What really grinds my gears ...
 

I've got a few gripes with the gaming industry in general as of late. Here goes ...

1. Stop making games so short
Twenty hours of solid play the first time through should be an industry standard. I beat Bioshock twice in four days ... lots of play time, but I shouldn't have been able to go through that game so fast. It was an amazing game, give me more of it considering there's low chance for a sequel from that one. From what the reviews have been coming in, Assassin's Creed was also short. Same with COD:4. Games like Half Life 2 are as short as a good game should be IMO.

2. If it's a shooter, put in multiplayer
Somewhat annoying that the orange box didn't come with the deathmatch multiplayer for HL:2 (for the 360). Bioshock is another great game that was well suited for multiplayer but didn't have it. Yet somehow a game like stranglehold where one can manipulate time, they get multiplayer in there. I can understand this more for other gametypes, but multiplayer adds tons of replay value and especially for 360 games, XBL is an amazing service to sustain the popularity of the game.

3. Stop with the retarded vehicles
Gears of War. Great single player campaign ... except for that absolutely stupid vehicle level. Why did it need to be there? The game doesn't have any other vehicles in it and thank God because that sequence was terrible to play especially in non co-op. I played the UT:3 demo and gave the vehicles a shot and I just don't feel like I'm controlling a vehicle, I feel like I'm controlling a giant robot when I'm actually moving a tank. The WSAD controls just don't seed to work for vehicles. Same goes for Quake Wars and Crysis.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

fight the man

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

I disagree with 3. I think vehicles are great, and spice it up a bit. Though games that do this (in single player) should try to strive to reach HL2's vehicle experiences. Those are by far the best (in the fan-boat and the dune buggy). Mutliplayer's a whole new story.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

I obviously agree with making games longer. Whenever I get a game I pretty much always start on the second to highest difficulty level, it seems to help at least. Most games today have enough story and surprise elements in it too that it kills replay value IMO, so lengthening is definitely needed.

Agreed too that most games should be able to add a multiplayer function that works well pretty easily. Im no expert though. I do worry though that some games end up saying "yea well the single player is way short but theres multiplayer so it balances out." Halo3 and CoD4 are examples of this to me, but I'm a single player dinosaur so my complaining is probably off [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Vehicles are hit or miss IMO. I actually thought in HL they were a great addition, but the bat shooting level in GOW was just annoying and felt like a tackon to make it appear at least that they were somewhat varied in gameplay. That stuff was a pain in the ass on Insane. I dont play UT but vehicles in that just seem bizarre.

If I had to pick my own it would be writing talent. I know videogames aren't novels or movies, but what video game developers seem to think of as fascinating story lines are just sooooo gay to me most of the time. I know it's pretty much not how the industry works, but the integration of solid programmers and solid writers could do wonders for the industry IMO.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

My gripe is they haven't made an excellent RPG this millenium. (or at least in recent memory)

I'll take a short polished interesting game over a long one that is repetitive and seems like little thought went to the experience.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

[ QUOTE ]
My gripe is they haven't made an excellent RPG this millenium. (or at least in recent memory)

I'll take a short polished interesting game over a long one that is repetitive and seems like little thought went to the experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uhhhhhh....

KOTOR
Final Fantasy X

Two of the best of all time mmkay?

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My gripe is they haven't made an excellent RPG this millenium. (or at least in recent memory)

I'll take a short polished interesting game over a long one that is repetitive and seems like little thought went to the experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uhhhhhh....

KOTOR
Final Fantasy X

Two of the best of all time mmkay?

[/ QUOTE ]

Those aren't in the same league as Baldur's Gate imo. I hope they make a game like that sometime soon.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

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I disagree with 3. I think vehicles are great, and spice it up a bit. Though games that do this (in single player) should try to strive to reach HL2's vehicle experiences. Those are by far the best (in the fan-boat and the dune buggy).

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I agree, the vehicle experiences in HL2 actually made the game a lot better by adding in more memorable game moments. The vehicles controlled fairly well, not stellar, but good enough to get the job done.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

If you think that Final Fantasy X is one of the best RPGs of all time you are out of your mind. Just my opinion.

Re: What really grinds my gears ...
 

[ QUOTE ]
If you think that Final Fantasy X is one of the best RPGs of all time you are out of your mind. Just my opinion.

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QFMFT