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[Kot]

Telltale games would be pretty okay and worth it if they were relased as whole, not cut in shitload of pieces. It seems that after a while they stopped caring about making a story and started caring about milking as much money as possible.

[Neonivek]

Speaking of, the CINEMATIC INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE WHERE EVERY CHOICE MATTERS is really wearing out its welcome for me, as well. Critics and players alike take these games so bloody seriously just because they're marketed as SERIOUS INTERACTIVE ART EXPERIENCES, regardless of the actual quality of the writing. If you want to treat games as art, then there are much better examples.

Yeah. I feel like I'm the only person who thinks the Telltale games are vastly overrated.

Been saying that for years. The big issues are as follows
1) The games are super DUPER easy
2) The games suffer from narrative flow issues where every episode CANNOT leave where it left off flow wise and the action never scales up.
3) Because it is split into multiple pieces it also means that each game must be super contained.
4) They don't know how to make branching paths or make them worthwhile.

Honestly when Telltale isn't making point and clicks and are instead making interactive fiction... it is improved.

[miauw62]

It seems that after a while they stopped caring about making a story and started caring about milking as much money as possible.

Games industry in a nutshell.

[hector13]

It seems that after a while they stopped caring about making a story and started caring about milking as much money as possible.

Games industry in a nutshell.

Some gaming companies manage to have quality output and make money at the same time.

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer of them seem able to do this...

[Rolan7]

I'm not sure this even counts as a peeve, since it wouldn't be so bad if there were more exceptions.  More like an overpopular design choice which ought to be a difficulty option.

Shooters where you learn how many hits it takes to kill each enemy.  Particularly when guns are accurate.
This is one of those things Half Life 2 did well, because it had a lot of open spaces where the automatic weapons missed a lot.  The enemy might go down in a couple of lucky headshots, or might not.  It added a mechanic of confirming the kill before switching targets. 

It's not hard to tell, they scream and go ragdoll in a frankly silly way.  And there are special weapons which do enough damage to kill in 1-2 hits, guaranteed.  Still though.

By comparison, my brother and I used to screw with the scientists in Half Life 1 by shooting them once in the foot, then bopping them on the head with a grenade.  (The impact is enough to kill them, which our adolescent minds found *hilarious*)

Far Cry 2 had a somewhat related feature which I wish was more common, though few games are willing to be so dark.  Enemies who weren't overkilled would drop to the ground, screaming and calling out for help (and other enemies would pull back to help, tactically useful).  If you got too close, they would fumble for their pistol and start shooting you.  If you got closer, there was a special animation for *finishing them off with your knife*.  I don't know if leaving enemies alive increased your reputation, but the flavor text hinted it did.  I don't think reputation had any mechanical effect, but it changed what people said about you - in the towns and on the battlefield.

That feature would was enhanced by the uncertainty factor, since I usually wasn't sure whether an enemy would go down or die outright.  Pretty sure in most cases, but not certain.
(fun fact, I "downed" an enemy who was standing in shallow water and they *drowned*.  It was horrible.)

[Shadowlord]

Damnit, Steam, I don't care about   
T H^ME^{E T}P^AH^LA^GN^ET^AO^RM^{S O}P^LA^II^DN^V

(I'd bring up the gameplay in the very first Metal Gear game, but I only played about five minutes before quitting forever, and never played any of the later games because I wouldn't have known what had happened previously. Also because the gameplay would probably be similar.)

[RoguelikeRazuka]

As for games that deliver cinematic experience and seemingly are all about story, it's a known fact that even a mediocre book has a plot written better than in either game (be it a 'masterpiece' like MGS5, Witcher 3 or anything). The similar thing goes for films -- they are more cinematic and convincing than games because they involve alive actors etc. Interactivity -- that's at what even the worst games are greater than the best books. People play games with pretentious plots for interactivity, the possibility to influence the game's story or at least take part in it (the tricks that don't work well with books, films and such).

[miauw62]

games with good stories are almost never cinematic games, though. games allow artists to bring stories in new ways. DF, LISA, Bastion, the Hate games, etc. Just making it a cinematic experience is pretty silly when you have such a flexible medium.

[itisnotlogical]

Cinematic games make me think of those shitty "games" that you'd get as bonus features on movies in the early 2000s that were programmed using DVD menus.

[RoguelikeRazuka]

games with good stories are almost never cinematic games, though. games allow artists to bring stories in new ways. DF, LISA, Bastion, the Hate games, etc. Just making it a cinematic experience is pretty silly when you have such a flexible medium.

Good point. Personally I think that a good story for a game must be clear and understandable, and necessarilly a convincing rationale for what is going on in the game.

[itisnotlogical]

I don't think a good game story has to be anything, I just think "cinematic" games are bullshit speaking specifically about games like Heavy Rain, Until Dawn, etc.

[Shadowlord]

Although I've never played Heavy Rain, I'm still confident that it can't possibly be as bad as Indigo Prophecy.

[MorleyDev]

Indigo Prophecy is an interesting one. 80% fascinating build-up, 20% "Oh crap we ran out of time QUICK ALL OF THE EXPOSITION EXPOSITION PLOT TWISTS SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT ROBOTS!"

I can't help but wonder what it'd of been like if they had tried to do it now, in a time when the episodic approach is generally more of an established thing so that they may be able to go that route...

[Neonivek]

Indigo Prophecy is an interesting one. 80% fascinating build-up, 20% "Oh crap we ran out of time QUICK ALL OF THE EXPOSITION EXPOSITION PLOT TWISTS SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT ROBOTS!"

I can't help but wonder what it'd of been like if they had tried to do it now, in a time when the episodic approach is generally more of an established thing so that they may be able to go that route...

True story

They actually intended the game to be a trilogy... AND they essentially finished what was supposed to be the first game before they changed their minds and basically stapled on the rest of the game.

You can actually tell EXACTLY when the original game was supposed to end.

[itisnotlogical]

Not exactly a "gaming" pet peeve...

Gamification of websites

I believe in gamification. It's probably the best thing to come out of videogames' rise in popularity. That said, not everything needs a tutorial with a progress meter. I know exactly how to use Gmail, I'm not dumb, I just need a second account to separate my mail.