Things that frustrate you in games?

[Dorothy]

Escort missions, bad storytelling, and save points.

Also the prejudices that plague the gaming industry and community, but that's another story.

 

[GastlyGibus]

That's another thing. Limited save points or the lack of the ability to save on the spot.

Older games didn't have this problem for the most part, which is really strange to me. Most of the games I played as a kid had basic save functionality, i.e., the ability to save the game wherever and whenever you wanted. Now, in this modern age of games, where you would think games should be getting better, this is something that's becoming less and less common. Now we have check-points, or auto-save, which simply aren't as helpful.

When I was a kid and I had hours to waste away on video games, this wasn't that big of a deal. But I'm 20 years old now. I go to school. I have a job. I have a life outside of video games, so when I do have the time to spend on video games, being forced to play until I hit a "checkpoint" or something similar that saves my progress is not fun. If you're worried about people making "save-states" and saving in order to repeat the same section over and over, then you can always do what Mystery Dungeon did, which was allowing you to save in the middle of the dungeon, then erasing the save after loading it. This prevented you from resetting a boss-fight over and over, but still allowed you to turn off the game if you needed to.

In short, give us the ability to save again. Older games had it. There is literally no excuse to not have it.

 

[Farfetchd the Vigilante]

First of all, escort missions. Nuff' said.

Second, when the AI is better then you. Whether it's enemy or ally, it kinda makes me feel unusefull to the plot.

 

[TerraTF]

Second, when the AI is better then you. Whether it's enemy or ally, it kinda makes me feel unusefull to the plot.

I have another thing to add to the AI complaint. When the AI has the ability to help you but doesn't. EX. when you're getting low on HP in Kingdom Hearts and Donald has the ability to throw up a Cure but he doesn't. Then Sora dies and you have to start over again. Now I could use Cure as Sora but if another team mate has the ability to do it I don't want to waste my time on it.

Also to add another thing to my problems with games. Difficulty. When games are insanely hard to the point where they're no fun. For example, Dark Souls games. Those games don't appeal to me at all.

 

[Dorothy]

Also to add another thing to my problems with games. Difficulty. When games are insanely hard to the point where they're no fun. For example, Dark Souls games. Those games don't appeal to me at all.

When the game's difficulty settings are too steep (i.e. you go from "piss-easy" to "impossible" just by going up one difficulty level) that's also obnoxious. Kid Icarus: Uprising was a rare example of a game that handled difficulty settings well.

 

[TerraTF]

When the game's difficulty settings are too steep (i.e. you go from "piss-easy" to "impossible" just by going up one difficulty level) that's also obnoxious. Kid Icarus: Uprising was a rare example of a game that handled difficulty settings well.

Games that start off hard then start to get super easy at the end are worse than those with a steep difficulty curve.

 

[CrackFox]

For me, it's the bugginess of some games, at the moment. For example, Saints Row IV on the PS3. I enjoy the game, but it freezes for me. A lot. They really need to patch up the game a bit so I don't constantly have to do parts of a mission over again. How about you?

I have Saints Row IV and haven't experienced any freezes, maybe it's your disc. For me, the annoying thing about video games is specifically involving the PS3 and it's trophy system. I can be quite obsessive about trophies and getting the platinum, sometimes it's relatively easy and just takes dedication but for some games it's near impossible and I it serves no use other than to torment those players who value the platinum trophies but know they wont be getting it unless they replay the whole game numerous times, pay for extra dlc or generally spend hours and hours doing the same repetitive activities over and over.

 

[TerraTF]

For me, the annoying thing about video games is specifically involving the PS3 and it's trophy system. I can be quite obsessive about trophies and getting the platinum, sometimes it's relatively easy and just takes dedication but for some games it's near impossible and I it serves no use other than to torment those players who value the platinum trophies but know they wont be getting it unless they replay the whole game numerous times, pay for extra dlc or generally spend hours and hours doing the same repetitive activities over and over.

Trophies and achievements are really for those who go the extra mile.Yes some Platinums can be near impossible to get (I'm looking at you Bioshock) and even Multiplayer completely ruins the fun of trophies.

The jump from Assassin's Creed 2 having one of the easiest sets of trophies to get to Brotherhood being near impossible if you didn't get any of the Multiplayer trophies as soon as you started the game.

 

[GastlyGibus]

I can understand difficult achievements. I mean, they aren't really needed, it's just a fun challenge for those who like them. What bugs me are the stupid "participation prize" achievements that you literally cannot avoid getting. Not achievements that are easy to get; I'm talking those useless achievements that you get like right at the very start of the game, just for turning on the game.

Take Assassins Creed II for example. As soon as you start up the damn game, you watch the opening cutscene, and instantly you see "Achievement Unlocked: An Assassin is Born - 5 GS" Wow, I really worked hard for that one. I had to put the disc in the tray and everything.

Seriously, it's called an "Achievement" or a "Trophy," as in, you had to do something special to get it. Having an achievement that literally every player of the game is going to get is just pointless. What's the purpose of having an achievement if everybody is going to get it because it's impossible to not get?

Yeah, it's a silly pet peeve of mine, but I just never understood it. Like, what's the point?

 

[proserpina]

It probably adds some kind of extra dimension of reward for your actions. Consciously it can be annoying, but the people who make games know brains like to be given rewards for stages of progress, however arbitrary. Might make you more likely to keep playing.. Or something like that.

I still think those rewards for inevitable actions right off the bat are silly, though.

Otherwise, among the more significant things that really get me is puzzles or events that require you going back on yourself a lot - levels full of go do this in x, then go do that in y, then go back to x and get this, then use this in y to get to z etc... It just gets old. It makes me feel like I'm backtracking and, in deliberately more complexly designed or visually repetitive environments, can be outright frustrating and confusing. Maybe it's asking too much in terms of size of in-game worlds, but in most games I like to progress without an active need to revisit the specific areas I have already explored - or at least, without a need to do so not that long after I was last there. It starts to feel like a cheap way to make things more difficult or time consuming, which reminds me of yet another thing I really find annoying - grinding. It doesn't need to exist, seriously. It just strikes me as lazy game creation. You shouldn't necessarily be amazingly strong just by playing the story through, but you shouldn't need to spend hours completing repetitive side quests or fighting without any actual plot progression. It just creates the impression that they wanted to push you to be stronger for the next step up in the story but couldn't be bothered to fill in the gap with actual content.

Alongside this, a lack of ability to save wherever I want. As is the case for others, I just don't appreciate it. It makes playing the game feel like a chore rather than a hobby that fits around other things I have to do. Useless companions also rank highly - you have twice the people to protect and yet still only the same firepower - and escort missions tend to create that kind of situation often too.

 

[Doormat]

For those hating on escort missions, what do you think The Last Of Us was? One giant escort mission! But yeah point taken most escort missions are tedious.

I'm also not a big fan of time limits, with few exceptions. I like to take my time when playing a game so if I see a countdown or timer then I'm probably not going to enjoy myself as much.

 

[TerraTF]

I can understand difficult achievements. I mean, they aren't really needed, it's just a fun challenge for those who like them. What bugs me are the stupid "participation prize" achievements that you literally cannot avoid getting. Not achievements that are easy to get; I'm talking those useless achievements that you get like right at the very start of the game, just for turning on the game.

Take Assassins Creed II for example. As soon as you start up the damn game, you watch the opening cutscene, and instantly you see "Achievement Unlocked: An Assassin is Born - 5 GS" Wow, I really worked hard for that one. I had to put the disc in the tray and everything.

Seriously, it's called an "Achievement" or a "Trophy," as in, you had to do something special to get it. Having an achievement that literally every player of the game is going to get is just pointless. What's the purpose of having an achievement if everybody is going to get it because it's impossible to not get?

Yeah, it's a silly pet peeve of mine, but I just never understood it. Like, what's the point?

Those ones are the best tbh. For me if you play through the game you get a reward.

 

[GastlyGibus]

Those ones are the best tbh. For me if you play through the game you get a reward.

I can understand the ones you get for progressing through the game. Those are fine. Like, if you complete a level or a section, an achievement for doing so is fine.

I'm complaining about the ones that are literally impossible to avoid. The ones you get for completing the tutorial, or for just turning on the game. If someone can't complete a video-game tutorial, especially in this day and age where video-games practically hold your hand the whole way through, then I don't really know what to say. xD

The tutorial is often-times the very first level, and it designed to be as easy as possible so you can learn how to play (Unless it's Dark Souls, in which case the game says "F*** you" right from the get go). Getting an achievement for that is just silly in my opinion.

 

[raychuu]

I'm also not a big fan of time limits, with few exceptions. I like to take my time when playing a game so if I see a countdown or timer then I'm probably not going to enjoy myself as much.

Now that you mention it, I hate time limits, including those of a different kind: when content is available for a limited amount of time only. This has been making playing MMOs very unpleasant to me lately, because it's simply impossible for me to keep up. Sometimes I might have lots of free time, but there's also periods where I don't, and having content taken away from you sucks. A lot. I loved Guild Wars 2 (and I still do like the game, as a matter of fact), but most of the content they have been putting in the game is there for 2 weeks and then is taken away, and that was putting too much pressure on me and making the experience unfun.

Another thing that's also been bothering me are limited-time DLCs, for example, content that you can only get by pre-ordering a game, or downloading during a set period of time (Pokémon events, I'm looking at you...). Even if it's just a costume, I bought the game, I want to have the whole package. I'm not a fan of DLCs in general, but at least make the content always obtainable.

 

[TerraTF]

Another thing that's also been bothering me are limited-time DLCs, for example, content that you can only get by pre-ordering a game, or downloading during a set period of time (Pokémon events, I'm looking at you...). Even if it's just a costume, I bought the game, I want to have the whole package. I'm not a fan of DLCs in general, but at least make the content always obtainable.

One of the reasons I like Gamestop is that they sometimes carry games that have exclusive Gamestop only content. One big one I can think of is Assassin's Creed Revelations.

 

[Resk]

Also to add another thing to my problems with games. Difficulty. When games are insanely hard to the point where they're no fun. For example, Dark Souls games. Those games don't appeal to me at all.

wait what? dark souls is not hard, it does take alot of patience though so i can see why people may dislike it

 

[TerraTF]

Also to add another thing to my problems with games. Difficulty. When games are insanely hard to the point where they're no fun. For example, Dark Souls games. Those games don't appeal to me at all.

wait what? dark souls is not hard, it does take alot of patience though so i can see why people may dislike it

It was made so that it would be unnecessarily hard, which is pointless.

 

[Resk]

Another thing that's also been bothering me are limited-time DLCs, for example, content that you can only get by pre-ordering a game, or downloading during a set period of time (Pokémon events, I'm looking at you...). Even if it's just a costume, I bought the game, I want to have the whole package. I'm not a fan of DLCs in general, but at least make the content always obtainable.

i hear u there pal, not living in us/japan is handicap when it comes to pokemon, i still dont get why they dont make a online distribution, or even more fun, u download a fight, if u beat a really good AI trainer you get the special pokemon

also about gw2, lets be honest, the game is less punishing than other MMO, i havent played in a while and my armor is still top tier lol (im not counting ascended since i aint gonna craft that lol=

It was made so that it would be unnecessarily hard, which is pointless.

not really, look at games right now, most of them are really easy, dark souls is one of those games that decided to target "hardcore gamers" so is refreshing to see a game that is not gonna hand you a victory, and i dont think is unnecessarily hard,
thats the whole point of the game, is hard because it knows that people want it to be hard
but i agree on something, is not newbies friendly, i heard they fixed that in dark souls 2 (not sure yet since i pre ordered it on pc and i dont want spoilers lol)

 

[Muur]

People sending you Facebook Game requests.

 

[Silverwynde]

Idiot AI or cheating AI. There is nothing worse than dealing an NPC "ally" that can only stand there and stupidly watch as you slowly get killed or an NPC enemy that wipes your entire team while you watch helplessly.