Nearly every videogame that has a plot and a leading male character also involves one or more ORIs (Obvious Romance Interests). The ORIs come in all shapes, sizes, and character archetypes, but they all have one thing in common: you're expected to like them. More importantly, your male CHARACTER is expected to like them... and by "like them," I mean "love them." And by "love them," I mean "hurl himself upon them and create still more fodder for the sick, sick fanfiction community."
Heh, I remember one game in which every leading character BUT the male lead was an ORI (even the cat!)... http://www.atlus.com/rivierapsp/

3. When you have a direct injection of tranquilizer to the head or heart you too would be sleepy.Handy to have just in case something goes terribly wrong.
1. Isolate and kill. Old military tactic. Does not work if you the escape the anaconda.
2. If it blows up, your stranded! Especially if everyone is firing at it because it supported you. It is active when you try to escape.

Some games if you survive long enough you lose in a cut scene instead and get a special item and tons of xp. Xenosaga, FF8, Tales of symphonia, Tales of Legendia, etc..
In FF5 it is possible to kill the final boss in his first form only. The game pauses a bit the resumes with the ending.

Is it bad that I would have stated the specifics of a blaster vs a laser if I had gotten back to this thread earlier? ;)

Golden Sun 2.

No, its a wonderful thing! Be proud of who you are! Nerds unite!
Hehe we have a gay gamers thread, maybe we need a nerd gamers thread. Though now that I think of it they might as well just rename the forum...

Want me to start it? I promise a flame war will NEVER happen... *looks around nervously and giggles insanely...*

I'm starting to think that open-endedness is becoming a gaming cliche.
Sure, linear was boring, but its like one of the only ways to make a good storyline

It's a love hate thing.

I disagree, it IS a bad thing :)
I kid of course, how could anyone on a forum dedicated to games made pre-2000 be a nerd XD?
*thinks of all the negative rep I have comming*

I think the problem is that many open-world games are just too bland. One of the most fun things about them is exploring the map, but if theres not many remarkable places to visit than it becomes boring fast. We need more creative open-world design, like in Brutal Legend or Morrowind (i know that it is a bit bland too, but at least the architecture was interesing).

I spent two full days on that website yet, this will probably be my third. Thanks for taking my time! ;-)

Tiny Overworld maps.
Really, how many RPGs have you played where the entire world map was about the size of the United Kingdom, in total? In particular, I remember the map from Final Fantasy 7, which was covered with large landmasses and major landmarks and could be crossed on foot in just over five minutes. Man, we live on a SMALL planet....

tvtropes is satan's spawn. it is so frigging evil.
most awful cliches?
having your weapons, spells, equipment stolen from you.
It worked in HL2 where you got something much more cool than any of the weapons you had before
but i hated that in HL1 and was seriously pissed when it happened in Kotor 1 (but you got your equipment few minutes later so i did not rage that much)
Best cliche
game breaking weapons
Dragon tooth
Bozar
Last electric spell from arcanum
Halberd from Nox (at the end of the game)
speed boots from Morrowind (i got them in third hour of gameplay. nothing could stand against me for the rest of the game. I was frigging Flash. not technically a weapon but falls under that cliche)
KOTOR2 sith crush would count too but it was actually too hax so didn't use it that often only to finish opponent already destined to perish

...The Boots of Blinding Speed? The boots that actually did make you blind?