Underutilized content in video games?

[Sonygamer455]

I am sure we’ve played video games before and found some interesting stuff we liked, but for some reason, it was only available in a certain part of the game, when it could have been utilized a whole lot more. Such as a car that you can only drive in one event, a gun that is only used in one mission, a character that you can only use in one level, or even stuff that isn’t available to the player at all, but is used by the AI. I know I’ve seen a lot of examples of this before and I am sure other people have to, so feel free to share them here! 🙂 While you’re at it, you can also describe how you think it should have been utilized and why if you really want to.

Note: Hidden content does NOT count. The only exception I’ll make is if it was something that was only available online for a short period of time and then later became unused when it was over. That is fine, but if it wasn’t used at any point in the game, then it doesn’t belong here.

 

[sesselpupser]

One that sticks out for me is engine upgrades in Mad Max, if you're a completionist or just want to take the story at your own pace you can end up unlocking almost all of the parts for the Opus except for the first engine upgrade which is gated behind a story mission. When I did this I had enough scrap saved that I was able to buy the first and second engine upgrades as soon as I unlocked first, and I finished the game not long after. For a game that's basically all about upgrading your car that was pretty lame, especially since the engine is such a big part of the concept of what a car is and the culture (if you will) in the Mad Max universe basically revolves around engines, cars and gasoline.

On a similar post-apocalyptic desert hellscape note, Rage had different ammo types for each weapon and toward the end of the game I got some new super ammo for the handgun and the game was also hyping up the end at around the same time, so obviously I assumed it was basically hinting that a boss was right around the corner. I can't remember exactly what happened but I do remember holding onto all that ammo in preparation for a boss that never came so I still don't know what that ammo did.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The Red Bull X2010 5G in Gran Turismo 5.

When I made this comment in the OP:

The only exception I’ll make is if it was something that was only available online for a short period of time and then later became unused when it was over.

This car was the very reason I did. I should note, GT5 has 3 variants of it in the game, but only one was used and that's the one you're looking at here. For those who don't know, this was a car in the game that was only used for a seasonal event in Japan back in 2012. While you could drive it in that event, it wasn't given out to the player and once it was over, it became unable to be driven again. (outside of hacking anyhow)

Why they would take the time to create this car, feature it in a seasonal event in Japan for a limited time only and then make it where you can't obtain it outside of hacking is beyond me. Which is a shame, because it's a nice car that unlike the other Red Bull's, can actually be painted and it has a cool start-up sound too. This should have been made available to the player and the fact it isn't was a mistake in my opinion.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Most of GTA V.

Like, I know for people that played GTA Online they got massive use out of the 'world' in the game, but in the single player experience, it was underutilised.

 

[Nexus]

The bonus cars in Need For Speed Most Wanted being unusable in Career mode felt like a waste. Felt like a missed opportunity to not use the only other race car in game (Corvette C6.R) against Razor in the BMW M3 GTR.

Speaking of the M3, having it taken away from the player at the beginning of Carbon was a slap in the face.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The bonus cars in Need For Speed Most Wanted being unusable in Career mode felt like a waste. Felt like a missed opportunity to not use the only other race car in game (Corvette C6.R) against Razor in the BMW M3 GTR.

I agree! Not just the C6.R, but the same goes for the SL65, Porsche 911 GT2, BMW M3 GTR (Street), and the Camaro. It would have been pretty awesome to be able to use them in career and add them to my cars on the main menu. I think I read somewhere years ago that they were going to be utilized a bit more at one point in development and even be customizable, but were never quite finished enough for that to happen, so they ended up as bonus cars. Still, it's a wonder why they wouldn't just block the parts that weren't available like they did with the M3 GTR.

Let's not forget the playable cop cars and playable traffic from the challenge series. It's a huge shame they were only ever available there because I really enjoyed driving them and their exclusion from everything else actually bothers me even more than the other cars I just mentioned.

Fortunately, a little bit of modding or hacking can change all that, even on console versions, but we really should not have to do that though, they should've been available everywhere.

Speaking of the M3, having it taken away from the player at the beginning of Carbon was a slap in the face.

Yep, and it's too bad you can't reclaim it later on in the career too. I wouldn't want it to be like MW where you spend the entire career trying to get it back again, but rather just have it so the player can get it back at some point in the career.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Lezduit in High on Life.
So he's a gun you get to use on the very last mission of the game and nowhere else. I totally understand why he was reserved for the very end because he's extremely overpowered and would make the game far too easy to beat. However, what really sucks though is once you beat the last mission, you can't use him ever again.

To be fair, there was a glitch that allowed you to use him afterward, however weird things happen when he's used outside his intended level and I imagine they didn't have time to make it so he could. So that may have been why he was utilized the way he was. Still, I wish he was a lot more usable.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Edit. Wrong thread.

 

[shadow0460]

Tiberian Sun needs vein hole monsters on snow maps.
Also what about the cheese in Perfect Dark? Were Daniel and JoAnna hungry??

 

[Sonygamer455]

The Nissan 370Z in Need for Speed Undercover (PS2).
Despite having this game since late 2008, this car was underutilized to the point I never knew it was even in the game until many years later because, for some reason, it was only ever available in multiplayer (which I barely touched) and wasn't used anywhere else. To be fair, according to TCRF, it lacks a lot of customization parts, and given how Undercover's development went, I have a strong feeling it was unfinished. So I can see why it wasn't customizable. However, why it couldn't have been added to single-player as a preset car makes no sense to me because it very easily could have been.

 

[WanganDream]

"Outlaw" edition Fender cars in The Crew 2.

These cars are AI driven vehicles intended to be destroyed in Motorflix chase missions and cannot be acquired by the player.
These cars are essentially demo derby class "Fender" brand fantasy cars with different liveries and headlights/taillights, but they look like factory stock versions of the demo derby cars and looked like very appealing content to me.
I would have loved these cars if they were playable and available in a different category like street race.

Dodge Challenger "House" body kit from NFS Payback/NFS Heat.

The Pursuit Challenger used by the crime syndicate "House" in NFS Payback was fitted with a special front and rear push bar body kit.
However, this body kit is not available to players unless they use a mod in the PC version.

In particular, in Heat, all cars, including the Challenger, could be made into off-road builds, so if we had been able to select this body kit, we would have been able to build a more off-roading and tougher looks Challenger.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The bonus cars in Need For Speed Most Wanted being unusable in Career mode felt like a waste. Felt like a missed opportunity to not use the only other race car in game (Corvette C6.R) against Razor in the BMW M3 GTR.

Something that crossed my mind after I commented is if you think about it, the M3 GTR, itself is kind of underutilized too simply because it's not in the stock car list. Which is bad because it means if you ever lose the car in career mode, you'll never be able to get it back again without hacking and it also means you can't customize it in the my cars menu either. I don't understand why they couldn't have made it available there because the devs took the time to block off the customization parts it doesn't have so only the things that actually work can be used. And I have added it before and it works just fine even if it lacks a lot of customization parts. So they could have very easily done that, yet they didn't and that was certainly a missed opportunity.

I should note I am not talking about the silver one we all know, rather the red customizable variant of this car. (Not to be confused with the street car in the same game) While it’s not available to the player, the ai does use it, albeit with randomized customization bits on it like every other car in the game.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Any F1 game that has feature historic cars.

It's an addition that people beg devs for, yet they just exist in the game for no real purpose. Yeah they're cool and a fun look back to history, but why are they there? They are always underutilised, let's see some historic scenarios, recreating moments, anything. Look at WRC10 with its anniversary mode, an entire scenario based mode for historic cars. Even the more recent EA Sports WRC with moments mode does a similar thing.

Why can't F1 games do it?

 

[ThePotatoKing]

Off the top of my head, I would say rally back in GT Sport could have gotten some more use.

As funky and basic as Gran Turismo's off-road physics are, it's still a shame they didn't do much with it, especially since they went into all that trouble designing the cars and tracks to begin with. The cars themselves barely saw use in daily races and the tracks were practically non-existent.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Off the top of my head, I would say rally back in GT Sport could have gotten some more use.

As funky and basic as Gran Turismo's off-road physics are, it's still a shame they didn't do much with it, especially since they went into all that trouble designing the cars and tracks to begin with. The cars themselves barely saw use in daily races and the tracks were practically non-existent.

While I am not too familiar with GT Sport, I think rally racing as a whole is a bit underutilized throughout the series and I wish that weren't the case because I tend to enjoy dirt tracks more than asphalt tracks.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The Ferrari F1 cars in GT5.
So these two cars are featured in GT5 but unfortunately due to licensing, they're not allowed to be used against anything other than themselves. Which is too bad because these cars are pretty neat and very fast, but the limitation really takes the fun away you could have with them had it not been there.

Fortunately, and I don't mean to toot my own horn, but nearly 5 years ago, I did find a way to disable this limitation through editing the games EBOOT. Once that's done, they can be used just like any other vehicle in the game and I have yet to encounter an issue with this. While I am glad it can be disabled, I still wish that limitation was never put in place to begin with since it really limits how much you can do with them.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The D-Rights cars in GT2.

So these are two cars in the game that are only ever used in license tests and cannot be obtained without hacking the game. Even worse, even if you hacked the game to get them, they lack parts data outside of their intended license tests, and their performance defaults to that of the Mazda RX-7 A-spec LM Edition instead. And it's too bad because I think they're kind of neat even though they aren't much. They'd be fun to use in races simply because they differ just a little bit from their stock counterparts.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Tollbooth Events in Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005).
So these were basically sprint races with no AI opponents and a time limit to get from one checkpoint to the next. They were used in career and challenge series but were strangely excluded from quick race for some reason. It's an unfortunate oversight for those who just want to play them in quick race using what they have in "My Cars" instead of dealing with the career and its limited garage space or being straight up forced to use whatever car the challenge series gives you. And I doubt it'd be hard to implement either, in fact, I have seen modders do it before, so I don't know why the devs didn't apart from time constraints.