The Why.

[Jakub324]

Total War games - Peasants

Oh, absoluteness.
'Would you like to requisition fighters who run away at the clash of the first sword and get all your other soldiers down?'
'Yes please!'

Anyway, the malaria medicine side missions in Farcry 2. Drive here and give these to a guy and you're done. They feel like nothing more than padding.

 

[Jandau]

The Ashigaru units in Shogun 2 are actually pretty good, especially if you go the clan that gets bonuses for using them (i think its the Oda). I've won the campaign on hard difficulty just using the peasant units.
And in multiplayer versus you cant afford to have a full army of Samurai or Monk units, so you need to use the crappy peasants.

Ashigaru units aren't exactly what I was talking about. They are more along the lines of the various militia units from earlier Total War games and have their use. I was reffering to Peasants from Medieval, Medieval 2 and Rome - a unit with 1 or 0 in every stat.

 

[Jimmybobjr]

Total War games - Peasants

BODY SHIELD!

Why else?

...

Wait, there is another reason. If there were no peasants, who would you repress?

OT:
Red dead redemption.

Shops.

Why were they even there? You don't really need to buy ammo as you can just get ammo by using your camp in the wilderness, and everything else is just pointless and annoying to use. I had stockpiles of medicine and never used them, because A) It was annoying to stop the battle and flick through screens to press the insta-heal button. B) Made the game easy as hell C) You would usually die before you could use it anyway.

This actiualy, i hadnt though of this while reading this thread, but it was the one big question on my mind when i was playing that game.

My own "The Why" is the token cosmetic items from any game ever; For example, the Fancy Clothing in Skyrim, Hats in TF2, Tuxedos in World of Warcraft... Anything that only changes the appearance of the character. I find them so pointless.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

The Klobb from Goldeneye. Easily one of the most useless weapons in fps history.

[insert the obligatory "DUAL WIELDING TEH KLOBBZ" response here]

Escort quests.

WHY?! Why do these things still exist?!

I take it you really don't like Ico?

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

In Reach - The Power Lock ability. It makes you totally invulnerable for about five seconds. But also totally immobile. So all that you gain by using it is five seconds more life before the guy with the Energy Sword assassinates you. Big Whoop [sub]TM[/sub].

not really pointless though. i've been saved from lots of Warthogs, missiles and swords with it. if you only get yourself 5 more seconds, you're doing it wrong. i've armour locked, burst out and gunned down (remember, it emps your enemy's shield) loads of enemies, or distracted people while teammates sneak up behind them. and if the teammate dies, well then i can pop out of armour lock and get the guy while he's distracted.

I suppose it depends on your experience. Dodging Warthogs and Energy Swords are what jet-packs are for, in my opinion. Half of the time when I see a member of the enemy team Armour Lock the same thing happens, namely two or three teammates gather round the guy sufficiently far away as not to get caught in the EMP blast (I made that mistake once as a private, never again), chucking the odd plasma grenade to force them to stay in lock until we're ready, before falling on the poor guy like a pack of wolves.

All I'm saying is that I've seen and participated in that behavior far too often to even comprehend picking Armour Lock as my loadout pack.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

The Ashigaru units in Shogun 2 are actually pretty good, especially if you go the clan that gets bonuses for using them (i think its the Oda). I've won the campaign on hard difficulty just using the peasant units.
And in multiplayer versus you cant afford to have a full army of Samurai or Monk units, so you need to use the crappy peasants.

Ashigaru units aren't exactly what I was talking about. They are more along the lines of the various militia units from earlier Total War games and have their use. I was reffering to Peasants from Medieval, Medieval 2 and Rome - a unit with 1 or 0 in every stat.

I thought the Ashigaru basically were armed peasants.. but yes they have actual stats.. i dont really see why you'd use something with 0/1 in every stat, unless you're using them to repress a recently occupied city and plan on disbanding the unit once they've served their purpose... but using them in battle seems stupid.

 

[latiasracer]

The laser pistol and laser rifle from Fallout 3.

Y U NO DO ANY DAMAGE?

 

[ShindoL Shill]

In Reach - The Power Lock ability. It makes you totally invulnerable for about five seconds. But also totally immobile. So all that you gain by using it is five seconds more life before the guy with the Energy Sword assassinates you. Big Whoop [sub]TM[/sub].

not really pointless though. i've been saved from lots of Warthogs, missiles and swords with it. if you only get yourself 5 more seconds, you're doing it wrong. i've armour locked, burst out and gunned down (remember, it emps your enemy's shield) loads of enemies, or distracted people while teammates sneak up behind them. and if the teammate dies, well then i can pop out of armour lock and get the guy while he's distracted.

I suppose it depends on your experience. Dodging Warthogs and Energy Swords are what jet-packs are for, in my opinion. Half of the time when I see a member of the enemy team Armour Lock the same thing happens, namely two or three teammates gather round the guy sufficiently far away as not to get caught in the EMP blast (I made that mistake once as a private, never again), chucking the odd plasma grenade to force them to stay in lock until we're ready, before falling on the poor guy like a pack of wolves.

All I'm saying is that I've seen and participated in that behavior far too often to even comprehend picking Armour Lock as my loadout pack.

i used to use jetpacks, but if i reacted late with that i got a machine-gun enema, or jump-assassinated. with Armour Lock, i punch the 'hog into oblivion or not get stabbed.

 

[Greni]

[...]i used to use jetpacks,[...]

Thank Batman you did not say what I thought you were gonna say.

 

[Lawnmooer]

Adept? Singularity is far better CC than any of the above.

It is the flaw with Bioware imposing the one ability limit. There is rarely a reason to use any but your most potent ability. No great alpha strikes, just one ability, over and over again with a rare variation.
It honestly makes me wonder why the other abilities are there at all. They have such little point, its not even funny.

I recall that as an adept on normal singularity was pretty terrible to use, mainly because upgraded pull/push could instantly kill some enemies while also quickly recharging your only ability use faster. Whereas Singularity just made some enemies float up into the air (Which you would then have to shoot down, but seriously on normal you could have just shot them anyway...)

I find that one dead enemy > one - 4 enemies that still need to be shot. Especially with only being able to use a single ability per cooldown.

On Topic:

MW2, I played it briefly online, and one of the setups I had (Out of the starter premade bunch you have to use before you've leveled up enough) involved a shotgun with a laser sight... Which did nothing to the accuracy of a shotgun.

Handcannons in Killing Floor... I couldn't see the point in them since the class that they are for (Sharpshooter) already one-shots all but 3 zeds with the regular 9mm that you will always have (Those 3 zeds can be taken out with a crossbow bolt anyways) and other classes have their own weapons now (I admit I used handcannons when playing Firebug when there was only the Flamethrower as their weapon ingame, due to the limited ammo for it and the cost of the Katana for a non-Berserker)

 

[C F]

First Assassin's Creed: Throwing knives. Oh good, a long range weapon.
Assassin's Creed 2: Gun. Oh good, another long range weapon. And I can only carry six of them.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: Crossbow. Wow, a long range weapon, and I get twenty? I'LL NEVER USE THE GUN OR THROWING KNIVES AGAIN!

Throwing knives were awesome in the first game.
Once you're in Ezio-land, the Hidden Gun and the crossbow make throwing knives a bit useless, so they counterbalanced it with the ability to take down up to three foes at once. Quite useful sometimes, actually. Of course, the entirety of Ezio's repertoire just grew more redundant as time progressed.

I mean, come on.
Poison dart launcher?
Just: why? To draw attention to a guard that's nowhere near you and buy time? That stopped being necessary around the time Ezio got access combo-kill streaks. Now it's just a fancy toy. Speaking of which: how about the bombs added in Revelations?

The game would be so much more satisfying if all you carried was a hidden blade and maybe one melee weapon to allay suspicion.
The 'S Creed series is still fun, but hopefully 3 will remember its roots a bit better.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Most of the face paints and some of the camo's in MGS 3.

Normally I like having character skins in a game, but a game where the clothes have a purpose, there is pretty much no use in having novelty ones!! I means seriously:

Spoiler: Why??

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I'm not sure if I feel sad for those people getting suckered into the army because of military FPSs, or glad that it'll shut them up. I say this as someone joining the Royal Marines.

Honestly, I remember a thread where someone mentioned having a friend who literally thought that people in the army got to pick their load out like in CoD. And I imagine people trying to sight down a rifle by putting it in the center of their face will always be hilarious to watch...

Wow! That's pretty funny! I'd like to see someone walk up to the little window at the armoury and request an M-16! That would be priceless!
I'd also like to see someone tape another magazine to their first one, and then watch as the top few rounds get submerged in mud as they hit the deck in contact!
Haha! And I pity the guy trying to find a heartbeat sensor!!

 

[ShindoL Shill]

[...]i used to use jetpacks,[...]

Thank Batman you did not say what I thought you were gonna say.

i was this close to saying 'warthog to the knees'.

 

[Aerosteam]

In Reach - The Power Lock ability. It makes you totally invulnerable for about five seconds. But also totally immobile. So all that you gain by using it is five seconds more life before the guy with the Energy Sword assassinates you. Big Whoop [sub]TM[/sub].

ARMOUR lock does more than give you 5 extra seconds of life. It can be used offensively with the EMP it gives off to disable vehicles and shields. Also iv'e seen rockets and grenades deflect from it and hit the enemy. One more thing, being able to prevent your death from vehicle collisions and explosions doesn't make it seem useless.

OT: DLC on any game with DLC. Why sell the game when it is not complete and sell things like item packs, map packs and character skins separately? Oh right, money. Damn it.

Second try: Halo 3: ODST. The entire thing. Why did Bungie make it? No one asked for it...
Edit: I'm not saying it's bad, just... why did they make it?

 

[Seabear]

In Reach - The Power Lock ability. It makes you totally invulnerable for about five seconds. But also totally immobile. So all that you gain by using it is five seconds more life before the guy with the Energy Sword assassinates you. Big Whoop [sub]TM[/sub].

It also charges up as an EMP, knocking out shields on anyone stood relatively nearby, making them easy targets for your teammates, or even a swift melee if you're fast enough, it can buy you a few extra seconds to capture an objective, you can annihilate someone charging you with a ghost... There's a reason people bemoan its existence.

 

[Lunar Templar]

DMC3 - Guard stance.

I NEVER found it useful.

this, kinda, i actually played with the royal guard style, but never found away to really make any kind of use for it.

and as much as this going to sound like treason ...

the 'high school' part of the recent Persona games :/ i get 'why' its there (for the links) but dose it HAVE to be high school?

 

[Twilight_guy]

The why? Are they related to The Who? *sounds of crowd booing*

I think Stamina potions in Diablo 2 may be the most useless game feature ever. Even when you need stamina, people still don't use them.

 

[Charles McGuffin]

Pokemon: The Ability to carry more than one Pokemon at a time (at least in the early games).

I bough Soul Silver when it came out, and as soon as I got Togepi to hatch, I always kept it as my first Pokemon, in hope it would evolve. It couldn't do back on the GBC.

But even after it evolved, I never exchanged it, because it destroys EVERYTHING.

By the time I got so bored of the game, that I didn't want to play anymore, my Togetic was Level 40 and all the other Pokemon in my party ranged from 8 to 14

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

This is what I immediately thought of when I read this thread:

OT: The .32 pistol is Fallout 3. Ammo that is important and no damage. It just makes no sense to even exist.