Biggest plot holes in games

[Mikeyfell]

Mass Effect 3.
Not any particular part of it just the whole game.
You know like "How did Councilor Anderson become Admiral Anderson in the blink of an eye?"
Okay I'll stop beating that dead horse.


Xcom Enemy Unknown (Spoilers ahead, not that it matters)
At the end of the game...
Seriously, spoilers. I'm not going to tag them because the story in Xcom is pointless.
The ship is going to implode into a black whole and your Psyonic guy stays behind to drive the ship out of Earth's atmosphere before that happens.

So instead of there being a black hole INSIDE the atmosphere there's a black hole RIGHT OUTSIDE the atmosphere.
That's still going to destroy the planet. Did your engineers get their degrees on line? Fuck.


I know I said I was going to leave the dead horse alone but...

Who is Vega and how does he know Shepard?

--------

I can do this all day!

Well, that isn't a plot hole, so perhaps not. They've worked together in between the space of ME2 and 3. That's it.

If you talked to James (The fight scene) they close that particular loop hole when Shepard says.
"I didn't have access to Alliance personal files when you joined."
So Shepard and James never worked together.
The first scene of the game when James salutes and says "Commander" is the first time James has ever seen Shepard in person.
It's a plot hole. and it's the first spoken line of dialog in the game. Mass Effect 3 was shit.

 

[USSR]

Prototype: The game where we kill innocents for fun, kill a few more for health, allowing us to fight the bad guys who may be threatening to harm innocents.

That's not really a plot hole. More just the archetype of an antihero.

 

[A Shadows Age]

snip

I might be able to answer how the mutants get out. Vault 87 probably has many holes in the wall and the Lamplight caves are so expansive that they probably have alternate routes out. Although that is still very unlikely. Still it annoys me that they are even there in the first place since Vault Tec shouldn't even have F.E.V in the first place since it was supposed to be at Mariposa only. I highly doubt that the military would allow Vault-Tec to get a hold of F.E.V. As for the Enclave that one is quite stupid indeed, plus I don't even think the Enclave should've been there because unless they were all at the Chicago base.

What about the backdoor you can't open? You know the one labeled on the map? Above ground? With the dead dude in a radsuit and a suit case. The one absolutely packed with rads requiring constant doses of radaway and rad resistance just to get close to? seems like the perfect place for them to come out of vault 87 from...

As for the Enclave, didn't they drop out of the ceiling? maybe they burrowed down through the ground? As for the rest, no idea... I'm sure someone could come up with a plausible explanation. However FEV could have been spread before the war. Military's and people with money have really never been mutually exclusive groups, and the people who make history for others to write down are rarely reliable narrators... Then again I'm not very familiar with the series in game lore, so maybe the places F.E.V. could possibly be located are very specifically implied, listed or stated in the first two games.

Still it seems like information control followed by misinformation and/or misdirection are highly likely, from what I've seen of the in-game history of F3 and N.V. Which if so, could allow for the possibility of F.E.V. in Vault 87.

 

[Quantumsheep]

Dragon Age 2.

All the way through it you get drummed with "Mages are good .... Templars are bad".

Yet all the way through it the Templars are helpful and polite and the Mages are trying to eat my face.....

Kind of hard to follow a plot and take it seriously when it doesn't know what the fuck it's doing itself. In fact, the Templars don't turn "bad" until the very end and even then it's only 1 person .... who turns bad because of a corrupt sword .... made from metal Hawke found.

WHO WRITES THIS SHIT.

I disagree. I felt the game did a good job of showing that Mages are people who want basic freedoms that everyone else is allowed to have and showed them as people, while at the same time is showed that the Templars are needed because the Mages simply can't be normal people. Knight-Captain Cullen said it best: "There was a time when a Templar at the door was a welcomed sight among the people. Now though, people are just as likely to slam that door in our face than help us. The image of the chained apprentice is one the mages are all too willing to use." Still, I think it could have been done a LOT better in the game and I agree that, at times, it felt like the game was telling you one thing but showing you another. I think a lot of the things that happened in that game could have been avoided if people just sat down and listened to each other.

Anyway, my biggest plot hole at the moment is the best ending in Black Ops II. The game even calls attention to it: "Where the hell have you been for the past thirty years?" A very good question...that the writers totally forgot to answer.

The original ending to Mass Effect 3 still bugs me, but I feel that has been talked about to death. Extended cut bugs me too, though slightly less. Only slightly.

Ezio's failure to act at the end of Assassin's Creed II. He just got through killing dozens of innocent guards minutes before, and NOW he decides he's done killing? Everyone who died in Brotherhood is dead because of that.
Speaking of which, in Assassin's Creed III, why doesn't Desmond pull out the Apple in the beginning? It's not like he didn't have it all the time.

Why is the Didact in Halo 4 doing what he's doing? The Flood has been destroyed. He has no reason to declare war on humanity.

Those are all that I can think of at the moment, though I know there are more that have bothered me over the years. I'm not even sure some of those are plot holes, or just bad writing.

The Didact wanted to stop humanity from "ascending" and obtaining "the Mantle of Responsibility", remember? He talks about it in the cutscene immediately after he wakes up, I'm not sure how you missed it. Granted, it's is still a little silly, because humans are the best species available to take up the Mantle and he's essentially pulling a "If we can't have it, no-one will". (And really you could break it down even further and say he's just a big fat racist). But it is still a motivation, if not a very good one.

 

[Quantumsheep]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

I did question this at first, on my second play through I noticed how they knew his name.

When The Didact comes out of his Cryptum, all of The Covenenant reverently say "Didact" while bowing down.

I'm not making excuses for poor story telling here, but reading the books gives much more insight into the Didact's motives.

i have read two of the books, fall of reach and ghost of onxys and they gave little on the forerunners. I dont think i should have to read the books to fully understand a story, the books and the games are two separate thing and should have self contained story's, its fine for them to both refrence each other or share characters and themes but they should have separate plots. no one should have to read books (which are very average and derivative of other, better speculative fiction) to fully understand a story in a game, if they have they have failed as story tells.

for what you have said, that is still not a reason why they would have known who and what a didact was, even if they knew what it was called they have no way of knowing what the didact did or use to do on the rings, in good speculative fiction the main characters would have asked questions, talked or speculated on what the didact was, this could all have been done as battle chatter in gameplay and would have solved one of the larger issues with the game.

there would still be the problem of the spartan 4s and there unexplained apperanse. and the lack of depth in chiefs and cortanas relationship.

The problem isn't just Cheif and Cortana's knowledge of the Diadect, it's the Diadect and his motivations in general. The flood is defeated, the forerunners are practically extinct, humanity has not shown any undue aggression to him, yet he immediately gets back on the genocide bandwagon. It's like if FDR came back to life and ordered an invasion of Germany because they were our enemies in WWII, it's stupid.

don't get me wrong there are many problem in the game, but the one i felt that having chief an almost non entity in the story was the game biggest crime. but you are right the didact in general was a terrible and unnecessary part of the game. he lacked clear motives and only interacted with player twice during a cutsence, he also lack any character development.

Guys, I agree that Halo 4's story sucked for all kinds of reasons, but the Didact's motivation was made perfectly clear. He doesn't want humanity running the universe, because he's a racist who thinks only Forerunners should do that. Did none of you catch all his ranting about the Mantle of Responsibility? Silly motivation, but it was there.

My two big problems with Halo 4's story (well, biggest) are A. Is the Covenant-Human War on again, or what? Because that is important shit to know, with all kinds of huge in-universe implications, and as far as I can tell no-one ever says who this faction they're fighting is, or how powerful they are, or how the revelation of these Forerunners might affect relations with the other alien species who aren't a part of this (apparently) extremist faction...I could go on, but basically, none of this is addressed, and it's been driving me crazy. And B. Why the hell couldn't the Forerunners have used the Composer against the Flood? It turns organic matter into digital matter, and can somehow be calibrated so that it only takes very specific targets, with no collateral damage whatsoever. It's the perfect weapon against them. Screw immortality, screw the Halos, they should have built fleets of Composers and wiped them out forever, because they're better in every conceivable way. The only possible flaw I can see in this plan is that the Librarian (somehow) made Chief immune to this process that disintegrates living tissue through "genetic manipulation", and if there's anything the Flood are good at, it's genetic manipulation. But despite that incredibly easy out, the possibility is never brought up by anyone.

 

[TilMorrow]

In Persona 3

Spoiler

everyone is supposed to lose their memory after the final battle, and they do, but then at the very end they all get their collective memory back at the same time? Seems rather convenient

Spoiler

Although it's not really explained how they got back their memories (I'm saying it's shenanigans with Social Links), they did all make a promise to get back together on Graduation Day which conveniently was also the day on which the MC was able to hold out till before dying(?).

Though what I'm more confused about in that game is Strega. Their actions never really made much sense to me.

OT: Halo 4. I've not even finished the game but it's plot... *retches*

Also every single plot that involves a Time Paradox, even if they are awesome they still barely make any sense.

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

I did question this at first, on my second play through I noticed how they knew his name.

When The Didact comes out of his Cryptum, all of The Covenenant reverently say "Didact" while bowing down.

I'm not making excuses for poor story telling here, but reading the books gives much more insight into the Didact's motives.

i have read two of the books, fall of reach and ghost of onxys and they gave little on the forerunners. I dont think i should have to read the books to fully understand a story, the books and the games are two separate thing and should have self contained story's, its fine for them to both refrence each other or share characters and themes but they should have separate plots. no one should have to read books (which are very average and derivative of other, better speculative fiction) to fully understand a story in a game, if they have they have failed as story tells.

for what you have said, that is still not a reason why they would have known who and what a didact was, even if they knew what it was called they have no way of knowing what the didact did or use to do on the rings, in good speculative fiction the main characters would have asked questions, talked or speculated on what the didact was, this could all have been done as battle chatter in gameplay and would have solved one of the larger issues with the game.

there would still be the problem of the spartan 4s and there unexplained apperanse. and the lack of depth in chiefs and cortanas relationship.

The problem isn't just Cheif and Cortana's knowledge of the Diadect, it's the Diadect and his motivations in general. The flood is defeated, the forerunners are practically extinct, humanity has not shown any undue aggression to him, yet he immediately gets back on the genocide bandwagon. It's like if FDR came back to life and ordered an invasion of Germany because they were our enemies in WWII, it's stupid.

don't get me wrong there are many problem in the game, but the one i felt that having chief an almost non entity in the story was the game biggest crime. but you are right the didact in general was a terrible and unnecessary part of the game. he lacked clear motives and only interacted with player twice during a cutsence, he also lack any character development.

Guys, I agree that Halo 4's story sucked for all kinds of reasons, but the Didact's motivation was made perfectly clear. He doesn't want humanity running the universe, because he's a racist who thinks only Forerunners should do that. Did none of you catch all his ranting about the Mantle of Responsibility? Silly motivation, but it was there.

My two big problems with Halo 4's story (well, biggest) are A. Is the Covenant-Human War on again, or what? Because that is important shit to know, with all kinds of huge in-universe implications, and as far as I can tell no-one ever says who this faction they're fighting is, or how powerful they are, or how the revelation of these Forerunners might affect relations with the other alien species who aren't a part of this (apparently) extremist faction...I could go on, but basically, none of this is addressed, and it's been driving me crazy. And B. Why the hell couldn't the Forerunners have used the Composer against the Flood? It turns organic matter into digital matter, and can somehow be calibrated so that it only takes very specific targets, with no collateral damage whatsoever. It's the perfect weapon against them. Screw immortality, screw the Halos, they should have built fleets of Composers and wiped them out forever, because they're better in every conceivable way. The only possible flaw I can see in this plan is that the Librarian (somehow) made Chief immune to this process that disintegrates living tissue through "genetic manipulation", and if there's anything the Flood are good at, it's genetic manipulation. But despite that incredibly easy out, the possibility is never brought up by anyone.

I never said he lacked motivation, just that his justification was monumentally stupid. These aren't even the same humans he fought thousands of years ago, yet we are supposed to swallow that his asinine grudge provides sufficient motivation for mass genocide. Though you do make a good point, if the composer is effectively a gigantic death laser of doom that instantly dissolves biological matter, why wouldn't it work on the flood? While we are on the topic of the composer, why did the Diadect need a constant supply of humans to create Promethians? Did they not have hard drives or anything, no way to, I don't know, STORE data? I mean, look at the Prometheans, they aren't made biological material, so you obviously don't need a fresh supply of human. On a side note, does anyone find the ending where Cortana "shields" Chief illogical. He was right on top of the goddamn nuke, had she shielded him like she did, it would only serve to contain the blast in that immediate area, leaving the composer intact and reducing cheif to ash.

 

[Quantumsheep]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

I did question this at first, on my second play through I noticed how they knew his name.

When The Didact comes out of his Cryptum, all of The Covenenant reverently say "Didact" while bowing down.

I'm not making excuses for poor story telling here, but reading the books gives much more insight into the Didact's motives.

i have read two of the books, fall of reach and ghost of onxys and they gave little on the forerunners. I dont think i should have to read the books to fully understand a story, the books and the games are two separate thing and should have self contained story's, its fine for them to both refrence each other or share characters and themes but they should have separate plots. no one should have to read books (which are very average and derivative of other, better speculative fiction) to fully understand a story in a game, if they have they have failed as story tells.

for what you have said, that is still not a reason why they would have known who and what a didact was, even if they knew what it was called they have no way of knowing what the didact did or use to do on the rings, in good speculative fiction the main characters would have asked questions, talked or speculated on what the didact was, this could all have been done as battle chatter in gameplay and would have solved one of the larger issues with the game.

there would still be the problem of the spartan 4s and there unexplained apperanse. and the lack of depth in chiefs and cortanas relationship.

The problem isn't just Cheif and Cortana's knowledge of the Diadect, it's the Diadect and his motivations in general. The flood is defeated, the forerunners are practically extinct, humanity has not shown any undue aggression to him, yet he immediately gets back on the genocide bandwagon. It's like if FDR came back to life and ordered an invasion of Germany because they were our enemies in WWII, it's stupid.

don't get me wrong there are many problem in the game, but the one i felt that having chief an almost non entity in the story was the game biggest crime. but you are right the didact in general was a terrible and unnecessary part of the game. he lacked clear motives and only interacted with player twice during a cutsence, he also lack any character development.

Guys, I agree that Halo 4's story sucked for all kinds of reasons, but the Didact's motivation was made perfectly clear. He doesn't want humanity running the universe, because he's a racist who thinks only Forerunners should do that. Did none of you catch all his ranting about the Mantle of Responsibility? Silly motivation, but it was there.

My two big problems with Halo 4's story (well, biggest) are A. Is the Covenant-Human War on again, or what? Because that is important shit to know, with all kinds of huge in-universe implications, and as far as I can tell no-one ever says who this faction they're fighting is, or how powerful they are, or how the revelation of these Forerunners might affect relations with the other alien species who aren't a part of this (apparently) extremist faction...I could go on, but basically, none of this is addressed, and it's been driving me crazy. And B. Why the hell couldn't the Forerunners have used the Composer against the Flood? It turns organic matter into digital matter, and can somehow be calibrated so that it only takes very specific targets, with no collateral damage whatsoever. It's the perfect weapon against them. Screw immortality, screw the Halos, they should have built fleets of Composers and wiped them out forever, because they're better in every conceivable way. The only possible flaw I can see in this plan is that the Librarian (somehow) made Chief immune to this process that disintegrates living tissue through "genetic manipulation", and if there's anything the Flood are good at, it's genetic manipulation. But despite that incredibly easy out, the possibility is never brought up by anyone.

I never said he lacked motivation, just that his justification was monumentally stupid. These aren't even the same humans he fought thousands of years ago, yet we are supposed to swallow that his asinine grudge provides sufficient motivation for mass genocide. Though you do make a good point, if the composer is effectively a gigantic death laser of doom that instantly dissolves biological matter, why wouldn't it work on the flood? While we are on the topic of the composer, why did the Diadect need a constant supply of humans to create Promethians? Did they not have hard drives or anything, no way to, I don't know, STORE data? I mean, look at the Prometheans, they aren't made biological material, so you obviously don't need a fresh supply of human. On a side note, does anyone find the ending where Cortana "shields" Chief illogical. He was right on top of the goddamn nuke, had she shielded him like she did, it would only serve to contain the blast in that immediate area, leaving the composer intact and reducing cheif to ash.

Racism is always an illogical motivation, but there's no reason it can't be done well. He doesn't believe that humans (the species in general, which apparently has not significantly changed since his time) are capable of ruling the universe without fucking it up. Not that the game ever makes this point, but if one looks at Earth today, he has a good point there. Humanity has a lot of flaws, and while that's certainly true of the Forerunners, being blind to one's faults is a perfectly acceptable motivation. We can argue back and forth over whether it's a good motivation or not (I think average at absolute best, given that it fits pretty well into the rest of the game's stupid plot, and is really just underdeveloped, as are all the characters) but the motive exists, and therefore isn't a plothole. On the nuke: I had no fucking idea how that worked, and assumed I must have missed something important, because I have no idea how she shielded him from a point-blank range nuclear explosion. And, did he need a constant supply of humans? I don't recall the logistics of that ever being addressed at all. Which is for the best, because one really has to wonder why they couldn't just use AIs instead of human minds which they somehow brainwashed. (Because they had AIs, called ancillas, but they were AIs.)

 

[thelonewolf266]

Snip

Snip

Snip

Snip[/spoiler]

I believe that is intentional as they may very well address exactly what Mason was doing in the thirty years in a future game.Yes that is just my opinion no I don't have any solid evidence to back it up.

 

[shadyh8er]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotHole (under the "Video Games" section)

The God of War example still bothers me because that's my favorite franchise. I dread whenever brings this up because I just go slack-jawed.

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

I did question this at first, on my second play through I noticed how they knew his name.

When The Didact comes out of his Cryptum, all of The Covenenant reverently say "Didact" while bowing down.

I'm not making excuses for poor story telling here, but reading the books gives much more insight into the Didact's motives.

i have read two of the books, fall of reach and ghost of onxys and they gave little on the forerunners. I dont think i should have to read the books to fully understand a story, the books and the games are two separate thing and should have self contained story's, its fine for them to both refrence each other or share characters and themes but they should have separate plots. no one should have to read books (which are very average and derivative of other, better speculative fiction) to fully understand a story in a game, if they have they have failed as story tells.

for what you have said, that is still not a reason why they would have known who and what a didact was, even if they knew what it was called they have no way of knowing what the didact did or use to do on the rings, in good speculative fiction the main characters would have asked questions, talked or speculated on what the didact was, this could all have been done as battle chatter in gameplay and would have solved one of the larger issues with the game.

there would still be the problem of the spartan 4s and there unexplained apperanse. and the lack of depth in chiefs and cortanas relationship.

The problem isn't just Cheif and Cortana's knowledge of the Diadect, it's the Diadect and his motivations in general. The flood is defeated, the forerunners are practically extinct, humanity has not shown any undue aggression to him, yet he immediately gets back on the genocide bandwagon. It's like if FDR came back to life and ordered an invasion of Germany because they were our enemies in WWII, it's stupid.

don't get me wrong there are many problem in the game, but the one i felt that having chief an almost non entity in the story was the game biggest crime. but you are right the didact in general was a terrible and unnecessary part of the game. he lacked clear motives and only interacted with player twice during a cutsence, he also lack any character development.

Guys, I agree that Halo 4's story sucked for all kinds of reasons, but the Didact's motivation was made perfectly clear. He doesn't want humanity running the universe, because he's a racist who thinks only Forerunners should do that. Did none of you catch all his ranting about the Mantle of Responsibility? Silly motivation, but it was there.

My two big problems with Halo 4's story (well, biggest) are A. Is the Covenant-Human War on again, or what? Because that is important shit to know, with all kinds of huge in-universe implications, and as far as I can tell no-one ever says who this faction they're fighting is, or how powerful they are, or how the revelation of these Forerunners might affect relations with the other alien species who aren't a part of this (apparently) extremist faction...I could go on, but basically, none of this is addressed, and it's been driving me crazy. And B. Why the hell couldn't the Forerunners have used the Composer against the Flood? It turns organic matter into digital matter, and can somehow be calibrated so that it only takes very specific targets, with no collateral damage whatsoever. It's the perfect weapon against them. Screw immortality, screw the Halos, they should have built fleets of Composers and wiped them out forever, because they're better in every conceivable way. The only possible flaw I can see in this plan is that the Librarian (somehow) made Chief immune to this process that disintegrates living tissue through "genetic manipulation", and if there's anything the Flood are good at, it's genetic manipulation. But despite that incredibly easy out, the possibility is never brought up by anyone.

I never said he lacked motivation, just that his justification was monumentally stupid. These aren't even the same humans he fought thousands of years ago, yet we are supposed to swallow that his asinine grudge provides sufficient motivation for mass genocide. Though you do make a good point, if the composer is effectively a gigantic death laser of doom that instantly dissolves biological matter, why wouldn't it work on the flood? While we are on the topic of the composer, why did the Diadect need a constant supply of humans to create Promethians? Did they not have hard drives or anything, no way to, I don't know, STORE data? I mean, look at the Prometheans, they aren't made biological material, so you obviously don't need a fresh supply of human. On a side note, does anyone find the ending where Cortana "shields" Chief illogical. He was right on top of the goddamn nuke, had she shielded him like she did, it would only serve to contain the blast in that immediate area, leaving the composer intact and reducing cheif to ash.

Racism is always an illogical motivation, but there's no reason it can't be done well. He doesn't believe that humans (the species in general, which apparently has not significantly changed since his time) are capable of ruling the universe without fucking it up. Not that the game ever makes this point, but if one looks at Earth today, he has a good point there. Humanity has a lot of flaws, and while that's certainly true of the Forerunners, being blind to one's faults is a perfectly acceptable motivation. We can argue back and forth over whether it's a good motivation or not (I think average at absolute best, given that it fits pretty well into the rest of the game's stupid plot, and is really just underdeveloped, as are all the characters) but the motive exists, and therefore isn't a plothole. On the nuke: I had no fucking idea how that worked, and assumed I must have missed something important, because I have no idea how she shielded him from a point-blank range nuclear explosion. And, did he need a constant supply of humans? I don't recall the logistics of that ever being addressed at all. Which is for the best, because one really has to wonder why they couldn't just use AIs instead of human minds which they somehow brainwashed. (Because they had AIs, called ancillas, but they were AIs.)

Moral of the story, all justification for any event that occurs in halo 4 when put under scrutiny are kind of dumb

 

[AMMO Kid]

Any and every Resident Evil game. Remind me how was Umbrella trying to turn a profit by turning everybody into zombies, again? No, I know - the zombies are by-products. By-products of what? The Tyrant? So zombies are by-products of bigger zombies? And they're selling them rather than selling cheaper, easier, more practical means of destruction? Where do they get their funding from (or their credibility), considering they've never managed to make a single successful sale? How many times has Umbrella been shut down, anyway? How come the Raccoon thing takes place as early as RE1 (or Zero), Umbrella is shut down by RE4, but then we're by RE6 and the whole thing has managed to remain a secret? Also - trying to cover up a zombie apocalypse with another zombie apocalypse? You wanna take down the president but rather than simply shooting him you seek to destroy the world? The list goes on...

EXACTLY. Nothing requiring motivation in the Resident Evil universe makes any sense whatsoever!

 

[Quantumsheep]

Any and every Resident Evil game. Remind me how was Umbrella trying to turn a profit by turning everybody into zombies, again? No, I know - the zombies are by-products. By-products of what? The Tyrant? So zombies are by-products of bigger zombies? And they're selling them rather than selling cheaper, easier, more practical means of destruction? Where do they get their funding from (or their credibility), considering they've never managed to make a single successful sale? How many times has Umbrella been shut down, anyway? How come the Raccoon thing takes place as early as RE1 (or Zero), Umbrella is shut down by RE4, but then we're by RE6 and the whole thing has managed to remain a secret? Also - trying to cover up a zombie apocalypse with another zombie apocalypse? You wanna take down the president but rather than simply shooting him you seek to destroy the world? The list goes on...

EXACTLY. Nothing requiring motivation in the Resident Evil universe makes any sense whatsoever!

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

I did question this at first, on my second play through I noticed how they knew his name.

When The Didact comes out of his Cryptum, all of The Covenenant reverently say "Didact" while bowing down.

I'm not making excuses for poor story telling here, but reading the books gives much more insight into the Didact's motives.

i have read two of the books, fall of reach and ghost of onxys and they gave little on the forerunners. I dont think i should have to read the books to fully understand a story, the books and the games are two separate thing and should have self contained story's, its fine for them to both refrence each other or share characters and themes but they should have separate plots. no one should have to read books (which are very average and derivative of other, better speculative fiction) to fully understand a story in a game, if they have they have failed as story tells.

for what you have said, that is still not a reason why they would have known who and what a didact was, even if they knew what it was called they have no way of knowing what the didact did or use to do on the rings, in good speculative fiction the main characters would have asked questions, talked or speculated on what the didact was, this could all have been done as battle chatter in gameplay and would have solved one of the larger issues with the game.

there would still be the problem of the spartan 4s and there unexplained apperanse. and the lack of depth in chiefs and cortanas relationship.

The problem isn't just Cheif and Cortana's knowledge of the Diadect, it's the Diadect and his motivations in general. The flood is defeated, the forerunners are practically extinct, humanity has not shown any undue aggression to him, yet he immediately gets back on the genocide bandwagon. It's like if FDR came back to life and ordered an invasion of Germany because they were our enemies in WWII, it's stupid.

don't get me wrong there are many problem in the game, but the one i felt that having chief an almost non entity in the story was the game biggest crime. but you are right the didact in general was a terrible and unnecessary part of the game. he lacked clear motives and only interacted with player twice during a cutsence, he also lack any character development.

Guys, I agree that Halo 4's story sucked for all kinds of reasons, but the Didact's motivation was made perfectly clear. He doesn't want humanity running the universe, because he's a racist who thinks only Forerunners should do that. Did none of you catch all his ranting about the Mantle of Responsibility? Silly motivation, but it was there.

My two big problems with Halo 4's story (well, biggest) are A. Is the Covenant-Human War on again, or what? Because that is important shit to know, with all kinds of huge in-universe implications, and as far as I can tell no-one ever says who this faction they're fighting is, or how powerful they are, or how the revelation of these Forerunners might affect relations with the other alien species who aren't a part of this (apparently) extremist faction...I could go on, but basically, none of this is addressed, and it's been driving me crazy. And B. Why the hell couldn't the Forerunners have used the Composer against the Flood? It turns organic matter into digital matter, and can somehow be calibrated so that it only takes very specific targets, with no collateral damage whatsoever. It's the perfect weapon against them. Screw immortality, screw the Halos, they should have built fleets of Composers and wiped them out forever, because they're better in every conceivable way. The only possible flaw I can see in this plan is that the Librarian (somehow) made Chief immune to this process that disintegrates living tissue through "genetic manipulation", and if there's anything the Flood are good at, it's genetic manipulation. But despite that incredibly easy out, the possibility is never brought up by anyone.

I never said he lacked motivation, just that his justification was monumentally stupid. These aren't even the same humans he fought thousands of years ago, yet we are supposed to swallow that his asinine grudge provides sufficient motivation for mass genocide. Though you do make a good point, if the composer is effectively a gigantic death laser of doom that instantly dissolves biological matter, why wouldn't it work on the flood? While we are on the topic of the composer, why did the Diadect need a constant supply of humans to create Promethians? Did they not have hard drives or anything, no way to, I don't know, STORE data? I mean, look at the Prometheans, they aren't made biological material, so you obviously don't need a fresh supply of human. On a side note, does anyone find the ending where Cortana "shields" Chief illogical. He was right on top of the goddamn nuke, had she shielded him like she did, it would only serve to contain the blast in that immediate area, leaving the composer intact and reducing cheif to ash.

Racism is always an illogical motivation, but there's no reason it can't be done well. He doesn't believe that humans (the species in general, which apparently has not significantly changed since his time) are capable of ruling the universe without fucking it up. Not that the game ever makes this point, but if one looks at Earth today, he has a good point there. Humanity has a lot of flaws, and while that's certainly true of the Forerunners, being blind to one's faults is a perfectly acceptable motivation. We can argue back and forth over whether it's a good motivation or not (I think average at absolute best, given that it fits pretty well into the rest of the game's stupid plot, and is really just underdeveloped, as are all the characters) but the motive exists, and therefore isn't a plothole. On the nuke: I had no fucking idea how that worked, and assumed I must have missed something important, because I have no idea how she shielded him from a point-blank range nuclear explosion. And, did he need a constant supply of humans? I don't recall the logistics of that ever being addressed at all. Which is for the best, because one really has to wonder why they couldn't just use AIs instead of human minds which they somehow brainwashed. (Because they had AIs, called ancillas, but they were AIs.)

Moral of the story, all justification for any event that occurs in halo 4 when put under scrutiny are kind of dumb

Pretty much. I laughed when Lasky walked up to Chief and said "You know, I was sent down here with orders to stop you from leaving." Alone. To stop the seven foot tall super-soldier in shielded power armour. Who can punch eight foot tall monkey monsters to death and move at speeds that would shatter a normal human's bones. Either Lasky is secretly the ultimate badass of the Halo universe or Del Rio REALLY wanted him dead.

 

[M-E-D The Poet]

Guys? Guys, look up what a plot hole is, then post.

It's not "characters made a decision that seems dumb or weird" and it's not "something that could have been explained but was left vague". Things that are not plot holes include:

In The Walking Dead

Spoiler

... if you choose not to loot the car, the owner still stalks and kidnaps Clem to punish Lee despite Kenny having a kid and never even questioning whether to steal the food.

That's not a plot hole, it's a convenient characterization inconsistency. If the crazy guy decides to go after Lee, that's what he does, regardless of whether it makes the most sense, it's not logically impossible for it to happen.

Or in Arkham City

Spoiler

Strange threatening to reveal Batman's identity if he doesn't play along but never doing so despite being aware of his escape. Again, that's just something inconsistent the character chooses to do, not a logical impossibility.

Sheesh.

Real plot holes in games off the top of my head? Hm. Let's see... I'm coming up empty. I guess games tend to have simple plots, so it's relatively easy to keep them straight. There must be some, though...

I think real plotholes in games usually come down to : I've had the means the opportunity the intent to kill this bloke but I never do and then whine about how he's killing whatever he's killing even though I had the means to stop him all along.

Because in the end it then comes down to "am I prepared for the big fight" and some games allow you to be prepared for it ages before you actually get there but never allow you to finish it off.

 

[sXeth]

Maybe it's not necessarily a plot hole, but I am led to believe that the romances in Dragon's Dogma take place apart from the main game.

Spoiler

Aelinore is the Duke's wife. You go into her room, the duke arrives and starts choking her. You pop out of hiding and the Duke has you thrown into the dungeon and lashed to bits. Aelinore frees you and she's sent to the Blighted Manse. Here's the problem: The Duke doesn't even say anything about you ever meeting with Aelinore and he even gives you gifts and money just before he sends you to the Greatwall! You'd think that his wife having an affair with you is something that he wouldn't so easily forget, but nooo. It's never once mentioned anywhere.

The Duke's not exactly in his right mind at the time. And once you get back out into the world, trying to take out the Jesus-expy wouldn't go over too well with the public (Who're already half-revolting, half joining cults, etc).

What I never got was the Pawn Legion, who're explicitly loyal to you (Earlier on Mercedes even mentions she couldn't command them at the camp), and massively outnumber the guards on the streets of Gran Soren, don't interfere in the chase that has you fall into the Everfall.

 

[The Elephant of Lies]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

It could be that the Chief read the terminals in Halo 3, which, are supposed (never read them myself) to tell stories of the Didact and Librarian, and I'm sure there was something in the books about it, but I could be wrong.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Maybe it's not necessarily a plot hole, but I am led to believe that the romances in Dragon's Dogma take place apart from the main game.

Spoiler

Aelinore is the Duke's wife. You go into her room, the duke arrives and starts choking her. You pop out of hiding and the Duke has you thrown into the dungeon and lashed to bits. Aelinore frees you and she's sent to the Blighted Manse. Here's the problem: The Duke doesn't even say anything about you ever meeting with Aelinore and he even gives you gifts and money just before he sends you to the Greatwall! You'd think that his wife having an affair with you is something that he wouldn't so easily forget, but nooo. It's never once mentioned anywhere.

The Duke's not exactly in his right mind at the time. And once you get back out into the world, trying to take out the Jesus-expy wouldn't go over too well with the public (Who're already half-revolting, half joining cults, etc).

What I never got was the Pawn Legion, who're explicitly loyal to you (Earlier on Mercedes even mentions she couldn't command them at the camp), and massively outnumber the guards on the streets of Gran Soren, don't interfere in the chase that has you fall into the Everfall.

The Duke does regain his senses just before the fact, though. He wasn't in his right mind at the start, but what bothered me was the way he actually came to after you popped out from hiding. Dazed and disoriented, yes, but he was well aware you were there and who you were. Also, I'm having a hard time understanding what this "Jesus-expy" is. x_x

And that also made no sense, that the Pawns were nowhere to be found while you were being chased. Although I'm sure a lot of them were probably busy taking care of things down below. But there is also the fact that Pawns do not(and cannot) act on their own. They were never commanded to come to your aid, so they never did. Chief Adaro explained at the beginning that Pawns would sit and rot away where they stand unless commanded otherwise.

 

[wolf thing]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

It could be that the Chief read the terminals in Halo 3, which, are supposed (never read them myself) to tell stories of the Didact and Librarian, and I'm sure there was something in the books about it, but I could be wrong.

i never read the terminals because they were an optional extra which were hidden for the player, you never hide story content from the player ever. so i discount it and i should also not have to read a below average book to enjoy the story in the game.

 

[wolf thing]

halo 4, how did chief and cortana know who the didact was? this with the bad plot and writting in the game is what made its story total shite, it makes no sense, chief was in crystaisis for years and we had never met a forerunner before and it doesnt help that no one in the story asks any question of anykind about the forerunners. just a terrible story.

I did question this at first, on my second play through I noticed how they knew his name.

When The Didact comes out of his Cryptum, all of The Covenenant reverently say "Didact" while bowing down.

I'm not making excuses for poor story telling here, but reading the books gives much more insight into the Didact's motives.

i have read two of the books, fall of reach and ghost of onxys and they gave little on the forerunners. I dont think i should have to read the books to fully understand a story, the books and the games are two separate thing and should have self contained story's, its fine for them to both refrence each other or share characters and themes but they should have separate plots. no one should have to read books (which are very average and derivative of other, better speculative fiction) to fully understand a story in a game, if they have they have failed as story tells.

for what you have said, that is still not a reason why they would have known who and what a didact was, even if they knew what it was called they have no way of knowing what the didact did or use to do on the rings, in good speculative fiction the main characters would have asked questions, talked or speculated on what the didact was, this could all have been done as battle chatter in gameplay and would have solved one of the larger issues with the game.

there would still be the problem of the spartan 4s and there unexplained apperanse. and the lack of depth in chiefs and cortanas relationship.

The problem isn't just Cheif and Cortana's knowledge of the Diadect, it's the Diadect and his motivations in general. The flood is defeated, the forerunners are practically extinct, humanity has not shown any undue aggression to him, yet he immediately gets back on the genocide bandwagon. It's like if FDR came back to life and ordered an invasion of Germany because they were our enemies in WWII, it's stupid.

don't get me wrong there are many problem in the game, but the one i felt that having chief an almost non entity in the story was the game biggest crime. but you are right the didact in general was a terrible and unnecessary part of the game. he lacked clear motives and only interacted with player twice during a cutsence, he also lack any character development.

Guys, I agree that Halo 4's story sucked for all kinds of reasons, but the Didact's motivation was made perfectly clear. He doesn't want humanity running the universe, because he's a racist who thinks only Forerunners should do that. Did none of you catch all his ranting about the Mantle of Responsibility? Silly motivation, but it was there.

My two big problems with Halo 4's story (well, biggest) are A. Is the Covenant-Human War on again, or what? Because that is important shit to know, with all kinds of huge in-universe implications, and as far as I can tell no-one ever says who this faction they're fighting is, or how powerful they are, or how the revelation of these Forerunners might affect relations with the other alien species who aren't a part of this (apparently) extremist faction...I could go on, but basically, none of this is addressed, and it's been driving me crazy. And B. Why the hell couldn't the Forerunners have used the Composer against the Flood? It turns organic matter into digital matter, and can somehow be calibrated so that it only takes very specific targets, with no collateral damage whatsoever. It's the perfect weapon against them. Screw immortality, screw the Halos, they should have built fleets of Composers and wiped them out forever, because they're better in every conceivable way. The only possible flaw I can see in this plan is that the Librarian (somehow) made Chief immune to this process that disintegrates living tissue through "genetic manipulation", and if there's anything the Flood are good at, it's genetic manipulation. But despite that incredibly easy out, the possibility is never brought up by anyone.

i disagree i felt the motives werent well flushed out and because they were tied in with the stupid ancient humans thing i dont think it came together very well.

but your two point are right, the covenant war pushed to a side story and never addressed, they probably did it have a main stay enemy back. it made little sense because the elites left the covenant and renounce there religion and went home, we never saw any elite still fighting the with the covenant like religious extremist, they all left and fought with the play in halo 3.
I found the Composer thing really poor over all, it was just a plot devise to make the player do stuff and i felt its use was not defined, in the flash back of the ancient human it turned them into promethones (how and why we dont know, because it is near impossible to combined machinery and human parta through the air like that) but when he used it on the human science base they all died. the librarian was shit and under developed, it was the very definition if a deus ex machina, a god character descends down from the sky to deliver plot explanations.

good points well made

 

[Iron Criterion]

Okay, possible spoilers for ME3 in here.

Spoiler

1) Yeah, that is a bit odd. Cerberus did have at least one Kodiak shuttle to pick up Dr. Eva with the Crucible info, but it makes little sense that they would use such a weak ship to escape from the reapers and any Alliance vessels around Mars. Still, not much of a plot hole, just an odd decision on Cerberus's part that could easily have a better explanation.

2) That is not a plot hole, Vega is simply stationed at the Alliance headquarters where Shepard is being kept. They've been palling around for six months, you just don't see it because that would be pointless. You just have to pay attention.

3) They leave the building through the window because the huge desk the Alliance Admirals or whoever they were at the beginning is blocking the exit. Every structure they come to after this is trashed, so rooftop climbing is probably the best option. Again, not a plot hole, just maybe an odd decision.

4) The geth may be machines, but they still need a constant flow of resources to survive. Rannoch is a valuable source of all kinds of materials, and they had already lost all the other territory they held. They decided to make a stand rather than become a wandering nomad race like they had forced the quarians to be. And they were doing pretty well until Shepard came in and screwed with their reaper code. Yet another example of "not a plot hole, but a rather easily explained detail that is hardly important anyway."

What else you got?

I'll concede to the first two not being plot holes (But they are still sloppy writing) however:

3: the desk shatters as it hits the wall, it's hard to see but it is what happens.

4: Again, Geth are hyper logical machines, the geth don't have that concept of "This is my home I will die defending it!" they have a concept of "The logistical value of this planet is equal to or greater than the combined value of our entire species, apparantly." And even if this were the case, why is it that the good geth never reach out and try to make nice with everyone else? Why not go directly to the council races and say "Help stop this war for us and we'll help you with the reapers?" I'm not saying this would work, but the fact that they never ever try this is dumb.

Ok, at this point I will have to take your word on the desk shattering. Still, I can assume that Anderson checked that escape route while Shepard was momentarily dazed after the explosion and decided it was blocked or otherwise unsuitable for use. Maybe the stairs were on fire. Point is, there are explanations, you don't have to immediately jump to the conclusion that it is an irredeemable mistake.

Okay I know there is more but this one in particular caught my attention.

Part of the job of a writer is to explain not just what the hero(s) are doing, but why. If the audience has to make assumptions on behalf of the story to cover a plot hole then the story is sloppy. What is particularly irritating about this is that the fix is incredibly simple. All we needed was one scene where Anderson goes "Damn, the door's jammed. We'll have to find another way." But because this is Mac Walters we're talking about, attention to details like this is beyond him.

No you're wrong. Exposition IS bad writing. A good writer will make it obviously what the protagonist is doing, and why through their actions; they shouldn't need to rely on throwaway dialogue.