Video game pet peeves

[twilitfalchion]

The title, more or less. What are some aspects of games that annoy you or detract from your enjoyment of them?

For me, I'd say one thing that I've noticed more and more over time is how much I hate forced downtime in games.

I don't mind taking things at my own pace or engaging with optional side content if I choose to do so, but I can't stand when a game holds me back for no good reason. Fetch quests that break the game's pace (especially if I don't enjoy the gameplay anyway), extended stretches of filler dialogue, etc. It all gets on my nerves, and can even get me to drop a game if it goes on long enough.

Another one is time limits. The idea of being limited by some time restriction almost always stresses me out. If it's notably generous, then I can give it a pass, maybe. But more often than not, I'm unable to ignore it.

Also, enemies and bosses with bloated HP. This one's more of an issue with RPGs than anything, but I really dislike when an enemy or boss has a unnecessary amount of health to work through. I'd say it's even worse, honestly, when the boss is easy or simple. Kinda goes back to the idea of pointless downtime, actually.

 

[thePlinko]

Like you said, time limits are a thing that just need to stop existing.

In addition to enemies with unnecessarily large HP, I’d add that any enemy that heals itself, especially if there’s a healthbar. If there’s a specific amount of damage that the game tells me I need to deal, don’t just magically tell me I need to deal more. I think it’s one thing if that’s a major gimmick of the boss fight, like how the ender dragon in Minecraft requires you to destroy the crystals around it before you can kill it, but if a boss just happens to have the ability to heal itself then it’s no good.

Finally, any game that requires me to change the way I’m holding a controller. This mostly just applies to Wii and Wii U games, but my God it’s annoying.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

Overly linear (and obvious) tutorial segments in otherwise more open ended games.

I recently finished up Deathloop. That game has... quite a few issues, but one of the most prominent for me was the multi-hour long tutorial segment in the beginning. While the game was purported to be a rogue-like with emphasis on player approach to problems, it spends probably its first four hours being a dull, linear experience that feels like a less interesting version of Dishonored.

 

[Princess Niki]

Enemies that heal too much, I am fine with say the elite four in Pokemon doing it but not the way Master Mode in BOTW handles healing, especially the bosses.

 

[Dizzi]

Time limits and discrimination against disabilities like my deafness...

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

certain games that insist you connect to the internet at the start, so it just takes up time in the intro just to connect

hey jerk offs, why you don't you just connect me when I select a mode that REQUIRES me to connect, don't do it at the start of the game if most of the time, I'm playing offline anyway

 

[the8thark]

Grandmaster levels.

The one or two levels at the end of the game that are 5000x harder than the rest of the game combined. Mostly all they do is block people 100%ing the game without serious grinding or serious skill. Way more than enough skill to easily beat the rest of the game.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 infamously had the Grandmaster Galaxy but it's not the first game to do this. The first Galaxy game had the one hit challenge of the last stage which also felt very Grandmastery. Nintendo seems to really like doing this kind of thing. It is quite the toxic practice and it needs to go away. Gaming would be better without them.

Hard games are fine. Easy games are fine.
Gamers that are 99% one difficulty and the last 1% is 5000x harder are just all kinds of wrong.

 

[Chevywolf30]

The way every single Pokemon game starts off by taking an hour or more to explain every minute detail of how to play it. Yeah, I get it, gotta stay friendly for beginners, but some of us have done this before. Just let me explore the region already

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

The way every single Pokemon game starts off by taking an hour or more to explain every minute detail of how to play it. Yeah, I get it, gotta stay friendly for beginners, but some of us have done this before. Just let me explore the region already

Has the the series ever allowed you to skip the tutorial. Going through it for the umpteenth time would be ****ing tedious.

 

[Chevywolf30]

Has the the series ever allowed you to skip the tutorial. Going through it for the umpteenth time would be ****ing tedious.

Not as far as I know, and it's honestly a turnoff to me wanting to start a new Pokemon game sometimes. Sun was really bad about it, they had this whole school segment after like an hour of playtime already. Took over 2 hours of playtime just for the tutorial.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I've said for years that pokemon needs some kind of veteran mode so those familiar can just skip all the tutorials and get right to it

 

[thePlinko]

Has the the series ever allowed you to skip the tutorial. Going through it for the umpteenth time would be ****ing tedious.

I think SwSh allowed you to skip parts of it, and only because the people who defended the game acted like that made up for the mountain of negatives about the game.

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

Requiring an internet connection when you don't give a sh*t about the multiplayer and just want to play single player.

 

[grunder]

Games that come unfinished and get patch after patch the days to come, some take months, some take years to fix. I got the platinum trophy for Cyberpunk and Returnal. I enjoyed both games. Platinum trophies. I hate hunting for Platinum when it's the first thing to do when I buy a game. It takes away all the enjoyment and the decisions you make in rpgs are solely based on what the trophies need. You miss out on the whole adventure. So I just limited trophy hunting only for the games that I truly respect. Also it can become an addiction. So I give it to nintendo on this one for having the whole content there in BotW, day 1, (except of that weird bug that deleted all your pins from the map that got patched on day 2) If they bring some kind of achievement system later, I hope that it will be limited to things like completing the story or finding all koroks.

 

[Azure Sage]

Games that make your file dead when you finish the game. Example: Three Houses forcing you to start a new game or do ng+ in order to continue playing the game after you beat the story. I despise that with every fiber of my being. The only reason I should have to start over from the beginning is if I want to. Let me keep playing the goddamn game.