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[Neonivek]

Whoops it is Inversion that has genuinely impressive shotguns... not singularity.

[Parsely]

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.

The Dark Cloud QTEs are HARD, you miss out on really good loot if you screw up.

[mastahcheese]

The original Crysis has pretty decent shotguns.

I actually stuck a sniper scope on one, and set it to a narrow spread, to see how well it worked, and it's actually not too bad at long ranges.

[NullForceOmega]

...I...uh, I aced them all without to much difficulty.  Either I nailed it or I failed it basically.  I had bigger problems with Goro the fat fuck than I had with the events.

[itisnotlogical]

Unnecessary graphical flair

Hearthstone is a very, very pretty game, but I wish they had downgraded the graphics just a tiny bit for mobile devices. It looks exactly like the PC version as far as I can tell, including all the neat graphical effects. My tablet is not the most robust device around, but it's my only means of playing Hearthstone on the go so I'd at least appreciate the option of decreasing the load on the poor thing. Much of the detail is lost on the relatively small screen anyway. It's not like Unity makes it difficult to change the graphical quality of your game or build platform-specific features, so there's really no excuse for there to not be a low-quality setting.

[Cowboy Colt]

Unnecessary graphical flair

Hearthstone is a very, very pretty game, but I wish they had downgraded the graphics just a tiny bit for mobile devices. It looks exactly like the PC version as far as I can tell, including all the neat graphical effects. My tablet is not the most robust device around, but it's my only means of playing Hearthstone on the go so I'd at least appreciate the option of decreasing the load on the poor thing. Much of the detail is lost on the relatively small screen anyway. It's not like Unity makes it difficult to change the graphical quality of your game or build platform-specific features, so there's really no excuse for there to not be a low-quality setting.

Here here for low quality settings.

[nenjin]

I've decided that games which use a high degree of randomness as a form of a difficulty kinda piss me off. A game being highly unpredictable doesn't make it hard. It just makes it unpredictable. "Hard" is something you address with skill. "Randomness" is something you address with time. Those two are not equal.

Like, Binding of Isaac is both unpredictable, AND hard. And in its case its unpredictability is part of its replay value.

Darkest Dungeons, on the other hand, is just unpredictable. You're doing the same rote things over and over again and hoping for the result that helps you, not the result that complete F's you.

[SealyStar]

Protagonists who act without player input in the service of plot or character development

I just finished Bioshock Infinite, and I was blown away by all but two parts of the game. The first is that you can only carry two guns. The second is that Booker Dewitt is a moron and I am powerless to change that. I understand that the game deliberately wants to make him a character that you just happen to control for most of the game, and not an RPG player character, but it's really jarring when he does dumb shit like

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Taking ball #77 after being explicitly warned not to
Just standing there as a five-foot-looking waif bashes him unconscious with a wrench
Bashing in Comstock's head having barely met him
Willfully submitting to death by drowning instead of trying to question Elizabeth's logic

Without any player input. There are plenty of games that railroad you down very particular linear stories, but none of them have ever been this offensively blatant with their "Fuck you, player choice!" attitude. The Half-Life games get away with it because all the railroading is portrayed as the result of external forces, not Gordon Freeman acting without the player's input. The first Bioshock gets away with it by explicitly stating that every stupid, horrible thing Jack does is the result of

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

in-universe brainwashing

In contrast, maybe 75% of the conflict and 90% of the tragedy in Infinite comes from Booker being an idiot with the self-preservation instinct of a worker ant. It also manifests in smaller ways, like him thanking Elizabeth when she constantly feeds him ammo instead of health as I imagine him swisscheesed with bulletholes but holding a fully loaded gun.

[Neonivek]

In contrast, maybe 75% of the conflict and 90% of the tragedy in Infinite comes from Booker being an idiot with the self-preservation instinct of a worker ant.

But in all fairness the plot itself is fueled by Booker being an absolute moron.

How many times would the game just ended on the spot if Booker had at least child's intelligence level?

[Sergius]

I think a lot of that is the (growing?) mentality that now games are "art" and as such their stories should be 100% decided by the author and not the player. Basically turning them into another broadcast medium plus some "interactive" parts.

But at least some games are clever about it. There's like one part in the first Bioshock where you're remote controlled, the rest is just you following the quest-giver like in any other game, then afterwards finding out why you seem to think you chose to do them. But at no point you're "compelled" to do them, the world map just doesn't open except for you to do the next thing. So, disobeying and standing there doing nothing is a perfectly valid (but useless) option.

Mass Effect 3 had that problem with the endings, and you can read them in all the whining from the makers "this is our vision!!!!!!!! fuck you players you should enjoy our art!!!" after the whole ending fiasco where all your previous choices were rendered irrelevant.

[Cowboy Colt]

I've decided that games which use a high degree of randomness as a form of a difficulty kinda piss me off. A game being highly unpredictable doesn't make it hard. It just makes it unpredictable. "Hard" is something you address with skill. "Randomness" is something you address with time. Those two are not equal.

Like, Binding of Isaac is both unpredictable, AND hard. And in its case its unpredictability is part of its replay value.

Darkest Dungeons, on the other hand, is just unpredictable. You're doing the same rote things over and over again and hoping for the result that helps you, not the result that complete F's you.

I suppose with action games, it scales reasonably well but with strategy it can be a lot more difficult to implement subtly.

[SealyStar]

The thing is, as angry as my post may have sounded, I do think there's a place for linear story-based games. The problem is that some games believe restricting player control over the plot necessitates restricting player control over the PC themselves. I gave the examples of Half-Life and BioShock as games that did it well. First, the linearity is explained and shown as the result of events out of the character's control as well as the player's. Second, even when a particular action is needed to continue the plot, the player has control over doing that action, while most of the annoying twists in Infinite happen in cutscenes or "press X to kill" moments.

[timferius]

What I don't get is why games need to force moral choice as well (eg. Press X to kill or Y to release). Just leave the character vulnerable at let me walk away if I want, you don't have to smash my face in to the fact that "HEY LOOK, MORAL CHOICE! WE'RE EDGY AND MODERN!". A real good moral choice should be one I don't really think of.
And I have to agree with SealyStar. The beauty of Half-life 2 is that they NEVER took player agency away (unless Gordon was physically restrained, in which case you still controlled his head). They never went "LOOK AT THIS GLORY, LOOOOK AT IT" and let you dick off in the middle of a conversation to go teleport potted plants. Not a single moral choice, and I still feel I had more agency than in Infinite.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Speaking of moral choices, I felt that The Witcher did them fairly well. There's no good guy points, no bad guy points. Just actions and their at times unforeseen consequences. As a result I really thought about what I wanted and what I should do.
Most of the time when games have a moral choice it's tied to a fairly rigid good/evil metric and I just pick whichever fits my current run ("I'm running an evil character, I guess I should kick that puppy then *yawn*").

[timferius]

Speaking of moral choices, I felt that The Witcher did them fairly well. There's no good guy points, no bad guy points. Just actions and their at times unforeseen consequences. As a result I really thought about what I wanted and what I should do.
Most of the time when games have a moral choice it's tied to a fairly rigid good/evil metric and I just pick whichever fits my current run ("I'm running an evil character, I guess I should kick that puppy then *yawn*").

Or worse "Hmm, evil has better powers, so I'll go with that" Or "Hmm, I need some more evil, I should chow down on live chicks" (FABLE?!?!)