Wing Commander: Privateer: I HATE how if you botch a mission in this game, they don’t tell you that you have no chance of resuming the plot line and finishing the game. Instead they let you wander the universe merrily for 15 or 20 hours, doing side missions and upgrading your ship, until maybe it finally dawns on you that you need to start over.
Black and White Oh why oh why did you have to lure me in with promises of outstanding AI complex learned behavior only to deliever a half assed god sim mixed with a half assed creature sim with annoying controls
Freelancer how can you deliever so much frosting with so little cake?
X2: The threat How can you be everything Freelancer isn’t…including broken features worthless manual poor controls and idiotic combat…May the mega patch they’ve been promising for 3 months now make you into the game you’re supposed to be.
Galatic Civlizations how come every time I really kicked ass on the highest levels and I submit my score online you think I’m cheating? I swear I really did do that well…
Ghost Recon 2 why did your publisher decide to make you more console friendly? If Ghost Recon sold well on the console shouldn’t thtat point to the fact console gamers were looking for a breath of fresh air and you should keep the unique elements?!?!
Far Cry, Thief III why do you not only have to be so powerful you make my computer cry but also have installs so large I can’t have you both on at the same time? (or I have to delete my Total War Games and my Warcraft games.
I agree. My college roommate started playing this after we had finished Final Fantasy X, and i commented several times that it felt like he was watching the game more than playing it. At least with FFX we spent much more time playing than watching.
and while we’re at it,
Final Fantasy X for putting difficult bosses directly after a 3-4 minute cutscene, with no opportunity to save after the cutscene, forcing you to sit through said cutscene again every time the boss flips you over and uses your face to mop his or her kitchen floor.
i should probably be able to contribute a lot more of these, because i play way too many games, but i’ll have to think about it some to make sure i don’t just repeat other people.
Medieval: Total War for being so insanely addictive and not coming with a 40-hour day. I mean, what other game can give you this kind of priceless episode?
Phone rings. I pick it up.
DevoutCatholicFriend: Hey, what are you up to?
Paladud: Hi. Killing the fucking Pope for excommunicating me.
DevoutCatholicFriend hangs up.
Paladud: Oops.
Thief II: Why are you such a fantastic game, yet I can never finish you. I just get bored with you after the sub level.
BTW, for the Doom II boss, you have the ride the little lift up in front of it. As you rise up, time your rocket shot to go into the hole. The rocket will go down a shoot and kill Ramero’s head.
BF Vietnam - what a great game! The helicopters are a blast, the scenery is beautiful, the sound is incredible, you can insert your own playlist for any vehicle or just listen to the 60’s soundtrack as you swoop in to shoot rockets at that tank, jump in a operate any vehicle, I can’t say enough good things about this game.
I’m almost embarrassed to point out the bad and some really stupid stuff, but I guess all games have flaws. Thing is, with the stupid stuff, you know that somewhere along the line of developing this game SOMEbody made these, seemingly idiotic decisions. Such as having some vehicles explode when they go into water, or having to sit around for 20 seconds waiting to ‘spawn’ in the SINGLE player game.
Oh, and it takes an awful lot of computer to run BFVietnam. I don’t know why that is, perhaps something to do with the A.I. but if you don’t have a race-horse of a machine don’t even bother buying this game.
Otherwise, it’s awesome! I’m addicted.
Silent Hill 3: Even though I have only watched people play you and never actually played because I am a simpering wimp, screw you on general principles for the room with the mirror. And damn you, friend, for showing me that scene.
Guilty Gear X2: Please stop being so damn addictive. Thank you.
The thing that most pisses me off is typically something regarding controls, especially in RTS games. Rise of Nations has it just about perfect.
Regarding Max Payne:
The fatal flaw in Max Payne, besides every enemy having the same voice and vocabulary, was that headshots weren’t necessarily a kill. The whole appeal of bullet-time was to slow the world down so that you could plant the perfect shot. What’s the point if the perfect shot doesn’t kill?
Yeah, that Pope is like a fucking cockroach. You keep on stomping him and he just. won’t. die.
Well, I’m always up for making new friends, so if you’re interested - and I have a girlfriend who reads the boards so I’m not trying to hit on you ;).
But I had no idea about the libraries having games! Which one(s)?
This is a very nice revelation to me :D. The only reason I haven’t played Emperor’s Tomb is it’s still going for 90 bucks. Infernal Machine isn’t as good as Tomb, btw (I actually own that one). It’s kind of sucky, actually – I got bored halfway through and never finished it. On the other hand it does have a cheat code that lets you play as Guybrush Threepwood so there is an upside!
And so I"m not hijacking the thread: Max Payne 2: I’m sure they held open auditions for the worst writer in Europe and got him to write the script for the game. Then they only made it about 5 hours long start to finish. I literally finished the game while waiting at my gf’s brother’s house for her to finish her gym class.
Regarding Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for the N64:
Shame on you, LucasArts. You made this game available only through your website for one Christmas season. It’s impossible to return. And to top it off, you apparently spent about 30 seconds testing it, because there are constantly places where Indy can get stuck and do nothing except reset the game. This happens all over the place, even in the driving levels, which shows a fatal lack of care about your product or incredibly inept quality assurance.
…argghhh!!! Somebody spoil the room with a mirror scene!!! Its been listed as one of the scariest scenes in a computer game, but no amount of googling will reveal what happens in there!!! Spoiler please?
This is now my all time favorite Quote Taken Out of Context.
I’ve started playing Final Fantasy Tactics, AGAIN. I don’t know how many times I’ve started it. I’ve never finished it, though. I really, REALLY wish that the character faces had noses. That’s always bugged me. I don’t insist on beautiful graphics in my games (though I do appreciate them) but I hate ugly looking icons. I can live with the character sprites not having noses…but the face icons are not animated, and they have enough detail in them (hairstyles, etc.) that they SHOULD have noses.
Also, I wish that SOMEONE in Square had realized that perhaps some people can read over 10 characters per minute. I wait for the game to put up a text message, one…letter…at…a…time. There’s no way to adjust the message speed, either. I read very quickly, and I’ve started to haul my crochet project over to the game chair after I start up my PS2, so that I can crochet a quarter of a row while I’m waiting for the message to show up on the screen.
And I’d like to mention, once again, the horrid voice acting for about half the main characters in FFX. Some of the characters had wonderful voice actors. Auron, for instance, was perfect. But Tidus just grated on my nerves something terrible.
Just like the PC version!
This bothered Doomtrain no end. Between that and the controls being different from what he’s used to( Circle being the ok button rathar than cancel) made him give up.
I can play with the message speed a bit(in the Options menu) but yeah, the ones that scroll by one letter at a time kill me.
I though Yuna was the worst offender. I wanted put her on fast forward.
Riven - The effin’ marble board. Completely ruined the game for me. NOTHING could’ve justified this crime against humanity. (They could’ve at least given me all the icons and colors, for crying out loud!)
Exile - Wandered around the first area without a frickin’ clue what to do for about 20 minutes, developed a raging motion sickness headache, and quit this game forever.
Doom - Played the shareware version. Got tired of having to punch in the all items and light goggles codes over and over, on account of the fact that I didn’t like scouring 200 places every level for keys and fighting dozens of enemies in near-total-goddam darkness. Got to the end, not inspired to continue.
Populous - Pathetically limited powers + rock-stupid people + nonsensical development system + no way to select how many levels to jump ahead + nonsensical scoring + level after level of same 'ol, same 'ol = something completely unlike fun.
Every damn RPG ever created - Slog around, kill a bazillion enemies…then get stuck at some point because I don’t have the right item. Or the right code word. Or the right spell. Or this. Or that. And that’s assuming some insanely super-lucky enemy does wipe out my entire party first.
Defender of the Crown / Pirates! - The former: “Vikings attack! Lose half your home castle’s defenders!” “Evil plot! Lose half your income!” “Raid! Lose half your gold!” “Destructive Danes! Lose a property!” “Peasant revolt thingy! Lose all your knights!” “Spaniards spread mysterious disease! There go another 200 troops!” “Really stupid Russians set off gunpower stores! Lose a castle!” “Heavy rain! Lose 50 soldiers just friggin’ because!” “Lose catapult!” “Lose alliance!” “Lose title!” “Lose horse!” “Lose glasses!” “Lose sanity, and who can blame you!”
The latter: Exactly the same, except with mutinies and lengthy prison terms.
Nascar Racing - Taken from the instructions, slightly paraphrased: “Sure, you could just load one of the preset setups and race with it. But wouldn’t it be better to make every adjustment yourself, every half-inch of spoiler, every half-pound of air pressure, every milli-degree of wedge? Of course it would! Because after you’ve spent hours and hours on these adjustments, then find that your car still spins and skids and blows tires and crashes as much as it did before, you’ll give up this game in disgust, and hence never actually race…and deal with the 50,000,000 things that can go wrong then!”
Starflight - In ten months, the star that our space station’s revolving around will go nova and destroy everything within a thousand miles. You have ten months to find a way to stabilize it and save civilization as we know it!
…But no rush. After all, you don’t have a lot of money, right? The official word is that our resources are limited, but in reality we’re just damn tightwads. At any rate, saving the world is going to get expensive, so we suggest that you go to nearby planets to mine for minerals. Then come back here and sell them. If you see any life forms hopping around, be sure to snag them as well. Oh, and make sure what you bring back is worth more than the fuel you use up in the trip (which is made of the most expensive mineral, of course). Once the planet taps out, go harvest another. And another. And another. Oh, and we hope you don’t run into any hostile races along the way, because they’ll do a number on your ship and you’ll have to pay for repairs and you’ll be back at square one.
I put up with this for all of thirty minutes before chucking it.
The Seven Cities of Gold - Step 1: Negotiate exploration force from crown. Step 2: Discover New World. Step 3: Slog through miles and miles of terrain, trade with greedbag natives, get ambushed, and stumble across mines that you’ll never get to properly plunder because you only have so many men and the ship’s 1000 miles away. Step 4: Go back to the crown after every trip, whereupon they inform you that your efforts were “poor”. Step 5: Repeat 3 and 4 over and over until 1540, whereupon nobody gives a damn about exploration anymore and you’re stuck with the meager title and money you’ve acquired. Step 6: Either start over and try to do better or chuck game. I think you can guess which one I chose.
Chip’s Challenge - Tip for game desingers: The “level that requires patience” is the kiss of death. If you must have it, make exactly one, and then forget about it forever and ever and ever.
Yeah, I’m more of a console w/special peripherals gamer. 
I wish the Square programmers would make up their minds about the controls. I can understand them wanting X to equal cancel and O standing for OK…but why must they change the system on each game? EVERY RPG they put out has an OK and a Cancel button function. Is it really too much to ask for some consistency here? They have to know that many of us are repeat customers.
I’ll have to play with the options menu some more.
I think that Yuna and Tidus are tied for worst offender. Yuna is Holding Up So Bravely that I knew of her fate long before the story told me about what really happens to summoners. I think that part of my antipathy towards Tidus is that I don’t like sports and I particularly don’t like sports stars. To have a sports star as one of the main characters in a game was a constant irritant. To have to PLAY a sport in order to get items was just too much for me. If I wanted to play a sports sim game, I’d buy one already! I’d already been disappointed by FFIX-The Movie With A Little Bit Of Gameplay, so I haven’t bought FF XI or FFX-II (which I have heard described as Pretty Princess Dress Me Up).
I rather like X-II, myself. It’s… well, it’s not deep, but it’s pretty fun.
It was cancelled.
Max Payne and its sequel had the same writer for the script. I love both games to death, but I had to laugh at the writing.
DKW, since you seem to like puzzle-oriented adventure games, I highly recommend the game MISSING: Since January (also called In Memoriam in Europe).