What is the dumbest most overused video game cliche?

I really dislike the oversized cartoony armor & weapons like what you see in WoW, Kingdoms of Amalur, etc. I realize it tends to go with the cartoony art style in general, but it's annoying.

I don't like that either. I've got to give props to the Witcher games for not doing that.
 
Crates...

team_tmcbig1.jpg
 
this thread could easily have been closed after the second post. exploding red barrels (gasoline doesn't explode u morons!) and ventilation shafts. that's it. that's 90% of all videogames ever made, right there.
 
this thread could easily have been closed after the second post. exploding red barrels (gasoline doesn't explode u morons!) and ventilation shafts. that's it. that's 90% of all videogames ever made, right there.

So if I flick a lit match into a barrel of gasoline nothing would happen?

A car (or a gasoline barrel for that matter) might not explode when it gets hit by a stray bullet like you see in the movies / video games, but you don't want an open flame near it either.
 
Bethesda has been guilty of this one a lot:
[first day] "Welcome to the Mage's Guild, apprentice!"
[three days later] "We hereby make you the master of the Mage's Guild!"

Goddamn I got so much talent; smartest mage ever!
 
Bethesda has been guilty of this one a lot:
[first day] "Welcome to the Mage's Guild, apprentice!"
[three days later] "We hereby make you the master of the Mage's Guild!"

Goddamn I got so much talent; smartest mage ever!
You forgot the part where the previous head of the guild or faction invariably ends up dying so that you end up as new head. This seemed to happen a lot in Kingdom of Amalur too. So much so that it's become formulaic of faction questlines.
 
Bethesda has been guilty of this one a lot:
[first day] "Welcome to the Mage's Guild, apprentice!"
[three days later] "We hereby make you the master of the Mage's Guild!"

Goddamn I got so much talent; smartest mage ever!

I've long since got bored of being the "hero" of everything in games. That's why I love Dwarf Fortress. It's a roguelike that's a mix between say Sim City and those text based RPGs. I created a new scenario and chose to embark in the middle of a land equivalent to the arctic. Was busy setting up camp and having my miner dwarves dig underground to make homes when some wolves roamed by and killed my fisherman dwarf. Everyone eventually starved to death.
 
I've long since got bored of being the "hero" of everything in games. That's why I love Dwarf Fortress. It's a roguelike that's a mix between say Sim City and those text based RPGs. I created a new scenario and chose to embark in the middle of a land equivalent to the arctic. Was busy setting up camp and having my miner dwarves dig underground to make homes when some wolves roamed by and killed my fisherman dwarf. Everyone eventually starved to death.

Clearly you didn't apply magma to the wolves. :D
 
I'll tell you what the worst one is. Ventilation shafts. Who ever thought that this would be a good way to sneak around in games. I mean when was the last time you ever saw a vent big enough for someone to crouch and crawl around in. And even if you did find one big enough, it would make so much noise as to completely defeat the purpose of using one to sneak around.

I think this was a big part of why I could never get into Deus Ex HR. Or how about Mirror's Edge. A game about running and jumping on top of buildings, and they continually make us crawl around in vents. Or the seemingly random, gigantic vents in the Batman games; the list goes on and on...

especially when you escape prison

I've been asked to go in and kill rats [in every RPG] for 20 years now - Brian fargo

That's for sure. It has been toned down in recent years, but yeah, rats in the cellar.

Level scaling and "chosen one" storylines.

Level scaling to compensate for poor AI. Way too much for sure.

Related to that and something that 99% of games do: Hitpoint Bloat. Nothing like 3 or more shots to the head. Everyone (especially bosses) have a force field of protection that wears down before they either die or cripple. Better AI or more enemies (something that should happen when invading a fort or encampment) would be much better.
 
About red barrels... I don't know, that doesn't get old. Just feels good to pop one near somebody every once in a while. I don't feel compelled to destroy all of them. Some are left standing.
 
An action-driven FPS with heavy RPG elements, where one plays the villain would be nice, if a company would pull it off leaving the past behind, so to speak.
 
Putting a gun in front of my face to shoot accurate! Every game since 2004-2005 has gone down hill on this matter. As if low FOV wasn't enough so now you get to see the entire game through a peep hole.
 
Long stupid cutscenes which bores the shit out of people
Lack of manual save
Weapon limits on today's FPS
No health indicator on modern FPS
Everybody trying to copy each other
 
Putting a gun in front of my face to shoot accurate! Every game since 2004-2005 has gone down hill on this matter. As if low FOV wasn't enough so now you get to see the entire game through a peep hole.

Isn't that kind of what you do with a real gun when you use the sights?

ArmA 2 does this pretty well..you can pull up the iron sights but you can still move your head around to maintain situational awareness.
 
Isn't that kind of what you do with a real gun when you use the sights?

ArmA 2 does this pretty well..you can pull up the iron sights but you can still move your head around to maintain situational awareness.

My thoughts exactly.
 
Errr no, a real gun doesn't change it's characteristic like accuracy, recoil and so on depending on hip or sight fire. Besides that's why I have a crosshair in the middle of the screen. When I mean all games, i do mean all games and not just realism wannabe's. It's parody that in this day and age to make any fps difficult they mess with the weapon mechanics to add frustration and nothing to the gameplay.
 
Errr no, a real gun doesn't change it's characteristic like accuracy, recoil and so on depending on hip or sight fire. Besides that's why I have a crosshair in the middle of the screen. When I mean all games, i do mean all games and not just realism wannabe's. It's parody that in this day and age to make any fps difficult they mess with the weapon mechanics to add frustration and nothing to the gameplay.

No, but your ability to compensate for those changes...
 
About red barrels... I don't know, that doesn't get old. Just feels good to pop one near somebody every once in a while. I don't feel compelled to destroy all of them. Some are left standing.

I agree. If they were rusty barrels, people wouldn't shoot them as much. To me, red = BOOM. Rusty barrel = boring...why shoot it?
 
Tough Military main characters that have no depth to them aside from "I'm tough yeaaa"

Modern Military shoooters (Hell I'd WELCOME a return to wwII...).

I got one, how about killing SPIDERS/Rats in rpgs? Nothing makes you feel "Awesome" like walking out of town at lv 1 in an rpg and fighting....rats and spiders.
 
So if I flick a lit match into a barrel of gasoline nothing would happen?

A car (or a gasoline barrel for that matter) might not explode when it gets hit by a stray bullet like you see in the movies / video games, but you don't want an open flame near it either.

You can throw a lit cigarette into a couple of inches of gas and it will just get drowned out.
 
Errr no, a real gun doesn't change it's characteristic like accuracy, recoil and so on depending on hip or sight fire. Besides that's why I have a crosshair in the middle of the screen. When I mean all games, i do mean all games and not just realism wannabe's. It's parody that in this day and age to make any fps difficult they mess with the weapon mechanics to add frustration and nothing to the gameplay.

Games like Killing floor/RO/RO2 all have no crosshairs, so the only way to precisely aim is iron sights. After a short while of playing you can judge it pretty easily especially with burst fire weapons/shotguns, but it's always down to judgement it's never going to be crosshairs precise (or some silly people draw dots on their screens...:confused:). If you can't aim without crosshairs theres always quick scoping.

You have to choose between better movement or better accuracy/zoom. It adds another layer to the game sort of. But, if the sights on a gun do nothing for accuracy, why do they exist? :p
 
Games like Killing floor/RO/RO2 all have no crosshairs, so the only way to precisely aim is iron sights. After a short while of playing you can judge it pretty easily especially with burst fire weapons/shotguns, but it's always down to judgement it's never going to be crosshairs precise (or some silly people draw dots on their screens...:confused:). If you can't aim without crosshairs theres always quick scoping.

You have to choose between better movement or better accuracy/zoom. It adds another layer to the game sort of. But, if the sights on a gun do nothing for accuracy, why do they exist? :p

I wish games would actually sync the visible wavering of the gun in the player's hands to the place the bullet hits, since that's what the inaccuracy is supposed to represent in the first place. The only game I know of that did this was actually Goldeneye 64, but it also had Inaccurate Gunbarrel Syndrome on top of it, so I don't feel like it counts.
 
I wish games would actually sync the visible wavering of the gun in the player's hands to the place the bullet hits, since that's what the inaccuracy is supposed to represent in the first place. The only game I know of that did this was actually Goldeneye 64, but it also had Inaccurate Gunbarrel Syndrome on top of it, so I don't feel like it counts.

My favorite weapon handling was in a mod for ut2k4 called ballistic weapons had weapons that always fired where they were pointed. If you set the option, when you started firing your weapon the recoil or jumping would cause your weapon to float up/right/left and you have to compensate for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmNU41-KRUo&t=6m12s
 
Destroyed vehicles/equipment that are sooty, distorted, low-poly, low-res textured versions of their undamaged counterparts. Blow up a tank with a bazooka? *POOF* Tank model goes from 3000 to 1500 polys instantly while looking like it was covered with black spray paint. No visible tread or pulleys fall off, the barrel isn't tumbling 100 yards away, no large chunks are missing from it. It just becomes a dark, garbled blob of polygons.

Racing games that have a damage model, yet the worst that can happen to your car is a couple big dents here and there, a lost fender or spoiler, or some scratches on the paint, even in a 220+ MPH head-on collision.

Also, the ability to carry a rocket launcher, a machine gun, a shotgun, a sniper rifle/long range weapon, a handgun or two, five or six grenades, multiple handheld gadgets, and some special weapon of doom all at the same time. It would be interesting to see where Gordon Freeman keeps his gravity gun or crowbar when he's using his crossbow or RPG.

that's it. that's 90% of all FPSs ever made, right there.

Fixed. Maybe it's time to look into other video game genres. ;)
 
Aliens that look like humans with bumps and spots. The Star Trek TV series had a practical reason to make multitudes of aliens that look like humans, they had to use human actors. What's the excuse for video games like Mass Effect?
mass_effect2-300x225.jpg

This is my gripe with space-based science fiction in general. The only way I could come to terms with such lazy design is if:

- The designers don't care. If they don't care, I don't care.
- All the species somehow had a common ancestral origin or were intentionally modified under the vision of a very biased race.
- They were intentionally designed for the sake of gameplay convenience. (Kind of related to point 1, but with a conscious decision to favor gameplay over creativity)

Imagining a truly unique intelligent alien species is extremely difficult. There are very few assumptions we can make about life outside our planet.
 
Princesses that keep getting kidnapped and are NEVER IN THE CASTLE I GO TO EXCEPT FOR THE LAST ONE EVERY TIME arrgh!!

How do you know it's the last one? Do you keep looking after you found her? :confused:




















:D
 
I hate that aswell. 99% of shooters that use modern guns get this simple logic wrong. I have no idea why.
I think the only game that got it mostly right was BF2.

(With a 30 round mag)
You pop off 2 rounds and reload = you still have 1 chambered round and now a full mag (31 rounds)
You then unload all rounds, reload and cycle/rack = you now have 1 chambered and 29 rounds in the mag (30 rounds)

Also I think BF2 counted the mags as mags and didn't count individual bullets. Like say you had a full 30rnd mag, shot 8 rounds and then reloaded. The remaining 22rounds in that mag were no gone. They werent magically recycled into new magazines.

I think you are right, but I've played so many FPS games since I played BF2 I can't remember now.

I do know some games I can whore the reload button after every encounter and some games I can not. Pretty sure BF2 was like that, unless I had a support guy on my Squad or I was support.
 
The boss fight with the "I win" button at the end. Pisses me off to no end when you fight a boss and then then when you "win" they suddenly decide they've "had enough" and just fuck you over and leave. Very contrived and annoying.

ME3 was guilty of that in a big way with one of the fights.

[spoiler ="T3h ME3"]
On the Asari homeworld at the end you fight Kai Leng, who's a fairly lame character anyhow. At any rate you beat his ass in to the ground but of course he's not really hurt much by it and he gets mad and orders his gunship to attack, which nearly kills your team.[/spoiler]

It is just such a moronic way of doing things, and is basically lazy. Rather than write a better story they just have a magic "boss escape" scene.

What's worse is that it would be more satisfying if rather than the boss pressing the "I win" button and just sweeping your guys aside, they had it where the boss was near death, but escape through luck or something, a "You could have got the guy but he managed to get away," sort of thing. It would at least be less frustrating and give you more of a sense of "I'll so kick his ass next time."

Really though, it should be used rarely. For the most part when you fight a boss, the boss should die. It is supposed to be a big moment in the story. However that would mean doing some better writing, because you'd have to have a different "what's next" than just chasing the same dude.
 
Back
Top