Things you wish designers would stop doing?

[Flake]

In the new Metroid game they do this thing where you will go into first person view in order to spot some clue that will further the plot. Until you find the clue, you can't go anywhere.

THIS and this alone has made me put the game down for a bit. It destroys the flow of the game and they made no effort to make the 'clue' you're looking for obvious. If you're going to subject me to an unskippable cut-scene, JUST DO IT. Don't make me waste five minutes to look for some teensy little spot in the back ground.

I hope this idea dies the painful death it deserves and does not proliferate to other games.

[AppleQueso]

Xenosaga's cutscenes are both pausable AND skippable, and are done in such a way that you won't accidentally skip one you didn't intend to.

Why can't all games just do this? Seriously? It's a win-win thing.

[Flake]

Xenosaga's cutscenes are both pausable AND skippable, and are done in such a way that you won't accidentally skip one you didn't intend to.

Why can't all games just do this? Seriously? It's a win-win thing.

I think it's hubris. I think designers are often so proud of what they do that it never occurs to them that I don't give a crap, let me play the game already.

[Para]

I really hate Timed Button Sequences too. A couple times in Resident Evil 4 it would go from a cinematic straight into a timed button sequence without any real warning. So one minute you are just sitting back watching the story unfold and the next thing you know, you didn't press A, B, R, R, B, at the correct time and now you are dead. Great game design there. Timed Button Sequences are awkward, gimmicky, unoriginal and I feel like they take you out of the game experience by randomly throwing these at you.

I also hate that you have to sit though ten different logos when starting up a game. This is especially bad in Fat Princess and 3D Dot Game Heroes.

There is about 5 separate black screen logos that pop up when you start 3D Dot Game Heroes. It is kind of annoying because you see them every single time you start the game. I don't really give a shit what type of shader engine the game uses, I just want to see who made the game and then play it.

In Fat Princess you have to always agree to some terms of usage EVERY FUCKING TIME you play the game. I really don't understand why it can't be like every other game or program ever invented, and let you agree to it once and then never come up again. I really takes a couple minutes to actually get into a game. You have to sit through the stupid logos, wait for the terms of service to fully load, accept terms of service, wait for game to load, join game, wait for game to load some more, go back to main menu because the first game you try to connect to NEVER works, and then try to join again and you're ready to play!


What I was saying before about pre-oder bonuses;
I don't really have anything against getting a cool collectible item by pre-ordering, like the controller or sound track that were previously mentioned. My problem is with the digital content that can only be obtained by pre-odering the game.

I really don't think it is fair or even worth it half the time. Getting custom skins is kind of stupid but tolerable, but when they offer specific game changing things such as unlockable characters or items that can only be obtained by pre-odering, I really think that isn't fair to everyone else and it is just stupid overall. If you develop content for a game, make it accessible to everyone whether they pre-order or not. I wish companies would offer more collectible things such as posters, action figures, unique art, behind the scenes and all that stuff rather than some gimmicky "DIGITAL RED HALO SUIT" or some crap.

Two examples out of hundreds that I have are:

In UFC Undisputed 2010 if you pre-order the game you get four more unlockable characters to use. I didn't know about this and I don't often pre-order a game unless it is something incredibly epic so my UFC roster is short four fighters.

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 allows you to unlock Bret Hart if you pre-order the game. Just another stupid example of how people lose out on good aspects of the game for no real reason.

Pre-odering has really gotten out of hand and no one is even doing this creatively anymore. Also getting different pre-order bonuses depending where you order something from is also bullshit but I don't feel like getting into that.

</rant>

[AppleQueso]

Again the preorder bonuses thing, even shit like RED HALO SUIT, is more of a marketing issue than a game design one. Blame the marketing departments.

[aaron]

making shitty games.

[Flake]

making shitty games.

Good luck on that trend ever stopping.

[GSZX1337]

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 allows you to unlock Bret Hart if you pre-order the game. Just another stupid example of how people lose out on good aspects of the game for no real reason.

WHO NEEDS BRET? WHO NEEDS BRET?

[GigaPepsiMan]

I wish game designers would stop overusing cinematic cutscenes, they are good sometimes but plase don't use them for everything some things are easy enough to figure out no need to tell us what is happening when we can see it with our own eyes.

[Jrecee]

Respawning enemies. They're annoying in megaman games, and they downright ruined the super star wars games.