The worst game mechanics?

Quote from Thrik

I know it's been said before, but better AI is what I want to see during the next generation.

Me too, there's no "next-gen" until better AI comes about.

Quote from D3ads

Doors that lock behind you even though you just walked through them without any trouble (yes Max Payne 3, I'm looking at you)

Another facet of the same problem: cutscenes that trigger the moment you get a certain item? Like Alan Wake when you get the keys to the chopper and you still have to pick up the ammo on the other desk.

Quote from Psy

I despise games with save checkpoints just before 10 MINUTE LONG UNSKIPPABLE CUT SCENES.

Yeah, probably checkpoints before cutscenes are the worst of the things. I've just finished yesterday to replay Batman Arkham Asylum and even if they have skippable cutscenes, you waste a good deal of time just because.

Weapon fire flashing your own screen.

checkpoints. really, fuck everything else as long as you can manually save your shit.

Let's see:

- Unskippable cinematics.

- Jam on your face when you get hurt.

- QTEs everywhere. One or two is fine, more really gets on my nerves.

- Auto health regen when it's not done right, especially when it is in a SP game (it's not done right 99% of the time, sadly).

- Autosaves in stupid spots.

- Unskippable intros. I love Dishonored, but the unskippable intro is really annoying.

- Lack of quicksave. AVP must be the only game that did it right. Games like D2 do not really count.

Not really a game mechanic, but I also usually dislike stupid AI unless it's done right. Quake's monsters are incredibly dumb, but they have great synergy between them. This is pretty rare nowadays, sadly.

I hate single player games that kills me. I play up until I die and then I let it rest forever in the unfinished games catalog...

Quote from Psy

I despise games with save checkpoints just before 10 MINUTE LONG UNSKIPPABLE CUT SCENES.

Yes. I'm looking at you Paper Mario 2. It had a 10 minute long cut scene just before the final boss. If you die, you had to rewatch the WHOLE FUCKING THING. I must of watched that cutscene about 30 or so times before I was able to finally beat the bastard.

this, attached with the lack of a 'retry' button... but if it takes forever to load again, or kicks you back to a menu - absolutely infuriates me. It's one of the worst things in games and i don't know why some designers still do it "LETS MAKE THEM GO BACK THROUGH LOADING AND MENUS LOL".

Especially in parts of a game that's really difficult and you have to do it over and over.

Quote from Kedhrin

this, attached with the lack of a 'retry' button... but if it takes forever to load again, or kicks you back to a menu - absolutely infuriates me. It's one of the worst things in games and i don't know why some designers still do it "LETS MAKE THEM GO BACK THROUGH LOADING AND MENUS LOL".Especially in parts of a game that's really difficult and you have to do it over and over.

QFT

Lack of consistency in this area also infuriates me. GTA4 pisses me off with this (although i love that game). Some missions if you screw up you have to do a cutscene then drive somewhere, then another cutscene then more driving then the mission. Sometimes when you answer that text you just get plopped right back into the gunfight. Wtf Rockstar?!

MMORPG, one reason to not play:

- Talk to NPC X

- "blablabla.... Collect XX apples, kill YY rats, come back"

- "....."

- level up! Received xxx gold, this prize and that other fancy acessory

Ha yeah, Fedex Quests, I hate them !

Unskippable intro cutscenes. At least let me have a taste of what the gameplay is before you start telling me a story.

seconded on the blinding sun

would pay for sunglasses perk

I also hate games where you have to guide/protect someone/something and if they get the least hurt it ends w/"mission failure" or whatnot(give them a gun let them do it)

Quote from Beck

The sun in that game is actually blinding to the point where I can't see what is going on in that direction.It has happened to me in real life but only when the road is wet and the sun is low in the sky and I'm driving, the sun reflected off the road into my eyes. But apart from that I can honestly say I have never experienced the sun being so bright that I can't look in a direction, especially at mid-day or whatever. /rant

It happens a lot with snow as well, so its basically a daily occurrence in Scandinavia if the sun is low in the sky (and visible of course).

Grab bag of random peeves:

• QTEs remain terrible in general, but a special grumble for QTE’s that are randomised each time. Mainly because it highlights the button presses are completely arbitrary as they are not even tied to a corresponding normal function.
• Any mechanic that uses randomisation in a way you cannot actively play around or account for.
• Randomness left unregulated in a competitive game. Ex: Critical Strike streaks.
• Ridiculously strong comeback mechanics in competitive games that do not have a lame-duck scenario.
• Publically visible win loss ratios that discourage people from actually playing competitively through fear of ruining their accounts and/or giving the douchenozzles that populate online games ammunition.
• Scoring systems where optimal scores are simply about putting in the most time.
• Scoring systems based entirely around a ridiculously large modifier that bombs on a mistake and ruins the entire run immediately.
• Puzzles that give you a hint two-and-a-half seconds after you walk up to it, because of gross/insulting misconceptions about the intelligence and attention-span of the average gamer.
• Boss encounters that are a QTE (or even simpler interaction) in-between fighting three waves of mook enemies you’ve already been fighting all game.

Quote from Thrik

I know it's been said before, but better AI is what I want to see during the next generation. With more computing power than ever available, that means there's a lot more possibility to have enemies react in very clever and surprising ways. It's very rarely a game's AI genuinely surprises me, like when I first played FEAR and they were crawling along the floor and shit. If most games shun such innovations for the sake of even prettier graphics I will be so disappointed.

I feel this is one of those 'be careful what you wish for' moments. Ex: A common desire from players is that enemies are smart enough to "sneak up behind them," but in practice walking down a corridor and suddenly going horizontal as you get shot in the back of the head would be rather infuriating. It is stupid that soldiers hide behind rocks with half their body visible and shout every time they reload or lob something at you but, as the pattern detecting flesh units we are, detecting patterns and figuring out the most appropriate response is how we overcome challenges. I certainly think AI can be improved, but I think it generally should remain predictable.

I feel like there's a lot of issues where ok or mediocre gameplay mechanics or concessions, like gating, can add up to really fuck things up. As with Max Payne 3 mentioned earlier, and all the modern COD campaigns, they both incentivize exporation with hidden secrets to find (golden gun parts, intel, blops2's accomplishment lists), but then cover their levels with un-telegraphed gates that prevent the player from retreating, leading to a ton of frustration when I'm trying to find a secret and am denied it by accidentally touching a cutscene of more bad guys showing up and the path behind me vanishing into the mist. It'd honestly be better if the secret collectables weren't in either game, and I fucking love secret collectables in general. Or QTEs in super long cutscenes to turn them into gameplay and thus justify their existence as game-time in reviews, which has the side effect of making them unskippable.

e: If I had to name a singular mechanic that I felt was ruining things lately, I'd probably say the "vote kick" feature in multiplayer games. I swear to christ that one single UI option ruined Left 4 Dead, and it's toxic to many other games, because it's a terrible tool to give to terrible people (people who play videogames on the internet).

I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned, but; level and item scaling. especially item scaling (leveled items) bothered me in skyrim. it robbed me off any desire to explore the world because the loot was so easy to predict based on my level.

it's ok to some degree to keep the player from breaking the balance of the game, but they've been far too strict with this in every TES since morrowind IMO. What I enjoyed about Morrowind was stocking up with potions, spells etc. and just pick a random place on the map I would go explore. If it was far beyond my level I would just use every trick and spell I could think of to fight through it. I would usually get rewarded with something that made it all worth it. If I do the same in Skyrim I'm usually rewarded with a shitty garnet, some iron boots and nonsensical-enchanted shit-throwing staff.

Quote from Taylor

• Anything that give you a hint two-and-a-half seconds after you walk up to it, because of gross/insulting misconceptions about the intelligence and attention-span of the average gamer.

Fixed.