The ongoing Xcom 2 thread brought up issues regarding difficulty and turn limits. Leaving AI out of the conversation...what are your 3 most hated designer's intentional game design decisions? My three are:
Turn limits (i.e. Xcom 2)
Save Points rather than save anywhere (i.e. some shooters)
Locked battles (i.e. original Scourge of War: Gettysburg)
- Game Locks (if I buy the darn game, I should be able to play the entire game from the start)
- Multiplayer Only Games (number of games would like to play, but only are multiplayer)
- Restricted End Games (game ends after a pre-determined ending/time---want flexibility to write my own history without constraints)
Probably more...but will stop after the requested three :)
How long before the inclusion of DRM be mentioned:)
Resource collecting. Mass Effect 2 turned my uber hero and elite crew into friggin space miners. We have the resources of the entire Earth Alliance at our disposal, can't we just buy the damned palladium?!
Hex-based maps -- Plenty of hex-based wargames I love -- Grigsby's titles, Decisive Campaigns -- but I think we're well past the point of retiring in *PC games* this 20th-century board-game convention
The "4X games must still be fundamentally based on Sid Meier's original Civilization formula...from 1991" dogma. Still amazed at how hard it is for developers to push this genre in truly new directions.
Only saving the game at "checkpoints". Stupid and frustrating. I should be able to save the damned game anytime I want.
Quote from: DoctorQuest on January 16, 2017, 10:34:14 AM
Only saving the game at "checkpoints". Stupid and frustrating. I should be able to save the damned game anytime I want.
And it lets you know something is going to happen.
"Game Locks (if I buy the darn game, I should be able to play the entire game from the start)"
x10 on this one. Its one of the most pig-headed and stubborn issues that immature developers foist upon us. I still have a hard time understanding the logic.
Crafting. Hate it. It's never fun. At best it's innocuous. Usually it's a chore.
Mandatory multi-player. Usually to the detriment of the single player experience. If your focus is meant to be on a single player experience, focus on that. Work on improving the AI instead of slapping on some forgettable capture the flag nonsense.
Multi-platform release. Usually means it's a console to PC port and far too often fails to utilize the assets of the PC. Locked frame rates, non adjustable POV, no key binding options, console controller auto detect that can't be turned off and gets confused by joysticks, no joystick support, limited graphics options, small maps, short draw distance, etc.
Bohemia's Carrier Command has one fatal design flaw to an otherwise great game. There is no fast forward when your carrier is just waiting for supplies to be produced or arrive (there is when you travel).
It means you have to sit there and surf the net or read a book while waiting for your supply barque to arrive. This can take 5 min or more.
Very much a shame because otherwise the game is very good IMHO.
Quote from: DoctorQuest on January 16, 2017, 10:34:14 AM
Only saving the game at "checkpoints". Stupid and frustrating. I should be able to save the damned game anytime I want.
But lo, in the lowest deep a lower deep! -- being able to save only a checkpoints is annoying enough; being unable to
keep saves at those checkpoints is even worse. (Both are a console game characteristic.)
Example of the former: a JRPG like the Final Fantasy games, where even if you have limited save slots and can only save the game when you reach certain town areas, at least you have a rollback of saves to work from.
Example of the latter: the
Batman: Arkham series. This still has a limited few number of save slots, but each slot holds one and only one ongoing game. If you want to go back to see a plot thing again because you missed it due to reasons (sometimes goofy game mis-timing reasons), you can't even reload from one of a few older saves and play back up to that point. If you want to play an unlocked New Game +, you have exactly
one opportunity to do so. If you want to play a New Game + again you must sacrifice a new slot (perhaps deleting an old progress) and play through the whole vanilla campaign once to unlock the NG+ again. This is purely a console limited-save design and using it on the PC (or any modern system really) is asinine beyond words.
Behold! -- in the lower deep a lowest deep is yet again revealed: games that feature good New Games + which restrict you to starting the NG+ exactly once. If you want to play a NG+ campaign again, you have to start over from scratch on a vanilla playthrough. This is light years retarded beyond even the former low, because there is literally no reason why a simple code switch cannot be activated for an install's save-group (even assuming the dumbass limited install problems already noted), giving you the option to start
any new progress slot from a NG+. Even if (using B:Ark again as an example) the NG+ is designed to read the progress of the vanilla game in order to clarify things like the Riddler trophies which have been unlocked and which still need fulfilling, you could still write five lines of code to ask "select a finished normal game from which to build the NG+". But in the B:Ark games, the Riddler trophy progression is (I think in all three applicable cases) the only thing carried over incomplete! Why not give an option in another five lines of code, of, "Do you want to treat the Riddler goals as already finished for your NG+? Press x if yes, press y if you want to finish those yourself." Sure, they get you experience to spend on upgrades, but the whole point to a NG+ is that you're starting out with a lot of upgrades already unlocked (except where locked for plot purposes), and those aren't the
only way to get xp! The B:Ark games aren't the only ones with this problem, but they annoy me the most: I put my time in already unlocking those things to get the final Riddler mission, I don't want to have to do it again. Just let his plot run straight from now on.
(Note: I don't think
Arkham Asylum has a NG+ option, and its Riddler resolution is lame.
Origins: Blackgate has a NG+, if I recall, but finishing out the collectables doesn't unlock more plot -- and nothing to do with the Riddler, incidentally. Out of the remaining three games,
Origins doesn't matter if you get full completion because there is no plot resolution just a stupid single question mark trophy -- you get all the resolution you're going to get just by going through the normal game. Still, the NG+ should be doable for either of those games from
any fresh start once unlocked.
City and
Knight are the only two games where starting with full Riddler trophy completion is actually useful, although there are other benefits of course, which also apply to
Origins and, to a much less extent, to
Origins:Blackgate.)
SDR hit on crafting - and I thought it was just me. I'd rather collect coin and buy some cool armor/weapons/spells/potions.
I also hate puzzles and timed missions.
Ditto on crafting and puzzles.
I do like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, though.
My most hated design feature are tiny click boxes! What the hell are they thinking when they make them almost microscopic. Example Carriers at War. Great game but the boxes for strikes etc. Have a tiny little click box that's almost impossible to click. I also hate small fonts, sometimes I need to put on reading glasses just to see what it's stating. :tickedoff:
Quote from: Gusington on January 16, 2017, 04:08:53 PM
I do like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, though.
Coconut in a drink. ANOTHER bad design decision.
My other pet peeve, although others probably like......overly complex character generation in RPG games.....so many options without clear understandings....often get stuck at creation and never fully enjoy the game:(
- Check points - That has killed so many games for me... I understand there may be technical limitations (e.g. in Red Faction Guerrilla for instance, I can see it is hard to track where every little piece of debris went) but often it just a ploy to make games harder or becomes a point of friction between my hobby and real life...
- Shopping Trolley Design - Nowadays game developers have lots of channels to receive feedback through... which is a good thing. What is not a good thing is that many developers, in order to avoid whinging, when not outright trolling, try to be everything to everyone. Which either results in a half baked game, since your feature set is too broad to be developed with your resources, or in a bland, tutifrutti product where you will still have parts of your audience picking up the fruity bits they don't like, prompting reactions like "rock melon? in my ice cream? THIS IS F*CKING RIDICULOUS! Let me do a full 360 degrees vomit spread on the forums to make sure EVERYONE knows how displeased I am". The world would be a very sad place if all the music made in the United States boiled down to musical clones of whatever was at the top of the Top 40 last week, right? Same thing with games.
- Art & UI Design Done Once... And Never Again - Art and UI work is expensive to make. But if art gets in the way of mechanics and UX, then the Art needs to go and the UI needs to be redesigned. Fixing arbitrary limits on the resolutions people can play with, not handling properly DPI scaling issues, etc. are going to hit your bottom line on the medium and long term more than the $$$ or other resources spent up front on developing a functional, pleasant and ergonomic experience. More specifically about war games with simulation components: they are by definition WIP... a developer cannot expect the art and UI to remain static as game mechanics and gameplay evolves and the expectations of your players do too as technology gets more sophisticated.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 16, 2017, 11:51:50 AM
Crafting. Hate it. It's never fun. At best it's innocuous. Usually it's a chore.
+1
It's everywhere, now. ::)
Quote from: Gusington on January 16, 2017, 04:08:53 PM
I do like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, though.
:smitten:
Gus is my soul mate.
I just liked the cassette tap awesome mix label. That's a classic 80's trend that will never see a revival.
Its called a playlist now...I think.
A good mixed tape was an art form.
Turn limits is HUGE. I can't stand being forced to conquer the universe in a certain time or else
no manual. Maybe not a design decision but damn...I think games like HOI IV should actually have a manual. It's not always convenient to pull up YouTube videos every time I want to know what an icon means or what a button does
Quote from: mirth on January 16, 2017, 06:04:58 PM
A good mixed tape was an art form.
Damned straight!
Save points would be highest on my list along with un-beatable Boss-Battles. Pet Peeve would be poorly written English and overly bad language just for shock effect. Pine Coladas I love, the rain not so much.
Turn limits were a good idea that turned into an iron-clad convention. For the original Panzer General, they introduced a fascinating puzzle-like dimension to the campaign and promoted replay value. After playing five or ten PG clones, I simply find this restraint artificial and tiresome.
The design decision I HATE MOST was the decision, in so many RTS, to make it impossible to issue orders or even survey what's going on, in Pause mode. Did more to turn me off most games in that genre than anything else. I like to figure out what's going on and plan my moves when I play a strategy game. If I want to frantically mash buttons, I'll play a Diablo clone!
What about dongles?
Quote from: Nefaro on January 16, 2017, 05:37:30 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 16, 2017, 11:51:50 AM
Crafting. Hate it. It's never fun. At best it's innocuous. Usually it's a chore.
+1
It's everywhere, now. ::)
Worse than that, it's increasingly becoming the entire point in many games. I still haven't bought Fallout 4 because of it. I think it's what developers are doing now instead of actually investing in writing a plot. "Hey, people like Minecraft, let's make Minecraft but with the graphics assets from our last RPG, and call it a new game!"
Screw. That.
Ditto on save points/check points, time/turn limits, stupid escort missions, and particularly forced MP.
My current pet-peeve is the grinding lack of originality that game publishers/designers are mired in right now, but that's not really in the spirit of the thread. I'll just say that there's not much point in having a million game choices if nearly all of them suck, because they're just derivative crap.
I can vouch for the awesome power of a good mix tape. One or two even got me laid - by a real woman!
Quote from: Gusington on January 16, 2017, 08:18:40 PM
I can vouch for the awesome power of a good mix tape. One or two even got me laid - by a real woman!
Woot!
^That's what both she and I said, at the time :)
Quote from: panzerde on January 16, 2017, 08:16:22 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on January 16, 2017, 05:37:30 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 16, 2017, 11:51:50 AM
Crafting. Hate it. It's never fun. At best it's innocuous. Usually it's a chore.
+1
It's everywhere, now. ::)
My current pet-peeve is the grinding lack of originality that game publishers/designers are mired in right now, but that's not really in the spirit of the thread. I'll just say that there's not much point in having a million game choices if nearly all of them suck, because they're just derivative crap.
Tell us how you
REALLY feel! ;) ;D O0
"Read a history book if you want historical accuracy" - Used to be yelled in the paradox forum, now it seems to be a core design philosophy of their games. Though I must admit, it's worked out really well for their sales though :)
Complexity through numbers - So many wargames do this; giving me 1000 units with little depth is not 100 times more complex than giving me 10 units, it just prolongs the agony of a turn and shortens the number of turns I will play before binning.
Complexity through obfuscation - "Our game is far too complex to publish the rules of combat, or supply, or anything, just learn by feel."
Rock paper scissors - Doesn't just apply to 'lite' games, far too many strategy games devolve to rock paper scissors with sprites.
Grand strategy with tactical battles or tactical battles with grand strategy. - It's hard enough to come up with one good game, let alone write two and stitch them together in a well paced, well thought out game. Just because Creative Assembly managed it doesn't mean that every developer can....but it doesnt stop them all from trying
Quote from: dinsdale on January 16, 2017, 10:52:35 PM
Complexity through numbers - So many wargames do this; giving me 1000 units with little depth is not 100 times more complex than giving me 10 units, it just prolongs the agony of a turn and shortens the number of turns I will play before binning.
Complexity through obfuscation - "Our game is far too complex to publish the rules of combat, or supply, or anything, just learn by feel."
Rock paper scissors - Doesn't just apply to 'lite' games, far too many strategy games devolve to rock paper scissors with sprites.
Grand strategy with tactical battles or tactical battles with grand strategy. - It's hard enough to come up with one good game, let alone write two and stitch them together in a well paced, well thought out game. Just because Creative Assembly managed it doesn't mean that every developer can....but it doesnt stop them all from trying
Nice ones!
I absolutely despise in-game/in-app purchases. If I buy a game I want access to it all. I'm not talking about DLC; I get that to an extent. But not "click here for more war bucks" or whatever the frig some games do. This is one of the reasons I hardly peruse the App store anymore - they're pretty much all like that. If I do look and see "In App Purchases," I move on.
^Ooh good [bad] one.
I'm not a fan of game designs where the core of the game is about lack of something that severely limits a player's options. The most annoying form of this design philosophy manifests itself in a lack of movement for your pieces on the board. I am thinking more along the lines of war and strategy games here. For example, if your game is about the Axis blitzkrieg in Russia, making it extremely difficult to move your pieces is annoying and counter-intuitive.
I prefer game designs, where its appropriate, that emphasize freedom of movement and on-the-fly flexibility. 99 times out of 100 I would prefer to out maneuver someone rather than out activate someone. After all, combat is chaotic and fluid and game designs that turn that process into a game of chess miss out of the unpredictable nature of war.
Quote from: Rayfer on January 16, 2017, 09:04:15 AM
The ongoing Xcom 2 thread brought up issues regarding difficulty and turn limits. Leaving AI out of the conversation...what are your 3 most hated designer's intentional game design decisions? My three are:
Turn limits (i.e. Xcom 2)
Save Points rather than save anywhere (i.e. some shooters)
Locked battles (i.e. original Scourge of War: Gettysburg)
I hate those and I'll add (as do others)
No useful single player practice mode This is incredibly annoying. For example, Naval Action's actions just take too long most of the time, but a savable practice mode would be a marvelous game -- it has AI and instanced battles so why not just let people do that if they want?
In principle I'm a hater of timed missions and escort missions
However xcom2s timed missions make sense and are not too bad - yes you make some rash choices but that's the point of the rpg element - a guerilla force doesn't get 2 and a half days to blow up a transmitter it gets a small window of opportunity and that's what the game represents imho
Will never like escort missions
Good one. I've hated escort missions since I played the first X-Wing games on the PC back in the mid 90s. I don't like being tied down and being punished for not having omnipotent perception to see every sneaky thing coming.
I hate mini-games - If I'm on a role killing evil (insert enemy units here) I don't want to stop to re-wire a reading lamp or figure out how to break 30 levels of encryption on a safe which holds the "green" key card !!! >:(
Quote from: MIGMaster on January 18, 2017, 09:09:55 AM
I hate mini-games - If I'm on a role killing evil (insert enemy units here) I don't want to stop to re-wire a reading lamp or figure out how to break 30 levels of encryption on a safe which holds the "green" key card !!! >:(
Ugh. Mini-games do suck.
Quote from: mirth on January 18, 2017, 09:21:03 AM
Quote from: MIGMaster on January 18, 2017, 09:09:55 AM
I hate mini-games - If I'm on a role killing evil (insert enemy units here) I don't want to stop to re-wire a reading lamp or figure out how to break 30 levels of encryption on a safe which holds the "green" key card !!! >:(
Ugh. Mini-games do suck.
Not always. I enjoyed the mini-games in Covert Action. They're few and far between, but when done right they can add a lot to a game.
The mini game of Gwent in The Witcher 3 is awesome.
The 'Lock-Picking' mini-game in Skyrim can be very frustrating at times. Gentlemen, your locks are all safe around me.
Overly Complex Character Design in RPG's: This has killed games like Wasteland 2, Divinity, Pillars of Eternity, etc for me. Unless you've played through a game before, its not unheard of to make a game extremely difficult or impossible to complete if you choose the wrong set of character abilities at the start. I love all the options for character skills and abilities Wasteland 2 has but I wish they were in a format similar to Skyrim, where you started with a blank slate then grow into your character as the game progresses.
Every 4x that isn't made by Paradox copying Civilization Mechanics: There has been almost no innovation in this genre for the last 20 years. I hate it when I cant train a unit, build a ship, and construct a building at the same time. I am absolutely sick of the start with one planet/city mechanic. I'm tired of only being able to research one tech at a time. I really liked the vanilla Distant Worlds tech mechanic. It was a little flawed and needed refinement but nope, the developer gave into the masses and gave us a boring traditional tech tree. Although I really love the customization options in Distant Worlds. I've done almost any combination of set ups you can think of. One planet player starts and tech tree is a flaw I see in Stellaris but Stellaris partially makes up for it with the randomized tech tree.
Grand Strategy with Tactical Battles: I've never seen a game do this well. Total War is arguable since CAs AI is brain dead in both.
Time Limits: Most recent one for me was XCOM 2. I don't mind a time mission every now and then. But I hated that every mission in XCOM 2 had a hard countdown timer. If they had hidden it a little, like have increasing reinforcements if the mission continued for too long, I probably wouldn't mind. But when there is a hard 8 turn limit, I invariably seem to hit a huge number of enemies and/or get shitty hit rolls and can't make the objective in time.
4x Economies based around Gold/Money: Yes pretty much everything revolves around money in the real world and it does make sense in a lot of games. But I think one thing HOI4 does right is showing that you can have a complex economy that doesn't require you to directly pay money to building something or train a unit. I'd love to see how the HOI4 production line mechanic would work in a game like Stellaris.
I'm sure there is a few others but my flu racked brain can't think of them right now.
Quote from: dinsdale on January 16, 2017, 10:52:35 PM
"Read a history book if you want historical accuracy" - Used to be yelled in the paradox forum, now it seems to be a core design philosophy of their games. Though I must admit, it's worked out really well for their sales though :)
I agree with paradox on this one. When I'm playing a 4x I want history to at least be a plausible outcome, but I don't necessarily want to recreate it. I like having the option to go my own route. Playing England in EUIV, I like the fact I've been able to keep my French provinces and be more involved in Europe rather then being forced out and having my only way of expansion being to colonize. Before that I was playing a game as Italy in HOI4 (really need to get back and finish it), I really like the fact I can not join up with Germany and form my own Italian empire.
Note: the Long War 2 mod for XCom 2 hammers hard on hard-turn-limits. I'm not sure they're entirely gone -- some may be retained for flavor (the enemy is doing something that you want stopped and they'll be finished in 10 minutes) -- but they've largely gone to practical results: stick around in an area too long doing obvious things and you will be overrun to death, being a typical result.
I'm kind of okay with time limits in Panzer Generalish games if they fit the overall strategic narrative: you have so many days to keep the situation on something like a historical schedule, and if not well you aren't going to historically progress.
Having turn limits in other PGish games like, to pull a beloved example, Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy, rarely makes inherent sense. But then FW/EL kind of fixed that by making the turn limits more of an opportunity for reward: take as much time as you want, but if you beat the map in ten moves then you get bling; and if in 8 moves then you get moar bling. This becomes an interesting tradeoff in risk going forward: if I shatter my core troops going for a gold win, I'm going to be screwed taking them into future battles. But if I can do it without major losses, I can pick up an item that will help me forever afterward, and/or gold I can spend on upgrading more of my troops than otherwise.
I made a point of reflecting their way of dealing with "turn limits" in my narrative AAR for the first half of the FW campaign tracks. Both sides get gold and silver wins, with more difficulty in getting even silver wins as the campaign goes on; but the final human mission I 'storied' (so far) I just couldn't push hard enough to get more than a minimal finish. And I put that into the story, too. O0
Combat Mission's 'leap' to 2nd generation with CMSF.
1. Scripted Campaign Operations had their problems; going scripted was a step back to me. CM with a better AI and sandbox would be approaching Holy Grail.
2. CM's almost complete lack of AI. It's shocking how single player AI units barely react. There are some great user made missions; but even some of those kind of cheat to give AI a chance making the missions 'puzzle' like. Try playing a Quick Battle- pointless in SP.
Graviteam Tactics
1. No We go Such a shame because it has a functional operational layer and looks pretty.
No 2 player yet
Stellaris
Looks to me like combat has super shallow strategy. One stack wipe and that war is won.
Quote from: Kushan on January 18, 2017, 11:37:54 AM
I agree with paradox on this one. When I'm playing a 4x I want history to at least be a plausible outcome, but I don't necessarily want to recreate it. I like having the option to go my own route. Playing England in EUIV, I like the fact I've been able to keep my French provinces and be more involved in Europe rather then being forced out and having my only way of expansion being to colonize. Before that I was playing a game as Italy in HOI4 (really need to get back and finish it), I really like the fact I can not join up with Germany and form my own Italian empire.
I don't necessarily disagree as long as its plausible. The solution paradox found though was to simply make everything plausible.
Two of the things I miss from EU2: 1) When it diverged from history significantly it was a neat, and interesting thing to see, now I find the how big will France get before it collapses or takes all Europe tedious. 2) Playing through the challenges of history, coping with the Reformation, or the Times of Troubles and coming out the other side. The generic events just don't have enough flavor as there's no context; we all know, or found out about major historical events, they have quite a backstory, getting a generic 'Things are going to suck' or 'Things are going to be great' event is much emptier to me.
Don't know if one of these has been mentioned..but here goes:
Puzzles. Frequently a show-stopper for me. Once you're stuck, you're stuck forever. Either hope to find the answer online, or quit playing the game forever.
Next, AI ramping up in difficulty as you level. Specifically, the turn based WWII game, The Few. You CANNOT win this game. As you level, the game levels just a little more, until you are overwhelmed. I once demanded the fanboys post ANYONE showing the win screen from this game. No one ever did. The developer attempted to defend his design decision...but he could not. An unwinnable game defeats the purpose. Just total bullshit here.
Last, and by FAR the worst design decision I have ever seen, in 55+ years of gaming, is what they did to Master of Orion 3. I purchased the game, in advance, bought the Prima strategy game, in advance, and got ready for a real treat. Turn one, I set my research and build orders, and hit next turn. The results were not what I wanted. The AI, FOR MY SIDE, "corrected" my build order to build and research what THEY wanted me to build and research. I thought I screwed up. I tried again, with the same result. I got online, and peeps were SCREAMING about this. The developers still attempted to defend this design decision..that THEY, as developers, knew what I needed to research more than me, and screw me, and my strategies.
At that point, I deleted the game off of my hard drive, never to be played again.
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on January 16, 2017, 07:41:16 PM
Turn limits were a good idea that turned into an iron-clad convention. For the original Panzer General, they introduced a fascinating puzzle-like dimension to the campaign and promoted replay value. After playing five or ten PG clones, I simply find this restraint artificial and tiresome.
The design decision I HATE MOST was the decision, in so many RTS, to make it impossible to issue orders or even survey what's going on, in Pause mode. Did more to turn me off most games in that genre than anything else. I like to figure out what's going on and plan my moves when I play a strategy game. If I want to frantically mash buttons, I'll play a Diablo clone!
RTS games that cannot be paused to issue orders has to be right up there. A few go so far as to blacken the screen when you pause, so you can't use the time to review the action. Waaaay to often, RTS games rely on task-saturation of the player to provide the challenge, and NOT the capabilities of the AI. Big problem here.
Quote from: DennisS on January 21, 2017, 06:10:49 PM
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on January 16, 2017, 07:41:16 PM
Turn limits were a good idea that turned into an iron-clad convention. For the original Panzer General, they introduced a fascinating puzzle-like dimension to the campaign and promoted replay value. After playing five or ten PG clones, I simply find this restraint artificial and tiresome.
The design decision I HATE MOST was the decision, in so many RTS, to make it impossible to issue orders or even survey what's going on, in Pause mode. Did more to turn me off most games in that genre than anything else. I like to figure out what's going on and plan my moves when I play a strategy game. If I want to frantically mash buttons, I'll play a Diablo clone!
RTS games that cannot be paused to issue orders has to be right up there. A few go so far as to blacken the screen when you pause, so you can't use the time to review the action. Waaaay to often, RTS games rely on task-saturation of the player to provide the challenge, and NOT the capabilities of the AI. Big problem here.
Oh that reminds me. European Escalation- Whhyyy no pause.
Wargame Red Dragon- why simplify/ditch what was promising about the campaign of previous Wargame.
I love the game but I am hating a design decision they did in Witcher 3
During a quest line you have to run multiple different fights/races in a tournament with a ton of cut scenes and dialog before and after. There is no option to save during these cut scenes (you can save between the different events). That means when you try and win your event if you lose you have to endure about 10 minutes of different cut scenes sometimes leading to another cut scene with no breaks or places to save etc. You can skip through them but they all need to load and even skipping them requires prodigious amounts of button mashing. Of course you need to win all three events in order to get the quest prize. This mechanic has me literally foaming right now I am so irked.
Con
QTE's ---- seriously....has anyone....anywhere ever seen a post from a gamer saying; "man those qte's are great!" In the old days it was mases that got me--but QTE's is about as lazy as it gets for devs.
Turn limits - if you game has an A.I. these are totally unwarranted and inexcusable. Tactical combat games are supposed to be about tactics---whereas a timer forces the player to throw out tactics and rush to the objective---and the obvious reason for their use is because the A.I. can't hold up to good tactics used by the player.
Bad A.I. -- has been with us so long many players think good A.I. is impossible and even defend bad A.I. til they are blue in the face. of all the devs I've worked for not one alloted more than 14 days to A.I.---this is why we have bad A.I.... My self projects my A.I. programming takes from one to three years----it is the heart of the game and a huge chunk of dev time. but a modular system can be ported from game to game---making the investment pay off if devs invested in it. They don't and won't as long as the public continues to accept the current state of A.I. in games.
PG-13 always --- If games really want wide appeal they have to stop with always centering on 12 to 16 age groups. The movie industry certainly doesn't. Games for adults are very rare--and i'm not speaking porno games-but say games like the Witcher. Even those are barely a PG-13 movie. Story and lore are as important as the game itself----and can make or break the game--and what spoils many games for me and other adults.
Hampsters in Space suits------when will the nightmare ever end.
Game clients---want a new EA game...must load client. Gog even has one. Steam...uplay----ever step away from a Mass Effect 3 game for a few months and go back and have to spend a better part of an hour waiting for your out of date client to update before you can play? Gee it never saved your password and it's been months sense you logged in. what was it? Ever clicked the don't update game option in steam and have a client update reset that...which happens about weekly with steam. If these are sooooo great why all the updating? I don't put up with this with Fire TV, Amazon and netflix and hulu. No wonder gaming is playing second fiddle for entertainment dollars.