The 10 Worst Clichés in Gaming

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
The Den of Geek has posted a list of the 10 worst clichés in gaming that is pretty spot on. Well, except for number nine…while it is cliché…I don’t mind the “kinky female character” as much as random lava levels.

Now I think about it, I honestly don't think I've ever pulled a real, physical lever in my life - after all, they're commonly found in railway signal boxes, Victorian warehouses or on the wall next to an electric chair - places I very rarely frequent. And yet video games are full of them.
 
Can't really agree with this article... it seems more like the authors personal peeves more than anything else.

As for the kidnapped princess, this guy fails at google.
 
I agree somewhat. I agree with Ockie a little though.

Not to bad of a article though.
 
Have to add one:

Health packs. The last time I checked, gunshot wounds and zombie bites cannot be cured by band-aids.
 
rofl I love this one

8. The lever
Now I think about it, I honestly don't think I've ever pulled a real, physical lever in my life - after all, they're commonly found in railway signal boxes, Victorian warehouses or on the wall next to an electric chair - places I very rarely frequent. And yet video games are full of them - levers to open doors, levers to complete a level, levers to operate lifts. Far too many levers - can't we have a few dimmer switches instead?

Why does it have to be a lever? What's wrong with doorknobs or buttons or maybe pulling the right book on a bookshelf? It's always a lever!
 
I agree with Ockie too. It's more of the guy's pet peeves than cliches.
 
Lol seems like this guy sucked at Mario games. I agree though that swimming is probably the most challenging aspect of the Mario games (64 or Galaxy). Seems like this guy is just angry b/c he wasn't very good.
 
The time it takes me to say "I've played this game before" has becoming increasingly shorter with newer games. Some of which I can't even finish the demo.
 
Lol seems like this guy sucked at Mario games. I agree though that swimming is probably the most challenging aspect of the Mario games (64 or Galaxy). Seems like this guy is just angry b/c he wasn't very good.
I thought it was exactly that. Levers to me are important in games because they make us think. I think he just wants to shoot shit and not have to deal with the hassle of figuring out how to get from point A to point B. Probably plays alot of FPS games.
 
I'd like to add one.

Red Barrels:

They ALWAYS explode. Have you ever been walking down the road and seen random barrels sitting around? Different color ones? Maybe the kids have shot them all already and have exploded.
 
I thought I saw a list like this a while ago, and it was definitely better. The top one was wooden crates -- especially ones without underlying pallets, which just make no sense.
 
Health packs are a necessity in most games. They're little more cliché than guns in shooting games.

Why does he think that post-apocalyptic landscapes are cliché yet he says nothing about fantasy D&D-esque ones?
 
Health packs make more sense than getting shot and running in a corner to masterbate while your health naturally restores itself (though I still love COD4)
 
Health packs make more sense than getting shot and running in a corner to masterbate while your health naturally restores itself (though I still love COD4)

When you are talking about your joystick you really aren't talking about your game pad are you?

List is about as bad as some of the movie/TV cliches I've seen.
 
9. The 'kinky' female character
Another cliché from the adolescence of gaming, the 'kinky' female character's natural habitat was the rough-and-tumble world of the Nineties scrolling beat-em-up. Renegade, Final Fight, Gang Wars, Double Dragon and Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja all featured scantily clad ladies with bondage-related weapons: whips, chains, furry handcuffs and other sundry items from Ann Summers.

If he's refering to Poison...well.....it's a trap

poison-final-fight.jpg
 
Shenanigans, where the hell are the crates?

This author has nothing on Old Man Murray
 
2. The post-apocalyptic landscape

Yeah there are SO many of those... Like Fallout.. And.... Umm.. Isn't that about it? If anything, I'd say we need more of these games.
 
Who ever wrote that article needs some Xanax to calm down.


Stuff he listed I hardly agree. Where's the crates? Where's the pistol, shotgun, machine gun?

Oh and don't touch my 'kinky' female characters. That is something video game developers can continue to replicate over and over again. I swear I'll never get tired of them.
 
Have to add one:

Health packs. The last time I checked, gunshot wounds and zombie bites cannot be cured by band-aids.
The last time I checked, zombies don't exist and gunshots kill people dead.

:sigh:

Video games are just that, video games. It doesn't have to be realistic in any manner if they don't want to. What do you suggest, the player run to the nearest hospital to find a kinky nurse who'll pull the bullet(s) out?

Some things, like med packs, you keep in games. They are classic methods of healing, quick and easy, and allow the player to get back into the game quickly.
 
True, but at what point do classic icons like health packs become crutches for lazy game design? At what point does the 'it just works' excuse for store/gameplay dynamics become old, used, and cliche in itself, and instead of facilitating better games, hinders their development. I enjoy games that think outside of the box, that introduce new mechanics and challenge the existing norms.

And who says that getting the player 'back into the game' is what the players want. Look at the preponderance of hardcore servers in COD4/5. That alone points towards a desire from players for some amount of realism.

And to be honest, your idea regarding heading to the nearest hospital for stitches/bullet removal by hot nurses sounds phenomenal.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy games with health packs, I do, but too often they seem forced or out of place, or just lazy.
 
What about the whole cliche about female characters being faster than male ones...
 
rofl I love this one

Why does it have to be a lever? What's wrong with doorknobs or buttons or maybe pulling the right book on a bookshelf? It's always a lever!

This thread reminded me on my drive home and before I left...

First I checked all the mains which uses levers to disconnect the fuses before I left,

when I got into the car I noticed the handbrake (lever) and then put the car into drive (lever)

then....

I'd like to add one.

Red Barrels:

They ALWAYS explode. Have you ever been walking down the road and seen random barrels sitting around? Different color ones? Maybe the kids have shot them all already and have exploded.

...then I passed by a house which happened to have 4 oil drums filled with oil (with a for sale sign) right on the sidewalk....
 
I see what you're saying. I loved half-life 2s healing, not sure if you've played that. You sometimes pick up med packs along the way, and other times, you can stop at those little stations that charge your suit up a whole bunch. L4Ds healing, you have to wait til the bar fills up before the medpack gets used. TF2 healing, you have to run back all the way to base to resupply/reheal and occasionally there are medpacks laying around for small quick heals.

Valve's got it down, me thinks, or at least they make things a tiny bit different. I did hate FEAR 2's healing, there were about 100 med packs laying around every level and even on the hardest difficulty it was too easy.
 
Greed. HL2 was great, as are the two Riddick games, with healing stations that you have to power with packs you pick up in hidden places. Like a combination of HL2's two healing methods.
 
Greed. HL2 was great, as are the two Riddick games, with healing stations that you have to power with packs you pick up in hidden places. Like a combination of HL2's two healing methods.

Nobody remembers Max Payne's system? No health packs but pain pills.
 
the only one i agree on is post apocalyptic landscapes. I would like to see some more vivid colors in pc games, better than crytek has to offer.
 
[H]adouken;1033983926 said:
The last time I checked, zombies don't exist and gunshots kill people dead.

:sigh:

Video games are just that, video games. It doesn't have to be realistic in any manner if they don't want to. What do you suggest, the player run to the nearest hospital to find a kinky nurse who'll pull the bullet(s) out?

Some things, like med packs, you keep in games. They are classic methods of healing, quick and easy, and allow the player to get back into the game quickly.

Your post makes no sense whatsoever. First off gunshoots do NOT kill people dead. They can, but they don't always have too. You then, after saying that all gunshoots kill poeple, turn around and make a comment about running to the nearest hosptial to have the bullet pulled out. If you believed your first comment, then why would they need the bullets pulled out as they would be dead?

the only one i agree on is post apocalyptic landscapes. I would like to see some more vivid colors in pc games, better than crytek has to offer.

Then don't play post apocalyptic games. Are you going to bitch about racing games next because you hate games in which you have to drive? or sports games because you hate games that require you to "play" something like basketball or football?
 
Complaining about the Amnesiac factor and then failing to use Torment as your counterpoint... yeah, he lost me there.
 
The dude needs to lighten up....

All those "cliche's" make games like first person shooters fun.

As to levers.... showing a light switch flip, or a door knob turn is just boring. Levers give a visual indication that something just happened.

I personally like all these things.

Just my opinion though.
 
Back
Top