C’mon, tell me the games you love (video, computer, PnP RPG’s, wargams, boardgames, card games, anything!) that you love except for that one or two little flaws.
To get things started
“Arcanum” (PC) - Whose boneheaded idea was it to speed combat to by a factor of 12? Appropriately, but annoyingly, the game plays in a fight exactly like a super-fast silent film. Although the game offers characters a neat way to get a short boost in abilites via a “fate point” system, its impossible for me to use in combat; by the time you get around to click on using it, you’ll be beaten b whatever was smacking you around. There’s no way for me to use tactics in combat, since all of mine are over and done with before I have time to use it. Very annoying.
It’s a brilliant game, but why doesn’t Metroid Prime have normal proper decent first-person shoot-em-up controls? I want to sidestep round corners and come out with guns blazing. Not trot awkwardly round a corner, turn to face the enemy, press the aim button and then fire (or alternatively you can sidestep by holding down the aim button and pressing left/right, but then you have to release the button, press it again and only then press fire). Stupid Nintendo. Are you trying to make it hard? Sigh.
Also, why do most of the Final Fantasy games have such brilliant in-game music most of the time, but such horrible battle music, when it’s the same loud tuneless battle tune that you listen to 100 times more often than anything else?
I would love Metal Gear Solid, except for the character design. Its like they spilled some cartoon in my movie. Everything is fine, you’re playing a game thats pretty suspenseful and has a good plot and then: A cyber-ninja and a character named Revolver Ocelot that seems to be from a Wild West show. No doubt MGS did many revolutionary things, but the absurd characters ruined the tone and spoiled my experience.
For a similar game that has unity among its gameplay, character design, and story see Splinter Cell.
MGS didn’t do so badly. Ocelot was a bit wierd, and the Ninja was overblwon, but mostly these worked in context. MGS2, however, took this to a whole new level of silliness.
[spoiler]Example 1) One villain is a Vampire. He can, in fact, do things that are blatantly supernatural and not a product of cool equipment or skill (the more farcical examples of skill are considered OK).
Example 2) One villain is a rollerskating Fat Man (seriously, they call him The Fat Man) who specializes in demolitions.
Example 3) Lets not go into Fortune.
Example 4) One man takes out Horde of super-mecha robots.
Example 5) WTF is up with Solidus, period? He looks cool, but he simply is completely ludicrous as a character. Plus, Snake seems to have about 6 million brothers and sisters. Is anyone here NOT a genetic clone of Solid Snake?
Example 6) Ocelot and the “I can control your mind from my arm” thing. WTF?! I know Liquid was tough, but Jesus, just fricking DIE already!
Example 7) Raiden. Nuff Said. I think Hideo Kojima was basically just making shit up by the time he got to the end of MGS, and MGS2 was just started as a rsult of his severe cocain dependency. :)[/spoiler]
Bandit, you are spot on with example 7 there. The best part of MGS2 was when the general goes insane on the comm…we all looked around wondered “Is the game gliching? Is it actually supposed to do this? Then we realized sense no longer had any bearing on anything.”
The thing I couldn’t handle in either MGS was the God awful camera angle. Straight down? WTF were they thinking? It’s not like being able to see equally front/back/left/right is at all helpful, especially since you’ve got radar.
My game I love except…:HALO
WHY couldn’t they have included ability to go more than 2 players against the computer? Or include bots in multiplayer? Aaaaghh! Well, it’s still the greatest first-person game ever, so I suppose I can let it slide. But just this once…
Devil May Cry for PS2. Great game, but the constantly switching camera is the most frustrating thing ever. You’re fighting a boss, he’s right on your tail, and you hit the camera switch point and immediately have no idea where the boss is or what he/sh/it is doing. Yarrgh.
I miss the good old days of NES when you could throw your controller and not have to worry about it breaking.
I love Settlers of Catan but I hate having turn after turn go by where I don’t produce anything because 8’s are rolled and 6’s aren’t or vice versa. I also hate when it’s clear NO ONE has wheat, and there hasn’t been any wheat rolled for 10 turns, but someone still asks for wheat. (It’s not much, but someone had to mention a non-computer game).
Duke Nukem 3D. Great game, except for the sound fx from those horrible, screeching floating brain things. Didn’t help that they decided to make that sound 3x LOUDER than anything else. I swear, I got sick of that game ten times faster because of those creatures. Even thinking about that noise makes me tremble.
Tecmo Bowl. Losing by seven touchdowns? No problem - Step A: Offense: back up away from the line of scrimmage until your receivers are off the screen, then throw one of them a bullet pass…which turns into a fifty yard line drive that they catch for a TD every time.
Step B: Back on defense - enable Mike Singletary and sack the QB every time, get the ball back, repeat step A.
Bonk. Bored with the level you’re on? Leap up into the air and flip non-stop, killing every foe 80% of the time until the level is completed.
GTA:Vice City (and I assume, GTA3, but I haven’t played that one yet)
I absolutely love the game EXCEPT for the fact that you cannot manually aim all the weapons. It’s a pain in the ass when the only weapon I have remaining ammo for is the pistol and I can only auto-aim it on a legitimate target. I can be standing right in front of a car window and I can’t shoot the person in it because the gun won’t let me manually aim.
When I played Syphon Filter on the PS1, part of the challenge was trying to pop off baddies with head shots using a handgun to conserve ammo. It seems like such a simple thing to include and it’s lack bugs me.
Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast): Even though this was a pretty stereotypical console RPG, I loved the sense of old-fashioned, swashbuckling adventure that so completely permeated this game. It would have been even more enjoyable if it weren’t for the INSANELY HIGH ENCOUNTER RATES. Honestly, you cannot tilt your joystick for as long as a millisecond without being besieged by monsters. In fact, this is the only RPG I have ever played in which I’ve triggered a battle merely by rotating my character’s orientation while he was standing on the same point. To add to the frustration, you’re rated according to how bravely you act; this rating affects some events in the game, so if you bail frequently you miss out on some stuff.
But… But I liked Raiden! He made Solid Snake look so much cooler!
I loved the game, except for the slight issue with the AI. Or, more appropriately, the random number generator apparently plugged into the computer controls. Multiplayer is difficult, due to the length of time of games.
I love (and am addicted to) Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Love it. Except for the undead battles. The game is turn-based, and when fighting 12 or so undead, I have to wait for each one to sloooooowly waddle his way over to my characters. The longer battles take 20 minutes – most of it watching undead walk back and forth. Thank goodness for “turn undead.”
