The most worthless game mechanics/features

[EHKOS]

The everything the six-axis touches. Sly Cooper 4 has a weird hacking minigame, not to mention it will sometimes kick in when you fire an arrow. I'm usually sitting comfortably with my controller in my lap, where it should stay. On that topic, button mashing QTE's. I feel like I'm shortening my controller's lifespan and if it's difficult/long enough, it gets really annoying.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

The mobile phone in Contagion, it works well in the co-op mdoes Escape and Extraction because it acts as a GPS device to guide the players co-operatively towards their destination and goals.

However during the mode the Hunted, all 8 players are pitted against each other and are spawned not so very far from one another, this elads to some people using the phone which will show up peoples names as soon as they get within close proximity of each other, this usually leads to enemy players spamming your phones ringtone and follow it until they get to you and end your life before you can tell what's going on.

Now sure it sounds great on paper but really in a PvP mode it plays out really awful since it rewards players who just use the phone as a radar ping device and constantly spam other players with it and punishes those that don't use it or don't use it back in return when pinged, that can be really annoying and fof putting for some people.

I'd at least suggest that you gain the ability (if it's trying to be realistic at least try all the way) to drop your phone in Hunted to either lose other players or lure them into a possible trap since in hunted you are perfectly fine to hole up somewhere like a gun store, board up the windows and doors and wait it out or actively hunt people down or create a diversion for them (like firing your gun since people in hunted always go toward where the gunshots are coming from).

At times I don't mind the phone since it;s fine for the other two modes which are based on co-op gameplay (until you become a zombie and then it becomes pvp again) but when it's hunted which is pure PvP I tend to want to tear out my hair because it gives players who spam it the easier option vs and punishes those that don't spam theirs.

 

[IceForce]

For me, it would most likely be Galactic Readiness in Mass Effect 3. To get the best endings, I'd need to play online multiplayer to increase my Galactic Readiness percentage, even though said multiplayer could've just as easily been taken out. Thank Princess Celestia's mother I could play that RTS mini-game included on the N7HQ site as an alternative.

It's been mentioned before but Galactic readiness in ME3. I don't play multiplayer so fuck you for messing with my single player experience and fucking up my ending trying to MAKE my play it.

Just to let you guys know, the Extended Cut DLC removed the requirement to play multiplayer to get all the endings.

So unless you're specifically talking about ME3 as it was on release, this is a bit of a non-argument at this point.

 

[Ninjat_126]

If it can instantly kill you, it should be telegraphed. There should be some way of knowing that something's about to come and make you dead no matter what.

Yeah, but if you run directly in front a an enemy in say ME3 or Gears of War that telegraph should not be 5 seconds long, at most it should be 2 seconds like how the locusts rev the chainsaw, you have like a 1 second chance to dive roll backwards or raise your own chainsaw. You know the enemies in games mentioned above are deadly and you should be punished for trying to shoot them from a distance of 30cm.

Well, of course. Mass Effect 3, for one, telegraphs the instakill attacks by giving the enemies in question giant claws, swords, crushing vice-like grips or massive mandibles. Even then, the attacks have a few seconds of windup so your allied have a chance to kill the enemy before it kills you.

To stray back on-topic, Status Effects in RPGs where the biggest enemies are immune to them. It's been said before, but putting a Poison effect on a random encounter just wastes time... and if the boss is immune to DoT effects then they may as well not be there.

Dark Souls does this kinda well... different enemies (and players) are resistant to bleeding or poison, but I don't think anything's entirely immune.

 

[Salokin]

Also, compulsory button mashing.

In order to non-lethally knock someone out in Hitman Absolution, I have to repeatedly press a button? Why can't I press a button once and have 47 take the guy out?
In order to prise open a door (among other things) in the new Tomb Raider, I have to repeatedly press a button? Why can't I just press the button once and have Lara take it from there?

Oh heck yes. 10,000 times yes.

I hate this mechanic every time it appears, it's just so unnecessary. Especially when I'm using a keyboard (which I am 90% of the time). And can we add mechanics where you have to, say, twirl the mouse in a circular motion to "crank" something? (Amnesia the Dark Descent, I'm looking at you.) I'm just... WHY? It doesn't add tension, it doesn't add to the experience. It just takes you "out of the game" and makes you acutely aware of what you're using to control it. Instead of being aware of the game itself.

This is the main reason why I never used Jimmy in the new South Park game. All his special abilities required you to button mash, and each took a full minute of spamming whatever button it wanted.

 

[Soxafloppin]

In Mortal Kombat 9 (A great game IMO) one of the shoulder buttons changes how your character stands..its a 2D fighting game but the button changes if they have there front or back to the camera, doesnt have any effect on gameplay at all, I think the devs just wanted to add some feature to that button.

My only theory is you get to choose if you stare at Kitanas tits or ass.

 

[Altorin]

In Mortal Kombat 9 (A great game IMO) one of the shoulder buttons changes how your character stands..its a 2D fighting game but the button changes if they have there front or back to the camera, doesnt have any effect on gameplay at all, I think the devs just wanted to add some feature to that button.

My only theory is you get to choose if you stare at Kitanas tits or ass.

certain moves only worked one way or the other. but really, yeah, waste of a shoulder button