Gaming Nemesis

[theCMNDER]

Having anything you've earnt or collected taken away, because the plot has you kidnapped or something else equally retarded.
Final bosses that consist of fighting all previous bosses one after another, we already beat them, so they can fuck off and die.
Escort/defend missions where the person or thing you are defending has retarded AI that tries to eat as many bullets as possible.
Defend zone for X time.
Any piece of plot that contradicts something earlier in the plot, just destroys the entire story.
Sequels for the sake of squeezing money.

 

[Elurindel]

Monthly fees. This way I feel obligated to play the game. Then it becomes a chore.

Cheating AI. I don't care that you can't script a decent AI, having the damn thing break the rules is no fun, especially when it instantaneously reacts to oncoming threats with exactly what is needed.

Bad actors/voice actors: I'm looking at you, C&C 3. Yes, the acting is supposed to be bad, but in the "so bad it's good" way not the "I'm trying so hard to be a real actor but it just doesn't work" way. Yes, it had some good actors, but also some overwhelmingly bad actors, who just weren't into it the way the RA2 actors were.

Forcing the player to choose their ending, such as in Fallout 3.

Spoiler

I don't give a shit that there's radiation in there, there should have been an option to send Charon, Fawkes or the damn robot in there!

 

[entwinex]

Context sensitive actions for everything, QTEs, lack of quicksave/save anywhere, inability to quit without going through dozen menu screens, endlessly respawning enemies and generally just cheating AIs.

 

[DND Judgement]

that fact that i always run out of ammo... maybe i should be less trigger happy... but where's the fun in that..?

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

Unfinished games riddled with bugs. I went through a grand campaign of Empire Total War, but somehow the further you progress, the less stable it becomes. All the saves (three different) of that one campaign are BROKEN, CORRUPTED AND USELESS. I restarted on the highest difficulty now, but it's just not as awesome any more compared the first time I started it up .

 

[Altorin]

utterly useless dongly bits.

Naming your dog in Fable 2 for instance.

 

[SnowCold]

Achievements.
I hate them but I must get them all.

*Sturggling hard not to make a pokemon joke*

 

[DoctorNick]

The hills in World of Warcraft. Most of which look so easily climbable but goddamn they are NOT. More generally speaking: Hills that look climbable but aren't.

This.

Sweet mother of Christ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox06MlV5fLM] THIS.

In EVERY SINGLE modern RPG I've played there are these god dammed hills that are just the one or two degrees too steep for the game engine to allow you to actually climb, so your character just keeps doing the walking animation while either sitting in place or slowly sliding down side of the hill. Meanwhile, the cheating-ass NPCs are able to amble all over where they damn well please. So there's this awesome looking castle on the top of a hill I want to go loot, the 'real' path to it is still blocked by whatever or far enough out of the way to make going to it a hassle, no sweat I think! But no, it's juuussstttt too steep, and no amount of effort will get me up it while at the same time monsters and the like have no problems what so ever ambling right up after me to abuse me with the diamond studded strap-on of cheating. It gets really ridiculous in some games, I've seen things like BEARS able to walk up ALMOST SHEER CLIFF 80 DEGREE SLOPES with no problems at all while you are hard pressed to surmount the local molehill.

Dear Developers,

If there is an area you wish to restrict the player from entering, please use an actual cliff, a fence or wall or hell, I'd even settle for a magical invisible barrier that tells you to go no further. ANY of the above is preferable to spending 10 minutes trying to jump-climb a hill. If you refuse to change your ways, I wish you a slow death in a fire.

Love, Nick

Also, INAPPROPRIATE quick time events.

They CAN work in some games, like lets say your in a scripted car-chase scene right? And to dodge things as your driving along you have to press a button within a certain time as a reflex test, this CAN work in certain kinds of scripted-action orientated games especially if they are done frequently thus becoming an expected part of game play. Also, smart developers will make it so failing one or two won't be an insta-kill but only a minor hindrance at first, resorting to a kill-reload only if the player continues to ignore them. Continuing the car chase example, there's a quick time event to dodge a trash can, if you miss it you hit the can and damage your car. Not instantly fatal, reminds the player that the mechanic is in play again, and gets them ready for the next event to dodge the concrete barrier which will be fatal if they keep ignoring them.

Now then, there are games that quick time events should NEVER be in, survival/horror games being the main example. If I am getting really pulled into the story and atmosphere of a game the last thing I EVER want to see is a flashing 'PRESS X LIKE A RETARDED MONKEY TO NOT DIE!' It KILLS the immersion first of all and then usually ends up being fatal anyway thus sending me back to my last save forcing me to replay an area which has now lost any sting it might have had because I know what's coming now.

I'm looking at YOU Dead Space...

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Save points before a long unskippable cutscene, then a tough boss. Dying repeatedly, then having to watch the same cutscene over and over gets very tiresome. If theres no savepoint before the fight its even worse.

 

[Lukeydoodly]

In game: Unbalanced difficulty, and that include retarded excuses for "hard" mode. I don't like a game that decides to be hard for the sake of being hard, or starts off fine and then the learning curve take a 90 degree. I HATE hard modes that are only hard because they make the computer a cheap prick. Giving enemies better accuracy and making them smarter is good hard. BAD hard is giving them all that AND tripling their health and damage. NO...STOP that is NOT what Hard should be, it should not be some arbitrary act of making your character have the strength of a 5 year old and your enemies damage sponges.

This!

I was playing Halo Wars with a friend first time through on Legendary, and it was fairly tough. Once we complete it and go into a skirmish against Legendary AI, we found out that the Covenant units which were apparently good, were in fact shit because the AI units are stronger.

 

[Ionami]

Like Yahtzee and QTE. We all have something that we hate. One things that keeps annoying us despite what game we play.

I say Unskippable Cutscenes. I hate them. It does not matter how short it is, if I press start I should not need to see that cinematic piece of crap.

So, what is your Gaming Nemesis?

I gotta say that and also Unskippable Tutorials, or introductory first levels. Absolutely infuriating.

 

[mooncalf]

Invisible barriers, especially the kind above ankle-high obstacles.

 

[scotth266]

All of my irks have already been posted...
Mainly, awfully long grind, difficulties that don't make sense, crappy cutscenes, and annoying controls. Here's some games I refuse to play anymore:
1)GTA4: It's no fun, the whole game feels like a chore compared to the silly awesomeness of Saint's Row.
2)Sonic games: the last one I played was Sonic Heroes. On the PS2. Nuff' said.
3)Oblivion: A fun game, but the leveling system requires extreme forethought and a flowchart in order to maximize your badassery. I much prefer FO3's or Mass Effect's systems.
4)KOTOR: That inventory system made me want to cry....and they brought it back for ME (that being the only taint on the game, I can still play it).
5)Sims games:Micromanagement sucks when you grind it.

 

[li-ion]

Too much scripted events. When nothing happens and as soon as you walk one pixel too far suddenly hell breaks loose. Or when suddenly the whole world seems to be at pause, waiting for you do put that one explosive somewhere or walk to that trench or blow that tank up, in order to make the world run again. I'm looking at you, CoD: World at War! Especially when it's combined with...

Repetition. I'm looking at you Doom 3! That game consisted for most of the game only of 3 types of rooms. Empty rooms, dark rooms with zombies in and apparently empty rooms where some monster shows up as soon as you walk over some trigger. Usually behind you. I often just walked backwards, so that the monster would appear right in front of me and be an easy kill. Stupid. Or in Assassins Creed, where you have the same 3 side quests over and over.

QTE - no comment needed I assume.

 

[swytchblayd]

The grinds I can take... for so long. After so long, though, it just drives me insane.
Also, inconsistent difficulty curves just piss me off like none other. A game should be gradually getting harder, not easy as fuck half-way through and then impossibly hard a second later >.< And I'll have to say invisible barriers as well.

A few more particular things that really piss me off:

-> The entire Halo series: How this game ever became popular is beyond me. If it weren't for Microsoft's over-hyping media bastages, Halo would have gone nowhere. Its an average shooter at best, with a horrible attempt at a story and characters I couldn't give a shit about. MC is a rip-off of every Marine commando before him, and that prissy little ***** that keeps following him needs to burn in the ninth circle of Hell for even existing. Multiplayer is NOT an excuse to make a shitty single-player campaign.
-> Anything with anyone's "friends" (Mario, Sonic, etc. - ie, their fellow druggies) in it: Another sad attempt to make a shallow main character even more hollow. Yoshi I can stand, but when Princess Peach starts waddling her fat ass around, or when that bat-thing Shadow has the hots for comes out, I just want to hide. Whatever was wrong with just running around in a 2D world, collecting rings, and moving at unholy speeds? Two exceptions: Sonic Heros, and Knuckles; the first because it was an alright 3D adaptation, and the second simply because he was always the one 'other' character that's rarely sucked ass.
-> Any bad-guy character that kicks your ass early on, but when you get them later on they've apparently taken the "iSuckNow" pill: Why can't badass just stay badass x-x?? GAH!!


EDIOT:

that fact that i always run out of ammo... maybe i should be less trigger happy... but where's the fun in that..?

I agree. Especially in Fallout 3 early on; I always seem to be running out of ammo at the EXACT wrong moment when a super mutant with a chaingun is running my ass down in a tunnel.

Also, another one that I forgot: slow-ass running speeds. If I'm running from a creature that just scurried out of the depths of Hell, I'm not going to want to jog; I'm going to run like there's a tarantula in my underpants. And yet, every modern game seems to slow down your character to a leisurely pace. That's just not right X_X

 

[JenXXXJen]

Too long between save points. More often than not I'll get halfway through an area before I have to leave for something, so either I have to be late, leave it on for hours, or do it all again. It's all very annoying.

And, long cutscenes before hard bosses just makes me want to cry ;;

 

[Elurindel]

Too long between save points. More often than not I'll get halfway through an area before I have to leave for something, so either I have to be late, leave it on for hours, or do it all again. It's all very annoying.

And, long cutscenes before hard bosses just makes me want to cry ;;

Why not just be against save points? We should be allowed to save where we want.

 

[IsoNeko]

The actual Nemesis. Resident Evil 3. What a dick, right?

 

[kazork]

I actualy don't mind QTE's but what i really do mind is having to go out of a menu and reloading every menu just to restart from a earlyer save or restart a race.


This is especially with race games because I at least wan't a good start and not fuck up in the first couple of turns when i do i want to do a quick restart. I do not want to have to get out of the game( with menu loading time added) select my game and then restart. Just a in game menu with a restart function.

It is unnesecary and time consumming.

(I appologize for the grammar, I am at work and have to type real quick because there is no private internet use allowed)

 

[Baby Tea]

You can NOT HATE A PUBLISHER FOR GAME QUALITY.

You can hate them for making developers push games out the door before they are done!

That, and bandwagons are fun.

On topic: I'm not really a fan of QTE either, but I'll say: Bad bad story telling.
It afflicts many many games.