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[EnigmaticHat]

Oh, yeah, 1-2.  Whoops.

[Neonivek]

Ok I found another pet peeve of mine that isn't something that is "bad"

Reload QTEs

I just flat out don't like them, I especially dislike them when they are actually necessary for effective gameplay.

When I am reloading I tend to be focusing a bit more on taking cover, or trying not to die. I am not thinking "what is the best way to hit the green marker while reloading?"

I rarely play shooters, I actually find classic shooters and RPG shooters to be my cup of tea. Yet goodness is this the one thing in shooters I just flat out do not like.

And with that goes

Weak Machine Guns

I understand there is a need to downplay how powerful machine guns are because they would completely overpower every other weapon... Yet do we really need to make them have pitiful damage?

Counterstrike is the WORST in that they also make the only machine gun in the game have pitiful damage. It is as if the machine gun was loaded with the lowest caliber bullets they could find.

Shotgun PUNCH!!!

Shotguns can actually kill a target from "100 yards" quite effectively or MORE!

Why OHH WHY do games continue to make them essentially a close range punch?

There are only two games in existence that make shotguns actually good at being guns. Cybermancy (well I only HEARD this for all I know it is close range and does ridiculous damage still) and Singularity.

Worst game for this? Borderlands series... where it is a close range weapon outright and if you try to use it when you aren't basically giving the enemy a hug you might as well use something else.

Innovations to a Genre that are never used again

WOW! That shooter actually shows damage on someone's body. WOW! that one actually traces the bullet through their body.

These MUST be the foundation that all shooters will try to emulate. What? No shooter after that game ever used it again? Why?

It BUUUUGS me when I see innovations that are great that never actually continue to be used. The first Lara Bow game for example is probably the most innovative point and click that was ever made with an entirely 100% sandbox experience with fixed events and if you know where a secret passage is one game, you can use it from then on... NO point and click ever tried to copy it.

Why!?!

[alexandertnt]

QTE's are just terrable in general. They just frequently seem to be a lazy form of gameplay attached to fancy but completely static animations.

[rabidgam3r]

Telltale's Walking Dead did QTEs fantastically, in my opinion. It wasn't a boring "mash A to not die", and it wasn't a "QUICK PRESS A- TOO LATE DEAD". It actually made tension and made emotional scenes more poignant because you actually had to do the terrible deeds in question.

[alexandertnt]

That makes it sound less like a gameplay element and more like a narrative/story-telling element, which does sound like a better use for QTE's.

[Neonivek]

Telltale's Walking Dead did QTEs fantastically, in my opinion. It wasn't a boring "mash A to not die", and it wasn't a "QUICK PRESS A- TOO LATE DEAD". It actually made tension and made emotional scenes more poignant because you actually had to do the terrible deeds in question.

The exception is of course games meant for QTE

Heavy Rain and Walking dead made good uses of it that kind of pulled you in.

[Rolan7]

And quick time dialog choices were great in Alpha Protocol, where sometimes I was unprofessional in the heat of the moment.  Really helped me get into the character.

I don't actually mind QTEs in general, but I haven't played many games with them.  I actually like the reload QTE in Alien Swarm, and wish it were in more games.  Reloading is so taken for granted, and I like the opportunity to get better at it with practice.  Maybe not to the level of Receiver, but the one in Alien Swarm is optional and easy (just potentially distracting).

[Parsely]

And quick time dialog choices were great in Alpha Protocol, where sometimes I was unprofessional in the heat of the moment.  Really helped me get into the character.

I don't actually mind QTEs in general, but I haven't played many games with them.  I actually like the reload QTE in Alien Swarm, and wish it were in more games.  Reloading is so taken for granted, and I like the opportunity to get better at it with practice.  Maybe not to the level of Receiver, but the one in Alien Swarm is optional and easy (just potentially distracting).

Or active reloads in Gears of War. I like that mechanic.

[Rez]

I don't mind QTE's that much, except for button mash ones.  The people who make those must be peripheral manufacturer cronies.  No, I'm not going to break my mouse for your stupid game.

[SealyStar]

I don't mind QTE's that much, except for button mash ones.  The people who make those must be peripheral manufacturer cronies.  No, I'm not going to break my mouse for your stupid game.

The only game I've personally played that made me worry about breaking my mouse was Dust: An Elysian Tale. It's the most fun I've ever had with a shameless button masher.

[Delta Foxtrot]

I really don't like QTE's, they tend to come across as lazy. Sure you could argue that it's just pushing buttons same as regular gameplay, but it sure as hell doesn't feel the same. Space Marine, a good brawler with fairly well flowing combat fell completely flat at the end by having a QTE bossfight. That and the never realized sequel hook at the end left a bit bad taste in the mouth despite most of it having been really good.
"Press these buttons to watch a prettily scripted animation" is perhaps ok in some games, but not in most action packed games that I've seen them in. Or can someone honestly say they enjoyed the boss"fights" in Far Cry 3?

I'm willing to buy them working in something like Walking Dead (never played it) because they sound like they're different games by nature. Maybe QTE-ish things work in some games. But if a game is built on some well realized action mechanic, be it shooting or chainsword swinging, adding QTE's is simply very jarring. They even, dare I say it, rob me of my immersion.

And lest we forget: Thief, Deus Ex and Half-Life never had QTE's

Actually, I guess I should mention one game that sorta made QTE's work. Just Cause 2, one of those newfangled GTA-likes. You could steal civilian cars as you normally can in that genre, but stealing manned police/military vehicles forced you to do a three button QTE. It added a certain sense of struggle to what is usually a fairly brainless exercise and I can't say it was horribly done. I'm not sure if it ultimately added anything, but if there's a way for action games to incorporate QTE's, that's maybe the route to take.

[USEC_OFFICER]

I was never really fond of the QTEs in Just Cause 2 myself. They were easy enough to be inoffensive, but I found that they just broke up the action far too much for me to like them. At one moment you're having a running firefight with a bunch of grunts, and then a helicopter swoops in so of course you try to hijack it and gain an advantage over your enemies. Except it takes 5 seconds of QTEs to accomplish that, which leads to a disconnect where you have to remember what you were doing before you started to hijack the vehicle.

Or maybe that's just a thing that happens to me. I will admit that the QTEs were useful in an odd way, since the enemy AI wouldn't fire upon you while you were hijacking a vehicle. This quirk saved my bacon several times, since it gave your health a chance to recover as you were struggling with the pilot. Except sometimes I only needed to recover health because I got shot up killing the people riding the vehicles because they needed to be dead before you could hijack it...

Spoiler: Random Aside (click to show/hide)

This reminds me of a couple missions in JC2, where you had to hijack a limo containing a VIP and drive it to a certain point. The missions were fairly difficult since after you hijacked the limo you'd be swarmed by army units, all while driving down a treacherous mountain road. Or at least they were fairly difficult until I realized that the limo was driving most of the way to the extraction point as part of its normal route, so you could simply ride on top of it without being harassed since the army didn't swarm you until you actually hijacked the limo. Which was rather silly but fairly amusing at the same time.

[Darkmere]

As far as I can tell there's two types of QTE's.

"Stop ignoring me!" where there's random press X to do shit in this cutscene, just to make sure you're watching the cutscene. And to make SURE you're watching it again if you glance away to take a drink of water or something. These QTE's can suck it.

"Integrated combo" events are the other.  The two that come to mind are the Prince of Persia games and God of War, where certain actions you take came with a QTE to get you involved. They were always pretty close to the same combination and came within two seconds of the last user input, so you were guaranteed to still be watching the screen and once you'd done a few you knew what was coming. Those I'm fine with, as they bring me into the game just a bit more rather than making me watch the cutscene, likely for the twelfth time.

I'm not even mentioning the "mash button to open this door" thing. I don't even know what the hell those are supposed to be doing. Opening a door is pretty simple, no need to dramatize it.

[mastahcheese]

Why can't they design QTE's to work like the swing meter from Gladius? All you'd have to do is make it so it effects how well you do the action, and if you flat out don't feel like doing it, you can just slam it in the middle of the "average" zone, and not give a shit.

But in general, I do tend to dislike them, because they just feel too artificial.

[NullForceOmega]

I think the first place I encountered QTE was in Dark Cloud on PS2, there it felt reasonable and was only used for 'cinematic' moments, not for bosses or anything else important.  Performing it perfectly also netted you a gemstone for weapon upgrading so that was a nice incentive.