Yakoob on 9/8/2007 at 06:19
And by game mechanic I mean practically any distinguishable (and often repeated) element of a game, be it a part of a story, gameplay, visual or something else.
For me, it's the "super-soldier" syndrome. Now let me clarify, as I do not mean it only literally. I am refering to the "your character is the hot shit and only one capable of saving the whole world" almost every single game relies on. It's practically the basis for all RPG games, it's the feeling you get from practically all FPSes and the goal of so many RTSes.
Sure, you may think, it is a driving force that empowers the player and makes him feel like really awesome (thus justifying playing the game), but after ten years of this I am quite sick of it. It really nags me because it's become so much of a hallmark of video games that it quickly destroys my suspension of disbelief and decreases my enjoyment. Why can't I be just a little shmuck minding his own business and solving his own problem in a localized spectrum. Why does everything always has to be epic? It's gotten so ridiculous that now, in games, the normalicy feels abnormal.
Many of us say we play games because they allow us to do what we can't in real life, but how can you really feed such urge when the whole world revolves around you and every single thing you do is what you can't do in real life? I mean, how can you get the sense that it is _you_ who is doing what you can't do in real life when the connection between the game world you and real life you is so fundamentally broken.
I am not saying that this idea of demi-godness is bad in itself, it's just the severe overuse of it made it so. Hence why I really enjoyed the first few levels of Operation Flashpoint, before you become the super-general-colonel and instead are just a part of a squad, following orders. Oh what a refreshment was it not to have to think about every single detail and how the world depends on it, but merely run up to the bush and kill some ruskies? As blashpemous as it may sound, after playing so many games where you're practically an all-powerful god, I felt so incredibly delighted to feel that I could just hide behind a tree for the whole mission and know my squad would still complete their mission without me. That, for once, every single tiny thing did not depend entirely on me...
Your turn.
Fafhrd on 9/8/2007 at 06:32
Health recharging completely after a few seconds without taking damage. Halo fucked over the difficulty level of pretty much every FPS made afterward.
It makes some sense as a mechanic for console FPSes, since often the first warning you have that there's an enemy is the sudden loss of health, but for fuck's sake, why has this been adopted in PC shooters? Bring back health kits and random item drops from killed enemies and whatever else. I'm tired of self-healing superprotagonists.
june gloom on 9/8/2007 at 07:47
stereotypical large white male, a recurring character in dozens of shooter games who is an expert with many types of weaponry, some of which would not be out of place mounted on a military attack chopper, and and even some which don't exist due to either official reasons or because of the laws of physics but can be found in any number of secret government laboratories and are as durable and battle-worthy as his rugged field rifle despite their experimental status.
seriously. id? epic? 3d realms? knock that shit off.
henke on 9/8/2007 at 08:00
Final Fantasy style combat in RPG games. You know the one where the heroes and the badguys all stand lined up opposite each other and then take turns running up to eachother for smack upside the head. This is a gameplay mechanic that someone thought up in the olden days when they couldn't think of anything better. But games like KoToR and Freedom Force have showed that there are better ways to handle turn-based RPG combat so why do some games still cling on to this stupid system? It looks even more idiotic in todays 3D games than it did in the old 2D era.
although truth be told it was a while since I played an RPG like this so maybe it's on it's way out already
june gloom on 9/8/2007 at 08:31
don't get me started on turn-based japanese RPGs. i can't stand those fucking things.
Firefreak on 9/8/2007 at 09:04
Shocker/Suspense games, typically that were ported from a console, which have fixed, or nearly fixed, 3rd person cameras.
Combined with 'view relative' movement control and the game is uninstalled instantly.
Running away from a badass monster that couldn't be killed by flawed aiming skills via 3rd person angle - cut, viewing the character from another angle and the same button that was used to run away from the monster lets the guy turn over and run to the monster again... :devil:
I treat this as a game mechanic as the angles surely can add to the suspense, but it totally destroys playability (for me)
Jeshibu on 9/8/2007 at 10:08
A lot of console games and ports do that, and it's really very annoying. Sometimes I go back and forth about 3 times before I finally go where I want to go after a sudden cut to a different camera.
Infinite respawning is a pet peeve of mine. Worst was NOLF2, but The Thing has bits with it too. Sometimes it seems like Aliens versus Predator has respawning marines in the Alien campaign, but it's infrequent enough to not be all that much of a bother.
Automatically adjusting difficulty. This includes Oblivion, which wants to make sure that every fight is exactly as hard as the last, but the worst offender is Homeworld 2, which makes the next mission impossible if you do too well in this one.
Time limits in games that usually reward taking your time. I never got past the first or second mission in Warzone 2100 because of this. And to this day I haven't finished SWAT 3 and 4 because of the time limit.
Shoshin on 9/8/2007 at 15:12
Besides jumping puzzles?
That lull in the game where you start finding tons of health and ammo. You just know that the next thing that happens is going to be some big stupid boss battle.
Tonamel on 9/8/2007 at 17:20
Sections of game that serve no purpose other than to make the game longer.
Microwave Oven on 9/8/2007 at 18:21
The thing I hate the most is when you've been playing really carefully, saving your ammo and medkits and whatever, and then the game up and takes it all away, making you start all over again.
