There are many things I dislike in games. Some of them are as simple as the dialog or story, then there are some that drive me absolutely crazy. I don’t know what they teach in video game design schools but some of my pet peeves keep popping up. I can suffer through a bad story if the gameplay is fun, but poor gameplay designs can become inexcusable, only a couple of hours into the game.
You may agree with some of my choices, you may not. Either way, you can my top 5 picks for worst game design fads, after the jump.
1. Quicktime Events: There are two categories of Quicktime Events: The ones that allow you to do cool moves, and the ones that are essential to survive. I can’t stand either of them. Look, my reflexes are pretty good, from my years of gaming, but having an event pop up out of nowhere, asking me to hit ‘A’ as quickly as possible, then hit both triggers to survive is just irritating.
Examples: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Bourne Conspiracy, Resident Evil 4.
2. Unskippable Cutscenes: This one is pretty self-explanatory, but there are some worse than others. If you’re going to have a boss fight directly after a 3 minute cutscene, you need to be able to skip it. It’s one thing to have to sit through the cinematics your second time through the game, but it’s another to watch the same one five times, because the boss killed you.
Examples: Metal Gear Solid (any of them), God of War: Chains of Olympus and Okami (PS2).
3. Broken Controls: This one is the bane of many gamers around the world. There are poor controls, and then there are the broken ones. If you can’t get the character to move the way you need them to move in order to finish the game, there’s a problem. If the A button has two completely different bindings to it that are context sensitive, the player may find himself doing things he didn’t want to do. Also, the Shift buttons (pushing the stick down) should not be used for anything where you might need to hold them down while moving the stick for extended periods of time.
Examples: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Kane and Lynch, Warhawk
4. Auto-Aim: If there’s one thing I learned in my years of playing console FPS games, it’s that I absolutely hate it when the game decides to move my crosshair for me. Maybe if I was a complete newbie, I would welcome the little bit of help, but as a seasoned veteran of Call of Duty 4 and Halo, I don’t need the game to decide my targets for me. This is especially annoying when sniping in CoD4, or using the Rocket Launcher in Halo 3.
Examples: Call of Duty 4, Halo (all of them), Most console FPS.
5. Invincible Enemies / Objects: If I’m a super soldier in the army that has been genetically developed to be a master of killing with every type of weapon known to existence. Why can’t I blow a door up with a rocket launcher? I can understand it in terms of gameplay, story progression, and technology – but that doesn’t make it any less irritating. That moves us on to the invincible enemies, especially in RPGs. They don’t let you know that the enemy can’t be defeated until you die and the story continues. There were times when I used up plenty of supplies trying to kill an enemy that I didn’t know couldn’t be defeated, this has also caused me to allow myself to be killed my seemingly impossible enemies only to have the game over screen pop up.
Recent examples: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Final Fantasy (all of them), Blue Dragon
I’m sure that you don’t agree with all of those, or maybe you have your own suggestions. Head on over to our forums and discuss.
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You can turn the auto-aim off on Halo and COD 4, i think.
Also, might wanna add “Naruto: Rise of a Ninja” to the list of games that use quicktime events. it was kinda annoying, i remember…
I’d be toast without the auto aim in GTA
In some games the quicktime actions work out really well, Sega was notorious back in the Dreamcast game for practically inventing the genre.
I think i agree with 95% of what you said, only one i’m not sure about is ‘Warhawk’ being under ‘broken controls’ lol. i don’t know if you mean the sixaxis (which i find is impossablet to master), but once that’s turned off i think it’s ok..?
maybe i’m wrong? lol
@ Doc: surely since gta isn’t an fps it doesn’t really apply?
but i agree, in GTA i need it aswell
I don’t think quicktime events are bad, they’ve just become a tool for lazy developers. God of War and Resident Evil did a good job with them but they were among the first to use them (I think Shenmue beat them both). With Bourne Identity, I can see why they use them in the way they do, but it does get tedious after a while (though I have to give them credit for making it forgiving).
As for Auto-Aim I think it varies from game to game. I’ve been considering them a lot in the past few days because we’ve seen both ends of the spectrum. I think GTA4 uses it really well, but it rendered MGO unplayable, very hard not to get killed when your gun is locked on an opponents bulletproof chest. I can’t put into words how much more I enjoyed the beta after switching it off.
Auto-Aim can be seen as a good thing in Call of Duty 4.
Without it people will complain more about the guns and resort to using your tactics Animathias. (Noob Tubing, 3xFragin, etc.) At least with Auto Aim people try to use other guns. Otherise the game would be called Call of Grenade Launchers 4.
In MGS series you could skip ANY cutscene and fast forward EVERY radio mini novel, so there is no point of using MGS series as example Unskippable Cutscenes Syndrome.
Thats a good article but it seems a little to close to David Wong’s article “The 7 Commandments All Video Games Should Obey”, not only the points but the style as well, and both articles seem to take a few points from David Wong’s other article “A Gamer’s Manifesto.”
@GAM
He is listing game design flaws. Just because David Wong wrote about them first does not mean he is the only one who can. These are general game design flaws that ANY gamer goes through and is free to rightly complain about them. Argh!
Resident Evil 4, for using quick time “do it or die” events.
i disagree with warhawk having broken controls, but apart from that great article
also plot changing choices being a big selling point (splinter cell double agent) rather than a nifty little idea
@NecrisJ1mm well regardless they are both good articles and if you liked this one, I would recommend that you read the other ones I mentioned as well, they are quite a bit longer though.
In what way at the Warhawk controls meant to be broken? I’ve never heard anybody else say that and between other games with strong multiplayer I’m yet to pick up a copy.
Quicktime events are great when done right. God of War is the best most recent example. Resident Evil 4 should not have done it though.
Autoaim is only annoying in FPS games when people are supposed to use skill to shoot. Games like GTA IV need it because of camera issues.
Good list.
I would have loved to see regenerating health on there, though.
@Jason I completely agree with you on that, I’m sick of playing an fps such as Gears of War, Halo 1-3, etc, when shooting only alerts your targets that your there and wastes ammo because they are able to take shelter for 3 seconds then kill you. In tactical shooters you are supposed to be able to widdle down your enemies health.
Warhawk broken controls !!!!! BULLSH…. this guy have never touch warhawk controls im sure of that !!
I wish that in all games there was a cut scene system like in Kingdom Hearts 2, you can pause and from there, skip. If there is a 5 minute cut scene that I can’t pause and the phone rings what am I suppose to do? I say that all games need cut scenes that are: pauseable, skipable, ability to be watched again with movie controls.
Also on the same lines a system to refresh me of what I did last time and basic controls if, for some reason I don’t play a game for 6+ months.
Hmmm, I just played God of War COO and dont’ remember any unskippable cutscenes. It’s been a while since I played Metal Gear but all of those can be skipped too.
This article is weak.
Warhawk has broken controls?! yeah, right…
@Tomasz and deez
There is unskippable cutscenes between boss fights. You couldn’t skip when Grey Fox fights you and says “Make me fell it, make me fell alive again!!” (I heard that 1000x because I couldn’t defeat him)
And when he is going to die between the first and second part of the fight against Metal Gear he says his last words (10000x times now)
Same thing happens on other MGS’s….
But you know whats the worst fad? Releasing a broken game because you can patch it later…. (e.g., Assasin’s Creed, GTAIV)