Things you hate in games

[Prowler]

As much as we like games in this section there's always things that annoy us or that we seriously dislike about them. I'll start:

Water levels: a classic most seem to hate. Rarely do I play a water level I enjoy. It's just annoying to have slower movements and being unable to attack or have your attacking options limited.

Long unskippable cutscenes: OK, I get it that I gotta watch ti the first time, but if I die in that level or against that boss and need to start over why the hell should I be forced to sit through the cutscene again?!

Missions where you gotta follow a car without being seen/noticed: Yeah Sleeping Dogs and GTA sort of games love these. I don't mind car chases but having to drive slow and keeping a fairly long distance away from a car is annoying.

Having to fight several bosses in a row without checkpoints in-between them or being able to refill your health: Like Hyperstone Heist in the Gauntlet level. 4 goddamn bosses in a row UGH

Boring long loading screens: Some games need some time to load every time we start them up such as Europa Universalis because they gotta load the maps and such. It'd be less boring if I could read some tips or some sentences during those 3 minute long loading screens instead of just looking at an 18th century knight on top of his horse whilst I wait for the game to fully load.

When a game doesn't give you the option of turning on subtitles during cutscenes: My English is quite good for a non-native speaker but sometimes the character might have a tough accent to understand or I might miss a word or two. Not to mention I tend to pay more attention to what I read than to what I hear.

What about you? What are some gripes you have?

[ToTheNines]

Came here to say underwater levels. At least they normally have pretty great music.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Trailing missions, especially ones where you're responsible for keeping the NPC from getting attacked. Guiding the robot in Skyward Sword up the volcano comes to mind as an easy example.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by TheSkeletonMan939

Trailing missions, especially ones where you're responsible for keeping the NPC from getting attacked. Guiding the robot in Skyward Sword up the volcano comes to mind as an easy example.

Ah escort missions? I never got many of those, maybe because the types of games I play usually don't have them but I hated that level in BattleNexus where you had to protect the Fugitoid from the Federation soldiers.

Thank God Ruto in Ocarina of Time doesn't get hurt otherwise Lord Jabu jabu's dungeon would have been even more unbearable.

[Utrommaniac]

Oh god, the wagon thing in Twilight Princess...Ruto is bearable compared to that. Her personality is annoying, but the actual process isn't so bad.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Came here to say underwater levels. At least they normally have pretty great music.

Well true that. Btw, I liked Hyrocity Zone in Sonic 3, which is an oddity since water levels in Sonic tend to be nerve wrecking.

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

Oh god, the wagon thing in Twilight Princess...Ruto is bearable compared to that. Her personality is annoying, but the actual process isn't so bad.

Ruto gets much better when you finish the dungeon and especially when she grows up. She actually gets some character development.

[Wesley]

Timed missions. That timed Security Hall stage in Sonic Adventure 2 was frustrating and took me sometime to beat. I found the timed duel against Gozaboro in Yugioh Nightmare Traoubadour annoying as well.

Loads and loads of loading. Duels in some Yugioh games such as Reshef of Destruction and WC2011 can be tedious because of this.

[Splinter the boss]

When you're winning a game, and the cpu manages to beat you at the last minute by slowing you down or something. it's unfair.

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by Splinter the boss

When you're winning a game, and the cpu manages to beat you at the last minute by slowing you down or something. it's unfair.

Like the CPU using the Blue Shell against you in the Mario Kart games.

[TMNT_Guy]

One thing that I hate about cutscenes to this very day is the lack of an ability to pause them. You've just spent a long time beating a level/map/section of the game and are finally presented with the next part of the story...and then you get a phone, or someone's ringing your door bell, or someone in the other room is calling for you, etc. Which means your only option is to ignore everything until the cutscene is finished or just simply miss out on that part of the game. I should just be able to simply push whatever the pause button is to pause it, but all that usually does is skip the cutscene all together. I'm not trying to avoid it I'm trying to put it on hold because I have real life stuff that need my attention. I understand some gamers don't like cutscenes or story at all and just want to skip to the gameplay, but some people do care about the story otherwise they wouldn't bother making cutscenes in the first place. There should at least be an option to continue viewing a cutscene after it's finished. Some games at least have the decency to let you view past cutscenes but they are usually only reserved for the big budget FMV cutscenes, the smaller in game cutscenes are almost always left out. All I'm saying is I shouldn't have to replay the entire game just to find out what the Princess said to the Hero after the Mini Boss because I couldn't commit 100% of my time to the game.

Games that don't have multiple save slots. I wanted to replay Sonic Generations from the beginning, but because there aren't any extra save slots my only option is to delete all my records and unlockables. The game does at least lets you watch old cutscenes so you could in theory play a level and then watch the cutscene, but the whole reason I wanted to start a new game was for the feeling of progression. What if I had someone living with me that also wanted to play through the game and unlock everything at his or her pace? The only way for that to work would be If we had two exactly the same game consoles hook up to the same exact TV. If games as far back as the 80s had multiple save slots then why can't some modern games?

Games that end with a bad ending no matter what you do. Storytelling in games is not the same as traditional storytelling. When we read a book or watch a movie whether it's fiction or non-fiction there is an understanding that the events of these storytelling devices have already happened and we are simply an observer watching these events unfold so whatever happens has already happened, we can't change the story. Video Games don't get away with that. In a video game you are constantly and actively making choices and actions that determine if you, the protagonist of the game's story, lose or win no matter how small or big the decision is. Should I jump on the Goomba or just jump over it? Should I buy the health potion or save my money for better armor? Should I use stealth in this mission or can I take them with just my guns? In a game you are no longer simply an observer, you are an active participant. So if the player follows the rules and conditions the game asks of them then what right does the game have to give you a bad ending, the same kind of ending the story would have had the player simply died? It's why so many people wore upset with Aeris's death in Final Fantasy VII or Mass Effect 3's ending. All this time the players wore actively in charge, making sure the the protagonist succeeds...only to have that ability, that agency taken away from them in a cutscene. You could argue "Hey, happy endings don't happen all the time in real life. It just makes the game more realistic." That's true, but I argue video games at the end of the day are just that- games. You should be rewarded for your skill and accomplishments not punished. Imagine if the original Donkey Kong arcade game ended with DK simply throwing Mario off the skyscraper to his death complete with a "Game Over" screen. A video game with a bad ending is like winning a carnival game and not getting a prize. I doubt many people would play poker if the game always ended in everyone losing money. It's also ridiculous when a game requires you to play through the game twice, sometime with a higher difficulty, just to get that good or "true" ending.

Glitches or oversights that prevent the player from finishing the game. Pretty self explanatory but here's some examples. In Indiana Jones and the infernal machine I found a gem required to open a door and continue the game. Real life called so I saved the game and turned off the N64 and continued playing the game later...only for the gem to no longer be in my inventory...and it's no longer on the pedestal it was originally on either. In Resident Evil: Code Veronica my sister got all the way to the end of the game...only to find out she needed the fire extinguisher to continue...the same fire extinguisher she left in the metal detector box at the beginning of the game...the same area that she can't backtrack to.