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[Quartz_Mace]

When you need to play through a game on a lower difficulty setting to unlock a higher difficulty setting.
Why can't I just play through on that difficulty now? There's just no reason for it.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Cod has all the best guns reserved for the highest levels making longer playing players extremely OP and harder for new players to level up.

'Best guns'?  There's a difference between guns in a class beyond a couple more bullets in a clip and it being burst, auto, or single-shot?  The latter being the only thing you really notice.

By that I meant best things, better customization, more guns, and yes IMO the better guns are the ones you get after maxing out on leveling.
I can hardly play older COD online without a bunch of OP guys running around rapping the newbs

[Neonivek]

When you need to play through a game on a lower difficulty setting to unlock a higher difficulty setting.
Why can't I just play through on that difficulty now? There's just no reason for it.

Some games justify this because the higher difficulty setting is meant to be played on sort of a New Game+

[hector13]

When you need to play through a game on a lower difficulty setting to unlock a higher difficulty setting.
Why can't I just play through on that difficulty now? There's just no reason for it.

Some games justify this because the higher difficulty setting is meant to be played on sort of a New Game+

Some games also ramp up the difficulty so much as to require you to have played through the game once to have a) got used to everything the game can do and b) have the attributes and weapons from one play through to actually just survive in the new difficulty.

Jade Empire Special Edition and Diablo are good examples of this.

I agree that it's annoying if the game starts you from scratch though, because I generally can't be bothered playing through a game more than one or two times though, as I try to get everything done in one play through and finish it off in a second one, if necessary.

[Lightningfalcon]

What I hate is the fact that in Ace Combat, you can't play on Ace difficulty without doing new game +, which I feel takes out a lot of the challenge.  Sure, I could restrict myself to using the shitty planes at the beginning, but I don't have that kind of self control. 

[Shadowlord]

In Max Payne 2 you had to beat each difficulty in turn and there was no new game +, just tougher difficulties (with limited saving). The ending changed if you beat the hardest difficulty, though.

(And then I played Max Payne 3 and was disappointed the changed ending wasn't canon. Oh well.)

[Rolan7]

It's an issue of gameplay and story segregation, yes, but since they integrated the respawn points into the game world itself it doesn't work that way.
Seriously, they should have just had you pop back into existence at the start of the area. Maybe make checkpoints glowing balls of light or something. In those cases, it's easy to mark it off as 'oh, I'm the player, of course that's going to happen' but with respawn points? Recorded messages from the company talking to as you respawn? Yet for some reason the player characters are the only ones who can ever use them and they're never mentioned by other people? Sorry, WSoD can only go so far.

I actually kinda liked the respawn stations, but you're right it doesn't hold up to examination.  We suspected that the stations are mainly used by the bandits, explaining their entirely absurd numbers and making Pandora less of a money sink for Hyperion. 

We decided that maybe Hyperion is just so profit driven that reincarnating the heroes was considered a profitable action.  Assuming the respawning process is cheap to run, they can make money off the dead hero *and* all the bandits (or Hyperion employees) who need the service.

Of course, eventually Jack really wants to kill the heroes...  But can't.  He even

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pays them to humiliate themselves by committing suicide off a cliff

but never disables their respawn privileges.  Any explanation is a bit of a stretch, but I like to think that it's an intricate bureaucratic process which takes months to go into effect.  It involves turning down profit, after all.  So the original heroes are banned, and maybe other citizens of Sanctuary, but not the current PCs.

As for Jack...  It was done behind his back.  He doesn't exactly treat his employees well.

(I've barely played the pre-sequel, so I dunno if it contradicts my longshot theorycrafting)

[UXLZ]

Jack bought a sold gold horse or something, didn't he?
Either: Jack has total control of Hyperion's money (and if money is the most important thing for Hyperion then he controls Hyperion absolutely)
or
Jack is obscenely rich personally.

Either one of those lets him turn off the respawn beacons whenever he feels like it. If he has total control he... Obviously has total control. If he's just obscenely personally rich, he can just say 'I'll pay for the loss out of my own pocket'.

[Rolan7]

Yeah I think he's the CEO.  I'm just theorizing that Hyperion is such a bloated corporate mess that even he can't expedite the respawn-ban process.

It's really a stretch though, admittedly.

[UXLZ]

True, but I think we can really only just come to one conclusion.

Borderlands is full of plot holes. Like Swiss cheese.

[Darkmere]

At the start of the game it's profitable to keep you respawning and he needs the player characters to do the spoilery thing that almost lets him wipe out one town.

The common fan-wank is he's so pissy at you for the "murder" that he wants to kill you for good himself. which doesn't explain how he can literally kill you himself and you still respawn.

Really I think all of this is overthinking it.

[UXLZ]

Yeah, as I said, we just kinda need to accept it: Borderlands is a plot hole filled game.

Also, that fan-wank doesn't even make any sense since you don't go directly from that spoilery thing to committing that "murder." There's actually quite a lot of time between them, like a lot of time.

[WealthyRadish]

I found bioshock's integration of a respawn system in with the story annoying too (though at least with the first two an effort was made rather than just that stupid canned revive animation). Respawning only really becomes a plot/continuity problem when games let you redo areas with partial progress after respawning (instead of resetting at the last checkpoint or save), which is another thing that I hate. I'd rather figure out how to beat an area than whittle it down with endless waves of respawning.

[Mech#4]

Respawn booths are kind of odd. I mean; they're there to replace the save on checkpoint system or saving before a big battle, but they serve the same purpose, have to be justified within the game world and can be overlooked sometimes (if you need to stand near one to activate it).

It's like; by saving before a battle, if I end up dying I can rewind time and play through the battle again, maybe successfully, and for my character it works out as being a badass who can take on a difficult situation while coming out on top. With a respawn booth it's more you win through attrition; I can keep coming back until all the enemies are dead.

Certainly though, it depends on the game. A respawn system works much better in a game where enemies respawn also, like in Borderlands.

[Sheb]

I hate it when options are hidden behind a play through, like in X-COM. It is really nothing but a mean to force you to play several time.