Putting a time limit on a narrative heavy game for no reason is lazy, and taxes my suspension of disbelief. That would be like if in Star Wars, the Rebel Alliance had to destroy the death star within an hour, but nobody mentioned why. Its out of place, its cheap and its frustrating.
Example: Lost Magic for the DS. A would-be fun RTS title, if you weren't forced to rush your way through the 3 minute missions.
More like Lost 30 Bucks2. Puzzle Solving in FPS Games: I'm going to admit something here, I suck at puzzles. Puzzle games have the same strength sapping effect on me that kryptonite would have on Superman. Its part of the reason I can get into so few single player FPS games. And its why I love the online based shooters like Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare. All I know is, I play an FPS game for one thing: shooting and exploding as much as I can. I have no patience for labryinthine levels, key card scavenger hunts, and McGuyver like obstacles to surpass. I hate these, they have no place in FPS games in my opinion.
Nothing kills my buzz faster than clearing out a room with an awesome weapon, and then realizing you can't get past a door because its locked. And no, you can't just disintegrate it with your rocket launcher. You have to stop yourself in your adrenal battle frenzied state, to turn over every freakin' object looking for the one damn item that lets you move on. It stops the excitement and fun dead in its tracks.
Example: Doom. A classic game, but why do I need to waste half an hour looking for a damn key when all I want to do is fight demons? I could cheat, but I hate the way it makes me feel like the game got the best of me to have to resort to codes.
Oh look, its the same exploded zombie corpse I passed the last 15 times, looking for the red key.
3. Forced Tutorials: This is one of the worst things to do to a dedicated player of any game. You've been through it a thousand times, you could beat a level or a boss in your sleep. You know every minute detail of the game, down to an enemy's hit points, or your character's stats. You consider yourself an expert, yet whenever you start over, you have to be hand held through a tutorial sequence. wtf.
In addition to this, is when there might not be a forced tutorial, but you are assaulted with pop-up windows explaining how to play the game. This is almost as bad, because you just want to concentrate on what you're doing, but have to stop to kill a pop up window you've read a hundred times before. World of Warcraft is especially guilty.
Example: Champions Online. Its been an awesome game so far, but if I hit the level cap, roll an alt, and have to go through the tutorial zone, I'm going to feel slightly insulted.
At least looking at the copyrighted characters will be entertaining.
Possibly my favorite strategy RPG series. Too bad I realized late into the game that I leveled my characters up in some wrong ways, essentially making them too underpowered where they needed to be. Because of this, beating one of the hardest bosses became virtually impossible. Maybe it was my fault, but why couldn't I have had any option to undo those mistakes and save hours of invested time?
Nothing kills my buzz faster than clearing out a room with an awesome weapon, and then realizing you can't get past a door because its locked. And no, you can't just disintegrate it with your rocket launcher. You have to stop yourself in your adrenal battle frenzied state, to turn over every freakin' object looking for the one damn item that lets you move on. It stops the excitement and fun dead in its tracks.
Example: Doom. A classic game, but why do I need to waste half an hour looking for a damn key when all I want to do is fight demons? I could cheat, but I hate the way it makes me feel like the game got the best of me to have to resort to codes.
Oh look, its the same exploded zombie corpse I passed the last 15 times, looking for the red key.3. Forced Tutorials: This is one of the worst things to do to a dedicated player of any game. You've been through it a thousand times, you could beat a level or a boss in your sleep. You know every minute detail of the game, down to an enemy's hit points, or your character's stats. You consider yourself an expert, yet whenever you start over, you have to be hand held through a tutorial sequence. wtf.
In addition to this, is when there might not be a forced tutorial, but you are assaulted with pop-up windows explaining how to play the game. This is almost as bad, because you just want to concentrate on what you're doing, but have to stop to kill a pop up window you've read a hundred times before. World of Warcraft is especially guilty.
Example: Champions Online. Its been an awesome game so far, but if I hit the level cap, roll an alt, and have to go through the tutorial zone, I'm going to feel slightly insulted.
At least looking at the copyrighted characters will be entertaining.4. Being Screwed Out of Winning: If I lose, I want to know why, and I want to know that it was my own fault. I don't want to suffer the psychological shock of realizing I had made a grave error several hours back that I can't correct. Not only is there no way to get around this problem but to completely start over, but I can plead ignorance because the game offered absolutely no clue about how not to cheat yourself out of having any chance to win. As an example, there was an RPG for the PS-2. Unfortunately I forget what it's called. But there was this boss, virtually undefeatable. I had come very far in this game, and had loved every minute of it, and was damn determined to beat that freakin boss.
After several tries, I finally looked up how to beat it on gamefaqs. It turns out that the boss can only be destroyed by being in possession of a certain item. When I researched the item, I found that you could only acquire it at a certain point in the game, which I had passed. I was pissed by this, and it killed all interest I had in the game.
Example: Super Robot Wars Original Generation
After several tries, I finally looked up how to beat it on gamefaqs. It turns out that the boss can only be destroyed by being in possession of a certain item. When I researched the item, I found that you could only acquire it at a certain point in the game, which I had passed. I was pissed by this, and it killed all interest I had in the game.
Example: Super Robot Wars Original Generation
Possibly my favorite strategy RPG series. Too bad I realized late into the game that I leveled my characters up in some wrong ways, essentially making them too underpowered where they needed to be. Because of this, beating one of the hardest bosses became virtually impossible. Maybe it was my fault, but why couldn't I have had any option to undo those mistakes and save hours of invested time?5. Unskippable cutscenes and company logos: This is similar to the forced tutorials in which the biggest problem is that they simply waste your precious time and patience. And chances are you've seen the scenes a dozen times before, and simply don't need to go through it again. Developers, artists, animators, etc., work very hard on these stunning visuals, we know. But do we have to see them every time they come up?
Included in this are the logo animations that you have to push past when a game starts up. That's more frustrating than the cutscenes themselves. At least the cutscenes and animated intros are cool, highly detailed and exciting. Watching company logos fly at your face is about as pleasurable as having to sit through commercials. There are numerous games in which the only way to get to the menu screen is to repeatedly press a button to get past all the various teams and companies that worked on the game. Who cares? Isn't it enough we paid to play the game? If we want to know who was making copies in the office we'll press the credits button.
Example: Sins of a Solar Empire (I think) I'm too busy pressing through mandatory screens to get to my game to notice which ones are the worse offenders. But I needed an example.
Sins is a great game, and you should buy it no matter how many company logos they throw at you or not.
Empire Total War, where deleting a save file isn't a hassle, it's a mini-game!
Included in this are the logo animations that you have to push past when a game starts up. That's more frustrating than the cutscenes themselves. At least the cutscenes and animated intros are cool, highly detailed and exciting. Watching company logos fly at your face is about as pleasurable as having to sit through commercials. There are numerous games in which the only way to get to the menu screen is to repeatedly press a button to get past all the various teams and companies that worked on the game. Who cares? Isn't it enough we paid to play the game? If we want to know who was making copies in the office we'll press the credits button.
Example: Sins of a Solar Empire (I think) I'm too busy pressing through mandatory screens to get to my game to notice which ones are the worse offenders. But I needed an example.
Sins is a great game, and you should buy it no matter how many company logos they throw at you or not.6. Being unable to delete a saved game within the game: This is a new and ugly development in my gaming experience, and it needs to stop. I believe this started to happen with something related to the Games For Windows logo that titles like to have on their boxes for some reason. Not being able to simply and conveniently delete a save in the save/load menu of a game is flat out wrong. Its obnoxious, unnecessary and frustrating. Finding an unwanted save outside of the program, buried in a slew of folders is inexcusable, and this trend had better stop sooner then later dammit.
Example: Empire Total War
Example: Empire Total War
Empire Total War, where deleting a save file isn't a hassle, it's a mini-game!
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