Your gaming "kryptonite"

[DustyDrB]

First person.

I can count on one hand with a finger left over how many games in first-person I played and enjoyed: Metroid Prime 3, Oblivion, Portal, and Portal 2. The viewpoint in games is just extremely off-putting to me, both due to the lack of spatial awareness and the lack of connection with my character.

 

[SilentCom]

I hate it when the AI has cheap auto-aim and superhuman reflexes.

 

[onewheeled]

When you have to remember and execute button combinations in a high-stress situations. Like Marvel vs Capcom 2... Bah, let's just say fighting games in general for this one. I can't stand 'em.

Also, if a game revolves around a narrative, I hate when there are long periods of time where the story doesn't progress at all. That's why I can't really get into Disgaea, but it's my fault, since I grind each level something like five to ten times before I move on to the next one. A better example would be Mass Effect 2, when you're recruiting/gaining the loyalty of your crew. Very fun missions, but the big deal with the Collectors barely made any appearance.

 

[niceguy191]

Unskippable cutscenes or dialogue... ESPECIALLY right before a boss fight forcing you to sit through it all AGAIN every time you die and retry the fight.

Escort missions. That is all.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Sniper rifles. I can't use one, and I'm f!@#$d if someone is using it against me.

 

[SageRuffin]

A lack of hands-on gameplay. This is why I actually prefer DA2 to Origins. Now, I'm not saying that DA2 is perfect (it's easily one of BioWare's worst games if not the worst... which still speaks volumes as it's good enough for some generally favorable reviews, but that's another subject), but the fact that I actually control what my character is doing is a high point in my book.

On the flip, you have button-mashing, which DA2 is guilty of, as well as "sticky" controls. It's nowhere near the worst offender however; Ninety-Nine Nights 2 is far worse for the former and you have Afro Samurai for the latter. I like for my attacks and combos to be controlled, well-timed button presses that can take advantage of hit-stun, frame advantages and whatnot, something like Ninja Gaiden 2 (as busted as the AI was). Not for me to "press X and win" or "press XXYY in rapid succession".

Other things really fry my chicken, but those are the first things that came to mind.

 

[funguy2121]

What this is, is basically things that cripple either your gaming experience or the game itself for you. Mine would be multiple boss battles one after the other. Don't get me wrong, an epic boss battle here and there is a good thing, but if you have 3 or 4 bosses all lined up?

So tell me, Escapist, what is your gaming "kryptonite"?

Don't play Megaman.

 

[PinkiePyro]

bad controls & insane difficultly shitty platforming

 

[Helscreama]

I have a bad fear of heights that borders on paralysing. Which is why I don't do well in platformer games - I'm scared, even in games, of facing a big void or not having safety rails around me.

As you can imagine, Portal 2 is probably not the game for me. This was in fact my first Portal experience and after finishing the game, my legs were like jelly, my heart was pounding and I couldn't move for a while afterwards with my body almost frozen in fear.

Despite this, I now plan on playing Portal 1 very soon as the story is enjoyable and engaging enough to face crippling anxiety at almost every turn.

This isn't being mean but that is awesome.

You are truly enjoying the game when your heart starts pounding and your body reacts. Wish games did that for me ha ha ha

 

[Kilgengoor]

Mass Effect 2 somehow made me want the elevators back...

I always thought the elevators in ME1 were quite cool. Weren't too long and it was a fantastic opportunity to hear some party or lore banter, I don't know why people ended up hating them so much.

For me it's probably QTE, especially when they end up being punishing and smack cut in the middle of a long cutscene that has to be restarted if you fail just one. I hated RE4 for a lot of reasons, but the knife fight... Ooh damn the knife fight.

 

[The Heik]

Loading Screens that don't fit in.

At least Portal 2's loading screens made sense.

Mass Effect 2 somehow made me want the elevators back...

I hear you. The ME2 world lacked it's feeling of size because all those environs didn't have seem linked together.

OT: fighting games, and games that require lots of button memorization. I work better with only a few things I need to know, each having one clear use that I have to apply, rather than numerous large button combinations in order to do only one thing. It's counter-intuitive to me.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Ladders. Or more specifically, descending ladders. Always break my legs trying to attach to the damn things.

Oh, and cheating AI. I'm looking at you Civ V. How come I've done nothing but research military tech but you still out gun me and have every other tech to go with it. Why don't your cities have any improvements but can still turn out unit on a turn by turn basis with no worries about income or happiness. And why do you always attack me when it's clear that one of the other AI's is going to win the game without some intervention.

 

[Tadaka]

Excessive cut scenes. I want to play a game, not watch a freaking movie. There are probably many games that I may be missing out on but having to sit through too much of that just kills the experience for me. The Diablo series did this right; every one of the cut scenes were relevant, impressive, enjoyable and not over done.

A close second would be stealth levels in otherwise action oriented games. Getting used to using all your nifty tricks and weapons just to have them stripped away for some arbitrary reason infuriates me.

 

[Agent X506]

*snip*

*snip*

You misunderstood me, I wouldn't mind a 5 minute loading screen if the game did not need to load any further for quite some time (whilst this would be nigh impossible, one can dream right?) obviously if you had it taking 5 minutes to load every time you changed cells... *Throws game out the window*

 

[Cuchulainn90]

Protect or escort missions Tom Clancy games are massive culprits here.

 

[tahrey]

*snip*

*snip*

You misunderstood me, I wouldn't mind a 5 minute loading screen if the game did not need to load any further for quite some time (whilst this would be nigh impossible, one can dream right?) obviously if you had it taking 5 minutes to load every time you changed cells... *Throws game out the window*

You're obviously a lot more patient then. I would not find a load time of more than about 30 seconds acceptable any more. Given that you could easily fill the memory of a typical console in about five seconds flat with the read speed of a typical hard disk, it smacks of poor optimisation. There have been games (e.g. GTA San Andreas) that can stream much of their map straight off a DVD and have longest, play-interrupting load times of a few seconds max. And I upgraded an older PC from 32 to 96mb just because Driver was taking 30+ seconds to load each level (bizarrely, it goes so much faster with 64+... must have been dumping a lot of other stuff to swap) and I was getting bored. That such a thing can't be achieved on a hard disk based console game in 2011 is mind boggling.