Your gaming pet hates.

[Jason]

This one came to me in the middle of a lengthy session of Indigo Prophecy. I'm absolutely LOVING the game, probably got to be up there with the best £3 I've ever spent, but there's a flaw. And it's a biggie.

It's not the reaction-based quick-time sequences (although the lengthier ones can get a little frustrating, particularly if you don't have many lives - I consider myself to have reasonably quick reactions (roughly 0.25/sec last time I checked), and some of those I struggled with.

It's the damn unnecessary STEALTH MISSIONS!

WHY?! Why is there any need to ruin the flow and atmosphere of a fantastically well-paced and engaging story with a couple of redundant asides where you grapple with the awkward camera system whilst trying to manoeuvre your younger self around a guarded military base stacked to the brim with guards whose senses can leap from being utterly redundant to the borderline supernatural depending on little more than how the game's feeling?!
It completely kills the flow of the storyline for me, not to mention is supremely frustrating due to the simple fact the game engine isn't built for it. I've played and cleared all the Metal Gear Solid games, and almost all of the Splinter Cell games, so I know it's not that I just can't do stealth...

But the problem is, it's not just Indigo Prophecy that does it. Almost every single run-of-the-mill FPS game has a 'stealth' mission nowadays, not to mention the obligatory 'escape from jail and fight your way through 400 heavily armed crack troops armed with this broken toothpick' level.
They're not cool, they're not interesting, they're certainly not original, so why do developers keep thinking they can get away with churning out these half-assed cliches?

Gnyargh. Rant over. Discuss your pet hates in games/gaming, or just laugh at my blood pressure.

[Konrad]

Jesus I got stuck on the same mission. It made me ragequit last night, hard. The part where you have to use a truck to avoid the guards is ridiculous, I cant find a way past it.

[Jason]

Ahhhh, that's a bit misleading, that bit. It got me for a good half hour as well.

*spoiler alert - how to get past the guard to get to hangar 4B in the first flashback*
I thought you had to sneak past the guard at the gate - you don't. If you cross the road just to the left of where you jumped the fence, head parallel to the fence (use the trench to avoid being spotted) and up along the fence towards the red X on the map, there's a hole in the fence behind some boxes. That's the bit where the truck helps. I even made you a little map, look. (It's entirely from memory, so might be a little bit out) http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3489/maptx.jpg

[Konrad]

Yah, I'm got to the point where I go through the hole in the fence and it appears that the only way to get to the X is straight between the two hangars, that's the part that gets me, crossing the driveway. I thought I had to use the truck to SOMEHOW sneak between the two buildings but I dunno, they always see me somehow.

[Jason]

Yeah, it's awkward, but somehow I managed that bit first time. I just got behind the box that was closest to the guard, waited for the truck to get between me and him, then followed it till I was just a fraction past halfway between the two buildings and then let it pass and walked straight in from there - it felt odd, as I was right out in the open, but he didn't spot me, so I guess it worked.

[Astonix]

Any game which has a near impossible 'Hard' difficulty. There's nothing wrong with a challenge, but making a game which makes you fail hard within seconds on the first mission let alone the later mission? Just stupid, it doesn't prove you have skill, just that you have no life and can spend hours failing hard before having a lucky break and finishing that mission. AHH D:

[Konrad]

Like Guitar Hero III, Through the Fire and Flames on Expert?

I can get rougly %75-80 of that song on Hard, and I think that's beast.

[MyNameDidntFit]

Through the Fire and Flames is easy; it's just hammer-ons and hammer-offs. All it takes is memory. My leet Guitar Hero skills aside...

I like the near impossible difficulties: if you don't, well, that's why there are lower difficulties. It's giving those of us who want to play those difficulties (and can do so without failing for hours before we get a luck break and instead just do it) the choice to do so while letting the rest of you pansies (hehe jokes :p) play on your 'normal' and 'easy' modes. MW2, for example, I tried playing on less than Veteran and it was boring as hell, but on Veteran it's a brilliant, immersive and challenging game.

... but then I played all the Ghost Recon games on the hardest difficulty where you can only take a single bullet... so maybe I'm just a masochist.


My pet hate is the antithesis of Astonix's: games that don't have a hard difficulty and force players like myself who enjoy the challenge of those difficulties to rape, pillage and plunder our way through a spectacularly easy game (*cough* Half-Life 2 *cough*).

[Knighto]

Caves/Mines. I don't know why but I just hate it when there's a level in a cave in any given game. I don't remember a single time when I enjoyed a level in a cave.

Since Mario Bros. I hated the intensity of those underground levels. Last one that comes to mind is the one by the end of Call of Duty: MW2. And if it's a 3rd person action/adventure/platformer thing you almost-always have to kill bats and get on those wagon things that move on rails and always fall in a ditch when you're half way through the level.

It seems that developers milk the cave/mine-level idea when they want to add darker levels to their games and depart from sun-lit environments *cough* RE5. A typical cliché!

[Astonix]

MNDF, I can play the GH series on Expert both Drums and Guitar :P But Through the fire and flames is stupid -.-' Unless you put an elastic band on the green button for the beginning of the song.

[MyNameDidntFit]

MNDF, I can play the GH series on Expert both Drums and Guitar :P But Through the fire and flames is stupid -.-' Unless you put an elastic band on the green button for the beginning of the song.
Oh, there's no debating that it's stupid. I bloody hate it and think it's the worst (as in least fun) song to play in the entire series. I'm just saying that all it involves is remembering the timing of the hammer-on/hammer-off sequences, as most of the song is the same thing repeated over and over and over and over and over and... yeah.

^_^

[CemeteryGates]

Grr, I hate Dragonfarce. I can shred almost twice as fast in odd time signatures on a real guitar, but that song on expert is impossible. All GH Expert songs are unrealistically difficult and piss me off. But I tolerate it, except for Dragonfarce...

[Jason]

I agree with you on the point of GH expert songs being unnecessarily difficult. I'm a fairly mediocre guitarist, both in real life and on GH, but whereas I can play 'Monkey Wrench' by the Foo Fighters on a real guitar with no problems, I fail it every time on GH Expert.
On the other hand, I hate how on the lower difficulties (particularly on drums) they completely change the tempo you're playing at to make it easier, rather than just removing some of the harder off-beat notes but keeping the tempo the same. There's nothing worse than having your ears tell you the song is at one tempo and your eyes telling you it's at another.

[MyNameDidntFit]

Eh. Expert songs aren't that bad, except a few that have legitimately [read: not just a 12" block of solid notes so close together you physically not tell which notes are in line with which without pausing and staring at the screen for five minutes] hard parts.

The only things that really get me on GH (or, rather, did when I used to play it lots >.>) were long sections of the same note repeated quickly, but not really quickly. I just can't strum at a faster-than-medium-but-slower-than-fast pace for extended periods...

[Jason]

Hah, with your second point, I have a ridiculous blind spot for moderately-paced alternating bass and snare pattens (I can't think of an example now I've put myself on the spot...) - I do ok for the first 5 seconds, and then I start thinking about it and end up tying myself in knots.

[Astonix]

Ah yes, absolutely hate those >.< If I stare at them repeated notes too long I just lose it all D:

[CemeteryGates]

Hah, with your second point, I have a ridiculous blind spot for moderately-paced alternating bass and snare pattens (I can't think of an example now I've put myself on the spot...) - I do ok for the first 5 seconds, and then I start thinking about it and end up tying myself in knots.


Hmm... I'm not 100% what you meant with this post, but I'll say this: the esoteric secret to playing drums to apparently insane levels with little practice and not really too innate much skill lies in never, ever crossing your arms as you play. Practice just enough to get the body to get used to not having to match the right leg with left arm and left leg with right arm quickly develops limb independence that will make drum veterans jealous.
I've only played Rock Band once on drums, but I'd guess it applies there too.

[Wayne]

Escort missions! Actually I have many pet peeves with games, MANY! But escort missions are never any good. And squad AI, this is a problem in every squad based shooter, even the giants like COD. I just completed Modern Warfare, and it just reminded me that no matter how good the game is, your squad members are forever cursed to be morons. Just watch as you enter a heated situation, watch as your teammates allow the enemy to stand right beside them and do nothing as if they were waiting on you to do something. Same goes for firing on the enemy, your teammates seem to deliberately miss, constantly shooting at nothing, shouting useless garbage until you intervene. And the worst part is, when playing on the hardest difficulty, the enemy gets smarter while your squads intelligence remains the same, dumb as doorstops!

[MyNameDidntFit]

Ah, yes. CoD AI... almost as bad as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. AI in it's horrific lack of goodness.

I recall one time in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I walked into a door, turned a corner and left my back to a stairwell, presuming it safe as FIVE of my friends (in exoskeletons, no less) ran up it... but... well... no. A moment later a single guy comes sprinting down the stairs, kills all five of them and then pumps a bucketfull of buckshot into my back.

CoD does the same thing on Veteran... -_-

[Wayne]

Ah, yes. CoD AI... almost as bad as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. AI in it's horrific lack of goodness.

I recall one time in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I walked into a door, turned a corner and left my back to a stairwell, presuming it safe as FIVE of my friends (in exoskeletons, no less) ran up it... but... well... no. A moment later a single guy comes sprinting down the stairs, kills all five of them and then pumps a bucketfull of buckshot into my back.

CoD does the same thing on Veteran... -_-
Yeah it does, but even worse than your S.T.A.L.K.E.R experience, in COD those guys who ran up the stairs wouldn't even be dead, they'd just be up the stairs waiting around, shouting garbage like "reloading mag!" while you get shot to $#!# because you thought the coast was clear.

by the way, are expletives allowed? my bad, didn't read the rules

[Jason]

Haha, I have no problem with expletives in moderation. :)

[Wayne]

Great, just wanted to make sure. Thanks

[MyNameDidntFit]

Yeah it does, but even worse than your S.T.A.L.K.E.R experience, in COD those guys who ran up the stairs wouldn't even be dead, they'd just be up the stairs waiting around, shouting garbage like "reloading mag!" while you get shot to $#!# because you thought the coast was clear.
Yeah, the trusty invincible AI guys. A few times I've died and, in the death view, seen a friendly standing right beside the guy that shot me, ignoring him.