Biggest bullshit in a video game

[byuu]

When I choose Hard over Normal it's because I want to be challenged, and not just have to put more bullets into enemies to kill them, but when Hard is just a multiplier on health and damage then it's just a false promise of difficulty.

I don't like the idea of making enemies smarter only on higher difficulties.
I almost always play games on Normal first and I don't want to be stuck with shittier AI because of it.
And it makes me less likely to replay the game on higher difficulties if I think the AI is really crap in the game.

 

[Fully Eshay Skits Bruh v2]

I'm playing Need for Speed: Shift, which I think is an underrated racing game overall (and essentially a precursor to Project CARS from the same studio, Slightly Mad) and I have the Ferrari DLC, which is pretty cool but I don't like how you can't buy upgrades for the Ferraris, probably for licensing reasons (I guess because Ferrari wants you to believe that Ferraris are perfect right out of the factory? I'm glad more recent racing games let you upgrade Ferraris), and I also don't like how you can't even choose between factory colours for Ferrari. You're just stuck with red even though AI opponents who drive Ferraris are allowed to have them in other factory colours.

While I do appreciate the colour wheel feature for creating your own custom colours for the other cars in the game that aren't Ferraris, there's only one default factory colour; this is a game that came out in 2009, a couple of years after Forza Motorsports 2, so they could have at least included all factory colours as selectable options instead of trying to recreate them with the colour wheel.

Off topic but yes, Ferrari are notorious when it comes to making any changes to their cars. They're very know to not sell their cars to certain people because they don't match with their standards, an infamous story which involved someone buying an Ferrari then making changes to said car, Ferrari caught wind of this and tried to sue the individual for damages to the brand. If kiwifarms had a car lowcows, Ferrari would be their CWC.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

I don't like the idea of making enemies smarter only on higher difficulties.
I almost always play games on Normal first and I don't want to be stuck with shittier AI because of it.
And it makes me less likely to replay the game on higher difficulties if I think the AI is really crap in the game.

They should still be smart on Normal, but make them smarter or have modified movesets or tactics.

 

[byuu]

They should still be smart on Normal, but make them smarter or have modified movesets or tactics.

Devs already struggle to make enemies smart on any difficulty. To make enemies appear smart requires a lot of map-specific scripting, like for example FEAR does. It's not something you can easily turn up.

I think higher difficulty should mostly be more lethal combat for both sides. You can die really quickly but the enemies aren't bullet sponges so it doesn't turn into tedium - it just leaves less room for mistakes.

 

[Twitter Hate Mob]

In terms of difficulty progression , the Baldur's Gate series (and some of the major mods for it) provides a useful illustration of what it should look like, with the default behaviour acting like normal/easy and SCS acting like harder ones.

In the default game enemy spellcasters basically get bullied in the opening few seconds, can't get their protection spells off and die instantly. Sword Coast Strategems has them pre-cast all their long duration protection spells, much like the player's party does.

Targeting for the base game is "whoever is attacking me/closest", in SCS they'll do things like have their thieves try and backstab whoever isn't protected by stoneskin.

Base game: "this target is actually healing from my fire spells, better use more of them"
SCS: "this target is immune to fire spells, I'll target someone else"

It creates a brilliant new experience as there's more tactical involvement required than "beef up one guy to draw all the aggro then drop party friendly nukes on him"

 

[Foltest]

Grind in shadow of war.
the game is really good but when you have enter the fourth act, there is so much fucking grind. grind grind and more grind. Siege become a chore and I am so close to just never play the game again.

 

[M3xus]

Playing an old space sim game called Dark Star One (I say old, it came out in '06). The enemies scale based on your ship's level, which I dislike, but I'll live. Escort targets do not scale. There is a mission where you must protect a flak cannon from enemy drones, and if you've been doing the standard gamer thing (like me!) and grabbing every upgrade you can, the cannon's effective health is wet tissue paper compared to the bad guys you're facing.

Fortunately, checking online reveals I'm not the only one that ran into this problem, but it's still a pretty glaring oversight.

 

[Beautiful Loser]

The proper way of making fun tiers of difficulty is by either:
1. Making the enemies smarter, not tankier.
2. Increase the amount of enemies. One or two extra enemies in a certain room/arena can really change things up.
3. Both.

The best difficulty tiers from a creative standpoint that I've ever seen are the ones in GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. There's a very compelling reason to replay the game on higher difficulties.

This part from Perfect Dark is really neat(time stamped to the relevant part). On normal difficulty you're the sniper saving the woman on the dock, on Perfect Agent you are the woman on the dock.

Timesplitters 2 also did something similar. If you only did the first level on easy it'd be your Soviet dam infiltration level ending in the tunnels. On normal it additionally turns/adds into a zombie/mutant level ending with a chopper boss fight ontop of the dam.

 

[Aib Ld]

Games that don't let me play on the hardest setting until I've already beaten it.

Increased health or damage isn't true difficulty, it's laziness and shit game design.

related to these: region-locked difficulties. The most infamous example is Castlevania 3, where the western version is full of bullshit (your dagger is thrown screen distance in JP, but becomes a tiny stabbing shiv in the western version, enemies become health sponges and bite off a chunk of your hp out of nowwhere, bosses fires walls of pain instead of patterns, the lists never ends) and the JP version is normal. Contra had a few games where the game is stuck on Easy mode on western release, while the JP versions got actual difficulties selectors. There's a bunch of other games like this but why the fuck did that exist

 

[FuckedUp]

related to these: region-locked difficulties. The most infamous example is Castlevania 3, where the western version is full of bullshit (your dagger is thrown screen distance in JP, but becomes a tiny stabbing shiv in the western version, enemies become health sponges and bite off a chunk of your hp out of nowwhere, bosses fires walls of pain instead of patterns, the lists never ends) and the JP version is normal.

What really sucks about it is how the Japanese version has the better music. Guessing there's a ROM hack at this point that gets the best of both worlds but it's just not the same.

 

[The Littlest Shitlord]

What really sucks about it is how the Japanese version has the better music. Guessing there's a ROM hack at this point that gets the best of both worlds but it's just not the same.

The NES cartridge connector physically doesn't have the connection to the audio chip, is why. While Famicom cartridges could incorporate chips that extended the system's base audio capabilities, and Castlevania 3 did this, the NES could not. It was a really stupid design decision by the original NES design team and I have no idea why they did it. The NES did have about 10 or so dedicated connections from the cartridge to the expansion port on the underside (that the Famicom didn't have) but since it was never used they ended up being completely pointless.

 

[FuckedUp]

It was a really stupid design decision by the original NES design team and I have no idea why they did it.

It had to do with lockout protection, IIRC.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

related to these: region-locked difficulties. The most infamous example is Castlevania 3, where the western version is full of bullshit (your dagger is thrown screen distance in JP, but becomes a tiny stabbing shiv in the western version, enemies become health sponges and bite off a chunk of your hp out of nowwhere, bosses fires walls of pain instead of patterns, the lists never ends) and the JP version is normal. Contra had a few games where the game is stuck on Easy mode on western release, while the JP versions got actual difficulties selectors. There's a bunch of other games like this but why the fuck did that exist

Or like how for years, Europe (and re-releases in Japan) would be the only ones to get some of the super bosses in FF games.

 

[The Littlest Shitlord]

Or like how for years, Europe (and re-releases in Japan) would be the only ones to get some of the super bosses in FF games.

Oh, like Penance/Der Richter in FFX? Isn't that a case of the boss not being done in time for the US and initial JP release, though? Not something deliberate. Didn't Japan initially miss out on the Emerald and Ruby Weapon bosses in FFVII, for the same reason?

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

Oh, like Penance/Der Richter in FFX? Isn't that a case of the boss not being done in time for the US and initial JP release, though? Not something deliberate. Didn't Japan initially miss out on the Emerald and Ruby Weapon bosses in FFVII, for the same reason?

Yeah, but the versions of the games that included those bosses were never made available in NA. Japan would at least skirt by with rereleases that included slight tweaks and the new super bosses.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Having momentum based movement and putting it in a game that requires pinpoint precision movement.

Like press the analog stick slightly and your character moves 6 yards in one direction but you have to get through a puzzle where you need to stop on a dime. Bonus points if they include shmup enemies that spam AOE lasers, but give you a single shot weapon that requires precise positioning in order to fire straight and in order to get the right trajectory you need to stand completely fucking still or you wind up causing the shot to shoot up at a 90 degree angle and miss the target entirely and hit the ceiling.

 

[Frosty Fetus]

I was playing Dark Souls Remastered (the worst remaster I ever played) and I was fighting Gravelord Nito. I was almost finished with him, then the game had a connection issue and logged me out. I had to restart the fight. It was a really shitty battle tho.

 

[FuckedUp]

I was playing Dark Souls Remastered (the worst remaster I ever played) and I was fighting Gravelord Nito. I was almost finished with him, then the game had a connection issue and logged me out. I had to restart the fight. It was a really shitty battle tho.

Never really understood why Souls games have online functionality, anyway.

 

[verygayFrogs]

Fire emblem Heroes:Book 4, Chapter 10-5. You have a 3 turn time limit, 4/5 units are fucking busted, cover the weapon triangle, all have unique weaknesses and I swear the only way you can win the bonus quest that gives you an orb is to be a fucking whale since it’s a gacha.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

I was playing Dark Souls Remastered (the worst remaster I ever played) and I was fighting Gravelord Nito. I was almost finished with him, then the game had a connection issue and logged me out. I had to restart the fight. It was a really shitty battle tho.

Protip: Throw on your heaviest armor (Stone Golem, Forest Guardian or Havel) and mash R1. Only stop if your health drops below 50% to heal.

Every souls boss has a cheese to let you just completely shut down the bosses.