A big problem I have with modern games is a certain tendency to patronize the player. Mind you I separate patronizing into two categories:

The games with tutorials that just make you go "no shit", saying things along the lines of "shoot enemies to kill them".

The games with highly automatized mechanics, where you barely have to press a button to do something, or worse, it's just a quick time event, and the game acts like you did this huge thing.


So I was hoping for everyone to share some good and bad examples, I'll go first:

On the good ones, I have Metal Gear Rising. It has a lock-on system, it's R1 just like DMC, Bayonetta and countless other games, but it didn't tell me that because it assumed that I probably played other games in the genre before, and even if I hadn't, it assumed that instead of standing there like an idiot I would press the buttons in the controller to see what they did for myself, without the need for a screen prompt to interrupt gameplay just to say that.

Then that are the telegraphing of the attacks. Enemies flash red before attacking. Suddenly, there comes a guy that flashes yellow, and when I try to block it doesn't work, so I see that yellow attacks are unblockable and must be dodged. The game didn't have to tell me that. It sounds like such small stuff, and it is, but the game thought I had a brain to see things for myself, this shouldn't be a big deal but unfortunately it is.

On the bad side I place the Assassin's Creed series. Don't get me wrong, I loved AC 2, but the platforming never felt right to me, I could get through most obstacles by just holding two buttons and pointing to where I wanted to go. The combat wasn't much different, and the addition of things like chain kills (after your first kill, just point toward who you want dead and press a single button, repeat ad infinitum) just exacerbated the issue. I get the idea, it's positive reinforcement, they want you to feel like you are a badass assassin, but I don't, I feel like the game is playing itself.

EDIT: I found a funny comic that kinda illustrates my feelings

I don't see the point of tutorials. Having some sort of reference card for key/mouse actions should be more than enough to tell you what does what a given key does in a game (even if the game has no manual - which are most short or indie games it seems). Tutorials seem pointless - many games use similar keys for basic movement, combat, inventory actions.
And yes the handholding in good number of games seem pointless as well. Wheres the joy in discovering things by trial and error?.

I just played pacific storm and the obnoxious japanese-sounding tutorial voiceover is a really really annoying. Whats worse is that you have to TRY the things he says. And he has this demanding tone while asking for utterly ridiculous things like:

Move the camera left with the a key. DO THAT NOW!
Move the camera right with the d key. TRY IT!
Zoom in with the + key and zoom out with - key. EXERCISE THIS NOW!

Explaining Camera Controls really suck, they are one of the very few things that most games manage to bind to the same keys. I hate games where I can't skip the tutorial, especially that for camera control. Worse are games utterly limited to a degree where I break the game because I wasted the tutorial ammunition and are now unable to pass the tutorial and the worst of all are the tutorials where you just watch a film in such a slow speed that you have trouble not falling asleep, just like university and school.

Best tutorial so far:
Red Faction: Guerilla

"Have some explosives, destroy that building and enjoy the physics"

Like nijuu said most games are similar, so yea a simple note does trick.
A tutorial should give the basic things like moving but not "Press W to walk" and then wait for the npc talk "Press E to open the door" and so on and definitely not giving all the information on the fly, let players figure out the deep stuff.

Myself i liked:
-Half-life series so simple and let players discover or stumble on tricks like fuel barrels on those aliens that pull you up, and the train sequence lets you know the movement keys.
-The witcher 2, a simple note card and thats it, let the player do what he wants.
-Batman A.C. on normal mode you could see those blue icons on the enemies so you can see when to block attacks on hard mode that isnt there but at that point you have an ideia when to block it.

Bad tutorials:
-Sword of Stars 2 which is pretty much a video if not mistaked.

It can get even worse.
I have a habit of rebinding every key before I even see the game. As a result - tutorials that have the bindings hard-coded instead of reading the config on the fly... give me incorrect information.
It can get EVEN WORSE STILL. If the text says something like "Press F to turn on your flashlight", I just press something like the fifth mouse button or tilt my scroll wheel to the left, depending on what I remember manually binding "toggle flashlight" to. If the tutorial merely says "Press F now", wanting to follow up with something like "See? That's how you turn on your flashlight!" I have to either guess, memorize "F means the button above the scroll-wheel" or press every bound button at random until I discover the right one >_<.

I remember playing some shmup in a Tokyo arcade that constantly flashed text and said HEY POOR PLAYER, HEY POOR PLAYER, HEY POOR PLAYER every time you made one little goddamn mistake. I'm surprised they could at least construct a simple English phrase without botching the grammar in an embarassing way, so good for the devs I guess.

Man, so many games now do this. The Arkham games come first to mind. I wanted Bruce to shut the fuck up and let me do the investigating, and even then the gadgets do the thinking for you. A shame because they're such great games otherwise. Just about any modern shooter requires you to turn your brain off and enjoy the cutscenes with QTE's, which I find patronizing. GTA and other open world games prompt you what to do step by step. GTA4 was terrible about this. The Assassin's Creed games don't fare much better. RPG's are the least likely to do this but Bioware's simpering ego-stroking characters and the sheer lack of depth in ME2 and ME3 is pretty sad.

I hate games that tell me EXACTLY what to do at exact moment. Like "quick! Find a weapon! (Big axe two feet away starts glowing like a chernobyl dog) now kill that enemy by hitting him in the head!" Etc etc.

Pretty much sums up how I feel. I like having tutorials for some games, as long as they're skippable if I find I don't need them. I do find even if it's a game genre with which I'm somewhat familiar, there often times is some kind of odd key binding9s) the devs decided upon and I like getting the feel for it by actually playing as opposed to having to reference a manual or keymap card to figure out where they decided to bind a particular function.

Btw i have nothing agai-nst voluntary tutorials. I have a lot against mandatory tutorials. And i don't like 'press A to kill' games as well (ass creed)

For dosbox games' there is no better solution than to open the game in window and a reference card nearby. If you have a large screen resolution, you can have them both visible at the same time. It's awesome and efficient.

A tutorial for an unique gameplay mechanic is fine. I praised MGR and the game starts with a tutorial for the parry and free cutting mechanics.

A tutorial saying "left analog stick to move", etc. is not fine. It disrupts play, and if people want to know, but for some reasons are averse to simply pushing buttons on their controller, they can just go to the controls section on the menu and see it. Which is what I do by the way, I always check the controls before starting the game so there's no need to break flow later on.

I especially dislike tutorials in FPS games where they tell you how to look around and move your character. People who are that clueless usually steer clear of complex games. Even if they got the hang of "looking around" and moving, maybe at the same time, they'd still get shredded by the first enemy because combat requires fast coordinated mouse-keyboard action.

List of games that don't patronize the player: Most games in the 90s :P
Eh? Ass Creed isn't QTE..is it?
Edit: Nevermind forgot hunting was hunting was mainly QTE in III but still that's a small part.

I like the tutorials that integrate the story with it, like half-life or far cry 3