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When do you know you're playing a BAD game?

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When do you know you're playing a BAD game?

Old 09-17-03, 12:54 PM
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When do you know you're playing a BAD game?

After the flashy menu screen has loaded and the cutscenes have mercifully ended, you realise that spur of the moment purchase of "Frogger: The Great Quest" did not quite do what it said on the box, and you're left playing a mediocre or just downright bad game. But what makes it that way? Gameplay right? Bad graphics? Lazy level design? Which is the worst? Which gameplay/design element do you feel is the most annoying and/or cheap and lazy?

I can't stand "invisible barriers" - especially in racing games, when you're driving through the desert, only to find you cannot stray more than a few feet from the edge of the track! No matter how wide open the landscape is, it's all off limits, baby!

So what else is weak? Crate pushing? Random key searching? Re-spawning enemies? Bland textures that repeat through the entire game?
Old 09-17-03, 12:57 PM
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When the numbers 989 show up on the screen...
Old 09-17-03, 01:04 PM
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When the chracters WON'T STOP TALKING.
Old 09-17-03, 01:28 PM
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When you realize it's 3am, you finally got to a cutscene but fall asleep during it, wake up and the cutscene is still going with Rose pleading with Jack about her love and the Colonel is freaking out and turning into an alien.
Old 09-17-03, 01:33 PM
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When I run into control and camera problems, glitches like slowdown, etc.
Old 09-17-03, 01:34 PM
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The first sign is not being able to skip the company logo animation.

The second sign is not being able to skip the first cutscene.

If you can't tell from either of these, the first few seconds of the first cutscene should be enough.
Old 09-17-03, 01:39 PM
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Usually I can tell when I start nodding off or lose interest in what's going on during the game. If I notice that I haven't played it in weeks then I know I have a bad game and it's time to trade it in.
Old 09-17-03, 01:42 PM
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Skipping crapscenes cutscenes =
Old 09-17-03, 01:58 PM
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When you get to a certain point in the game and can't continue due to some really messed up reason (like a weird change in difficulty level).

ex: Bauldar's Gate for the PS2. I have no problem playing it until I reached a point where all of a sudden it became a hand/eye coordination game rather than RPG. What I mean is that I had to cross a big chasm that had blocks on it and each time you stepped on them, they fell, so you had to jump fast. After trying for about 30 minutes, I gave up and never turned it on again.
Old 09-17-03, 02:51 PM
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When I fall sleep with the controller in my hand.
Old 09-17-03, 02:53 PM
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Originally posted by PixyJunket
When the chracters WON'T STOP TALKING.
Ugh... I was just reminded about this in another thread, where it was mentioned again that you could NOT skip cutscenes in "The Getaway".

I enjoyed this game, even with all its faults - but what was unforgivable was the fact that when you loaded your game, you had to sit through the entire cutscene (sometimes MGS2 length!) before you could start playing again.

I simply do not understand how developers can still FORCE you to watch the same cutscenes multiple times, and expect you to enjoy it? I can almost understand them forcing you to watch it the FIRST time (since they're so proud of their "cutscening" abilities and don't want you to, god forbid, skip it) - but making you watch the entire cutscene every time you loaded your game was unforgivable...

UNFORGIVABLE I TELL YOU!!!!! UNFORGIVABLE!!!!
Old 09-17-03, 03:00 PM
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I disagree about cutscenes automatically=a bad game.

I've played plenty of games with cutscenes that had great gameplay, and plenty of games without cutscenes that had crappy gameplay. They are totally independent of each other.

I do agree that they should always be skippable (at least after seeing them once).
Old 09-17-03, 03:04 PM
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No tutorial. I can't think of a good game made in the last few years that didn't have an in-game tutorial of some kind.
Old 09-17-03, 03:14 PM
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Good one Groucho.

Nintendo has always excelled at this, by basically intergrating tutorials into the begginning of their games with little tasks and dialog pop-ups that teach you, and make you use, the basic skills needed in the game.
Old 09-17-03, 03:23 PM
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You know you're playing a bad game when you're 2 seconds away from using it as a coaster.
Old 09-17-03, 04:05 PM
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When you are constantly trying to figure out what to do next. I don't want everything handed to me, but I can't stand it when every level seems to be a game of hide and seek (basically you have accomplished everything and it still takes you forever after that to finish the level)
Old 09-17-03, 04:26 PM
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Games that make me go outside to play when there is CLOUDS EVERYWHERE!
Old 09-17-03, 08:36 PM
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Another sure sign of bad game design: the default option is "Start A New Game" as opposed to "Load Game."
Old 09-17-03, 09:36 PM
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Originally posted by nodeerforamonth
When you get to a certain point in the game and can't continue due to some really messed up reason (like a weird change in difficulty level).

ex: Bauldar's Gate for the PS2. I have no problem playing it until I reached a point where all of a sudden it became a hand/eye coordination game rather than RPG. What I mean is that I had to cross a big chasm that had blocks on it and each time you stepped on them, they fell, so you had to jump fast. After trying for about 30 minutes, I gave up and never turned it on again.
Thats funny, when I read your first sentence I immediately thought of Baldur's gate! I actually love that game to death, and did find that quirky chasm section a pain in the neck, but manage to pass it. But eventually i reached a boss-type character that was, out of the blue, quicker and more powerful and more shielded than I was. It frustrated me so that I too gave up have never tried to play again.

Still highly recommend the game, its a blast for the first 10 -12 hours.
Old 09-17-03, 09:48 PM
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While you're playing you're having nostalgic thoughts about other games you just played last week.
Old 09-17-03, 09:49 PM
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When I rather be doing something else.... or almost anything from such esteemed companies like Acclaim, Eidos (Core), etc...
Old 09-18-03, 02:23 PM
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my bowels seem to loosen
Old 09-18-03, 04:00 PM
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When you spend more time trying to move the g**d*** camera around then you do the character you are controlling.
Old 09-18-03, 04:17 PM
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Originally posted by TheDude
When you spend more time trying to move the g**d*** camera around then you do the character you are controlling.
A most exxxcellent addition!!

Old 09-18-03, 10:26 PM
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Convoluted & unresponsive controls drive me insane. Games should should be intuitive and "easy to learn, hard to master". Tetris, the Mario games, Super Monkey ball, and Virtua Tennis all jump to mind. I know this doesn't really apply to games with a steeper learning curves like a lot of PC games & most sports games that take a bit more time to get the controls down.

Also I really used to like cut scenes. When I played FFVII I couldn't wait to get to the next one. Now they make me want to break stuff. I loved the dungeons in Zelda: TWW, but hated all the talking. And don't get me started on those damn codec sessions from MGS and Sons of Liberty. They went on FOREVER!

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