Gaming Pet Peeves: 8 Piss-Offs That Must Go!
Or: The 8 most annoying aspects of gaming that HAVE to go.
Ed Note:
Please note, all pics are of a humourous nature and NOT to be taken seriously, like some seem to be doing when it comes to MGS4 . Good God, MGS4 is not God’s gift to gaming, it’s a game. Too many Sony fans take offense at the mere mention of the game in any article, yet Gears of War, Fable etc. can be mentioned or joked about and no one bats an eye. Most of us like MGS4 too as a matter of fact. Do grow up and see humour and sarcasm for what it is.
by Shadow Wave
©2008 Ben Cadwallader
While video games continue to push boundaries to dazzle and amaze us each year, I’m getting sick of some trends that simply won’t die. Many of these brilliant new games use the same features that might have seemed innovative back in their day, but are not anymore. While each person has their own gaming pet hates, these are my top 8. May these game faults lose their seeming immortality and die a horrible death, never to be resurrected again.
1. Games that reward you for failing
Unlock this achievement - unlikely
I line up the perfect jump. Fingers on the controller tense and ready. Run, run, run, and press A. Jump… damn it all, I missed and fell! Oh wait, lookie here; there’s a hidden treasure! So screwing up was a good thing after all. Yay me. Screw that! This has got to be my biggest gaming hate. Games shouldn’t hide secret items, health packs, weapons, treasures, and other goodies in places that you will only find if you fail a jump, mess up an attack or make a mistake. Players who succeed a jump across a large yawning gap should not be worse off than the player who fell to the bottom.
While I might forgive the lesser evil of having weapons or health for those that stumble, games that have important collectibles hidden in these areas, with no option of backtracking later to find them, are irredeemable because they force us to load a much earlier save or restart the game if we want to earn a 100% complete game and unlock the best weapon, item, achievement or awesome feature.
I don’t want to jump off a cliff just to see if something is hidden below.
2. Exploding barrels
It's my old "Exploading Barrel Trick" 99
Exploding barrels have become an obsession in the gaming industry. Almost whatever genre you choose to play, somewhere in your travels you will find a bright red shiny barrel to explode. The image of a red barrel is burnt so far into our psyche that most instruction manuals or tutorials don’t even mention them anymore. We know red barrel means big boom-boom from years and years of practice and the obvious colour screaming “I’m flammable”.
What’s worse is when the exploding barrels are where they shouldn’t be. Like, for example, where gamers can figure out that the wall behind the barrels needs to come down. This is too obvious a puzzle device.
Also, the idea that we need clearly marked red barrels to aim for that may provide plenty of boom but otherwise doesn’t add to the gameplay, is getting old. Let’s move away from the barrels, and choose some other more integrated environmental objects that explode, as some games have.
I commend Bungie for creating their own type of exploding objects in Halo 3, and it’s great that they have a logical explanation for them. Best of all…not red.
3. Graphics over gameplay
Ah, hype. Months ahead of a release we are treated to gorgeous screen shots and exciting trailers. The game looks like a hit and I can’t wait to play it. Everyone talks about it before release and previews gush about how fantastic it looks. Then it’s finally released, and sure the graphics look awesome but the gameplay is just downright bland, boring and, even worse, buggy. As the saying goes, it’s not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside that counts.
Why can’t ALL games be like these
Put in for those idiots that think we are compairing these 3 games; 1 is from the 360, 1 from the PC and 1 from PS3. All excellent with great graphics and gameplay. These are the sort of games we WANT.
4. Frame rate slowdown
Stuttt-stutt-stutter - repeat
Unfortunately, many games are burdened with screen tearing or game slowdown while you play. Some games come out which are just constantly lagging with a slow frame rate and you can’t help but wonder: ‘How did this game get released like this?’. Sometimes these are fixed later with patches, but games should be released fully finished.
A good step in the right direction are games that are locked at 30 frames per second (FPS). It keeps the player ‘in the zone’ at a very playable speed. If the game can’t handle a constant 60 FPS, then it should at the very least have a 30 FPS lock as standard.
5. Pointless side quests
Your quest young man is to "find the ring"
You are tasked to find a certain person in a town as part of your main storyline. However, once you travel there you find you aren’t allowed to actually get into the town until you perform a pointless task for someone, such as being forced to collect an item from another town or maybe chase chickens. Then when you are finally in the town, and are able to find the person you are looking for, you might have to do another pointless three minute task for them before they will actually assist you. It’s just an annoying attempt at extending the game.
I’m not saying every single one of those types of quests are useless. Some make sense and are fun and even fit in with the storyline. But the “I won’t let you in until I get a nice sandwich” type just piss me off.
6. Un-skipable cut scenes
You show me that cutscene ONE more time I'll !
I absolutely hate being forced to sit through that same two minute cut scene after each time I die. Why some games don’t let you skip cut scenes you’ve already seen just amazes me. Even if the developers think they made an awesome cut scene, it gets boring fast and just sours the game.
Imagine if the Metal Gear Solid series did not let you skip cut scenes. The cut scenes were so long that the gaming press would be screaming about how annoyed they were at being forced to sit through them multiple times. Only the die-hard fans would cope with that. All games need to let you skip cut scenes and thankfully a lot more games now let you do so than in the past. Even if the cut scenes are there to hide a loading screen, you should be able to skip the cut scene as soon as it has loaded.
7. Games with no narrative depth
BioShock showed what narratives need to be like
It really sucks when the credits start rolling at the end of the game, and all you are left with is a thought of “WTF?” Every single player game that is not about sports or racing needs a story. Unfortunately, many games have shallow or incomprehensible stories and it’s just annoying when the developers haven’t put the effort into making sure the game has a decent story and, importantly, a logical ending. Your character and those around him need motive and reasons for doing things. Even if the focus of the game is about gameplay, to be properly immersed and satisfied by a game, we need good story.
8. Loading screens without a load progress bar
No loading bar, just ads on not smoking
I hate a loading screen without a progress bar. How hard would it be to put a little subtle bar at the bottom left of a screen to show how much is loaded? I hate thinking “has the game just frozen?” when all I see is the little annoying loading animation that tells you nothing about the loading progress, that plays over and over again, but nothing else seems to be happening. The bottom line is… give us a progress bar!
So those are what piss me off the most. What are your personal pet peeves of gaming? Leave a comment below.
The pic is humour showing that even ads can be used as loading screens in some games.
©2008 Ben Cadwallader
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Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Editorial, Forza 3, Microsoft Games, New Game Information, Xbox 360 News, Xbox Originals
Wow alot of PS3 fanboys in here hey, Well it was a good read but my number 1 complaint is matchmaking i think it is a completly flawed system and i dont know why developers keep using it.
Oh and #2 is the pricing of DLC it seems to be slowly creeping up and is starting to put me off buying such things.
“mgs4 does have a load bar it had just finished in that screenshot and why use ps3 screenshot to make a point use the wii cos no one likes that”
Because the good Wii games don’t fall under these categories, dolt. Most Wii games don’t even have loading screens. I find it funny how the ones worth owning run at constant 60 fps (constant 30 for Zelda) with almost no frame drops while a lot of the good 360/PS3 games struggle to keep up at 30 and dip often.
And they don’t look wax-coated, to boot!
Great read, sure some took it the wrong way and I totally agree with the exploding barrels. FMV is a concern, I noticed this really took off in the Final Fantasy series which made me stay away from the last few (and no it is not an attack on Sony!).
I also like the drums in Far Cry 2. Not only do they explode, but they do so in a very realistic fashion. Blowing out the bottom of the drum and shooting sky-high in the process. Followed by other containers should they be laying around the area at the same time. Gas bottles go off rather nicely to.
Spinning all over the place until finally exploding in a nice fireball. So I’m all for exploding barrels – so long as they are used in the right fashion, not simply as a way to make a game too easy etc.
I like the barrels in Far Cry 2 that make the whole jungle catch fire!!!
However, some barrels are there to shoot instead of having to aim for a headshot on enemies behind cover. Forget aiming at the enemy, just hit the nearby barrel in red and that’s do it! Looks great but if done too much, it takes away from aiming at guys.
I don’t see what you could possibly have against exploding barrels, they might be cliche but they sure are fun!
@ Uneducated Idiots,
Thank you . .sometimes one must hold the hands of some readers, who often seem hell bent on finding flaws with anything they might find objectionable. But, and this is the weirdest thing, you won’t find those complaining about such things sitting down for a few hours or days writing articles on things, they prefer to criticize those that do take the time to do so.
So thanks for seeing what the article IS about, not what it is NOT about. 10 brownie points to you mate.
It seems one can NOT mention the great MGS4 in the same sentence or on the same site as anything related to Xbox. If you want to check out how must we HATE the game (MGS4) then check out our review, and the coverage we gave the game on launch here in Australia, then complain.
So thanks again for READING first,not like some.
Oh and he edited the article to basically say the same thing I said……
You guys don’t understand that he is putting examples of games that don’t commit the atrocities that he mentions, instead of listing ones that do. If he listed the ones that do the bad things he would have way too many pictures. I don’t think he was putting down any of the games in the pictures. Reread the article after reading what I said, if it don’t make sense, go back to school.
yeah i know that MGS4 has a loading bar, trust me lol.Even though I wrote the article, I didn’t choose the pictures for the article.
but in all seriousness, its just light humor.
MGS4 does have a progress percentage meter
MGS4 cutscenes CAN be skipped (which makes me wonder why people complain about them being long at all)
When you said the part about graphics over gameplay, you featured pictures of gears of war, MGS4 and some FPS game that I cant recognise. But what i know about Gears and MGS4 is they have some of the best graphics AND best gameplay, if you are suggesting these arent really good games you are SO wrong.
Overall i found this article flawwed,
EXPLODING BARRELS FTW
I’d like to point out that MGS4 does have a progress bar, you’re showing in 8, the screen after loading is finished (look at the bottom right hand corner), actually, the game gives a progress bar, the percentage and the estimated waiting time.
You’re just doing false anti-advertisement for the game. It’s a shame because the rest of this list isn’t quite wrong…
Why you put Gears 2, Far Cry 2 and MGS4 under “graphics over gameplay” I do not know. Neither of those games have bad gameplay.
It was also equally stupid to put MGS4 under unskippable cutscenes seeing as you can skip cutscenes, as you even pointed out yourself. So you’re hating on the game for omitting something that it in fact does not omit? That is stupidity. At least pick a title that has what you’re complaining about.
obviously a 360 fanboy trying to make ps3 games look bad (mgs4).
LOL,
you just got (dominated,owned,pwned,wrecked, demolished) (take ur pick) on the MGS4 topic
Wow, you guys do know that there is a progress bar with the MGS loading screens. There’s a number that increases. So, while it’s not a bar, you know how much longer you have. Or has playing 360 for so long dumbed your mind to numbers and you need a graphical representation.
If you are a 360 site (an amateur one to boot with no hopes of making it big) stick to 360 games. Don’t throw stones at other systems when you can’t even aim. You guys will always be amateurs with lists like this.
Sorry to point it out but the cigarette Snake smokes in MGS4 is the loading bar, its probably my favourite examply of integrating loading screens more ingeniously.
it’s funny how people can’t seem to accurately read an article and then leave comments about the article thinking they’ve somehow debunked it. you idiots realize your opinion is worthless and debased when it doesn’t even follow the article right?
as for the article, its a fantastic list and i totally agree with it. i would’ve added xbox360oz’s complaint as well. i don’t want to play online therefore i shouldn’t have to in order to get all the achievement points.
good article. much better than the other crap i that usually gets posted.
Great article.
However, I don’t really understand why some people get pissed off just for some pics of Metal Gear 4. I think they didn’t even read the article, they just follow their instinct of fanboys.
@xboxoz360
Although I understand your complaint about not having enough achievements for SP…More people play multiplayer now than ever. I usually won’t buy a game unless it has some sort of multi in it, as I want my $60 to last a while beyond the average 6-10 hours that a game takes to beat. The acievements (Gears 2′s Seriosly 2.0 for example) keep me coming back to play the game over and over again.
And an example that is the direct opposite of what you were saying is a pair of games that were some of the most popular over the last year : Call of Duty 4, and Call of Duty World at War. Both games are primarily built around a strong MP, but ALL but 2 achievements in CoD : WaW are for single player….. and the 2 that are??? BOTH zero point achievements… explain that one.
The 3 MGS4 blunders proves why no one gives a shit about this crappy little website. Do some research before you assume retarded things.
OPne iof my biggest pet-peeves isn’t on the list, The writer should have had top 10, because the amount of gamesthat force a player to either go onlineto achieve all achievements is huge. There are very few games now that offer an equal amount of points for SP and MP.
Mosthave a heavy bias towards MP, and most of them are stupid achievements at best. it usually works out at 1/3rd SP and 2/3rds MP . .
Persoanlly I’d like to see all games out of 1250, with the last 250 coming from MP only, allowing dedicated SP players to still be able to achieve maximum GamePoints from playingthe game through completely.
Hopefully I can convince him to add two more as an update ??
The other would be the inability for gamers to custom layout their controller to suit them on ALL games. If some can do it, nd do it very well I might add, then why the bloody hell can’t they all. The BS about Saving the gameplay is just that – total BS.
For those “complaining” about the pics . .hello . . it’s “tongue-in-check sarcasim silly . . hence the silly comments under them . . .It’s in now way representative of the game per-se’ . .simply the silly things ALL games do in one form or another.
Lighten up, have some fun, the world isn’t always serious you know.
The three gameplay over graphics are 3 great visually looking games that have great gameplay . . this is what we’d like, not what we hate . . . sheezzes. Did you read the comment attached re cutscenes and loading bars V’s things like “ads and smoking – joke hello”
Get a grip and be a bit joyful and less serious, lig=fe will be a lot happier for you that way.
mgs4 does have a load bar it had just finished in that screenshot and why use ps3 screenshot to make a point use the wii cos no one likes that
wow. honestly?
first off, for “graphics over gameplay” you have a screenshot of metal gear solid 4. why? was mgs4′s gameplay not up to your 360 standards?
and for the cutscenes -why would you use a screenshot from mgs4 when you can skip the cutscenes for that. that makes no sense
and that screenshot you have of snake smoking? did you notice that there it says “press start to continue” under the mgs4 logo. the game tells you how much loading time is left…
Definitely a solid list.
However, I disagree with you when it comes to narrative depth. Some games truly don’t need it. Platformers immediately come to mind, as do hack ‘n slashers and shooters.
A well thought-out story might add to the experience, but it’s by no means a requirement for a game that’s based on skill rather than stats.
There’s actually a percentage counter on the MGS4 install menu, and the loading in between areas that requires you to hit the start button are so short there’s no need for one.