Video game Clichés that drive you NUTS!

[Small White Car]

When the computer cheats. If I happen to get half-a-lap ahead of the computer racers on Mario Kart, they should not all-of-a-sudden be right on my tail.

This is annoying against the computer, yes. The Wii Mario-Kart is FINALLY going to add this option for multi-player, though, which is a GOOD thing.

I'll finally be able to play with various friends or family members without lapping them. When I play the computer I want to win, but when I'm playing with my friends I want it to stay competitive or they don't want to play again.

This has always been backwards. They're finally adding it where it makes sense.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

When the computer cheats. If I happen to get half-a-lap ahead of the computer racers on Mario Kart, they should not all-of-a-sudden be right on my tail.

This is annoying against the computer, yes. The Wii Mario-Kart is FINALLY going to add this option for multi-player, though, which is a GOOD thing.

I'll finally be able to play with various friends or family members without lapping them. When I play the computer I want to win, but when I'm playing with my friends I want it to stay competitive or they don't want to play again.

This has always been backwards. They're finally adding it where it makes sense.

How the hell would this work? Your oponent is half a lap ahead of you and then suddenly you're transported right behind them?

 

[Holdfast]

When the computer cheats. If I happen to get half-a-lap ahead of the computer racers on Mario Kart, they should not all-of-a-sudden be right on my tail.

Rubber-band racing is THE most annoying AI creation ever. I STILL cannot beat the penultimate race in Burnout3 because of this nonsense. I tried again about a month ago after not playing for years, and again almost ended up throwing my controller through the TV.

 

[firehawk12]

Same thing (used to) happen in Sports games... where your players suddenly suck even though they've been great for 3/4 of the game.

 

[rType]

When the computer cheats. If I happen to get half-a-lap ahead of the computer racers on Mario Kart, they should not all-of-a-sudden be right on my tail.

This is annoying against the computer, yes. The Wii Mario-Kart is FINALLY going to add this option for multi-player, though, which is a GOOD thing.

I'll finally be able to play with various friends or family members without lapping them. When I play the computer I want to win, but when I'm playing with my friends I want it to stay competitive or they don't want to play again.

This has always been backwards. They're finally adding it where it makes sense.

How the hell would this work? Your oponent is half a lap ahead of you and then suddenly you're transported right behind them?

More likely that the trailing player receives a ~10-30% speed increase depending on the distance between themselves and the leading player.

 

[Aragorn]

The dumbest racing game for multi-player had to be R.C. Pro-Am II for the original Nintendo. You were all on the same screen, so if someone got too far ahead, players 2-4 would get pushed right back into the heat of it because otherwise they'd be off the screen.

 

[Small White Car]

More likely that the trailing player receives a ~10-30% speed increase depending on the distance between themselves and the leading player.

That's what I would expect. The further back you are, the faster the car goes.

Like I said, annoying with a computer player, but nice when it's your friends. If they can't keep up they don't want to play at all.

This also means that places 1, 2, and 3 should probably all have the same speed car. That's really all you need. Once everyone's up front it's still a fair fight.

 

[archeryguy1701]

I hate that in RTS's, especially the newer ones, your starting base will be placed in an undefendable position with a tiny resource supply, while your enemy has half the map taken up and all the resource fields except your one little puddle. This is especially true for CnC3 (a game I dearly lover, but come on!). I've figured out that if I can't beat the AI, much less get out of my starting location, I require an army that only consists of the most powerful unit. Which, of course, requires the contruction of every single building, plus a ton of resources (which, as mentioned before, you don't have).

 

[Twilight]

You come into an open area in which, across the arena, you see 20+ bad guys.

...All of whom are conveniently chilling out directly beside a GIANT PROPANE TANK.

It's fun the first few times. But after every single FPS game in history has multiple sequences in which an overwhelming number of enemies always just happen to be around barrels or tanks that go Hiroshima from one bullet just gets old.

There's SO much more room for creativity in mass slaughter sequences in FPS games. No need for stupid exploding barrels (I mean, really - how many exploding barrels have YOU seen in real life? Why are they scattered *absolutely everywhere* in FPS universes?

 

[Twilight]

The silent hero. it works fine if no one expects you to really respond to anything. it fails when people ask your character a direct question and you stand there like a fool. Link and Gordon Freeman, i'm looking at you.

I don't know, I think they actually pull of the silent hero thing pretty well in the Half Life universe.

Characters never really ask you direct questions, so it doesn't feel awkward to not hear your character reply.

Plus, in some ways its more immersive - whenever I play a half life game I find myself subconsciously imagining my responses to what characters in the game are saying to me - and that draws me more into the game than, say, Crysis, where your character talks all the time and it's a bit jarring to hear him do so.

It's a fine line to walk but I think Valve pulls it off.

A happy medium is something like the Halo series. Cortana being in your head provides you with a constant friendly voice, which is comforting throughout the game in much the same way Alyx is a comforting presence in Half Life 2 episodes 1 and 2. Master Chief only speaks in the cutscenes, never in actual gameplay (as far as I can remember), so the player "interacts" with Cortana in much the same way the player "interacts" with Alyx - silently, but somehow it all feels right.

 

[CorporalClegg]

When the computer cheats. If I happen to get half-a-lap ahead of the computer racers on Mario Kart, they should not all-of-a-sudden be right on my tail.

Rubber-band racing is THE most annoying AI creation ever. I STILL cannot beat the penultimate race in Burnout3 because of this nonsense. I tried again about a month ago after not playing for years, and again almost ended up throwing my controller through the TV.

Yeah.

What gets me is it even exists in Gran Turismo the supposed "Real Driving Simulator." People insist that it doesn't, but I've experimented using a real timing device and, yes, it does.

 

[Arrqh]

\A happy medium is something like the Halo series. Cortana being in your head provides you with a constant friendly voice, which is comforting throughout the game in much the same way Alyx is a comforting presence in Half Life 2 episodes 1 and 2. Master Chief only speaks in the cutscenes, never in actual gameplay (as far as I can remember), so the player "interacts" with Cortana in much the same way the player "interacts" with Alyx - silently, but somehow it all feels right.

I'm of the complete opposite opinion... I think Halo is the worst way to do it.

Personally I'm of the opinion that a game should never break perspective. If it's a 3rd person game, it should always be 3rd person and if its a 1st person game it should always be 1st person. In Halo, they break away from that perspective for cutscenes which leaves you with a disconnect between your actions as a player and the Chief's actions in a cutscene. In Crysis, Nomad may say things without you wanting him to, but he never does any actions without you doing them. You've pretty much always got control... just not of his voice box

 

[Cutter John]

Long cutscenes. Long, unskippable cutscenes just before segments which you'll likely have to replay repeatedly.

I don't know if any RPG besides Final Fantasy does it, but random monster encounters that occur every fucking five feet!

All of your enemies have perfect aim from a mile away.

All of your squad members are total idiots that only exist to get in your way and get themselves killed and blame you for it.

Yep.

Call of Duty 3 anyone?

I’ll also add to my list is Psychic bad guys. How do they always know where you are?

Call of Duty 3 was the worst.

I’m with a squad of soldiers and I’M THE ONLY ONE BEING SHOT AT!!!
Also all the bad guys are shooting forward and I flank WAAAY out to the side, crawl through 4 foot tall grass all the way around behind them and before I fire a shot the all turn around and shoot me? HUH!?

Gawd I hated that game.

I'm guessing you gents should avoid Metal of Honor Airborne as well.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...unctuation/2582-Zero-Punctuation-MOH-Airborne

 

[Daedalus12]

DM6 (quake), de_dust (CS) and Deck16 (UT) are 3 of the most overplayed maps ever in FPS games. They have become such a Cliché so that every incarnation of the 3 before mentioned FPS games must have those maps in them.

 

[EnsignRicky]

Deleted: I posted in the wrong thread somehow.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I'm guessing you gents should avoid Metal of Honor Airborne as well.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...unctuation/2582-Zero-Punctuation-MOH-Airborne

Ah, Yahtzee. This world would be far duller without you.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm guessing you gents should avoid Metal of Honor Airborne as well.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...unctuation/2582-Zero-Punctuation-MOH-Airborne

Ah, Yahtzee. This world would be far duller without you.

ZP Reviews are the best ever.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

True, true. Anyone that hasn't already checked out Zero Punctuation needs to click on that link right away, and then spend the next hours of your life going through his archives. Some truly hilarious stuff there.

 

[Trekker4747]

True, true. Anyone that hasn't already checked out Zero Punctuation needs to click on that link right away, and then spend the next hours of your life going through his archives. Some truly hilarious stuff there.

My favorite quote, "my +69 staff of penetration."

 

[Canadave]

You come into an open area in which, across the arena, you see 20+ bad guys.

...All of whom are conveniently chilling out directly beside a GIANT PROPANE TANK.

It's fun the first few times. But after every single FPS game in history has multiple sequences in which an overwhelming number of enemies always just happen to be around barrels or tanks that go Hiroshima from one bullet just gets old.

There's SO much more room for creativity in mass slaughter sequences in FPS games. No need for stupid exploding barrels (I mean, really - how many exploding barrels have YOU seen in real life? Why are they scattered *absolutely everywhere* in FPS universes?

One of my favourites is in Jedi Knight II where you sneak around an Imperial Remnant base on an asteroid until you find the room where you can turn off the forcefield keeping the atmosphere in the main docking bay. Then you get to watch all the stormtroopers go flying off into space.