Video Game Pet Peeves

[Heliocentrical]

JRPGs are more like a puzzle of numbers rather than an action game. It's more about figuring out how to win in the next fight or how to beat a really tough boss.

Yes I've played games that were a puzzle of numbers except the combat was more nuanced then what a typical JRPG would offer. Take the Fallout series for instance. While I'm not particularly fond of how the combat functions overall in those games you can at least move around, get different functioning weapons, buff ahead of time and take on more than 3-5 enemies at any given time. By contrast most JRPGs are pure number crunchers with non of these basic features I mentioned. What's the difference between a dagger and halberd? Well the halberd does more damage and that's it. I don't even like Fallout 1 & 2 yet I still rank them higher in overall complexity compared to JRPGs. That's how basic JRPGs are and I find their combat to be worse then Fallout 1 & 2's .

[K4_Kydure]

The images I posted are from Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1, which takes character positioning into account when it comes to tactics and weapons can have different attack patterns with some being unique to certain characters. Since turn based JRPGs don't seem to be your speed, what about Dark Souls?

[Heliocentrical]

The images I posted are from Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1, which takes character positioning into account when it comes to tactics and weapons can have different attack patterns with some being unique to certain characters. Since turn based JRPGs don't seem to be your speed, what about Dark Souls?

Haven't played Dark Souls, I'm waiting for it to come to GOG first. I hate DRM and I want to support GOG as much as possible. Valve has too much of a monopoly over the digital distribution platform with Steam.

[K4_Kydure]

I'm waiting for it to come to GOG first.

You will be waiting until the heat death of the universe then. Dark Souls uses steamworks for online match making for all three games. Just go ahead and buy Dark Souls 1 and 3, avoid 2 at all costs.

[rairii]

"i don't get the appeal therefore it's bad"

 

also i'm not usually one to defend valve because their customer service has sunken below EA levels, but you're missing out on basically everything since steam is the biggest digital content distributor in the PC market

 

unless you're a shitter who pirates everything he plays just like btg

[Heliocentrical]

You will be waiting until the heat death of the universe then. Dark Souls uses steamworks for online match making for all three games. Just go ahead and buy Dark Souls 1 and 3, avoid 2 at all costs.

 

also i'm not usually one to defend valve because their customer service has sunken below EA levels, but you're missing out on basically everything since steam is the biggest digital content distributor in the PC market

If taking a stand against DRM and Valve's digital distribution monopoly means I miss out on a few games then so be it. I will not support Valve under any circumstance.

[rairii]

If taking a stand against DRM and Valve's digital distribution monopoly means I miss out on a few games then so be it. I will not support Valve under any circumstance.

 

which is ironic, considering the forum you're on

[Meelis13]

Valve has monopoly? Its bad? buhahahaha. please continue, thats amusing stuff right there.

Sure, Valve has BIGGEST marketplace on PC, but by no means its only one, meaning its NOT monopoly (read definition of monopoly). We also have GOG, Origin, Uplay (not good, but its there), MS storefront (worst one of major players, but again, its there)- and these are main ones. We also have sites like humblebundle or non-charity keyshops like infamous kinguin or g2a, that help keep price down- and these are just 2 out of dozens. Do note that im STILL talking about ONLY PC shopping options.

Doesnt look like monopoly to me. And besides, Valve just provides storefront, developers still place their own pricetags. Not to mention Steam offers very good way for new & indie devs to enter the market. And overall as well- you have your games in one place

[Heliocentrical]

which is ironic, considering the forum you're on

Unless not supporting Valve directly affects Ross (which I don't see why it would) it's not ironic. Also the Valve Games / Valve Stuff board is practically dead at this point so it's not exactly relevant anymore.

 

Anyway back on topic.

*Cartoonish 3D Models

Whenever I've seen a game with 3D models with cartoonish proportions it comes across as uncanny as fuck. 2D proportions do not transfer well to a 3D space. Unless you're deliberately trying to weird out the player like Psychonauts you should stick with regular proportioned models.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Guest (see edit history)

[Selfsurprise]

Underwater levels. I've always hated them. No matter what game I played, no matter how good I got at it, any level that involved swimming makes me want to cast my console in concrete and give it a sea burial sans the twenty-one gun salute. Maybe it's because I grew up with the PS1 school of control design which was, for the most part, okay (it's amazing how we've come, using a d-pad to control movement, I can scarcely imagine how I did it!) but for anything involving simulated water - and the simulated immersion therein - resulted in so much infantile expression of destructive helplessness in my youth. I always seemed to get stuck on them for prolonged periods, so much so that I cannot help but associate water with dead ends and seething futility. My long literary affair with the works of HP Lovecraft probably doesn't help matters either, whether because of the obvious anti-human and distinctly aquatocentric sentiments of the mans work, or simply because anything Mythos inspired will always catch my attention and with a terrifying certainty put me on the inevitable path towards more rock-paddling sessions in computer games. GHHHURGGH!

 

This is why I liked MediEval. You dick-about in any body of water in that game, you'll die. Immediately. I genuinely appreciate the game's developers doing that. Don't go in the water. Skeletons can't swim, Ben. Didn't they teach you this in school? Why are you going in the water, Ben. There's water in there.

Ben.

Stop.

That is water.

[K4_Kydure]

If taking a stand against DRM and Valve's digital distribution monopoly means I miss out on a few games then so be it. I will not support Valve under any circumstance.

You're hurting yourself more than you are hurting Valve.

 

*Cartoonish 3D Models

Whenever I've seen a game with 3D models with cartoonish proportions it comes across as uncanny as fuck. 2D proportions do not transfer well to a 3D space. Unless you're deliberately trying to weird out the player like Psychonauts you should stick with regular proportioned models.

 

This mostly applies to western cartoons as I've never seen a 2D western cartoon translate well to 3D.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile in Japan:

 

 

 

 

[Heliocentrical]

You're hurting yourself more than you are hurting Valve.

You could say the exact same thing about people who become Vegan as means of protest against the meat processing industry. That their missing out on the nutritional qualities meat has and that they won't make a difference. But you see they care about the larger picture and my case is no different. People shouldn't have to put up with cumbersome DRM just to play their game and since exe cracks are being branded as illegal the only legal alternative are DRM free digital distribution platforms like GOG. GOG has made some incredible progress over the years so I'm not willing to give up 5 years a boycotting Steam just because Steam has games that might interest me. 5 years ago Valve decided to arbitrarily ban my account and I haven't been able to get it back since. I lost access to all of the games I had attached to that account and I'm sure as hell not falling for that trap again by making another one.

 

This mostly applies to western cartoons as I've never seen a 2D western cartoon translate well to 3D.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile in Japan:

 

 

 

I think that's primarily due to basic cel shading. Cel shading makes the model's texture look like it's 2D even though it's in a 3D space so on a visual level not much has changed. But if you apply shaders that don't suit the model well that's when it becomes uncanny. Like for instance have you ever seen one of those anime models imported into the source engine with the source engine shaders applied to it? Those look very uncanny.

[K4_Kydure]

I think that's primarily due to basic cel shading. Cel shading makes the model's texture look like it's 2D even though it's in a 3D space so on a visual level not much has changed. But if you apply shaders that don't suit the model well that's when it becomes uncanny. Like for instance have you ever seen one of those anime models imported into the source engine with the source engine shaders applied to it? Those look very uncanny.

For anime they actually lack shaders entirely for the most part. In Neptunia this is the case as the characters and monsters never use the map lighting nor are they cel shaded.

 

They also generally look fine in Source when the model uses the baked ambient map lighting you would get in decent/official Valve maps while in maps that don't have that it will start to look pretty bad.

 

 

[Heliocentrical]

*Jump Scares

I fucking hate jumps scares, they're just cheap excuses for developers to be lazy rather than putting some actual thought into their game by building a dark and immersive atmosphere. Could we please go back to the Quake I style of horror where the game purely by design is intense and exhausting to play? I don't care what people say Amnesia:The Dark Descent isn't terrifying in the slightest.

[Reverend_UshankaCat_]

^Jumpscares are just the cheapest thing, I agree completely.^

 

Another thing I hate is something that a lot of modern first person shooters are guilty of: You always have at least 1 or 2 douchebags with you who can't stop giving you orders. I'm going to call it "Homefront-syndrome", because Homefront is the worst game on the face of the earth and this is one of the reasons why.

You're never allowed to do anything by your own pace, no, you always have to run after or wait for two idiots with bad dialogue who will only talk to you when they need to give an order (for something they could very well do themselves).

"Miller, follow me! Miller, shoot that sniper! Miller, get to cover! Miller, breach the door! Miller, we need you defending us with the MG42! Miller, Open that valve! Miller, cook me some breakfast! Miller, grab that rocket launcher! Miller, shoot the tanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jEQ_A9ALK8

(I think the Homefront guy wasn't called Miller, but it's not like he has a character, so it doesn't matter anyway.)

[K4_Kydure]

*Jump Scares

I fucking hate jumps scares, they're just cheap excuses for developers to be lazy rather than putting some actual thought into their game by building a dark and immersive atmosphere. Could we please go back to the Quake I style of horror where the game purely by design is intense and exhausting to play? I don't care what people say Amnesia:The Dark Descent isn't terrifying in the slightest.

Jumps scares can be used effectively when done sparingly and correctly. The original FEAR and it's expansions does this perfectly. I would give you an example but that would only ruin it if you were to ever play them.

[Heliocentrical]

Jumps scares can be used effectively when done sparingly and correctly. The original FEAR and it's expansions does this perfectly. I would give you an example but that would only ruin it if you were to ever play them.

I have played FEAR 1 and it's expansions. It's jumpscares are particularly dumb. Not only were they not scary FEAR gave away most of it's jump scares before they even occurred effectively killing the one strength jump scares have. "This our setpiece jump scare, be scared."

[BidetoftheDead]

Memes

 

I don't think I have to say more then that.

 

But really I'm getting tired of games that are "look for your lost relative" and "go hunt down this special item"

 

I've been playing a lot of Fallout and realized how often they use BOTH tropes.

[Selfsurprise]

Memes

 

I don't think I have to say more then that.

 

But really I'm getting tired of games that are "look for your lost relative" and "go hunt down this special item"

 

I've been playing a lot of Fallout and realized how often they use BOTH tropes.

I mostly agree with you here. To play devil's advocate for a moment, I suppose a setting like Fallout lends itself rather naturally to numerous fetch-quests and missing person searches, I'd imagine a lot of that type of thing would be going if civilization collapsed into iniquity and barbarism. That being said, I agree wholeheartedly that whoever they have writing some of the quests seemed to be phoning-in much of their efforts. I would mind so much if there were considerably more stirring human drama or otherwise novel quests in amongst all the filler. It's not that the aforementioned filler-fare isn't necessarily fun, most of my enjoyment of Fallout 4 stemmed from simply wandering about or simply getting to various locations. It suffers from the same problem many open-world adventure games are afflicted with, in that eventually you hit a wall of sheer ennui in the face of the endless nature of the game. And I'm an avowed fan of the game! Imagine what one of it's detractors would have to say about all of this... ;p

[Psychotic Ninja]

As bad as RNG is, layered RNG is even worse. For example, in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (amazing RPG, BTW totally worth a try, pretty long imo) end/post game sidequest requires you to craft a War God's Ax. Alright, end game weapon, how hard can it be? Well it requires a Demon's Ax, 5 Scroll's of Truth and 5 Kaleidostone's.

 

Alright, how do you get these items? Well the Scroll of Truth is a rare drop/steal, from rare enemies. Same with the Kaleidostone. You need five each. The fastest way to get them? A certain character has the Steal ability that only he has. His (in FF7 terms) Limit Break makes stealing easier (or makes stealing the rare item easier, it's been a while). IIRC, the limit breaks are RNG as well.

 

Well how about the Demon's Ax? Surly that can be bought or found right? Right? Nope, crafted. You need two Black Wings (common drop), three Tachestone's (common drop) and one Grand Ax. You've got to be kiddi- wait, what?! You can buy this ax? Oh good.