Things That Bother You About Gaming

[Foggle]

$7 for horse armor and hats.
Selling DLC instead of expansion packs (generally 1/8 of the content at 1/3 of the price).
Stuff being cut out of the game to sell as DLC later (eat a dick, 2K, you ruined Mafia 2).
Pre-order bonuses. Specifically, the ones with "exclusive in-game content" (meaning stuff cut out of the game so GameStop can make more money).
MMORPGs. In general. Fuck 'em.
"Streamlining" (the Dragon Age 2 kind).
Lack of quality hack 'n slash and beat 'em up games.
Market saturation of brown and bloom stop-n-pop cover shooters and turn based anime-esque role playing games with a predominantly female and/or under 18 cast.
Square Enix (minus the acquired Eidos properties).
Selling betas for $50/60 (Bethesda, Obsidian, etc.).
Activision. But not Blizzard.
Re-releases upon re-releases (Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition PC Edition, etc.).
PC games lacking mouse support in menus (yo, Volition, we aren't still running DOS).
WHERE ARE THE PLATFORMERS? GODDAMN!
Using "points" instead of money to buy games on the XBLA and Wii stores. Makes shit unnecessarily complicated and wastes cash.
UbiSoft's "brilliant!" DRM scheme and all similar ones.
Games For Windows Live. Stop pretending you care about the PC as a gaming console, Microsoft.

[gunswordfist]

People always saying "I want a darker version".

That basically sums it up for me.

People should instead be asking for games that are supposd to have more fleshed out stories...to have more fleshed out stories. But idiots never know what they want.

[talonmalon333]

People always saying "I want a darker version".

That basically sums it up for me.

People should instead be asking for games that are supposd to have more fleshed out stories...to have more fleshed out stories. But idiots never know what they want.

THANK YOU. That's exactly it. Problem is, from what I've heard, people honestly associate "dark" with "depth". Ugh...

[Spark Of Spirit]

"Make it darker" is what brought down a lot of series. Sonic, Prince Of Persia, Jak (sorry, Foggle), Twisted Metal (though to be fair making it too cartoony also sucked, TM2 balance is best), and Tomb Raider all suffered from it.

Mega Man X is a good example because they didn't make it darker, they fleshed it out and gave it new elements. Mega Man Zero might be darker, but it never went "DARK IS DEEP ZOMG" and kept it simple and Mega Man.

[Foggle]

While it can ruin the overall aesthetic, Jak 2 and Twisted Metal Black were by far my favorite games in their respective series. Jak 2 wasn't super dark, though; much of the dialogue was very funny. I can get behind Sonic (it's not dark, Sega, it's just fucking stupid) and Prince of Persia (OH YEAH GODSMACK SOUNDTRACK LET'S GO), though, 100%.

How did Tomb Raider become darker? Are you referring to the upcoming reboot?

Honestly, I hate defending any bit of the "make it darker" principle, but I actually feel like the Jak and Daxter series changed for the better after the first one. Daxter became funny instead of obnoxious, the driving was actually well-crafted instead of floaty, and they got rid of the collect-a-thon angle. While some parts were frustratingly hard and there really should have been more platforming, it never got tedious or boring for me like the first one did because there was so much variety.

I can't believe you've all forgotten the worst offender of the "make it darker" idea: Bomberman - Act Zero. Good god.

[Spark Of Spirit]

AFAIK (as I will never touch it) but wasn't Angel Of Darkness supposed to be a grittier Tomb Raider?

[gunswordfist]

People always saying "I want a darker version".

That basically sums it up for me.

People should instead be asking for games that are supposd to have more fleshed out stories...to have more fleshed out stories. But idiots never know what they want.

THANK YOU. That's exactly it. Problem is, from what I've heard, people honestly associate "dark" with "depth". Ugh...

Basically it sounds like people are asking for what fucked up comics. They (comic book creators) thought "darker" meant "deeper". Just like I would suggest for a lot of comic books, they should keep whatever made them interesting and add deep undertones, if that's appropriate. I don't want to see Mario having to pull rusty nails out of his thighs just to please the dark wanting idiot fans.

AFAIK (as I will never touch it) but wasn't Angel Of Darkness supposed to be a grittier Tomb Raider?

Funny enough, the new Tomb Raider will in fact have Lara pulling out sharp objects from her body whenever she gets impaled. I actuall think they are going into a good direction with the series though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That same "we're going to make a darker game" BS is what's plaguing Ninja Gaiden III, right now, unless the game miraculously manages to impress me, which I seriously doubt. First off, I don't give a shit about the story of ANY NG game so I don't want Team Ninja to try and tackle a deeper story when they clearly don't even know how to write or tell a half-way decent story in the first place. Secondly, I don't give a shit about how Ryu feels about killing enemies, since he was always meant to be a 1-dimensional video game character who finds any excuse he can to kill swarms of tough enemies so that the player can actually have fun. Believe it or not, I actually like NG's lack of any real story progression or character development because there is so little time put into the story that the game basically just focuses on gameplay. If anything I can't stand when a game has a really boring story that it forces you to sit through which interrupts from the action. I'd rather just jump into the combat and have fun playing the actual game.

[gunswordfist]

That same "we're going to make a darker game" BS is what's plaguing Ninja Gaiden III, right now, unless the game miraculously manages to impress me, which I seriously doubt. First off, I don't give a shit about the story of ANY NG game so I don't want Team Ninja to try and tackle a deeper story when they clearly don't even know how to write or tell a half-way decent story in the first place. Secondly, I don't give a shit about how Ryu feels about killing enemies, since he was always meant to be a 1-dimensional video game character who finds any excuse he can to kill swarms of tough enemies so that the player can actually have fun. Believe it or not, I actually like NG's lack of any real story progression or character development because there is so little time put into the story that the game basically just focuses on gameplay. If anything I can't stand when a game has a really boring story that it forces you to sit through which interrupts from the action. I'd rather just jump into the combat and have fun playing the actual game.

I agree. They'd honestly be better off just polishing the graphics.

[Foggle]

AFAIK (as I will never touch it) but wasn't Angel Of Darkness supposed to be a grittier Tomb Raider?

Oh yeah, Angel Of Darkness. I gave up on that piece of shit after 5 minutes... Legend and Underworld were great, though, and more like the original games.

"Dark Ninja Gaiden" is an absolutely horrendous idea. Hayashi once again proves that he has no fucking clue what made the first two games so great (or the NES originals, for that matter).

[Spark Of Spirit]

The stories of the NES and modern games are so far apart in many ways. One was meant to be serious (not 'dark', though) and the other was meant to to be silly and over the top. Making a "Serious" story based on something silly is a bad diea.

Just look at Metal Gear.

That's right, I brought it up again.

[Foggle]

Not to antagonize, but I don't really see the Metal Gear example as a good one.

The MSX Metal Gears (the original originals) were far more serious than any of the PS2 or PSP games, or the fourth one. In fact, the only 3D one that was more serious than it was ridiculous/silly was Metal Gear Solid on the PS1, which is widely regarded as the franchise's greatest achievement.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Not to antagonize, but I don't really see the Metal Gear example as a good one.

The MSX Metal Gears (the original originals) were far more serious than any of the PS2 or PSP games, or the fourth one. In fact, the only 3D one that was more serious than it was ridiculous/silly was Metal Gear Solid on the PS1, which is widely regarded as the franchise's greatest achievement.

Metal Gear went from serious to silly, yes. It's why I fucking hate 2 so much, and would probably not enjoy any of the later games. It still tends to be too up its own ass with stupid drama, though.

Ninja Gaiden was serious and went to goofy, but it was a ninja action game, the story never really mattered.

The story was a big part of Metal Gear, so when it went retarded and shat all over itself, not only did it distract from the tone of the game (and made me entirely uninterested in the story), but it made playing through it hard because I just wasn't invested.

It's hard to not be invested in a ninja who runs around slicing guys in half, though.

[Foggle]

OH, sorry, I misunderstood you! I thought you were deriding the later MGS titles for being more serious than the earlier ones.

I agree that 2 was a total piece of shit (minus the tanker portion), but 3 and Portable Ops were awesome and well thought out aside from the occasional silliness. 4's story was a mess, but the gameplay made it up for it, in my opinion.

[Spark Of Spirit]

OH, sorry, I misunderstood you! I thought you were deriding the later MGS titles for being more serious than the earlier ones.

I agree that 2 was a total piece of shit (minus the tanker portion), but 3 and Portable Ops were awesome and well thought out aside from the occasional silliness. 4's story was a mess, but the gameplay made it up for it, in my opinion.

I probably could have worded that better, but yeah I don't mind seriousness in games, or silliness, but it bothers me when done with an established storyline.

I liked the storyline in the NES Ninja Gaiden games, but Team Ninja went out of their way to say that the new games are a completely different universe from those, so it doesn't bother me.

It also doesn't bother me in MGS3 and the PSP games because that's another "era" and not in the same storyline, so to speak. He can do whatever he wants there, because its a different world/story. 2 went balls deep in idiocy (after the tanker... thanks for that tease, Kojima) after 1 had such a fun story that knew went to take itself seriously and be weird and funny. They even remade 1 to be even more retarded with Snake missile surfing and the VAs doing a parody dub, which I found insulting to the first game.

It's like the biggest problem with Umineko, really. There's no consistency. You can't just go from making a rather serious (but not too overly dark) story and then shit all over it by throwing in random crap that detracts from the overall narrative. That just shows me the creator has no respect for his own world, and if he doesn't, why should I?