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Trends you dislike in modern game design?

Actual cutscenes that are not behind-the-back camera angles. Don't get me wrong, for some emotional story-beat moments this style of cinematography is great, but why does the entire game have to be shot this way?
 

MetalRain

Member
Maybe in your face tutorials, I don't mean JRPG style where first 10-20 hours are drip feeding you a tutorial, but even shorter ones can be little tedious. Just let me do stuff and then show some tips when I screw up or want to wait for that tooltip.

However games are not just made for me and having larger player-base means games are financially viable to make, so I get it.

I think many things in modern games are quite good and some common issues are not that often fault of game design.

For actual game design issues I don't like is broken systems. Like game economy that doesn't make sense or game mechanics that encourage only one way of playing even if game is trying to offer several. But these are not really trends and everyone would fix them if they had had resources to do so.
 
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Actual cutscenes that are not behind-the-back camera angles. Don't get me wrong, for some emotional story-beat moments this style of cinematography is great, but why does the entire game have to be shot this way?
Aren't most cutscenes not from behind-the-back angles??? I don't know much about cinematography so i'm kind of confused here.
 
Aren't most cutscenes not from behind-the-back angles??? I don't know much about cinematography so i'm kind of confused here.
Maybe I described it wrong, but it seems like many games now employ a camera system for their cutscenes where it feels like there is a camera person walking behind the main characters or panning around them without any cuts. Just one single continuous shot. It's an artistic choice, but it also limits the scope of some scenes IMO.
 
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when you lose control of the first person camera (e.g., the game forces you to look at something).
unmemorable original music
ragdoll instead of death animations
environment doesnt affect audio (e.g., no more EAX stuff)
 
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HTK

Banned
Design decisions to help the lowest common denominator players. For example: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
 

SHA

Member
I don't think it happens at will, just desperate for another kickass take 2 games and other major games we've been missing for the last decade, we know there's a big empty space in the gaming industry that can't be replicated with technology.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Obnoxiously complex and layered skill trees.

Your character is leveling up, your weapons are leveling up, your clothing is leveling up, your vehicle and/or mount is leveling up, you can choose to level up your character in 20 different ways, and within each one of those ways there's abilities you can choose to unlock, and each of those abilities has different perks you can apply to them. Your weapons level up, but you can also add augments and attachments and customizations and upgrade the bullet type, etc.. etc.. Same goes for clothes and cars/mounts with add-ons and accessories and whatnot.

For me, it just gets way too complex to the point that I just completely lose interest in leveling, and in-turn lose interest in progressing further in the game altogether.

I think that shit needs to be reeled in and progression should be simplified and more impactful. Right now the difference between being level, say, 15 and level 20 is practically nothing, and instead you're given all of these little things I described above to make it feel like you're changing something substantial when you're really not.
 
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Filben

Member
Too much non-optional handholding like it's your very first video game ever.

Life service SYSTEMS with almost all of their implications.

MTX.
 

T4keD0wN

Member
I hate always online, I couldnt play RDR2 campaign last 4 times i wanted to and when i played assassins creed valhalla it crashed every time i got disconnected from the internet for more than 5 seconds.

I also hate 90%+ of unreal engine 4 game because devs refuse to compile shaders properly, might aswell make your game console exclusives while they are at it and not waste time cluttering the steam store page by their emulator like running trashy games
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
Not even waiting 5 seconds to let you solve the puzzle yourself. It's happening with most AAA games, at least AA titles & indies often allow you to get stuck and figure out a solution on your own (or specifically after asking for a hint).
 

lachesis

Member
Informing critical information w/o big visual support in the thick of gameplay.
I'm simple minded, so I'm really bad at listening and playing at the same time. Most of the time, I would just have to ignore... especially 1st person/3rd person shooting type deal - when I'm in the midst of gunfight.

Also horrible HUD design / UI design - and weird button mappings for different menus - plus when there are several different maps tied to different buttons. Many Falcom games of late (Trails & Ys) seems to have these types of maps (world map, regional map, etc) - why can't they just put them into one "map" section and maybe allow me to select thru?
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Not even waiting 5 seconds to let you solve the puzzle yourself. It's happening with most AAA games, at least AA titles & indies often allow you to get stuck and figure out a solution on your own (or specifically after asking for a hint).
Yeah it is weird. You would think in the age of the internet this will go away as it is a click away to find a solution but no. Don’t you dare get lost.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Too. Much. Stuff.

Too many games have systems, subsystems, menus and submenus for everything. And there’s just too much “optional” side stuff that‘s actually not really optional, unless you play every game like a lvl 1 Souls run. I’m playing Persona 5 at the moment and while I‘m enjoying much of it, it’s basically horror vacui: the game. Apparently it’s terrifically important that you have a wide choice of side activities to engage in, at all times. God forbid you already have a dozen things you could do in the city at any moment, you also have 2 or 3 people wanting to spend time with you every day and some new sights to see every other in-game week or so. I appreciate the creativity and effort in making the game so full of possibilities, but this also means that the game is going to last 60-100 hours no matter what, and that it’s almost impossible you’ll find the time or the will to play through it a second time. I long for the time of focused AAA games that didn’t have to dilute everything this much.

Skill trees and crafting are part of this, too. Don’t allow me to develop multiple skill trees, have me choose one at the beginning and stick with it, and balance the game so that whatever I choose I can play it with different approaches. Too many useful skills are spread evenly between skill trees, you need half of the skills to even play the game decently but it takes three times as long to achieve a balanced character. And crafting, dear Lord. Imagine if you had crafting in Doom.
 

cireza

Member
Same answer as in : https://www.neogaf.com/threads/what...e-about-modern-gaming.1644611/#post-266873239

Open worlds
Fetch quests
Useless pick-ups every 2 seconds
Crafting
Skill trees
Games being long because they have to, but nobody knows why
Games not being optimized for Switch
Multiplayer focus, cloud
Updates and having to download and install games
Movies

And let me add this :
Bland, generic dungeons to unlock skills for party members. This shit is ridiculous. Why not throw at the player a generic copy-pasted dungeon for every single thing in the game ? Wanna talk to someone ? Dungeon. Wanna pick up an item ? Dungeon. Press Start at title screen ? Dungeon. Wanna change an option ? Dungeon. Wanna press a button on the controller ? Dungeon. Dungeon ? Dungeon. Wanna be my lover ? Dungeon. Well this last one might be worth it.
 
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winjer

Gold Member
Quick Time events
Unskipable Cutscenes
Squeesing through passages
Lack of options for toggle ADS
Fake decisions that don't affect anything in the story
Hand holding and immediately giving hints for puzzles
Open worlds that are just baren filler for the player to waste time going from one mission to another
3D menus with long loading time
Crafting system
Stutter from shader compilation
Motion blur, chromatic aberration, film grain and other crap like this
RPG grinding mechanics or the sake of wasting the players time
Micro-transactions and NFTs
 

cireza

Member
Quick Time events
Unskipable Cutscenes
Squeesing through passages
Lack of options for toggle ADS
Fake decisions that don't affect anything in the story
Hand holding and immediately giving hints for puzzles
Open worlds that are just baren filler for the player to waste time going from one mission to another
3D menus with long loading time
Crafting system
Stutter from shader compilation
Motion blur, chromatic aberration, film grain and other crap like this
RPG grinding mechanics or the sake of wasting the players time
Micro-transactions and NFTs
Great list.

Main character that is alone, but can't shut the hell up as well. Can't stand this.

I’m playing Persona 5
I actually did the same thing. I tried. But I had to give up after 20 hours, and I moved on to some other RPG that better respects my intelligence. Not that I am a genius. The game is bloated with unnecessary stuff and drags to no end. And battles are brain dead stupid. Spam weakness, group attack, repeat. It was the same in previous Persona. Honestly, these games would greatly benefit from having a "Short route" that skips all the repetitive shit.

I moved on 7th Dragon on 3DS and I am having a blast. Mainly because this is a game that offers meaningful choices in terms of characters, skills (no stupid tree) and battle strategy. Everything that is missing from Persona 5. And in terms of story, it is not great, but it does a good effort at giving you the feeling that your created characters ARE part of the story, which is a great achievement in my opinion.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Most of them have already been posted, but what about modern game's UI being the most soulless shit ever? Just a bunch of minimalistic white lines with 0 taste or style.

f8468f3922775da76839cc344bd2ed1d.png


hidden-ones-mask-2.jpg


The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Weapon-selection-menu.png


hilde-tholens-artblast-ui-inventory-02-outfit.jpg

And now, the worst offender:

amm8kzeam1y51.jpg
 
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