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Inventory management overkill. This is true for RPGs, ARPGs and even some strategy games. Mass Effect also does it to some degree. Games should provide a function that streamlines the whole process.

I spent a hefty chunk of my time in Grim Dawn just sifting through endless supplies of randomized loot. There should be a quick "Sell All" button or something like that. I have ended numerous sessions of that game because I just couldn't stand heading back to town to sell my inventory for fifteen minutes and then put the crafting components into my chest and instead decided to postpone that until I start the game the next time.

Another game with a similar problem is Jagged Alliance 2. Especially with that 1.13 mod. You are having fun during a battle and then you have to spend twenty minutes giving each of your many soldiers the one particular ammo type they need or checking the dropped weapons against the equipped ones to see which one is better.

Starbound also has that problem. You can collect all those ressources and you can stow them away in lots of containers. Terraria has that auto-stack function which is a godsend. Open a chest, click that button and every item in your inventory that is already in the chest will be deposited there. Luckily there is a mod for Starbound which adds this button.

Skyrim is particularly nasty because the Special Edition still doesn't have the enhanced inventory that lets you sort by value or weight. It's really bothersome to scroll through controller-optimized, poor menus to find that one item that weighs you down so much.

Now, I love that feeling of finding an item that is a serious upgrade over what you had before, but the amount of time spent going through dropped stuff or sifting through your inventory can be a total mood killer.
Some other things:

Forced auto-aiming in shooters:. Hell I want to decide where I want that shot to go. And if I miss - so be it. Missing because the auto-aim thought it could do better is extremely frustrating...

Motion blur, esp when turning: Some blur when going fast forward is fine (i.e. in racing games). But I find it incredibly disorienting when I'm standing still and turn around and everything becomes blurry for a moment - like my character felt nauseous...

Depth of Field in-game: Do this all you want to make your cut-scenes more cinematic. But in game: Let me decide if I want to look at the treetops 5 miles away or the bird dropping at my feet.
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toxicTom: Some other things:

Forced auto-aiming in shooters:. Hell I want to decide where I want that shot to go. And if I miss - so be it. Missing because the auto-aim thought it could do better is extremely frustrating...

Motion blur, esp when turning: Some blur when going fast forward is fine (i.e. in racing games). But I find it incredibly disorienting when I'm standing still and turn around and everything becomes blurry for a moment - like my character felt nauseous...

Depth of Field in-game: Do this all you want to make your cut-scenes more cinematic. But in game: Let me decide if I want to look at the treetops 5 miles away or the bird dropping at my feet.
Oh god, yes to all of that.

And another thing that really grinds my gears is default mouse acceleration, bonus points for providing no way through the option menu to turn it off, requiring you to fiddle with ini files. Bethesda do that a lot.
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toxicTom: Also Anachronox... The RPG part is actually rather easy and I could enjoy it on "hard", but then the "Hive" action sequence becomes incredible frustrating.
If you have mini-games like that, make them either skip-able or make separate difficulty settings. Someone who aces the number crunching of an RPG is not necessarily a god of twitchy fingers too.
Some day, I'll go back to playing Anachronox (starting over for the 305934809548th time) and that time will be the one I progress beyond there.
Any Tomb Raider fanatics here?

What do you think about the two action sequences added to Anniversary, namely the "pause & shoot" (or whatever they called it) where you dodge, slide, and wait for the targets to line up, and then the arrow sequences where you have to push in specific timed key commands to finish off a boss.

I don't think they destroy the games but they kind of go against what I love about them.
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tinyE: Any Tomb Raider fanatics here?

What do you think about the two action sequences added to Anniversary, namely the "pause & shoot" (or whatever they called it) where you dodge, slide, and wait for the targets to line up, and then the arrow sequences where you have to push in specific timed key commands to finish off a boss.

I don't think they destroy the games but they kind of go against what I love about them.
They really killed the T-Rex boss with that one. Even though Anniversary was AWESOME.


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mqstout: Some day, I'll go back to playing Anachronox (starting over for the 305934809548th time) and that time will be the one I progress beyond there.
Ooof, the hive is pretty far in. Play on easy and get it done!!

(At least you got to see Democratus. I looooove Democratus)
Post edited May 04, 2018 by Vainamoinen
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toxicTom: Someone who aces the number crunching of an RPG is not necessarily a god of twitchy fingers too.
Similarly, someone who loves the number crunching of an RPG does not necessarily enjoy twitchy segments.
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Swampland: Inventory management overkill. This is true for RPGs, ARPGs and even some strategy games. Mass Effect also does it to some degree. Games should provide a function that streamlines the whole process.
The really annoying thing is that the solution, not limiting inventory space, was found and used long ago, but WRPGs (and it tends to be WRPGs, not JRPGs, that have this issue) keep re-introducing the problem. Examples of games that did the right thing:

Ultima 1-5 (with a partial exception for 3): You have unlimited inventory, and can carry up to 99 of any item. Ultima 3 has the annoying issue of remembering who is carrying what, but Ultima 4 fixed it by having everyone share the same inventory. Sadly, Ultima 6 re-introduced separate inventories and limited the amount you can carry.\

Final Fantasy 5 has a shared unlimited inventory much like Ultima 4-5 did; this persists throughout much of the series (though FF7 has a (rather high) limit to Materia you can carry, and I believe FF10 limits weapon and armor inventory space, so that game (which I haven't played *might* have that issue)), and was even added to the remakes of earlier FF games. Dragon Quest 6 introduced a bag that would let you store items, and the series later made its use more convenient; that bag was again added to remakes of earlier games from 3 onward.

So, since there's a good solution, why don't WRPGs use it?

(A separate issue is the amount of useless drops in WRPGs; is it necessary for *every* single archer enemy to drop a bow and some arrows; there's also the issue of limited ammo, which I find isn't a good mechanic unless the weapon is powerful enough to warrant it.)
Post edited May 04, 2018 by dtgreene
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Fairfox: 10 gazillion logos at teh start
Also, having to wait for loading screens. Back in the day, game consoles were nice because they don't have this issue. These days, hard drives are so fast (compared to what we had back then) that loading screens should be completely unnecessary for games played locally.

(I turned off the intro logos from Oblivion, but there's now a load screen that comes up whenever I start the game.)
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toxicTom: Some other things:

Forced auto-aiming in shooters:. Hell I want to decide where I want that shot to go. And if I miss - so be it. Missing because the auto-aim thought it could do better is extremely frustrating...

Motion blur, esp when turning: Some blur when going fast forward is fine (i.e. in racing games). But I find it incredibly disorienting when I'm standing still and turn around and everything becomes blurry for a moment - like my character felt nauseous...

Depth of Field in-game: Do this all you want to make your cut-scenes more cinematic. But in game: Let me decide if I want to look at the treetops 5 miles away or the bird dropping at my feet.
It gets absurd when the auto aim sticks from say, over a meter away.

This reminded me of something else that's obnoxious when done wrong: Head bobbing. I don't think most people's heads rattle like bobbleheads when they run.

Additionally, not being able to adjust how the pop-in works can really break a game world when you see trees cartoonishly rising from the ether.
Haven't read all comments, so - sorry, if this was already mentioned:

Endless respawning enemies

Some offenders:

- Sniper: Ghost Warrior
- Vietcong 2
- Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Unidad-troops, level 4)

Edit: (how could I forget this -somewhat special- case)

- Far Cry 2 (instantly re-manned outposts)
Post edited May 04, 2018 by BreOl72
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toxicTom: Some other things:

Motion blur, esp when turning: Some blur when going fast forward is fine (i.e. in racing games). But I find it incredibly disorienting when I'm standing still and turn around and everything becomes blurry for a moment - like my character felt nauseous...

Depth of Field in-game: Do this all you want to make your cut-scenes more cinematic. But in game: Let me decide if I want to look at the treetops 5 miles away or the bird dropping at my feet.
Totally agree with these two. Blurring is stupid because things blur naturally to the eyes anyway if they move fast enough but we naturally barely notice it. To forcefully shove it in cos it looks `cool` helps no one except the Devs who want screenshots. Not good for the eyes either I`ll bet.

Same thing for depth of field- it just confuses your eyes cos your eyes looks at a 2D screen, but then has to refocus cos now it`s having to adjust for fake blurry depth- Not good for you and probably a health risk.
Post edited May 06, 2018 by Socratatus