Things that make you angry in video games.

[caffeinated_wench]

Skyrim. Dragons.

Early in the game, they murder me.
Later in the game, they go down so easily that the epic feeling of slaying one goes away.

Then they realize that there's a human player controlling the Dovahkiin and begin to target my favorite NPCs to deal me emotional damage. Damn it, Ancient Dragons, nobody kills Sven but me!

To be fair, killing dragons for a Dragonborn is the equivalent of killing pests for normal people.

In just about every single game, if a dragon attacks Riverwood it seems to target Alvor. Every time.

 

[Guardian G.I.]

Any kind of escort missions piss me off.
Plus, I hate missions in GTA style games that requires following the target without attracting attention.

 

[Springblossom]

The Crystal Cave in Dark Souls. It's a really pretty area, but it's all one big bottomless pit that you have to cross on these giant crystal shafts. A little way down, the crystal shafts turn invisible, and it turns into trial-and-error until you figure out where the shafts run. There's barely any enemies, and once you get it down it only takes a minute to run through. What I wonder is, if they were going to make this whole area so short, why even bother putting it in? It's a really irritating little extra tacked onto the end of the Duke's Archives, which is one of the stronger end-game areas. Couldn't we have just made it a Crystal Forest, like Logan called it? That would have been a lot more compelling.

Actually, I don't really like Dark Souls' endgame in general. The Tomb of the Giants is pitch-black, humongous, and full of really nasty enemies, the Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith really came across as a fairly typical 'fiery lava hell' area (and the Bed of Chaos oh my god that was awful), and New Londo just suuuuuucks.

 

[Giovanni]

Another Skyrim annoyance: dragons use precisely one shout, Fire/Ice Breath (Alduin himself only has three, one of which doesn't have any role in combat!). Because of this, I don't feel like I'm fighting beings once considered to be gods - I feel like I'm fighting large lizard monsters, nothing more.

Now, if they could become ethereal, use unrelenting force, summon lightning storms, slow time...then they might seem a bit more intimidating.

 

[caffeinated_wench]

Another Skyrim annoyance: dragons use precisely one shout, Fire/Ice Breath (Alduin himself only has three, one of which doesn't have any role in combat!). Because of this, I don't feel like I'm fighting beings once considered to be gods - I feel like I'm fighting large lizard monsters, nothing more.

Now, if they could become ethereal, use unrelenting force, summon lightning storms, slow time...then they might seem a bit more intimidating.

True, but you could very quickly end up with ghost towns (merchants and all), dead followers, nearly impossible fights when you're just starting out, and breaking the game balance in general. Would it be better if they could use more? Yes, but you also have to account for the gameplay balance.

It'd be a whole new level of frustrating. A little more variety would be nice, but at the same time there are reasons why they didn't do so.

 

[Count groudon]

Another Skyrim annoyance: dragons use precisely one shout, Fire/Ice Breath (Alduin himself only has three, one of which doesn't have any role in combat!). Because of this, I don't feel like I'm fighting beings once considered to be gods - I feel like I'm fighting large lizard monsters, nothing more.

Now, if they could become ethereal, use unrelenting force, summon lightning storms, slow time...then they might seem a bit more intimidating.

Actually some of the higher level dragons use two shouts. One is their usual ice/fire breath, and the other one is a if purple cloud that drains your health, magic, and stamina. It's every bit as annoying as it sounds.

 

[Pikonic]

Cutscenes you can't skip, ruins the replay value

 

[random_pickle]

Cutscenes you can't skip, ruins the replay value

Don't even start with me on Lego: Marvel Heroes. It won't let you skip any cutscenes even in freeplay mode. This means that if you are going back searching for all the lego kits in each level, you will have to watch a shit ton of cutscenes. God forbid you miss a single kit piece.

 

[The Fair Lady]

Bad lip syncing. Games with decent voice acting get a pass on this one, but Calling for the Wii is just horrendous. The dubbers were so lazy, they didn't bother changing ANY of the dialogue to fit the mouth movements.

Example: In the opening cutscene, the main character answers her phone and says "moshi moshi". In English, they made her say an awkwardly drawn out "Helllllooooo?"

 

[caffeinated_wench]

Bad lip syncing. Games with decent voice acting get a pass on this one, but Calling for the Wii is just horrendous. The dubbers were so lazy, they didn't bother changing ANY of the dialogue to fit the mouth movements.

Example: In the opening cutscene, the main character answers her phone and says "moshi moshi". In English, they made her say an awkwardly drawn out "Helllllooooo?"

Gah, I know. It's extremely annoying. It kinda breaks the immersion for me.

It's worse since Calling is a HORROR game. Immersion is pretty fukken important there.

 

[Overcast]

I really hate games where you control a party of multiple people, but when your leader dies the game ends for no reason. Final Fantasy XIII is a dogshit game for many, many reasons, but it exemplifies this one particularly.

Had the same issue with Persona 4 Golden initially. Although everything else pretty much made up for it.

OT: I'll throw in unskippable cutscenes as well. As much as I enjoy playing some old school JRPG's, (particularly from the PS1 era) a lot of them had this annoying habit of having long and unskippable cutscenes right before really tough bosses.

I'm looking at YOU Chrono Cross.

 

[spaps]

I hate how in the older (and possibly newer, I haven't really played the newer ones) GTA games, when you die in a mission, you respawn at a hospital and have to drive all the way back to the beginning of the mission and do the whole thing over again. Would it be so hard to program checkpoints?

 

[CWCissey]

I hate how in the older (and possibly newer, I haven't really played the newer ones) GTA games, when you die in a mission, you respawn at a hospital and have to drive all the way back to the beginning of the mission and do the whole thing over again. Would it be so hard to program checkpoints?

V actually has checkpoints.

My biggest problem with video games are escort missions. Anything where I have to protect another character just gets my goat as more often than not they're too stupid to use cover or hide, and I don't see the point in protecting something that is in essence too stupid to live.

 

[Watcher]

V actually has checkpoints.

Yeah Rockstar games since 4 have implemented a checkpoint system. In 4 if you died or failed a mission for some reason, Niko would get a text message that asks if he wants to replay the mission again, and it'd start him back at the beginning. Starting with The Ballad of Gay Tony they implemented checkpoints in the middle of missions. Now it's par for the course in Rockstar games to find checkpoints all throughout missions. RDR and V are good examples of this.

 

[spaps]

Yeah Rockstar games since 4 have implemented a checkpoint system. In 4 if you died or failed a mission for some reason, Niko would get a text message that asks if he wants to replay the mission again, and it'd start him back at the beginning. Starting with The Ballad of Gay Tony they implemented checkpoints in the middle of missions. Now it's par for the course in Rockstar games to find checkpoints all throughout missions. RDR and V are good examples of this.

I haven't played V yet and while I own IV, I haven't played it much, mainly because San Andreas is just more fun, IMO.

 

[Springblossom]

I'm looking at YOU Chrono Cross.

You mean that big one before the Miguel fight? You can skip that one. As soon as the fight starts, run away, save, and then come back.

 

[Overcast]

You mean that big one before the Miguel fight? You can skip that one. As soon as the fight starts, run away, save, and then come back.

Well that too.

I was thinking more about that one guy that gave you the Masamune.

 

[Da Pickle Monsta]

There's a few things more that I'd like to get off my chest.

*Bullshit microtransactions. I actually liked DLCs when they're done well. They keep interest in a game, and it gives me the option to continue to explore a world that I've fallen in love with. Things like The Shivering Isles, the Saint's Row 2 extra missions, and some of the the DaVinci Disappearance from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood are all done very well. Hell, sometimes I'll even throw a couple of bucks at a funny gun or a new outfit for my character.

But what I hate is having the option to spend real money to get in-game money (Ryse, I'm looking at you.) The way it works in Ryse is that you can level up your character using XP or gold, and gold can only be bought via microtransactions. If you wish, you can have a fully leveled character from the get-go if you just throw enough money at it.

And what the hell is the point of playing the game, then? Why spend $60 for a game just so you can spend more money so you don't have to play it?

*Unskippable cutscenes. We're in the year 2014 now. Games have evolved. Cutscenes should have pause and skip options. Not having them is lazy. Maybe I could get it when it was the year 2001 and I was playing FFX, but nowadays I don't really want to see Edward Kenway discuss the intricacies of the self-government of Nassau with Blackbeard for three minutes because I fucked up on a trailing mission.

*Also, forced stealth segments. Some games like Thief, Dishonored, Splinter Cell, MGS, Assassin's Creed, whatever have stealth as a central tenant, but quite frankly I suck at stealth because I'm too impatient and I like being able to go in guns-a-blazing. The games I've listed are not the main offenders. But there were some immersion-breaking segments in some otherwise great games (Beyond Good & Evil comes to mind) because I'm suddenly stripped of my weapons and I have to sneak past enemies I've been cleaning the floor with for the entire game for absolutely no discernible reason.

*Escort missions. Games are getting better about escort missions--making them more bearable, giving your partner better AI, etc--but when you're trying to keep somebody alive so they can hack a terminal and they keep running into walls, of course you're going to be aggravated. 15-year-old Da Pickle Monsta still has nightmares of trying to keep Natalya alive in the Cuba missions of Goldeneye.

 

[Linako 2.0]

Badly made ports.

to think I wanted this game as a kid and expecting it to be better than the first game since you could actually walk the streets of new york

 

[caffeinated_wench]

There's a few things more that I'd like to get off my chest.

*Bullshit microtransactions. I actually liked DLCs when they're done well. They keep interest in a game, and it gives me the option to continue to explore a world that I've fallen in love with. Things like The Shivering Isles, the Saint's Row 2 extra missions, and some of the the DaVinci Disappearance from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood are all done very well. Hell, sometimes I'll even throw a couple of bucks at a funny gun or a new outfit for my character.

But what I hate is having the option to spend real money to get in-game money (Ryse, I'm looking at you.) The way it works in Ryse is that you can level up your character using XP or gold, and gold can only be bought via microtransactions. If you wish, you can have a fully leveled character from the get-go if you just throw enough money at it.

And what the hell is the point of playing the game, then? Why spend $60 for a game just so you can spend more money so you don't have to play it?

I really hate that. I hate it in MMOs, and I hate it in single-player. It seriously takes away any enjoyment of playing the game. There's no point. It's just throwing money down the drain.
Why? What's the point? You're just wasting your own money for what? To say you didn't have to play it?