We have all been there at one point or another. You're playing along like the good little gamer you are when out of nowhere you come a cross some rule of the game, or some event, that just defies logic and makes you stare dumbfounded at the screen as you try to wrap your brain around what you just saw; or maybe it's something you always get annoyed with when you see it done in games over and over again. What is it for you? What's some of the things that always stick out in your mind when you see it in a game?
For example, when playing RPG's it always makes my brain hurt when you are only allowed to equip two rings. Last time I checked we had ten fingers. Not two. Or I could put them all on a necklace and wear hundreds of them! (I know game balance yadda yadda etc etc.)
Any who. Thought it might be an interesting thread idea. Back to playing Dragon Age.
Some parts of FPS games always annoy me like the fact you can't see your legs when you look down and the character(s) you're playing as never utter a single word. Are you a human being or a bodiless brain floating in thin air?
When in MMOs you need to collect something, let's say bird feathers, when I kill a bird why does the feather not always drop? I can SEE the feather but the game won't let me loot it, THE FUCK MAN? (same thing applies with quests that want heads). And what the hell is up with quest givers wanting heads anyway? I aint picking that up and putting it in my bag.
" Doodle God: Fire + Water = Alcohol ?!?!?!?!?!?! "
I think that is a reference to the old west when native americans used to call it Fire Water. Having said that, I know fuck all about American history so I'm probably way wrong with that.
" When in MMOs you need to collect something, let's say bird feathers, when I kill a bird why does the feather not always drop? I can SEE the feather but the game won't let me loot it, THE FUCK MAN? (same thing applies with quests that want heads). And what the hell is up with quest givers wanting heads anyway? I aint picking that up and putting it in my bag. "
Well to further that idea, what's with killing a bird and only taking one feather? That doesn't seem ecologically sustainable.
I hate when in FPS games, even if you're in dense jungle or forest, every enemy spots you through everything when you can't even see them. I know it's probably super hard to program, but same rules should apply to them.
For example: You can carry 118 bullets in one inventory slot, yet each weapon you have takes up 3 slots...
Another inventory one, (mainly) adventure games where your character can carry massive items around with them at all times. Indiana Jones is carrying around a ladder with him. In his pocket. What?
At least games like Monkey Island poke fun at infinite pocket space and that they acknowledge their silly logic in one way or another.
The best cheat code for a game I've ever had to enter was 'GeorgeStobbartsPockets' - nuff said on that matter lol Well besides from the immortal question 'Would you like a dog biscuit?'
But yeah, as for videogame logic that bugs me...I suppose not being able to hide from some bosses in Metal Gear Solid annoyed me lol
2D side scrollers set in a 3D environment where your character could easily just go around objects but the 2D view forces you to find some long winded route to get to the other side. Shadow complex would be a recent example of this.
For me its the I'm strong enough to destroy the strongest monsters and beings in the world, but some random dudes all like "Sorry bro, you can't go through this wooden door behind me until you do this random mundane task."
" When in MMOs you need to collect something, let's say bird feathers, when I kill a bird why does the feather not always drop? I can SEE the feather but the game won't let me loot it, THE FUCK MAN? (same thing applies with quests that want heads). And what the hell is up with quest givers wanting heads anyway? I aint picking that up and putting it in my bag. "
This drives me fucking insane. You want a small fury paw? Well I just killed a lion that has 4 small furry fucking paws. And yet no loot.
" For me its the I'm strong enough to destroy the strongest monsters and beings in the world, but some random dudes all like "Sorry bro, you can't go through this wooden door behind me until you do this random mundane task." Pisses me of everytime "
Or after you've killed 2000 soldiers three of them surround you in a cutscene, you're captured and lose all gear.
I dont like the "screen turn red, meaning go behind cover and wait till it goes away" health system in shooters nowadays. Though i cant say that i would like to see med packs back either, the only fps that i can think of that uses a good health system is far cry 2. Or brothers in arms (the first two) which didnt have regnerating health or medpacks, just get shot "X" amount of times and die, with checkpoints though.
"Oh no, there is some debris (a table for example) that I could easily climb over in real life, ah well, lets take a really long alternative path "
This kinda shit just pisses me off. Being block by a normal everyday object that could easily be moved. Am I to belive the character im playing as is too fucking stupid to move a table or piece of debris and continue on his way?
" Doodle God: Fire + Water = Alcohol ?!?!?!?!?!?! "
I think that is a reference to the old west when native americans used to call it Fire Water. Having said that, I know fuck all about American history so I'm probably way wrong with that. "
No, that sounds about right. At least, it's what came to mind for me as well
When characters refuse to jump or crawl or even just lean slightly to get under or over something something. Why the fuck can they not do that!? I can do that!
Definitely inventory sizing stuff. Some games get it right (Diablo 2, RE4) but others get it so, so wrong. Like RE5. How the hell does ammunition for a gun take up as much room as the gun itself? How does a pistol take up as much room as a sniper rifle? I'm okay with weird logic if it makes the game more playable, but when something makes no sense and is limiting, that's when my forehead veins start popping.
@GetEveryone: It looks like System Shock 2 to me... those were the days! I'm going to go with non-stacking consumables and inconsistent inventories in general :(
Games that only let you hold two weapons...unless you pick up a turret. Then its suddenly OK to have 3? what the hell!? Why can't I carry 3 guns all the damn time? Yeah I would have to drop one when I pick up the turret, but better to have loved and lost...
Shooters where you've been taking thousands and thousands of bullets and never dying but then in a cutscene someone shoots you once and you're crippled/impared/messed up in some way. What am I? A werewolf where only silver bullets hurt me?
It's not something I want to see changed, but in most shooters when you reload your weapon you get to keep all the bullets even though you've switched magazines. In reality, you should be running around with a bunch of partially full weapon magazines. I think it'd be kind of cool if games had an option to switch that element on and off. If you picked up fresh ammo on the field of battle, it would automatically discard the clips with the lowest ammo count.
For example: You can carry 118 bullets in one inventory slot, yet each weapon you have takes up 3 slots...
Another inventory one, (mainly) adventure games where your character can carry massive items around with them at all times. Indiana Jones is carrying around a ladder with him. In his pocket. What? "
Holy shit, is that Hilary Clinton in the top left?
" Shooters where you've been taking thousands and thousands of bullets and never dying but then in a cutscene someone shoots you once and you're crippled/impared/messed up in some way. What am I? A werewolf where only silver bullets hurt me? "
Wearing more than two rings is uncomfortable, not to mention ridiculous looking if your not a creepy, gaunt evil dude. Plus rings are pretty much always enchanted, so I like to think that it has to do with the amount of magic interacting with other magic, and the amount of magic you are exposing your self to. There is a game somewhere that actually explains it away with that logic.
Most of my stuff is things like FarCry 2 having such impressive fire tech, and then shooting your flamethrower into a lake doesn't do anything at all... And I HATE games with skewed damage. I don't think enemies should do significantly more damage than you. Also, the whole, Killzone 3 eye gouging melee, it's insane. No way could you just break that future armor glass in like that.
And a whole lot of universe centered stuff, where it isn't game design, but fiction, but makes no sense.
@PenguinDust: The one game that I can think of that does this is the PC version of GRAW (and the sequel of course). I don't know if the other Ghost Recon games did this, but I thought it was really cool. I tend to get jumped because I reload more then I should, so it was nice to have an incentive to leave the damn gun alone.
I know that I have played at least one other game with a realistic approach to clips, but I can't remember what it was.
" Doodle God: Fire + Water = Alcohol ?!?!?!?!?!?! "
Firewater is a euphemism for alcohol, so that one is more a play on words than messed-up logic.
@BeachThunder: What game is that in the first picture? It looks a lot like Deus Ex... "
System Shock 2: for if you enjoy pooing your pants consistently for 15-35 hours.
So the thing that has always weirded me out (although it didn't especially frustrate me) is the crouch jump. When I first saw it in Half-Life, I thought: Here's a game that tries to ground itself in conceivable physics at all times, EXCEPT when you are expected to get into a pipe that is at chest-height or above, at which point you jump up, duck in mid-air, and enter the pipe.
Not to nitpick, but the animation isn't Gordon Freeman doing some badass slide-tackle into the pipe. The animation is him jumping up, then while in the air performing the crouch animation, then wafting forward like a nerdy spectre into whatever god-forsaken heck-tube he's trying to enter. It's appeared in plenty of other games too, and each time it is completely unexplained, and most of the time it goes against the realism that those games are striving for. In Quake, I can handle it, in Half-Life, I cannot. I will not!
@Tebbit: Yeah, that really bugs me in CS. Still, in the single player games it seems reasonable enough. Its only in multiplayer, where you can see people doing it, that It starts to feel really weird.
I would really like to see Valve take some cues from that video that was bouncing around a few months ago, and really up the animation in their games.
@nintendoeats: Yeah, I played GRAW 1 and I seem to remember it doing it too which I both loved and hated. I'm usually not a frequent reloader but I remember playing this game against friends and having to cycle through my clips for ones with more than 2 or 3 rounds left in them. It's cool because it adds an element of strategy and planning to the game that wouldn't be there otherwise. I knew that there was some game that had this feature, but I couldn't remember which one. I wouldn't be surprised f ARMA also had it, but I'm not too familiar with that franchise.
@Kiemoe
said:
" Platformers where you can jump out of water when you're swimming on the surface. That's fucking impressive "
That kind of reminds me that encumbrance and swimming don't make any sense at all. I can be swimming around in Elder Scrolls Oblivion while wearing a full suit of armor and carrying two more and not sink like a stone. I don't care how strong you are, there's no way that's happening.
" Doodle God: Fire + Water = Alcohol ?!?!?!?!?!?! "
I think that is a reference to the old west when native americans used to call it Fire Water. Having said that, I know fuck all about American history so I'm probably way wrong with that. "
Soap, you are absolutely correct. Fire + Water = Alcohol made immediate sense to me for that very reason.
" Platformers where you can jump out of water when you're swimming on the surface. That's fucking impressive "
That kind of reminds me that encumbrance and swimming don't make any sense at all. I can be swimming around in Elder Scrolls Oblivion while wearing a full suit of armor and carrying two more and not sink like a stone. I don't care how strong you are, there's no way that's happening. "
At the very least, in the encumbrance scenario, it is POSSIBLE for somebody to be that strong. Since you are supposed to be a special hero, mightier than your fellow man, your ability to swim while carrying tons of stuff actually adds to the fiction. Since jumping out of water without magic is straight up impossible, it just feels weird in any game that has any pretense of realism.
I never got the logic with your companions in RPG's leveling up. Like, I don't bring Allistar with me but when I come back to camp, he's ready to level up? What the fuck did he ever do except sit on his ass?
" I never got the logic with your companions in RPG's leveling up. Like, I don't bring Allistar with me but when I come back to camp, he's ready to level up? What the fuck did he ever do except sit on his ass? "
Isn't that a pretty new mechanic though? I don't remember unused characters leveling up at all from older RPGs. There was always some spot where you got separated from everyone except that one shitty character you never used and he was at level 3 when everyone else was level 54.
I'm Commander Shepard, savior of the known everything. I walk up to two individuals quibbling about some trifling matter and one tells me to mind my own business.
None of my dialogue options are: "Do you know how many thousands of aliens I've murdered? Neither do I. That's how much of a fuck I give about killing people. Start running now."
@jasondaplock: That's true. People in the Mass Effect universe are kinda rude to their messiah, and should probably start treating him with the appropriate amount of respect. There's gotta be a "Hey guys, I don't know if you realize this, but I'm kinda Space Jesus here" button.
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