Gaming Pet Peeves

A thread to list out all of the incredibly minor shit that gets on your nerves, but likely doesn't bother anyone else. Could be music stuff that you and you alone hate, interface stuff, sound effects, control things. You name it.

The more minor the better.

For example: it drives me absolutely batshit insane when I can't double click on a menu item in a PC game. Mass Effect 2...I want to upgrade my character's stat, just gonna double cl-WHATTHEFUCK?!

When a game's default controls aren't the controls that Bret Baber is used to controlling. Example: First person shooters need to have the inverted y-axis. Don't make me change that shit, know that my brain wants it.

Good topic.

I really hate the button layout for MGS. What should be cancel is confirm or whatever. That and Nintendo seem to want me to reprogram my brain just to navigate a damn menu.

@pspiddy, yeah triangle does a lot of shit when it shouldn't be in those games.

Fuck inverted controls as default. You want special treatment, go to the menu for it.

If a game is good enough at establishing a control scheme, adapting to inverted or not isn't a problem. When it fucks all like Luigi's Mansion (GC) I hate it. That game is fun but those controls are a prime example of what Bret and I are bitching about combined.

It's like the use "X" for everything; When it works it works well. When it doesn't I want to quit gaming all together.

The only reason I invert the y-axis is because of Timesplitters. That game used that as the default controls, and I just became used to it. Now everything else feels wrong.

Oh, and a special shout out to games that use green and yellow for anything remotely consequential. That makes us colorblind folks feel like just rolling the dice and hoping for the best. Blue and purple too. Yeah, it's technically a user fault but still...

I hate when to up the difficulty of a boss fight a game just adds in a bunch of regular enemies to thee mix. Terrible.

Also everyone knows I hate the random vehicle section... or even worse the random vehicle ending. If vehicles are a part of the core gameplay it's alright (like Halo), but otherwise... no.

Unnecessary button prompts.

I think we had a thread just like this at 1up and those were the exact things you said Trip. Anyways, I got a good one: games that only go halfway in letting you customize the controls. Like in Uncharted how they let you flip using L1 and R1 to aim and shoot, but won't let you aim with L2 and shoot with R2 like how it should be. It bothers me so much more than if they give you a rigid control scheme, why just go halfway?

I remember doing a lengthy blog post or two on the subject, which is actually what led me to ressurect it.

I definitely made this same thread on 1up... even the same name!

Still a good topic to revisit here.

Resurrection, the revenge, part II, the sequel.

I think I made one on here called "Things That Annoy You In Gameplay." Or something like that. I like to complain though, so I'll gladly bring back my old gripes.

When games think it's clever to use the right analog stick for something other than the camera. "It's your sword" says Too Human. " "It's the all purpose Ellen Page button" says Beyond. Skate and baseball games do a good job with right analog controls, but it feels like it's about the developers thinking they're so clever more than giving a fun control scheme most of the time.

From what I remember, the first Ape Escape had really clever controls. I wonder how they hold up.

Yeah, that game did. Especially how you could drive the RC car and control the kid separately. That's an awesome use of it. Too Human's were awful though and there was no reason Beyond should have used that instead of buttons.

I remember really liking the rowing of the boat section in ape escape and how you had a radar to find monkeys. I wish they'd make another quality Ape Escape game.

How do we feel about right stick as a dodge move like in God of War?

I was about to God of War as a good example of the right stick being used well...

It's a good game, Kay, jeez.

God of War has a good use, but holding down the shoulder buttons in the PSP games still works better.

With all of this fancy recognizing-the-user-by-their-face-when-you-sit-down stuff, I shouldn't have to change settings like inversion ever again.

I prefer Ninja Gaiden's Block + left stick to dodge over God of War's right stick dodge. Keeps your thumb on the face buttons. Also I prefer full camera control to fixed so it helps there too. GoW's right stick use is still alright though.

That's what the PSP ones do and I think it works better. Also just realized if anyone puts Kinect, we might as well just close the thread. No way you could top that

The Ascension demo was shit, but God of War II is one of my favorite games so...

I actually don't mind when a game takes control of the camera IF its done well or with atmospheric intent (like Silent Hill 2).

I get annoyed when games assign too many functions to one button, like Mass Effect 2 and 3 did. (Press space to open doors, go to cover, interact with objects, call your mother, eat sushi...)

That wasn't really an issue in Mass Effect 2. The cover button was used for a lot, but when did you ever mean to talk to someone or open a door only to take cover? Or were even in a circumstance where you could do this? 3 even though I got the hang of it fine I completely understand, but 2 assigned it to the right things.

I suppose that's true. But in ME3 it was take cover, do the evade role and everything else.

But the PC ports did a lot of...console shenanigans. They took out quick buttons for going to your squad screen/journal you had to go into the main menu every time. Just silly small things like that. If you bring a game to PC we have a million buttons and a mouse, and just want to use it. Or in ME3 not being able to scroll text with the scroll wheel on the mouse. Huge oversight in my opinion.