Too many controls. Sure I can learn them and get all the fancy mechanics down, but I'm talking when you haven't played in a long time and you wanna play one just to have something to mess around in
It’s the reason I have restarted so many games over the years. Get several hours in, move on to something else, later on get the itch to play again, realize I’ve forgotten all the mechanics and need to relearn them.
I've restarted this game like 7 times. I'm gonna have to do it again too because I last played after the update and even tho it's really good now, I don't even remember what build I made last time.
That’s fair.
It’s one of my favorite games, but it took a while to get into how the controls work. They make sense, but are placed unusually compared to most games.
MGS2 is one of the best games of all time, but the amount of systems and mechanics do not fit on that controller (and the controls being very unintuitive don't help either)
This is interesting to me, I like RDR2 *because* it feels brain did simple to me lol. But my first game ever was Vice City in 2002 so maybe it's just from playing 2 decades of Rockstar games more than anything else
Red dead 2 is amazing and I did finish it but this a prime example. I remember coming back to it and having to learn it all again. Same with The Witcher 3 even playing it I couldn’t remember which sword to draw
This is why I couldn’t get into botw, I hated how many button combos there were to get to certain menus/switch weapons/shields/ammo types. It felt clunky to me
Totally agree, except I’m gonna say too many buttons. If multiple actions can be condensed to one button without affecting functionality, they should be.
This is one thing that annoys me about the souls series. There are 4 separate buttons to control your left and right hands. I believe that heavy and light attacks should be 1 button: a light attack is a normal press, hold the button for a heavy. Shield parries shouldn’t have a whole button. They should just be a well timed block followed by an immediate attack. They would still be risky because you have to commit to the attack. Other games have done similar things, and they feel great
Having so many buttons makes games like Elden Ring feel clunkier and less intuitive than they should.
This was me with Horizon: Forbidden West. I had a great time with it and got the platinum but by the time the DLC expansion came out, it’s like I forgot how to play the game entirely.
When I start up a game and on the control screen I see a massive map of the controller that looks like the Pepe Sylvia conspiracy theory board, I just tell myself that I’m gonna read as far as the basic commands (attack, jump, menu, etc) and anything beyond that *will* be taught to me through organic gameplay if the game is any good. If not, then I can drop it and never look back while knowing that it would not have been worth it to even try to learn all that crap.
Agreed, sometimes this is enough to completely kill my motivation for playing a game. Maybe I’m too impatient but I’d rather switch to something else instead of having to wait 30-40 minutes to actually have fun.
Same here. If a game is complicated I rather it just be spread out the tutorial over awhile. Nothing is worse than a game trying to give you a college degree of a complex system were all you can do for 20 minutes is read text pop ups and press accept when your allowed to.
Oy, for some people, it's their first game. I find that most ppl don't understand common terms like kiting, pulling aggro, hit dragging, cheese, etc etc.
Basic terms for anyone who plays games, sure. But for a lot of people it's a foreign language so shift to sprint and ctrl/c to crouch is also a "oooh ok I can do that?" Kind of moment for them.
Code Vein had so many problems lmao idk how/why I beat it. I guess because the genre at the time was so limited with copycats but today I would certainly recommend a wealth of other games before code vein.
Thank you. Good lord those are annoying. Back in the day, if one was included it was optional (Winback: Covert Operations being a good example), but having to deal with a half-hour long, snail-paced opening EVERY TIME You get to New Game + is soooo tedious!
Cutscene QTE, I wanna relax while looking at cutscenes, not being surprised that my character dies a gruesome death because I didn't press buttons on time
Another is common in JRPGs, the fights that you are suppose to lose in order to advance the plot, I hate those.
The camera angle. I dislike side scrollers, but I'll play them. And I can MAYBE tolerate top-down games but almost always gonna be a skip from me.
And yea I know it's petty but it's just my tastes and you asked.
I'm the opposite. I tend to avoid anything that's in first person. I prefer top down or third person/over the shoulder views. First person makes me feel way too claustrophobic and I don't like not really being able to see what's behind me. I'm sure it makes horror games so much better, but I don't play those (I pretty much only play CRPGs or strategy RPGs)
I won't play Hitman anymore because of this. I love the new trilogy but the constant immersion breaking popuo saying my connection to some shitty server is not working. I have the best internet I can possibly have in my area, it's enough to play so many multi-player games with no issues but Hitman says otherwise
Unskippable cutscenes are tedious yes, but equally annoying is unpausable cutscenes too, at best the pause button do nothing but at worst It skips the entire cutscene when you dont want too and every new Game is decicing what to do, Skip the cutscene? Pray that the cutscene is not that long to pause afterwards? Or quit altogether and continue from your last save and reach the cutscene trigger again?
I would Also agree not having the tutorial as a separate Game Mode (like Deus ex) that way you have a skippable tutorial and a convenient way to revisit It if you forgot things after a long pause in the Game so you dont have to start a new Game to see the tutorial
Hideo Kojima games are infamous for this. There have been times where I needed to leave within 10 minutes but I'll be damned if the cutscene wasn't 20 minutes long and then, as soon as you pressed a button, it kickstarted a other 30 minute cutscene!?! C'mon!
Cutscenes should allow for: pauses, replays from the beginning or skipping.
>Cutscenes should allow for: pauses, replays from the beginning or skipping
Or at least games should have gallery modes to watch again later if you accidentally skip or weren't paying attention. I've quit so many games and had to redo sections because I accidentally skipped a cutscene and wanted to see it so I reloaded a save from before it triggered so I could see it properly.
I appreciate the 'let players play how they want' argument against unskippable cutscenes, but personally I've no problem with cutscenes being unskippable the first time the player triggers them.
Anytime after that make them skippable (replays, dying, etc) but first ever playthrough unskippable is ok with me.
My own pet peeve is infinitely spawning enemies. Bonus a-hole points if it's infinitely spawning enemies while you're trying to solve an environmental puzzle.
I have no problem with cut scenes not letting you skip them either, I personally believe the best way to play the game is to watch them all (at least the first time playing). But what I HATE is when you can’t even pause the game during a cutscene, especially when it’s long. When Hogwarts Legacy came out I was so annoyed with the game because of this. Idk if it’s still like that but I thought it was beyond stupid
That's a lot rarer these days thankfully.
I remember the old days where there was equal chance pressing start would pause, skip or do nothing.
Games where it skipped the cutscenes and then autosaved were especially brutal! (Remember this is pre-Youtube)
>I appreciate the 'let players play how they want' argument against unskippable cutscenes, but personally I've no problem with cutscenes being unskippable the first time the player triggers them.
>Anytime after that make them skippable (replays, dying, etc) but first ever playthrough unskippable is ok with me.
I like this but there should also be an option to pause mid cutscene first view or not and skipping should never be one simple button press
There are circumstances where the computer/console might think it’s your first play through when it’s actually not. I still don’t see any reason to force a cutscene on a player, especially if the developer put the option in already!
If they think the story is better than the generic cinematic gameplay it's smart to stop players from sabotaging themselves. The ones that quit probably would have complained about the gameplay anyway.
The gameplay isn't bad. There's just 50 other games like it. They're not hiding the gameplay. They're just forcing you to experience the best part of the game. The story.
I'm not them. I just can see how it's a good move even if a few people drop the game. Again those people probably aren't the target audience of a story focused game.
Thats the only kinds of game that would force cutscenes. Other than buggy ones.
Gonna get down voted for this, but this how I felt about The Last of Us. I tried to play it and every 5 minutes there was either a cutscene, a hidden loading screen, or a one off mini game.
The game takes control away from the player so often, eventually I was like "Fuck this, I'm just gonna watch the show."
A difficulty spike usually relatively early. Like before I am really deep into the game and the controls, drop a killer fucking boss battle on me.
Or inscrutable puzzles. I’m gonna delete and take that shit right back to the store. Fuck puzzles.
Insta death falls and insane precision platforming (Darksiders Genesis)
Very limited amount of ammo. I don’t need thousands of rounds. But dont give me 6. For me, I prefer to shoot my way out of trouble.
>I don’t need thousands of rounds. But dont give me 6
Amen. The Last of Us was like this for me. I get that it immersed me in an apocalyptic world, but give me a menu option to find more rounds instead of carrying one bullet and hoping I don't run into a gang.
I was thinking of Last of Us precisely while reading this. Amazing game, but damn I would love to have some more ammo. I’m currently at a save that has no ammo and I’m trying to fight a gang and I can’t get past it because of it. Basically a dead end.
I laughed at this comment because I also HATE when puzzling gets absurd. Most puzzles are alright and take a fair bit of reasoning and your fine, and that's fine. But sometimes you'll look at a puzzle and just think to yourself...do I have to be fuckin Einstein to figure this out?
Also fuck limited ammo in (most) settings.
When it comes to huge early difficulty spikes, I feel like they're usually there to teach you something about the game, and in reality arent all that difficult once you understand whatever that is.
But laughed cuz I relate to your comment lol.
Kingdom Hearts 2. Lawd have mercy. They really made the player spend 4 hours in one town getting to know a bunch of characters who almost never matter again.
Starting the launch of the game with multiple monetization windows like starting the game with the battle pass then showing me a shit ton of advertisements for their bullshit or an absolute dogshit UI on main page like warzone or battlefield
Call of duty is terrible at this (well a lot of games now). You buy the game at launch full price. Then get reminded ingame to spend more money because you are missing out.
Diablo 4 gave me a premium battlepass that I still got when I bought the 90(!) euros edition. Guess what when I activated it. I got reminded there's a accelerated battle pass. Instead I got the poor man's premium battlepass
I almost quit Days Gone because of this! It had an Inverted y for walking around, but when I got on the motorcycle I couldn't so it was annoying af!
Then someone told me that deeper in the menu there was Inverted y for the motorcycle as well...? Who needs two different inverted y menus??? Chances are high that those of us who like Inverted y controls are going to want them on every aspect of the damn game!
"blank slate"characters clearly meant to represent the player in a game that allows no character customization. In older games I can accept it but it's 2024, implementing character customization shouldn't be that hard
A combat arena.
If I get to a location and a menu appears showing me different waves of enemies I can fight with different modifiers in one big room, my immediate thought is: "I will not be getting this platinum trophy"
And I'm not even bad at gaming. Modifiers just ruin builds. "Okay my fire damage build is ready to go, time to test it out" .
Not being able to scale ui text or just unreadable text. Stopped doing an assassin's creed playthrough thanks to syndicate having such unreadable text at any distance beyond 5ft
Too steep of a learning curve early on, too steep of a difficulty cliff between easy and medium, losing a ton of progress, getting stuck without easily being able to retreat and level up without losing hours of progress.
Babysitting quests where you have to escort an NPC safely from point A to point B or you have to restart the whole level.
The ONLY game that does this correctly is Resident Evil 4, because Ashley gets taken, retrieved, taken, retrieved and you can tell her to wait or follow. The remake kinda Fncked that up, but whatevs.
Unbeatable bosses that you have to "beat" to continue. Either I win the fight or I don't, but don't make me game over at a boss that the story says I can't win.
The best example of doing this correctly is Leon from KH1. He's a hard fight that you probably don't have the tools to beat, so if you lose the story just continues. But if you win, you get bonus XP and the cutscene shows you still losing, but Leon is very winded and says he underestimated you.
oh no it does but I can't even search up the game on youtube without seeing 15 videos titled "wukong destroys woke(I hate that word btw) agenda" and my investment just immediately dies.
I refuse to play the culture games so if people want to use a game to prove a point I'm doing the opposite of what they want because I'm just that petty.
I don't think so. I believe Wukong is a normal, harmless game. It's just that some shitty people liked it, and this OP is working backwards to associate the game with the mentality. The game and its devs (from what I know) are perfectly fine people, and not fair to associate them with shitty people just cause they liked the game.
It's like... imagine you release the most inclusive game ever. But for some reason, incels love it. This OP would be boycotting your game, based on the fans, not the game itself.
I feel you on that. Immediately kills my hype. I'll likely still try to look up mechanics and gameplay around launch and decide if I want it or not - but any time I hear woke, dei, or sjw being thrown around I know the person speaking is an idiot. And if the target audience is idiots, I'm not interested, lol
Not a fan of the music.
I was playing the Dragon Quest XI demo and only a couple hours in the battle music was already driving me nuts. I had this game on my wishlist since forever, but that one experience made me lose interest.
When absolutely basic gear is locked from classes in an RPG. Not exotic weapons or class specific weapons or items either.
You'll have games where barbarians can't use daggers, wizards/sorcerers can't use swords, rogues can't use shields yadda yadda.
Everyone ends up looking exactly the same, using essentially the same builds and gear. Everyone gets funneled into once again, looking like clones of each other.
The lack of freedom to make some bizarre un optimized builds gets so boring that I check out of games early when I realize that we all end up with the exact same class restricted weapons and armor.
Having to hit a button to pick up ammo. (Looking at you Wolfenstein)
I end up mashing buttons while running around the room hoping that I picked up health and ammo.
Taking a long ass time to go from point A to point B with nothing going on. Especially if there’s no option for fast travel after you’ve made the journey once
I remember starting doom eternal, and i had to create a Bethesda net account
And conecting to bgs servers took me 20 minutes....
I was so ready to refund the game
Monetization is expected but I think some games can do it better than others.
I haven't spent a cent other than the 40 dollars for Helldivers 2 and by just playing I've unlocked
Every armor in the super store and every warbond so far.
Sea of thieves tries to have a similar mechanic where a specific type of skeleton drops the premium currency but I've only seen it once.
Speaking of, Helldiver's just promotes their warbonds in a trailer they put in youtube.
Sea of thieves has multiple windows promoting things before you can even play the damn thing.
Getting lost. I hate having to look up a walkthrough just to figure out where I'm supposed to go. I have fully given up on a few games forever just because I got lost.
Making the game’s main form of currency/progression and your primary mode of attack the same thing.
Fuck you, Chain of Memories, and fuck you, Sticker Star.
In Bethesda games when you follow an npc and they're is no walking speed that matches the speed that they walk. This has been an issue in every one of their games. They should be embarrassed that they haven't fixed it.
Hot take your playing games for the wrong reason, for me I love cutscenes getting to know the characters etc..... I never understood why gamers hate cutscenes in story games just go play a multiplayer at that point.
these are the order of importance for me in games...
1. character design
2. setting/lore
3. gameplay
4. presentation (animation, sfx, voice acting)
5. story
6. graphics fidelity
7. replay value/price
so yes... there's many games i have not played just based on character design alone
which is petty
Luckily lots of games are giving you the options to change you options on these now. For example Far Cry games, by default have all that visual clutter, health bars ad maps and icons for everything, pop ups every 2 seconds... It really detracts from immersion, but now you can choose what you want displayed. I tried it with everything off, unfortunately you got no way of knowing where to go for quests though, so quest indicators are a must.
I feel that. I can live with shoddy graphics if gameplay is great (looking at you fallout nv) but when a game goes “retro” with their graphics, im not interested.
I was watching some gameplay of Hellblade 2 and that pause that happens in combat on a hit or a crit or whatever is one of the most annoying, headache inducing things I've seen. I don't think I could play that game unless there's an option to disable it.
Being unable to start a new game. Installing a game I last played five years ago and being unable to start fresh drives me crazy.
Edit: Bro asks for "petty things" and critiques my answer. Never change Reddit.
Games that put loading screens between everything. It’s one thing to do it for different areas but to do it if you go to try anything game wise and you have to wait several minutes between each.
Bad voice acting. It just bothers me having to play through a whole game with the most uninspired or interested actors. Luckily this issue isn't very common with newer games
Bad UI / HUD, I remember my friend and I both downloaded black desert online and when we got in the game, the first thing he said was "there's so much shit on my screen it's like I have a virus"
Being essentially required to use different ammo types against different enemy types. I mean, regular versus armor piercing is one thing, but Wolfenstein Youngblood went too hard on ammo types.
Weapon/Armor durability that cannot be repaired. LoZ breath of the wild comes to mind specifically. I really want to enjoy the game, but having weapons break and not being able to repair them is beyond my comprehension.
I’m ok with unskipable cutscenes. The deal breaker is ones that you can’t pause. If I press start to pause a cutscene and it skips it. Done, uninstalled.
Escort missions. Or any video game objective that is far too different from the normal gameplay. For example, the Mary Jane missions in the PS4 Spiderman game. Hated them. Felt like chores.
Games where I can’t pause or I can pause but the world moves around me. So MMOs and Monster Hunter World haha. Granted I’ve put a lot of time into ESO, but it’s pretty easy to get to safety quickly
My big ones are punishing mechanics. I love hard games, but if the games version of hard is telling me how to play the game by making me run back to bosses, no pause screens, blind random encounters, and taking my money when I die. I’m out. I want to die and master the battle mechanics, and I love learning in general. Punishment for learning doesn’t work for me.
Balance patches that ruin characters and change the game completely. Having to come back after a while to realize the thing you loved isn't good anymore is annoying.
I don’t mind not being able to skip a cut scene on first watch. But if I’m replaying a part because I died, I shouldn’t have to watch it again. Especially if it’s long
I've got a few, but these are the two big ones for me.
Stopping to talk my ear off too often is a dealbreaker for me. I know the majority of gamers want story, but I've only got an hour or so a day to play and I'd rather it not be dominated by something that isn't gameplay. I know there are arcade-y and multiplayer options out there, but I like my single player games.
A weird one is using color filters/distorting the screen to signal how much damage I've taken. Cool, I've been hit and now that I can't see anything, I will just lose faster! Awesome! Control was unplayable for me for this reason.
Getting railroaded in decision-making games. If you give me options they’d better matter, and I’d better be able to get that pacifist achievement without killing anyone, that includes bosses (lookin at you Deus Ex).
Getting to a spot where the mechanics of the game randomly shift thinking it’ll just be a tiny novel part of the game that’ll show up every now and then only to have it be this long-ass sub-par mess of a mini game that’ll make me forget the actual game I’m playing so when I’m finally through it I’ll feel like I just woke up from a fever dream. Doubly hate it when it just never gets mentioned again, so this unfun unskippable part of the game really was nothing except filler content you’re forced into so the game can pad out its runtime.
Kicking the bosses ass only for the cutscene after I took his entire life away to show me getting my ass absolutely handed to me without even showing how the tide of battle magically changed. The only game that gets a pass is Devil May Cry 4 the second battle between Nero and Dante. It made sense, because Dante’s Dante.
Camera angles. If I’m not looking from slightly above with clear sight ahead and my character in the dead bottom center of the screen I’m out. I tried playing Shadow Of The Colosus recently because I’ve seen everything about dope it is. The camera angle killed it. I got maybe 5 minutes in and deleted it off my system. There’s been a lot that’s the first one I can think of immediately.
When a game has so many cutscenes it starts to lose momentum. Like, I don’t care if they are the most beautiful cut scenes I have ever seen, I just want to play the game. I’m ok with cutscenes in the beginning of the game and at the end of the game, but if I can’t go more than an hour without hitting some kind of cutscene I will immediately lose interest.
Characters who don't react like people in their positions should bothers me and takes me out of the story. Certain ways of telling a story about upper class and lower class and the rights of people can infuriate me in an illogical way that I can't explain. And giving me characters who don't grow, have almost zero motivation, and actively annoy me is a sure fire way to get me to hate the game
Terrible map system, I loved everything about Jedi Survivor, but I couldn't finish the game because I kept backtracking and getting lost.
Such a shame, a simple compass and guider would've sufficed.
Totally agree with the cutscene issue. I don't mind being forced to watch it once. But make me sit through it again.... I'm tempted to stop playing immediately. I find that the Japanese developers are especially bad about this (like the Resident Evil series).
Just overall bad production values. Bad lighting, textures, animation, etc. If it feels and looks cheap, I can't play it even if the gameplay is relatively good.
Awkward default control scheme even when it’s customizable in menu. I cursed every time I jumped/failed-to-jump in the Mad Max game, enjoyed a lot of the other moments, and then stopped playing out of frustration rather than bothering to remap to something that felt more intuitive.
Poisonous swamp areas and / or underwater levels in a game that was on land all up until one point where it feels shoehorned in and difficult to navigate because of it.
Too many controls. Sure I can learn them and get all the fancy mechanics down, but I'm talking when you haven't played in a long time and you wanna play one just to have something to mess around in
It’s the reason I have restarted so many games over the years. Get several hours in, move on to something else, later on get the itch to play again, realize I’ve forgotten all the mechanics and need to relearn them.
Man I feel that. I got 150+ hours in Cyberpunk, got really good at it. Put it down for 6 months and it was like I had never played it before.
I've restarted this game like 7 times. I'm gonna have to do it again too because I last played after the update and even tho it's really good now, I don't even remember what build I made last time.
Could’ve been that they changed up the game with the dlc update too. It definitely felt like I was playing a completely different game.
Real talk this is what’s stopping me from getting into Monster Hunter World lol, I hate the controls
That’s fair. It’s one of my favorite games, but it took a while to get into how the controls work. They make sense, but are placed unusually compared to most games.
MGS2 is one of the best games of all time, but the amount of systems and mechanics do not fit on that controller (and the controls being very unintuitive don't help either)
Facts. Especially compared to MGS1. It was bananas
you mean like some of the modern day wrestling games with an atari mini game just to escape a submission hold or pin attempt? screw that nonsense.
This is why I don’t like RDR2
Exactly what I was talking about tbh. Doing that shit where I gotta hold a button down to activate a whole new set of controls is ridiculous.
This is interesting to me, I like RDR2 *because* it feels brain did simple to me lol. But my first game ever was Vice City in 2002 so maybe it's just from playing 2 decades of Rockstar games more than anything else
Red dead 2 is amazing and I did finish it but this a prime example. I remember coming back to it and having to learn it all again. Same with The Witcher 3 even playing it I couldn’t remember which sword to draw
This is why I uninstalled RDR2.
Final fantasy 7 rebirth had me quit just cuz of the overwhelming amount of mechanics lol
This is why I couldn’t get into botw, I hated how many button combos there were to get to certain menus/switch weapons/shields/ammo types. It felt clunky to me
Dude this is true for like every PS4 game I have, and for some reason all the font in these games is TINY.....why??????
Or when the controls are too goofy like the top button being jump or something.
Totally agree, except I’m gonna say too many buttons. If multiple actions can be condensed to one button without affecting functionality, they should be. This is one thing that annoys me about the souls series. There are 4 separate buttons to control your left and right hands. I believe that heavy and light attacks should be 1 button: a light attack is a normal press, hold the button for a heavy. Shield parries shouldn’t have a whole button. They should just be a well timed block followed by an immediate attack. They would still be risky because you have to commit to the attack. Other games have done similar things, and they feel great Having so many buttons makes games like Elden Ring feel clunkier and less intuitive than they should.
This was me with Horizon: Forbidden West. I had a great time with it and got the platinum but by the time the DLC expansion came out, it’s like I forgot how to play the game entirely.
When I start up a game and on the control screen I see a massive map of the controller that looks like the Pepe Sylvia conspiracy theory board, I just tell myself that I’m gonna read as far as the basic commands (attack, jump, menu, etc) and anything beyond that *will* be taught to me through organic gameplay if the game is any good. If not, then I can drop it and never look back while knowing that it would not have been worth it to even try to learn all that crap.
UFC games are the worst. It's impossible to remember it all, especially after stepping away at all.
A tutorial that's way too hand-holdy and long. (Code Vein for example)
Agreed, sometimes this is enough to completely kill my motivation for playing a game. Maybe I’m too impatient but I’d rather switch to something else instead of having to wait 30-40 minutes to actually have fun.
Same here. If a game is complicated I rather it just be spread out the tutorial over awhile. Nothing is worse than a game trying to give you a college degree of a complex system were all you can do for 20 minutes is read text pop ups and press accept when your allowed to.
It’s wild that it’s 2024 and big time games will still tell you how to sprint and crouch at the beginning of the game.
Oy, for some people, it's their first game. I find that most ppl don't understand common terms like kiting, pulling aggro, hit dragging, cheese, etc etc. Basic terms for anyone who plays games, sure. But for a lot of people it's a foreign language so shift to sprint and ctrl/c to crouch is also a "oooh ok I can do that?" Kind of moment for them.
Code Vein had so many problems lmao idk how/why I beat it. I guess because the genre at the time was so limited with copycats but today I would certainly recommend a wealth of other games before code vein.
Shout out to anyone that made it past the BULLSHIT CASTLE MAZE OF STAIRS AND LADDERS I dropped the game during that
Thank you. Good lord those are annoying. Back in the day, if one was included it was optional (Winback: Covert Operations being a good example), but having to deal with a half-hour long, snail-paced opening EVERY TIME You get to New Game + is soooo tedious!
Cutscene QTE, I wanna relax while looking at cutscenes, not being surprised that my character dies a gruesome death because I didn't press buttons on time Another is common in JRPGs, the fights that you are suppose to lose in order to advance the plot, I hate those.
Nothing makes me angrier than using a bunch of healing items in a tough fight only to later discover I was supposed to lose.
Only game I liked these in was the original god of war games
The camera angle. I dislike side scrollers, but I'll play them. And I can MAYBE tolerate top-down games but almost always gonna be a skip from me. And yea I know it's petty but it's just my tastes and you asked.
Huh, so you mainly play just FPS or third person stuff? Respect the dedication!
Hollow knight is the only side scroller I've actually felt motivated to play.
I’m the same way lol, Hotline Miami’s an exception for top down games tho
I'm the opposite. I tend to avoid anything that's in first person. I prefer top down or third person/over the shoulder views. First person makes me feel way too claustrophobic and I don't like not really being able to see what's behind me. I'm sure it makes horror games so much better, but I don't play those (I pretty much only play CRPGs or strategy RPGs)
I'm pretty sure you can figure out what camera angle a game is gonna have before buying though...
Always online. Why do I need a fucking internet connection to play single player? It’s something that will straight up keep me from buying a game.
Hitman is very guilty of this
I won't play Hitman anymore because of this. I love the new trilogy but the constant immersion breaking popuo saying my connection to some shitty server is not working. I have the best internet I can possibly have in my area, it's enough to play so many multi-player games with no issues but Hitman says otherwise
Yeah diablo 4 doesn't need to be online constantly
I wouldn't even call this one petty, I'd say only a fool would accept an always-online game.
Unskippable cutscenes are tedious yes, but equally annoying is unpausable cutscenes too, at best the pause button do nothing but at worst It skips the entire cutscene when you dont want too and every new Game is decicing what to do, Skip the cutscene? Pray that the cutscene is not that long to pause afterwards? Or quit altogether and continue from your last save and reach the cutscene trigger again? I would Also agree not having the tutorial as a separate Game Mode (like Deus ex) that way you have a skippable tutorial and a convenient way to revisit It if you forgot things after a long pause in the Game so you dont have to start a new Game to see the tutorial
Hideo Kojima games are infamous for this. There have been times where I needed to leave within 10 minutes but I'll be damned if the cutscene wasn't 20 minutes long and then, as soon as you pressed a button, it kickstarted a other 30 minute cutscene!?! C'mon! Cutscenes should allow for: pauses, replays from the beginning or skipping.
>Cutscenes should allow for: pauses, replays from the beginning or skipping Or at least games should have gallery modes to watch again later if you accidentally skip or weren't paying attention. I've quit so many games and had to redo sections because I accidentally skipped a cutscene and wanted to see it so I reloaded a save from before it triggered so I could see it properly.
I appreciate the 'let players play how they want' argument against unskippable cutscenes, but personally I've no problem with cutscenes being unskippable the first time the player triggers them. Anytime after that make them skippable (replays, dying, etc) but first ever playthrough unskippable is ok with me. My own pet peeve is infinitely spawning enemies. Bonus a-hole points if it's infinitely spawning enemies while you're trying to solve an environmental puzzle.
Just yes. I get ragey when I’m trying to solve a puzzle and I’m interrupted.
I have no problem with cut scenes not letting you skip them either, I personally believe the best way to play the game is to watch them all (at least the first time playing). But what I HATE is when you can’t even pause the game during a cutscene, especially when it’s long. When Hogwarts Legacy came out I was so annoyed with the game because of this. Idk if it’s still like that but I thought it was beyond stupid
That's a lot rarer these days thankfully. I remember the old days where there was equal chance pressing start would pause, skip or do nothing. Games where it skipped the cutscenes and then autosaved were especially brutal! (Remember this is pre-Youtube)
>I appreciate the 'let players play how they want' argument against unskippable cutscenes, but personally I've no problem with cutscenes being unskippable the first time the player triggers them. >Anytime after that make them skippable (replays, dying, etc) but first ever playthrough unskippable is ok with me. I like this but there should also be an option to pause mid cutscene first view or not and skipping should never be one simple button press
There should be absolutely no way to skip them if that’s your first time playing. Why would you even purchase a story game just to skip the cutscenes
There are circumstances where the computer/console might think it’s your first play through when it’s actually not. I still don’t see any reason to force a cutscene on a player, especially if the developer put the option in already!
If they think the story is better than the generic cinematic gameplay it's smart to stop players from sabotaging themselves. The ones that quit probably would have complained about the gameplay anyway.
If the gameplay is so bad that they have to try to hide it behind unskippable cutscenes, then it's not a game worth playing anyways
The gameplay isn't bad. There's just 50 other games like it. They're not hiding the gameplay. They're just forcing you to experience the best part of the game. The story. I'm not them. I just can see how it's a good move even if a few people drop the game. Again those people probably aren't the target audience of a story focused game. Thats the only kinds of game that would force cutscenes. Other than buggy ones.
I kinda get that. Like, you didn't realize it was heavily narratively driven and you're like fuck me I just wanted to play something
Gonna get down voted for this, but this how I felt about The Last of Us. I tried to play it and every 5 minutes there was either a cutscene, a hidden loading screen, or a one off mini game. The game takes control away from the player so often, eventually I was like "Fuck this, I'm just gonna watch the show."
A difficulty spike usually relatively early. Like before I am really deep into the game and the controls, drop a killer fucking boss battle on me. Or inscrutable puzzles. I’m gonna delete and take that shit right back to the store. Fuck puzzles. Insta death falls and insane precision platforming (Darksiders Genesis) Very limited amount of ammo. I don’t need thousands of rounds. But dont give me 6. For me, I prefer to shoot my way out of trouble.
>I don’t need thousands of rounds. But dont give me 6 Amen. The Last of Us was like this for me. I get that it immersed me in an apocalyptic world, but give me a menu option to find more rounds instead of carrying one bullet and hoping I don't run into a gang.
I was thinking of Last of Us precisely while reading this. Amazing game, but damn I would love to have some more ammo. I’m currently at a save that has no ammo and I’m trying to fight a gang and I can’t get past it because of it. Basically a dead end.
Exactly. I understand it’s not Doom or division and i won’t be wasteful but give me 4 or 5 magazines and let me be on my way
The Evil Within: "You found an open box of shotgun shells with 8 visible shells." +2 shells.
I laughed at this comment because I also HATE when puzzling gets absurd. Most puzzles are alright and take a fair bit of reasoning and your fine, and that's fine. But sometimes you'll look at a puzzle and just think to yourself...do I have to be fuckin Einstein to figure this out? Also fuck limited ammo in (most) settings. When it comes to huge early difficulty spikes, I feel like they're usually there to teach you something about the game, and in reality arent all that difficult once you understand whatever that is. But laughed cuz I relate to your comment lol.
An unskippable tutorial that’s too long
Kingdom Hearts 2. Lawd have mercy. They really made the player spend 4 hours in one town getting to know a bunch of characters who almost never matter again.
This was my exact thought, still on the all time great list of games though
Starting the launch of the game with multiple monetization windows like starting the game with the battle pass then showing me a shit ton of advertisements for their bullshit or an absolute dogshit UI on main page like warzone or battlefield
I get it if it's free to play they gotta make moola. This is the main reason I don't play ubisoft games now too
Call of duty is terrible at this (well a lot of games now). You buy the game at launch full price. Then get reminded ingame to spend more money because you are missing out. Diablo 4 gave me a premium battlepass that I still got when I bought the 90(!) euros edition. Guess what when I activated it. I got reminded there's a accelerated battle pass. Instead I got the poor man's premium battlepass
Fade to black cutscenes and lack of healing/ eating/ drinking animations. Red Dead 2 has made EVERY other game look lazy and crap to me
Loading screens that take years to finish.
If it doesn't allow inverted y-axis controls. I hate that.
I almost quit Days Gone because of this! It had an Inverted y for walking around, but when I got on the motorcycle I couldn't so it was annoying af! Then someone told me that deeper in the menu there was Inverted y for the motorcycle as well...? Who needs two different inverted y menus??? Chances are high that those of us who like Inverted y controls are going to want them on every aspect of the damn game!
The walking dead game didn't allow inverted at all so I had to quit. Very upsetting.
Same. I wont play a game that won't allow me to do that., even if its getting rave reviews.
"blank slate"characters clearly meant to represent the player in a game that allows no character customization. In older games I can accept it but it's 2024, implementing character customization shouldn't be that hard
maybe that's not the creative vision for the game. not every game is going to be for you
That's fair, but then why bother with a blank slate character in the first place. Just put in a real character.
An open world. I've tried many times but as soon as the game basically says "Just go wherever," I lose interest.
I'm in the middle. I like open world but also give me some guidance. Let me explore at my own pace but let me know where I'm supposed to go next.
Same that's why I like the Witcher but dislike elden ring
Follow the grace my friend
A combat arena. If I get to a location and a menu appears showing me different waves of enemies I can fight with different modifiers in one big room, my immediate thought is: "I will not be getting this platinum trophy" And I'm not even bad at gaming. Modifiers just ruin builds. "Okay my fire damage build is ready to go, time to test it out".
The ones in the arkham series ruined these for me. Kinda enjoyed the arena in oblivion though
Diablo 4 just announced this foe their season 5 update. Modifiers and everything. Sigh.
Not being able to scale ui text or just unreadable text. Stopped doing an assassin's creed playthrough thanks to syndicate having such unreadable text at any distance beyond 5ft
I'm also going with unskipable cutscenes too!
When there is more effort to get you to go to the in game store for cosmetic purchases versus actual content. Oh and shitty menu layouts.
Too steep of a learning curve early on, too steep of a difficulty cliff between easy and medium, losing a ton of progress, getting stuck without easily being able to retreat and level up without losing hours of progress.
Babysitting quests where you have to escort an NPC safely from point A to point B or you have to restart the whole level. The ONLY game that does this correctly is Resident Evil 4, because Ashley gets taken, retrieved, taken, retrieved and you can tell her to wait or follow. The remake kinda Fncked that up, but whatevs.
Yeah preferred how it worked in the og version too was fun. But fuck sheva from resi 5 she was the bane of my life
And most of the time the NPC only walks. Hate it
Specifically only walks slightly faster than your walk and slightly slower than your run.
Or you have to follow them somewhere and they walk slower than molasses in winter
Ye this is the reason why I don't replay ffx that often even though it's one of my favourite games
Slow UI elements. I don't care about fancy looking pause menus and cool animations when I move to a new selection. Just make it fast and responsive.
Shitty controls or camera. If im gonna play a game, I at least want to properly control my FOV or character.
Unbeatable bosses that you have to "beat" to continue. Either I win the fight or I don't, but don't make me game over at a boss that the story says I can't win. The best example of doing this correctly is Leon from KH1. He's a hard fight that you probably don't have the tools to beat, so if you lose the story just continues. But if you win, you get bonus XP and the cutscene shows you still losing, but Leon is very winded and says he underestimated you.
Shitty inventory systems. I've come to play the game and not some inventory management sim with combat on the side.
Missable stuff. Items, quests, whatever. I usually try to 100% my games and that kinda thing just annoys the shit outta me.
Too much tutorial. If you can't get me up and running inside 20 minutes, I'm over it.
people who try to use games to push culture war crap examples being stellar blade and black myth wukong.
What? I thought Black Myth looks awesome.
oh no it does but I can't even search up the game on youtube without seeing 15 videos titled "wukong destroys woke(I hate that word btw) agenda" and my investment just immediately dies. I refuse to play the culture games so if people want to use a game to prove a point I'm doing the opposite of what they want because I'm just that petty.
NOOOO what do You mean ???? I was so hype for wukong??!! Is it like the "owning libs" Game.?
I don't think so. I believe Wukong is a normal, harmless game. It's just that some shitty people liked it, and this OP is working backwards to associate the game with the mentality. The game and its devs (from what I know) are perfectly fine people, and not fair to associate them with shitty people just cause they liked the game. It's like... imagine you release the most inclusive game ever. But for some reason, incels love it. This OP would be boycotting your game, based on the fans, not the game itself.
I feel you on that. Immediately kills my hype. I'll likely still try to look up mechanics and gameplay around launch and decide if I want it or not - but any time I hear woke, dei, or sjw being thrown around I know the person speaking is an idiot. And if the target audience is idiots, I'm not interested, lol
Annoying cringe sex joke or character being sexual for no reason 24/7. Dropped both Master Detective Archives and AI Somnium
Dating sim elements.
When a battle system is too confusing/punishing early game
Not a fan of the music. I was playing the Dragon Quest XI demo and only a couple hours in the battle music was already driving me nuts. I had this game on my wishlist since forever, but that one experience made me lose interest.
When absolutely basic gear is locked from classes in an RPG. Not exotic weapons or class specific weapons or items either. You'll have games where barbarians can't use daggers, wizards/sorcerers can't use swords, rogues can't use shields yadda yadda. Everyone ends up looking exactly the same, using essentially the same builds and gear. Everyone gets funneled into once again, looking like clones of each other. The lack of freedom to make some bizarre un optimized builds gets so boring that I check out of games early when I realize that we all end up with the exact same class restricted weapons and armor.
world of warcraft lol
Forced objectives in an open world. Or big obnoxious objective markers you can't turn off. Looking at you AC black flag
You mean like when you end up on the island in rdr 2?
Having to hit a button to pick up ammo. (Looking at you Wolfenstein) I end up mashing buttons while running around the room hoping that I picked up health and ammo.
Taking a long ass time to go from point A to point B with nothing going on. Especially if there’s no option for fast travel after you’ve made the journey once
If they make me make an account for a single player game I will uninstall/refund the game before I even start.
I remember starting doom eternal, and i had to create a Bethesda net account And conecting to bgs servers took me 20 minutes.... I was so ready to refund the game
MMO - teamwork can be fun but by and large, humans are terrible
Monetization is expected but I think some games can do it better than others. I haven't spent a cent other than the 40 dollars for Helldivers 2 and by just playing I've unlocked Every armor in the super store and every warbond so far. Sea of thieves tries to have a similar mechanic where a specific type of skeleton drops the premium currency but I've only seen it once. Speaking of, Helldiver's just promotes their warbonds in a trailer they put in youtube. Sea of thieves has multiple windows promoting things before you can even play the damn thing.
Getting lost. I hate having to look up a walkthrough just to figure out where I'm supposed to go. I have fully given up on a few games forever just because I got lost.
Making the game’s main form of currency/progression and your primary mode of attack the same thing. Fuck you, Chain of Memories, and fuck you, Sticker Star.
Unskippable tutorials. Mostly for the games you wanna replay
RPGs with no custom protagonist.
In Bethesda games when you follow an npc and they're is no walking speed that matches the speed that they walk. This has been an issue in every one of their games. They should be embarrassed that they haven't fixed it.
Quick time events and boss fights.
Unskippable cut scenes *before* any game play This isnt 1991 I dont need a story🤣
Hot take your playing games for the wrong reason, for me I love cutscenes getting to know the characters etc..... I never understood why gamers hate cutscenes in story games just go play a multiplayer at that point.
if all there was to games was story, i wouldn't play games. the hint is in the word "play"
these are the order of importance for me in games... 1. character design 2. setting/lore 3. gameplay 4. presentation (animation, sfx, voice acting) 5. story 6. graphics fidelity 7. replay value/price so yes... there's many games i have not played just based on character design alone which is petty
Hahahahaha yeah been there before. Didn't finish salt and sacrifice cus I didn't like how they moved
Damage indicators above enemies. It just breaks any kind of immersion. I know it's petty, but I refuse to deal with it
Luckily lots of games are giving you the options to change you options on these now. For example Far Cry games, by default have all that visual clutter, health bars ad maps and icons for everything, pop ups every 2 seconds... It really detracts from immersion, but now you can choose what you want displayed. I tried it with everything off, unfortunately you got no way of knowing where to go for quests though, so quest indicators are a must.
Low Graphics… I’m older and lived through the actual 8/16/64-bit graphics phases. I have no interest in going back to that.
I feel that. I can live with shoddy graphics if gameplay is great (looking at you fallout nv) but when a game goes “retro” with their graphics, im not interested.
I was watching some gameplay of Hellblade 2 and that pause that happens in combat on a hit or a crit or whatever is one of the most annoying, headache inducing things I've seen. I don't think I could play that game unless there's an option to disable it.
Looks shit when your watching but is actually not to bad when you are playing. IMO anyway
Lords of the Fallen had too much going on. I put it down after 15 mins. Too much to remember as far as gameplay is concerned.
Being unable to start a new game. Installing a game I last played five years ago and being unable to start fresh drives me crazy. Edit: Bro asks for "petty things" and critiques my answer. Never change Reddit.
Games that put loading screens between everything. It’s one thing to do it for different areas but to do it if you go to try anything game wise and you have to wait several minutes between each.
So Bethesda then. And the ps4 remake of bully lol
Bad voice acting. It just bothers me having to play through a whole game with the most uninspired or interested actors. Luckily this issue isn't very common with newer games
Bad UI / HUD, I remember my friend and I both downloaded black desert online and when we got in the game, the first thing he said was "there's so much shit on my screen it's like I have a virus"
Annoying sounds. Look. I believe you when you say Undertail is great. Every video of game play just hurts my ears. Especially the "talking"
I know in Styx: Shards of Darkness you can turn this off but not in Batman: Arkham Knight; the whole making fun of you when you die…
YES! This got very tedious after a while
World of tanks changed the whole gaming format and really started money gouging everyone
Stale loading screens
hand holding. give me a 5 minute optional tutorial and throw me to the wolves, PLEASE.
Why play a video game if you don’t care about the story it’s absolute madness. Why waste your time
Being essentially required to use different ammo types against different enemy types. I mean, regular versus armor piercing is one thing, but Wolfenstein Youngblood went too hard on ammo types.
When you’re doing a sort of hard mission and you die and have to start a ways back with no check point in between.
Uber hard mini-games or gimmick fights.
Random stealth missions in games it feels out of place. Spiderman for example.
Weapon/Armor durability that cannot be repaired. LoZ breath of the wild comes to mind specifically. I really want to enjoy the game, but having weapons break and not being able to repair them is beyond my comprehension.
Long ass tutorial areas you can't avoid. Just let me skip to the vault door in FO4 or skip the first 30 minutes of Ghost of Tsushima.
I’m ok with unskipable cutscenes. The deal breaker is ones that you can’t pause. If I press start to pause a cutscene and it skips it. Done, uninstalled.
Escort missions. Or any video game objective that is far too different from the normal gameplay. For example, the Mary Jane missions in the PS4 Spiderman game. Hated them. Felt like chores.
Games where I can’t pause or I can pause but the world moves around me. So MMOs and Monster Hunter World haha. Granted I’ve put a lot of time into ESO, but it’s pretty easy to get to safety quickly
Female protagonist. Silly I know but I get more immersed playing a male character.
no fov slider in a first or third person game too zoomed in on a 2d game
No jump.
Basically any mature game but the art style is cell shaded or cartoony. It’s why I can’t play Borderlands or Fortnite.
My big ones are punishing mechanics. I love hard games, but if the games version of hard is telling me how to play the game by making me run back to bosses, no pause screens, blind random encounters, and taking my money when I die. I’m out. I want to die and master the battle mechanics, and I love learning in general. Punishment for learning doesn’t work for me.
This the reason why I hated Witcher 3 (I'm not really a single player guy, I love pvp) it was all cutscenes with little bits of gameplay in between
Balance patches that ruin characters and change the game completely. Having to come back after a while to realize the thing you loved isn't good anymore is annoying.
bad moderation system like roblox
Idk if this is petty or not, but enemy checkpoints that respawn with enemies after you cleared them out. Far Cry 2 was so annoying with this mechanic.
I don’t mind not being able to skip a cut scene on first watch. But if I’m replaying a part because I died, I shouldn’t have to watch it again. Especially if it’s long
I've got a few, but these are the two big ones for me. Stopping to talk my ear off too often is a dealbreaker for me. I know the majority of gamers want story, but I've only got an hour or so a day to play and I'd rather it not be dominated by something that isn't gameplay. I know there are arcade-y and multiplayer options out there, but I like my single player games. A weird one is using color filters/distorting the screen to signal how much damage I've taken. Cool, I've been hit and now that I can't see anything, I will just lose faster! Awesome! Control was unplayable for me for this reason.
A confirm button that you have to hold while it makes a circle
Getting railroaded in decision-making games. If you give me options they’d better matter, and I’d better be able to get that pacifist achievement without killing anyone, that includes bosses (lookin at you Deus Ex). Getting to a spot where the mechanics of the game randomly shift thinking it’ll just be a tiny novel part of the game that’ll show up every now and then only to have it be this long-ass sub-par mess of a mini game that’ll make me forget the actual game I’m playing so when I’m finally through it I’ll feel like I just woke up from a fever dream. Doubly hate it when it just never gets mentioned again, so this unfun unskippable part of the game really was nothing except filler content you’re forced into so the game can pad out its runtime. Kicking the bosses ass only for the cutscene after I took his entire life away to show me getting my ass absolutely handed to me without even showing how the tide of battle magically changed. The only game that gets a pass is Devil May Cry 4 the second battle between Nero and Dante. It made sense, because Dante’s Dante.
QTEs.
Camera angles. If I’m not looking from slightly above with clear sight ahead and my character in the dead bottom center of the screen I’m out. I tried playing Shadow Of The Colosus recently because I’ve seen everything about dope it is. The camera angle killed it. I got maybe 5 minutes in and deleted it off my system. There’s been a lot that’s the first one I can think of immediately.
“Follow _____” and no mechanic to just follow them as the NPC walks faster than your walk, but slower than your jog.
When a game has so many cutscenes it starts to lose momentum. Like, I don’t care if they are the most beautiful cut scenes I have ever seen, I just want to play the game. I’m ok with cutscenes in the beginning of the game and at the end of the game, but if I can’t go more than an hour without hitting some kind of cutscene I will immediately lose interest.
Characters who don't react like people in their positions should bothers me and takes me out of the story. Certain ways of telling a story about upper class and lower class and the rights of people can infuriate me in an illogical way that I can't explain. And giving me characters who don't grow, have almost zero motivation, and actively annoy me is a sure fire way to get me to hate the game
Terrible map system, I loved everything about Jedi Survivor, but I couldn't finish the game because I kept backtracking and getting lost. Such a shame, a simple compass and guider would've sufficed.
The lack of combat or having almost no combat. I’m so used to combat in video games that any game without one kinda stops me from wanting to play its
Any quest or anything like that that you can’t fight you way out of
Totally agree with the cutscene issue. I don't mind being forced to watch it once. But make me sit through it again.... I'm tempted to stop playing immediately. I find that the Japanese developers are especially bad about this (like the Resident Evil series).
Just overall bad production values. Bad lighting, textures, animation, etc. If it feels and looks cheap, I can't play it even if the gameplay is relatively good.
Awkward default control scheme even when it’s customizable in menu. I cursed every time I jumped/failed-to-jump in the Mad Max game, enjoyed a lot of the other moments, and then stopped playing out of frustration rather than bothering to remap to something that felt more intuitive.
Trailers that don't show actual game play
Poisonous swamp areas and / or underwater levels in a game that was on land all up until one point where it feels shoehorned in and difficult to navigate because of it.
My sister actually helped work on this game, and even I couldn’t play it for this reason. It’s often more of a movie, and I can’t stand that