Most overused(annoying) things in video games

[GlutinousRice]

Shops. They are rarely useful in any video game. Give me a video game with a proper shop.

This. Shops that are basically only there for you to unload all your loot are one of my pet peeves. I long for a game where the shop keepers aren't interested in purchasing all your random junk, and where you actually for once might have to buy something once in a while.

Arcanum did that to some extent. There are junk dealers and are the only one who will accept junk. Armor/weaponsmith will only buy armor and weapon or ore. Magic shop will only buy magic items. You get the idea. Shop keepers only buy what they are interested in their business. That was a bit annoying in a gamer point of view, but that made sense in Role Playing. If I remember correctly Planescape did that as well.

Completely agree. Zombies are just, dull.

I recommend you play Project Zomboid....

Or Cataclysm DDA (plus it's free).

 

[dopezilla]

Arcanum did that to some extent. There are junk dealers and are the only one who will accept junk. Armor/weaponsmith will only buy armor and weapon or ore. Magic shop will only buy magic items. You get the idea. Shop keepers only buy what they are interested in their business. That was a bit annoying in a gamer point of view, but that made sense in Role Playing. If I remember correctly Planescape did that as well.

Also Morrowind. You had to actually go from shop to shop to lose all your junk, and with most higher tier gear you couldn't get the value at all. Also, some shops had pretty powerful items instead of only some random low level gear. I liked shopping in that game. Last good Bethesda game actually.

 

[Dr Fallout]

Arcanum did that to some extent. There are junk dealers and are the only one who will accept junk. Armor/weaponsmith will only buy armor and weapon or ore. Magic shop will only buy magic items. You get the idea. Shop keepers only buy what they are interested in their business. That was a bit annoying in a gamer point of view, but that made sense in Role Playing. If I remember correctly Planescape did that as well.

Also Morrowind. You had to actually go from shop to shop to lose all your junk, and with most higher tier gear you couldn't get the value at all. Also, some shops had pretty powerful items instead of only some random low level gear. I liked shopping in that game. Last good Bethesda game actually.

Totally agreed.

 

[Banestalker]

The most overused sentence in Blizzard's games :

- the future of X hangs in the balance.

- Balance must be restored.

I dont get what their fascination with the word "balance" is.

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Also from same developer, the idea of different factions banding together to defeat the big baddie in one final fight is so overused it seems like a cliche blizzard strategic gameplay.

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The classic *chosen one* protagonist is overused alot imo. The idea that the protagonist HAS to have something special happen to them which results in them having special powers or have that special power within them awaken for the first time.

Examples : Skyrim, DA:I, Witcher, Kingdoms of Amalur, etc. etc.

I personaly dig the idea of protagonist being just a normal person with no special powers or abilities more. I dont want them to be the best of best, just someone who knows when to do something when they should in order to not die.

 

[Walpknut]

Detective Vision. Now every stealth game has it.... Which just kills most of the challenge.

 

[zegh8578]

Arcanum did that to some extent. There are junk dealers and are the only one who will accept junk. Armor/weaponsmith will only buy armor and weapon or ore. Magic shop will only buy magic items. You get the idea. Shop keepers only buy what they are interested in their business. That was a bit annoying in a gamer point of view, but that made sense in Role Playing. If I remember correctly Planescape did that as well.

Also Morrowind. You had to actually go from shop to shop to lose all your junk, and with most higher tier gear you couldn't get the value at all. Also, some shops had pretty powerful items instead of only some random low level gear. I liked shopping in that game. Last good Bethesda game actually.

I also like that shop inventory in Morrowind does not reset, it only increases - and increases - and increases. They do replenish their "base goods", but they'll endlessly store all the stuff you sell them, thereby creating huge "storages" of stuff
For example, in early game I'll sell all my "junk" ingredients at the Balmora alchemist, and in the late game, that shop is like a complete library of all thinkable ingredients - and large ammounts at that!

 

[Ilosar]

Zombies. Well, this applies to popular media in general, but still. Sick and tired of dumb zombies. I'd rather see fresh spins on the concept, like the Dead Nations in Torment. Or why not undead who aren't mindless drones or evil vampires/sorcerers.

''What can you tell me about X''. Very common in RPGs, and always sounds wrong. No one talks like that. Especially pronounced in games with voice acted PC.

Inventory management shenanigans. I like my intentories either as bottomless pits (Dark Souls, Pillars of Eternity) or a very limited affair that forces tactical choices (such as in the Deus Ex franchise). The in-between aspect that so many games, especially RPGs, take is annoying. The game just throws endless amounts of crap at you in order to fill your inventory (or worse, your weight limit) and you are almost never forced to make a choice. You're never not going to use X good item to make room for crap, you're just going to pick up Y less amount of crap that will end up in a merchant's inventory anyway. Or at least do it like Dragon Age: Inquisition, who made crafting materials weightless. I especially dislike the way Bethesda games, Witcher 2-3 and Divinity Original Sin did that.

 

[Empty09]

Zombies. Well, this applies to popular media in general, but still. Sick and tired of dumb zombies. I'd rather see fresh spins on the concept, like the Dead Nations in Torment. Or why not undead who aren't mindless drones or evil vampires/sorcerers.

Very interesting. Is there actually any game like that? (no goofy stuff)

 

[aenemic]

Arcanum did that to some extent. There are junk dealers and are the only one who will accept junk. Armor/weaponsmith will only buy armor and weapon or ore. Magic shop will only buy magic items. You get the idea. Shop keepers only buy what they are interested in their business. That was a bit annoying in a gamer point of view, but that made sense in Role Playing. If I remember correctly Planescape did that as well.

Also Morrowind. You had to actually go from shop to shop to lose all your junk, and with most higher tier gear you couldn't get the value at all. Also, some shops had pretty powerful items instead of only some random low level gear. I liked shopping in that game.

Yeah, all those are good examples of where it's handled a bit better. Even the Baldur's Gate games had you running from place to place to be able to sell everything and get better prices. And these at least offered you next to nothing for basic items.

But I'm talking about one step further, where even an armorer isn't interested in every piece of armor you find. Craftsmen are interested in selling their services first and foremost. If you happen upon something rare, or something they actually need, they could be interested in buying it from you or offer a trade. Pawn shops could be a bit more interested in your random junk, but shouldn't be a consistent source of cash in exchange for anything and everything.

Basically, I'm tired of most rpg's being 50% pick-up-all-you-can-carry-and-sell-it-to-the-nearest-vendor. Valuable loot should be rare and should be a joy to come across. Money should be earned by doing quests, jobs, thieving, raiding, etc.

 

[Ilosar]

Zombies. Well, this applies to popular media in general, but still. Sick and tired of dumb zombies. I'd rather see fresh spins on the concept, like the Dead Nations in Torment. Or why not undead who aren't mindless drones or evil vampires/sorcerers.

Very interesting. Is there actually any game like that? (no goofy stuff)

As I said, the Dead Nations in Planescape: Torment qualify. They're a small kingdom of friendly undead, albeit they're not all nice people at all. You can even become their king, albeit it's not recommended for a spoilery reason.

You've also got the Forsaken undead in Warcraft, who are undead freed from the influence of the evil Lich King, but aren't really upstanding people either with a penchant for creating deadly plagues. Still more interesting than mindless undead.

 

[zegh8578]

Monstrosities in general, they are very repetitive, and rarely very varied. FO3's deathclaw was just another Veloci-Allosauro-Raptor-ness, at least FO4s deathclaw is slightly more interesting

But - and this goes for movies too - claaaws, faaaangs, wrinkled, broken, gooey, gory skin, guuuurgle, roaaaar, hissss, can we at SOME point move past this? It's not scary anymore.

Also, there are good examples of the opposite, and then people simply don't SEE it
Like, take Game of Thrones - see white-walker fan-art based on book info - these are terrifying, they're shiny, tall, elegant beings - I even thought of the possibility that we're dealing with extraterrestrial conflict (like in Elfquest, if anyone's familiar. The elves there are actually from another planet, crashlanding 10 000 years prior to the comic beginning, and having adapted to the new world, long since losing their high-tech advantages to hunter-gatherer life-styles)
(I'm not saying "the others" are aliens, I'm just saying... with a non-zombie look - I'm thinking non-zombie things about them!)
In the TV series they were immediately given the GORY WRINKLES, CLAAAWS, ROAAAAAR
And to their credit, they're among the most original and freaky looking zombie-monsters, but they STILL are zombie-monsters...

Or "the grudge", or other Japanese horrors - they know how to make things scary, showing a lady, pale, unliving, unbelonging, looking at you. Imagine if you turn around from your computer, and some ghost-chick is standing there, innocent, looking at you, reaching out a hand
You don't NEED velociraptor-claws or gore or fangs or roars
But what did they do in the American remake? GOOORE, DROOOOl, FAAANGS, ROAAAAAR

The gore-wrinkle-monster-approach is less and less scary, every time it's perpetuated.

 

[Askorti]

I hate the "one winged angel" trope, where a human villain turns into a humongous monster. That's the perfect way to completely lose my interest. Not because of the improbability of something like this happening, but because of the meaning. You take away the humanity of my foe, his flaws, his personality and so on. Fighting a monster doesn't have the same kind of feeling to it as fighting another human being. It just bores me.
The same way I don't like the fact that humanoid mooks almost always have their faces covered in one way or another. I hate dehumanization of enemies in general.
Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't and you get raiders with potato sacks on their heads.

 

[valcik]

Bullet time mode. Or slo-mo, kill-cam, whatever. Especially in games as F:NV with thousands of enemies, thanks to all pagan gods this crap could've been disabled in options!

Arcanum did that to some extent.

Yup, I liked how any merchant could run out of money here.
The only thing I'm missing in virtual shops is proper restocking - instead of resetting whole stock, a couple of items should have disappeared randomly, being replaced by new sortiment eventually, with other stuff still remaining at the shelves. That's how it works in real shops.

 

[khain]

The only thing I'm missing in virtual shops is proper restocking - instead of resetting whole stock, a couple of items should have disappeared randomly, being replaced by new sortiment eventually, with other stuff still remaining at the shelves. That's how it works in real shops.

Yes !

I made that comment recently about FO4. For example, every single time I visit a merchant, I buy their entire stock of 44 ammo. You'd think they'd take that as a hint to 'order some more' and stock up, but no.

I know technically I'm not the only one using the shops, but regardless of what other virtual customers do, the shop knows whatever quantity of 44 ammo they have, I'll buy it - adjust the quantity accordingly.

 

[Ilosar]

I'd love to be able to order specific items. Ammo especially, so you can say ''hey, can you have more of those next time?'' and upon the restock, they have twice as much of said item as normal or something. .44 ammo is indeed pretty rare, that would make using the Magnum easier.

 

[Romanophile]

I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned regenerating health yet. There’s no real penalty for losing health, because in a few seconds you shall be good as new. It sucks out much of the challenge and drama from combat. Thanks, Halo 2.


Personally, I’d like to see a hybrid system: some health can regenerate, but the rest you have to patch up. This way, you would stand a reasonable chance in firefights. I’ve definitely been frustrated whenever I had to slog through an area with one hit point, but returning to normal in a few seconds makes me feel like I’m cheating.

 

[khain]

Interesting topic, health restoration.

I've always thought I'd like to see a system where painkillers are portrayed a bit more... well I don't want to say realistically, but sort of.

A kind of mechanism where, in the field of battle, you can inject yourself with a stimpak-like aid that bumps up your health temporarily, helping you live through the pain, before crashing again.

Resting should regenerate a bit like you said, and you should be able to use some health aids only when still, sitting and not surrounded by enemies.

Basically establishing a difference between the aid you use in the middle of a gunfight, to help you through the pain and to keep standing, and the aids you use when resting to actually patch yourself up.

 

[Illuminati Confirmed!]

Quick time events (I honestly can't imagine why anyone would ever even invent that).

Romances (as far as RPGs are concerned, at least).

Also, seeing mentions of Morrowind's economy, having just finished my latest playthrough, I can't resist offering my own two bits on the issue.

It... isn't really good. And that's ignoring the fact that anyone who has played the game more than once knows where to find Creeper or the Mudcrab. The issue is - how, in holy fuck, does an item have a value of 5 000 000 when there isn't a single person in the world willing to pay as much for it? Even the museum in Mournhold offers only half the "value" of the items you sell them as compensation. Did Bethesda go full Marxist and decide that an item's value is determined by the amount of labour invested in its creation/procurement?

That's no coincidence. It's the Illuminati, I tell you.

 

[Crni Vuk]

The part about items is to show the value it has. Like Daedric artifacts. 5 million is maybe to much, given the setting, but better than just, oh, you have this once-in-a-life-time powerfull artifact made by a god, hmm here let me offer you 500 Septims for it! I am exagerating, but that's how it feels in Oblivion/Skyrim, like as that stuff would be just another junk item found somewhere among all that random loot you get.

 

[Illuminati Confirmed!]

The part about items is to show the value it has. Like Daedric artifacts. 5 million is maybe to much, given the setting, but better than just, oh, you have this once-in-a-life-time powerfull artifact made by a god, hmm here let me offer you 500 Septims for it! I am exagerating, but that's how it feels in Oblivion/Skyrim, like as that stuff would be just another junk item found somewhere among all that random loot you get.

The five million number wasn't even hypothetical, it's Azura's star with Vivec's soul. How can it be worth so much when everyone is convinced that the dude is sitll alive? Oblivion just saved you the one-day wait between sales.

The value it has is the value people are ready to pay for it.

Not saying that the economy was done right in any Bethesda game (or any game in general).

Coincidence? I think not!

And changing from Peck to a sunflower.... Disappointing.