Things that make you angry in video games.

[Springblossom]

Instadeath attacks. When an enemy uses them, they'll always always always work perfectly. If you can use them, they either don't work on anything (which the game almost never tells you about), they fail too often to be reliable, or they're ridiculously expensive.

I think the only game where instadeath attacks didn't send me into a frothing rage was Final Fantasy XIII. For starters, the Death spell doesn't even show up until near the end, and it works exactly the same for you and enemies - it causes fairly hefty damage, has a base 1% chance of instakill, and every debuff and ailment stacked onto the target increases that by 1%, so you can get it up to 8% or 9% on most enemies. Also, it actually tells you what it works on. Granted, by this point it's usually easier to do it normal, but at least it's a viable option.

 

[exball]

Losing.

 

[caffeinated_wench]

Instadeath attacks. When an enemy uses them, they'll always always always work perfectly. If you can use them, they either don't work on anything (which the game almost never tells you about), they fail too often to be reliable, or they're ridiculously expensive.

I think the only game where instadeath attacks didn't send me into a frothing rage was Final Fantasy XIII. For starters, the Death spell doesn't even show up until near the end, and it works exactly the same for you and enemies - it causes fairly hefty damage, has a base 1% chance of instakill, and every debuff and ailment stacked onto the target increases that by 1%, so you can get it up to 8% or 9% on most enemies. Also, it actually tells you what it works on. Granted, by this point it's usually easier to do it normal, but at least it's a viable option.

Fucking yes. Gah.
Your chances seem like they're less than 5% while theirs seem like 90%. What the fuck.

I'll get frustrated by a boss that has an insta-kill move I can never possess, but that's just part of the challenge. This bullshit, though?

Losing.

Dabes answer.

 

[CalmMyTits]

When games have areas that are impossible to maneuver, like a really high or thin ledge, or this really small surface area between two pits and you have to time and gauge your jump just right or you completely miss the surface, and if you die, you have to start all over at the beginning of the level and have to go through all the obstacles again and you better hope that you make the jump right this time or you have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN for the nth time.. For me, this kind of gameplay just ruins the game for me.

I know games should have a certain level of difficulty, but sometimes there are some areas where the challenge is only meaningless and frustrating, and when you finally pass the hard area, you don't feel accomplished, only drained and frustrated and praying that there is never anything like that in the game again.

 

[Ryan Rash]

Getting caught in infinites in fighting games. Turns the fighting game into a game of "Who Poop Last".

 

[sm0t]

Escort quests. Because 99% of the time, the AI is too incompetent to keep itself from wandering off a cliff or into a pack of enemies, and have no means of defending itself in defiance of what that character may have equipped.

 

[caffeinated_wench]

Escort quests. Because 99% of the time, the AI is too incompetent to keep itself from wandering off a cliff or into a pack of enemies, and have no means of defending itself in defiance of what that character may have equipped.

(edit: may contain spoilers)

 

[_blank_]

Let's see....

1) The home-stretch grind. You're about 2/3 to 3/4 done with the game- final boss is nearly in sight. No reason to give up now- almost there... and then the game decides to throw every single minion, mini-boss, and the like at you in some sort of mosh-pit gauntlet of suck. You are nearly guaranteed to die during this segment three times more than the final big boss battle, which now feels watered down in comparison.

2) NPC characters that say only one line every, single time you pass them. Saying, "hi there," or "hey, good to see you," is okay, but when it's an NPC who constantly asks you if you get to the Cloud District, or that they work at Belethor's Goods, or who their father is... well... let's just say those NPCs find themselves murdered in their sleep, their bodies stripped of all valuables, and left in market squares or crammed into fireplaces. Dovahkiin doesn't have time for your bullshit.

3) Games that feel compelled to make your (by default) near god-like character feel like you're playing Baby Huey's Big Day Out. Guilty parties include Darksiders 2 and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. If I'm the damned embodiment of death, I shouldn't have a problem with scaling a wall. Likewise, if I'm Dracula, and in the previous game rodeo'd the Leviathan, and punched out Satan, I shouldn't be getting slapped around by some mutants that escaped from a Troma movie.

4) Why in nearly all stealth games, sans for the Hitman games, can I not just disguise myself as a guard or whatever when I need to sneak in and infiltrate an area? And don't give me any "it break the realism" bullshit excuse. If I'm playing as Big Boss, and I'm carrying a silenced rifle, a tranq gun, night vision goggles, and an armful of grenades while wearing some kind of sneaking suit in Ground Zeroes, I should be able to take a gard's clothes and sneak in that way if I want to.

5) Why does any game that comes stateside from Japan seem to have the same stable of 8-12 VAs? I mean, I know the anime bubble burst about a decade ago, but does Steve Blum and Laura Bailey have to be in every single game?

6) Oh, well you liked this single-player campaign? Well, you'll love the sequel's campaign, which is watered down, but that's okay because we tacked on a pointless multiplayer option that NO ONE asked for!

That's all for now. I'll probably swing by again when I think up more things to bitch about.

 

[sm0t]

Instadeath attacks. When an enemy uses them, they'll always always always work perfectly. If you can use them, they either don't work on anything (which the game almost never tells you about), they fail too often to be reliable, or they're ridiculously expensive.

Pokemon is pretty terrible about that, where moves like Guillotine and Fissure manage to get the one-hit KO every time an opponent uses them but I never get it to happen when any of my Pokemon have one of those moves. Same goes for moves like Protect, where I have seen opponent Pokemon manage to succeed in using it more than once in a row.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

All video game hatred begins and ends at water levels.

 

[Giovanni]

It's a little bit irrational, but I dislike games with RNGs that aren't actually random - I don't know why, it's barely noticeable unless you're looking for it via save states, but I've always felt like I'm getting cheated by it. Golden Sun comes in mind - if you know what you're doing, you can always get rare drops by following a specific sequence of actions, which sounds great except it's just sort of...hollow to me.

 

[c-no]

One thing I hate is in Skyrim: you perform a shout and hear your character say it but nothing happens. Seriously, why? Why couldn't I get that stupid Forsworn blown off the tower when I Fus ro' Dah him? I also don't like how some dragons won't burn up and give me their soul *Which apparently is a bug*.

 

[Giovanni]

Ah, Skyrim...for a game that I love so much, I sure do hate it sometimes.

I'm in the middle of nowhere and come across a noble on horseback with a guard in tow. I try to speak to the noble - good day, and all of that - and he's like "I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO YOU, NOW PISS OFF BEFORE I HAVE MY GUARD ATTACK". I take some offense at this confrontational attitude - my orc has dealt with enough unfriendliness in her life to tolerate any more of it - and so the noble falls down a flight of sword. The guard, apparently more devoted to this uppity dead noble than his own life, attacks and is killed in self-defense. I walk away smiling, knowing that nobody will know of what happened here, and head to the next town...

...where I am set upon by a legion of guards accusing me of murder.

Because, you see, I did not eliminate all the witnesses to my 'crime'.

The horse turned me in.

Yeah.

 

[c-no]

Ah, Skyrim...for a game that I love so much, I sure do hate it sometimes.

I'm in the middle of nowhere and come across a noble on horseback with a guard in tow. I try to speak to the noble - good day, and all of that - and he's like "I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO YOU, NOW PISS OFF BEFORE I HAVE MY GUARD ATTACK". I take some offense at this confrontational attitude - my orc has dealt with enough unfriendliness in her life to tolerate any more of it - and so the noble falls down a flight of sword. The guard, apparently more devoted to this uppity dead noble than his own life, attacks and is killed in self-defense. I walk away smiling, knowing that nobody will know of what happened here, and head to the next town...

...where I am set upon by a legion of guards accusing me of murder.

Because, you see, I did not eliminate all the witnesses to my 'crime'.

The horse turned me in.

Yeah.

Well I hear Orcs eat horses. Perhaps the horse doesn't like Orcs.

 

[Drakodan]

It's a little bit irrational, but I dislike games with RNGs that aren't actually random - I don't know why, it's barely noticeable unless you're looking for it via save states, but I've always felt like I'm getting cheated by it. Golden Sun comes in mind - if you know what you're doing, you can always get rare drops by following a specific sequence of actions, which sounds great except it's just sort of...hollow to me.

Came in to say RNG. I fucking hate pseudo-RNG engines, as well as ones that deliberately stack chances against the player. Pokemon really comes to mind, the extent to which the RNG screws you over is absolutely unreal sometimes. The biggest example is always hitting yourself in confusion and Thunder being closer to 50% accuracy than the 70% listed. The most blatant practical example I can think of was in Werster's recent Stadium 2 run, where he had this scenario: Fighting Karen in the Elite Four, his Fearow against Umbreon. Swagger confuses him, and he hits himself in confusion a couple of times. That's standard. Then, he gets through confusion but misses Hyper Beam, which is 90% accurate. That then happens again, twice in a row.

Three Hyper Beam misses, all 90% accurate. That is fucking bullshit.

 

[c-no]

One thing I don't like in a game are intros you can't skip. I know they help players understand how things start but really, when it comes to replaying a game, I don't need to see Shepherd and Kaiden/Ashley getting through a burning Normandy and I don't need to see my Brujah/Tremere/Malkavian go through the execution of their sire.

 

[Ghost Got Double Dipped]

JRPGs with billions of shoehorned references to Christianity, I swear one of these days we're gonna have a Ame where the PC is named Jesus or something.
The CoD trope of regenerating health and only letting you carry two weapons at once. Who seriously thought this made games fun or challenging?
QTEs and button prompts that pop up. Its like the game thinks the person has no idea what the buttons do so they gotta remind you whenever you're near a door to press A to open it.

 

[exball]

only letting you carry two weapons at once. Who seriously thought this made games fun or challenging?

Well, that is a bit more realistic. Some people find it immersion breaking to carry forty guns strapped to their character.

 

[Ghost Got Double Dipped]

Well, that is a bit more realistic. Some people find it immersion breaking to carry forty guns strapped to their character.

Don't people play games to escape from reality though? I dunno about you but if I have a bad day at work I wanna come home and shoot fire and lighting out of my hands at genetically mutated capitalists who seek out brainwashed children who are protected by big hulking brutes in deep sea diving suits.

Give me a ton of guns and plasmids in BioShock over only having two guns in every FPS made since CoD4.

 

[spaps]

Not exactly a thing in a game that makes me angry, but I hate when people put all the cutscenes from a game together then upload it to YouTube as a "movie." I mean, it's missing a metric ton of the plot, you idiots.