regenerating health. enough said

I can't believe no one's said the retarded down forward down forward halfcircle BS to do your special attacks that is present in almost every fighting game.

Why's everyone picking on Jrpgs?

I don't know if this fits, but it really, really, really annoys me when games are only "compatible" with one type of controller. Especially when it's a complete piece of crap like the "x-box 360 controller for Windows". (For the benefit of any fairly new PC gamers out there, if you're ever tempted to buy this s--t, save your £35 and get yourself a copy of Crysis instead.) I'm looking at you, Bioshock!

Actually it does fit, since the only games I've come across which are that restrictive as to what you can play them with are FPSs...

Also, let me add another FPS one: you walk into a well-lit empty room with no obvious exits, there's a bundle of goodies in the middle of it, and it's ridiculously obvious that the moment you pick up that ultra-powerful gun or whatever, the lights are going to go out and enemies are going to pour out of invisible holes in the walls. It's been done to death and beyond since the original "Doom", it's NOT scary, it's predictable, it's just tiresome. Enough of this pointless contrived "scare" device already!

Basically everything that everyone has said about RPGs, especially JRPGs. Requiring that much repetition in everything is not fun and does not make for good gameplay. I can survive stand-in-a-line combat, but the sheer sameness of everything else is unbearable.

Detours... I don't mind fetch quests, but those "Oh no the bridge fell down, so I'll have to journey through the nine circles of hell to get to my destination." moments (eg. golden sun) just piss me off.

Tabula Rasa just the way they set up well everything it was pretty bad in general

Melty Blood:
Why's everyone picking on Jrpgs?

I don't think anyone targeted JRPGs particularly, but rather JRPGs with extreme level-grinding in them. This is an MMORPG element a lot of JRPGs "secretly" insert into the games just to increase play-time. I love many of the JRPGs made, from Chrono Trigger to FF to Suikoden, but level-grinding is the root of all evil IMO. I stop playing games immediately if it starts to introduce this element. I could probably write a 406 pages long essay about this subject, and how much i hate it, but be thankful, i won't.

Edit: I also want to point out the insane difference between optional level-grinding (when you can beat bosses without grinding for eleventy hours (yeah, i know eleventy is a fictional number)) and necessitated level-grinding (try beating any boss on FF12 without 5 hours of level-grinding... i'll spare you the time, it won't work.)

That having been said, i too dislike random encounters greatly. I wonder, does anyone remember that accessory or equipment in FF8 that gave the ability "NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS"?????
Why doesn't all RPGs have this????

And then there's the second MMORPG element in RPGs these days: Percentage-based item-drops. This means that, if you need an item to make something, or you just need that item, then monsters (or even bosses) that carry these rare items, will drop them for you - say - 6 % of the times you kill them. Oh my nutcracking windmill on a stick, I HATE IT!! (those clever enough to read between the lines will now realize that this element automatically introduces.... you guessed it... GRINDING!!)

Moving on:
FPS - Spawnkilling

I mostly hate when games are counterintuitive. Like when you can't step over a bump in the ground, instead you have to go all the way around. Can't you just go over it?? It's dumb. Or like when the place where you want to go is past a forest and you can't go through the forest. It's just a forest!!! are the trees made of steel or something?? This is SO counterintuitive.
And like when you can't go to the next place until you talk to EXACTLY the right person. I've stopped playing games just because I couldn't find EXACTLY the right person.
I guess these are pretty RPG-related.

In General: Certain areas that are too dark when you have no decent source of light, forcing you to jack up the brightness... then fix it in the blidingly bright outdoor scenery that follows. *glares at Oblivion*

RTS: Amazingly fast obsessive players that have 100 heavy infantry when you've barely built your first gold mine.

FPS: Quite simply, when the game doesn't give you anything even remotely capable of accomplishing the task given to you. Such as gving you a pistol, depleting your ammo on enemies in places you can't get to and thus cannot scavenge from, then throwing you into a field with no cover while being shot at by snipers and tasked with destroying a tank with said pistol.

Secondly would probably be obsessive snipers that refuse to do anything in multiplayer matches but find a camping spot and snipe the whole round.

I hate jumping puzzles in FPS's. You can't feel your center of gravity and can't see your own damn feet, so how are you supposed to jump anywhere?

I find myself doing it in every "Herse Curtain Pewter" (copywrite - Mr Ben) Going to the edge of a cliff/drop then turning 180 degrees and look down, Now I'm defying gravity because as well as not being able to see my feet I can see the point where the cliff ends and (Normally) the cliff face. Is it so hard to actually make a character model!? When I look down in life I see 4/5s of my torso, legs and feet, why when I look down in FPS's I see my disembodied hands still stretched out in front of me, is it so much to at least have them make MY FRIGGIN ARMS!!!? Why have all FPS characters got shorter arms than a T-Rex?

GAH theres a reason why I don't play these for too long :P

Multiple vehicle/ objective hunting in GTA/ GTA Clones, where you chase one vehicle for ages then destroy it and have to go halfway across the city to find the next one only to find that you've run out of time.

Fatalis67:
RTS: Amazingly fast obsessive players that have 100 heavy infantry when you've barely built your first gold mine.

How I hated this when I used to play online mp in Empire Earth... When I had played what to me was quite fast and had, to me, quickly gotten up a couple of ages and started training my swordsmen, 90% of the time I was suddenly attacked by giant armies that were at least 3-4 ages above me... And every time I shouted at the sceen in desperation and wondered where the hell their resourced had come from... I hardly had enough to build a small force as my stuff went to the overly expensive age upgrades...

That wasn't as much a game mechanic as retardedly hardcore players though...

As for game mechanics I'm usually annoyed by Random Encounters in low level areas in RPGs, it's only a pointless waste of time...

Another thing that I truly hated in a game was the aeon Yojimbo in FFX... to make him any good at all you had to be a freaking millionaire... At least it seemed that way as he never made a Zanbato attack for me when I needed it... no matter the gil he got. But I know there's some kind of odd technique involved in controlling his attacks...

And finally I hate broken pathfinding in games... usually in RPGs or sometimes in RTSs. Like when you get to a cliff that you can jump down from but happen to have a familiar or pet and the companion decides that it's scared of heights and takes another path, right through the damn enemies you were trying to bypass making them angry at you. I guess that description is best for WoW... In RTSs it's more like you give the group you have selected an order to go from point A to point B and to you it seems that it's just an easy path, so you think they're smart enough to handle that on their own and go do some more important stuff. But they can't use that route, god no, how would that look. No, they have to take the scenic route through some enemy camp on the other side of the map and end up being slaughtered because they can't defend themselves =P Yay!

In FPS games, having team mates that do absolutely nothing but get you killed half the time. Also, less commonly, starting you with one weapon that has low ammo or it burns through ammo really quick (Call of Duty 3!!)

Ohh, it's a long-long list.

RPGs with limited inventory space, where selling loot is the primary means of getting money. (STALKER, Dungeon Siege, Diablo, Titan quest)
It's NOT fun to have to town-portal back and forth to sell your loot, especially not when it consists of 14 Rusty Great Swords.

Claymores, landmines and the like in multiplayer FPS.
Sure, they may sound like a good idea to secure an area, but it's not fun to constantly run into claymores, and they require NO skill to use.

Escort missions, with an armed, retarded objective.
Sure, it's nice to see they're not totally defenceless, but it's not quite so nice to have running in front of your grenade launcher.

Enemies that don't drop their equipment. In all games.
In FPS the nazi's have an infite number of bullets to launch at you, but as soon as they die, only a quarter of them have half a clip left. In RPG, the sword-of-whoopass the enemy uses suddenly runs out of batteries after he dies? An especially annoying case was in SIN episode 1(yes, I know), where the chaingun wielding enemies would actually explode on death, and they were the only enemy coming at you late in the game. Add to that the fact they respawn until you trigger something, and you're facing the last few (as in, the last few before you die) with your lame melee skills.

RTS AI that cheats.
Alright, it's tough to make an AI that can beat a skilled human, but don't make it cheat so much. Situational awareness is OK, but an AI that pinpoint each of my moving units under a stealth field (Red Alert 1), or an enemy that produce units without consuming resources (Age of Empires 1,2,3), or units that are just plain better then yours (nearly every single RTS) is just a bit to much.

Impassable wasit-high fence.
I get that you have to make a wall somewhere, but here's a hint: Waist-high picket fences generally don't stop cybernetic killing machines equiped with more firepower then a small army.
Similarly, the unopenable door.
If you can't open it, why make it look like a door in the first place (Looking at you, Enter the Matrix and Path of Neo?!

The mandatory stealth section.
I've got a machine gun, body armor, plenty of ammo and I'm seriously pissed. Why the heck should I sneak around the one token guard? This one is especially annoying in games that have any stealth mecahnics or indicators of stealth
I'm all for parts of the game where a stealthy approach MIGHT be wiser, but don't force it on the players. Plowing through, rambo-style, should also be an option, albeit harder.

The mandatory Gunplay section.
There you are, dagger and 5 throwing knifes in adition to your single clip of 9mm bullets, and there's a huge, unavoidable, coverless hallway between you and your target.
If we're playing a stealth game, we're playing it for the stealth, not for the gunplay. If the game is not suited for taking down a dozen targets at once, don't make us do it.

The "unknown objectives" level.
The one level where communication is cut off, and you need to do *something*. This is compounded if the the thing isn't big and obvious, or at the end of the level (Quake 2 comes to mind). It's equally bad if you have to pick one target from a dozen or so, without knowing anything (C&C). We're not playing the game because we like betting and pixel hunting, don't do this.

The Luck-based boss.
The Big Bad Evil Guy is right there, only problem is that he has an attack that will knock down 60% of your group's health. He can do this randomly each turn, meaning he might never use it, or use it in turn one and two, killing you instantly. Any RPG with encounters like this SUCKS. Is it that hard to code in a cooldown for the uber ability?

Am I hurting it yet?
Any FPS, or RPG where you have no idea wether you're hurting your enemy or not sucks. Players need to know wether or not they're doing the right thing. It doesn't have to be a big floating number above their head, but it's nice to see blood, pieces falling off or weakening attacks. Quake 4 for instance, had me shooting random bit of boss and monsters for an hour, until I spotted the heart you needed to hit *once*.

It's especially annoying when the enemy can change vulnerabilities, and you have to guess when it does this, and where or what the new weakspot it.

Uhhh, is this a good sword?
Any RPG that mentions stats, but neglects to inform us what our own stats are. Which is better? A +2 damage sword, or a +5% crit sword? How am I supposed to know if I don't know what my damage or crit-chance is? Is +5 defence a lot? What exactly does +6% dexterity do for me? If you're defining weapons in statictics, then at least inform us what our own stats are, and how they work, or we still can't make a good choice.

Related:
Math genius statistics.
Lets see, 142 rounds per minute, 6 to 14 damage per shot, +12% damage, +7% fire damage, 17% critical hit chance for 150% normal damage means how much damage per second again?
don't computers exist to do the math for us? If you're giving this in-depth on weapon properties, why not give the average damage per time again? (looking at Hellgate London). Of course, you can't rely on the "more expensive = better" idea anymore, because of magic abilities shewing the prices.
It's especially annoying when you get weapon speeds as Fast,Medium,Slow. Is a 5-12 damage fast weapon better or worse then a 6-14 medium weapon?

"Sticky" targets.
When aiming for an enemy, your reticule 'lingers' on enemy targets, to make hitting them easier. Let me offer some advice: "Thou shalt not mess with a players controls". This goes double for mouse "Acceleration". We want controls that always work the same, not ones that change according to what we're looking at, or how much we have previously moved the mouse. 1:1 controls are a must-have. If you want to make aiming simpler, make a larger reticule and use autoaim.

Katana314:

Also, "traps" in multiplayer FPSes. Quicktip: THEY NEVER WORK.

Step on a claymore in CoD4 and say that :P

Plus I think the above poster, Alcari, has hit the nail on the head. I ESPECIALLY agree with the RTS "magic troops/buildings out of thin air" point in Age of Empires.

Puzzles that are so hard you have to go on gamefaqs and find out what you have to know (looking at Silent Hill 3's Hard Riddle mode).

Incredibly simple puzzles (some JRPGs and RPGs).

Sure, Resident Evil 4 had some pretty cool QTEs, but they just came up out of nowhere. If and only if they are awesomely orchestrated battles that you KNOW will include QTEs and aren't preceded by an insanely long cutscene involving every character and their second cousins' aunts, then I am okay with them.

games with ridiculously hard to get alternate endings.

Uhhh, is this a good sword?
Any RPG that mentions stats, but neglects to inform us what our own stats are. Which is better? A +2 damage sword, or a +5% crit sword? How am I supposed to know if I don't know what my damage or crit-chance is? Is +5 defence a lot? What exactly does +6% dexterity do for me? If you're defining weapons in statictics, then at least inform us what our own stats are, and how they work, or we still can't make a good choice.

Related:
Math genius statistics.
Lets see, 142 rounds per minute, 6 to 14 damage per shot, +12% damage, +7% fire damage, 17% critical hit chance for 150% normal damage means how much damage per second again?
don't computers exist to do the math for us? If you're giving this in-depth on weapon properties, why not give the average damage per time again? (looking at Hellgate London). Of course, you can't rely on the "more expensive = better" idea anymore, because of magic abilities shewing the prices.
It's especially annoying when you get weapon speeds as Fast,Medium,Slow. Is a 5-12 damage fast weapon better or worse then a 6-14 medium weapon?

Word. Worst sinner is all d&d based games IMO. I have learnt the d&d system now, but that is absofuckinglutely not with any help from the creators of the games... It is due to the neverwinter nights wiki. Seeing as BioWare has several million dollars a year in revenue, and the wiki is a voluntary project, this is extremely disappointing. Is it that much to ask that you tell us what the game actually does?

Alcari:

Claymores, landmines and the like in multiplayer FPS.
Sure, they may sound like a good idea to secure an area, but it's not fun to constantly run into claymores, and they require NO skill to use.

I beg to differ, good sir.
In my experience, claymores in CoD4 do require skill to set up, else the hunted becomes the huntee! (24 points of respect to those that recognize the last part of that sentence.)

My point is that players can run past claymores in CoD4 unharmed. And I've seen dosens of snipers that placed their claymores so poorly that the attacker stopped when he heard the "click", but didn't get harmed at all when it went off.

Other FPSs are different though, so it kinda boils down to what game you're playing and which role you have (sniper, assault etc..)

After you beat the final boss in an RPG, excluding Pokemon, there is usually nothing to do.

i dislike space sim escort misions (and maybe escort missions in general never had to do any bisides that genre)

beyond that also pressing the button real fast especialy in some games where you have to push two butons one after another and then again like 15 times and even more so when you have to push the two buttons at the same time and if you get it wrong by 0.01 seconds you instanly die (see condemned 2 i never got that scream at the end right i couldnt even win the "piss easy boss battle")

beyond that the barel thing is geting a bit old it can be done nicely (especialy in some games where you get a close up view of how the enemys get riped to shreds havnt found that game yet ow well itl probably be made somewhere in the next 10 years

weirdaljedifan2:
After you beat the final boss in an RPG, excluding Pokemon, there is usually nothing to do.

Well, yeah. Since you've, you know, beaten the game and everything.

Key missions are the most annoying for me. 3rd person games with bad cameras are the most frustrating of all things, especially if they also include instant death pits. I really hope the new Ninja Gaiden improves the camera.

escort missions just piss me off. the minute your dumbass partner dies, you die too. at least make your escort have good AI

Having teammates that run straight into the enemy's guns/swords.

Crucial moments at the end of a long level that makes you go through the entire scene again if you mess up a little (see: The last scene of Halo 3).

Respawning enemies (Bloody CoD4...).

Getting your hand on the most insane weapon through history, and you can bet your sorry little ass that you won't get any ammo for it at any points in the game.

Lever-pulling (it's much more fun to smash through a wall using a tank then walking over to a place pulling a lever or using retinal scans (*cough* HL *cough*))

You can tend to separate the games that are truly non-linear vs the ones that pretend to be non-linear based on whether or not there are characters the game refuses to allow you to kill. Even Lord British in the Ultima series had ways of being killed. Using the excuse that "well, that character is critical to the progression of the storyline" is just a euphemism for "we're not actually all that non-linear."

I have nothing particularly against linear games (in fact, one of my all-time favourite genres is the point-and-click adventure), but if I play a game to be non-linear, I appreciate when it's actually non-linear.

Speaking of point-and-click, though, I really hate it when puzzle solutions are glaringly random. How was I supposed to know that you're supposed to use the multi-tool on the ice cube so that you can chill down the balloon that will repel the blue jay to get eaten by a giant frog that will then jump into the pond, causing water to splash on the fire that you're trying to put out?

i am curious how many people really dislike qte or are just saying it because of yahtzee. i really think more people blindly follow him than are aware of it.

but for me, it's gotta be escort missions, the only excort missions i've ever gotten along with even slighty is in army of two simply because you get to control their actions exactly, you actually can set them in a corner where they will stay until you clear out a room and go get them.

and i'll also put one more vote for respawning enemies, in crackdown this is especially detrimental simply because there is no way to clean out the den of the crime lords you have to do a smash and grab type kill EVERY TIME no matter how maxed out your character is.

The reason I don't play fighting games more often

double tap to run (who walks in those anyways?)

tolerance in ridiculously long combos (hit A+B+X+etc,etc to do this. If you don't hit B, X or any of the following at this EXACT floating-point time, you don't achieve the combo)

hundreds of combos, but you can do just fine with a select few, if not better with the basic attacks

practice,practice,practice all you want. A newbie still has an equal chance at defeating you.

Other games:

save points that are miles away from each other. not very genre specific, I just hate that sooo much

Papaya Melancholy:
I mostly hate when games are counterintuitive. Like when you can't step over a bump in the ground, instead you have to go all the way around. Can't you just go over it?? It's dumb. Or like when the place where you want to go is past a forest and you can't go through the forest. It's just a forest!!! are the trees made of steel or something?? This is SO counterintuitive.
And like when you can't go to the next place until you talk to EXACTLY the right person. I've stopped playing games just because I couldn't find EXACTLY the right person.
I guess these are pretty RPG-related.

To add on to this, I never liked it in any type of game that basically, to paraphrase the Bioshock ZP, sends you to Mount Doom and back to open the door or get the key or talk to the person etc. It does work SOMETIMES, but when it's over used in a game/genre it becomes quite tiresome (FPS's, hang your heads now!)

Also, and understand that this is one of my favourite games and it deserves every ounce of praise that has been given to it, the entire mansion in Resident Evil annoyed the living piss out of me. I never, NEVER understood how it was that big tough manly men like Barry and Chris would rather go looking for a key instead of BREAKING DOWN THE FUCKING DOOR WITH THE MASSES OF MUSCLE THAT ARE THEIR BODIES. Sure, the game wouldn't be half as fun or challenging, but from a logical stand point I think the first thing I would do if I was that big and in a hallway surrounded by zombie dogs is try to break down the WOODEN door rather than noticing what shape was etched on the handle.

This can be said for various other games as well (Doom3 comes to mind) where you have the ability to perform some rather ridiculous tasks and wield super powerful weapons...but a wooden door makes you cry.

Swords when perfectly good guns are lying all over the place. Just look at KoTOR.