Top 10 Terrible Things All Video Games Still Do

The early access model involves releasing an unfinished game for play by the public, in exchange for pointing out issues with the game that need fixing. Although this is often a necessary business strategy for indie games, since they usually don’t have the funds to hire quality control testers en masse, big name studios have also adopted this model, mostly for their multiplayer components. Gamers generally hate the increase of companies releasing unfinished or buggy products, and many see this as an exploitative tactic to cut out QA testing, with the overall fear that it’s a slippery slope that will lead to fewer and fewer games being released…you know…finished!

Who doesn’t love a good stealth game? Well, as fun as the genre is, gamers are less than enthused when it intrudes on other genres. It’s become a surprisingly common mission in other games to have your character sneak around a given area; trying to avoid enemies’ lines of sight. While nice in theory, in practice, the mission type rarely works well. For one thing, the mechanics of these games are usually not built with stealth in mind; forcing players to learn an entirely new gameplay style for these areas. But worse, is the fact that these missions are often necessary to progress the story and failure occurs whenever you’re spotted, which will probably happen easily; necessitating doing it over and over again!

Inventory management can be one of the most aggravating parts of large-scale games like RPGs, so it’s all the more infuriating when the means of accessing one’s inventory is poorly designed. Whether it’s menus with tons of tiny slots, or few slots at all, having to use multiple buttons to equip things, or just a confusing interface, inventory management can very easily be screwed up. Overly complex inventory screens can prove daunting and it can definitely take some of the fun out of games when we’re struggling to understand what should be a simple feature.

Most gamers still recall the Wii craze, and how that quickly died out. Normally motion controls are optional these days, so for those games it’s no big deal. But there are still plenty of games out there that try to force them in. To be fair, one such motion control style that has proven to be beneficial is gyro aiming, made popular with the likes of “Splatoon”, yet there are still just as many bad examples. While “Breath of the Wild” “Super Mario Odyssey” were both incredible titles, they still had poorly planned motion control sections. This isn’t a problem exclusive to Nintendo either, as Hideo Kojima also included motion controlled baby cradling in “Death Stranding”. Thanks, that’s just what we needed.

Video games have long been notorious for some shoddy voice acting. While this may have been excusable for older or in cheaper games, many big budget games today still feature bad or awkward performances from voice actors. Although there are some legitimately excellent vocal performances in games these days, they make the weird or just plain bad ones stick out even more. Even established actors aren’t immune to giving bizarre line reads, and the most embarrassing of all is when people playing themselves in games manage to give a bad performance!

Ideally, we’d always be able to make our way through a video game with someone else playing with us. However, sometimes that’s not always an option. For that, there’s computer-controlled companions! Given how advanced artificial intelligence is becoming, you’d think that these companions would be able to exercise something approaching common sense at least, but that’s not always the case. Companions that get stuck on small obstacles, run into gunfire, or just stand around doing nothing while you do all the work are still shockingly common in modern games. Is it too much to ask for A.I. that helps instead of hinders?

Press this button to “insert action here!” Quick time events have been around for ages, but it’s a wonder they’ve lasted so long with how many gamers hate them. Although some QTEs offer quick button presses for a more cinematic finish to a fight, others are simply command inputs inserted at random during a cutscene. Critics of QTEs have derided them as offering the semblance of control over predetermined outcomes. After all, it hardly feels like gameplay at all if the outcome isn’t based on the player’s choices, but by when or if they push a button.

Cutscenes are a necessary part of a lot of video games’ storytelling. Still, some of them do tend to go on a while. And sometimes, if we’ve played through the section where one plays previously, either after completing the game once already, or because we keep dying, it might be nice to skip past them. Against all logic and many gamer demands though, there are still games today that don’t offer the ability to skip over a cutscene. We get it – the creators spent a lot of time and effort crafting the cutscenes to tell their story! But sometimes, we’d prefer to focus on our own time and efforts instead of sitting through theirs – again!

Collectables are usually great, they offer a great incentive to continue playing once you’ve finished the main game, and they give you the opportunity to explore areas you’d normally never touch. What they should NOT be used for however; is to pad out the game’s empty map. While it makes sense for 3D Platformers to have them, since the challenge is usually the terrain itself. For many open world titles where platforming isn’t a central aspect, they make even less sense, especially if they take more time to find, than doing the main game itself. What can make them especially infuriating though; is if the rewards for collecting them all seem meaningless, or they just poke fun at the players expense.

Playing games with your friends is generally a great time for all involved, especially if the campaign is built around co-op. It can be especially fun to have your friends over, or go their house to play together. Unfortunately, many games these days don’t allow the option to play with your friends unless it’s online! Part of this demise in local multiplayer, is unfortunately due to more demanding technology, as playing split screen also means having the console render the same screen twice … or 4 times. It’s an unfortunate consequence of graphical competition, since most AAA companies prioritize that their games look prettier, than compromise them so that more people can play on one console. But it can be especially frustrating when you have more than one gamer living in the same house.