you had to find X stars to get to the next section of the game. You didn't have to bang your head against the same mission over and over again, there was always some other one to go to instead.

Or, how about allowing the game to go on after failing a mission, if linearity is insisted upon? In Megaman Zero, again, if you failed some missions, the game would move along and skip that one, after a bit of chiding.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

AI that's completely retarded and wastes more ammo shooting at walls and closed doors then actual enemies.

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

AI in the FPS genre, specifically the notion of suppressive fire. I Don't think I can name a single game where the enemies will stay in cover as a response to recieving large volumes of fire. They just always pop their heads out at any old time, take a few shots and duck back in.

Big problem, would love to see it fixed. It really does minimise the tactical capabilities of suppressive fire weapons, (LMG's and such)

 

[clankwise]

Altough not that big of a deal, audio. Sometimes i cant understand what people are saying because sfx is too high and they speak low. and i cant even change the settings. Also some games have this things that if multiple sound effects happen at the same time the whole game mutes for 5 seconds. super annoying

 

[Blatherscythe]

The age old problem of fucking retarded AI partners. Me in GOW2: Dom help me! My intestines are poking out and I've lost a pint of blood (Dom stands there doing nothing) WHHHYYYY! *dies*.

 

[Flour]

Also invisible barriers. Don't show me something and I can't access it because of some imaginary wall

The choice is invisible walls, playing in a carefully constructed box or simply killing the player for going too far from where the player is supposed to be.

On-Topic: Texture/Model clipping. This really is a problem of realism. The more realistic a model behaves, the more obvious it is that the model's hair is sticking through clothing/ears, arms are clipping in to each other to bend, fingers don't exist, necks are too thick(or thin) and eyes too large for them to stay hidden behind the face or clothing.
I didn't care when this was still happening as recent as Call of Duty, but when I noticed this in Mass Effect it nearly ruined the game.(as a shooter it's shit and I had to restart a few times to create a character where the eyes and neck didn't clip through the armour)