What is something in a lot of games that annoys you?

[Zed Clampet]

For me: Encumbrance and games with autosave that don't save when you exit.

 

[BeardyHat]

Massive inventory, tons of abilities and heaps of pseudo-not-junk.

My two examples:

Divinity Original Sin 2 - You have this massive inventory and everything in it is just a random icon. I'm carrying around so much stuff that in order to go back to the game, I may as well start fresh because I have no idea what any of this is or why I saved it.

Divinity also has this issue with abilities. There are so many of them, trying to go back, I have no idea what is what and what what does, I need to sit and analyze everything for an hour before I can begin to understand.

Grim Dawn - Everything is Green, Blue, Orange, etc. You kill enemies and they explode in showers of this stuff and it ends-up ultimately being all meaningless, yet I feel compelled to search through all of it to see if any of it is even the most minor of upgrades. Compare to something like the original Diablo where most stuff is actual junk or fodder for vendors, but it's immediately apparent and when you get a unique drop, it becomes pretty obvious.

Couple this with a massive inventory in Grim Dawn and it exacerbates the issue further. In Diablo, I need to play Tetris because my inventory space is so limited, I have to be very choosy about what I'm going to pick up because I simply cannot take it all back with me, so I'm constantly having to make difficult decisions about what I carry with me. I like this.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Massive inventory, tons of abilities and heaps of pseudo-not-junk.

My two examples:

Divinity Original Sin 2 - You have this massive inventory and everything in it is just a random icon. I'm carrying around so much stuff that in order to go back to the game, I may as well start fresh because I have no idea what any of this is or why I saved it.

Divinity also has this issue with abilities. There are so many of them, trying to go back, I have no idea what is what and what what does, I need to sit and analyze everything for an hour before I can begin to understand.

Grim Dawn - Everything is Green, Blue, Orange, etc. You kill enemies and they explode in showers of this stuff and it ends-up ultimately being all meaningless, yet I feel compelled to search through all of it to see if any of it is even the most minor of upgrades. Compare to something like the original Diablo where most stuff is actual junk or fodder for vendors, but it's immediately apparent and when you get a unique drop, it becomes pretty obvious.

Couple this with a massive inventory in Grim Dawn and it exacerbates the issue further. In Diablo, I need to play Tetris because my inventory space is so limited, I have to be very choosy about what I'm going to pick up because I simply cannot take it all back with me, so I'm constantly having to make difficult decisions about what I carry with me. I like this.

What would you think about a system like Medieval Dynasty where your inventory space is technically unlimited, but the game strictly enforces encumbrance?

Personally I don't have a problem with large inventories. Usually games I play have ways of dealing with that, like different ways to sort or search for an item and a one keypress method of putting like items together in a chest.

 

[BeardyHat]

What would you think about a system like Medieval Dynasty where your inventory space is technically unlimited, but the game strictly enforces encumbrance?

Personally I don't have a problem with large inventories. Usually games I play have ways of dealing with that, like different ways to sort or search for an item and a one keypress method of putting like items together in a chest.

I don't think I mind that so much and it's pertinent, as Abiotic Factor is similar. Of course, inventory is limited, but you have the encumbrance, but then can pretty much build as many containers at your base as you need and you can automatically store like items.

I like it even more for the fact that I can pin recipes and it highlights things in my storage to show me exactly what I need and then even better, building the Bench upgrade to just automatically grab stuff out of the inventory and use it. I don't need to go digging through all my stuff to figure out what's what and how to use it.

 

[Pifanjr]

Having to travel long distances with nothing happening. The problem with this one is that there isn't always a good solution for it. Fast travel/teleporting isn't always an option, nor is increasing the player's movement speed (with or without a mount/vehicle). It doesn't always annoy me either, I just get impatient sometimes.

That doesn't just apply to traveling either of course, it can happen at any time I have to wait for a game to do something. It's really just whenever I fail to live in the moment and get too caught up in making plans, but then can't do those plans because something is making me wait.

Massive inventory, tons of abilities and heaps of pseudo-not-junk.

My two examples:

Divinity Original Sin 2 - You have this massive inventory and everything in it is just a random icon. I'm carrying around so much stuff that in order to go back to the game, I may as well start fresh because I have no idea what any of this is or why I saved it.

Divinity also has this issue with abilities. There are so many of them, trying to go back, I have no idea what is what and what what does, I need to sit and analyze everything for an hour before I can begin to understand.

Grim Dawn - Everything is Green, Blue, Orange, etc. You kill enemies and they explode in showers of this stuff and it ends-up ultimately being all meaningless, yet I feel compelled to search through all of it to see if any of it is even the most minor of upgrades. Compare to something like the original Diablo where most stuff is actual junk or fodder for vendors, but it's immediately apparent and when you get a unique drop, it becomes pretty obvious.

Couple this with a massive inventory in Grim Dawn and it exacerbates the issue further. In Diablo, I need to play Tetris because my inventory space is so limited, I have to be very choosy about what I'm going to pick up because I simply cannot take it all back with me, so I'm constantly having to make difficult decisions about what I carry with me. I like this.

The last game where this has become a problem for me is Baldur's Gate 3. The spell and skill icons can be hard to distinguish sometimes and there are so many it's hard to remember every one of them. Not to mention how many consumables there are.

 

[BeardyHat]

Having to travel long distances with nothing happening. The problem with this one is that there isn't always a good solution for it. Fast travel/teleporting isn't always an option, nor is increasing the player's movement speed (with or without a mount/vehicle). It doesn't always annoy me either, I just get impatient sometimes.

That doesn't just apply to traveling either of course, it can happen at any time I have to wait for a game to do something. It's really just whenever I fail to live in the moment and get too caught up in making plans, but then can't do those plans because something is making me wait.



The last game where this has become a problem for me is Baldur's Gate 3. The spell and skill icons can be hard to distinguish sometimes and there are so many it's hard to remember every one of them. Not to mention how many consumables there are.

Moving from area to area is definitely better if it has some friction. Grand Theft Auto for example, trying not to crash into anyone can be a lot of fun, but also finding alternate routes or trying to find jumps, etc.

And that's actually the reason I've been avoiding BG3. I was (am?) a Divinity Original Sin superfan, thought it was absolutely incredible and I don't recall if it has this problem or not; but it was so bad in DOS2, I knew Larian were unlikely to change it in BG3 and it's just...kind of a deal killer to me.

I'm sure BG3 is a great game, DOS2 is too, but I just can't abide the inventory and skill system. I'm kind of waiting for the day I can push through, start DOS2 again and finish it, then I'll know I'm ready for BG3, but I'm not sure that day will come.

 

[Zimbaly]

Forced stealth. Hit me on the head with a cast iron frying pan. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Colif]

Having inventory size tied to the amount of info other people see about you online, and restricting it as it would slow down the servers... oh wait, that is just Diablo 4. Most games aren't that dumb.

too much story/talking/cut scenes, not enough action - that stops me buying most of the AAA games these days. I didn't buy a game to watch a movie

online only. I don't want to buy cosmetics so don't force me to play with those who do. I know, the game is just there to advertise DLC, but I don't care. What is wrong with single player games that don't need internet to play them?

 

[Zimbaly]

I agree with the online only stuff as well. Specially for a single player game I bought over steam, or epic. Like I'm buying it on your storefront. How does that not prove I own the game??????

 

[Zed Clampet]

I agree with the online only stuff as well. Specially for a single player game I bought over steam, or epic. Like I'm buying it on your storefront. How does that not prove I own the game??????

online only. I don't want to buy cosmetics so don't force me to play with those who do. I know, the game is just there to advertise DLC, but I don't care. What is wrong with single player games that don't need internet to play them?

The thing that bothers me the most about always online is that the games are going to disappear sooner or later.

I bought a new automation game yesterday (it's in the secret games thread). It has less than 30 user reviews, but I wanted to give it a chance. So I start the game, and it, despite being a singleplayer game, is always online. Something about competing against other player scores and seeing their builds.

But how long is this developer--probably one guy--going to keep that server running when he has hardly sold any games?

Oh, and @Zimbaly I feel exactly the same way about stealth.

 

[Johnway]

one of my biggest gripes with RTS games: rebuilding a base (research and all) absolutely every single time i start a new mission especially on the final missions where the odds are absolutely stacked against you and if the enemy was that bit smarter, they would just push everything to your base and wipe you off the face off the earth.

there are ways to offset it like perhaps having a substantial force or a well established base to start things off, but sometimes when a game provides a suitable start, you can expect a more bigger challenge.


Another cardinal sin when it comes to FPS games? not giving you enough ammo. I'm talking of arena shooters where you have to kill loads of monsters, but the map is dry on resources. The new Doom annoys me in that regard, you can't carry enough ammo, you have to get glory kills to get more resources and you can't carry enough ammo as you're juggling weapons to keep going, its annoying.

MTXs especially those who promote exp boosts and resource boosts, AAA(A) create a problem to sell a solution. if the devs just balanced things out a bit there wouldn't be a need for them, but no, we need to make games grindier that more tedious. For some people the game doesn't respect their time. We should be making games more accessible where possible.

Oh and of course the obligatory bugs and crashes. Can't tell if its my PC or just rubbish coding.

 

[Colif]

one of my biggest gripes with RTS games: rebuilding a base (research and all) absolutely every single time i start a new mission especially on the final missions where the odds are absolutely stacked against you and if the enemy was that bit smarter, they would just push everything to your base and wipe you off the face off the earth.

there are ways to offset it like perhaps having a substantial force or a well established base to start things off, but sometimes when a game provides a suitable start, you can expect a more bigger challenge.

Sounds like you need an RTS roguelite, but most of those probably come out as tower defense games where the upgrades are incremental power, not how well the base is set up at the end.

 

[Pifanjr]

one of my biggest gripes with RTS games: rebuilding a base (research and all) absolutely every single time i start a new mission

I'd go even more general with this and say one of my major annoyances is with any game that repeatedly makes me perform the exact same steps, especially if those steps include unskippable animations.

Some of the worst offenders are turn-based strategy or tactics games that don't allow mid-combat saves. Especially if they have no or very little randomness, being sent back to the start of the mission when you mess up means you often have to repeat every single move you did up to the one mistake you made.

But this is also a problem with a lot of games that use checkpoints. Luckily there aren't that many any more that have long, unskippable cutscenes after a checkpoint, but there's still often some walking and/or waiting involved.

Even outside of having to reload earlier saves, I also have very little patience for repeating the same actions over and over when there's no skill involved. Trash mob encounters in JRPGs for example, which are so weak that they don't take any resources to beat. But also automation games that require setting up duplicate systems but don't let you copy and paste blueprints.

 

[mjs warlord]

The main turn of for me is multiple keys to use a game ..... press key A , press key A + shift to do something , press key A + ctrl to do something else . I once got construction simulator and when i saw how many keys and key combinations it had i gave up on it.

In the early 1980's you could buy cardboard overlays to put on your machines and was just enough room to write on it what all the keys did.

 

[Frindis]

I'm sure BG3 is a great game, DOS2 is too, but I just can't abide the inventory and skill system. I'm kind of waiting for the day I can push through, start DOS2 again and finish it, then I'll know I'm ready for BG3, but I'm not sure that day will come.

The skill system I don't mind and I think it works great in BG3, but the inventory system is bad in both games. Larian Studios just can't make it right, even with using the designated bags for different items. Solution is very simple if you ask me: Just make us rename the bloody bags!

I have been playing Uncharted series for some time now, soon finished with the third one and there is a couple of things that annoy me:

- Bad camera angles, a problem the Original Sin games also have.
- Horrendous AI at times, something you can find in to many games to count.
- Character doing stuff you don't want it to do, like getting stuck into wall or leaning when you don't want the character to lean but to roll instead.

Other stuff in games:

- Locked progressions needing to pay up to get past a zone or for example pay up if you want to expand your inventory. I can somewhat understand it if the game is two decades old and the devs just want to get some money for having the servers up for a handful of fans, but in a new game? Absolutely not!

For me: Encumbrance[...]

Not a fan of it either. I did like how it was in Outer Worlds though with you being able to get a perk making it possible to fast travel while encumbered. I think it is better to have encumbrance in survival type of games where it makes sense that you can't walk with hundreds of kilos on you.

MTXs especially those who promote exp boosts and resource boosts, AAA(A) create a problem to sell a solution. if the devs just balanced things out a bit there wouldn't be a need for them, but no, we need to make games grindier that more tedious. For some people the game doesn't respect their time. We should be making games more accessible where possible.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey comes to mind. They put those idiotic Orichalcum ores in the game for shop items. Had absolutely nothing to do with the game, nobody asked for it, nobody wanted it. Just stupid greed tied up to their store with microtransactions.

WoW is even worse with how the gold is now. Buying gold for real money to pay for just about anything.How the mighty has fallen...

Oh, and those MTXs that gives you an unfair advantage like the swim suit thingy in Black Desert online that you could pay for with real money and made you swim much faster.

 

[Johnway]

Sounds like you need an RTS roguelite, but most of those probably come out as tower defense games where the upgrades are incremental power, not how well the base is set up at the end.

When it comes to RTS missions those with a small group of units with little or no base building i'm perfectly fine with. A large number of people hate those missions, i like them as i have more control and can have strategy in my games. its also why one of my personal fav strategy games is World in Conflict. just you with a handful of units and a whole load of special abilities, resources management is minimal and i can focus on strategy (ie high ground, directional damage, cover etc etc).

I'd go even more general with this and say one of my major annoyances is with any game that repeatedly makes me perform the exact same steps, especially if those steps include unskippable animations.

This is probably one of the key reasons. Its just repetitive and i'm just waiting before i can actually start progressing. its when resources are finite or worse, time it gets even more annoying. I think it was during the C&C days where you could only build one structure at a time and that compounds the problem. At least games like AOE i can build multiple units and kick start things slightly faster. Plus i can commit more villagers to make things faster. But multiplayer games where you start from absolutely nothing is dull as hell, you spend time just going through the steps before battle commences. The same thing with Management strategy games. Christ, i have to start with basics and slowly work on the cash flow to expand. it was a campaign game why can't i have steady flow of income from my previous successful stores supplement my income? Ok it makes it too easy, but damn it, starting from scratch with a blank canvas is bloody boring.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey comes to mind. They put those idiotic Orichalcum ores in the game for shop items. Had absolutely nothing to do with the game, nobody asked for it, nobody wanted it. Just stupid greed tied up to their store with microtransactions.

In principle, its a way for not paying customers to get their hands on some sweet MTX,s but execution wise its pretty awful. Most of the stuff from lootboxes is random worthless tat and not the desirable cosmentics. Want to avoid gambling? how about just buying the items, only 5-10 times the cost of a random spin of a wheel. To top it off there isn't any effective way to earn the Orichalcum. As far as i'm aware its peanuts. Valhalla, does improve on things, scraping the random garbage and everything you get is an actual instore MTX. On the plus side, getting something free each week is nice. But again i feel its a grudging reluctance as there are plenty of anti consumer practices:

1. The items that are on sale daily is random and its only one item at a time. Want to buy only stuff from one set? Check back every day and hope that a piece is on sale.

2. The cost of items is still horrifically expensive when it comes to gear ranging from 100-150 for gear and weapons. less interesting stuff is for 30-35. that should be the cost of the cosmetics or maybe 60 if i'm throwing ubisoft a bone.

3. earning ingame currency is restrictive. there are community challenges for 30 a week and every day you can earn 10-30 a day. Which is chump change.

4. There is a huge amount of MTX to collect. it would take years to get the items you want.

 

[Zloth]

Forced stealth. Hit me on the head with a cast iron frying pan. 🤷‍♂️

Anything for a friend! But, does it have to be real cast iron?

- Bad camera angles, a problem the Original Sin games also have.

There was a mod for Original Sin that let the camera rotate freely. Or maybe it was an in-game option? I remember there was a warning with it saying that you'll see parts of the world that make no sense because you aren't supposed to be able to see them.

But yeah, bad camera angles can be killers, especially when getting near walls.

 

[Zimbaly]

Yes, but don't worry I think I own 4. You can wield em all at the same time when ya do it.

 

[Frindis]

There was a mod for Original Sin that let the camera rotate freely. Or maybe it was an in-game option? I remember there was a warning with it saying that you'll see parts of the world that make no sense because you aren't supposed to be able to see them.

But yeah, bad camera angles can be killers, especially when getting near walls.

It was a mod and it was a bit wonky from what I remember.

 

[BeardyHat]

When it comes to RTS missions those with a small group of units with little or no base building i'm perfectly fine with. A large number of people hate those missions, i like them as i have more control and can have strategy in my games. its also why one of my personal fav strategy games is World in Conflict. just you with a handful of units and a whole load of special abilities, resources management is minimal and i can focus on strategy (ie high ground, directional damage, cover etc etc).

I'm one of those weirdo's that loves the repetition of building a new base, building up units and attacking.

I'm pretty happy to have tactics and a unit focus in some games where I'm ready for them, something like Call to Arms, but when I play something like C&C or even the newer Tempest Rising, all I really want to do is turn my brain off, build a base, build a huge amount of units and rush the enemy without having to think about it.

C&C Skirmish Comp Stomp is what I consider my "Cozy Game".

 

[neogunhero]

When a game has C for crouch as default. We've come a long way in PC gaming, everyone knows Ctrl is the main crouch button.

 

[Zloth]

Fake doors on fake buildings. We can't do much about it yet, but I want it on the list of Things That Must Go Some Day.

When a game has C for crouch as default. We've come a long way in PC gaming, everyone knows Ctrl is the main crouch button.

Oh, no, that's actually something that depends for me. The control key is one if the few keys on the keyboard that the PC knows is either up or down. Most just register that they were pushed (and auto-repeat if you hold them down). The C key is a good one to use for toggle-crouch, Ctrl is good for just crouching while they key is pressed.

 

[Johnway]

just remembered another annoyance: Unskippable intro loading screens. yes its only a minute or 2 but its annoying that i can't press escape to skip. I wish it was just view once or better yet, press esc once and skip ALL of the them.

 

[Pifanjr]

just remembered another annoyance: Unskippable intro loading screens. yes its only a minute or 2 but its annoying that i can't press escape to skip. I wish it was just view once or better yet, press esc once and skip ALL of the them.

Also games with splash screens or intro cinematics before the main menu. I don't want to have to press esc five times just to get to the main menu faster.

Luckily you can often get rid of those by messing around with an *.ini, deleting a couple of files or downloading a mod.

Those "press any key to continue" screens before the main menu are terrible as well.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Here's one I can't stand: You hit escape and then exit, and a little pop-up window shows up and it says something like: "Are you sure you want to quit? Your last save was 45 minutes ago."

Hey, you dumba$$ game, you know what the solution to this is? You save my game when I exit.