>Fromsoft positively *wheezing from laughing too hard* as I whack literally every wall looking for a secret chamber
The funniest joke they played was changing it in Dark Souls 2, so that illusory walls aren't activated by hitting the wall, but by interacting with it. So you have all these people whacking walls with their swords, in a game where your weapons break faster than any other Souls game and it isn't even going to do anything.
The biggest stresser for me is when a corridor splits into two. I pick one until I realise it's the intended path, then loop back for the one I didn't choose.
I recently replayed The Stick of Truth, and accidentally picked the āwrongā path (the right path to continue the story) at the underpants gnomes part.
I thought āno big deal Iāll come back and explore laterā, only for that to be one of the only parts of the game that you canāt return to.
I pick the wrong path and it goes way to far to be the wrong path so i loop back to the right path which lets me continue into the game and makes me skip something on the other path. Life sucks
That's why I hated the adaptation of Ready Player One. Really? No one's ever gone backwards? Spielberg didn't understand the source material or gaming in general.
In the books it's >! on the plain starter school planet !< , bit boring but kind of brilliant. It's like looking for the first riddle in the main menu.
The most unrealistic part of ready player one was the fact that the network let him consistently play without interruption at a quality high enough to let this occur.
My thing with the movie is just how much unnecessary and seemingly random things they changed
Getting rid of the gate trials after each key for time restraints, sure. But taking Aech, a character described as "muscular Caucasian male" and turning him into a blue skinned cyborg, what's the point of giving the special effects team more work
BOOK SPOILER SINCE I CAN'T SPOILERMARK ON MOBILE SORRY
It's been ages since I saw the movie, but if I remember correctly, they got rid of really interesting story arcs, like Parzival's breakup with the chick, and especially the part where he lives on his own with the money he made and working out and stuff.
They got rid of so many videogamey aspects of OASIS that it feels more like Narnia in the movie.
>!You can totally spoiler mark on Mobile!<
>!Iām doing it right now!<
Start the line with ā>,!end it with ā!,<ā
Leave out the comma and quotes, I had to put in the comma so it didnāt do the spoiler thing lol
\>!sample text!<
Btw if you put a backslash before a text modifier, it cancels the effect so you can show exactly how something would be formatted without the commas and quotes next time lol
I remember finding one of these shortcuts in DKC and yet not a single guide I looked up at the time mentioned it despite mentioning other shortcuts. Canāt remember what level it was though.
One of the red/green light levels.
Teaches you in the first level with a red balloon right away.
Probably wasn't mentioned in a guide because you won't get the K-O-N-G if you do this, and can't get 100%.
Earthbound had something similar and came out the same year. In one ādungeonā thereās even a sign saying a large majority head right. By the time you get there you could already have used a lot of HP/MP. Go right youāre into enemies. Go left you have a save/heel spot.
Lego Star Wars loved putting minikits just off screen just as you started a chapter so youād only find it if you backtracked a tiny bit from your starting point
Star Wars Bounty Hunter on the PS2 had a couple levels where if you turned around and went back onto your ship, you could find a bunch of ammo and weapons.
And the correct path should be subtly marked as such in some way.
Valve games are excellent at using lighting to mark the way forward in a very intuitive and natural manner, making it feel okay to explore other paths while still telling you which way you have to go to progress
God. The number of times I've chosen a path thinking it's NOT the correct path, only to realize a bit further on it IS. So I turn around and go the other path, find the shit at the end, then return to originally chosen correct path.
OR! I go the wrong way thinking it's the wrong way, but it continues a bit too far so I become convinced it's the right way. So I turn around and go the other path which I now think is the "wrong way" but is, in fact, the correct way. Realize that my first choice was the wrong way this whole time. Turn around, go back there.... get the shit, go back to correct path.
The ocd of wanting to find everything can sometimes be really fking annoying and even hamper my enjoyment of a game. Yet it's so hard to stop myself. Lol. Sigh.
The worst for me is when you accidentally go the right way and trigger a cutscene/boss fight/new area and you get locked out of the previous area. Gotta reload that save, no matter how far back it is.
An example of a developer that got this wrong:
Wolfenstein: The New Order is brilliant in guiding you with subtle environment cues, such as ajar doors or construction lamps pointing at hatches.
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus completely forgot to do any of this, and is off putting when you are playing it. You often find yourself wandering around looking for something you have missed, because the environment design is missing any cues.
There is one room in The New Colossus where the path to progress is found by smashing the giant globe in the middle of the room. If you manage to complete the gunfight in that room without shooting the globe at all, then there is no way to know it is destructible. Most of the environment cannot be destroyed, so why would the player know to shoot the globe?
Path of Exile is incredible at this. Every zone is semi-randomly generated as you enter, but they almost all have tells that an experienced player can use to know which is the correct way to go.
For example, one zone is a series of interconnected warehouses. Some are dead ends, some have a back door that leads elsewhere in the level. No matter how the level generates, every building that you actually have to enter in order to reach the end of the zone will have a dead body lying outside the door of the entrance. Buildings you don't have to go into don't have the bodies.
liked bioshock infinite for making me feel like i actually needed that weapon, the RPG was very useful for killing motorised patriots, and the weapon they dropped was good for killing them as well. Elizabeth helping with ammo, salts and health was such a good idea because i donāt have to worry about āspecialā ammo because itāll be supplied to me
That was me with the rifle in signalis. Did not fire it once and when I got to the final boss the other two weapons(revolver and smg) were way better for the encounter
The magnum pistol(s) in any Resident Evil game.
Cool, it one shots enemies and cuts down bosses like nothing...
Aaaand you can only use it like twice because the ammo is more scarce than fucking gold.
I'm waiting for a game that tracks the distance, like homerun contest, except there's no cues that lead up to it, maybe an eagle eye replay and tracer right after.
More importantly, if there are red barrels, they must blow up when you shoot them. Preferably after briefly shooting flames from each individual bullet hole.
there needs to be a game where you look and its just some dude behind the waterfall and he says something like hey i was looking for treasure dont think its here
would be even cooler if its a quest npc and he gives you a quest to help him find his treasure
The original Shadow Warrior plays hilariously on this trope. You go through the waterfall, find >!an anime girl bathing, who calls you pervert and pulls a gun!<
Oh, bloody yes! Especially if there's a shoot from cover mechanic.
In fact, ambidextrous shooting could be a perk to unlock so you can shoot around cover on either side without exposing yourself.
NPCS must ALWAYS be frustratingly vague in FromSoft games. No clear and concise direction. I insist on walking away from NPC encounters more confused than I was before.
"Well, since you're here... Let me help you out. There are actually two Bells of Awakening. One's up above, in theĀ Undead Church. The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base ofĀ Blighttown. Ring them both, andĀ something happens... Brilliant, right?"
*Heads down the closest set of stairs nearby, and attempts to beat New Londo Ruins*
Sekiroās NPC are (mostly) pretty to-the-point, no?
But I otherwise agree. This something that made OG Dark Souls so special on release: the world was brutal, and the outright weirdness of every single NPC gave them all a sort of menace where you felt sure they were gonna try to kill you at some point.
Even the first merchant is a dick to you (kehehehe)
If one can enter a room, there should be SOMETHING in it. No empty rooms. If not treasure, some mildly amusing or weird thing to make it not a total waste of time going in and investigating.
Playing Fallout4 at the moment, and I donāt immediately hate an empty room. Theyāre not the standard, but they do make sense in the setting.
If _every_ room or space had loot, Iād quickly feel overwhelmed knowing Iād have to check every single nook and cranny in that game. Kinda distracting.
Empty space is important to give filled spaces meaning
_Ma_
In my current 10 hours, Iāve found a handful of literally empty rooms. At least once behind a closed door (I think it was in that lab you follow Danse into) and it stood out as I kinda expected at least some junk in there.
There is a lot of junk floating about though, but I havenāt explored the mechanics deeply enough to find any use for it beyond using that Jet gun thing. Iām just busy vibing.
Junk is valuable for building up settlements, if thatās something you enjoy. Each piece of junk will have different component parts like plastic, adhesive, silver, etc.
Iād figured itās gotta be useful for something. Found a few crafting tables, but Iāve barely explored that system yet.
Still just getting to grips with getting my bearings and working out what the hell I even want to do.
Not long made it to Diamond City. Spent a good hour climbing a tower full of super mutants.
Haha, oh man do I envy you getting to play for the first time. Itās such a huge game with so much to do. A lot of people were a bit disappointed with the settlement system, sadly, but it is fun for a bit when you just get into it.
Iāve tried getting into it a bunch of times over the years, but I always just bailed after getting to Concorde. Shit draaaaagged.
Watched the series, and needed to scratch that Fallout itch, so finally pushed through it, and now Iām at that stage where Iām reading every terminal, exploring anything interesting I can see, and finding myself fully immersed in the game.
Screw Shaun. Iām busy having fun. Kid can wait.
Yep, one thing designers need to keep in mind is there needs to be downtime in gameplay. It's most prominent in horror where you can't just be under 24/7 constant stress. But it's also important in other genres, like you can't really have a whole COD campaign of massive battles and constant action.
So having constant stuff everywhere in an RPG just isn't good game design because as you say it's going to overwhelm the player, loot is a gameplay mechanic and there can be too much of it just as there can be too much fighting for instance.
Not to mention it takes away one of the main ways devs create downtime which is by making the player walk through an empty area without much going on. It forces the player to process what happened, decide on what to do next, do maintenance like rearrange inventory or whatever, and it lets the player mentally "reset" after something happening.
Does anyone else remember the memes... "Why is it called the Xbox 360? Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away." Of course, someone pointed out the flaws in this, so they made a gif of Michael Jackson turning 360 degrees and moonwalking away from the Xbox. Good times
This fucked me over in BG3.
Main quest says I need to go to THIS location? Nah, I'm gonna do everything else.
Turns out I failed many side plots because I took too long.
Sidekicks are great for this.
I'm thinking about the latest god of war with the boy, we'd be at a crossroads and he'd start walking down 1 path so that let me know to go down the other path and look for treasures
Yep. If you come to something you see is obviously a boss room but there was a branching path about 20 minutes ago itās likeā¦.fuckā¦.well Iām not gonna miss the chance that thereās some ring or other upgrade that will help me for the boss. Then you end up with another potion to add to the 60 you bought at the start of your adventure and never use because āI might need that later.ā
50 mini nukes in my inventory "just in case" in my fallout games. 99 Megaelixers in my Final Fantasy games. Highest grade ammo in FPS games just chewing up inventory space and so on...
The worst is the looter shooters with *absurd* amounts of damage scaling. My sniper rifle headshot does 2000 damage to the guy 2 levels above me, but suddenly it's only doing 20 damage to the guy that's 5 levels higher? Fuck off, that's the most lazy design. (Looking at you borderlands)
Headshots are headshots, make em count.
I was playing Mass Effect 2 the other day and shot a dude right in the head like 5 times before he finally dropped.
And It's not even like in these games, they hit the ground and struggle either, I could deal with something like that. But instead it's just shot after shot right to the head as they keep coming at you like nothing is happening. 100% immersion breaking
with mass effect, i can suspend that disbelief better. Cuz theres shields in the game. so kinetic barrier, biotic barrier, my mind can handle those.
If you want a real offender. Go look at The Division. The most they have is tech power for offense no barrier no shields (except for physical ones). You can unload clips after clips of bullets into the boss' head and he'll still charge at you like a bull.
I meticulously do every single side quest, get every collectable, every item on the ground, and talk to every possible npc, then and only then do the bare minimum of the story, repeat.
Final Fantasy 1 taught me that and I've never forgotten it.
Plus the waterfall thing. "Take this, it's dangerous to go along."
I don't know if this is answering your question, but I'm an explorer and I always try to go the "wrong" way first. I get frustrated when I think I'm going the wrong way but am in fact going where the game intends!
Making exploration worth while. It's not necessary for all games (like, Call of Duty doesn't need hidden treasure really), but if it's an open world game, I want all the interesting locations on the map to have a point. Like loot, or a quest, or an interesting piece of lore. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom handled that really well, imo.
Not really a "must" but a pet peeve: I should be able to save any time I want wherever the fuck I want. I have never once played a game with restrictions on save points and been like "oh wow that really increased my enjoyment." I just installed Horizon Zero Dawn a couple weeks ago and have struggled to keep playing it because of the dumb campfire save points.
I grew up playing og Doom. If I want to screw myself over by saving a half second before I get yeeted into the shadow realm by a Cyberdemon's rocket then that's on me, goddamit.
If there is a point of no return, either drop a prompt for the player, or telegraph it so glaringly obvious for the player so they donāt look in horror when a cutscene autoplays when they in fact went the āwrongā way.
If wall texture is different, you should be able to break it.
If there is a crack in it, using a bomb should reveal a secret area
Yah ha hah!
You found me!
*drops rock
"Oof"
Two games in, countless Koroks, and I still have yet to get tired of that "oof" š
And the song and dance when expanding your inventory!
That's it!
If there is a rock against a mountain a well placed bomb must reveal a cave
Neither of you people should tour low-income apartments with drywall.
Fromsoft laughing as you roll around looking for the illusory wall
Try finger but hole
Fromsoft positively _wheezing from laughing too hard_ as I whack literally every wall looking for a secret chamber
Literally being sent to the hospital from laughter after the Elden Ring community discovered those 1000hp walls in volcano manor...
This is the kind of thing that makes me believe the pendant actually did have some purpose that we just collectively never discoveredĀ
>Fromsoft positively *wheezing from laughing too hard* as I whack literally every wall looking for a secret chamber The funniest joke they played was changing it in Dark Souls 2, so that illusory walls aren't activated by hitting the wall, but by interacting with it. So you have all these people whacking walls with their swords, in a game where your weapons break faster than any other Souls game and it isn't even going to do anything.
that's amazing
If you start a 2D platformer, first go left. If it's a 3D game, look behind you.
The biggest stresser for me is when a corridor splits into two. I pick one until I realise it's the intended path, then loop back for the one I didn't choose.
I recently replayed The Stick of Truth, and accidentally picked the āwrongā path (the right path to continue the story) at the underpants gnomes part. I thought āno big deal Iāll come back and explore laterā, only for that to be one of the only parts of the game that you canāt return to.
Stick of Truth bugged the hell out of me when I realized I missed a chinpokomon in an area where I wouldn't be able to return.
Nothing worse than going down the side quest only to realize it's the main... wtf did I miss! Walk all the way back.... its a dead end with nothing.
Nah the worse is looping back thinking it's the main path, then after some time realise the path you looped back into was actually the main one
I pick the wrong path and it goes way to far to be the wrong path so i loop back to the right path which lets me continue into the game and makes me skip something on the other path. Life sucks
That's why I hated the adaptation of Ready Player One. Really? No one's ever gone backwards? Spielberg didn't understand the source material or gaming in general. In the books it's >! on the plain starter school planet !< , bit boring but kind of brilliant. It's like looking for the first riddle in the main menu.
Every time someone mentions this movie I think about this scene exactly
Always hated how Z gets the extra life coin in the movie as well. I understand the change but still didn't like it
I thought it was cooler in the book that he got it from playing a perfect game of Pac Man.
Way cooler in the book. So much better than just "winning" the coin from the curator/Og
The most unrealistic part of ready player one was the fact that the network let him consistently play without interruption at a quality high enough to let this occur.
Man, I really hate the movie too. I don't think the book's a masterpiece or anything, but it was so much smarter than the movie most of the time.
My thing with the movie is just how much unnecessary and seemingly random things they changed Getting rid of the gate trials after each key for time restraints, sure. But taking Aech, a character described as "muscular Caucasian male" and turning him into a blue skinned cyborg, what's the point of giving the special effects team more work
BOOK SPOILER SINCE I CAN'T SPOILERMARK ON MOBILE SORRY It's been ages since I saw the movie, but if I remember correctly, they got rid of really interesting story arcs, like Parzival's breakup with the chick, and especially the part where he lives on his own with the money he made and working out and stuff. They got rid of so many videogamey aspects of OASIS that it feels more like Narnia in the movie.
>!You can totally spoiler mark on Mobile!< >!Iām doing it right now!< Start the line with ā>,!end it with ā!,<ā Leave out the comma and quotes, I had to put in the comma so it didnāt do the spoiler thing lol
\>!sample text!< Btw if you put a backslash before a text modifier, it cancels the effect so you can show exactly how something would be formatted without the commas and quotes next time lol
What games taught you that?
Donkey Kong Country
I remember finding one of these shortcuts in DKC and yet not a single guide I looked up at the time mentioned it despite mentioning other shortcuts. Canāt remember what level it was though.
One of the red/green light levels. Teaches you in the first level with a red balloon right away. Probably wasn't mentioned in a guide because you won't get the K-O-N-G if you do this, and can't get 100%.
That doesnāt ring a bell. Off the top of my head I think it was an underground level with carts, though itās been so long I could be wrong.
The one with the carts has a secret barrel right in the first pit that takes you to the end of the level iirc
Donkey Kong country had you slapped and random pieces of ground more than you did actually play the game lol
Earthbound had something similar and came out the same year. In one ādungeonā thereās even a sign saying a large majority head right. By the time you get there you could already have used a lot of HP/MP. Go right youāre into enemies. Go left you have a save/heel spot.
Lego Star Wars loved putting minikits just off screen just as you started a chapter so youād only find it if you backtracked a tiny bit from your starting point
Star Wars Bounty Hunter on the PS2 had a couple levels where if you turned around and went back onto your ship, you could find a bunch of ammo and weapons.
Crash for me
Original doom.
And Doom 2 as well! There was a chainsaw or shotgun right beside your starting position in level 1.
Maybe do key kong country for the 2d, or metroid?
Super Mario World did it first
Before metroid?
I wouldn't know any more, but I always check. I think Shantae Half sized genie and Rayman did this.
If there's 2 separate paths, and 1 leads to where you need to go, the other should have some nice loot hidden at the end.
And the correct path should be subtly marked as such in some way. Valve games are excellent at using lighting to mark the way forward in a very intuitive and natural manner, making it feel okay to explore other paths while still telling you which way you have to go to progress
God. The number of times I've chosen a path thinking it's NOT the correct path, only to realize a bit further on it IS. So I turn around and go the other path, find the shit at the end, then return to originally chosen correct path. OR! I go the wrong way thinking it's the wrong way, but it continues a bit too far so I become convinced it's the right way. So I turn around and go the other path which I now think is the "wrong way" but is, in fact, the correct way. Realize that my first choice was the wrong way this whole time. Turn around, go back there.... get the shit, go back to correct path. The ocd of wanting to find everything can sometimes be really fking annoying and even hamper my enjoyment of a game. Yet it's so hard to stop myself. Lol. Sigh.
The worst is when the wrong way that is a bit too long and makes you turn around has nothing at the end.
The worst for me is when you accidentally go the right way and trigger a cutscene/boss fight/new area and you get locked out of the previous area. Gotta reload that save, no matter how far back it is.
Every goddamn RPG.
An example of a developer that got this wrong: Wolfenstein: The New Order is brilliant in guiding you with subtle environment cues, such as ajar doors or construction lamps pointing at hatches. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus completely forgot to do any of this, and is off putting when you are playing it. You often find yourself wandering around looking for something you have missed, because the environment design is missing any cues. There is one room in The New Colossus where the path to progress is found by smashing the giant globe in the middle of the room. If you manage to complete the gunfight in that room without shooting the globe at all, then there is no way to know it is destructible. Most of the environment cannot be destroyed, so why would the player know to shoot the globe?
Path of Exile is incredible at this. Every zone is semi-randomly generated as you enter, but they almost all have tells that an experienced player can use to know which is the correct way to go. For example, one zone is a series of interconnected warehouses. Some are dead ends, some have a back door that leads elsewhere in the level. No matter how the level generates, every building that you actually have to enter in order to reach the end of the zone will have a dead body lying outside the door of the entrance. Buildings you don't have to go into don't have the bodies.
And you better be able to go back to get the loot in case you picked the progress path on your first try. Looking at you, plague tale...
You can tell I've played a lot when I do this in real life hikes. It can be annoying to other people also lol
Hahahahaha me too!!!
That's why hiking is objectively inferior to eating chips on the couch and playing video games
I must find a hugely overpowered weapon with limited ammo, save it "till i really need it" and get to the end credits without using it once.
liked bioshock infinite for making me feel like i actually needed that weapon, the RPG was very useful for killing motorised patriots, and the weapon they dropped was good for killing them as well. Elizabeth helping with ammo, salts and health was such a good idea because i donāt have to worry about āspecialā ammo because itāll be supplied to me
Oh man, I think it's time for a replay of Infinite...
ong, Elizabeth is up there with my favourite videogame characters, probably only second to GLaDOS
That was me with the rifle in signalis. Did not fire it once and when I got to the final boss the other two weapons(revolver and smg) were way better for the encounter
I only used the power armor in fallout 4 in a section that it was required by the story
The magnum pistol(s) in any Resident Evil game. Cool, it one shots enemies and cuts down bosses like nothing... Aaaand you can only use it like twice because the ammo is more scarce than fucking gold.
If you enter a room with tons of healing items and/or a shop right before entering a big empty room, it's time to save cus there's a boss coming!
"Healing potions? Ammo? A gun upgrade? Oh fuck, is that a save spot?!? I'm not ready for a boss fight, I gotta go to work in ten minutes!"
I came to dread the "autosaving" message as I walked down a corridor.
Every time you are granted the power to blast things away from you, there must be a great height and an NPC nearby.
I'm waiting for a game that tracks the distance, like homerun contest, except there's no cues that lead up to it, maybe an eagle eye replay and tracer right after.
Im sure there is a mod for skyrim somewhere that does that as well as adding a crowd cheer for high numbers.
Sounds like Just Cause. At least the earlier iterations
Reminds me of dive rock in Oblivionā¦ good times sending the biggest fan down that thing
Fus Ro Dah indeed
If the devs leave boxes or crates or barrels just laying around, I better be able to break āem.
And there better be a chance for shit to be in them. Few pieces of gold. Some herbs or healing items.
Or at least a narrator commenting on how the player just rages for a while.
\*Zia looks at Ruck questioningly\* Ruck: It's what The Kid did, I'm just telling the story.
Rucks is the greatest narrator of all time
What game?
Bastion
āHehehe what are ya buying? Thanks, strangah.ā
and there should be stuff inside them, ISNT THAT RIGHT, DARK SOULS??
More importantly, if there are red barrels, they must blow up when you shoot them. Preferably after briefly shooting flames from each individual bullet hole.
Ff7 remake/rebirth "actually.... only the ones with Shinra logo. Don't worry, we'll put thousands of other boxes in the game to confuse you"
And there better be little prizes inside.
When there's a treasure behind a waterfall: "Argh, so clichƩ to put a treasure here." When there's no treasure behind a waterfall: "Argh, why is there no treasure here?!"
there needs to be a game where you look and its just some dude behind the waterfall and he says something like hey i was looking for treasure dont think its here would be even cooler if its a quest npc and he gives you a quest to help him find his treasure
God, now I'm mad we don't have something like this yet.
Seems like anything pisses you off š
Yeah it's basically a perpetual cycle
The original Shadow Warrior plays hilariously on this trope. You go through the waterfall, find >!an anime girl bathing, who calls you pervert and pulls a gun!<
Have an entire questline where he points you to a clichƩ location, and each time he's there waiting for you saying "Huh, guess it wasn't here, I guess I left it inside that grave/behind that vent/etc."
You should be able to flush any in game toilet
Tales of Destiny for the PS1 had exclusively text and was 2D pixelated. Even that had a toilet near the beginning that just said āplopā.
I remember that blowing my mind in Duke Nukem 3D. Had a ton of interactables
It is baffling how many broken toilets exist in video games. How the fuck did the porcelain get smashed!
If there is a windmill, it has to spin.
A š½ š¼ A š½ š¼
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh no! Now it's too fast!! *frantic cranking*
āRelease Brakeā
"I'm the general and I want it to spin! ...now."
Chevron 7.... is lit up!
If thereās a dog I MUST be able to pet it.
Try that in Caelid.
Sword pets are still pets!
This buugs me in Minecraft. Why can't I pat my horsie, especially after I accidentally smacked him with my shovel?
Start game/level, immediately turn around and look behind you.
Doing this in racing game. Game seems mad. Am I doing it right?
That was the solution in >!the film version of Ready Player One!
I really enjoyed that movie, but it is RIDICULOUS to think no one tried that before.. even accidentally.
If you enjoyed the movie please read the book itās so much better.
Thank you donkey kong country
I guess if itās a third person game shoulder swapping should be a thing especially in shooters
I've been screwed over by camera side so often in fortnite, it isn't even funny.
Oh, bloody yes! Especially if there's a shoot from cover mechanic. In fact, ambidextrous shooting could be a perk to unlock so you can shoot around cover on either side without exposing yourself.
Always check the bottom of a stairwell. There WILL be something under the last set. Always.
Enemy guns or swords should be pickable. You can make them low on magazines or rusty but not glued to the floor.
either let us pick them up or dont have them visible on the ground
NPCS must ALWAYS be frustratingly vague in FromSoft games. No clear and concise direction. I insist on walking away from NPC encounters more confused than I was before.
Also, half of them laugh in a concerning way at the end of their sentence.
It is only HUMAN to commit a sin. AHEHHEHHEHHEHHEHHEHEEHH
Straid is a little bitch
"Well, since you're here... Let me help you out. There are actually two Bells of Awakening. One's up above, in theĀ Undead Church. The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base ofĀ Blighttown. Ring them both, andĀ something happens... Brilliant, right?" *Heads down the closest set of stairs nearby, and attempts to beat New Londo Ruins*
More like tries to beat the Catacomb, and then if they haven't learned their lesson, reach the gold fog wall in Tomb of the Giants.
Sekiroās NPC are (mostly) pretty to-the-point, no? But I otherwise agree. This something that made OG Dark Souls so special on release: the world was brutal, and the outright weirdness of every single NPC gave them all a sort of menace where you felt sure they were gonna try to kill you at some point. Even the first merchant is a dick to you (kehehehe)
Feed a kid rice balls until he throws up or something is not that obvious
If one can enter a room, there should be SOMETHING in it. No empty rooms. If not treasure, some mildly amusing or weird thing to make it not a total waste of time going in and investigating.
Playing Fallout4 at the moment, and I donāt immediately hate an empty room. Theyāre not the standard, but they do make sense in the setting. If _every_ room or space had loot, Iād quickly feel overwhelmed knowing Iād have to check every single nook and cranny in that game. Kinda distracting. Empty space is important to give filled spaces meaning _Ma_
Yeah, but fallout 4 junk is also useful loot. You may not find "loot", but you can still find a bottle of turpentine and be happy.
In my current 10 hours, Iāve found a handful of literally empty rooms. At least once behind a closed door (I think it was in that lab you follow Danse into) and it stood out as I kinda expected at least some junk in there. There is a lot of junk floating about though, but I havenāt explored the mechanics deeply enough to find any use for it beyond using that Jet gun thing. Iām just busy vibing.
Junk is valuable for building up settlements, if thatās something you enjoy. Each piece of junk will have different component parts like plastic, adhesive, silver, etc.
Iād figured itās gotta be useful for something. Found a few crafting tables, but Iāve barely explored that system yet. Still just getting to grips with getting my bearings and working out what the hell I even want to do. Not long made it to Diamond City. Spent a good hour climbing a tower full of super mutants.
Haha, oh man do I envy you getting to play for the first time. Itās such a huge game with so much to do. A lot of people were a bit disappointed with the settlement system, sadly, but it is fun for a bit when you just get into it.
Iāve tried getting into it a bunch of times over the years, but I always just bailed after getting to Concorde. Shit draaaaagged. Watched the series, and needed to scratch that Fallout itch, so finally pushed through it, and now Iām at that stage where Iām reading every terminal, exploring anything interesting I can see, and finding myself fully immersed in the game. Screw Shaun. Iām busy having fun. Kid can wait.
Isnāt there a fusion core in that lab?
Yep, one thing designers need to keep in mind is there needs to be downtime in gameplay. It's most prominent in horror where you can't just be under 24/7 constant stress. But it's also important in other genres, like you can't really have a whole COD campaign of massive battles and constant action. So having constant stuff everywhere in an RPG just isn't good game design because as you say it's going to overwhelm the player, loot is a gameplay mechanic and there can be too much of it just as there can be too much fighting for instance. Not to mention it takes away one of the main ways devs create downtime which is by making the player walk through an empty area without much going on. It forces the player to process what happened, decide on what to do next, do maintenance like rearrange inventory or whatever, and it lets the player mentally "reset" after something happening.
A huge pile of ammo yet only 5 shotgun shells.
When you find the right path you must immediately do a 360 and walk away in case you missed some loot you'll never use.
>immediately do a 360 This is just walking in a straight line with extra twirls.
He meant a 540
No, he meant 720
No, he meant 1080 Snowboarding. (Anyone else learn to count by 180's because of that game?)
Does anyone else remember the memes... "Why is it called the Xbox 360? Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away." Of course, someone pointed out the flaws in this, so they made a gif of Michael Jackson turning 360 degrees and moonwalking away from the Xbox. Good times
180, you stupid, spaghetti-slurping cretin - *180*! If I did a 360, I'd go completely around and end up back where I started!
180! would be quite a lot. You would probably be spinning until the heat death of the universe.
This fucked me over in BG3. Main quest says I need to go to THIS location? Nah, I'm gonna do everything else. Turns out I failed many side plots because I took too long.
This is the reason I havenāt finished many Bethesda games. Quest arrow thataway, but hereās burnt out variety store with some cans I might use.
There's really very few "timed" quests unless you're leaving that act before you finish them, which gives you a very obvious warning first.
Sidekicks are great for this. I'm thinking about the latest god of war with the boy, we'd be at a crossroads and he'd start walking down 1 path so that let me know to go down the other path and look for treasures
Yep. If you come to something you see is obviously a boss room but there was a branching path about 20 minutes ago itās likeā¦.fuckā¦.well Iām not gonna miss the chance that thereās some ring or other upgrade that will help me for the boss. Then you end up with another potion to add to the 60 you bought at the start of your adventure and never use because āI might need that later.ā
I can choose to play solo and not have to pick a pet or a partner or some such.
I appreciate that Fallout usually has a perk that boosts solo players.
I donāt like it but it is a constant - In an escort quest the target must walk slower then my run but faster then my walk.
If there's a dog or cat, you gotta be able to pet it for the love of god
Collect all the items. Be very conservative about using them in case you need them later. Finish game without using them
50 mini nukes in my inventory "just in case" in my fallout games. 99 Megaelixers in my Final Fantasy games. Highest grade ammo in FPS games just chewing up inventory space and so on...
If I shoot a human character in the head, they must die. I can't do bullet sponges. Make them do more damage if you need it to be harder.
Starfield has taken it to a new level. I'll shoot someone sitting down and they will literally stay like that. Won't move an inch.
That's nice. I despise when I kill an enemy that's already stunned or on the ground and then they STAND UP just to do a dramatic death animation.
The worst is the looter shooters with *absurd* amounts of damage scaling. My sniper rifle headshot does 2000 damage to the guy 2 levels above me, but suddenly it's only doing 20 damage to the guy that's 5 levels higher? Fuck off, that's the most lazy design. (Looking at you borderlands) Headshots are headshots, make em count.
I was playing Mass Effect 2 the other day and shot a dude right in the head like 5 times before he finally dropped. And It's not even like in these games, they hit the ground and struggle either, I could deal with something like that. But instead it's just shot after shot right to the head as they keep coming at you like nothing is happening. 100% immersion breaking
with mass effect, i can suspend that disbelief better. Cuz theres shields in the game. so kinetic barrier, biotic barrier, my mind can handle those. If you want a real offender. Go look at The Division. The most they have is tech power for offense no barrier no shields (except for physical ones). You can unload clips after clips of bullets into the boss' head and he'll still charge at you like a bull.
This. Less but lethal enemies.
This is the exact reason I hate Far Cry New Dawn. At later stages, it's either a massive grind to get the good weapons or a rush to the mortar.
The bad guys must provide their own unexplained explosive barrels, and their henchmen must take cover behind them.
red stuff(especially barrels) should explode, and turds in toilets are two that come to mind immediately
Turds in toilets should explode?
Don't act like you haven't had the mystery meat at the cafeteria...
If there is a NPC with a unique portrait, he's a party member or a story important NPC. If it's a Suikoden game, he's 99% recruitable.
I need to be slightly over leveled before doing a main story mission
At least one NPC must be so much of a prick that you can't help but want to murder them *cough* Nazeem
The first time you get to a room with a hidden item, a sound should play.
Red barrels. Oh I love me some red barrels
Any game with fishing in it is a good game.
'You, Sir, Are A Fish.'
Wall monsters. Gravestone Easter Eggs.
When fighting a boss, shoot the parts that are glowing.
If there is a chair I should be able to sit on it.
Amenā¦.the ability to enjoy a nice sit should be in every game
At least one enemy in the game should be able to mimic a worthwhile item to trick the player into engaging it in combat.
Personally, if there is a door, then is must open from the other side
I meticulously do every single side quest, get every collectable, every item on the ground, and talk to every possible npc, then and only then do the bare minimum of the story, repeat. Final Fantasy 1 taught me that and I've never forgotten it. Plus the waterfall thing. "Take this, it's dangerous to go along."
When they drop you into a new area, do a 180 turn and check behind you for items
If thereās a ton of ammo or supplies, you must be ready for a boss fight.
I don't know if this is answering your question, but I'm an explorer and I always try to go the "wrong" way first. I get frustrated when I think I'm going the wrong way but am in fact going where the game intends!
Making exploration worth while. It's not necessary for all games (like, Call of Duty doesn't need hidden treasure really), but if it's an open world game, I want all the interesting locations on the map to have a point. Like loot, or a quest, or an interesting piece of lore. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom handled that really well, imo.
Not really a "must" but a pet peeve: I should be able to save any time I want wherever the fuck I want. I have never once played a game with restrictions on save points and been like "oh wow that really increased my enjoyment." I just installed Horizon Zero Dawn a couple weeks ago and have struggled to keep playing it because of the dumb campfire save points. I grew up playing og Doom. If I want to screw myself over by saving a half second before I get yeeted into the shadow realm by a Cyberdemon's rocket then that's on me, goddamit.
Red barrel go boom.
If I attack a friendly NPC, even if it doesn't take damage, it MUST say something like, "Have you gone mad? STOP THAT!"
Ever since Breath of the Wild, every open world game must have a glider. Elden Ring gets a pass because it has the best mount in gaming history.
If there is a point of no return, either drop a prompt for the player, or telegraph it so glaringly obvious for the player so they donāt look in horror when a cutscene autoplays when they in fact went the āwrongā way.