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Videogame complaints that never made sense to you

GreyHorace

Member
We've all had various complaints related to videogames. Inconsistent frame rates, microtransactions, fiddly controls, etc, etc.

But what are videogame complaints that never made sense to you? What some people would find annoying your reaction would be like, "That's it? What's the big deal?"

Here are some of mine. Please note that I've refrained from including the usual stupid videogame complaints made by SJWs (lack of reprensentation, misogynist portrayal of women, cultural appropriation, etc, etc.), as they deserve a separate topic.

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User Interface (UI) (various games) - Why do people always complain about UI's? Especially in open world games? Apparently having a health bar or a miinimap on some part of the screen ruin the immersion into the world. It's a fucking videogame. You're not playing a movie, and the stuff onscreen is supposed to aid the player, especially minimaps, which I find invaluable in navigating huge open worlds.

It's gotten to a point where people were giving praise to the recent Ghost of Tsushima for not having a minimap and instead using the wind to guide you. While I love that game to bits, if it had a minimap I wouldn't have complained.

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Points of Interest (open world games) - So opening up a game world's map and seeing all those question marks is enough to make people groan. Why? Much of that stuff is optional anyway and as long as it's not tied to the game's progression you can choose to ignore it. I remember finishing the The Witcher 3's main story without having to finish most of the POIs in Skellige.

Freeflow Combat (Batman Arkham series and others) - Apparently some gamers feel that Rocksteady's freeflow combat system that they made for the Batman games is like a QTE event where you only need only to press a button to win. Well I fucking hate QTEs and the I love freeflow combat. Anyone who's played the Batman Arkham games know it's much more complex than it looks and I love how it makes you feel like the badass that Batman is supposed to be.

But the complaints aren't just limited to the Arkham games. Various other titles such as Assassin's Creed, Shadow of Mordor and Insomiac's Spider-Man have copied or taken inspiration from the freeflow combat owing to the success Rocksteady has had. Some gamers believe this is ruining combat for other games. I say, what's so wrong about other games aping one of the better combat systems I've seen in videogames?

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Detective vision (Batman Arkham series and others) - Another gameplay feature by Rocksteady that's apparently ruining gaming. People say it ruins stealth gameplay because you can see the enemies hunting you. They also say it ruins exploration because it highlights the clues you've been searching for in the game area. Well I say that anything that makes stealth gameplay less of a chore like it was in the old Splinter Cell games is a welcome addition. As is with exploration. It would driven me batty to look for clues in The Witcher 3 without Geralt's witcher senses.

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Walking ang talking sections (various games) - Why do people complain about sections where your character walks and talks with another NPC? If the game's relaying information to the player whilst also exploring the area, how is that a bad thing? None of the games I've played had particularly long sections of this to be irritating to me.

Those are my examples. What videogame complaints do you think are overblown GAF?
 
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teezzy

Banned
I enjoy the combat in Witcher 3
I enjoy scantily clad women in games
I enjoy a larger representation of both women and minorities in games
I enjoy DLC giving me content long after a game launches
I enjoy annual sports titles as I dont mind paying once a year to keep my NHL current and updated
 

iconmaster

Banned
Walking ang talking sections (various games) - Why do people complain about sections where your character walks and talks with another NPC? If the game's relaying information to the player whilst also exploring the area, how is that a bad thing?

I’ll take this over a cutscene any day. As long as I’m still in control, dump all the exposition you want.
 

Codes 208

Member
“Achievements are meaningless”

technically yes, but as a completionist I like having metrics showing my records even if the rewards just a point/trophy system. Steam still hasn’t improved their achievement system to better represent their profiles (So they literally are quite useless) and Nintendo is like two gens behind MS and Sony in this regard.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Weapon breaking BotW quickly becomes a complete non-issue if you actually bother to keep playing the game. People saw it once and bailed, so they never progressed to the point where it didn't matter any more.

People hate that one.
 

sainraja

Member
The main one that doesn't make sense to me is with people criticizing Uncharted/Nathan Drake who is supposedly a serial killer because he ends up killing a lot of people along the way.
  1. He does not go looking for treasure because he likes to kill. He just ends up in situations where if he doesn't shoot first, he will get killed.
  2. He's not just killing random people! He's not hunting people! lol
  3. He was being chased by/competing with essentially pirates in the first game, some rogue army group in the second.....not exactly the type who wouldn't kill him. You can fault him for going after treasure and all but it's not like killing is his number one goal.
Some of the things that also bother me you have covered pretty much.
 
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Nymphae

Banned
Why do people complain about sections where your character walks and talks with another NPC? If the game's relaying information to the player whilst also exploring the area, how is that a bad thing?

Exploring an area with VO's over top is not a typical "walk and talk" scenario that people complain about. Literally being forced to physically walk & listen at reduced speed, in what could have been an artfully directed and edited narrative sequence is annoying as fuck with absolutely no benefit to the player. It's prioritizing "player control" in sequences where it should not be prioritized, as it's duller than the actual gameplay for the player, and less interesting and effective at delivering plot details than a cinematic could be. Terrible game design trend.
 

GreyHorace

Member
“The game is too difficult”

ok, so you have two options: either don’t play since no one is forcing you or endure the difficulty until you finally have a grip of how the mechanics work and soon enough you’ll start saying “this is pretty easy.”
It's even more embarrassing when 'game journalists' nowadays almost always have this complaint. Isn't playing games their fucking job?

Exploring an area with VO's over top is not a typical "walk and talk" scenario that people complain about. Literally being forced to physically walk & listen at reduced speed, in what could have been an artfully directed and edited narrative sequence is annoying as fuck with absolutely no benefit to the player. It's prioritizing "player control" in sequences where it should not be prioritized, as it's duller than the actual gameplay for the player, and less interesting and effective at delivering plot details than a cinematic could be. Terrible game design trend.

Again, I really don't see what's so wrong about this. Sections like this aren't very long enough to become annoying. If developers were really obnoxious and made the game most of sections like these then we'd have a problem.

Like iconmaster iconmaster said, I much prefer these over a cutscene because an NPC is giving you a guided tour of a certain area. Giving you control over your character in sections like these helps you familiarize with your surroundings better than you would a cutscene. Like this scene in Assassin's Creed 2 when Ezio first arrives in Monteriggioni and is guided by his uncle Mario.

 

Loke

Member
First person platform jumping, especially prevalent when Half-Life was released and people were complaining about how difficult it was jumping around Xen. I don't get it, you have a mouse, use it to track where you'll land, don't just look straight ahead hoping you'll make it. Look DOWN. It's not that fucking hard.
 

Woggleman

Member
Ludonarrative Dissonance-I just don't analyze things that much. To me a game having a good story and the game also having great combat are not at odds with each other. A little bit of stretching is called for in any piece of entertainment but especially video games.

The idea that a game must be lighthearted, colorful and wacky in order to be fun. I see dark, realistic and deep games being accused of not being fun and I don't get it. They are fun in the same way that horror movies, and thrillers are fun to watch. A game does not need to look like a saturday morning cartoon to be fun.
 

Nymphae

Banned
Again, I really don't see what's so wrong about this. Sections like this aren't very long enough to become annoying. If developers were really obnoxious and made the game most of sections like these then we'd have a problem.

Yes, they are long enough to be annoying in almost every instance this appears. Any forced slow walking in a game where that isn't the normal player speed, is annoying to me.

If my focus is supposed to be on taking in this information during a scene, why are you making me walk? It doesn't feel natural because it's not what I'm intending to do - I'm literally following your slow walk path and waiting until I have control again. Use a fucking cinematic with good direction to deliver these plot details instead of making my badass character baby walk for a few minutes.

Something like banter while you are able to actually move around at full speed with all your abilities, like in Uncharted sometimes, is a great example of doing this correctly. Most of the time, you lose all of your player abilities and need to slowly follow the person reading exposition until the scene is done. Boring as fuck and like I said, defeats both purposes by providing a less fun gameplay experience and a less interesting narrative delivery experience than a cutscene.

Like iconmaster iconmaster iconmaster iconmaster said, I much prefer these over a cutscene because an NPC is giving you a guided tour of a certain area. Giving you control over your character in sections like these helps you familiarize with your surroundings better than you would a cutscene. Like this scene in Assassin's Creed 2 when Ezio first arrives in Monteriggioni and is guided by his uncle Mario.

It's still boring. There are a few instances where it can make some kind of sense, a virtual tour walk is one of them, but as I said, still boring. 9 times out of ten these scenes are comprised of you simply slow walking beside someone while having to listen to their dialogue and could be improved with the use of better camera angles and so forth.

At the most basic level, it's just a boring action for the player. And a lot of times I've experienced this where the NPC is walking slower than I am actually even able to walk, so I have to do this stutter step thing to keep beside them which looks ridiculous and shatters immersion.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
I hate collectibles when they are tied to game-affecting perks. Change my mind.

I don't understand why people are all up in arms about how many hours a game is. Some people say there's not enough content...some people will say there's too much content. I think the focus should be placed more on the experience as a whole to a certain extent. Some shorter games are full experiences. Some long games can still feel empty and incomplete. People will complain before even playing the game or will choose not to buy because it's only 20 hours.

That's dumb, you're dumb. Yes...I'm talking to you. the one reading this right now.

Dummy.
 

spawn

Member
Complaints about your PS4 controller not working on the PS5. I do not recall at any time where the old controller for the old gen console worked for the new gen console. Your PS2 controller did not work on PS3. Your PS3 controller did not work on PS4. Your Xbox 360 controller will not work on Xbox One. Why is this a big deal now?
 
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RavenSan

Off-Site Inflammatory Member
weapons that break in breath of the wild it makes the game better you whiny little c*nts

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Complaints about your PS4 controller not working on the PS5. I do not recall at any time where the old controller for the old gen console worked for the new gen console. Your PS2 controller did not work on PS3. Your PS3 controller did not work on PS4. Your Xbox 360 controller will not work on Xbox One. Why is this a big deal now?

Cmon man, this is an easy one - because my xbox One controller _will_ work on Series X. So out of the two major parties launching this year, one says "hey, your accessories will work fine" and one doesn't.

AFAIK there's nothing mechanically necessary to require a PS5 controller over a PS4. I know they're different, but trigger rumble isn't exactly a "need this to function for the game to work" feature.
 
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Souls games being difficult.

They arent difficult, they are mostly easy, if you have little bit of intelligence to learn the rules.

1) dont run around like headless chicken
2) pick your fights

And they arent difficult

Before I played em I had the image that you die 100x / hour.

Then I started from DS3, made a mage with low health and no armor/shield, only casting and basic dagger for emercencies. And I rarely died, even most mosses were kind of breeze, just roll around and cast spells.

DS2 were easy and havent finished DS1 but it have been about the same.

Cant talk about melee but I assume it is easier
 
actually, I wanted to say this in Godfall thread but didn't want to start an argument.
I hate when people say, for a good looking game, "looks like PS+ game" or "I'll wait until it goes free on PS+".
People say that about Godfall and Destruction AS.
I love car combat games and I love when pieces of cars fall off. Plus, that studio made free-to-play game Switchblade on ps4 which I liked.
Godfall wasn't on my radar until that last trailer which had better framerate and more colors(?). But, maybe both games will suck.
I think Housemarque stopped making great games like Dead Nation, Resogun, Alienation and Nex Machina because of people who waited for a sale.
you play Warframe for 500 hours, maybe that game should cost some money ?
maybe Binding Of Isaac should be 70-80$ because I put like 2000 hours in it
 

Roufianos

Member
One thing I can't stand is the idea that a linear story can't exist in a sandbox.

Perfect example is Mafia 2. People bitched it had no side activities and we got the dog shit busy work of Mafia 3 as a result.
 

FeldMonster

Member
Framerate.

I have never been able to notice the difference between 30 and 60 fps, even in side by side videos, unless you slow it down 4x. I almost think that people are making it up.

I don't care if its 15, 50, or 1500, I have never been able to see/count individual frames while playing, nor have I ever thought to myself that more frames per second will somehow affect what I am doing onscreen.
 

spawn

Member
Cmon man, this is an easy one - because my xbox One controller _will_ work on Series X. So out of the two major parties launching this year, one says "hey, your accessories will work fine" and one doesn't.

AFAIK there's nothing mechanically necessary to require a PS5 controller over a PS4. I know they're different, but trigger rumble isn't exactly a "need this to function for the game to work" feature.

Why would you need your old controller though? You get the new one in the box with the console
 

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
UI in RDR2 is terrible. I thought it is my own fault and you give the game a chance but if it keeps making me press the wrong button even after a long time of play then your UI sucks.
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
Framerate.

I have never been able to notice the difference between 30 and 60 fps, even in side by side videos, unless you slow it down 4x. I almost think that people are making it up.

I don't care if its 15, 50, or 1500, I have never been able to see/count individual frames while playing, nor have I ever thought to myself that more frames per second will somehow affect what I am doing onscreen.
I'm sorry but do you have eye problems? Not trying to be rude, it's an honest question you should get looked into.
 

StormCell

Member
Nintendo continues to churn out the same old Mario. They never strive to do anything new!

I see this a lot in every new Mario announcement or thread. On the one hand, it's nice when they do revisit a proven formula. On the other hand, Nintendo has done more with Mario than any other developer and franchise. The so-called mainline Mario games are so beloved because they're usually revolutionary in some manner of design. 3D All-Stars puts this on full display.
 

Old Retro

Member
The FPS argument. I may be getting old, but my vision is high def razor sharp. Never got on the "if a game is 60fps, it's way better than 30fps" wagon. 🤷‍♀️
 
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