The area when Point'n'Clicks went 3D.

The lack of save games. It was very annoy to take note of level codes in order to play from there.

On the other side, modern games have a checkpoint every 2 minutes. Very annoy too.

Reliance on special hardware

I understand why this is done since there's special hardware from the time that blows the competition, but optimizing special graphical effects for other cards makes it work nicer on future setups and having games that rely on one special API or card set is insane. This is mostly in relation to stuff like Splinter Cell that uses a special NVIDIA card to render all the lighting effects and the like. Not counting games that used Glide since that's more or less during a time when there wasn't much certainty on the future of 3D graphics for PC games.

Unskippable FMV sequences can be annoying. Have to fight that boss again? Here, watch this video over and over and over again! :P

OP's issue is the reason why Interstate '76 and Mech Warrior 2 are miserably broken on modern hardware. It also irks me on games like Dungeon Keeper after you beat a level, and your level stats fly by so fast you can't read them.

Such a shitty practice, hate hate HATE.

IMHO, what sucked about yesteryears games were generally cooler than the suckiness of todays games.

I was going to mention lack of saves, but in some cases, I actually liked that. Made some games like Dangerous Dave and Prehistorik all the more interesting because you relied on lives, so you had to make choices like "is it worth geting those points for extra lives, or is it too dangerous"? It was pretty fun playing it with friends.

When I played Commander Keen 1-3 (save only in between levels) you got that "Yes! Finally!!" feeling when you beat a particularly difficult one. In 4-6 where you could save any time, I couldn't help saving every little bit and that feeling was no longer there.

That said, games which couldn't be beaten in one go, and should have had saves between levels, but instead relied on level codes were indeed annoying.

EDIT: and good to see you again, montcer!

yep. yet another reason I just put on vsync and forget about it.

Sadly, I don't think this is something that was 'fairly common back then' and is 'fairly uncommon nowadays'. Maybe the FMV part, but unskippable videos and cutscenes are still a blight on modern videogames as well. :/

Well, there is people who really love it, taking it to a extreme level in modern games. Perhaps some may say that there is nothing more difficult that a NES game without save game hahaha.

And oh, I thought no one noticed my absent :P

Very dumb AI.

At best the enemy AI is so bad that you can easily beat the game left clicking only. All the loot and powers you acquire painstaking does not matter. Yesterday I am playing VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - REDEMPTION and boy the AI is really dumb. When you fight several enemies, some enemies will just stand there do nothing but watch until their comrade dies.

At worst, you have escort mission where the companions you are suppose to escort get stuck, or dies.

High frequency random encounters. I actually like grinding out and random encounters. But when you're hitting one every 4 seconds? No! And powerful encounters before nearly impossible bosses. I can't stand that.

Hey, I was the first to welcome you back!

Still was the first to welcome you back.
I may have no idea who you are, but I still care.
I mean, assuming you weren't a scammer or a troll or something.