game design decisions that piss you off.

Actually more like 'trends'.Not specific examples but a certain 'element' that pisses you off.

for me:

- Lucky critical hit from enemy boss that wipes out whole party of jrpg.

- When your guy get's his ass kicked in a cutscene after you kicked his ass beforehand easily (gameplay). Seriously wtf? Worse than QTE's imo.

- deep rpg games that try to explain every single game system before you even fight a dude (bonus: before you even get control of character).

- AI 'pals' in shooters that talk a lot of shit in cutscenes and yet in combat they can't shoot shit!

- games with a crappy feeling jump yet still need to insert X amount of jumping puzzles...

Realistic shooters like Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6 turning into modernized games with recharging health and barely any tactics.

The first weapon you get in a game being the most useful the whole way through. You guys made all this other shit that seems cool, give me a reason to use it!

long loading screen after deaths
no quick saves in modern FPS
no quick loads :( in modern FPS
Real life art direction (almost all current games)
Copycat tendencies (as in everyone wants to top COD....sigh)
Multiplayer focused games (Brink , Shadowrun etc.)
La Noir

Depicting damage through the vigorous slathering of strawberry jam on the edge of the screen. Such a pain in the ass.

Letterboxing the screen as a signifier for anything and Max Payne being the hero in every game.

Being able to spawn on any squad member in BFBC2, instead of spawning only on Squad leader, or someone that might have a perk that allows it.

I really hate it when developers do things to intentionally piss you off. This was more prevalent when I was a kid then it is now but you still see it occasionally.

Realism as an aesthetic choice in games these days is a let down.

When they make the end leaps and bounds harder then the rest of the game. I feel you need to escalate the difficulty so the player learns how to handle the situations as it progresses- not just make the end incredibly painful to play because it's the end.

There's probably others, but I'm tired and cant think of anything else at the moment.

Not making the game I wanted to play.

Adding superfluous action elements to games (LA Noire) that are unnecessary and compromise the experience.

This game is meant to be an authentic feeling noir detective story experience, forcing me to kill 200 people is completely immersion breaking, and I doubt it sold a single additional copy of the game that the Rockstar logo wasn't going to well anyway.

Show the public a little bit of respect, we aren't all mindless dudebros.

The "follow the leader" mentality where everyone tries to mimic the most successful product. I understand it got to the point for a reason but that doesn't mean that there isn't room in the market for unique ideas still. Just remember, that guy on top (product) was probably trying something new when they ended up being so successful.

TL;DR: Too much "CoD-ification"

No quick saves, Load times that just pop up, falling into objects, Sometimes getting from place to place in open world games(sometimes not), non-regenerating health bars, long load times, game crashes, and cheap deaths.

Got a few more!

- Doors in modern shooters. The only thing your squad mates can do is open the damn doors. Give me a game in which I open the doors and you guys shoot. Would be new and unique!

- Frustrating/shit last levels. Pretty much 80% of great games have horrendously bad level design for the last mission or so. Throwing waves of enemies at me or fight a boss in a game that doesn't have bosses. sigh*.

- Holster your weapons properly! Current gen games shouldn't have the magic sticking AK on your back, or the odd Sam Fisher case in which his guns were fine until Conviction where his sweater attracts rifles and he literally jams his pistol up his ass. No wonder he's so grumpy.

In monster hunter tri you can't search or start a city for a monster that you haven't fought yet. i mean c'mon 
 
now that I think of it... at least I don't think you can.

Lack of Mouse/Keyboard support on console games for shooters.

I gave this a lot of thought, and while there are a lot of things that annoy ms about games, the only truly unacceptable thing is the cheap, unavoidable death. You know, that one level where you keep dying over and over for hours and no amount of skill will get you past that point, and eventually you miraculously make it through. That kind of nonsense infuriates me, especially when the rest of the game is great overall.

- @dudeglove said:

Escort missions and underwater levels.

'Nuff said.

Those are the worst.

Encumbrance

Since I'm playing Persona 4 on my PC right now ... that there is no "reroll" button while fusing makes me yell at my screen.

Save points too distant from each other. Unskippable cut scenes. Escort missions. Lazy reuse of entire levels or dungeons. Forcing the character to backtrack just to make games longer. Fetch quests. Invisible barriers in open world games (seriously, I can't believe they still do this). Time limits artificially placed on missions. RPGs that oversimplify the experience for everyone when it would be really easy for them to simply add a mode for beginners that handled all the numbers in the background. I'm sure I can think of a hundred more.

I always thought not seeing your feet in first person shooters is a bit weird. 

I gave this a lot of thought, and while there are a lot of things that annoy ms about games, the only truly unacceptable thing is the cheap, unavoidable death. You know, that one level where you keep dying over and over for hours and no amount of skill will get you past that point, and eventually you miraculously make it through. That kind of nonsense infuriates me, especially when the rest of the game is great overall.

Not designing multiplayer levels to completely avoid spawn kills. TF2 is pretty much the only one that does.

@Azteck said:

Turning an RPG into a third person shooter to sell more copies to the mainstream audience.

I wonder what game you could possibly be talking about... :(

1. The dumbass slow walk in a shooter... and even fucking Arkham Asylum. This is so annoying.

2. I really do not like when a game has nothing substantial to differentiate from other games in the genre e.g. Homefront, Medal of Honor, Breach.

3. Unskippable, unpausable cutscenes.

4. Sequels that have nothing to do with the previous game(s).

5. Inconsistency in gameplay.

The first weapon you get in a game being the most useful the whole way through. You guys made all this other shit that seems cool, give me a reason to use it!

Combat being the only real interactivity in 99% of games.

Infinitely spawning enemies that don't stop coming until you cross an invisible line. It's total crap and it happens too often.

@supermike6 said:

@Slaker117 said:

The first weapon you get in a game being the most useful the whole way through. You guys made all this other shit that seems cool, give me a reason to use it!

Why don't you use them because they seems cool? They shouldn't force you to use the different weapons; you should want to use the other weapons because it's more fun that way.

I'm not the one making the game. Tools should be designed with a purpose, I shouldn't be designing a purpose for the tools.

@supermike6 said:

@Slaker117 said:

The first weapon you get in a game being the most useful the whole way through. You guys made all this other shit that seems cool, give me a reason to use it!

Why don't you use them because they seems cool? They shouldn't force you to use the different weapons; you should want to use the other weapons because it's more fun that way.

I'm not the one making the game. Tools should be designed with a purpose, I shouldn't be designing a purpose for the tools.

- When at the main menu "new game" is listed above "load game" even though you click "new game" once and "load game" a ton of times
- Games that don't let you pause or skip cutscenes
- When you pause the game and it's not silent

Pretty much everything about Japanese games.

Quick Time Events.

@supermike6: There are conflicting philosophies on this. Ultimately a game is about having fun, you're right, but the questions is where that comes from. Personally, I like the challenge. I want to be told "This is your objective, these are your tools, figure it out." The enjoyment is had in learning how to overcome that; of course I'm going to adapt the path of least resistance. When you are given weapons that have interesting properties but not interesting uses, that pisses me off. It's wasted potential and sloppy design. I'm not losing out on fun because I am doing what I find fun, but as a criticism of a game's design, it's one of the ones I levy most.

AI characters don't do anything. they're pretty much moving targets that do nothing. this hasn't happened to me in a long time but when they walk into walls and keep going that way.
 
another one, when difficulty is a big jump between two of them.

Gameovers when the "leader" in a JRPG dies, but other guys are still around to revive you. 
I'm looking at you, Persona and FFXIII.

Checkpoints before unskippable cutscenes.

Only one save slot.

No New Game+ in a game where it would make a lot of sense to have New Game+ (with upgrades or unlocked items for example).

Unskippable cutscenes.

Not enough time spent stomping out major game breaking bugs.

Not enough time spent making sure the game is stable enough not to crash too often.

No subtitles option when audible speech is involved.

Withholding content that is already done and on disc to charge extra for and call it "DLC".

Pre-order exlusives.

Poor ports (console or PC).

Depicting damage through the vigorous slathering of strawberry jam on the edge of the screen. Such a pain in the ass.

Unnecessary boobage.

@Napalm said:

@Hailinel said:

Depicting damage through the vigorous slathering of strawberry jam on the edge of the screen. Such a pain in the ass.

BA-BA-BLOODY SCREEN. SO REAL. Also, fuck you. Strawberry jelly is amazing!

On toast, yes. On my TV screen? No.

Not making the game I wanted to play.

I hate when RPGs have level scaling. I prefer to have difficulty depend on what area you're in. 
Escort quests suck too.

Realistic shooters like Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6 turning into modernized games with recharging health and barely any tactics.