Video game pet peeves.

[Lain]

Unowned DLC content being displayed among the rest of the game's content in menus, with no option to hide them... Cars in a racing game, for example.

If I haven't bought the DLC, it means I don't want it, don't think it's worth the asking price, and/or simply cannot afford it. So trying to advertise the stuff by cluttering up the in-game menus with content I can't use just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and tarnishes the experience a bit.​

 

[Sonygamer455]

@Sonygamer455 How about just "poorly handled".

Perhaps. I realized half way through typing that post that "atrocious voice acting" isn't quite the best title for some of these because ones like Luke and Anakin don't necessarily sound "bad" in a general sense, the problem I have with them is they don't sound anything like who they're trying to be. If they were to use those voices on a new character for instance, I wouldn't have a problem with either of them. Ones like Mr. Krabs, any of the characters from Lego Island 2 or Battlefront II's Darth Vader however I just don't think are very good at all no matter what they are used for.

They're far from the worst I've heard though. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever be as terrible as what Phoenix Games has done. They have the worst voice acting I have ever heard period.

That could apply to the content, delivery, or how moronic the line was written in the first place,

Maybe. My problem is mainly with how the voices sound, I don't recall having any issues with how the lines were written that I can think of.

Some others that crossed my mind recently after posting:
- Gary from Spongebob Squarepants Supersponge. Had some nostalgia for this game after posting about it, so I played it some and I noticed pretty quickly that despite Gary being voiced by the original voice actor, he doesn't sound so good either. I mean it sounds like Tom Kenny got constipated while recording. Reminds me of a very similar situation to how Darth Vader sounded in Rogue One. I guess sometimes even the original voice actors can't get it right.
- I can't name any off the bat, but I can recall some characters in Star Wars Episode I for PS1 didn't sound too good in this game. I haven't beaten it yet nor have I touched it in over a year though.

 

[Wolfe]

While I'm enjoying RDR2 like so many others, one thing about it is a pet peeve of mine: employing an AI and physics to mediate between your controller input and the actions of your character. Or at least, doing a poor job of it. Assassin's Creed, Final Fantasy XV, and of course GTAV are other examples.

It doesn't feel good, because literally everything you do is delayed, or worse, ignored because the AI failed to comply. It doesn't produce the illusion of realism, because your character moves like a robot trying to handle too many instructions at once. The lurching, fidgeting, and hesitating can get real obnoxious, especially when all you want to do is simply get on your damn horse while seven dudes are shooting at you.

Rockstar, you allow us to magically pop into different clothes from our horse's saddle. Arthur consumes canned food in one gulp and smokes a cigarette in one breath. Just put him on the horse and be done with it!

 

[Aphelion]

Potentially my most hated thing is when you defeat the final boss or level in a video game, and it shows a cutscene of how amazing the world is now that the badguy has been vanquished, and the world is so much prettier, and all the characters are happy and full of life and everything is great and then when you try and re-enter the save file after the credits have rolled the game just puts you back before the final boss.

I think more developers should put in a tiny little bit of end game content wherein you get to play in the pretty, happy world. Just a small smidgen of gameplay in which you get to experience the positive change you made, instead of just plopping you back into the game when its at its darkest and saddest, with no actual way of making it better because no matter how hard you try the game will be forever permanently stuck that way. It just feels like a bit of a slap in the face for trying.

 

[MisterWaffles]

Boss Fights in Stealth Games

So recently I've been playing a lot of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Amazing game if you've ever played it. The game can be played in a couple different ways but the core gameplay is built around infiltration through stealth. When you build a character exclusively for stealth you have a specialized skillset you can use to complete the objective in a specific manner. So why is it that the game forces you out in the open to fight an overpowered buff dude who knows where you are at all times and eats bullets like a sponge? It's not fun playing the entire game in a stealthy way, then suddenly being forced out into the open in an arena with a boss character.

Not to mention it's completely out of character for your stealthy dude Jensen, who nobody knows the current location of, to come out in the open and confront the main antagonist instead of just assassinating him from the shadows right then and there.

 

[EngieDiesel]

Boss Fights in Stealth Games

So recently I've been playing a lot of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Amazing game if you've ever played it. The game can be played in a couple different ways but the core gameplay is built around infiltration through stealth. When you build a character exclusively for stealth you have a specialized skillset you can use to complete the objective in a specific manner. So why is it that the game forces you out in the open to fight an overpowered buff dude who knows where you are at all times and eats bullets like a sponge? It's not fun playing the entire game in a stealthy way, then suddenly being forced out into the open in an arena with a boss character.

Not to mention it's completely out of character for your stealthy dude Jensen, who nobody knows the current location of, to come out in the open and confront the main antagonist instead of just assassinating him from the shadows right then and there.

This was a major complaint with DX: Human Revolution as well, I believe they said the boss sections were outsourced for deadline reasons. When they re-released the game as a "Director's Cut", the boss areas were redone to have stealth friendly options and a lot less painful to do.

I haven't played Mankind Divided, but it seems really strange that they would make the same blunder twice.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Okay, this isn't technically a video game pet peeve so much as it's a hardware-related one, but hopefully that's close enough to count.

I have an Elgato capture card. But I don't run it all the time, firstly because it'll eat into HD space on the iMac (at least temporarily), but also because I don't really plan on recording often. But lately, if I want to capture a quick, crazy sequence of events in something like GTAV or Star Wars BF2 to share with some friends, I've found the PS4 Pro's Share button colossally annoying. The lag on this thing is epic: it's a few seconds before the menu even pops up on screen, and then another few before you can save even a screenshot, nevermind a short clip.

The One X has a slight delay, but it's only about one second total: double-tap the central Xbox button and then Y for a screengrab or X for a clip. The PS4's utterly ruins the flow in something like BF2, where I'm forced to essentially leave my character to die just to show a friend something.

 

[Wolfe]

@SlipZtrEm -- What about saving the default retroactive 15-minute clip, and then trimming it later? That's how I use the video capture unless I can prepare for a recording, like for a race replay.

Saving a screenshot is just a press of the button, too, though with an unnecessary delay on informing you it was saved. Does the Pro work differently?

 

[Grandea GTR]

It's much worse when the game is poorly optimized for such things.

Black Ops 4 on the PS4.

It takes over a minute to pull up the share menu!

 

[Aphelion]

That sounds really weird... is that a PS4 pro thing? My PS4 brings up the menu in like 1 second, and all up saving videos takes prpbably less than 2 seconds. Sometimes i i havent brought up the menu in a good while it will take a few seconds, but other than that thats never been a problem for me.

 

[UnkaD]

I'm a bit of a completionist and trophy whore, especially with games and series that I love to death. Sometimes to the point I can't help myself; it becomes an obsession. The thing is there are usually two pet peeves that will keep me from getting a platinum trophy. One is ridiculous online trophies and the other is speed runs.

Online trophies are understandable for a competitve game so long as they are within reason. What I hate is when a game is completely fine as a stand-alone experience, but they shove an online mode in with trophies that were obviously not thought out. Driver San Francisco is the first game that comes to my mind(Played the game to death and got all normal trophies, but I know I will never get all the online ones), but there are plenty of others.

Speed runs... I hate HATE the obsession with speed runs. Hey, this is a stunningly beautiful game with a wonderfully moving story. Let's see who can beat it the fastest!
No! So many of my favorite games ruined by trophies that have you beat it in x amount of hours. It's so frustrating! ICO and Shadow of the Colossus made me so sad. About as down in the dumps as I've been over a game. I really wanted to platinum those. And there are so many others.

 

[Apok]

I'm a bit of a completionist and trophy whore, especially with games and series that I love to death. Sometimes to the point I can't help myself; it becomes an obsession. The thing is there are usually two pet peeves that will keep me from getting a platinum trophy. One is ridiculous online trophies and the other is speed runs.

Online trophies are understandable for a competitve game so long as they are within reason. What I hate is when a game is completely fine as a stand-alone experience, but they shove an online mode in with trophies that were obviously not thought out. Driver San Francisco is the first game that comes to my mind(Played the game to death and got all normal trophies, but I know I will never get all the online ones), but there are plenty of others.

Speed runs... I hate HATE the obsession with speed runs. Hey, this is a stunningly beautiful game with a wonderfully moving story. Let's see who can beat it the fastest!
No! So many of my favorite games ruined by trophies that have you beat it in x amount of hours. It's so frustrating! ICO and Shadow of the Colossus made me so sad. About as down in the dumps as I've been over a game. I really wanted to platinum those. And there are so many others.

You can generally only play a game through at your own pace, taking everything in a certain amount of times before it'll get boring though, so a speedrun adds some extra challenge for those that want it. Which is what trophies really are at the end of the day, no?

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Chase cam that feels like it's glued to the back of the car. It's really hard to concentrate on the race when my car's going through a hairpin and camera starts swinging as if it's connected to a rude tourist's selfie stick. It bothers me way more than it should.

Honorable mention goes to cockpit cam that's too close to the windshield, and bumper cam that's not low enough.

 

[Dylan]

Chase cam that feels like it's glued to the back of the car.

Like the default chase cam settings for GT Sport?

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Speaking of chase cams, I reaaaallly hate Assetto Corsa's chase cam. Swaying with each corner, it just doesn't feel right. The worst part about the chase cam is that I couldn't find an option to change it unlike in Forza Motorsport 7.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Like the default chase cam settings for GT Sport?

I haven't played GT Sport, so I won't comment on their chase cam. I was thinking more about Project Cars 2 and Assetto Corsa when I was writing that.

 

[Downhill Dino]

The only chase cam I can think of as worse than Assetto's was NFS Shift, going by personal experience. Moving camera needs to be thrown out immediately.

 

[Veinz]

There is too much hand holding in games these days, especially with quest markers, The Anthem demo was the worst I've seen.

Also not being able to customize the hud in GTS is complete bs. the driver list and track map is just too much unnecessary clutter, I get rid of those right away in other racing games. Project Cars does it perfectly.

 

[Lain]

Just had a run-in with this one while playing through Link's Awakening for the first time...

When what you need to do to progress along the critical path is obvious (get Marin to sing and awaken the walrus), but you're arbitrarily blocked off from doing it until you do something entirely unrelated and not obvious (trade the stick for honeycomb, trade honeycomb to someone who then explicitly tells you about needing to fetch Marin to get past the walrus).

 

[Knukel]

Probably off-topic, but what's with the
futuristic retro maniac - cyberpunk - roller derby theme in games lately? Do you see it in latest movies aswell, in anime? Why now...?

- Far Cry New Dawn
- Rage 2
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Wolfenstein Youngblood (although it's understandable to take place in 80's)
- Battlefield V (?)

I find it little dissapointing that the games i'm looking forward to share the same theme (more or less), excluding the BF V.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Difficulty Spikes
This is something I definitely have had a problem with in some games that often hinders my desire to play through the game again or just that particular part of it, granted it doesn’t just stop me from progressing any further. (which has happened before) It's especially annoying when it's early or midway through a game. Some examples I have encountered over the years:

Spoiler: Numerous examples.

Corvette (GBA) - I can remember struggling with the 1987 Grand Prix, the farthest I could get was 3rd place in the 1987 Corvette and the ones up front were nowhere in sight. It feels almost impossible to win unless you have some sort of luck the AI is moving slower than usual. Once that’s done though, the rest of the game feels more or less beatable afterward.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (PS1) - Anyone who has beaten this game probably knows about the infamous mission called Canis Lunis 2. This mission for whatever reason requires you to kill all the enemies in a certain room to open the next door before a bomb goes off and you have to start over. It’s pretty tedious at times not to mention confusing if you've never played it, it takes a while to beat and it’s probably the hardest mission in the game. Weirdly no other level in the game requires you to kill enemies to progress through the level like this one does and the levels that came after this one was easier than it too. Why this one had to be so needlessly different is beyond me.

Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005) - Several examples exist in just this one game alone.

• When challenging Earl, I can remember the last race was one of the hardest boss races in the whole game. Being that he is only #9, you wouldn’t expect it, but I ended up having more trouble with him than anyone else, including Razor. I don’t remember how my recent playthrough with him went, but I do remember how it was from back in the day and my cousin even had a similar experience.
• Like the one above, I don’t remember how my recent playthrough of this went, but I do remember from back in the days Blacklist rival #2 (Bull), had some of the hardest milestones in career mode for me. Meanwhile, Razor’s was not nearly as hard, at least for me.
• Halfway through the challenge series, I eventually hit a hard place where every challenge afterwards just feels almost impossible to beat without cheats and it even with them, they still aren’t easy. I get it’s meant to be challenging, but it shouldn’t be this difficult halfway through the series.

Spyro Season of Flame - The game itself ain’t hard, but one thing that is hard is the fire pixie challenge. I forget which level it was, but the challenge requires you to freeze all the fire pixies. The problem is, the area is pretty large, the pixies move extremely fast and are hard to catch. Once you freeze them, they unfreeze very quickly which is a problem because you have to get them all frozen together. The fact you have to do this twice just makes it even worse. This prevented me from beating the game for a VERY long time and I still do not look forward to doing it again.

Need for Speed (2015) - Seems like this game had a variety of difficulty spikes for me, but the most notable one I can recall was the Magnus Walker challenge. Going off memory, the time trial was pretty long in itself and simply put, it was NOT easy.

Need for Speed Underground 2 - I don’t remember the name of it, but the game had one drag race midway through the game that me and my brother used to have a lot of trouble with. Once it was beaten, it seems we never had a drag race that hard ever again.

Crash Bandicoot 2 - I think many can agree that for both the original and the N’Sane Trilogy, Cold Hard Crash is among one of the hardest in the game when it comes to getting the gem, especially with the death route. I mean you have slippery surfaces, a VERY tricky death route, backtracking, and more crates to break than any other level in the game and this is only the 4th level in the warp room. Piston It Away is also a pain in the neck in similar ways, in fact, I am not sure which is worse. Getting every other gem in the game is not quite as hard, but these two are a major pain.

Crash Bandicoot - The whole game itself is pretty hard as it is, but one level that was sooo much more difficult than the others was Slippery Climb. I ended up rage quitting the first game in the N’Sane Trilogy due to this and I had to cheat through it in the original. I probably don’t need to say much more than that.

I am sure I have more I could name, I know the GT series has some that I can’t remember right now, but these are all I could think of.

 

[BKGlover]

I know the GT series has some that I can’t remember right now

The GT40 stowed away in the historic championship in GT2 is the main one I can think of. Mission 34(?) from GT4. Pesonally, golds in all licenses seemed needlessly hard as the AI can never match that pace and only served to instill how god-🤬-awful I actually was...I was 8 then, I still feel inferior 20 🤬 years later.

Forza likes to throw spikes into their games as well. One make races in the original with crash-happy AI. Forza 2 showing how the PI system has never been that good of a system as 12 games later they still haven't got it right, then throwing high-end AI in the OP cars, usually sports cars vs regular cars, supers against either included.

*Unrelated, but the "Drivatar" notion is garbage. How is it that I keep racing garbage ones that drive the exact same way as each other, get caught on the same clips, and yet never balls it up even though they are allegedly level 1.*

Warship Gunner has...four to six spikes, but two that peak and drop down again. One is the Final boss of the first playthrough, the other the second, but all the spikes will eat your lunch, even on lower difficulties and even if you know what's coming.

Sephiroth in the KH games. Even if wholly optional, 🤬 those fights.

 

[HarVee]

Orchestra soundtracks for games. Leave that **** for movies. Game music sounds best when it's repetitive MIDI stuff.

 

[TheNuvolari]

Orchestra soundtracks for games. Leave that **** for movies. Game music sounds best when it's repetitive MIDI stuff.

Buuut, but but.. Moon Over The Castle...

 

[HarVee]

Buuut, but but.. Moon Over The Castle...

Probably one of the worst examples IMO. I really do not understand the love for that song. It sounds like it belongs in an early '90s anime, not a car game.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The GT40 stowed away in the historic championship in GT2 is the main one I can think of. Mission 34(?) from GT4.

Ah yes, the driving missions. I could never beat some of them no matter how hard I tried. I don't remember that challenge or many of the other ones, but I know some of them were pretty dang hard for me back in the days.

Pesonally, golds in all licenses seemed needlessly hard as the AI can never match that pace and only served to instill how god-🤬-awful I actually was...I was 8 then, I still feel inferior 20 🤬 years later.

Tell me about it. I never fully understood how people got all golds on the license tests, bronze was about all I could ever get a majority of the time. Once in a while, I did better, but apart from one occasion, it rarely happened.

The license tests are what made me want to mention GT in that post. I know without a doubt the GT series is littered with difficulty spikes, but I haven't played through a GT game in years, so I couldn't name anything super specific.

I really do not understand the love for that song.

Me neither. I mean, I don't dislike it or orchestra soundtracks in general, but I am not a huge fan of that one either. In some ways, I kind of thought it made GT4's intro a bit overly dramatic. I didn't really care to hear it in game either because once it got past the part we hear in the intro, the rest is not very interesting to me.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Probably one of the worst examples IMO. I really do not understand the love for that song. It sounds like it belongs in an early '90s anime, not a car game.

Me neither. I mean, I don't dislike it or orchestra soundtracks in general, but I am not a huge fan of that one either. In some ways, I kind of thought it made GT4's intro a bit overly dramatic. I didn't really care to hear it in game either because once it got past the part we hear in the intro, the rest is not very interesting to me.

You both find that song awful?

...

 

[JR98]

Games being completely different based on platform

I recently got NASCAR Thunder 2004 on PC after hearing it was one of the best NASCAR games (although the friends that told me this had only played the console version). I get it installed (and finally working) only to find out its basically rFactor with licenced NASCAR drivers and events. The menus are almost exactly like those of NASCAR Racing 2003 and the driving physics are basically rFactor. Also some of the main features from the console version (such as AI aggression based on player's driving style and a driving school) are completely gone from the game.

It wasn't until I quit the game that I found out that Image Space Incorporated (rFactor devs) did the PC version while EA Tiburon made the console versions.

I know some of the older NFS games were like this as well but not to this extent.

 

[HarVee]

Games being completely different based on platform

I recently got NASCAR Thunder 2004 on PC after hearing it was one of the best NASCAR games (although the friends that told me this had only played the console version). I get it installed (and finally working) only to find out its basically rFactor with licenced NASCAR drivers and events. The menus are almost exactly like those of NASCAR Racing 2003 and the driving physics are basically rFactor. Also some of the main features from the console version (such as AI aggression based on player's driving style and a driving school) are completely gone from the game.

It wasn't until I quit the game that I found out that Image Space Incorporated (rFactor devs) did the PC version while EA Tiburon made the console versions.

I know some of the older NFS games were like this as well but not to this extent.

Honestly the old NFS games are the worst offenders of this. Just look at how different High Stakes, Porsche and Hot Pursuit 2 were between the PC and Playstation versions. The Playstation versions were always better.

 

[JR98]

Honestly the old NFS games are the worst offenders of this. Just look at how different High Stakes, Porsche and Hot Pursuit 2 were between the PC and Playstation versions. The Playstation versions were always better.

At least Hot Pursuit 2 (the only of those I’ve played the PS2 and PC versions of) made an attempt to disguise the fact it was different from the console version.

NASCAR Thunder 2004 on PS2 from what I’ve seen of gameplay is a fun arcade track racing game with great physics, good game mechanics and easy to use menus.

Meanwhile the PC version is literally NR2003 with more polish and a career mode. The physics, the HUD and even graphically they’re very similar. It’s not just that the PS2 version is better, they are two completely different games.