Lack of local multiplayer. I have real friends, in the same room, but we can't play a game together on my Xbox 360 because that would require being online. Why did I even buy four controllers?

This is everything that pisses me off that's already been said before;

1. Unskipable cutscenes: you watch it, right before a boss battle, you die from the battle, you have to watch it all over again. It's pretty annoying.

2. Difficulty differences: the only difference in the CoD4 difficulties Hard and Veteran is that i could take less hits, and the enemy always seems to hit me and/or they just shoot ONCE and i'm dead.

3. Audio tutorials: I can read the layout of the controller, i'm not an idiot.

4. Bloom and overly shiny backgrounds: It doesn't really help when i'm shooting a guy behind a shiny car windshield

5. Escort Missions with retarted AI: I'm over HERE you damn survivor!

6. Escort Misisons in general: Do i really have to save this whiny bastard?

7. Checkpoints that are too far apart: this happend alot in "Rainbow 6: Vegas" when i'm just 10m away from the next checkpoint, but some cheeky terrorist shoots me with a shootgun and i start ALL over.

8. Fixed Cameras: It really depends on how the camera is placed, but when i can't see the platform i'm supposed to jump on, which is 3 ft away, we have a problem

9. Vauge quest intructions: How am i supposed to gather 12 feathers of a gorble bird if i have no idea what the hell is is and/or don't know where to find it and/or don't even know if the quest is for my level type?

10. Auto-Aim that doesn't really help: Sometimes auto-aim is good but it's really annoying when the auto-aim aims at the wrong guy.

11. Allys that won't move unless you press forward: I'm looking at you "Call of Duty 4"

12. Boss fights that take way too long: It's not really a challenge if the final boss has 15x your ownhealth, 8x your own power, and can hit you 4x your hit radius; it's just a pain in the ass.

Well, that's the end of my complaints.

EDIT:

13. Unnecasary quick-time events: as referanced to the "Uncharted" review, i can understand some quick-time events, such as when you're doing a melee combo on an enemy to kill him, but you think you're safe only to be bombarded with flashing button icons and most likly die when you arn't quick enough and have to do it all over again.

Worst thing about MMORPG's.... Other people.

I just wish someone would release a single player game with all the quests, crafting, classes etc etc etc.

Then I wouldn't have to be nice to people and wait for the servers every week.

Copter400:
J-RPG's aren't getting enough gyp, it appears. So...

When was the last time anyone can say they played a truly original Japanese RPG? The answer: The first one you ever played. Everything afterwards is a repeat of the first.

Eternal Sonata. A world set in the dying dreams of Frederyk Chopin, unique interactive turn based combat with varied mechanics for melee and ranged fighters... When was the last time you saw something like that?

ToothlessRebel:
Lack of local multiplayer. I have real friends, in the same room, but we can't play a game together on my Xbox 360 because that would require being online. Why did I even buy four controllers?

YES!!!! I totally fucking agree with you there! WHAT'S WRONG WITH FUCKING SPLIT-SCREEN MULTIPLAYER?! i love my 360 dearly, but when the only game i can get some friends round to play is fucking halo 3, it gets a little irritating. what's the point of being able to connect 4 controllers to a single fucking console, when so few games have split screen modes?
rargh i say. rargh.

Ellisia:
Worst thing about MMORPG's.... Other people.

I just wish someone would release a single player game with all the quests, crafting, classes etc etc etc.

Then I wouldn't have to be nice to people and wait for the servers every week.

Play Guild Wars, or any variation thereof. It's basically single player, with the option of joining people if you want. The later expansions have hero npcs that can be directed, equipped and whatever.

Protagonist:

And as for the "Wolverine" healing thing, I really think a bar that can only auto-heal to selected points would be cool. So you have either 1/4, 1/2 3/4 or max health after you heal.

Resistance: Fall of Man. One of the VERY few cases where I didn't mind wolverine healing factor, because...
A: It's exactly like you say, it's divided up into quarters and if you go below a certain one, you need to find health packs.
B: It's explained in-game (your character is infested with alien cells that extremely rapidly increases the body's metabolism, to the point where the aliens actually have to have cooling packs on their back or they die)
C: You can SEE your health bar! Thank god on a stick, I can know how close I am to dying!

Copter400:
J-RPG's aren't getting enough gyp, it appears. So...

When was the last time anyone can say they played a truly original Japanese RPG? The answer: The first one you ever played. Everything afterwards is a repeat of the first.

Edit
I know I have brought it up in alot of my posts but thats because I just got it and love it. Persona 3. You summon out your other personality by shooting yourself in the head. Yeah... hadn't seen that one yet.

the 16 bit era was great for original RPGs. The 32 bit era had some good ones as well but once they became super popular...everyone just copied eachother. It happens to EVERY genre at one point. We can only hope RPGs start to die down in order to get back originality, just like platformers did.

ZP strikes again.. funny how everyone is down on the sit-in-the-corner-and-heal mechanic after the Turok edition of ZP.

There is nothing wrong with the "Wolverine healing" if the game uses it as part of it's style. First off, don't tell me which is more realistic. The only realistic option is 1 shot and you are dead. Because unless it is a pretty grazing shot no matter where you are hit, you are going to be out of any fight you are in, in a "Realistic" situation.

Health packs allow for extended periods of fighting enemies while worrying about a slowly diminishing health, then they usually give you a quick heal up at the end. This adds some tension to long sections they may otherwise be a cakewalk. But it also means a lot more saving and reloading, and replaying of areas that, as many have pointed out, is not a fun way to go. Oh.. that guy in that tower you didn't see clipped you with a sniper rifle and took away half your life. Now you have to reload, then you will know he is there and can take him out before he shoots you again. Damn, you were little too close to that barrel that exploded. You can't afford that ¼ life lost. Reload and try again. And then there is the endless backtracking to earlier points of the stage to make sure you can keep the bar topped off. Backtracking is also mentioned a few times on this list is it not?

Wolverine Healing Factor means there is rarely tension in an extended fight, but in the short skirmishes it does mean you will tend to use cover more often. Despite what a lot of people assume about WHF style it actually slows down most games I think. In Half-Life running across a courtyard under heavy fire is a strategic tactical move.. yeah, I will lose a big chunk of health, but as long as I am advancing, who cares. If I stay under cover I will lose bits of health from lucky shots anyway. WHF games tend to give you less life overall. Being able to take 4 or so hits before you drop. So you can hide, pop, shoot and cover. It makes co-op a hell of a lot more fun when you have real reason to cover a friend while they recoup.

There are disadvantages of both. If you are using WHF in a game out of laziness, then you deserve all the criticism you get. But if it was truly a design decision to effect the flow and feel of the game then I think it is perfectly acceptable.

As for the most hated thing, there can be no doubt that those who do not allow for easily skipped cut scenes (and I mean ANY button should skip it!) should be beaten to death with an angry cat. I don't care how many hours went into the rendering. I either know the story, or don't care. I came to play, I have lots of DVDs if I want to watch a movie.

Checkpoints/save-points immediately before a @#$!ing cutscene. Especially unskippable ones, and "in engine" scripted dialog counts here, but even if they're skippable it's poor level design and breaks the "flow" of the level. (Gears of War, I'm looking at you.)

Health packs - most of the time they just don't make sense within the game. I'm not saying that health-packs are a game killer, they can be used well, but too often designers make the game turn into "find the health pack" as a cheap way to stretch otherwise short gameplay... or leave the game unbalanced because they can't predict a player's health status for each encounter... or leave so many blasted packs around that the health bar might as well be self-regenerating to save game memory for more interesting objects.

Jumping puzzles in non-platform games, especially when you can't see your feet.

-- Steve

martydom in cod4. gods i hate that. also arbitary decisions as to what will stop bullets, they go through massive concrete walls like it's paper, but not the little bits of metal that stick out from cars. also people who sing on line...................

I hate the auto-target in most FPS. If its supposed to be realistic then you have to aim yourself. And some games where you aren't a character that has to use a gun all the time it should be harder to shoot. OMy character is a scientist or photographer he should not have pin point accuracy. I'd also like to throw some of the COD4 issues. My character can't use a sniper rilfe without it bouncing around but it doesn't seem to matter when my AK-47 with a scope is just as good or better for accuracy from distance.

Save anywhere mentality. I actually liked the save system in Dead Rising. I think you should have to get to a 'safe spot' to save. In some games I can understand it. But being able to save anywhere takes away from the challenge of most games.

Idiotic helper/escort AI. I am trying to lead or help would you please not jump in front of my gun? Stay 5 feet behind me and just do what I say. And don't shoot each other!

Let me backtrack if I want to. I dislike after getting past a certain point in a level I can not get back. If the story makes sense I can understand it. Like if a building is destroyed or you went to a different area. But otherwise I should be able to walk anywhere I want.

Uneven multiplayer. Halo 3 does it right. It matches you up with people of similar skills. I hate buying a game a few weeks after everyone else and joining a multiplayer. Everyone else knows the maps, has better weapons and pretty much kills me every 5 steps I take.

In sports ames I hate playing the computer teams. Players seem to be 10x better when they are not on your team. I have MLB 2K7 Kenny Lofton can catch a ball in LF and gun the ball to 1B in the air prerfectly. I get him on my team and he one-hops the ball to 2B. If I throw it to first its about 5 ft off the mark and is rolling the last 15 feet.

xbeaker:
*A bunch of stuff about how everyone just dislikes the wolverine healing factor cause yahtzee mentioned it*
As for the most hated thing, there can be no doubt that those who do not allow for easily skipped cut scenes (and I mean ANY button should skip it!) should be beaten to death with an angry cat. I don't care how many hours went into the rendering. I either know the story, or don't care. I came to play, I have lots of DVDs if I want to watch a movie.

I feel unfairly attacked here. I've been against Wolverine Healing Factor very much before I ever heard of ZP, and have been vocally against it on these forums well before Ben's Turok review.

And if anything, ANY button skipping the story is annoying. Resistance had this as a problem, where you gently looking in the general direction of the shoulder buttons would ignore all the story. Sheesh, just have the START or X buttons be the ones to skip cutscenes. There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Best of both worlds.

That said, the best combination of health packs and healing factor is in the (sadly buggy and unappreciated game with horrible forced stealth sections) horror game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the World.
In this game, you cannot heal unless you use medical equipment. Which takes considerable time as you must kneel, bandage yourself up, etc. before it's fixed.
THEN, once THAT is done, you will start to heal. This combines realism, tension as you try shakily to bandage a wound while under fire, and a nice pacing of the game, as well as lack of backtracking (I very rarely backtrack just cause I'm wounded and need a healthpack in games. What are you people smoking? Pussy-cigs? Ya buncha wimps.) that some people dislike.
Best of all worlds, really.

propertyofcobra:
And if anything, ANY button skipping the story is annoying. Resistance had this as a problem, where you gently looking in the general direction of the shoulder buttons would ignore all the story. Sheesh, just have the START or X buttons be the ones to skip cutscenes. There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Best of both worlds.

Can't tell you how many times I've had to restart consoles and such to replay an entire level just to view a cut scene I missed. Why do at least 90% of the buttons have to skip the cut scene??? They do it to make me curse, and moan as I replay the level to listen to the story. ;)

Last time this happened...
MGS: Portable Ops -_-

Ellisia:
Worst thing about MMORPG's.... Other people.

I just wish someone would release a single player game with all the quests, crafting, classes etc etc etc.

Then I wouldn't have to be nice to people and wait for the servers every week.

Hey, here's an idea... play an RPG then...
If you don't want people...

MMORPG = PEOPLE...
RPG = NO PEOPLE...

Maybe it's just me, but the entire idea of an MMORPG is people...
So how can you actually complain about that???

As primarily an RPG fan, I have very few complaints about other gameplay styles/types. So my list will be primarily focused on said genre. That said:

*.) Battle or equipment systems that work against themselves. Example: Rogue Galaxy. I love Rogue Galaxy, I really do. It's an absolutely wonderful game with an involving storyline and plenty of useful and fun innovations. However, I have one problem with the game system as it is set up: they have this wonderful weapon growth system whereby the longer one of your characters uses a certain weapon, the stronger it inevitably gets. It's also wonderful how you have this neat item/weapon combination system where you can get certain weapons only after leveling them for a certain amount of time. Problem? Each weapon's levels are unique to that particular instance of the weapon, meaning if you accidentally drop or merge the badass sword you've been working up you have to start levelling it all over again from scratch; also, when you decide that it's time to upgrade to a new weapon you feel like you just wasted a good amount of your time levelling up your past one only to throw it away, knowing that you'll never be able to see it again without spending more time levelling up an identical weapon. Combine that with the massive number of weapons in the game and you basically never really USE or care about the weapon level-system unless you're trying to make a particular weapon from combinations.

*.) No healing outside of items. Example: Rogue Galaxy again. I don't mind it so much as the previous entry in Rogue Galaxy's case, since every save point effectively serves as a shop and you're basically rolling in dough from the first stage onwards, but it's really annoying knowing that I HAVE to use all of my potions, since I don't have a character who can heal my party for me instead.

*.) Active-Time Command Selection. Example: Final Fantasy (almost all). I really don't mind active-time battle systems so much; waiting for the bar to fill is not a HUGE exercise in patience for me. However, I wish that when a character's turn came up combat would freeze while I made my command selection. I hate feeling rushed through the menu commands, and even the "wait" mode doesn't entirely eliminate this problem.

*.) Abilities that LOSE attributes as they level up. Example: Final Fantasy (many). Remember FFVII? Did anyone ever level-up the Slash-All materia? It was kindof cool how it turned into that attempted instant-slaying attack against all enemies, right? Generally, yeah. Until you tried to use it against a boss with multiple attack sections. Then you basically have LOST the ability to attack with that character. Annoying as hell. Most major game companies find ways to get around this type of thing, but it's still annoying.

*.) Taking character customization to such an exteme that characters lose a sense of personality. Example: Final Fantasy (most, except IX, and to a lesser extent X). Call me non-creative if you want, but if I'm gonna control an entire party of characters, then I want to feel like their personalities are reflected in the battle system, at least a little. Games like FFVII, FFXII, and Tactics, where every one of your multiple characters can go in any direction you choose, make me feel more disconnected from the characters, since I only see what kind of person they are during cinemas and cutscenes. It also makes me feel like I'm creating more of the story, which isn't so bad, until I GET into a cutscene and remember that I'm not. Now I'm not saying that open-ended character customization doesn't work, because it does; however, it works best when you have only one character, not 4+ (such as in Vagrant Story), or if the customization options are not absolute and total (such as in Breath of Fire III and IV). I know not everyone will agree with me on this, and that's cool. It's just my thought.

*.) Permanent detriments for temporary failures. Example: Fire Emblem series, Dungeon Lords (PC). It annoys me like nothing else how some games will permanently penalize you for character death. In Fire Emblem, if one of your characters dies, they are gone for good. Period. End of discussion. Start over the game, because you will never see them again. Granted, that's realistic, true, but I'm not playing a video game for realism. Similarly, in a little-kown game called Dungeon Lords, whenever you die you permanently lose one point on one of your stats and the Experience Points that you had earned towards your next level are lost; I don't want to do the complicated explanation of the math involved, but basically a Maxed Out character in DL who has died less will be more powerful than one who has died more. Major, major suckage. Makes me just not want to bother with it at all.

*.) "Beat the Hidden Secret Ultimate Boss in order to get the main character's Ultimate Weapon." Okay, so once I've beaten the secret hard-than-the-final-boss Secret Boss, what's the point in having the Main Character's ultimate weapon? Legend of Dragoon was smart about this; in that one, you had to UNLOCK the ability to fight the game's Secret Boss basically by completing the longest side-quest in the game, so fighting the boss was basically your reward for blinging out your characters with all the best shit. THAT was a good idea. Getting the main character's ultimate weapon and never having anything to REALLY use it on? Not such a good idea.

Okay, that's all I've got for now.

Jumplion:

5. Escort Missions with retarted AI: I'm over HERE you damn survivor!

6. Escort Misisons in general: Do i really have to save this whiny bastard?

Couldn't agree more.

I hate minigames inside a game. Yes I hate the hacking you have to do in BioShock; I'm after a mad dictator dude, but first I have to do some plumbing...

I don't have a problem with long unskippable cut-scenes because my understanding is that they are load screens in disguise. While I am watching the same slow zoom into the scenery followed by a a round of exposition dumping dialog, the system is busy in the background (re)loading the level. Would I rather watch a cut-scene than a Loading... bar? You bet your butt I would. You can argue that the designers shouldn't set up a level to need a full reload after you've already run it once, but I suspect that's easier said than done.

I just want to join the outcry against dumbass NPCs. Please to quit running right in front of the tank kthx, and if I am supposed to be escorting your side-quest ass somewhere, it would be awful nice if you'd quit wandering around in circles like a chicken in a yard. If the AI can give the enemy the good sense to hide, there should be enough IQ points to go around so the NPC doesn't deserve an "Ask Me About My Lobotomy" t-shirt. If nothing else, if I can tell it to stay someplace, make it effing stay there, or give me a hammer and a tent spike so I can nail its foot to the ground.

But my biggest peeve is being automatically loaded up with the entire contents every time I open a container. Especially once I'm far enough advanced in the game, I don't need this crap, there isn't anyplace I can sell it, and I can't throw it away. All it does is bung up my menus when I am trying to equip something I actually need.

Also forgot to put in;

13. Unnecasary quick-time events: as referanced to the "Uncharted" review, i can understand some quick-time events, such as when you're doing a melee combo on an enemy to kill him, but you think you're safe only to be bombarded with flashing button icons and most likly die when you arn't quick enough and have to do it all over again.

As far as original J-rpgs go people need to o play Vagrant story, persona 3 (I just got mine yesterday.), Xenogears, Xenosaga etc.

As far as features I do not like I would go with dev houses that think they know where stuff should be installed even though there are well established techniques for letting me decide where things go on my computer. (And the noobs that defend this sort of stupidity.)

Can't forget lack of proper controller configuration in most console FPS' there are people who want to aim with their left hand or use a legacy layout. It does not help that in many cases even if the sticks can be changed the buttons can never be properly adjusted.(And the noobs that get mad if you point out this kind of stupidity.)

Lack of maps or nav points in FPS'

Lack of warping system so you do not have to run all over the map in rpgs.

Bosses in FPS'

Keyboard spam in in general

Incredibly powerful moves that have the most difficult input commands in fighting games.

Games that become impossible to find after six months of being available in your territory (Atlus' games.) unless you Ebay it.

Driving missions in FPS'

Puzzles in just about every game that there is unless it is of course a puzzle game.

The need to press a single button really fast to accomplish something. (God of war, I can't even beat some bosses without using turbo controllers.)

Games that try to pretend that they are RPG's even though they are not. (Mass Effect, Bioshock.)

Games where npc's try to talk around you because you do not have a voice nor are you given any controller over your responses.

Games with a pathological fear of using a cg cutscene.

Epic's art team and their pension for overly muscled closet homosexual character designs, I still can't figure out whether "Hard Gay" is worse than "Bishounen"/"Trap" so common in Japanese games; personally I am leaning towards a tie.

How is Mass Effect not an RPG?

I don't want to read everything, but I bet everything that pisses me off is covered. But to recap.....

Action time button sequence smashing whatever the hell they're called.....annoying

What's wrong with making the game a little fucking easier but adding more content? Making a game really hard in one spot so that it drags the game on just pisses people off.

Storytelling is great; learn to do it within the game, cutscenes should be used sparingly. And never make it to where we can't skip some boring ass scene with a high pitched voice over.

I also hate games trying to be longer by adding mini games that had no thought put into them......I think I basically just hate asshole developers who want to make games longer by doing a lot of random things that do nothing for the story, nothing for the fun factor, nothing for replayability, and could have instead been used to put MORE CONTENT into the game. More original obstacles, levels, guns, items, believable characters, making the player feel smarter, making the player feel absorbed at the right times. I'll stop rambling now

1. going into a roonm wlaking across said room then something happens (go tun on power to advance.) do it like zelda in OOT i have no key BAM! someone jumps down who has it beat them move on.

2. Raceing games with no inside view. (Forza 2)

3. Escort missions. it would be better if the AI actually fought along side you.

4. Fixed Camera Angle. we are way past this i think.

5. Realistic Physical Damage. cant wait for Alone in The Dark.

6. EA . thats it.

SpaceGandhi:
Easily my most hated feature in any game is the obligatory "Stealth Level" in the non-stealth game. These atrocities are becoming more and more a thing of the past, but every once and a while one will pop up and the game has just lost about 4 5/6 cool points.

Paticulary since the reason is usually rather arbitrary. You've just killed 47,000 of the enemies troops, but suddenly you have to be quiet and not trigger the alarm or all will be lost(automatic failure). Jedi Knight 2 was a great example of how retarded this was.

1.Quick Time Events
2.Timers on Stealth games
3.Having to read text in this day and age

shadow skill:
Xenosaga etc.

Played through all 3, very good story.It's a shame they only did three games instead of 6 like originally planned.

And Xenogears pissed me off because my disk died before I finished the game, and I can't find it anywhere.

Back on topic though.

Games whose only attempt at a scifi twist is to tack unneeded giant robots to the game, or toss in aliens for the hell of it.

Or, to widen it out a little, any scifi game where the story is the same old generic garbage.

I'm kinda new to this and only joined for this thread. i am an avid 360 fan and play LIVE often. I am sick of people telling me which games to get. I mean seriously, if I wanted a realistic shooting game like COD4 I'd join the fucking army. Oh and by the way COD4 is not real in any way or shape on earth. One shot, dead. No "wolverine" bollocks or even a fucking health pack can heal a round to the chest. If it did, their would be a hell of a lot more people on planet earth. Trust me, if war was any fun, we'd all be thanking Hitler for the "wonderful game". In contrast, if I wanted to rollick around in an unknown universe toying with the shards of a dumbass, alien, "Who gives a shit lets get back to earth" plot I'd take fucking LSD's. I like games that do exactly what they say on the tin. None of this "unrivalled physics" or "realism" bollocks. 'Caus actually, their only fucking video games designed to cease boredom for a few hours before getting on with your life. Also, come on guys. How the fuck can you hate mini games. They're either non obligitary or their just to wast time anyway. Which seems a little weird, wasting time within a video game or helping the time pass easier. 'Caus lets face it video games are mini games to life. Please stop moaning about wolverine healing. If you can't master it you'r colourblind. Normal Vision= You're fine. Red/blurred Vision = you're dead. Please, please go to your local opticians now or wake up from this "I suck at life so I'll rule at close to life video games" state of mind.