Whats the most irritating game you've ever played?

[Immabozo]

The title says it all, Whats the most irritating game you've ever played?

I would have to cast my vote for a game for the playstation 1 called "Irritating Stick". God damn that game is irritating.

Its a game where you have to navigate a stick through a maze and if you hit any obstacles, your controller vibrates annoyingly and you are teleported back to the start. There are "powerups" but all they do, or all I remember them doing, is make life harder for your opponent (like restricting field of view to a VERY small circle around his stick)

[Leecros]

I Wanna Be The Guy?

I wanna be the guy.


As far as more....not games made specifically to irritate you, i'd have to say League of Legends. Not because of the gameplay, but the people who play it. Not the new players who don't know what they're doing, or the players who are trying out a new build, but the people who trash the new players who don't know what they're doing, or the players who are trying out a new build and crush their hopes and dreams, The people who trash you for not using one specific build that they use every single time on that champion and crush your hopes and dreams, The people who rage quit and/or flame people for being bad...at a champion they just started to learn to play, and the people who trash either one or all of their teammates when they lose and have this strange sense of infallibility.

I recall most clearly a game i played as Sion. For those who don't know, Sion is a tanky character with a decent stun who has an ability he can get that gives him hp when he kills things at the cost of the ability making him take damage. So, normally when i play Sion i get a life steal item to offset the damage and then build him generally tanky with a bit of attack damage on the side. Basically i would soak damage for more squishy targets and use my stun and mild damage to assure a kill on an enemy champion. Was it the best build? Probably not, but it generally worked.

Well, anyways this game was played through and we had two players on our team. They were obviously together. They stuck pretty close together and worked....okay....together. The biggest problem is that they wouldn't work with the team. Whenever we were organizing a push or a team fight they were off doing something else. Usually jungling(a phrase used when champions hunt passive mobs on the map) and just ignored us. If that wasn't bad enough, they ran at the first sign of trouble even when they were with us, causing us to lose several very important team fights when they could have made the difference. Even when the enemy was pushing on our main base they were doing their best to avoid the conflict whenever possible. My two companions and I did our best to slow them, but it was really a lost cause...you can't win the game 3 vs 5...but we did everything in our power to attempt to stop them.

That's not what annoyed me though. What annoyed me was that they blamed me specifically for the loss, for no other reason than I had the most deaths...My score at the end was like 3 kills 22 deaths and 27 assists. They ignored assists, that is...when a champion helps, but doesn't actually score the finishing blow on an enemy champion...which was mostly due to my stunning of champions that would likely have gotten away otherwise. Of course the rest of the team other than those two had more deaths than kills as well. Of those two the best score was 3kills 1death 1 assist. I apologize for those who disagree, but at the end of a 50 minute game, having those few stats in general just shows a lack of effort to help your team...

This is only one example. I can only think of a handful of games of League of Legends that i have played where there wasn't one person bullying other players, trolling, disrespecting people, starting arguments, or just being a jerk. That includes the other team as well as arguments tend to spill over into the global chat.

I haven't played LoL in 8 months....not because it's a bad game, but because the players of it are so immature, abrasive, and competitive(even in non-ranked play which was all i did). I'm not saying that EVERY person who plays LoL is a bad person. Far from it, I've met several people who are really pretty good guys, but it only takes one or two jerk players to ruin the experience for everyone involved...

I've heard mention by a couple of my friends that it has gotten better, but i really doubt that i'll go back to it.

[Grif]

I Wanna Be The Guy?

I wanna be the guy.


As far as more....not games made specifically to irritate you, i'd have to say League of Legends. Not because of the gameplay, but the people who play it. Not the new players who don't know what they're doing, or the players who are trying out a new build, but the people who trash the new players who don't know what they're doing, or the players who are trying out a new build and crush their hopes and dreams, The people who trash you for not using one specific build that they use every single time on that champion and crush your hopes and dreams, The people who rage quit and/or flame people for being bad...at a champion they just started to learn to play, and the people who trash either one or all of their teammates when they lose and have this strange sense of infallibility.

I recall most clearly a game i played as Sion. For those who don't know, Sion is a tanky character with a decent stun who has an ability he can get that gives him hp when he kills things at the cost of the ability making him take damage. So, normally when i play Sion i get a life steal item to offset the damage and then build him generally tanky with a bit of attack damage on the side. Basically i would soak damage for more squishy targets and use my stun and mild damage to assure a kill on an enemy champion. Was it the best build? Probably not, but it generally worked.

Well, anyways this game was played through and we had two players on our team. They were obviously together. They stuck pretty close together and worked....okay....together. The biggest problem is that they wouldn't work with the team. Whenever we were organizing a push or a team fight they were off doing something else. Usually jungling(a phrase used when champions hunt passive mobs on the map) and just ignored us. If that wasn't bad enough, they ran at the first sign of trouble even when they were with us, causing us to lose several very important team fights when they could have made the difference. Even when the enemy was pushing on our main base they were doing their best to avoid the conflict whenever possible. My two companions and I did our best to slow them, but it was really a lost cause...you can't win the game 3 vs 5...but we did everything in our power to attempt to stop them.

That's not what annoyed me though. What annoyed me was that they blamed me specifically for the loss, for no other reason than I had the most deaths...My score at the end was like 3 kills 22 deaths and 27 assists. They ignored assists, that is...when a champion helps, but doesn't actually score the finishing blow on an enemy champion...which was mostly due to my stunning of champions that would likely have gotten away otherwise. Of course the rest of the team other than those two had more deaths than kills as well. Of those two the best score was 3kills 1death 1 assist. I apologize for those who disagree, but at the end of a 50 minute game, having those few stats in general just shows a lack of effort to help your team...

This is only one example. I can only think of a handful of games of League of Legends that i have played where there wasn't one person bullying other players, trolling, disrespecting people, starting arguments, or just being a jerk. That includes the other team as well as arguments tend to spill over into the global chat.

I haven't played LoL in 8 months....not because it's a bad game, but because the players of it are so immature, abrasive, and competitive(even in non-ranked play which was all i did). I'm not saying that EVERY person who plays LoL is a bad person. Far from it, I've met several people who are really pretty good guys, but it only takes one or two jerk players to ruin the experience for everyone involved...

I've heard mention by a couple of my friends that it has gotten better, but i really doubt that i'll go back to it.

You clearly have not played DOTA/DOTA 2. :smallamused:

The sheer amount of jerks to be found in public games is astounding.

[Grinner]

Pretty much every Everquest clone. Ever.

They all have that same cumbersome interface and mind-numbing gameplay. (i.e. WASD + point-click-and-drag, mash hotkeys to win)

Edit: Also, NPCs will only ever want you to do one of three things: talk to someone, kill twenty bears, or collect twenty bear asses.

[bobthe6th]

Every MMO when I stopped to realize the time commitment they were asking for.

Like playing DDO, and 10+ hours in being not quite level 2. Or realizing that to get anywhere in Higher grounds was going to take 100s of hours of grinding.

It is less that the games take so long(I will admit to playing many 100s of hours of mount & blade single player) but that the game will give you little appreciable advancement in any reasonable time frame.

[ThePhantom]

Legend of Zelda 2. I know the old games are hard, but this was brutal. I never made it to the first dungeon, ever.

[sonofzeal]

Like playing DDO, and 10+ hours in being not quite level 2.
That's.... actually something wrong. Once you're through the Grotto and into Korthos, you can hit lvl 2 in half an hour without even trying too hard. If you're just wandering around and talking to NPCs and jumping off buildings, sure. But none of the Korthos Village quests takes more than 5 minutes, and running through each once on normal (there's four, so 20 minutes casually, 30 if you're going through carefully, or 10 minutes if you blitz) will get you to lvl 2.

Are you sure you didn't get the level-up ding and then forget to go to the trainer to actually level up?

[factotum]

Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos, and any other game that decides marrying up insane difficulty with fixed save points is a really good idea...playing through an hour-long mission and then getting killed while you're on your way home is *not fun*, and it's about time game designers realised it.

[Immabozo]

but because the players of it are so immature, abrasive, and competitive(even in non-ranked play which was all i did). I'm not saying that EVERY person who plays LoL is a bad person. Far from it, I've met several people who are really pretty good guys, but it only takes one or two jerk players to ruin the experience for everyone involved...

I agree, but many online games have devolved to such. Warcraft III online, WoW, DOTA and many more are the same attitude. But I have turned their fury into very funny jokes that utterly stop the behavior, that always fun. Top way? Agree with the rediculous insults blindly levied at you. "What? Were you dropped on you hear? Moron" "actually, yes." Or one of the many crude references to your mother "actually, yes" it is quite amuxing

[Avilan the Grey]

I have, in general, been lucky enough to stay away from the truly irritating games.

I have to say DA2, although it is not really true. It is not irritating me as much as making me angry, which is a difference.

A lot of older games makes me irritated now because I expect much more from a GUI and gameplay than I did then. For example the original Fallout games are far less entertaining now since the severe clunkiness of everything really irritates me.

[P equals NP]

I Wanna Be The Guy?

I wanna be the guy.

Oh, dear lord, yes. I never even got through the first screen on that game, and not for a lack of trying. The developer obviously meant to create a game that is nigh impossible to complete and will make you cry bitter, bitter tears. He succeeded.

[Tengu_temp]

IWBTG actually provided me with enough motivation to keep going, and I kept laughing as the game threw more and more ridiculous unfair traps in my direction. It wasn't frustrating at all.

Where I gave up, however, was the Bowser Clown Car boss. The boss has three stages, and the first two ones - Bowser and Wart - are really easy, but take a pretty long time to get through, something like a minute or two. And then comes the third stage, Dr Wily, who annihilates you in seconds. And then you have to go through all three stages again. It's very irritating and made me give up on what was an otherwise fun game.

[Winterwind]

Oh, dear lord, yes. I never even got through the first screen on that game, and not for a lack of trying. The developer obviously meant to create a game that is nigh impossible to complete and will make you cry bitter, bitter tears. He succeeded.I'm sure you will be happy to learn, then, that the first screen is pretty much a red herring; you're actually supposed to go up, through the hole in the ceiling. :smallamused:

(More accurately, the first screen has no less than four exits, one on each side, but only the ones upwards or to the left actually make sense. I'd recommend with starting with the one upwards. In case you don't know, the Kid can perform a jump while in mid-air, once every jump.)

I Wanna Be The Guy has got to take the crown for most annoying game ever; after all, it was designed to be just that. On the other hand, I'd also call it one of the most brilliantly designed games ever, both with the creativity of traps, the outside-the-box thinking it perpetually demands from the player, and the hilarious cameos and jokes all over the place. And it actually is beatable. I can attest to that. :smallcool:


Where I gave up, however, was the Bowser Clown Car boss. The boss has three stages, and the first two ones - Bowser and Wart - are really easy, but take a pretty long time to get through, something like a minute or two. And then comes the third stage, Dr Wily, who annihilates you in seconds. And then you have to go through all three stages again. It's very irritating and made me give up on what was an otherwise fun game.I'll have to agree that that fight is incredibly annoying, for precisely the reasons you point out, and one of my least favourite parts of the game. Though it's probably also just about the easiest boss in the game, in a game where the bosses tend to be the easier part of the challenge already. You have to be spot on with your jumps against Wily, and just try to persevere; ultimately, if you keep trying, it shouldn't take you too long.

(Ironically, the boss I like to fight the most, Dracula, is the exact opposite - rather than tedious, he literally throws something different at you every single time, as he's all about how he chooses to queue up his utterly random attacks - which on one hand makes him the most diverse and interesting to fight, but on the other hand also makes him quite tough to beat, since if he throws the wrong combo at you at the wrong time, there will be literally nothing you could do to survive.)

[Eldan]

I've probably played worse, but the one that comes into my mind right now is Dragon Age. I thought the story, setting and characters were pretty good, really, if a bit generic. But man, the combat. What a boring grindfest. Never could finish it.

[Avilan the Grey]

I've probably played worse, but the one that comes into my mind right now is Dragon Age. I thought the story, setting and characters were pretty good, really, if a bit generic. But man, the combat. What a boring grindfest. Never could finish it.

If you feel that way, whatever you do, don't play any Infinity Engine game (Baldur's Gate etc).
Personally, as you know, I found DA:O's combat absolutely amazing. But not as good as those games.

[DigoDragon]

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Every darn time that baby gets bumped off the Yoshi... :smallannoyed:
And that game puts effort into bumping off that baby. Even Nintendo voted it "most annoying game sound effect" at one point.

[Eldan]

If you feel that way, whatever you do, don't play any Infinity Engine game (Baldur's Gate etc).
Personally, as you know, I found DA:O's combat absolutely amazing. But not as good as those games.

Yeah, I also never got far in Baldur's Gate.

[Aotrs Commander]

Toss-up between Perimeter and Star Trek New Worlds, but probably the former. I tried it once again a few years later, thinking that I was a bit older and wiser, and I was going to put it on easy mode, just go get through it - and after the twentieth time failing on one mission where I'd be winning and winning and winning (and following the strategy suggested in the walkthroughs) and suddenly the computer would magically reverse the trend inside two minutes. I gave up in disgust and uninstalled it right there and then and have never even looked it it's direction since.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Luminous Arc.

I expected so much more from a game published by Atlus, especially since it seemed so similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, one of my favorite series of games... instead, I got a bucketload of characters I didn't care about, a headcount limit that prevented me from using them all in battle, a mediocre plot, and none of the engaging gameplay that made the FFT games fun (particularly the leveling up and skill management). Above all, it was just boring.

Disgaea is a close second, for similar reasons (replace the bucketload of characters with a lot of grinding, though).

[Cespenar]

FTL was pretty irritating, even while it was being fun.

[Tengu_temp]

If you feel that way, whatever you do, don't play any Infinity Engine game (Baldur's Gate etc).
Personally, as you know, I found DA:O's combat absolutely amazing. But not as good as those games.

Funny, I liked the combat in Infinity Engine games, but couldn't stand the DA:O combat. Maybe because the former focuses on group tactics, while the latter feels more like a single-player MMO.

[Avilan the Grey]

Funny, I liked the combat in Infinity Engine games, but couldn't stand the DA:O combat. Maybe because the former focuses on group tactics, while the latter feels more like a single-player MMO.

Never got that feeling; I played DA:O exactly like BG(2) with constant pause and top view.

[Leecros]

You clearly have not played DOTA/DOTA 2. :smallamused:

Actually, i have played DOTA. I just used LoL because i played that a lot more than DOTA...

[Hiro Protagonest]

Oh, dear lord, yes. I never even got through the first screen on that game, and not for a lack of trying. The developer obviously meant to create a game that is nigh impossible to complete and will make you cry bitter, bitter tears. He succeeded.

As soon as my new computer arrives and I work out the settings, I am downloading that game. And also the Gaiden one.

[bobthe6th]

That's.... actually something wrong. Once you're through the Grotto and into Korthos, you can hit lvl 2 in half an hour without even trying too hard. If you're just wandering around and talking to NPCs and jumping off buildings, sure. But none of the Korthos Village quests takes more than 5 minutes, and running through each once on normal (there's four, so 20 minutes casually, 30 if you're going through carefully, or 10 minutes if you blitz) will get you to lvl 2.

Are you sure you didn't get the level-up ding and then forget to go to the trainer to actually level up?

It was more I hadn't played in over two years and forgot it was more hitting level 2 at the end of the long tutorial island thing. And the hell those things took five min. The tomb if you went through everything took a while...

[Maxios]

Morrowind. I liked the setting, but I despised the gameplay. The combat system was the worst part about it, and despite the fact that I tried avoiding it as much as possible, I'd get killed every twenty minutes.

[Raimun]

Hard to say. I only buy games after making some research. You know, reading reviews, watching some gameplay trailers, that sort of thing. I only do this if the basic premise catches my interest.

Basically, if I'm buying a game, I'm 95% sure I will enjoy it. It's not fool proof, though. There's still that 5%. Might be even less but it's there. Of these, Oblivion just might take the cake.

One of the first PS3 games I bought was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There wasn't that much PS3 RPGs at that time and many people seemed to like Oblivion, so I tried it. I just popped the disc in and started playing. Most of you who have played the game know that was a mistake.

The leveling system was horrid! If you made a warrior and leveled naturally using the skills he was good at, you actually got weaker. If you didn't level the optimal way (hopping around like a bunny, running towards a wall, etc.) your stats didn't grow well (2-3/level, instead of 5/level, IIRC). Meanwhile, all your enemies leveled when you leveled, so you never got very powerful and if you didn't have full stats/level, you were screwed. They also got better gear too.
I also contracted vampirism by accident and that didn't help at all. The stat bonuses were pretty lame and you had to drink blood from living things to survive. If you didn't, after a few days of "sobriety" you took damage when you walked outside during the day. There was also a bug which basically meant the only cure for vampirism didn't work.

When I realised what was going on, I had to start over. This time I had done my homework and thought this game could be salvageable... except it wasn't. The way the enemies leveled with you still broke the immersion and the difficulty had basically two settings (despite being a slider).

1)The default and beyond: Too frakking hard. You never felt powerful.
2)Anything below that: Everything dies from a hit or two.

Add to that boring combat and the vast but unmemorable game world and I was ready to quit.

My resentment of Oblivion is so high I refuse to try the rest of the series, despite hearing positive things about Morrowind and Skyrim. I just can't imagine the story and the combat would be any better. Good story and good combat system are what I look for in video games.

Ps. I do realise not everyone shares my opinions. Elder Scrolls just isn't just my cup of tea.

[Maxios]

Hard to say. I only buy games after making some research. You know, reading reviews, watching some gameplay trailers, that sort of thing. I only do this if the basic premise catches my interest.

Basically, if I'm buying a game, I'm 95% sure I will enjoy it. It's not fool proof, though. There's still that 5%. Might be even less but it's there. Of these, Oblivion just might take the cake.

One of the first PS3 games I bought was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There wasn't that much PS3 RPGs at that time and many people seemed to like Oblivion, so I tried it. I just popped the disc in and started playing. Most of you who have played the game know that was a mistake.

The leveling system was horrid! If you made a warrior and leveled naturally using the skills he was good at, you actually got weaker. If you didn't level the optimal way (hopping around like a bunny, running towards a wall, etc.) your stats didn't grow well (2-3/level, instead of 5/level, IIRC). Meanwhile, all your enemies leveled when you leveled, so you never got very powerful and if you didn't have full stats/level, you were screwed. They also got better gear too.
I also contracted vampirism by accident and that didn't help at all. The stat bonuses were pretty lame and you had to drink blood from living things to survive. If you didn't, after a few days of "sobriety" you took damage when you walked outside during the day. There was also a bug which basically meant the only cure for vampirism didn't work.

When I realised what was going on, I had to start over. This time I had done my homework and thought this game could be salvageable... except it wasn't. The way the enemies leveled with you still broke the immersion and the difficulty had basically two settings (despite being a slider).

1)The default and beyond: Too frakking hard. You never felt powerful.
2)Anything below that: Everything dies from a hit or two.

Add to that boring combat and the vast but unmemorable game world and I was ready to quit.

My resentment of Oblivion is so high I refuse to try the rest of the series, despite hearing positive things about Morrowind and Skyrim. I just can't imagine the story and the combat would be any better. Good story and good combat system are what I look for in video games.

Ps. I do realise not everyone shares my opinions. Elder Scrolls just isn't just my cup of tea.

The story and combat are better in Skyrim.

Also, I have Oblivion on the PC so I have mods that have fixed all the problems you've mentioned.

[Hiro Protagonest]

The story and combat are better in Skyrim.

It's relative. Really relative.

[Raimun]

The story and combat are better in Skyrim.

Also, I have Oblivion on the PC so I have mods that have fixed all the problems you've mentioned.

Alas, my basic laptop can't run new games. I'm mostly a console player.

Besides, isn't it a bad sign if you need your customers to make your game any good? More content (quests etc.) is normal but a total overhaul? :smalltongue:

Also, I seriously despise the new trend of making RPGs FPS-games. It's all good if you like to play an archer or mage but close combat suffers. This tends to make all the spells/powers you can get mechanically similar to pistols, rifles and rocket launchers. I know you can play Oblivion in third person but still.

[Eldan]

Morrowind has a pretty damn horrible combat system, I must admit.

But the setting, exploration and story are good enough that I'd forgive it anything. And there's no auto-levelling.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Besides, isn't it a bad sign if you need your customers to make your game any good? More content (quests etc.) is normal but a total overhaul? :smalltongue:
Hey, they did that with Crusader Kings II (Game of Thrones mod, completely changes the world and does some stuff to the mechanics).

Also, I seriously despise the new trend of making RPGs FPS-games. It's all good if you like to play an archer or mage but close combat suffers. This tends to make all the spells/powers you can get mechanically similar to pistols, rifles and rocket launchers. (I know you can play Oblivion in third person).

New trend? Bethesda's been doing this since the first Elder Scrolls, and I don't see anyone else trying it.

Elder Scrolls has always had terrible mechanics and story, and it's mostly just a case of finding all the exploits so you can skip past the bad stuff and just get onto the exploration.

[Traab]

Xenogears. I absolutely LOVED this game. Loved everything about it. it was pure awesomesauce. Then I got to the sewer level where you have to jump up the pipes in a vertical jumping session. Oh god that sucked. Also, ym first copy of the game froze during the arena battle part where my gear gets sabotaged, so that also sucked.

[Raimun]

Hey, they did that with Crusader Kings II (Game of Thrones mod, completely changes the world and does some stuff to the mechanics).

Haven't played this. Then again, it's an other thing to make a completely new game from an another.



New trend? Bethesda's been doing this since the first Elder Scrolls, and I don't see anyone else trying it.


It's a thing.



Elder Scrolls has always had terrible mechanics and story, and it's mostly just a case of finding all the exploits so you can skip past the bad stuff and just get onto the exploration.

Tell me, what is this exploration thing people go on and on? What are they finding? Interesting characters or cultures? Items/loot?

I seriously can't remember any NPCs from oblivion, except that emperor... dude. The items were pretty... eh. Magic swords that need recharging and a lot of plates and cups that were useless. :smalltongue:

[P equals NP]

I seriously can't remember any NPCs from oblivion, except that emperor... dude.

It seems you are one of the few souls that did not kill the Adoring Fan over and over with glee.

[Leecros]

Tell me, what is this exploration thing people go on and on? What are they finding? Interesting characters or cultures? Items/loot?

There hasn't been any real exploring involved since they implemented their special fast travel system...

I remember when i first started morrowind. I discovered a couple of towns and cities after several(in game) days of just wandering the ashlands.




(Edited for quoting the wrong thing)

[Raimun]

It seems you are one of the few souls who did not kill the Adoring Fan over and over with glee.

The what now? Where s/he was?

[P equals NP]

The what now? Where s/he was?

Observe. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypXMAIL0p5w)

[Raimun]

Observe. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypXMAIL0p5w)

Grand champion. Of the gladiators? Yes, I was a grand champion (too) and he never followed me.

[P equals NP]

You do have to specifically ask him to follow you. However, I'm not sure how you missed him, since the first thing that happens when you emerge victorious as Grand Champion from the arena is this guy bugging you.

[Zen Master]

I've recently been pretty annoyed by Skyrim. It's not really a terrible game - it just has so much unfulfilled potential.

Before Skyrim, I was similarly annoyed by Oblivion. For much the same reason.

But I guess neither counts as the MOST irritating game.

Right now, I'm playing ME3. Which is also immensely annoying. For numerous reasons, one being the extremely painful consolitis. It also has a very iffy mix of combat and tactics. It's all very good and fine, wanting to be a kinda tactical/cover-based/shooter thing. But it doesn't grant vision or map awareness enough to do it well. Just earlier today, I was fighing a bunch of the things called brutes, while a reaper was trying to step on me. No ... way ... in hell ... to keep an eye on both. Which is just ... annoying. Insta-death for not being omniscient. Thanks, Bethesda - nice design.

But that still isn't the most annoying game, I think.

No, currently, the most frustrating game I can think of is Witcher 2. For mass combat, it just reeks. Maybe there's some trick I just haven't figured out, but I very much doubt it. It's so very, very, very poorly designed. And to make it worse, it was better in the first game. What was so wrong with that, that they had to replace it with something worse???

And then, of course, it has a tendency to crash. At the most annoying moments. And not have a recent auto-save. And then, finally, become unplayable, forcing me to re-install and start over. Witcher 2 holds the prize for current game I refuse to finish. At least until they patch it to playability.

But the most frustrating game in history is an ancient amiga title called North vs South. Broke a door over that one. Still have the scars - the door broke, but so did my hand =)

[P equals NP]

Right now, I'm playing ME3. Which is also immensely annoying. For numerous reasons, one being the extremely painful consolitis. It also has a very iffy mix of combat and tactics. It's all very good and fine, wanting to be a kinda tactical/cover-based/shooter thing. But it doesn't grant vision or map awareness enough to do it well. Just earlier today, I was fighing a bunch of the things called brutes, while a reaper was trying to step on me. No ... way ... in hell ... to keep an eye on both. Which is just ... annoying. Insta-death for not being omniscient. Thanks, Bethesda - nice design.

I have to agree with your criticism here; however, the big bad angry Reaper did once save me from being impaled by a Banshee. Poor guy, trying to kill me so hard but accidentally saving my life.

[Zen Master]

I have to agree with your criticism here; however, the big bad angry Reaper did once save me from being impaled by a Banshee. Poor guy, trying to kill me so hard but accidentally saving my life.

Heh - thanks =)

No one ever agrees with me. I've actually wondered if agreement might somehow break the internet =)

[Raimun]

You do have to specifically ask him to follow you. However, I'm not sure how you missed him, since the first thing that happens when you emerge victorious as Grand Champion from the arena is this guy bugging you.

I guess I didn't miss him but I must have not told him to follow me. He didn't seem like that useful. :smalltongue:

[P equals NP]

I guess I didn't miss him but I must have not told him to follow me. He didn't seem like that useful. :smalltongue:

Some people use him as a torch carrier. He does run off during combat, though. And he would also likely ruin your attempts at sneaking, but I don't exactly remember how sneaking works in Oblivion, so I might be wrong.

[Raimun]

Heh - thanks =)

No one ever agrees with me. I've actually wondered if agreement might somehow break the internet =)

Break the internet? Of course it doesn't! :smalltongue:

[Immabozo]

Now that I think about it, another incredibly irritating game was Halo Reach. I thought the storyline was kinda poor, explains why they all died, the freely commit suicide for going out in a blaze of glory! But the part about the game that sucked about the game was that it was so well put together and just when it started to really pull together, and become a great game, it ended.

Made me want to punch a drunk baby.

[Gnoman]

Legend of Zelda 2. I know the old games are hard, but this was brutal. I never made it to the first dungeon, ever.

(I assume you're talking about the NES Zelda II)

If you couldn't get to the first castle. you were probably going the wrong way. Take the NE cave from you starting point (there's one creature in it that you won't be able to see due to the dark, but you can sort of see it on the ground) Then the castle is NE of where you exit, through a desert filled with extremely easy enemies.

Still a hard game. I've been playing it for 22 years and haven't beat it yet.

[Tengu_temp]

The way the enemies leveled with you still broke the immersion and the difficulty had basically two settings (despite being a slider).

1)The default and beyond: Too frakking hard. You never felt powerful.
2)Anything below that: Everything dies from a hit or two.


Actually, the difficulty in Oblivion pretty much bases on how up-to-date your items and spells are. I made the mistake of going to Kvatch with early game equipment, even though I was on level 10 or so. The hordes of overpowered Daedra were unbearable. Soon after I finally dealt with that, I killed a bandit and found a set of glass equipment on him. The game was mostly piece of cake from that moment on.

So yeah, Oblivion is pretty much too hard or too easy, with no middle ground except at the very beginning. It's probably the worst Elder Scrolls game, but I find all of them extremely overrated. They're wide, open sandboxes, but just like a sandbox they tend to also be extremely shallow, with everything being very samey. And it never feels like your choices matter in the long run. Some people call Skyrim the best game of 2011, when it's not even the best RPG of 2011 (that title goes to Witcher 2).



No, currently, the most frustrating game I can think of is Witcher 2. For mass combat, it just reeks. Maybe there's some trick I just haven't figured out, but I very much doubt it. It's so very, very, very poorly designed. And to make it worse, it was better in the first game. What was so wrong with that, that they had to replace it with something worse???


I'm not sure what are you talking about. The general difficulty, or the targetting problems? The latters can be pretty annoying, yeah, but the former is a design feature. This is a game that requires you to think tactically and not get surrounded, instead of just running straight into the enemy group and hacking mindlessly. It's not that hard once you get used to it.

[Eldan]

Oblivion was just a terrible game, really. Apart from the Dark Brotherhood questline and the inventive trap design in the dungeons, there wasn't much worht saving.

Morrowind, though... the exploration and story were so... damn... awesome.

Autolevellling and fast travel really ruined a lot of the feeling. Oblivion becomes bearable once you mod the levelling and travelling systems and add the Unique Landscapes...

So, once you change everything about it :smalltongue:

[Morty]

Hm, a tough question. I'm generally very easily irritated and I'd rather my answer wasn't just about a game I'd found bad.

Still, the game that has irritated me the most recently was Gothic 3, which I tried playing again and gave up. It's irritating and frustrating, because there's a good game there somewhere - it's just buried under the layers of shoody design. Not even the Community Patch and Quest Pack mods could fix it, if only because they don't solve the nonsensical plot and wonky balance.

[Kesnit]

Morrowind: I have never figured out how people can play this game. The combat system is awful. (How am I supposed to level up skills if they never work to begin with?) The quest system is worse. (OK, so I'm supposed to go out of town and turn left.... Hmm... There's a lot of "left" out here.... OK, I've spend 20 minutes wandering around looking for "left." What am I even looking for????) I've lost count of how many times I have tried to play this game, but I always get to the point of "this is stupid."

Baulder's Gate: I don't find a game fun where I have to save every half-screen, else I'll end up in combat and likely lose one of my (limited) party members. Constantly having to reload to get across the screen without losing someone gets really old, really fast. (I do have BG2 and have been meaning to try it. Since you start at a higher level, I suspect I'll like that one more.)

Viking: Battle for Asgard: If the main character was a Viking, he would have been left on a hillside to die of stupidity. The most frustrating thing is the inability to have him attack who or what you want him to attack in melee. There are many times throughout the game when items need to be destroyed. However, you will only target these things until an enemy attacks, at which point he turns around to attack the enemy who attacked you. It's almost a wrestling match to stop attacking the enemy and start attacking what you want to attack (or stop attacking a wimpy enemy and go after the powerful one). A mini-map would be useful (or at least a detailed map of the surrounding area) as there are times when getting to where you need to be is unnecessarily difficult because the location requires you to go through a cave, or up a hill, or through a maze of canyons.

Alien Syndrome: The early part of the game is great, but once you get towards the end, it becomes very annoying. Ammo becomes a major issue, but there is no way to conserve ammo. (You can only produce so much before production goes into a "cooldown.") If you die, the game restarts at the last save point, meaning you have to fight the same monsters over and over in the hopes of beating them. (There is no option to go back to the checkpoint - minus ammo and healing spent - but with all killed monsters dead.) I tried to get through the game, honest. But in the end, it was too frustrating.

[Immabozo]

Baulder's Gate: I don't find a game fun where I have to save every half-screen, else I'll end up in combat and likely lose one of my (limited) party members. Constantly having to reload to get across the screen without losing someone gets really old, really fast. (I do have BG2 and have been meaning to try it. Since you start at a higher level, I suspect I'll like that one more.)

never tried BG 1, but BG 2 is a very good game. I've beaten it several times, and it still has lots of good replay value.

Although certain parts of the game are old due to over playing the first two chapters and then quitting when I was younger.

[Eldan]

Morrowind: I have never figured out how people can play this game. The combat system is awful. (How am I supposed to level up skills if they never work to begin with?) The quest system is worse. (OK, so I'm supposed to go out of town and turn left.... Hmm... There's a lot of "left" out here.... OK, I've spend 20 minutes wandering around looking for "left." What am I even looking for????) I've lost count of how many times I have tried to play this game, but I always get to the point of "this is stupid."

That's the most divisive part of the game and likely deterimes whether you like it or not. I loved the game for exactly that part. It doesn't tell you what you need to do, it lets you find out and explore things on your own.

[Cespenar]

That's the most divisive part of the game and likely deterimes whether you like it or not. I loved the game for exactly that part. It doesn't tell you what you need to do, it lets you find out and explore things on your own.

Definitely this. There are so few recent games that do it that this becomes a selling point almost by itself.

Limiting fast travels to public transports (boat, silt strider, mage's guild) was a touch of genius as well.

[Avilan the Grey]

That's the most divisive part of the game and likely deterimes whether you like it or not. I loved the game for exactly that part. It doesn't tell you what you need to do, it lets you find out and explore things on your own.

That's why you in at least Bethesdas FO games and Skyrim can turn the quest markers and "noteworthy" markers off in the compass; they know certain people enjoy the search.


Limiting fast travels to public transports (boat, silt strider, mage's guild) was a touch of genius as well.

I tend to try not to fast travel but eventually it just gets too tideous especially Fetch-Quests. I have compromised by walking THERE but fast-travelling BACK.

[Cespenar]

I tend to try not to fast travel but eventually it just gets too tideous especially Fetch-Quests. I have compromised by walking THERE but fast-travelling BACK.

The problem there is the existence of fetch quests.

[Leecros]

Oblivion was just a terrible game, really. Apart from the Dark Brotherhood questline and the inventive trap design in the dungeons, there wasn't much worht saving.

I actually thought Oblivion's trap design wasn't that great. I don't think there was any situation in Oblivion where a trap had caught me unaware. Skyrim though....I got hit a few times by traps in Skyrim that i didn't even see...

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Also, I seriously despise the new trend of making RPGs FPS-games. It's all good if you like to play an archer or mage but close combat suffers. This tends to make all the spells/powers you can get mechanically similar to pistols, rifles and rocket launchers. I know you can play Oblivion in third person but still.
Played Mount & Blade? It optionally uses a first-person view, but the melee is honest-to-goodness melee, and there's archery that feels much more like archery.

[factotum]

Limiting fast travels to public transports (boat, silt strider, mage's guild) was a touch of genius as well.

There were also a number of magical fast travel things you could do yourself:

Propylon Indexes: you could use these to teleport to the relevant Dunmer stronghold that Index pointed to. There was also a free DLC quest that allowed you to create a master index that would take you to any of the strongholds.

Divine Intervention: Teleported you instantly to the nearest Temple of the Divines.

ALMSIVI Intervention: Teleported you instantly to the nearest Tribunal Temple.

After a while getting around would involve you figuring out which combination of fast travel resources would get you nearest to your target!

[P equals NP]

After a while getting around would involve you figuring out which combination of fast travel resources would get you nearest to your target!

I find this interesting as a student of computer science. Perhaps I should get into Morrowind and implement a pathfinding algorithm that uses those elements to challenge myself.

[Rizhail]

The most irritating game I've ever played was Final Fantasy XI (the first FF MMO). The first time I played it was actually pretty fun for a number of reasons: I was introduced to the game by a friend who was on regularly and walked me through the controls and what not, it was my first MMO so the gameplay concept was new to me, and I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy series and loved that FFXI embraced the old character jobs and aesthetic (loved playing a freaking Red Mage).

Now, how did it get irritating, you ask?

I stopped playing after a while due to lack of free time and money. Eventually I just forgot about the game as I got older and moved on to other games. However, FFXI eventually added a free trial, and I jumped at the chance to play the game again with a friend of mine who'd always been interested in it, but was never willing to put down the cash to get it.

This time around, we didn't last five minutes. WoW, Warhammer, DDO, and others had ruined me for such an old fashioned MMO. The completely unintuitive nature of the UI, the cumbersome combat and rest systems, and worst of all, the sheer damned grind. We dropped and never looked back.

Well, I occasionally look back on my earlier play times with nostalgia. I miss the playstyle of my favorite class, the Red Mage (comboing melee and magic, handling healing, damaging, and debuffing with spells, and all with a damned stylish hat!). I just don't miss the grind and crappy interface.

[Traab]

I have to admit, thats the biggest downside to MMOs. Once you stop playing it, doubly so when you move on to another game, you cant go home again. I tried going back to everquest and couldnt stand it. I tried going back to DAOC and couldnt stand it, I tried going back to lotro and couldnt stand it. Only reason i keep coming back to WoW is everyone else seems to have given up trying to replace it so nothing new has grabbed me yet.

[bobthe6th]

Played Mount & Blade? It optionally uses a first-person view, but the melee is honest-to-goodness melee, and there's archery that feels much more like archery.

Second this... A very solid game, even if horses are massively unbalanced.
It even has real differences between all the weapons. Though the first person is only good for archery... which feels like actual archery rather then a FPS.

It might be the lack of magic to simulate modern weapons, or the fact it is a semi indi games, but it feels so much more realistic.

[Tengu_temp]

Baulder's Gate: I don't find a game fun where I have to save every half-screen, else I'll end up in combat and likely lose one of my (limited) party members. Constantly having to reload to get across the screen without losing someone gets really old, really fast. (I do have BG2 and have been meaning to try it. Since you start at a higher level, I suspect I'll like that one more.)


The joys of level 1 DND, especially AD&D. And by joys, I mean anything but. I suggest either investing in ranged weapons or playing a multi-classed character, makes surviving the lowest levels much more bearable.

[Artanis]

Morrowind.

Two words: Cliff. Racers.

[NEO|Phyte]

Morrowind.

Two words: Cliff. Racers.

http://imagehaul.com/thehauls/2fdc5ac29da47cf13ed2d2c1ecea8f3c.gif

[Morbis Meh]

For me, the game that I hands down took back without beating was Barroque, it was god awful... Not only do I really hate games that are endless loops but you start back at level one every time you die/restart

[Cespenar]

Morrowind.

Two words: Cliff. Racers.

Custom make a spell: Drain Health 45 pts on Target. Now you can instakill them from range for a relatively low magicka cost. Similarly drops most wildlife as well. Until their diseased and blighted versions start to appear, that is. For which then you make the Mk II and III versions of the spell, and continue.

[Aotrs Commander]

Morrowind.

Two words: Cliff. Racers.

Oh, yeah. They are the absolute low-point of the game.

[Murmaider]

Sinistar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcyBtVwAsfg)

People probably did not think it was that bad back in 1982, but when I played it on my super nintendo for the first time I was mildly irritated.

"So, what do I do here? Pew-Pew! Hehe, I can shoot stuff"

"Beware, I live!"

"Hu?"

"RAAAAAAWR!!"

"WTF!"

[Loki_42]

I once played a small section of Sonic 2006. I wasn't really on the internet back then, I didn't know how bad it was supposed to be.

[IncoherentEssay]

It is a bit of an odd case, but for me it would be Robowarrior for the NES. It's not a bad game, and i later came to like it but it is very, very harsh. The levels are sidescrolling and unless you take the exact correct route trough a section it loops forever. And the correct route is rarely obvious, often requiring the player to bomb their way through a seemingly impassable wall (it does this often enough that you'll come to expect it by the time it gets really bad). Of course, you need bombs just to make progress through the level (it's basically bomberman-like with the destructible and non-destructible walls, as well as the aforementioned destructible 'non-destructible' walls) and bombs aren't infinite, though they do drop from enemies. Then there's the dark levels (roughly 25% of the levels) where you can't see crap unless you have light-providing items to use. Of course the dark levels have water, which drowns you fast if you blunder in.

The fun part? Your life ticks down over time and the items to recover it are random drops from blasting the scenery.
The reason i picked this is because when i bought it as a kid, it ate up my savings from a long while and was basically unplayable for me due to the difficulty. Suffice to say i was less than happy with my purchase.

Runner up would be Ultima 9. I spent ages at the near end of the second dungeon stumped by an underwater grate until i read a guide and found out that the exit was in the tunnels roof, the grate was irrelevant to leaving.

[Zen Master]

Speaking of annoyance:

I found my first bug in ME3 3 minutes into the game. First thing I did was to run through the normandy, up and say hi to Joker. Got stuck on graphics, had to start over.

Other bugs include the pre-mission screens, where any random action - from upgrading a skill to pressing back to upgrading another skill - may just dump the prep-fase and dump you into the mission.

Then there are conversations where the wrong (or right, who would ever know) choice of response will just end the conversation.

Shop interfaces, where purchasing items or pressing back will also just end the shop.

Thankfully, at least for now, I kinda enjoy the game. Just not all the crap. Why do giant, tripple-A publishers make these amateurish blunders? How bloody hard can it be to playtest?!

[GolemsVoice]

I believe the answer here is not that it's hard to playtest (though there are enough companies who lack in this regard) but actually finding the CAUSE for the error and fixing it without breaking other things.

[Artanis]

Custom make a spell: Drain Health 45 pts on Target. Now you can instakill them from range for a relatively low magicka cost. Similarly drops most wildlife as well. Until their diseased and blighted versions start to appear, that is. For which then you make the Mk II and III versions of the spell, and continue.
I usually played an archer, so killing the buggers usually wasn't a problem. The problems came when they were hidden behind a mountain or something so that I couldn't find them, or worse, glitched so that my arrows wouldn't hit them.

Of course, there's plenty of other irritating things in Morrowind (namely the leveling system and needing to spend three hours with Creeper/Mudcrab each time you want to sell a piece of high-end loot), but Cliff Racers are what put it over the top for me.


I believe the answer here is not that it's hard to playtest (though there are enough companies who lack in this regard) but actually finding the CAUSE for the error and fixing it without breaking other things.
Agreed. I took just enough comp sci courses in college to know that I will never, ever use the phrase, "it'd be easy to..." when talking about implementing and/or fixing a particular bit of code.

[Draconi Redfir]

You clearly have not played DOTA/DOTA 2. :smallamused:

The sheer amount of jerks to be found in public games is astounding.

Yes he has. it's the same game.



Anyways as for the most irritating game? It'd have to be this little gem i found one day called "Battle of giants: Dragons". It looked good at the start, but i quickly realized just how godawful it truly was after about the second level.

the basic (and only) gameplay mechanic is essentially fly to designated point, burn crystal, open up new area, fly to new point, burn crystal, fly to new area, repeat. every level you would have to fight two other dragons (and ONLY two if you were lucky) in order to get these little Gems that basically acted as forms of attack, it's a long story.


The battle mechanic was taking both dragons, putting them into a fiery volcano arena even if you were in a frozen ice biome less then two seconds ago, and having them "fight" by moving around a small platform to choose whether or not to fight with teeth, claw, tail, wings, or breath weapon, then when the timer runs out, you automatically attack with whatever section of the platform you are standing on. you choose a gem to boost your attack, and you essentially play a short game of connect-the-dots in order to form this "rune" thing that determined how powerful your attack would be. this was one of the few things about the game that was actually somewhat tolerable. Also whenever you "fight" another dragon, neither of you actually hits the other, it takes the old pokemon stadium method of two opponents standing in fixed locations and swiping at the air infront of them, the other opponent reacting accordingly along with some particle effects.

The worst part about the battle system was the short "victory dance" as I’m going to call it, it's not really a dance, just something your dragon does when he wins. He pushes his front half off the ground, stands on his hind legs for a moment before crashing back down, his head and neck dragging behind him, and you would think that the moment his head reached the bottom of it's arc he would release a mighty ROAR of victory right? NOPE! his head still reaches the bottom of his arc, but then right at the perfect point for a roar, he instead shakes his head from side to side a few times like he just got a random shiver, and THEN roars, ruining the entire pose and making it feel like your lover just walked out on you halfway through a makeout session without saying a single word.


The basic "plot" so to say is that... i have no idea. something about restoring this one or more super crystals or something and defeating these dragon overlords, like you start in the ice area, travel through four to five zones, burn crystals, fight dragons, then you reach the dragon overlord which is exactly the same as the other dragons, you beat him, then you move on to the earth area, then the wind area, then you finish off in the fire area... THEN you start again in the fire area, move on to the ice, the earth, the wind... basically it makes you play the same game four times with no real reason. And between these segments where you play as dragons of these different types, you kinda run around as this pitch black no-element dragon apparently being trained by this all-element dragon guy who won't shut up speaking his silly gibberish language with subtitles for ten minutes, but you never actually get to DO anything as the cool black dragon, instead for every rotation of the same game, you play as one of four DIFFERENT dragons, each of the elemental type of the area they started in. so in essence you play as an ice dragon, a fire dragon, an earth dragon, and a wind dragon, but never actually as the black dragon your introduced as at the beginning of the game.


In the end i only wound up PLAYING the dang thing just to prove to myself that I’m better then it, i beat that game before it beat me, and dang did it feel good to finally put that sucker away for good. i wasn't going to give it the luxury of knowing that i gave up once realizing how horrible it was.


oh that reminds me. at one point while playing, you come across the overlord dragon of the earth area, he's flying at the beginning of the level, and when he sees you, he flies away, and all-element gibberish dragon tells you to chase him. i thought to myself "I’m actually going to CHASE a dragon!? a new game mechanic!? this might actually be interesting!" but nope, i follow after him, only to see him vanish behind a giant thornbush i can't cross, and surprise-surprise, there are some crystals i need to burn in order to follow him:smallannoyed: So much for the new game element.

[Gnoman]

I believe the answer here is not that it's hard to playtest (though there are enough companies who lack in this regard) but actually finding the CAUSE for the error and fixing it without breaking other things.

Besides this, there are always going to be a far smaller number of playtesters than there are actual players.It is entirely possible that you could get a hundred or even a thousand testers (an unrealistically large number) that simply would never think about performing an action that leads to a bug, or combining two abilities in a way that renders the game broken.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Yes he has. it's the same game.

Okay, I know they look similar, but calling one game a direct copy of another with reskins is just insulting. Both of those games have a very different metagame, which every player who's spent long enough in the game to get competent at it knows about.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Tragically... Deus Ex.

I completely missed the series the first time it came around, and never quite got around to installing or playing it, due to distractions and laziness on my own part. In fact, I only installed it for the first time after already beating Human Revolution.

I had high hopes; I had really high hopes. Everyone had raved about the game, and it sounded like exactly my cup of tea. Each level offered a variety of solutions, based on playstyle; stealth and trickery could triumph where brute force didn't stand a chance. The setting was unique and richly developed, and the story compelling and thought-provoking. In short, it sounded like everything a game should be.

Now, I'm sure that Deus Ex did all of those things - too many people I respect love it for me to believe that it was simply a bad game. I'm entirely convinced that Deus Ex was a ground-breaking work of genius when it was made... and because it was so good, other games have copied those same strengths, so by the time I fired it up, I already took them for granted.

So, when I actually sat down to play Deus Ex, it didn't really deliver anything I wasn't already used to seeing - but it delivered it more slowly, with worse graphics and clunkier mechanics. The graphics were actually poor enough to make the settings less impressive, and the characters less relateable; the controls didn't respond quite right, and the enemy AI was stilted and clunky. Combat felt slow and clumsy, with frequent deaths making it more "Frustrating" than "Exciting." Stealth approaches were more successful, but it was still frustrating to try to draw any actual elegance out of the system.

I'm sure that if I was playing it with nostalgia glasses, I would have looked past all those things, remembering the fun available deeper in... but instead, I just ended up poking around for a couple of levels before losing interest.

Obviously, I've played worse games - but not for long. Normally, if a game experience is that unsatisfying, I quit after a few minutes and move on to something better. With Deus Ex, I truly wanted to enjoy the experience, and kept poking at it to see if I was just doing something wrong... thus making it the most irritating game I've ever played.

For me, the ultimate take-away from Deus Ex wasn't "How well old games stand up" but "How far game design has advanced." I'm not just talking about graphical fidelity or physics models, either; things like level design, tutorials, balance and storytelling through games are simply better understood today than they were when Deus Ex was made.

[GolemsVoice]

What a shame

[Immabozo]

you guys have certainly found some abysmal games

[huttj509]

Orphen for PS2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFqmqaR0toc).

Bad repetitive voice acting, no real change in gameplay, repetitive, same, repetitive, and after every fight that #$%^^%&$^&$% "Well that was easy."

Friend was fan of Anime series in college, had the game. I drew the short straw to play it. I wasn't allowed to play anything else until I beat it (he had the PS2). I get to the last boss, so we can finally see the ending and be done (the whole time thinking "maybe it gets better later?).

Turned out I'd need to beat it twice more to get the ending. At that point we declared my labors done, and I was freed in an act of mercy.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

While I'm sticking with "Deus Ex" for my first answer, I should give honorable mention to "Everything Bethesda Has Ever Done."

They put *so* much work into their worlds, into the detail, into hand-building the towns and environments, and they allow for such an (almost) unparalleled degree of open-world sandbox play... and then they make their worlds boring.

Their plots are boring. Their mythology is boring. Their towns are boring. Their NPCs are boring. The voice acting for those NPCs is annoying, and boring. Bethesda creates the most intricate, fully-realized, lovingly rendered boiler-plate fantasy gruel in the world.

And then someone gave them Fallout. >_<

[Reynard]

Are we talking bad games, or actually irritating ones?

Because Silent Storm is by no definition a bad game, but dear everloving spacepope are some of the missions annoying. Any mission that has a significant number of 'allies' (civilians and some soldiers that derp around and miss every shot) takes about a million years longer than it needs to, as each and every one wiggles on the spot or fires a potshot that misses utterly.

[Zen Master]

I believe the answer here is not that it's hard to playtest (though there are enough companies who lack in this regard) but actually finding the CAUSE for the error and fixing it without breaking other things.

Really? Your answer is 'too bad - it can't be fixed'?!

Nice. Mine is 'hire better programmers.'

[Gnoman]

No. It has zero to do with the skill of the programmers. Bugs are not simply likely or possible when dealing with large software projects. They are INEVITABLE. The absolute best that you can hope for is that they are fairly small or are caught in playtesting. Most likely, however is that they won't show up until fairly arcane circumstances occur, don't show up on test hardware (this is particularly common on consoles, as the development versions of the hardware don't have copy protection), or are masked by other, more blatant errors. I highly doubt that there is a single game or application made after 1985 or so (once they started getting to a certain level of complexity) that does not have some kind of programming bug.

[P equals NP]

Really? Your answer is 'too bad - it can't be fixed'?!

Nice. Mine is 'hire better programmers.'

I can totally believe that it can't be fixed because I'm a programmer-in-training myself. The typical programmer spends 10% of his time writing code and 90% debugging it. When you get to a scope as massive as a triple-A game, well...


Their mythology is boring.

Oh, there are plenty of juicy bits out there if you're willing to look for them. Of course, you could fault Bethesda for not making those bits obvious in their games, but oh well.

[Draconi Redfir]

Okay, I know they look similar, but calling one game a direct copy of another with reskins is just insulting. Both of those games have a very different metagame, which every player who's spent long enough in the game to get competent at it knows about.

I'm thinking of a game. it's an RTS game where you control one hero along with several other players. In one corner of the map you have your base, and in the other corner of the map you have the enemy base, each base automatically spews out weak NPC mooks that run through three different lanes to fight one another, towers occasionally dot the lanes to mix things up a bit. Between the lanes is a Forrest or some other wilderness area, with wild no-team mobs that you can kill for bonus experience and resources. In general the players of the game are very angry people.


What game am i thinking of? Because there are at least three that fit that exact description.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

I can totally believe that it can't be fixed because I'm a programmer-in-training myself. The typical programmer spends 10% of his time writing code and 90% debugging it. When you get to a scope as massive as a triple-A game, well...



Oh, there are plenty of juicy bits out there if you're willing to look for them. Of course, you could fault Bethesda for not making those bits obvious in their games, but oh well.

Eh, I looked for them - I am the sort of player who reads books and all of that. I just found them sadly dry.

Oh, and this video. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/playtesting) Actually, not just that video, but everything by those guys. For those of you talking about game design... that whole webcast is just fascinating, not to mention entertaining. Just linking that one cause it's on the subject of playtesting, and I was watching it at the time.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I'm thinking of a game. it's an RTS game where you control one hero along with several other players. In one corner of the map you have your base, and in the other corner of the map you have the enemy base, each base automatically spews out weak NPC mooks that run through three different lanes to fight one another, towers occasionally dot the lanes to mix things up a bit. Between the lanes is a Forrest or some other wilderness area, with wild no-team mobs that you can kill for bonus experience and resources. In general the players of the game are very angry people.


What game am i thinking of? Because there are at least three that fit that exact description.

Take out the insult to the playerbase, and you have a one-off arena game that would work in some TTRPGs.

[Lord Raziere]

Morrowind and Oblivion:
they were just not playable. at all. and worldbuilding? pffhahahaha. if you count going around looking at bland environments, blandly talking to people with complicated interfaces with bland voices, "worldbuilding". I just…..don't see how people have fun with these games, cause they look like the most boring, difficult thing in the world. they make mmo's look interesting.

Children of Mana:
bad gameplay, overly cheery village, story that looks kinda interesting but in reality not interesting enough to go through the gameplay, all the characters look way too cartoonish, even for me….yeah…..

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:
music is good, but gameplay is a little lacklustre, and things get to hard by the third year to really continue….it just wasn't a game that you could play alone, and I never had anyone to play it with. it was interesting, but alas, the difficulty and gameplay…..

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Morrowind and Oblivion:
they were just not playable. at all. and worldbuilding? pffhahahaha. if you count going around looking at bland environments, blandly talking to people with complicated interfaces with bland voices, "worldbuilding". I just…..don't see how people have fun with these games, cause they look like the most boring, difficult thing in the world. they make mmo's look interesting.

Bethesda is a weird studio... I do not understand how they can have that much money, put that much work into their games, and still make the same very basic mistakes over and over.

Writers just don't cost that much compared to voice actors, artists and animators. Every time I hear different voice actors reading the exact same bit of stilted NPC dialogue, I wonder who's running that place.

And then someone gave them Fallout. >_<

[Hiro Protagonest]

Morrowind and Oblivion:
they were just not playable. at all. and worldbuilding? pffhahahaha. if you count going around looking at bland environments, blandly talking to people with complicated interfaces with bland voices, "worldbuilding". I just…..don't see how people have fun with these games, cause they look like the most boring, difficult thing in the world. they make mmo's look interesting.

MMOs are interesting. At least, the ones that didn't flop. Guild Wars 2 is pretty good, but nobody's been talking about it lately because ANet hasn't done anything big since launch (there are tons of complaints about a guild that could be the Goon Squad hacking the game and curbstomping everyone in WvW, but ANet is silent and hacking isn't the Goon Squad's style). WoW does actually have a good story, it's just that the quests are boring and Blizzard has dumbed down some of the monsters (before, there were areas where co-op was mandatory. Not because it was enforced by mechanics, but because monsters would kill solo players. Those areas are gone). EVE is very popular because of the way clans work in it. Planetside 2 is a great FPS, and it really shines at the tactical level of platoon size, but individual tactics and massive-scale logistics are also there.

[Tengu_temp]

WoW does actually have a good story, it's just that the quests are boring and Blizzard has dumbed down some of the monsters (before, there were areas where co-op was mandatory. Not because it was enforced by mechanics, but because monsters would kill solo players. Those areas are gone).

This was actually a great decision, because those areas were supremely annoying. Making the game more friendly towards solo players is not the same as dumbing down.

[Hiro Protagonest]

This was actually a great decision, because those areas were supremely annoying. Making the game more friendly towards solo players is not the same as dumbing down.

It's rather subjective whether it's good or bad, because for some people, PvE = single-player, but ultimately, it is an MMO.

[Winterwind]

I'm thinking of a game. it's an RTS game where you control one hero along with several other players. In one corner of the map you have your base, and in the other corner of the map you have the enemy base, each base automatically spews out weak NPC mooks that run through three different lanes to fight one another, towers occasionally dot the lanes to mix things up a bit. Between the lanes is a Forrest or some other wilderness area, with wild no-team mobs that you can kill for bonus experience and resources. In general the players of the game are very angry people.


What game am i thinking of? Because there are at least three that fit that exact description.What you did there is sort of like saying "I'm thinking of a game, it's an RTS game where you have some buildings, and you collect resources to build more buildings and units in order to defeat your opponent who is doing the same", and using it as proof that StarCraft and Command&Conquer are the same game.

Yes, all those basic things you just mentioned are common for games of this type. But the deeper details, that decide much of how the game plays like, what strategies are sensible or not, and what the general gameplay is like - which is quite different between DotA, LoL and all other Aon of Strife derivatives - is quite different.

[Draconi Redfir]

The general level layout of things like starcraft and command and conquer are generally very different from one another however, and even very different from itself. For example I’ll point you to the level in starcraft where you are constantly running away from a wall of fire, and the multiplayer levels in command and conquer where you can actually destroy and repair things such as buildings and bridges to gain a tactical advantage. As far as I’m aware, every map in the Heros Of The Legends games generally looks like this (http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9677/dotainanutshell.png).

[Drascin]

Most annoying game?

Metroid Other M.

There's been other games that have annoyed me. None before or since have actually managed to make me angry, however.

[Lord Raziere]

It's rather subjective whether it's good or bad, because for some people, PvE = single-player, but ultimately, it is an MMO.

I play and like WoW dude, and when you have a guy who likes something like WoW but finds Morrowind AND Oblivion irritating and boring….well….

I don't know, it says something.

[Murmaider]

I don't know, it says something.

No:smallsigh:

[Hiro Protagonest]

I don't know, it says something.

No, not really. They're not the same type of game. Only real similarity is the combat mechanics, and WoW still has better combat.

[Gnomish Wanderer]

Borderlands 1. The gameplay itself was alright, but pretty much one note. And the ending... :smallsigh: I never played the DLC because I beat the game before they came out, and I really didn't want to play it anymore after that. So annoying.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Borderlands 1. The gameplay itself was alright, but pretty much one note. And the ending... :smallsigh: I never played the DLC because I beat the game before they came out, and I really didn't want to play it anymore after that. So annoying.

God, that ending...

The entire game is about killing and looting. It embraces it whole-heartedly and without apology. You do what you do because you want mad loots. The vault is promised as the ultimate loot, and all your previous killing and looting is building up to it.

And then, when you finally do open the vault, and kill the ultimate thing-that-you-can-kill... there is no loot.

Betrayal!

It's like they made the rest of the game by accident, or something.

That being said, the DLC - or at least, the two that I played, Dr. Ned and Secret Armory - were a lot better, and well worth playing.

[Lord Raziere]

No, not really. They're not the same type of game. Only real similarity is the combat mechanics, and WoW still has better combat.

what, really?

they seem pretty similar to me. one is an MMORPG, the other is an MMORPG without any other players.

but then again, I guess I don't know games very well if such games that seem so similar are actually very different. to me, WoW is just interesting and Oblivion and Morrowind are not interesting, *shrug* thats all I know.

@ Borderlands: oh really? huh. good thing I never finished that game then.

[warty goblin]

The story and combat are better in Skyrim.

Also, I have Oblivion on the PC so I have mods that have fixed all the problems you've mentioned.

Not particularly, no. It may be simply a product of my evolving tastes, but I found Skyrim to be much worse than Oblivion in both departments. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion's combat was a jerky, clunky badly animated mess. Skyrim's was a jerky, clunky badly animated mess with horribly animated finishing moves. This is, if anything, a step backwards. Plus it got rid of the dedicated spellcasting button, which forced a person to deal with the interface more often. Since the interface was actually worse than Oblivion's - making Skyrim a bold pioneer of human failure on those grounds alone- I do not see anything worthy of praise there.

As for story, well Oblivion's was very much about being Questy McFetchalot the heroic gopher. On the other hand I'll take that over Skyrim's which boiled down to various people telling me I was awesome, and how I should go talk to Mr. Exposition somewhere else, so they could provide further details about my awesomeness. Every single bit of the main quest I could get myself to stagger through was awkward and uncomfortable, like the game was so desperately insecure it had to make me feel like Mr. Awesomepants every single second. I don't mind a bit of ego-pandering in games, but this was just too much, and badly delivered.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

I was pretty young when I played Morrowind, but I seem to recall they didn't make all of the same mistakes with that one. Yeah, the game was broken, graphics were awful, all of that, but I actually recall the setting being sort of interesting, and the plot at least mildly original.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Not particularly, no. It may be simply a product of my evolving tastes, but I found Skyrim to be much worse than Oblivion in both departments. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion's combat was a jerky, clunky badly animated mess. Skyrim's was a jerky, clunky badly animated mess with horribly animated finishing moves. This is, if anything, a step backwards. Plus it got rid of the dedicated spellcasting button, which forced a person to deal with the interface more often. Since the interface was actually worse than Oblivion's - making Skyrim a bold pioneer of human failure on those grounds alone- I do not see anything worthy of praise there.

As for story, well Oblivion's was very much about being Questy McFetchalot the heroic gopher. On the other hand I'll take that over Skyrim's which boiled down to various people telling me I was awesome, and how I should go talk to Mr. Exposition somewhere else, so they could provide further details about my awesomeness. Every single bit of the main quest I could get myself to stagger through was awkward and uncomfortable, like the game was so desperately insecure it had to make me feel like Mr. Awesomepants every single second. I don't mind a bit of ego-pandering in games, but this was just too much, and badly delivered.

I think Bethesda could do something truly great if they made a game with no combat and no dialogue. They can't do either to save their lives and yet insist on making these elements more and more important with every game they make.

[The Glyphstone]

God, that ending...

The entire game is about killing and looting. It embraces it whole-heartedly and without apology. You do what you do because you want mad loots. The vault is promised as the ultimate loot, and all your previous killing and looting is building up to it.

And then, when you finally do open the vault, and kill the ultimate thing-that-you-can-kill... there is no loot.

Betrayal!

It's like they made the rest of the game by accident, or something.

That being said, the DLC - or at least, the two that I played, Dr. Ned and Secret Armory - were a lot better, and well worth playing.

Or possibly it's deliberate, as a gigantic game-length trolling.

[warty goblin]

I think Bethesda could do something truly great if they made a game with no combat and no dialogue. They can't do either to save their lives and yet insist on making these elements more and more important with every game they make.

I've had this idea for a game clattering around in the back of my mind for a while. The way it works out is that there's a really big map, full of gorgeous views, hidden waterfalls, deep forests, wide slow rivers, and all the other joys of a nice open world. It's all beautifully rendered, with a day/night cycle, dynamic weather, and the most gorgeous grpahics processors can manage.

And you are a dragon. This means that nothing picks a fight with you, and you are beholden to nobody. You can go wherever you like, do whatever you want. If there's a place you don't fit, you can use magic to change your shape into something that will. Maybe there aren't even any humans on the map, just ruins, and you can piece together the story of what happened from the things left behind. But if that's not your thing, you can completely ignore the ruins, and find places to watch the sun rise. Your only constraint is needing to eat, in order to fuel your magic. Otherwise you're free to explore.

It doesn't sound like much, but I find something remarkably attractive about the idea of just flying along over this immense, beautiful, wilderness. It's peaceful, sort of serene even. Games don't have a lot of that.

My other idea for a combat free open world game is one where you play as a shape-shifter, who, due to magic/plot isn't allowed to kill anything. This means you have to accomplish all your missions through cunning, guile, and occasionally turning into a dog. Advancement would come from unlocking new shapes, and improving the capabilities of shapes you can already wear.

A rather more violent, but still non-normative idea I've had is for a giant simulated ecosystem. The player can take the roll of various creatures within the ecosystem, with the goal of surviving and reproducing. You'd need to worry about food, water, shelter, sleep, maintaining a territory, and not getting eaten. Do well enough, and you can unlock another species in a different niche. There isn't really a win condition or narrative as such, you simply exist as part of the world, and through your different roles explore it from top to bottom. Ideally of course this would be an awesome ecosystem, preferably involving dinosaurs.


I realize the above may suggest I have some burning hatred of combat in open world games. This is far from the truth - I generally enjoy a good virtual stabbing as much as the next person. If an open world provides reasonable context for this, and makes said stabbing enjoyable, I'm happy as a clam. The terrifying number of hours I've logged in Mount & Blade over the last seven odd years can attest to this.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Quote spoiler'd for length
I've had this idea for a game clattering around in the back of my mind for a while. The way it works out is that there's a really big map, full of gorgeous views, hidden waterfalls, deep forests, wide slow rivers, and all the other joys of a nice open world. It's all beautifully rendered, with a day/night cycle, dynamic weather, and the most gorgeous grpahics processors can manage.

And you are a dragon. This means that nothing picks a fight with you, and you are beholden to nobody. You can go wherever you like, do whatever you want. If there's a place you don't fit, you can use magic to change your shape into something that will. Maybe there aren't even any humans on the map, just ruins, and you can piece together the story of what happened from the things left behind. But if that's not your thing, you can completely ignore the ruins, and find places to watch the sun rise. Your only constraint is needing to eat, in order to fuel your magic. Otherwise you're free to explore.

It doesn't sound like much, but I find something remarkably attractive about the idea of just flying along over this immense, beautiful, wilderness. It's peaceful, sort of serene even. Games don't have a lot of that.

My other idea for a combat free open world game is one where you play as a shape-shifter, who, due to magic/plot isn't allowed to kill anything. This means you have to accomplish all your missions through cunning, guile, and occasionally turning into a dog. Advancement would come from unlocking new shapes, and improving the capabilities of shapes you can already wear.

A rather more violent, but still non-normative idea I've had is for a giant simulated ecosystem. The player can take the roll of various creatures within the ecosystem, with the goal of surviving and reproducing. You'd need to worry about food, water, shelter, sleep, maintaining a territory, and not getting eaten. Do well enough, and you can unlock another species in a different niche. There isn't really a win condition or narrative as such, you simply exist as part of the world, and through your different roles explore it from top to bottom. Ideally of course this would be an awesome ecosystem, preferably involving dinosaurs.


I realize the above may suggest I have some burning hatred of combat in open world games. This is far from the truth - I generally enjoy a good virtual stabbing as much as the next person. If an open world provides reasonable context for this, and makes said stabbing enjoyable, I'm happy as a clam. The terrifying number of hours I've logged in Mount & Blade over the last seven odd years can attest to this.

I say this to everyone, but you should watch this video. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/aesthetics-of-play)

[DigoDragon]

Are we talking bad games, or actually irritating ones?

I define the difference as irritating games are the ones that have some small mechanic or plot point that annoys me, but I still play the game because it's overall a decent game. Bad games I just don't play.

Which reminds me of another one-- Super Mario Kart.
For it's time it is a great game, but the irritation is that the computer cheats like a mofo. They got infinite super jumps, boost, and access to weapons you can never get. :smalltongue:
It's still beatable, but I personally think this qualifies as irritating.

[Artanis]

I define the difference as irritating games are the ones that have some small mechanic or plot point that annoys me, but I still play the game because it's overall a decent game. Bad games I just don't play.
That's the assumption I was working with for this thread. I like Morrowind and it's (IMO) overall a good game, but that doesn't mean it isn't downright irritating.

[Aotrs Commander]

Pokemon can be kinda irritating at times, especially if you're trying to get something with reasonable stats and nature, be it via breeding or capture. I once spent about seven hours trying to get one, as the RNG just did not want to give me one in which the nature and the IVs were in spitting distance of adequate (and I REALLY wanted that Pokemon). Okay, granted, I was able to do other things (like three-quarters watch telly and go on the forums), but it was really tedious.

[Tengu_temp]

IVs and natures only really matter if you're playing Pokemon competetively, though. And I personally find that extremely pointless, just like farming thousands of levels in Disgaea is pointless.

[Immabozo]

I define the difference as irritating games are the ones that have some small mechanic or plot point that annoys me, but I still play the game because it's overall a decent game. Bad games I just don't play.

Which reminds me of another one-- Super Mario Kart.
For it's time it is a great game, but the irritation is that the computer cheats like a mofo. They got infinite super jumps, boost, and access to weapons you can never get. :smalltongue:
It's still beatable, but I personally think this qualifies as irritating.

I agree. At first I thought "SUPERMARIO KART?!?! BLASPHEMY!!" But then I read on and went "...yeah, he's right..."

[Cespenar]

...but it was really tedious.

You can make any game tedious if you want it to be, like you seem to have in this instance.

[Wookieetank]

I found the first half (16 hours or so of gameplay no less ><) of ME2 to be annoyingly repetitive. Show up, shoot anything that moves, sheperd: "I'm awesome", person being recurited: "Yes you are", rinse and repeat. I ended up liking the game by the end of it, but will not be replaying it due to the first half of the game.

I'll +1 to Baroque, although I found it at a time before I had gotten myself into enjoying roguelikes, so I might actually enjoy it nowadays.

[warty goblin]

I found the first half (16 hours or so of gameplay no less ><) of ME2 to be annoyingly repetitive. Show up, shoot anything that moves, sheperd: "I'm awesome", person being recurited: "Yes you are", rinse and repeat. I ended up liking the game by the end of it, but will not be replaying it due to the first half of the game.


This would be why I gave up on ME2; as I said about Skyrim there's only so much ego-fluffing I can stand before it starts to get downright pathetic and more than a bit uncomfortable. The bit where the central plot interested me not at all was another contributing factor. And the shooting never cleared sort of decent either.

[Tvtyrant]

Are disappointing sequels welcome in the irritating category? Because if so I am throwing Kingdom Hearts 2. Specifically the triangle button. In the first game you spend colossal amounts of time dodging (removed from the second one), gliding (removed from the second one), and blocking (useless in the second one).

Instead you get a flashing triangle button which allows your character to switch into cut scenes mid game. Fighting an opponent the size of a small planet? Hit triangle button. Dodging millions of laser beams? Mash triangle button. Have to fight 1,000 enemies at once in what should have been a grueling test of reflexes and endurance? Triangle button.

[Balmas]

Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. I remember going through and wondering why, as a 00-agent, James Bond never learned the secret of jumping over a low railing.

Then again, since Chell has the same problem...

[Tvtyrant]

Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. I remember going through and wondering why, as a 00-agent, James Bond never learned the secret of jumping over a low railing.

Then again, since Chell has the same problem...

Maybe they have "Over concentrated ninja syndrome." As one individual fighting unwinnable odds they cannot be stopped, but in order to casually throw themselves into giant blenders/lasers/vats of acid/sharks they had to shut down parts of their brains.

[factotum]

Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. I remember going through and wondering why, as a 00-agent, James Bond never learned the secret of jumping over a low railing.

Isaac Clarke in Dead Space has the same issue, and sometimes it gets frankly ridiculous--there are some places in Dead Space 2 where there are walls he could freakin' STEP over, much less jump over, and yet the only way to check out what's behind it is to go all the way to the end and round.

[warty goblin]

Dear Game Designers,

I appreciate the ability to execute weakened enemies with a single button press. It's an awesome feature, and makes combat feel a lot more interesting than simply wailing on guys until they all run out of hitpoints, particularly when combined with stunning or tripping attacks.

However I must protest any such 'execution' or 'quick kill' ability that takes longer than simply hitting the guy until he died using conventional attacks. Unless said enemy is a boss, odds are high that I'll fight a hundred plus copies of this enemy, which means I wish to reduce them to bloody mulch in a rapid, efficient manner so as to progress the game. After the third time I rip somebody's arm off and beat their skull in it however, this action no longer brings me joy. Please keep your execution animations to a reasonable length in future.

Thank you.

[Wookieetank]

This would be why I gave up on ME2; as I said about Skyrim there's only so much ego-fluffing I can stand before it starts to get downright pathetic and more than a bit uncomfortable. The bit where the central plot interested me not at all was another contributing factor. And the shooting never cleared sort of decent either.

If I hadn't had a number of friends and a brother telling me it got better later on I would have done the same. Would've liked more exploration though. You have the wide galaxy at your disposal, but all you can walk around in are corridors, and cliff paths...

[warty goblin]

If I hadn't had a number of friends and a brother telling me it got better later on I would have done the same. Would've liked more exploration though. You have the wide galaxy at your disposal, but all you can walk around in are corridors, and cliff paths...

Reasonable. Personally I'm quite happy to include games that I dislike for sixteen hours in the list of games of I dislike full stop. In that time I could go and replay most or all of quite a few other games I like open to close.

Admittedly this may be because my ideal game length anymore is sitting at around 20 - 30 hours. After that they just can't keep the gameplay interesting, and if they can't pull of a story in that much time, it's a sign somebody forgot the editorial chainsaw again. There's few sensations in games more annoying than that last act that just won't stop throwing rooms of pointless enemies at me when all I want is to stab the villain and call it wraps.

[Reynard]

There's few sensations in games more annoying than that last act that just won't stop throwing rooms of pointless enemies at me when all I want is to stab the villain and call it wraps.

This describes the second Continent/final two regions of Kingdoms of Amalur, sadly. I really enjoyed it at first, and the Court of Ballads side-quest-line is pretty damn good, but once you get to the final two major plot points on the first Continent, it's beginning to drag a bit. And once I left it for the second, I just power ran through the areas, ignored everything I could get away with ignoring, did some last minute crafting at the final rest-stop, then ended it.


Though I do have to say that the little PlotQuest that happens in the desert city comes to a refreshingly brisk end. The game hints that there's going to be all sorts of intrigue and politics, with the bad guy in plain sight but untouchable,...

And then you just kill him with a hammer.

[The Glyphstone]

Dear Game Designers,

I appreciate the ability to execute weakened enemies with a single button press. It's an awesome feature, and makes combat feel a lot more interesting than simply wailing on guys until they all run out of hitpoints, particularly when combined with stunning or tripping attacks.

However I must protest any such 'execution' or 'quick kill' ability that takes longer than simply hitting the guy until he died using conventional attacks. Unless said enemy is a boss, odds are high that I'll fight a hundred plus copies of this enemy, which means I wish to reduce them to bloody mulch in a rapid, efficient manner so as to progress the game. After the third time I rip somebody's arm off and beat their skull in it however, this action no longer brings me joy. Please keep your execution animations to a reasonable length in future.

Thank you.

Or at least give me something out of it. Space Marine refills your health via performing executions, I understand.

[GolemsVoice]

But you are not invulnerable while doing so. That leads to the paradox situation that you have to execture somebody to regain health, but can't execute somebody due to your low health.

[Immabozo]

But you are not invulnerable while doing so. That leads to the paradox situation that you have to execture somebody to regain health, but can't execute somebody due to your low health.

You must wait for the opportune moment, my young padawan. Savvy?

[Chilingsworth]

Well, so far I actually like the game, but the Test of Friendship in Ni No Kuni is driving me nuts. :smallfurious:

[MLai]

Death in Darksiders II executes enemies so fast and so rarely, I seldom get to see it clearly. If there was a menu option to slow-mo executions for this game, I'd turn it ON.

Most Irritating Moment in DSII:
I finally beat a difficult boss to the last of his health, and I also get an Execution prompt! Awesome! I bravely bulldoze through his minions and trap him in the corner! Presses Execute button for awesome synckill reward!
The camera gets stuck on a wall polygon for the entirety of the synckill. :smallannoyed:
The game autosaves after the boss dies, so I can't even re-fight him to try for the synckill again. :smallfurious:

[GolemsVoice]

You must wait for the opportune moment, my young padawan. Savvy?

Savvy, sure, but it's still a bit annoying. Especially since during battle is the time when you most need the health.

[Immabozo]

Most Irritating Moment in DSII:
I finally beat a difficult boss to the last of his health, and I also get an Execution prompt! Awesome! I bravely bulldoze through his minions and trap him in the corner! Presses Execute button for awesome synckill reward!
The camera gets stuck on a wall polygon for the entirety of the synckill. :smallannoyed:
The game autosaves after the boss dies, so I can't even re-fight him to try for the synckill again. :smallfurious:

I hate these problems! Makes me want to punch a baby.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Though I do have to say that the little PlotQuest that happens in the desert city comes to a refreshingly brisk end. The game hints that there's going to be all sorts of intrigue and politics, with the bad guy in plain sight but untouchable,...

And then you just kill him with a hammer.

I was actually looking forward to being allowed to solve a non-trivial problem in KOAR with talking for a change instead of violence, because god forbid anything important happens without it being a big setpiece scripted fight scene. But nope; Less than 30 seconds after you're told you can never fight him because he's got too many connections or whatever, you're smashing his face in with a hammer.

[Murmaider]

I have this notion where I have to start every game at hardest difficulty possible. This led to some pretty irritating fights in Batman: Arkham City. Well, actually every fight was pretty irritating.

Surrounded by 2+ enemies(and that's every fight I encountered soo far, even boss fights are just about brawling with a bunch of mooks while Two-Face shoots at you with a gun:smalleek:) all I ever do is pressing the right mouse over and over and over to counter the enemies attacks because there is just no time to do anything else. Now, the funny thing is, you don't need to do anything else at all, but counter every mooks attacks about five times and they get knocked out. So, it essentially means you get out of every fight without as much as a scratch, but it takes you several minutes of pressing one button.

I just think this game would've been better without any open world componets, because some scripted encounters that I ran into, were actually pretty good.

[blueblade]

FTL was pretty irritating, even while it was being fun.

This. I have taken to punching (inanimate) things, and explaining to my completely disinterested wife for 15 minutes why my strategy against flagship phase 2 should have worked this time.

[Wookieetank]

Death in Darksiders II executes enemies so fast and so rarely, I seldom get to see it clearly. If there was a menu option to slow-mo executions for this game, I'd turn it ON.

Most Irritating Moment in DSII:
I finally beat a difficult boss to the last of his health, and I also get an Execution prompt! Awesome! I bravely bulldoze through his minions and trap him in the corner! Presses Execute button for awesome synckill reward!
The camera gets stuck on a wall polygon for the entirety of the synckill. :smallannoyed:
The game autosaves after the boss dies, so I can't even re-fight him to try for the synckill again. :smallfurious:

On the topic of Darsiders, I'm stuck at Tiamat in the first one. Game was moving and groving along until I reached Tiamat, a boss where you can only use your boomarang to damage it, wut? :smallconfused: I haven't touched it in over a year now thanks to this boss.

On the side of irritating but awesome: Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Pretty self explanitory there. I keep coming back though, becuase every small bit of progress feels like quite the acomplishment.

[Sprinter]

This. I have taken to punching (inanimate) things, and explaining to my completely disinterested wife for 15 minutes why my strategy against flagship phase 2 should have worked this time.

Flagship is the most predictable enemy ship in FTL as it is always the same every game. From over 30 fights with Flagship i lost only 2 and one of them was totaly my fault. There is many possible tactics to beat it depending what ship, weapons and crew you have at your disposal. Once i even beat the flagship with just 2 crewman on normal. I admit i got lucky that time.

[Reverent-One]

I have this notion where I have to start every game at hardest difficulty possible. This led to some pretty irritating fights in Batman: Arkham City. Well, actually every fight was pretty irritating.

Surrounded by 2+ enemies(and that's every fight I encountered soo far, even boss fights are just about brawling with a bunch of mooks while Two-Face shoots at you with a gun:smalleek:) all I ever do is pressing the right mouse over and over and over to counter the enemies attacks because there is just no time to do anything else. Now, the funny thing is, you don't need to do anything else at all, but counter every mooks attacks about five times and they get knocked out. So, it essentially means you get out of every fight without as much as a scratch, but it takes you several minutes of pressing one button.

I just think this game would've been better without any open world componets, because some scripted encounters that I ran into, were actually pretty good.

Are you making use of the "flip over someone" move in combat? I don't think I've played on the highest difficulty level, but it's still could be useful for getting some distance to make a punch or two, letting you build combos and make the takedown moves. In the more challenging combat trials, I normally only make one or maybe two punches before flipping over someone to get the rest of them out of my face.

[JediSoth]

You guys have never played E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial have you? :p

More recently, I found the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas to be profoundly irritating. Strip me of all my cool stuff, then stick a bomb collar on me that goes off when I get too close to the ubiquitous radios that I can't find half the time and that I can't get to the other half because the companions I have to work with keep getting in my darn way.

I know there were other parts of that DLC that irritated me, but I don't remember them specifically because I got so irritated, I just God-moded myself, turned clipping off when necessary, and sped through the DLC as quickly as possible so I could get back to the Mojave. The only good thing to come out of it was some new weapons and a few pieces of loot (most of which I had to leave behind because they made the best loot too heavy for you to leave the DLC with).

It seems like every game I really like has one piece of DLC that I just utterly loathe (Dead Money for Fallout: NV; Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt for Borderlands 2). I could list every piece of DLC for Borderlands, but with the exception of having only ONE fast travel station (and thus forcing me to retread the entire play area every time I play the game), I generally liked the Borderlands 1 DLCs.

Oh, would that every DLC be as awesome as Lair of the Shadow Broker.

[Murmaider]

Are you making use of the "flip over someone" move in combat? I don't think I've played on the highest difficulty level, but it's still could be useful for getting some distance to make a punch or two, letting you build combos and make the takedown moves. In the more challenging combat trials, I normally only make one or maybe two punches before flipping over someone to get the rest of them out of my face.

Yes, jumping out of combat, then stunning someone with my cape and trying to finnish him before his buddies arrive. I almost never just punch them, because it seems so useless.

But w/e, I found other parts of the game annoying enough(ha-ha, another great pun by freezer/penguin/whoever when I die) to stop playing it.

Speaking of games I stopped playing: Dark Souls has to be the most irritating pc-port ever. Those controls are killing me:smallfurious:

[Maxios]

You guys have never played E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial have you? :p

More recently, I found the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas to be profoundly irritating. Strip me of all my cool stuff, then stick a bomb collar on me that goes off when I get too close to the ubiquitous radios that I can't find half the time and that I can't get to the other half because the companions I have to work with keep getting in my darn way.

I know there were other parts of that DLC that irritated me, but I don't remember them specifically because I got so irritated, I just God-moded myself, turned clipping off when necessary, and sped through the DLC as quickly as possible so I could get back to the Mojave. The only good thing to come out of it was some new weapons and a few pieces of loot (most of which I had to leave behind because they made the best loot too heavy for you to leave the DLC with).

It seems like every game I really like has one piece of DLC that I just utterly loathe (Dead Money for Fallout: NV; Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt for Borderlands 2). I could list every piece of DLC for Borderlands, but with the exception of having only ONE fast travel station (and thus forcing me to retread the entire play area every time I play the game), I generally liked the Borderlands 1 DLCs.

Oh, would that every DLC be as awesome as Lair of the Shadow Broker.

You realize the entire point of Dead Money is letting go of the past, right? That's why when you get to the vault all of the heavy gold bars that are worth a lot can't be carried. Depending on your build and how much crap you're carrying, you'd be lucky to carry five out.

[Reverent-One]

Yes, jumping out of combat, then stunning someone with my cape and trying to finnish him before his buddies arrive. I almost never just punch them, because it seems so useless.

Ah, there's really little need to focus on beating up a single mook at a time, Batman is well capable of basically bouncing around from punching one mook to turning around and punching another (or jumping back and kicking another one in the face, ect). While punches aren't especially fast at taking them out (takes about the same, or maybe a little less, than countering them to death unconsciousness), it builds your combo up quickly, letting you either use takedown moves to permanetly remove mooks from the fight or go into "hyper-mode" (or whatever it's actual name is) where the enemies are basically moving in slow motion and your punches take them out in a single hit.


But w/e, I found other parts of the game annoying enough(ha-ha, another great pun by freezer/penguin/whoever when I die) to stop playing it.

Maybe if you learned how to fight you wouldn't die so often. :smalltongue:

...Joking, joking. Seriously, that's understandable, no game is everyone's cup of tea.

One thing that definitely was irritating in Arkham City were some of the gliding segments. The troublesome ones were thankfully all optional I think, but you had a very tiny margin for error between being too high and hitting above the gap you're aiming for and aiming too low and hitting the ground/water/dangerous substance below.

[JediSoth]

You realize the entire point of Dead Money is letting go of the past, right? That's why when you get to the vault all of the heavy gold bars that are worth a lot can't be carried. Depending on your build and how much crap you're carrying, you'd be lucky to carry five out.

Yes, I'm aware of that. But after all the irritation I had to go through to get to that point, I wanted something more out of the experience. I don't need to pay a game developer to lecture me. I hated the genre shift to Survival Horror a lot.

[Immabozo]

One thing that definitely was irritating in Arkham City were some of the gliding segments. The troublesome ones were thankfully all optional I think, but you had a very tiny margin for error between being too high and hitting above the gap you're aiming for and aiming too low and hitting the ground/water/dangerous substance below.

Reminds me of the flying missions from Grand Theft Auto: San Andres. First, learning to fly that thing is a pain. Or well, the last mission where you have to take off, fly a slightly too tight circle and land in the red circle, I hated that mission. Made me rage quit for several months before I came beck and beat it.

Then the first plane mission where you have to fly below radar was such a pain, made me want you punch a drunk baby.

[Kesnit]

On the topic of Darsiders, I'm stuck at Tiamat in the first one. Game was moving and groving along until I reached Tiamat, a boss where you can only use your boomarang to damage it, wut? :smallconfused: I haven't touched it in over a year now thanks to this boss.

Same here. I lost count of how many times I tried that battle. I actually managed to damage her twice one time, but then I died.


You guys have never played E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial have you? :p

Actually, I have. I liked it. Though I admit, I mostly played on the easiest setting (where the scientist and the doctor didn't appear).


More recently, I found the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas to be profoundly irritating. Strip me of all my cool stuff, then stick a bomb collar on me that goes off when I get too close to the ubiquitous radios that I can't find half the time and that I can't get to the other half because the companions I have to work with keep getting in my darn way.

Oh yes, this! That DLC annoyed me so much. I kind of wanted to give up on it, but (1) I want to 100% the game, and (2) I didn't have a save before entering the DLC and had invested too much time into the character to just throw him away.

The other thing that annoyed me with that DLC is that I was specced for guns, not unarmed or melee. But the weapons mostly took unarmed or melee. Combat was a nightmare. (I play on the 360, so couldn't god-mode myself.)

[MLai]

On the topic of Darsiders, I'm stuck at Tiamat in the first one. Game was moving and groving along until I reached Tiamat, a boss where you can only use your boomarang to damage it, wut? :smallconfused: I haven't touched it in over a year now thanks to this boss..
Tiamat is the boss that looks like a giant vampire bat, right?
She'd be so easy if we had kb-mouse FPS controls, rather than gamepad controls. Aiming with a gamepad is hard! S'why I never got into Halo.

[Immabozo]

Aiming with a gamepad is hard! S'why I never got into Halo.

QFT. But some games do it well, others tolerably and yet others I cant pay at all. Call of Duty and Modern Warfare are two that I cannot play. Halo is tolerable. Sometime its fun to just troll and run into people with grenades. Gear of War and Left 4 Dead are two games that got it right and are incredible games!

[Gnoman]

I found Secret of Mana to be incredibly annoying at the end, since the game is unwinnable if you haven't been grinding the Green spells on both casters. It's worth noting that the Green spells are extremely annoying to grind due to the way they work, and you don't know you need them at level 8 until so late in the game that you won't be able to get by with just making sure to use them regularly.

Explanation:
The final boss can only be damaged be weapons that have the Mana Sword spell cast on them. Your hit window is extremely small, and the spell is of incredibly short duration until the level is maxed out, and pretty short even then. Unless you're at level 8, actually hitting the boss is almost impossible.

[Anteros]

I have this notion where I have to start every game at hardest difficulty possible. This led to some pretty irritating fights in Batman: Arkham City. Well, actually every fight was pretty irritating.

Surrounded by 2+ enemies(and that's every fight I encountered soo far, even boss fights are just about brawling with a bunch of mooks while Two-Face shoots at you with a gun:smalleek:) all I ever do is pressing the right mouse over and over and over to counter the enemies attacks because there is just no time to do anything else. Now, the funny thing is, you don't need to do anything else at all, but counter every mooks attacks about five times and they get knocked out. So, it essentially means you get out of every fight without as much as a scratch, but it takes you several minutes of pressing one button.

I just think this game would've been better without any open world componets, because some scripted encounters that I ran into, were actually pretty good.

Yeah...that strategy isn't going to cut it as the game progresses. Not unless you want to spend hours and hours per fight. You don't need to fight that way though. The most important thing is to figure out who is going to attack you next and hit them before they can do so. Once you build up a decent combo they all fall down in short order.

[Sprinter]

Tiamat is the boss that looks like a giant vampire bat, right?
She'd be so easy if we had kb-mouse FPS controls, rather than gamepad controls. Aiming with a gamepad is hard! S'why I never got into Halo.

Nope Tiamat is a dragon and you have to kill him with ranged weapon only. Unfortunately Darksiders is a straight console port so your are aiming ranged weapon with WASD (or arrows) while holding 2 other buttons simultaneously so its actualy much less irritating with gamepad. Its where i stuck too.

[Avilan the Grey]

Unfortunately Darksiders is a straight console port so your are aiming ranged weapon with WASD (or arrows) while holding 2 other buttons simultaneously so its actualy much less irritating with gamepad. Its where i stuck too.

So... are you saying that whoever did the port should be tortured for eternity? I think that is what you are saying.

A decision not to use the mouse for aiming is not only stupid, but is so insane that I almost believe they are deliberately trolling PC gamers.

[DigoDragon]

I found Secret of Mana to be incredibly annoying at the end, since the game is unwinnable if you haven't been grinding the Green spells on both casters.

Well, still winnable, but irritatingly so and thus qualifies for this thread I think. :smallbiggrin:
Yeah, I recall grinding those darn Mana spells to high level anyway so the duration could last more than a few seconds.


It reminds me of two bosses near the end of Mega Man 2, the Turrets and then "Alien Wily". The Turrets could only be destroyed using Crash Man's bombs and Alien Wily was only damaged by Bubble Man's weapon.
If you didn't have enough energy to fight them...

[Tengu_temp]

I found Secret of Mana to be incredibly annoying at the end, since the game is unwinnable if you haven't been grinding the Green spells on both casters. It's worth noting that the Green spells are extremely annoying to grind due to the way they work, and you don't know you need them at level 8 until so late in the game that you won't be able to get by with just making sure to use them regularly.

Explanation:
The final boss can only be damaged be weapons that have the Mana Sword spell cast on them. Your hit window is extremely small, and the spell is of incredibly short duration until the level is maxed out, and pretty short even then. Unless you're at level 8, actually hitting the boss is almost impossible.

I remember beating the game with only level 4 Green spells, so you don't need to grind them all the way to 8. But yes, forced grinding to win a game is extremely annoying.

Fun fact: I played Secret of Mana at the same time as I played Oblivion. Oblivion was the worse game in pretty much every aspect.

[Wookieetank]

Mega Man X, great game, awesome fun, terrible, terrible final boss, which I have yet to beat to this day :smallfurious:

[Hiro Protagonest]

Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. I remember going through and wondering why, as a 00-agent, James Bond never learned the secret of jumping over a low railing.

Obviously, a man of his caliber doesn't need to use such basic skills! If they wanted that, they would've brought in the SAS!

[Gnoman]

I remember beating the game with only level 4 Green spells, so you don't need to grind them all the way to 8. But yes, forced grinding to win a game is extremely annoying.

Fun fact: I played Secret of Mana at the same time as I played Oblivion. Oblivion was the worse game in pretty much every aspect.

I suppose that you could manage it with perfect timing your casts, although I never had the patience or skill to do so. Last time I played that far, I remember being unable to do it with Level 6 spells.

[Tvtyrant]

Mega Man X, great game, awesome fun, terrible, terrible final boss, which I have yet to beat to this day :smallfurious:

The secret is to use either the basic blaster or the rolling shield. You have to be fully charged for the basic blaster to do damage, and with both of them you have to jump from the floating hands and shot him in the bald head on top of the wolf. It isn't so bad if you can get there with 4 E-tanks, which you can do by hadukening the wolf right off the bat and then sliding up and down the wall shooting the standard blaster at his sword form.

[Negativethac0]

I'll have to say it all comes down to the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-game for the 8-bit Nintendo. I don't think I have ever played a game that pushed my buttons in so many ways, damn; it was so annoying.

Especially because it felt so unreasonably hard at times. While not impossible, I don't think I ever had the patience to ever make it past the fourth map. I remember it as one, huge maze of sewers and those merciless jumps that would usually force you to redo the level.

Also, I still have nightmares about....the sounds.

[zegram 33]

hmn....dark/demon souls are probably the worst of recent times imo, for failing to understand that bad design and bad controls doesnt actually equal hard gameplay.

other than that, the most IRRITATING was probably...assasins creed 1.
good game, but so CLEARLY had all the ingredients of an amazing game.
sadly the series has kinda gone downhill after 2/brotherhood, whereyou get so many hundreds of options you never need and barely ever actually assainate some-one.

[Zen Master]

Ok - ME3 just made a giant leap to the MOST annoying ****ing game I ever played.

I downloaded their latest patch - and now it wont accept my password. I know exactly what it is, I use the same one for everything.

So I used their reset function.

It still wont let me access the game.

God, why do you allow these amateurs the continued privilege of existance? Thunderbolts, please!

[Sith_Happens]

http://art3.server01.sheezyart.com/image/180/1805755.png

[DigoDragon]

I'll have to say it all comes down to the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-game for the 8-bit Nintendo.

Oh man that is a game about patience. The underwater zone at the dam was particularly irritating to me. I have to rotate through my ninjas trying to swim through electric kelp and every time I complete the level, I have four nearly-dead turtles.

Seriosuly, that dam needs cleaning. :smalltongue:

[Wookieetank]

The secret is to use either the basic blaster or the rolling shield. You have to be fully charged for the basic blaster to do damage, and with both of them you have to jump from the floating hands and shot him in the bald head on top of the wolf. It isn't so bad if you can get there with 4 E-tanks, which you can do by hadukening the wolf right off the bat and then sliding up and down the wall shooting the standard blaster at his sword form.

I've seen this done by many a friend, but for some reason I just haven't been able to ever pull it off myself. I've also put 150ish hours into Dungeons of Dredmor and have yet to see Dredmor. RNGs in general don't seem to like me, so any game heavily using one (including PnP RPG) usually ends badly for any character of mine involved. You know its bad when you've been treating D&D as a roguelike for over 10 years... :smalltongue:

[Grif]

I've seen this done by many a friend, but for some reason I just haven't been able to ever pull it off myself. I've also put 150ish hours into Dungeons of Dredmor and have yet to see Dredmor. RNGs in general don't seem to like me, so any game heavily using one (including PnP RPG) usually ends badly for any character of mine involved. You know its bad when you've been treating D&D as a roguelike for over 10 years... :smalltongue:

When you put in that many hours and still have not seen Dredmor... well, it's time to say screw everything and use one of the many gamey builds. :smallbiggrin::smalltongue:

[Wookieetank]

When you put in that many hours and still have not seen Dredmor... well, it's time to say screw everything and use one of the many gamey builds. :smallbiggrin::smalltongue:

Made it to floor 9 with a couple of gamey builds, but then RNG shennanigans occured ><. Started an elvishly easy non-permadeath character a while back, but can't bring myself to really play it. Feels like I'm cheating :smallredface:. I do approach Dredmor with a dwarven mindset, and I've gotten more game and fun out of it than I have many other games that I've payed much more so I can't complain. Just gives me even more reason to keep playing it since I haven't seen dredmor yet.

[Immabozo]

Now that I think about it, Everquest was extremely irritating. At high levels, it was impossible to solo, cause it would take a 1-2 minute fight about 30 minutes to recover from (as a shadow knight) and ! would have to do that about a gazillion times to level. When I could finally get a party together, it moved faster and was fun... but it was still an intense grind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least WoW was better. That "Well rested" bonus to EXP really helped balance it for non-turbo gamers. At least I got to see a little of end game raiding.

[Hiro Protagonest]

http://art3.server01.sheezyart.com/image/180/1805755.png

I absolutely hate that they decided to make Mario Kart Wii "fair". Guys in first place only get bananas, fake boxes, and green shells. Guys in 11th and 12th are swimming in Lightnings and Bullet Bills.

The unblockable, undodgeable (you can't even cheat it by dropping into 2nd) Blue Shell is the worst.

Doesn't stop me from dominating anything less than 150cc/Mirror Special Cup.

[Wookieetank]

I absolutely hate that they decided to make Mario Kart Wii "fair". Guys in first place only get bananas, fake boxes, and green shells. Guys in 11th and 12th are swimming in Lightnings and Bullet Bills.
The unblockable, undodgeable (you can't even cheat it by dropping into 2nd) Blue Shell is the worst.

Doesn't stop me from dominating anything less than 150cc/Mirror Special Cup.

This mechanic has been around since at least Mario Kart 64 if not earlier.

[Squark]

Nope Tiamat is a dragon and you have to kill him with ranged weapon only. Unfortunately Darksiders is a straight console port so your are aiming ranged weapon with WASD (or arrows) while holding 2 other buttons simultaneously so its actualy much less irritating with gamepad. Its where i stuck too.

:smallconfused: Admittedly, I was playing on easy, but if you just use the lock on to target enemy function, you can keep War centered on Tiamat the whole time.

Granted, she's still a pain in the butt for the sheer length involved in killing her, but I don't think once I got to the second stage I ever actually missed her with the discblade. First stage was a bit trial and error, though.

Real pain in the butt for me in that game was the fifth dungeon. Dear Developers; If I wanted to play Portal, I'd turn off this game and play portal. Seriously. AT least in portal I could place the portals anywhere isntead of only on a select few surfaces.

[Gnoman]

I absolutely hate that they decided to make Mario Kart Wii "fair". Guys in first place only get bananas, fake boxes, and green shells. Guys in 11th and 12th are swimming in Lightnings and Bullet Bills.

The unblockable, undodgeable (you can't even cheat it by dropping into 2nd) Blue Shell is the worst.

Doesn't stop me from dominating anything less than 150cc/Mirror Special Cup.

You can nullify the blue shell easily enough, as long as you keep a mushroom handy. It stops seeking the instant it gets over you (when it starts to fall), and hitting a mushroom at that instant will carry you out of the blast radius.

[Hiro Protagonest]

You can nullify the blue shell easily enough, as long as you keep a mushroom handy. It stops seeking the instant it gets over you (when it starts to fall), and hitting a mushroom at that instant will carry you out of the blast radius.

Except I can't get a mushroom. It may have swayed the tables in favor of the stragglers in previous games, but in the Wii one, the guys in 1st only get bananas, boxes, and green shells. No mushrooms. No red shells. No bob-ombs. Nothing else. There is no way to dodge the blue shell.

[Gnoman]

THat's why you have to keep one from when you were further back.

[satorian]

Has anyone mentioned BioShock 2? Because BioShock 2. They took what could have been a beautifully atmospheric and creepy shooter and made you move so slow in your giant armor (yes, I know being in that armor was kind of the point, but no thanks) that everything was artificially hard.

What a waste of a game.

[shadow_archmagi]

I absolutely hate that they decided to make Mario Kart Wii "fair". Guys in first place only get bananas, fake boxes, and green shells. Guys in 11th and 12th are swimming in Lightnings and Bullet Bills.


This was true in Mario Kart 64 and in Double Dash. I distinctly remember occasionally letting someone pass me so I could drop back, get a better item, and then gain more ground than I'd just lost.

As for most annoying game, I have to second LoL. I've only played it a couple times, and it was fun enough, but good lord it brings out the worst in my friends. I leave the room as soon as I've realized they're booting up League, because shortly after, the yelling starts. (Although, to be fair, they always yell at EACH OTHER, never the strangers on their team)

[Geno9999]

The secret is to use either the basic blaster or the rolling shield. You have to be fully charged for the basic blaster to do damage, and with both of them you have to jump from the floating hands and shot him in the bald head on top of the wolf. It isn't so bad if you can get there with 4 E-tanks, which you can do by hadukening the wolf right off the bat and then sliding up and down the wall shooting the standard blaster at his sword form.

FYI, if you don't have the Hadoken for Sigma's dog, I believe it's weakness is Shotgun Ice, and Sigma's first form is weak to the Electric Spark.

[Eldan]

Has anyone mentioned BioShock 2? Because BioShock 2. They took what could have been a beautifully atmospheric and creepy shooter and made you move so slow in your giant armor (yes, I know being in that armor was kind of the point, but no thanks) that everything was artificially hard.

What a waste of a game.

I also didn't like Bioshock one. Don't really get what everyone saw in that one. I got maybe three or four levels in until I just gave up.

Shoot an enemy three times, get killed, pop out of chamber, shoot enemy three more times, die, resurrect, shoot, die, resurrect until you beat him, next enemy.

[Sith_Happens]

This mechanic has been around since at least Mario Kart 64 if not earlier.

The problem is that in Mario Kart Wii they made items really, really good. Between the massive buff to red shells' pathfinding and all the new stuff (Bullet Bills and POW Blocks, I'm looking at you), keeping your place basically comes down to luck, especially on certain tracks.

[huttj509]

I also didn't like Bioshock one. Don't really get what everyone saw in that one. I got maybe three or four levels in until I just gave up.

Shoot an enemy three times, get killed, pop out of chamber, shoot enemy three more times, die, resurrect, shoot, die, resurrect until you beat him, next enemy.

If you're resrunning that much...you might wanna try changing your strategy. Yes, it'll be harder, but much more interesting.

[Krazzman]

Nope Tiamat is a dragon and you have to kill him with ranged weapon only. Unfortunately Darksiders is a straight console port so your are aiming ranged weapon with WASD (or arrows) while holding 2 other buttons simultaneously so its actualy much less irritating with gamepad. Its where i stuck too.

This is Bull... I played Darksiders and Darksiders 2 both on PC... with mouse and keyboard. I don't remember any boss battle being unsolvable hard... due to the controls and I certainly didnt have to aim with WASD or Arrows...

Most irritating... I have a non-ranked list...

LoL: Leveling... seriously I, from the point of being level 15 on I played nearly only against level 25+ guys. And at least 1 Level 30 with full runes were in the other team. Then most of the time when you focused on one champ you either get him picked by someone else first or someone leaves the game because you or someone else took "his" champ. Combined with ranting guys or simply idiots that think Germany is in 1940... then you survive through cunning play and pulling out at the exact right time, surviving with really low HP and the team is mad at you because you survived and they did not... instead of being happy that the enemy didn't get pushed more by my death and so on. And you couldn't really play a supporter. Because either you support that good that you only have Assists since stunning enemies and such stuff enabled your team the pentakill and get flamed for your "noobiness" or you have the luck and kill stuff actually and are labeled as KSer... even as a Carry you are told you are a KSer. The hardest thing I got with was (yes actually happened with all three champs): I was playing mid with Teemo, Heimerdinger and Bottom with Blitzcrank normally.
In a Bot game, me in Mid with either Teemo or Heimerdinger one of my team from bottom comes up to "help" me (I actually had first blood already and were stomping the bot) I had already wore the enemy out quite a bit and and he either needed one or two rockets from heimer or a bit of poison from teemo and would be dead again. Anyway he comes, tacks a few spells on him, stays with me a few seconds and when I kill the bot, he shouted KS in chat...
WIth Blitzcrank... I tried to pull a little bit of trollcrank as I found the idea rather funny and well tower killed champ for me so I got the kill... get called KS by my mate on that lane... he teleported back already...My "Friends" who I used to play with didn't really made this game any more fun...Thinking about giving it another try but never going to play it with my gf again.

Legend of Grimrock... it is that far that I don't know if I will ever pick it up again since... yeah I would like to have some ingame explanations for stuff. The "Random" party over a self-selected and formed party, Carrying Capacity, a weird magic system, weird ways for guys to contribute... It's a nice game but the missing information about a few things really stumped my excitement for it.

Killingfloor, D3, L4D2 and so on... irritate me because... I wanted to play them with friends but I either have to play them alone or don't at all. L4D2 I can play with my GF but since she isn't that great at shooter games... D3 the guy I wanted to play with got banned.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss... I will never make a 100% run. Took me nearly two 2 hour sessions for the first few chapters and lost all my data in a chapter due to a saving error... seeing I completed about 5% of the game in about 4 to 5 hours... and don't really liking the gameplay so far I think I will give it a go as soon as I have time for it again.

F.3.A.R. PS3 version, enough said.

[Eldan]

If you're resrunning that much...you might wanna try changing your strategy. Yes, it'll be harder, but much more interesting.

Tried that. Those big armour thingies always just killed me with two shots.

[Wookieetank]

Tried that. Those big armour thingies always just killed me with two shots.

If you haven't given up completely on this game yet, here's some of what I did to beat the Big Daddies:

~Hack everything, turrets, security bots, security cameras, etc. Every extra thing is one more thing providing a distraction and extra damage.
~Shotguns, upgrade first, last and completely, they are crazy good.
~Any sort of defensive plasmids you can equip, do so. I got more use out of them than the damage boosting ones and thats in B1 and B2.
~Spaming first aid kits is a valid, but time consuming tactic.
~If there's any sort of envornment you can make use of (pools of water, oil spills etc.), equip the appropriate plasmid to make use of it before hand and lure the BD to it.

Final note: Unless you bother the Little sister or attack the BD they will leave you alone. Gives you time to prepare and explore to find any enviornmental advantages available.

[huttj509]

If you haven't given up completely on this game yet, here's some of what I did to beat the Big Daddies:

~Hack everything, turrets, security bots, security cameras, etc. Every extra thing is one more thing providing a distraction and extra damage.
~Shotguns, upgrade first, last and completely, they are crazy good.
~Any sort of defensive plasmids you can equip, do so. I got more use out of them than the damage boosting ones and thats in B1 and B2.
~Spaming first aid kits is a valid, but time consuming tactic.
~If there's any sort of envornment you can make use of (pools of water, oil spills etc.), equip the appropriate plasmid to make use of it before hand and lure the BD to it.

Final note: Unless you bother the Little sister or attack the BD they will leave you alone. Gives you time to prepare and explore to find any enviornmental advantages available.

I liked one time I set up a bunch of tripwire explosives, then walked a daddy into them.

[Immabozo]

I liked one time I set up a bunch of tripwire explosives, then walked a daddy into them.

Guerrilla warfare is a, usually, very workable tactic! I love doing it in Baldur's Gate 2

[Tvtyrant]

If you haven't given up completely on this game yet, here's some of what I did to beat the Big Daddies:

~Hack everything, turrets, security bots, security cameras, etc. Every extra thing is one more thing providing a distraction and extra damage.
~Shotguns, upgrade first, last and completely, they are crazy good.
~Any sort of defensive plasmids you can equip, do so. I got more use out of them than the damage boosting ones and thats in B1 and B2.
~Spaming first aid kits is a valid, but time consuming tactic.
~If there's any sort of envornment you can make use of (pools of water, oil spills etc.), equip the appropriate plasmid to make use of it before hand and lure the BD to it.

Final note: Unless you bother the Little sister or attack the BD they will leave you alone. Gives you time to prepare and explore to find any enviornmental advantages available.

I suggest getting the "Control a Big Daddy" ability and use them as bodyguards myself. Otherwise I set them on fire and run around dodging till they burn to death. Often while screaming in real life.

[Sith_Happens]

Tried that. Those big armour thingies always just killed me with two shots.

Well there's your problem. A Big Daddy isn't a boss so much as a puzzle. I would explain, but a few people already did.

[Cespenar]

Actually, I remember liking the Big Daddy fights above all, because of their optional and puzzle-like nature. Attack them head on, and you'd be dead in a few seconds. But clear the area, lay out some traps, lure the guy into a hazard or two, and it was not that hard.

[Drynwyn]

NetHack.
It has permadeath, so when you die, you flippin' die. No checkpoint or reload, just "DYWYPI?"
Could there be anything more annoying than playing for hours upon hours, Stealing the Amulet of Yendor from the depths of hell itself, and then accidentally melee'ing a floating eye and being killed by a newt?
Or dying because a foocubus took off your gloves whilst you held a rubber chicken?
Ah, NetHack. So painful, and yet, so pure.
The feeling of joy and disbelief when you first ascend, though? Amazing.

That said, to me, it's not the games that are terrible that bother me- it's the ones that are almost good and would be amazing- except for one thing that completely ruins the experience. (Not to imply that NetHack falls here.) For me, more often than not, this is due to a bad pay to win micro transaction system, but YMMV.

[Sith_Happens]

NetHack.
It has permadeath, so when you die, you flippin' die. No checkpoint or reload, just "DYWYPI?"
Could there be anything more annoying than playing for hours upon hours, Stealing the Amulet of Yendor from the depths of hell itself, and then accidentally melee'ing a floating eye and being killed by a newt?
Or dying because a foocubus took off your gloves whilst you held a rubber chicken?
Ah, NetHack. So painful, and yet, so pure.
The feeling of joy and disbelief when you first ascend, though? Amazing.

I believe the usual workaround is to manually copy your save file to another folder somewhere.

[Craft (Cheese)]

I believe the usual workaround is to manually copy your save file to another folder somewhere.

But that's cheating. Calling that a "fix" is like saying Dragon Age's combat is just fine if you bind a keyboard macro to use the "killallhostiles" command.

(Totally guilty of that, by the way. By the time I got to the deep roads I had that macro made and was mashing it constantly to just get through the combat filler as long as possible to get back to the talky parts. Still did the plot important encounters and bosses legit though.)

[Eldan]

Actually, I remember liking the Big Daddy fights above all, because of their optional and puzzle-like nature. Attack them head on, and you'd be dead in a few seconds. But clear the area, lay out some traps, lure the guy into a hazard or two, and it was not that hard.

Eh, I tried all that. I had, like, two abilities, I think? That was years ago. Fire and Lightning, I think? I did hack some turrets, and set them on fire. Usually, I ran out of whatever the magic point equivalent (and magic potions) in that game was long before I even really scratched their health.

I should also mention that I'm incredibly bad at shooters.

[scarmiglionne4]

Nearly everything I have played that has been released in the last 12-13 years...

So many tied for the top spot...

Illbleed on Sega Dreamcast. It's like a fun-house of taking unavoidable damage.

Tengen Gauntlet. Random exits in the last world. No more checkpoints/passwords. Constant life loss.

Wizards & Warriors: Kuros swings his sword like he is afraid he will stab himself with it. Bad power-ups get in your way just so you will accidentally get them and lose the good stuff. What many power-ups do is a mystery.

Breath of Fire III: Seriously, I have to take Momo with me AGAIN!? Random battles while doing puzzles that require me to walk up and down long hallways and me forgetting which way I was walking.

Magic the Gathering: Battlemage. Trying to get anything to block an incoming attack ever. Counterspelling requiring Jedi reflexes.

[DigoDragon]

There is no way to dodge the blue shell.

Once, my bro got the blue shell while he was in first place. That was just begging for a self-destruct right there. :smallamused:


Irritating game moment: Mega Man 3, the "Doc Robot" stages.
This is where you finish the main 8 robot masters and then have to revisit four of the stages to fight the skull-head looking robots that get their powers from Mega Man 2 bosses. The boss fights weren't too difficult, but some of the stages...

Ugh.

I think the level designers had a fetish for spikey pointy death objects.

[Sajiri]

I'm not normally irritated by games. Except for Fable II. The game itself was great....but the ending....yeah.....

There was some mmo I played once years ago I can't remember the name of. It was SUPPOSED to be some online pokemon/monster raising style game, but from as soon as you log in you were constantly bombarded with popup advertisements for other products and merchandise from the company that released the game. I think I spent more time closing ad boxes than playing. That game wasn't installed for long.

[Immabozo]

I'm not normally irritated by games. Except for Fable II. The game itself was great....but the ending....yeah.....

There was some mmo I played once years ago I can't remember the name of. It was SUPPOSED to be some online pokemon/monster raising style game, but from as soon as you log in you were constantly bombarded with popup advertisements for other products and merchandise from the company that released the game. I think I spent more time closing ad boxes than playing. That game wasn't installed for long.

That wouldn't stay long on my comp either!

On a side note, I am very proud to say that this is my longest thread and I am very proud of it!

[Artanis]

There was some mmo I played once years ago I can't remember the name of. It was SUPPOSED to be some online pokemon/monster raising style game, but from as soon as you log in you were constantly bombarded with popup advertisements for other products and merchandise from the company that released the game. I think I spent more time closing ad boxes than playing. That game wasn't installed for long.

This post reminded me of this (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/20) for some reason :smalltongue:

[Sith_Happens]

This post reminded me of this (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/20) for some reason :smalltongue:

You know, it actually baffles why games don't do that, particularly ones set in the "real" world. Well, maybe the not the tailoring-the-ads part, but a Coke/Target/etc. billboard in the game world would blend in perfectly and basically be free money.

[factotum]

You know, it actually baffles why games don't do that, particularly ones set in the "real" world. Well, maybe the not the tailoring-the-ads part, but a Coke/Target/etc. billboard in the game world would blend in perfectly and basically be free money.

Some of them do...the F1 games have advertising along the edge of the track, for instance, pretty much as they would in real life. Also, how well a billboard would blend in depends on the game--would be a bit jarring to see a Coke billboard on the side of a barn in Red Dead Redemption! :smallwink:

(Mind you, I actually prefer it when games do this sort of thing in a more subtle manner. The old game "Mercenary" had a mission where you had to retrieve a box containing the "Essential 12939 supply"--however, the 3D the game used allowed you to see what was on the opposite side of objects, and when you found this 12939 supply, you only had to walk round the other side to realise it actually read "PEPSI". :smallsmile:).

[darksolitaire]

ADOM.

First game I played I had a friend help me to get started. After spending some time creating my character, getting to know basic controls and familiarize the interface I was good to go. Then I enter first dungeon instead of continuing to the town. There's a door in the first room. It's locked. I proceed to kick it. It explodes and my character is at -32 hit points. I turn to my friend and ask "Ok, what now?" He answers, "Now you're dead."

I'd like to say it got better, but, well...

[Alex Star]

I found Secret of Mana to be incredibly annoying at the end, since the game is unwinnable if you haven't been grinding the Green spells on both casters. It's worth noting that the Green spells are extremely annoying to grind due to the way they work, and you don't know you need them at level 8 until so late in the game that you won't be able to get by with just making sure to use them regularly.

Explanation:
The final boss can only be damaged be weapons that have the Mana Sword spell cast on them. Your hit window is extremely small, and the spell is of incredibly short duration until the level is maxed out, and pretty short even then. Unless you're at level 8, actually hitting the boss is almost impossible.

Alternatively you can just spam whatever spells you want the first time the dragon comes into range until you are out of Mana, then mana up, rinse and repeat until the dragon dies. Note this works on EVERY enemy in the game as you can re-cast a spell before the spell actually casts creating an effective time stop in which you can cast an infinite number of spells.

Surprised that GitP members didn't know this and abuse the hell out of it.

[ArlEammon]

Captain Planet, For the Nintendo NES.

[Immabozo]

Captain Planet, For the Nintendo NES.

But he's our hero!

[ArlEammon]

Gonna take may patience down to zero!

[Craft (Cheese)]

ADOM.

First game I played I had a friend help me to get started. After spending some time creating my character, getting to know basic controls and familiarize the interface I was good to go. Then I enter first dungeon instead of continuing to the town. There's a door in the first room. It's locked. I proceed to kick it. It explodes and my character is at -32 hit points. I turn to my friend and ask "Ok, what now?" He answers, "Now you're dead."

I'd like to say it got better, but, well...

I, too, have not had a great experience with ADOM.

I started up my first character as a mage of some sort. I walked around a bit on the world map and found myself in a random encounter. So I tried to cast a spell and, what do you know, your character doesn't start out knowing any spells. And considering without spells I was about as effective at actually fighting anything as a wet noodle, I was pretty cheesed. Thankfully I had a few spellbooks in my inventory, so I just ran away as fast as I could and got back to the safety of the world map. So I open my inventory and try to read the books and... what? It doesn't work? Why aren't I allowed to read here?

I spend an hour flipping through every manual and web page on how to play ADOM that I could find, and could not for the life of me figure out how to read the books to get spells to use. It's apparently so obvious to everyone in the world but me that nobody bothered to write it down.

So, whatever. Apparently mages are too advanced for my puny intellect to comprehend, so I roll up another character as a fighter-type. Combats go somewhat better, so I decide to go with this one and go to the nearest town and... wait, how do you enter towns in this game? I press every key, nothing. Once again, back to the internet for an hour to try to figure out how to operate one of the most basic features of the game imaginable, and once again, absolutely nothing.

That's when I gave up and never gave the game a second look. A shame too, I hear it's one of the better roguelikes.

[Gnoman]

You can't read on the overworld map because it's on a different timescale. Simply use > to enter yoiur current overland area and read there. That should always be the first thing you do as a mage.

Again, you enter towns with the > key. Which is also the "stairs down" key. There's an extensive in-game manual accessed with the ? key.

[Craft (Cheese)]

You can't read on the overworld map because it's on a different timescale. Simply use > to enter yoiur current overland area and read there. That should always be the first thing you do as a mage.

Again, you enter towns with the > key. Which is also the "stairs down" key. There's an extensive in-game manual accessed with the ? key.

I distinctly remember that being the very first thing I tried (> to enter towns, I mean, never knew you could "enter" the blank squares on the map the same way you can a town), but thanks; I'll remember that if I ever decide to try ADOM again.

[Cespenar]

There's an extensive in-game manual accessed with the ? key.

This. The manual, along with ADOM's inherent polished UI (well, for a roguelike) makes it one of the more accessible roguelikes, despite being awfully hard at the same time.

[Wookieetank]

This. The manual, along with ADOM's inherent polished UI (well, for a roguelike) makes it one of the more accessible roguelikes, despite being awfully hard at the same time.

Also ADOM should be approached with a mindset similar to what you should have when playing Dark Souls. Prepare to die, and have a brick wall handy for head desking. That said, haven't made it past the first set of dungeons myself yet. I can beat the town dungeon, or the puppy cave, but then something on the world map invariably eats me.

[darksolitaire]

ADOM is like minesweeper. When you die it becomes apparent that it could have been avoided somehow. In my first game for example, leaving the dungeon to search for key elsewhere, leveling up or leading NPC to the trap door could all have worked.

[Seharvepernfan]

Most irritating? I have no idea.

Most surprisingly irritating and unplayable? The supposedly legendary FF6. I tried to get through it on two separate occasions, as I'll give any FF game a shot. Couldn't do it.

I also HATED ff13. Totally wrong direction for a FF game, imo.

[darksolitaire]

Most surprisingly irritating and unplayable? The supposedly legendary FF6. I tried to get through it on two separate occasions, as I'll give any FF game a shot. Couldn't do it.


This might require some explanation. How was FF6 so bad? :smallconfused:

[Seharvepernfan]

This might require some explanation. How was FF6 so bad? :smallconfused:

Where do I start?

-Humor that is often difficult to understand, usually because the graphics weren't good enough to show what was intended (like facial expressions and what not) or because it was japanese and doesn't cross the language barrier very well.
-A plotline written by a 12 year old.
-like...what? 18 characters? Most of them pretty one-dimensional (a ninja, a martial arts master, a robot, a yeti, a wild boy, etc).
-A jarring and poorly paced tempo (You're here! Do this! Now you're there! Do that! You rarely play the same character for more than like five minutes)

I really don't understand why the game is so loved. I guess if you were little when you played it, I could understand, but ...I love many, many "legendary" games, and this one just doesn't fit the group. If you like it, then ignore me. I've been there, I know what it's like when somebody hates your favorite game for all the reasons that you love it.

I wanted to like it. I borrowed the game and an snes twice in order to play it, but it's seriously a total chore for me to play through.

I did get to the "sundered world" section, kinda the "disc two", if you will. That's all I had in me.

[Ogremindes]

...

I found the sprites to be sufficiently expressive, and while the actual prose is terrible (kinda has to be given the limitations of the system and the information density of English compared to Japanese) the plot I find compelling, with some very powerful moments. Also, I'd say most of the cast is well characterised, though a lot of that is well off the critical path (to be fair almost all the world of ruin is also well off the critical path). Constantly changing characters is a pain once the Esper system is in play I'll grant you, but they stop doing that in the world of ruin.

But of course, it's a legendary game in no small part because of it's time and place. Graphically and musically it's amongst the best of the era, in terms of scope there wasn't much that came close, and the magic/technology setting wasn't common. And it's also interesting in that it's the first FF of the PSX era style.

Funnily enough, a game that annoyed me greatly was FF6. The GBA version.
Those of you who are familiar with the SNES/PSX version of the game should remember the line "And now it might just save us. The Falcon". Think about everything that builds up to that moment, and what happens immediately afterwards. It's a pretty awesome moment, one of my favourites in any game. Now try it with the line "Falcon, I need your help! I can't be the world's fastest pilot if I can't fly!".

[Tengu_temp]

I don't think nostalgia is the reason why FF6 is so beloved. I played it for the very first time in high school, when it was already ancient and when I played many other RPGs, and I loved it to death regardless. And when I replayed it a few years ago, it was still great.

I don't understand any of Seharvepernfan's complaints. I never found the humour hard to understand and the game was amusing for me when it wanted to be, but humour is not its main focus anyway. The characters (apart from Mog, Umaro and Gogo) are one-dimensional only if you skip all the scenes that focus on them or are not paying attention. And what you describe as "a jarring and poorly paced tempo" is actually one of the game's strengths, making it feel much more like a book or a movie. FF6's pacing is probably one of the best from all RPGs, western or eastern.

[Terraoblivion]

I have to echo Ogremindes and Tengu's bafflement. It's like you played an entirely different game from everybody else. Especially since how expressive the sprites are is one of the best things about the game. To me they managed to convey exactly what is meant in a given scene, even with the limitations of the design and technology. I also found the story if not outright great, definitely one of the best and most complex in the series, especially at conveying emotions. Also, to the best of my knowledge, no named characters were robots.

Also, out of morbid curiosity...What are the bits of FF XIII you hated? Just the standard list?

[darksolitaire]

I don't think nostalgia is the reason why FF6 is so beloved. I played it for the very first time in high school, when it was already ancient and when I played many other RPGs, and I loved it to death regardless. And when I replayed it a few years ago, it was still great.


I played FF6 first time in '07 when I was in the army, and I echo the sentiment.



I don't understand any of Seharvepernfan's complaints. I never found the humour hard to understand and the game was amusing for me when it wanted to be, but humour is not its main focus anyway. The characters (apart from Mog, Umaro and Gogo) are one-dimensional only if you skip all the scenes that focus on them or are not paying attention. And what you describe as "a jarring and poorly paced tempo" is actually one of the game's strengths, making it feel much more like a book or a movie. FF6's pacing is probably one of the best from all RPGs, western or eastern.

Well, Seharvepernfan did reach the second half but didn't actually finish it. I think that most of character development happens in the second half. And I feel that scenes like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZA9om3Ezww) convey what's happening very well, with music, pacing of the scene and animation working in concert.

[Seharvepernfan]

Also, to the best of my knowledge, no named characters were robots.

Also, out of morbid curiosity...What are the bits of FF XIII you hated? Just the standard list?

Wasn't there a robot/warrior/magic-user chick?

FF13, I rented in 2010, and I played it for about 2 hours. Yeah, I guess it's pretty much the same reasons, but add in the sappy emotional scenes, bad accents, boring combat, and boring/linear level design. Going from the great FF12 to FF13 kinda felt like a slap in the face. Granted I didn't even get past the highway-system/cave thing in the beginning, but I did watch youtube videos of other parts of the game, and did not feel like I was missing anything worth playing.

Remember, these are the ones I didn't like. I liked FF1 and FF8, loved FF7, and count FF9 and FF12 as a few of my favorite games ever. FF10 was alright, it was good enough to beat but not good enough to play again. I didn't get very far in FF2, and I did not like FF4 either.

[Terraoblivion]

Wasn't there a robot/warrior/magic-user chick?

No, Celes and Terra are both quite biological. It's true that Terra has ancestry from espers, but that's due to genetics.

Also, I guess I'm odd in that I consider 12 and 13 to be the two best games in the series, given how they're pretty much diametrically opposed. However, I find that the open world serves the story and style of gameplay of 12 well, while the linearity and controlled experience works well for what 13 is doing. Trying to switch the two would ruin both games, in my opinion.

[Seharvepernfan]

No, Celes and Terra are both quite biological.

"Celes Chere (セリス・シェール Serisu Shēru?) is a former general of the Empire, genetically and artificially enhanced into a Magitek Knight following a magic infusion", from wikipedia.

That's who I was refering to. I was under the impression that she was a robot that was designed to look human.

[Terraoblivion]

"Celes Chere (セリス・シェール Serisu Shēru?) is a former general of the Empire, genetically and artificially enhanced into a Magitek Knight following a magic infusion", from wikipedia.

That's who I was refering to. I was under the impression that she was a robot that was designed to look human.

A robot with genes? :smalltongue:

Anyway, she's a genetically engineered supersoldier, possibly with some implants to allow her to use magic natively.

[Seharvepernfan]

A robot with genes? :smalltongue:

...c-cyborgs?

[Das Platyvark]

I personally had 2 big problems with ff6, having jumped to it immediately after finishing Chrono Trigger for the first time.
1: Random encounters. I know it's pretty pervasive as far as rpgs go, but just when I was getting into the storytelling zone, walking around the overworld, bang—drop everything, you've got to fight some bandits now.
2: Character introductions. Just when I was getting interested in the characters I had, suddenly you've got 2 or three more, whom I just straight up don't care about that much. The one really big offender is Celes, as she starts right in with the special snowflake deal.

I really loved the game, apart from this, but I think it has to make the nomination because I just couldn't keep playing, for these reasons.

[Androgeus]

A robot with genes? :smalltongue:

http://files.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_648/6484805/file/jeans-robot-small-39109.jpg

[Tengu_temp]

http://files.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_648/6484805/file/jeans-robot-small-39109.jpg

That's terrible. I approve.

[scarmiglionne4]

Wasn't there a robot/warrior/magic-user chick?

FF13, I rented in 2010, and I played it for about 2 hours. Yeah, I guess it's pretty much the same reasons, but add in the sappy emotional scenes, bad accents, boring combat, and boring/linear level design. Going from the great FF12 to FF13 kinda felt like a slap in the face. Granted I didn't even get past the highway-system/cave thing in the beginning, but I did watch youtube videos of other parts of the game, and did not feel like I was missing anything worth playing.

Remember, these are the ones I didn't like. I liked FF1 and FF8, loved FF7, and count FF9 and FF12 as a few of my favorite games ever. FF10 was alright, it was good enough to beat but not good enough to play again. I didn't get very far in FF2, and I did not like FF4 either.

I predicted that you would like almost everything FF7 and later. It is odd that you like FF1 considering it seems you don't like the older graphics and more straight-forward storyline. FF1-FF6 are Final Fantasy. FF7 starting ruining that. FFX was the final blow on the nail in that coffin.

Before FF7 there were two types of Final Fantasy games. The Odds and the Evens. The odds were basic. They tend to be based on a job system, the storyline is pretty standard. The Evens try to do something new. FF2 tried no-experience leveling and a bigger story, FF4 went hardcore story, De-emphasizing level-grinding and challenge-level. FF6 tried to do it all, and mostly succeeded, which is one reason it is so good. As a side note, FF4 is my favorite to play, by FF6 is the best of the series.

Every character, even though there are many, is unique. Everyone has an ability that no one else has. This goes beyond jobs or classes. They each have distinct personalities, although they are kept pretty simple given what we can do with the English localization.

Much like FFV, you have more than one world to explore, and what a world it was. It is almost like it is two different kinds of RPG. The first half leads you around by the nose at a pretty casual pace, while the second half is open-ended and more hardcore challenge like the Odds.

FF6 did it all. It had story, it had challenge, it had plenty of characters, and an optional amount of playtime necessary to finish. There is so much to do, so many characters to build, so mny places to go, so much loot.

FF7 tried to do this and all we got were limit breaks, materia, and pretty pictures. FF8 tried to do a love story like the Even it was (I kind of like it, I wish they had finished it/released the pocketstation in the US). FF9 remembered its roots was an anthology of FF1-FF5. The hope that we would go back to the way things were was dashed when FFX was released looking like FF7 and FF8 mated. What other Final Fantasy has a straight line that you can pretty much walk from the first town to every location in the game? You don't even get to fly the airship? It is so much fun flying the airship in FF6! Hell, it's fun in FF7.

Sorry about the wall of text.

[Immabozo]

Sorry about the wall of text.

This thread DOES ask for a topic that leads to rants, so no apology necessary.

[Forbiddenwar]

Mass Effect 2
It's a real shame, I did enjoy the first one so much.
Hour 1: build a team of people to save the galaxy . . . because your last team is all dead now. Yep, convenient plotting there.
Hour 5: still "building a team"
Hour 8: thank-you for recruiting all these great team players. You're done building your team! Your next mission is to . . . recruit more people for your team.

oh, and since you didn't buy our expensive DLC you are automatically getting the bad ending. even though you did buy the game of the year edition that was suppose to include all the dlc, it doesn't include this dlc, that's extra.

well f**** you too, EA.

Edit: And everyone you recruit is a jerk.
And EA cut what I thought was one of the best parts of the first game, the Mako. Who doesn't like exploring alien worlds in a giant tank? People who would rather play with spreadsheets instead I guess.

[factotum]

oh, and since you didn't buy our expensive DLC you are automatically getting the bad ending. even though you did buy the game of the year edition that was suppose to include all the dlc, it doesn't include this dlc, that's extra.


Er, what? :smallconfused: It was entirely possible to get a good ending in ME2 without having any DLC at all--the main thing you had to do was grind like crazy to get all the upgrades to the Normandy and then pick the right people during the choice points in the suicide mission.

[Tengu_temp]

ME2 is a game that's all about the characters, getting to know them, participating in their personal stories - and it's not like that's all you do, you still have plotline missions that focus on the main story. And everyone is a jerk, seriously? Tell me you didn't like Garrus, or Tali, or Mordin.

I give you the lack of Mako though. I miss it. And I'm not a fan of how cover-oriented the new combat system is, even if it improved on ME1 in other regards.

[Craft (Cheese)]

ME2 is a game that's all about the characters, getting to know them, participating in their personal stories - and it's not like that's all you do, you still have plotline missions that focus on the main story. And everyone is a jerk, seriously? Tell me you didn't like Garrus, or Tali, or Mordin.

I give you the lack of Mako though. I miss it. And I'm not a fan of how cover-oriented the new combat system is, even if it improved on ME1 in other regards.

The problem is whenever the game goes back to the stuff with Cerberus/TIM, and it will drag you away from the good bits kicking and screaming, it goes from the lovingly crafted character-focused narrative to HURR DURR I MEIK VIDYO GAMS. It's just so insultingly stupid.

Also, Miranda. She's basically all the stuff that makes Cerberus so painful compressed into a human turd that follows you around, made all the more annoying by this massive crush the writers seem to have on her.

As for the Mako... I did not like the Mako, and I'm glad that they took out the (basically) mandatory sections, but I'd much rather they had tried to fix the problems with the exploration mechanic (like weigh down the damned thing so it doesn't fly off into orbit every time you hit a speed bump and make the terrain less boring) rather than scrap it for something even lamer.

[warty goblin]

ME2 is a game that's all about the characters, getting to know them, participating in their personal stories - and it's not like that's all you do, you still have plotline missions that focus on the main story. And everyone is a jerk, seriously? Tell me you didn't like Garrus, or Tali, or Mordin.

I give you the lack of Mako though. I miss it. And I'm not a fan of how cover-oriented the new combat system is, even if it improved on ME1 in other regards.

From what I played of it, I mostly got the impression ME 2 was about constantly worshiping Saint Shepard. 'Getting to know' the characters was, in my limited experience of the game, pretty much confined to them extolling how Shepard was the most awesome thing since peanut butter and chocolate partnered up. It was like Duke Nukem Forever, except played 100% straight.

[Craft (Cheese)]

From what I played of it, I mostly got the impression ME 2 was about constantly worshiping Saint Shepard. 'Getting to know' the characters was, in my limited experience of the game, pretty much confined to them extolling how Shepard was the most awesome thing since peanut butter and chocolate partnered up. It was like Duke Nukem Forever, except played 100% straight.

While Shepard's certainly not a freshly rolled ratcatcher, I disagree; Shepard's not really hyped up as a badass any more so than most video game protagonists, unless your complaint is with the trend in general.

[Tengu_temp]

From what I played of it, I mostly got the impression ME 2 was about constantly worshiping Saint Shepard. 'Getting to know' the characters was, in my limited experience of the game, pretty much confined to them extolling how Shepard was the most awesome thing since peanut butter and chocolate partnered up. It was like Duke Nukem Forever, except played 100% straight.

I never got this impression. I think you might be too used to games where the character remains an unsung hero no matter how much awesome stuff they do. Remember, Shepard did some pretty amazing things in ME1, and the whole galaxy knows about it.



Also, Miranda. She's basically all the stuff that makes Cerberus so painful compressed into a human turd that follows you around, made all the more annoying by this massive crush the writers seem to have on her.


Okay, I cannot argue with this one. Miranda is possibly the worst character in the whole Mass Effect series. Her face, straight out of the Uncanny Valley, doesn't help.

[GolemsVoice]

Yeah, I actually found it refreshing that Shephard gets some recognition for the things he did. I mean, he DID do pretty amazing things.

[darksolitaire]

ME as a series does make Shepard stand out as a greatest thing since sliced bread discovery of mass relays. More then a bit Sue-ish, you'll need to look past this to get most of the game. At least there are few characters who don't bow to Shep...like Wreav...the council...the jerks :smallmad: the third installment of the series tosses Shepard around bit more, so that's an improvement.


Edit: And everyone you recruit is a jerk.


I think they went for including wide variety of characters to have at least someone player would find interesting. Well, you have refined taste then :smallbiggrin:


Okay, I cannot argue with this one. Miranda is possibly the worst character in the whole Mass Effect series. Her face, straight out of the Uncanny Valley, doesn't help.

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1778/36801432.jpg

[Craft (Cheese)]

Okay, I cannot argue with this one. Miranda is possibly the worst character in the whole Mass Effect series. Her face, straight out of the Uncanny Valley, doesn't help.

Eh, I wouldn't go *that* far. The Star Child is worse, and The Illusive Man is worse, the only reason they don't seem so bad is you barely ever talk to them, but Miranda hangs out on your ship and never shuts up.

[Immabozo]

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1778/36801432.jpg

at least she's hot.