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[Niveras]

Dragon Age and to a lesser extent ME don't really have maps. The map's there but you can't explore it. You only go to pre-defined areas. It's very much like Baldur's Gate in that regard. Just because the map's there doesn't make it a sandbox or even have sandboxxy elements. At best the areas are just locations for side quests, either clearly defined as such or hidden as sort of an overarching plot (scanning for elements in MA, although you also get some half decent background lore in the process there). These are definitely games for story, not sandbox. It's not even open, 90% of the places you can't even get to (they don't even appear on your map) until you progress in the story.

Now, I'll agree with you 100% on the Bethesda games. While there is kind of Stuff To Do, it's really all pretty shallow and generally boils down to fighting or stealing. Some of that is maybe just because of the technology, some of that is maybe Bethesda upselling what their game can actually do.

[Parsely]

As one reviewer aptly put it, "Skyrim has the breadth of an ocean, but the depth of a small puddle."

[Bauglir]

Although the modding community does provide you with a thermonuclear shovel. Still, you're not going to dig out an ocean that way.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

A bit of a bump but I really have to rant for a bit.

Motion Blur.
Stop it, please god stop it. I was watching the recent Day Z standalone footage and the ungodly amount of motion blur was actually making me physically sick. Your whole vision doesn't magically blur when you move your head around. I don't see how anyone can find it either aesthetically or mechanically pleasing. It's unrealistic, it makes the game look like arse and it's just stupid that it's become a gaming norm. I'm sure it sneaked it's way in as a way for developers to hide framerate and texture pop-in issues.
Metro 2033 was also horrific for this and characters would even blur if they move the slightest bit, like as if such a small movement was too fast for the human brain to comprehend and process. It couldn't even be turned off easily. What tripe.

Depth of field gets another dishonourable mention but unlike motion blur I may consider keeping it on if it's done extremely sparsely(although that is sadly too rare).

[Parsely]

Well you can always just turn it off in the settings.

[Graknorke]

Well you can always just turn it off in the settings.

A surprising amount of games have fuck-all graphics settings.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Graknorke is indeed correct and not all games have graphical settings (usually bad console ports), which then send you to rummage through the config files. This is made infinitely more annoying due to gamesave locations being smeared all across the hdd because for some reason there still isn't a standard. You should see the state of my "My Documents" folder alone.

[Parsely]

I didn't notice the motion blur on Metro 2033 anyway. Unless you mean Last Light? I've beaten 2033 like four times, but I've never played Last Light.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Metro 2033 has tonnes of motion blur. What graphic settings were you playing it on? From memory DX11 cranks up the motion blur to ridiculous levels.

Best comparison shots I could find:
With.
Without.

I know which one I find more appealing. Hint: it's the one where I can see what the fuck is going on.

[Parsely]

It's definitely just something I never noticed, because it hasn't bothered me before, and I've playd that game more times than I can count. The only games where I find motion blur irritating are third-person games, and some horror titles (like those slender-likes that have been all the rage lately. bloody indie devs can't get enough of it).

[vaaern]

Overly spammed moves.

AI doing the same moves over and over is annoying enough, but if they use it in every scenario possible, it becomes nerve wrecking. In this case it's Sarah from DOA5 ultimate, I liked playing with and against her in Virtua fighter. But now, in DOA, she has this Multiple punch and backflip kick combo (which throws you on the ground), it's (almost) the only move she uses. When you couldn't block an attack, she does it. When in the air, when standing up again, countering, etc. You name it, she does it. It's become so annoying that I just removed her from the random selector. I mean, Tina does counter most moves, but at least she switches attacks in between.
And I'm playing on difficulty 5-6 of the 8 available, so I think you can understand the annoyance of beating everything and everyone except move spammers (Pai does this too, but Sarah annoys me the most)

[Telgin]

Reminds me of Clayfighter 63 1/3, and especially High Five.  He'd continuously and without exception spam his "Peace man!" finger stab thing that was almost impossible to avoid or counter with some characters.  I suspect the main reason for this is that he appeared to be incomplete, such as missing about half of the number of moves he should have had.

Then again, this was Clayfighter 63 1/3, which while fun and a bit charming, was pretty poorly balanced and suffered from lots of other problems.

[GreatJustice]

This thread needs a revival, so without further ado

Irrelevant Side Quests

In which side quests, especially side quests that use mechanics not found in the rest of the game, have no impact on the rest of the game whatsoever. This especially applies to side quests which give you no ingame benefits except benefits towards completing the rest of the irrelevant side quests.

DWB Syndrome

In which guards, police, etc will target the player exclusively for law breaking, even minor law breaking, while completely ignoring any AI characters killing people, attacking the player, and so on.

Artificial Endgame Difficulty

In which the devs realize that their strategy game becomes too easy once you reach a certain point, so rather than balance things ingame to create reasonable challenges in late game, they simply either give the AI ludicrous bonuses for no reason or else utterly break/nullify a mechanic that the player may have been using. Shogun 2's Realm Divide mechanic functions a lot like this.

Patriotic Advertisement Games

In which you play as a ludicrously heroic American GI, fighting villainous foreigners (generic "Middle Eastern Terrorists" who hate America for no reason are default, but Russians or even the East Asian Villain of the Week will do in a pinch) with the help of superior weaponry, even in historical settings where the Americans lost. Why can I never play as the Viet Cong, or at least get two campaigns for one of the more modern games?!

Quick Time Combat

In which combat is overwhelmingly resolved by tapping a button at the right time, with this being repeated in nearly every fight in the game (see: Hitman Absolution). Or, even worse, in which combat is resolved in a pseudo-dynamic way by the player pushing the same few buttons repeatedly, guaranteeing a very flashy yet somehow unfulfilling kill (see: Assassin's Creed and sequels).

[itisnotlogical]

DWB Syndrome

In which guards, police, etc will target the player exclusively for law breaking, even minor law breaking, while completely ignoring any AI characters killing people, attacking the player, and so on.

I want a GTA-style game where it's possible to drive completely legally and not get arrested for it. In most games, the police come after you as soon as you hit the gas.

[GreatJustice]

I believe Mafia 1 worked like that.