Gaming Tropes That Need to GO

[TheMightyEthan]

That's a really good point about the health drops in Control.

 

I don't actually remember having a problem with it in Control. I can't think of a specific game off the top of my head, but there have definitely been games where I didn't think the effect was pronounced enough for me to really notice it before it was too late to matter.

 

Actually I can think of a specific game: Halo 4. That game was really bad about communicating to you that you were taking damage, there were multiple times I died without even realizing I was being shot, especially in the first few levels before I'd really adapted to the changes from the Bungie games.

[MetalCaveman]

Amnesiac characters, gacha games in particular LOVE their amnesiac characters.

 

Specially bad when your character doesn't remember who they are, turns out they're the legendary hero/special forces dude/whatever badass title the game gives you, but everyone still treats you as a glorified errand boy because you don't actually remember anything, even after being told who you are.

 

"Ok, so you were leader of the Holy Order of Whatever, cool, anyway I need you to go on some menial quest for me, you can't refuse because... Reasons..."

[FredEffinChopin]

It's been a few years but I needed someplace proper to say that:

 

I'll be happy if I never have to play through another sequence where (typically after "losing" a scripted fight that you have to win) I get knocked out and imprisoned, and then have to spend a boring 10-15 minutes finding all my stuff and escaping with it.

[Mister Jack]

I generally only like stealth sections in non-stealth games if they introduce cool new mechanics. Of course, this almost never actually happens.

[TheMightyEthan]

12 hours ago, FredEffinChopin said:

It's been a few years but I needed someplace proper to say that:

 

I'll be happy if I never have to play through another sequence where (typically after "losing" a scripted fight that you have to win) I get knocked out and imprisoned, and then have to spend a boring 10-15 minutes finding all my stuff and escaping with it.

 

There's an especially egregious one in Knights of the Old Republic, on the water planet after you blow up the underwater mining facility, when you return to the surface the guards come to arrest you (understandably). I was playing dark side, and was all ready to fight the guards, cause fuck that, but noooo, my evil Sith lord goes along with the bastards!

[Mister Jack]

Worst example I can think of is Max Payne 3 where Max rushes into a closed room with no cover where he KNOWS he would be vastly outnumbered and yells at everyone to drop their weapons only to immediately get disarmed because of course he would. 

[Thursday Next]

I liked when they did it in Metal Gear Solid though. (I guess it wasn't a trope then). Especially given that the sneaky bastards slip a time bomb in your pack. *chef's kiss*

[Mister Jack]

I'm starting to really hate it when games do that really annoying thing where, while you're in the middle of fighting a bunch of enemies, the camera will suddenly pan away from you to focus on the entrance of a mini-boss or new enemy type, sometimes complete with an obnoxious subtitle to introduce them, then put the camera back onto you when you've already lost your momentum and probably become much more vulnerable. Imagine if every time a special infected showed up in Left 4 Dead the game yanked all control away from you for a few seconds. It's irritating, disorienting, and I fucking hate it. 

The only time I ever remember liking this is in Shadow of War. When a boss orc enters the fray, you get the boss cutscene only when the orc clashes with you, at which point he taunts you for a few seconds while your swords are struggling against each other. Of course, even then that game would sometimes do the version I dislike if the orc boss spotted you from far away. At least they made up for it by having entertaining personalities.  

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Caves.  Everything is nondescript and murky, so you can't see half the passage entrances and even when you do, you've got so turned around trying to find it you can't tell if it's one you've been down before, then half of them don't even lead anywhere, or there are two or more that both lead to interesting places, but you don't know if one is just one room and then go onto the next one or going to lead further on so should you turn back and check the other one before you get too far? It just creates a feeling of frustration and missing out rather than a feeling of exploration.

 

That's a problem I've had in many games, but specific for Zelda ToTK which they changed since he older ones is, I'm fine with a bomb-able wall, but one and done is enough. It's bordering on farce the amount of earth you've got to break in this game. three or four rows of walls  for a single passage or such a thick block the size of an entire chamber you go through several weapons or spend ages charging up the "reusable" option. One I destroyed 90% of the rocks and cleared the passage but there was another passage hidden behind the few I had left. Also don't feel like it's clear when to use ascend to get to secret chambers so I end up using it at random when I'm stuck. Also ultrahand-able rocks used as scenery then suddenly one is needed to be moved to get further. It's weird because they've done so well to subtle prod you in the right direection for s many other parts of the game

[Mister Jack]

I am pretty sure I know exactly which cave you are talking about and it was a pain in the ass for me too.

[Thursday Next]

Forspoken did this thing where it said "make sure to do everything before leaving as some stuff won't be doable later" right when you leave the first settlement, and it has crippled my enjoyment of the game. I know this is a me thing, not a the game thing, but still I feel like I can't do anything in case I trigger the thing that means I miss stuff. lol.

[TheMightyEthan]

lol, I disagree, that's not a you thing, that's a "the game" thing. They're supposed to put that warning right before the point of no return, not just vaguely warn you that there is a point of no return somewhere in the indeterminate future.

[Mister Jack]

I know in the RE4 Remake the Merchant will warn you at the end of an area that you should "finish up all your business" before going forward.

[Thursday Next]

I've since looked it up and there's no missable trophies so I assume they are referring to like flavour/lore style errands that you can do. So I think I will press on and not worry about it, but it's a super unhelpful thing to be told in an open world game!

[Mister Jack]

Okay so I love Tears of the Kingdom a lot but why do I have to hit the A button to pick up rupees? I really hate when games do this. Why would I ever, in any universe, not want to pick up the money lying on the ground? It should be picked up just by touching it at the bare minimum.

[TheMightyEthan]

The weirdest thing about it is that it's a change from Breath of the Wild, where you picked up rupees by running over them.

[Mister Jack]

And this game is one where you really don't want to be making unnecessary button presses more than ever.

[deanb]

 

 

I've being binging a bunch of GMTK lately (apols to those in the Discord), and one series he has is around accessibility. It was flabbergasting when he highlighted that nu-Dooms "colourblind" solution was to apply a filter that emulated colourblindness...
I'd say he has a pretty balanced view of where games might not entirely work and be expected to have accessibility options but dang is there a few egregious examples. It's more for the other thread but I do like and make use of the sound effect hints for Fortnite, and he's spot on about highlighting for all folks might rag on Ubisoft they do have audio accessibility enabled by default - like even when you disable the setting because it's baked into the game the newer ones will do their screen reader-ness until you're loaded up (and therefore your settings are applied).