Favorite Video Game Plot Holes

[Silent Biohazard Solid]

Eh, its not really a plot hole so much as a retcon. In MGS3 they wanted Big Boss to look exactly like Solid Snake, which forced them to de-age him quite a bit from his previously established age.

But if what Liquid Snake said was his "established age" then it still wouldn't make sense. Because in Metal Gear 1, when Solid Snake first fought Big Boss, it was 1995, which would make Big Boss around 90 years old by then and nearing 95 by Metal Gear 2. So that number still makes no sense.

 

[Lieju]

And I'm pretty sure Wesker didn't PLAN his death in RE1, though it's been a while since I played it. From what I understood, his original plan was just to get the data and sell it, which Chris and Jill screwed up pretty royally. The rebirth virus was just a contingency plan in case things went awry. I'm pretty sure Wesker wasn't faking his mauling from the Tyrant; if anything, that was probably a genuine miscalculation on his part. Honestly, like I said, there was no way of really knowing what that virus would do. The only thing he seems sure of in the Wesker Report is that it would bring him back to life; I think superpowers were a happy coincidence. Wesker would be too smart to get himself killed on purpose over something that might not work.

They did know about the super-powers-thing, Birkin experimented on animals.
http://residentevil.wikia.com/Virus_Memo
Also, from Wesker's report:
"I injected the virus I obtained from Birkin in advance. If I made Umbrella believe I was dead, it made it far more convenient to sell myself to the opposing corporation. According to Birkin, the virus had profound effects. It would put my body in a state of temporary "death". It would then bring me back to life with super human powers. Therefore, I unleashed an awesome Tyrant from its slumber and let it attack me. "
http://residentevil.wikia.com/Wesker%27s_Report
According to that, his plan was a failure because he didn't get the Tyrant, although how he would have managed to get it out, is kinda confusing. And in any case, in Umbrella Chronicles it's the data he is after, and Sergei and RedQueen block his access to it, and in that game he is mad at them. And eventually kills them.

Didn't Wesker just say he recovered Steve's body? I mean, the virus is still in him but I doubt Wesker would have had any interest in reviving Steve. He probably just wanted the T-Veronica sample. .

Wesker says: "Maybe he will come back alive, just as I did"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGjER9Ivaj0 (Around 2.18)
It can be interpreted as him taunting and threatening Claire, but it's clear the writers intended it as a possible plotpoint for later.

Timeline inconsistencies don't necessarily equal plot-holes. In movies it happens all the time: The hero has only a minute to disarm a bomb but the scene takes longer. No one considers it a plothole, its simply done for drama. Likewise, not all the games fit absolutely perfectly together, but thats done more for the sake of storytelling than anything.

So what is your definition of a "plot-hole" then? As I would consider unexplained oddities like giving different dates in different sources as a plot-hole.

I doubt its from Ada, as she has no idea (as far as we know) who Chris or Jill are. My guess: Spencer sent it. He knew Wesker was coming to visit, and he knew it probably wasn't a social call, so who better to call for help than Wesker's archrival? If Chris had made it just a few minutes earlier its very possible Wesker would have tried to kill him before Spencer, and it might have saved his life. No one else would rank that high on Wesker's kill on sight chart.
.

I'm sure Ada is aware of Chris and Jill, given how important and well-known the mansion-incident and Raccoon city was(Chris and Jill are celebrities in the zombie-fighting community), and what their relationship to Wesker was. Ada played her own games, what her goals were, exactly, we don't really know, but she had close dealings with Wesker so she'd know about these things.
No, Spencer got Wesker there on purpose. He was certain of his influence over Wesker, and so not afraid of him.
http://residentevil.wikia.com/Patrick%27s_Memoirs_3
From a file in "Lost in nightmares", which also implies that Ada got the info about Spencer's whereabouts.
And I suspect he wouldn't have wanted BSAA to know where he was hiding.

To be fair, no one really asks her where she has been, so maybe she'd feel rude bringing it up? After all, they did have bigger problems at the moment, and she wouldn't want to let anyone know about Billy. .

So she never mentions anything she knows about Umbrella's involvement, or the weaknesses of the monsters, or that she had found a way to Raccoon city, but came back.
And is defenseless against a hunter, despite killing dozens of them just few hours ago.

 

[Nightcraft66]

Borderlands, seriously..

Spoiler

Vault opened, tentacle monster destroyed, claptrap does.. something, satellite! End game.

 

[EscapistUser123456]

Why can you use a (phoenix down,Restoration spell, etc...) in battle, but when they die in a cut scene you can't bring them back?

In battle, you're wounded/downed/etc. but when you die, you can't be revived.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Borderlands - Not so much plot holes as massive annoyance in the story.

2. Elaborate please?

he's referring to the fact that

Spoiler

when you open the vault rather than there being any treasure in there, there is instead some giant eldrich abomination that you have to kill, when you do kill it, the game ends with it being revealed that the 'guardian' that was guiding you was actually a satelite owned by the hyperion company, and the claptrap robot is actully an assasin, the last two facts get addressed properly in the 4th DLC

incidentally i found the monster in the vault ending brilliant for two reasons. first, the place is called pandora and the vault is a box (don't think i need to elaborate on that). and second, if the player thinks they're disappointed, imagine what the characers are feeling

 

[RogerKevin]

They all grew up together in an orphanage.

 

[FalloutJack]

They all grew up together in an orphanage.

I'll do you a better one. The whole game is a big timey wimey ball set out too long in the sun and explodes into nonsensical nonsense.

 

[Scarim Coral]

This is a few plot holes I thought of during the Halo franchise-

Did the Pillar of Autumn have no Mongoose in the first Halo game? Better yet where were they in Halo 3?

Considering Master Chief Armour is the latest armour compare to Noble Team, why did MC had no ability like the jetpack, stealth, armour lock etc? Ok I know they didn't create the games in chronic orders but it like Star Wars timeline logics.

 

[SamStar42]

Call of Duty games:
MW2:Random militia soldier.He has access to some of the most potent firearms in the world as well as attack helicopters,fighter jets,supply drops,and sentry turrets.All he needs to do is kill people to get these things.
Black Ops:Hello soldier!You're being assinged to a combat mission in nearly every country involved with the Cold War.Also,you're brainwashed so that there's an imaginary Russian guy who seems to follow you around everywhere and is able to kill people when he doesn't even exist.
Yup,it all makes sense.

IMO the Reznov thing was handled rather well. On Rebirth, I shot Reznov a few times due to him CONSTANTLY GETTING IN THE WAY but there was no 'careful, my friend!' or something. I didn't see him kill anyone - or maybe you're projecting onto him, and the people you think he killed you actually did. Or something.

To me: At the end of AC2, if Ezio could use the apple to create five versions of himself, why didn't the Pope do the same thing?

that might be incorrect actually, was about a year ago D:

 

[Zachary Unkle]

During the one level in Vietnam where you're crawling through a tunnel,I believe imaginary Resnov stabs a man.

 

[Ranorak]

LoZ OoT: Considering the sages had the power to weaken and kill Ganon in his fully empowered form at the end, why did they seal themselves in the Sacred Realm along with Link (while Ganondorf was still just some magic-wielding normal dude, no less) while he fucked with Hyrule for seven goddamn years? Couldn't they have beaten him when he still didn't have the Triforce's power?

-sigh-

Spoiler: Explanation!

They never had the power to kill Ganondorf in the end. Link had to weaken Ganondorf for them. When Ganondorf first entered the sacred realm, the only sage there was Rauru. Link had to gather the other sages by getting rid of the evils in their temples. Rauru was not powerful enough to stop Ganondorf on his own and, as soon as he entered the sacred realm, he has the Triforce of Power. So Rauru did not try to stop him and just sealed Link in the realm for seven years. Yeah, they all probably could have defeated him, but not while he had the Triforce of Power. In the end sequence, they are able to seal him in the sacred realm because link weakened him by shooting him with light arrows, hacking his face off, crashing a castle down on him, then stabbing him in the face. Repeatedly. Ganondorf was weakened by link and that is why he is able to be sealed away. Of course, he still has the Triforce of Power, so he might be able to break out later (then they made Windwaker, where he got out.)

Spoiler: more Zelda Spoilers, mostly Twilight Princess

If you place TP in the young Link Split timeline, it confirms your point.
At the end of OoT Link is send back to his childhood, and warns Zelda and the King of Ganondorf, who then tries to seal him with the saga's, he kills one and escapes.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Not really what you would call "Favorite" since it kinda spoils the story but, Bioshock:

Spoiler

So Fontaine sends Jack to the surface as a baby right? What happens when he gets to dry land and exits the sub? How did he survive alone, as an infant no less, on the surface? We learn that his memories of a family are fake, so he probably didn't live with anyone on the surface, how did he make it as a baby all the way to able-to-buy-a-plane-ticket-for-myself adulthood?

Also, how did Fontaine know where to send the package? Did he have someone tailing Jack his whole life?

Er, that's completely answerable actually.

Spoiler

They have a fair bit of stuff in there talking about how he aged much MUCH faster than normal. Even if he was just a boy he'd have still been able to make it. As for getting the package etc etc, it isn't really a hole, as that would imply a contradiction or impossibility. There are plenty of ways it could happen, they just didn't tell us in the story.

Ah, no, and to everyone else who quoted me.

Spoiler

The rapid ageing doesn't explain how he survived on the surface. Just because he matures physically more quickly than most people doesn't mean he matures just as quickly mentally, not to mention that he would have no place to live and no way of knowing how to find a job or anything of the sort. Know I could give BioShock the benefit of the doubt and assume that all of these things were programmed into his mind from the start (That would be one smart baby) but it just raises another question: If he ages so quickly why did Fontaine send him to the surface? All he had to do was wait a few hours (i.e. the time it took him to get from Rapture to the surface which couldn't have been more than a few days or little Jacky would've starved to death in the sub.) and he would've had a fully-functioning mind slave. Even if Jack stepped out of that sub a full-grown adult with a fully functioning mind and complete knowledge of surface customs what the hell do you think he would do? "Hm, it's my first hours of life that hasn't taken place on that submarine, guess I'll go get a job and an apartment!"

This could have been explained away with one audio log (Fontaine pays some lady to take Jack to the surface and raise him or something) but the lack of info leaves it as a hole for now.

So his rapid ageing just raises more questions than it answers.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Ok, I know this is video game plot holes, but I'm just going to have to hijack this for a moment and turn to book/movie plot holes.

Harry Potter: Why don't they ever use the Time Turner to fix stuff?

A bigger question is, why didn't Hermione brew up more Felix Felicious (luck potion) during 6th year and summer break after? Lucky Potion would have been a really effective weapon in the fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named[sub][sub][sub]Voldemort[/sub][/sub][/sub]. Even if the trio didn't use it themselves, there was a window of opportunity during the end of year 6 when she could have left it in the Room of Requirement or something.

Because she couldn't make the potion. It was supposed to be a very hard potion and the only ingredient the potion teacher mentions is honey and I think I remember something about some of the ingredients being illegal or hard to get. They did use some of the potion to get away from death eaters

 

[Caedus]

Not really what you would call "Favorite" since it kinda spoils the story but, Bioshock:

Spoiler

So Fontaine sends Jack to the surface as a baby right? What happens when he gets to dry land and exits the sub? How did he survive alone, as an infant no less, on the surface? We learn that his memories of a family are fake, so he probably didn't live with anyone on the surface, how did he make it as a baby all the way to able-to-buy-a-plane-ticket-for-myself adulthood?

Also, how did Fontaine know where to send the package? Did he have someone tailing Jack his whole life?

Er, that's completely answerable actually.

Spoiler

They have a fair bit of stuff in there talking about how he aged much MUCH faster than normal. Even if he was just a boy he'd have still been able to make it. As for getting the package etc etc, it isn't really a hole, as that would imply a contradiction or impossibility. There are plenty of ways it could happen, they just didn't tell us in the story.

Ah, no, and to everyone else who quoted me.

Spoiler

The rapid ageing doesn't explain how he survived on the surface. Just because he matures physically more quickly than most people doesn't mean he matures just as quickly mentally, not to mention that he would have no place to live and no way of knowing how to find a job or anything of the sort. Know I could give BioShock the benefit of the doubt and assume that all of these things were programmed into his mind from the start (That would be one smart baby) but it just raises another question: If he ages so quickly why did Fontaine send him to the surface? All he had to do was wait a few hours (i.e. the time it took him to get from Rapture to the surface which couldn't have been more than a few days or little Jacky would've starved to death in the sub.) and he would've had a fully-functioning mind slave. Even if Jack stepped out of that sub a full-grown adult with a fully functioning mind and complete knowledge of surface customs what the hell do you think he would do? "Hm, it's my first hours of life that hasn't taken place on that submarine, guess I'll go get a job and an apartment!"

This could have been explained away with one audio log (Fontaine pays some lady to take Jack to the surface and raise him or something) but the lack of info leaves it as a hole for now.

So his rapid ageing just raises more questions than it answers.

In the ending video, we see Jack holding the hands of the little girls he saved; we also see that their hands age "normally" whereas his becomes old quickly.

So Jack ages faster than normal but not as fast as you think (mere days... wth?). And Fontaine may have contacts outside of Rapture (he HAS connections with smugglers in Rapture...) so it's entirely possible. Plus, it makes no sense for Fontaine to send Jack away a couple days before the riots starts.

When I played Bioshock, I had the feeling that he was planning all this for a long time and that Rapture was supposed to be some way to make Jack stronger, like a super-soldier that is easily controlable.

 

[zombiejoe]

Everything in Heavy Rain

 

[TomCorf]

Why don't George and Lorraine McFly realise that the kid that helped them get together in the 50's looks exactly the same as their 1985 son? Many moons I have spent pondering over that question...

 

[A Weary Exile]

In the ending video, we see Jack holding the hands of the little girls he saved; we also see that their hands age "normally" whereas his becomes old quickly.

The Little Sisters were no older than ten when they are encountered in BioShock, in the ending video they must be at least twenty, so Jack is apparently designed to age rapidly to adulthood then age normally thereafter.

So Jack ages faster than normal but not as fast as you think (mere days... wth?).

How would he survive on the surface if he didn't age to adulthood in the sub? Which brings me back to my original point: How could Jack have survived as an infant on the surface? Like I said, it's a hole.

And Fontaine may have contacts outside of Rapture (he HAS connections with smugglers in Rapture...) so it's entirely possible.

It doesn't say that though. If Fontaine gave Jack to one of his contacts why didn't they give a more specific explanation than "...when we put you in that sub."

Plus, it makes no sense for Fontaine to send Jack away a couple days before the riots starts.

Exactly? I said it makes no sense for him to send Jack to the surface at all.

When I played Bioshock, I had the feeling that he was planning all this for a long time and that Rapture was supposed to be some way to make Jack stronger, like a super-soldier that is easily controlable.

If he'd been planning it so long you'd think he'd come up with something less...complicated.

 

[le picklez]

Homefront: Why didn't the other countries react WWII style?