Maybe you're just not very good at it ;-) Oh, I quite agree about the annoyances. They whittled some of them down for 2010 (after 2008 and 2009 were utter disgraces, esp 2008) but it still has too many flaws, and online is a joke. Read some interesting stuff on the 2011 version, passing has been completely overhauled, there's no hand-holding whatsoever. You point the ball to a certain place and it will go there, if there is no player there, tough!
You could be right, maybe i'm not very good! Have they done anything about the commentary? Winning 4-0 then the opposition get a goal back in the 89th minute followed by "can they hold on for the win" or some such nonsense!
Racing challenges where I keep missing the target time by 1/1000th of a second after easily beating it at all splits (a.k.a. I'm useless at racing games though I still play Gran Turismo and Trackmania....badly :D).
Sections of games which you keep having to re-do because you keep getting killed at a later point (I remember struggling with Exolon).
I Wanna Be The Guy. Total annoyance. Period. :D
Getting killed by something you've never been killed before just when you're about to win (Everyone's a Wally..played for hours then lost my last piece of energy just before entering the bank for the final time.....after 20+ years this still hurts :D).
Sports games which need more keys than there are on your keyboard (which is why I still play Sensible Soccer online and Emlyn Hughes).
Online players who think they're the bees knees, proclaim themself to be the greatest player evah (they usually can't spell either), post profanities on Youtube accounts etc. etc. In real life we all know they have no friends, haven't got a clue what a real girl looks like and can't bench press more than a remote control :D.
Alas no, it's still as bad as ever. At least they've got rid of Lawro for the next one. I wish they'd include the Japanese commentary as an option in the Euro version. Playing the various Winning Elevens on the PS2 it was hilarious.
This doesn't really have anything to do with personal annoyances in games as such but it is a gaming annoyance...
A lot of people I speak to (mostly the idiots who go with the flow and play what's deemed as "mainstream" by the masses i.e. chavs - the same people who made Lady Gaga a star and think that Vin Diesel is a good actor) seem to think that the games I play aren't "normal" and I don't play "proper" games... I like traditional arcade style games (House of the Dead at the mo), party games on the Wii (Warioware, etc), fighters (SSF IV), actually general continuation of franchises from the past (Castlevania, Mario, et all), quiz games (like Buzz), community / arcade games on the XBox (Limbo - this is my favourite game this year) and SOMETIMES retro games thanks to a Speccy emulator.
Actually the truth is I like a hell of a lot of stuff of today yet despite that because I DON'T PLAY FPS (because I'm crap at them) I don't play "proper" games. I've had a video games system since I was born thank you very much (cheers, Atari). Hell, when did they get into video games? 1996?
I had GTS IV when it came out and this is about as close as I've got to having something that has sat at no.1 for weeks in the current generation. I admit it was thrilling for a while but then it went on and on and on and I was bored out of my mind. What happened to pick up and play exactly?!
And you can stuff COD up your... I'd rather play Target Renegade personally.
the same people who made Lady Gaga a star and think that Vin Diesel is a good actor) s
I think its a sign of us getting old !
I'm sure our parents or grandparents thought we were bad for making actors such as Arnie or Stallone stars in the 80's, they wont exactly go down as actors such as Brando etc. Or some of the dire music which was then popular, eg Stock Aiken Waterman in the late 80's, getting Star Trekkin' to number 1 etc etc.
I cant stand Lady Gaga but i'm sure when we were 14 or so there was a fair bit of crap we were buying as pointed out above. Had a look at the Top 40 for the first time in ages (Practically every song was by someone featuring someone else), just looked like a chavs favourite top 40 list. Depressing
I'm sure our parents or grandparents thought we were bad for making actors such as Arnie or Stallone stars in the 80's, they wont exactly go down as actors such as Brando etc. Or some of the dire music which was then popular, eg Stock Aiken Waterman in the late 80's, getting Star Trekkin' to number 1 etc etc.
I cant stand Lady Gaga but i'm sure when we were 14 or so there was a fair bit of crap we were buying as pointed out above. Had a look at the Top 40 for the first time in ages (Practically every song was by someone featuring someone else), just looked like a chavs favourite top 40 list. Depressing
Nah, I disagree with the old thing.
I like a lot of current pop music (bar the awful hip-hop that currently dominates the charts, but then, agreed that the top 40 has always been pretty awful). The only album I binned from years ago was from 2 Unlimited. Meanwhile, I can still stand and listen to Def Leppard and Madness, etc. I am not embarrased about my album collection (unlike others). Gaga is actually a bad example as she is not the worst of a bad bunch (just annoying as hell to me and of course, overplayed to death).
Arnie and Stallone were in great movies, end of. Say what you want about the Terminator's acting skills (or lack of) but T2, etc, are still classic flicks. The Chronicles of Riddick would still be a terrible movie had it featured De Niro.
Chavs shall rule the world much like the zombies in Dawn of the Dead.
Think Vin Diesel is a junior version of Stallone/Arnie, xXx and Pitch Black were very good films, he then did a few crappy comedies (Like Stallone/Arnie).
Granted hes miniscule compared to them on the scale but i quite like some of Vin Diesels action films.
N-Dubz/Tinchy and similar bands/singers are shocking. Wont be heard of in 20 years time.
Sorry for going off topic, the 80's had a lot of great cheesy songs but also talented artists, 90's was good as well, the 00's i think is very lacking. So much of it is throwaway rubbish.
But back to gaming annoyances...
It stuns me now how many games were tricky as anything back in the 80's. I mean you didnt have a save option on many games, you didnt have a code so you could start back off from level 15 etc. It was pokes or nothing.
The amount of practice kids back in the 80's must have had to complete games such as Jet Set Willy/Head over Heels/Knight Lore, amazing
I've never understood why fireballs are a part of Beat em ups!
It's a way of making sure that the two players are fighting, even if they are at a large distance from each other. It adds a dimension to some characters' "zoning" ability.
What I mean is a character can essentially say "You're just going to sit there blocking, waiting for a little gap in my pressure strings so you can sweep me? Fine, I'll sit over HERE and throw fireballs at you then. They may only take a bit of chip damage, but eventually it'll add up."
And of course this gets the other player thinking "Eurgh, I need to find a way past these fireballs. Perhaps a jump?..."
And then the mindgames begin! Is the fireballer ready with the dragon punch when they jump? Or is he just spamming fireballs mindlessly and will get a kick in the face for his troubles?
(one pet peeve in fighting games for me is the low-risk fireball. For example, the sonic boom. It recovers so quickly you really have to be on the ball to punish them, while the guile player can get a bit lazy about using them. The amiga version made such a mess of the frames that it was actually impossible to jump them at all without eating a flash kick, because guile's charge times were too small!)
What is interesting right now in the fighting game world is Street Fighter vs Tekken (YES this is really happening!). Tekken is a 3D fighter with no fireballs. Quite a few street fighter chars have fireballs. So on paper it's going to make for a strange game. But then I suppose there have always been characters without fireballs like Cammy, Fei Long, or Balrog...
... on which note, and re: the awful hip hop out there in the charts, check out this truly innovative rap "Gigaton Punch" which is rapped from the perspective of Balrog! Seriously!
It's got a narrative and everything. I think he's done a few too many of these street fighter raps but this one is still great.
And yes, I totally agree re: chavs and their FPShooters. Games of originality and beauty, like Valkyria Chronicles, totally pass them by because there's no blood.
It reminds me of when I went to a midnight Resident Evil launch in Staines. I was just making small-talk and I asked one guy what kind of games he liked, and he answered in all seriousness "Anything with gore". That's not a genre! How can you... what do you... ah man.
This group of douchebags were then very rude to a passerby woman who happened to show a bit of interest in what was going on. Way to go guys. Sigh.
edit: oh and lol I do raps as well. Sorry to go offtopic but I parody the entire "N-Dubz" thing in my track "The Surrey Hustle". I have made up a gang sign for my postcode region, "T-Dubz" (twickenham area). If you're interested, and arent offended too easily, check it out: www.soundcloud.com/mullins
(just remember the "thug" tracks are meant as satire!)
I hate it when you die in a shoot em up and your sent back to the start of the level.
Also hate games when you want to play a level of a game again you have to reload it! aggg!!!!
Think Vin Diesel is a junior version of Stallone/Arnie, xXx and Pitch Black were very good films, he then did a few crappy comedies (Like Stallone/Arnie).
Granted hes miniscule compared to them on the scale but i quite like some of Vin Diesels action films.
I wonder who will be lumped together with Vin Diesel in 20 years time, in a similar movie.
Think Vin Diesel is a junior version of Stallone/Arnie, xXx and Pitch Black were very good films, he then did a few crappy comedies (Like Stallone/Arnie).
I've not seen VD much to be honest, but Pitch Black is an excellent sci-fi movie.
I wonder who will be lumped together with Vin Diesel in 20 years time, in a similar movie.
oh! don't mess with the expendables, it is AWSOME!!! (I went to the press preview, and came out of there wanting to buy the action figures, the T-Shirts and the Spectrum game conversion of it! :D)
I'll tell you a proper annoyance. When games are ruined by terrible final levels.
Take Combat School for example. All the runny/shooty levels are great. Then you've got the instructor fight which is awful and requires a ton of luck to get past.
Then it gets really bad with the final mission. A side-scrolling beat 'em up where all your opponents have guns and grenades. You have no energy bar or lives. If you get hit by anything, you die. You have no gun despite three of the previous levels teaching you how to shoot.
The level is also ridiculously difficult with the slightest mistake punishing you by ending the game.
Also, if you somehow beat it (savestates, baby) you get a rubbish ending as opposed to the quite good one you got on the coin-op.
Text adventures that only allow you to carry a limited number of items regardless of their weight or size. So you're carrying a barrel, cannonball, sword, bottle and a hat. But you can't carry the small silver key as well.
Unless you WEAR the hat of course. In which case you can then pick up the dead dog etc. :-?
Unless you WEAR the hat of course. In which case you can then pick up the dead dog etc. :-?
Surely that's obvious? :razz:
I always find that if the game is a good game, you don't mind these weird descents into its own screwy physical laws. Some of the best games have them - I've just been replaying Twilight Princess and of course it has that great feature where you can swim around Lake Hylia whilst carrying a great big pair of heavy iron boots, but if you wear them, you sink straight to the bottom. Resident Evil had those great chests where you could put things in them and retrieve them from any other chest anywhere in the mansion, and Resident Evil 4 makes you play a sort of Tetris-like puzzle to physically fit items into your inventory case (which itself can be upgraded).
Fairlight had a weight-based limit system, which was clever, though arguably even more annoying. And it would still make enormous objects like barrels just vanish when you picked them up. Very few games actually ever showed you carrying the object (Gilligan's Gold, Citadel on the Beeb, Turmoil spring to mind).
I always find that if the game is a good game, you don't mind these weird descents into its own screwy physical laws. Some of the best games have them - I've just been replaying Twilight Princess and of course it has that great feature where you can swim around Lake Hylia whilst carrying a great big pair of heavy iron boots, but if you wear them, you sink straight to the bottom. Resident Evil had those great chests where you could put things in them and retrieve them from any other chest anywhere in the mansion, and Resident Evil 4 makes you play a sort of Tetris-like puzzle to physically fit items into your inventory case (which itself can be upgraded).
Yeah, you've got to love the briefcase in Resi 4. You can stick your shotgun, rifle, magnum and rocket launcher in there - plus a ton of ammo, grenades and healing items - yet still leap around like an acrobat and don't even appear to be carrying the thing.
Still, I consider it payback from the usual Resi inventory system where a key or a ring takes up the same amount of space as a weapon.
Don't get me started on Resi 4... here's an annoyance for you: emptying every damn clip of every gun you have into a boss, only for him to keep coming at you. And to couple this with a guy who doesnt even sell ammo. "What yer buyin?" Well not ammo apparently you douchebag :shoots seller in face with final magnum round:
I heard about a friend of a friend who spent two hours playing stick and move with knife attacks versus a boss in that game. Doesnt sound like fun to me.
And also in resi the fact that you arent sure whether you need to kill enemies with raw firepower, or whether they need to be pushed off a cliff or something. Surely both should be options, ne? I would also add the ridiculous space-bending box inventory system, or the pause-to-change-weapons briefcase, but luckily they fixed all of that nonsense in 5.
and re: inventory items being too heavy to carry in an unrealistic way, I found a beaut of a bug in Tomb Raider Underworld (PS3). If you pick up the stone cubes Lara is supposed to walk more slowly. But if you then drop off a small ledge while carrying it, she can suddenly start running and even sprinting, all while carrying a stone cube the size of her torso! I'm sure she could fit a piano on top of there and still climb a mountain.
Well, getting killed in Stainless Steel, accompanied by that awful sound effect and being put back to the start of the level has always got on my pecs.
bad controls, no directional controls on isometric games, loading issues, getting lost too easily, text adventures that dont seem to understand anything typed in, no abort option...
on the PSX, Eviil Dead Hail To The King had a terrible respawning enemy problem, that rendered fighting pointless, as you'd just end up having to always run away in the end anyway.
I hate it when games sequels and remakes are done in 3D just for the sake of being more up-to-date. Some games actually feel a lot better in 2D. eg. Worms, MicroMachines, Lemmings, Age of Empires, Sonic the Hedgehog.
I also find one-life games frustrating... as much as I love Treasure Island Dizzy... having one life for the whole game was just harsh.
Finally, on online games, I hate hate hate those elitist players that think they're so hot and seem to have an intolerance for new players, forgetting that they were new to the game once!
Comments
lmao!
You could be right, maybe i'm not very good! Have they done anything about the commentary? Winning 4-0 then the opposition get a goal back in the 89th minute followed by "can they hold on for the win" or some such nonsense!
Sections of games which you keep having to re-do because you keep getting killed at a later point (I remember struggling with Exolon).
I Wanna Be The Guy. Total annoyance. Period. :D
Getting killed by something you've never been killed before just when you're about to win (Everyone's a Wally..played for hours then lost my last piece of energy just before entering the bank for the final time.....after 20+ years this still hurts :D).
Sports games which need more keys than there are on your keyboard (which is why I still play Sensible Soccer online and Emlyn Hughes).
Online players who think they're the bees knees, proclaim themself to be the greatest player evah (they usually can't spell either), post profanities on Youtube accounts etc. etc. In real life we all know they have no friends, haven't got a clue what a real girl looks like and can't bench press more than a remote control :D.
Alas no, it's still as bad as ever. At least they've got rid of Lawro for the next one. I wish they'd include the Japanese commentary as an option in the Euro version. Playing the various Winning Elevens on the PS2 it was hilarious.
A lot of people I speak to (mostly the idiots who go with the flow and play what's deemed as "mainstream" by the masses i.e. chavs - the same people who made Lady Gaga a star and think that Vin Diesel is a good actor) seem to think that the games I play aren't "normal" and I don't play "proper" games... I like traditional arcade style games (House of the Dead at the mo), party games on the Wii (Warioware, etc), fighters (SSF IV), actually general continuation of franchises from the past (Castlevania, Mario, et all), quiz games (like Buzz), community / arcade games on the XBox (Limbo - this is my favourite game this year) and SOMETIMES retro games thanks to a Speccy emulator.
Actually the truth is I like a hell of a lot of stuff of today yet despite that because I DON'T PLAY FPS (because I'm crap at them) I don't play "proper" games. I've had a video games system since I was born thank you very much (cheers, Atari). Hell, when did they get into video games? 1996?
I had GTS IV when it came out and this is about as close as I've got to having something that has sat at no.1 for weeks in the current generation. I admit it was thrilling for a while but then it went on and on and on and I was bored out of my mind. What happened to pick up and play exactly?!
And you can stuff COD up your... I'd rather play Target Renegade personally.
I think its a sign of us getting old !
I'm sure our parents or grandparents thought we were bad for making actors such as Arnie or Stallone stars in the 80's, they wont exactly go down as actors such as Brando etc. Or some of the dire music which was then popular, eg Stock Aiken Waterman in the late 80's, getting Star Trekkin' to number 1 etc etc.
I cant stand Lady Gaga but i'm sure when we were 14 or so there was a fair bit of crap we were buying as pointed out above. Had a look at the Top 40 for the first time in ages (Practically every song was by someone featuring someone else), just looked like a chavs favourite top 40 list. Depressing
Nah, I disagree with the old thing.
I like a lot of current pop music (bar the awful hip-hop that currently dominates the charts, but then, agreed that the top 40 has always been pretty awful). The only album I binned from years ago was from 2 Unlimited. Meanwhile, I can still stand and listen to Def Leppard and Madness, etc. I am not embarrased about my album collection (unlike others). Gaga is actually a bad example as she is not the worst of a bad bunch (just annoying as hell to me and of course, overplayed to death).
Arnie and Stallone were in great movies, end of. Say what you want about the Terminator's acting skills (or lack of) but T2, etc, are still classic flicks. The Chronicles of Riddick would still be a terrible movie had it featured De Niro.
Chavs shall rule the world much like the zombies in Dawn of the Dead.
Granted hes miniscule compared to them on the scale but i quite like some of Vin Diesels action films.
N-Dubz/Tinchy and similar bands/singers are shocking. Wont be heard of in 20 years time.
Sorry for going off topic, the 80's had a lot of great cheesy songs but also talented artists, 90's was good as well, the 00's i think is very lacking. So much of it is throwaway rubbish.
But back to gaming annoyances...
It stuns me now how many games were tricky as anything back in the 80's. I mean you didnt have a save option on many games, you didnt have a code so you could start back off from level 15 etc. It was pokes or nothing.
The amount of practice kids back in the 80's must have had to complete games such as Jet Set Willy/Head over Heels/Knight Lore, amazing
What I mean is a character can essentially say "You're just going to sit there blocking, waiting for a little gap in my pressure strings so you can sweep me? Fine, I'll sit over HERE and throw fireballs at you then. They may only take a bit of chip damage, but eventually it'll add up."
And of course this gets the other player thinking "Eurgh, I need to find a way past these fireballs. Perhaps a jump?..."
And then the mindgames begin! Is the fireballer ready with the dragon punch when they jump? Or is he just spamming fireballs mindlessly and will get a kick in the face for his troubles?
(one pet peeve in fighting games for me is the low-risk fireball. For example, the sonic boom. It recovers so quickly you really have to be on the ball to punish them, while the guile player can get a bit lazy about using them. The amiga version made such a mess of the frames that it was actually impossible to jump them at all without eating a flash kick, because guile's charge times were too small!)
What is interesting right now in the fighting game world is Street Fighter vs Tekken (YES this is really happening!). Tekken is a 3D fighter with no fireballs. Quite a few street fighter chars have fireballs. So on paper it's going to make for a strange game. But then I suppose there have always been characters without fireballs like Cammy, Fei Long, or Balrog...
... on which note, and re: the awful hip hop out there in the charts, check out this truly innovative rap "Gigaton Punch" which is rapped from the perspective of Balrog! Seriously!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHxXufqOEY
It's got a narrative and everything. I think he's done a few too many of these street fighter raps but this one is still great.
And yes, I totally agree re: chavs and their FPShooters. Games of originality and beauty, like Valkyria Chronicles, totally pass them by because there's no blood.
It reminds me of when I went to a midnight Resident Evil launch in Staines. I was just making small-talk and I asked one guy what kind of games he liked, and he answered in all seriousness "Anything with gore". That's not a genre! How can you... what do you... ah man.
This group of douchebags were then very rude to a passerby woman who happened to show a bit of interest in what was going on. Way to go guys. Sigh.
edit: oh and lol I do raps as well. Sorry to go offtopic but I parody the entire "N-Dubz" thing in my track "The Surrey Hustle". I have made up a gang sign for my postcode region, "T-Dubz" (twickenham area). If you're interested, and arent offended too easily, check it out: www.soundcloud.com/mullins
(just remember the "thug" tracks are meant as satire!)
Also hate games when you want to play a level of a game again you have to reload it! aggg!!!!
I wonder who will be lumped together with Vin Diesel in 20 years time, in a similar movie.
I am hoping this will be decent, obviously got a great cast (Arnies only got a small cameo) but i'll have to read some reviews.
I've enjoyed Stallones comeback recently, the last Rocky film was surprisingly good as was his final Rambo film (Apparently there 'might' be another)
Yep good shout. One or two of Van Dammes films i didnt mind (Never watched them at the cinema, only on video) but there was so much tripe.
I've not seen VD much to be honest, but Pitch Black is an excellent sci-fi movie.
oh! don't mess with the expendables, it is AWSOME!!! (I went to the press preview, and came out of there wanting to buy the action figures, the T-Shirts and the Spectrum game conversion of it! :D)
I thought it was a laughable pile o' crap tbh :D
Really?! Neither can act but at least Van Damme can do martial arts stuff. What does Vin Diesel "do" exactly?!
Never thought I'd see discussion this on a Spectrum forum! I feel quite proud.
It would have made a better Stargatey family film. As an adult Sci-Fi it was a bit silly. Chronicles of Riddick on DVD was excellent though.
Take Combat School for example. All the runny/shooty levels are great. Then you've got the instructor fight which is awful and requires a ton of luck to get past.
Then it gets really bad with the final mission. A side-scrolling beat 'em up where all your opponents have guns and grenades. You have no energy bar or lives. If you get hit by anything, you die. You have no gun despite three of the previous levels teaching you how to shoot.
The level is also ridiculously difficult with the slightest mistake punishing you by ending the game.
Also, if you somehow beat it (savestates, baby) you get a rubbish ending as opposed to the quite good one you got on the coin-op.
This is why Combat School is bollocks.
Text adventures that only allow you to carry a limited number of items regardless of their weight or size. So you're carrying a barrel, cannonball, sword, bottle and a hat. But you can't carry the small silver key as well.
Unless you WEAR the hat of course. In which case you can then pick up the dead dog etc. :-?
I always find that if the game is a good game, you don't mind these weird descents into its own screwy physical laws. Some of the best games have them - I've just been replaying Twilight Princess and of course it has that great feature where you can swim around Lake Hylia whilst carrying a great big pair of heavy iron boots, but if you wear them, you sink straight to the bottom. Resident Evil had those great chests where you could put things in them and retrieve them from any other chest anywhere in the mansion, and Resident Evil 4 makes you play a sort of Tetris-like puzzle to physically fit items into your inventory case (which itself can be upgraded).
Fairlight had a weight-based limit system, which was clever, though arguably even more annoying. And it would still make enormous objects like barrels just vanish when you picked them up. Very few games actually ever showed you carrying the object (Gilligan's Gold, Citadel on the Beeb, Turmoil spring to mind).
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Yeah, you've got to love the briefcase in Resi 4. You can stick your shotgun, rifle, magnum and rocket launcher in there - plus a ton of ammo, grenades and healing items - yet still leap around like an acrobat and don't even appear to be carrying the thing.
Still, I consider it payback from the usual Resi inventory system where a key or a ring takes up the same amount of space as a weapon.
I heard about a friend of a friend who spent two hours playing stick and move with knife attacks versus a boss in that game. Doesnt sound like fun to me.
And also in resi the fact that you arent sure whether you need to kill enemies with raw firepower, or whether they need to be pushed off a cliff or something. Surely both should be options, ne? I would also add the ridiculous space-bending box inventory system, or the pause-to-change-weapons briefcase, but luckily they fixed all of that nonsense in 5.
and re: inventory items being too heavy to carry in an unrealistic way, I found a beaut of a bug in Tomb Raider Underworld (PS3). If you pick up the stone cubes Lara is supposed to walk more slowly. But if you then drop off a small ledge while carrying it, she can suddenly start running and even sprinting, all while carrying a stone cube the size of her torso! I'm sure she could fit a piano on top of there and still climb a mountain.
on the PSX, Eviil Dead Hail To The King had a terrible respawning enemy problem, that rendered fighting pointless, as you'd just end up having to always run away in the end anyway.
I also find one-life games frustrating... as much as I love Treasure Island Dizzy... having one life for the whole game was just harsh.
Finally, on online games, I hate hate hate those elitist players that think they're so hot and seem to have an intolerance for new players, forgetting that they were new to the game once!