Giantrobo

Let's here them. I'll go first...

1. 3rd Person View is Superior to 1st Person; and should be the default in games with the option to switch to 1st if need be.
2. Allowing Players to replay a game after finishing it with all Items, Leveled Up, should be the Norm.
3. No Games should force you to watch Cut Scenes.
4. Console games should NOT allow PC Gamers to play in Multiplayer. Stop it. It sucks.

fujishig

2 and 3 at least seem uncontroversial, though 2 wouldn't work for some games without some extra work to make it challenging.

Padding a game to extend how many hours it takes to complete doesn't make it a better game, though psychologically it does make the cost of the game seem "more worth it." Like I never really realized how short the original Dragon Quest was until they released a revision where leveling was much much faster. I have soooo many JRPGs in my backlog and while I enjoy the genre it is just full of this, by design.

There is very little benefit to buying a modern disc game in physical format unless you like to collect things (or it's much cheaper). Most games aren't complete on disc anyway, so if you want to reinstall you need to download patches which may or may not be available. Most have an online component that could be shut down at any time. Both modern systems access data at a rate that's too fast for the disc rotation so the entire game needs to be written to your hard drive anyway, so you're not saving any space (this is different for the switch). Even if the game is somehow complete on disc and has no online component, the likelihood of this being the only way for you to play the game in the future is very small... plus do you have multiple consoles as backup in case your console dies? So really you're buying a disc that serves as a key for you to play it on your console. Maybe you save a little time copying from the disc instead of downloading it all, but then you always need the disc to play.

There's very little benefit besides FOMO to buying a console at launch. Especially if you already have an older console and a backlog.

Draven

I've never once cared about the story in a video game. Not one time. Not even an RPG.

And if it's a shooter, I want to be dropped in to a map with a gun and an objective. I need nothing else.

This is why Serious Sam was one of my favorite games of all time. It just...started.

tonyc3742

Maybe not so unpopular for this audience, but:
- In a single player game, I got nothing to prove. Let me change difficulty at any time.
- Artificial difficulty increases like limited saves are silly. Let me save (almost) anywhere and I'm more likely to play your game more often. (Quick Resume is awesome!)
- Single player games with a story that begins and ends can still be good and fun (except for Draven . Sometimes I quit caring about the story, or forget the details, because the game just drags on and on.
- Allow the player to get a recap - maybe not upon every play session, but optionally - where am I going? What happened recently? Which way on the map am I even facing?
- I do agree with 'get the game going' - get me into the game quick, even if there's story later on. When I play a new game, I am excited to PLAY that new game, not watch ten minutes of cutscenes. More than once I started a game then had to stop due to life, before I actually got to "play" beyond opening movies and character customization.

I second your comment on the JRPG padding. I'm playing Soul Hackers 2 now and while I'm still near the beginning, the biggest complaints I see about it are uninspired dungeon design (yeah, I kinda agree, but they're not bad, much less annoying than the ones in P5Royale, and that means I'm less likely to get lost) and "too short!" HLTB says 30-45 hours. That is quite long enough for me. I'd like to actually finish a game sometime. Quality over padded-out quantity.

Replay in 'god mode' would be fun for some games.

fujishig

The worst is when you're not quite sure when the game auto saved and then when you die you're way back from where you last ended. I do think limited saves like in the original Resident Evil or Dark Souls games forces a more conservative playstyle and more tension (and really you couldn't have a rogue-like without it) but then that also flies in the face of your "change difficulty at any time" point.

tonyc3742

Oh, absolutely (and RE is definitely one of the ones that I was thinking of A limited resource to save AND limited places to save? I totally respect and understand the tension of design choices like that, but I've gotten to where I have much more limited opportunity and time to game so the more obstacles to fitting games in that time, the less chance I will choose that game. It's one thing if the game lasts <30 minutes like Vampire Survivors or Slay the Spire or those type of games. I will fully admit I may no longer be a game publisher's target audience.

DJariya

Going all digital kind of sucks. You can’t trade the game or sell it if you beat it, want an upgrade or are bad at it for credit.

fujishig

That is something I didn't consider mainly because I usually don't buy games at full price and by that time resale value is in the tank.

GatorDeb

Every game with an online mode should also have an offline mode where players can use cheats on a solo campaign to their heart's content (I'm looking at you Diablo IV).

Draven

I kept physical games for a LONG time but I just traded in a bunch at our local game store (along with my PSVR, a Wii U and two PS4s) and got a fraction of what I probably could have gotten piecemealing them out but I just didn't want to deal with it and I was tired of having them all in my house. There is so little value in the resale that I'm probably ready to go all digital for games too (I did that for movies years ago).

SunMonkey

Subtitles should not be on by default. Or worse, not have a way to turn them off.

Jeremy517

Digital-only works better on PC than on console I think, because you can get so many good games for free, in bundles, or for pennies on the dollar if you are patient.

Decker

Even hard games should have a default death penalty that is slight like getting moved back to a nearby checkpoint. Nothing good or enjoyable is achieved by making players lose a lot of progress after dying.

fujishig

Personally I can't even remember the last time I bought a physical copy of a PC game, nor do I know where you can even sell back a used PC game.

nickdawgy

I like FP view on certain games. Usually Bethesda stuff. Cut scenes should be shippable and have the option to be paused. But don’t skip it unless you’ve watched it at least once. Hard mode and hardcore modes should be unlocked from the start. There should be a trade in thing for digital games. I only buy digital if it’s something I see big replay value in and I’m excited to play (FF7 Rebirth for example) but 90% of my Switch games are digital.

The recap thing reminds me of wanting an option where the game will tell you what the buttons do if you’ve been gone awhile. Or if you’re just bouncing between different games and forget.

beavis69

1. Nintendo was playing the correct game, chasing graphics will end up causing the next video game crash. Microsoft won't make it past the next gen (if they make it at all to it) and Sony need to figure out a way forward or it also won't be around.
2. Hybrid gaming is the standard now. The Switch confirmed that and the Steam deck drove it further home. Any console in the future that isn't hybrid will not find an audience.
3. Along with that, physical is out and it's not coming back. There is no reason for a console to have a physical location on it going forward. Even the systems we have now that play physical disc are pretty pointless as the disc contains only a fraction of the game and will not work unless you download the rest of the game.
4. Resident Evil 4 ruined the Resident Evil franchise and it didn't recover until RE7.

Giantrobo

Really? How so? Mind you, RE4 on the Wii is the only RE game I've ever finished... so don't be mean.



Good point. Playing RE4 on the Wii with its non-conventional controls contributed greatly to my being able to finish that game.

Giantrobo

Speaking of...While respect the Wii for all that it brought and it's success. It simply didn't do much for me and after a while I got bored with it and I eventually sold mine. The Novelty was short lived.

Decker

I don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion.
God I hated trying to use motion controls to fire missiles in Metroid or to roll in Donkey Kong Country.

DJariya

It heavily depends on the type of game. Sports games depreciate in value badly and will drop faster than say a FPS, action or fighting game. I’ve gotten as much as $20 for a year old game.

When I gave up on XBox and went all in on the PS5, I sold my XBox One S and about 5 or 6 games for almost $300 at GameStop. I know I lost money, but that was hardly chump change. I know we all value our time differently and that may not be worth it to some.

The Questyen

Yeah I mean it was a super popular console for the casual gamers but a bad Nintendo console for actual regular gamers. Obviously it had some good games over its long shelf life but almost all my favorites on the system would have vastly improved on a better system.

beavis69

It took the series from survival horror to essentially an action game with zombies. It got rid of the horror element and introduced a convoluted story. I hated the setting as well.

fujishig

I mean most of that was for the console, right, how much did you actually get for the games? It is probably worth it to resell if you either finish (or lose interest in) a game really fast, can sell it to another person (not something like Gamestop unless they have some deal that loses them money), or you have something that inexplicably becomes rare, but that's kind of like collecting comics to make money.

I did however trade in a broken PS1 and some games to get a Dreamcast because that was the trade in deal at TRU. I miss those days.

It's even worse for sports games now. NBA 2k shuts down the majority of features after two or so years.

milo bloom

Not gonna directly quote the other poster, but I disagree about Nintendo and graphics. They've "innovated" enough at this point, their AAA games shouldn't look like they're 2 generations behind the competitors. Even a cartoony look can look good if a little effort is put into it (see the Little Big Planet games).



Here's a unique one from me: when a franchise changes it's "dimensional mode", it loses an important quality that made it special in the first place. Mario games (going all the way back to Donkey Kong) were 2D side view games. Same for Metroid. The Zelda games had that weird 3/4 top down view. When they all moved into a 3D view, they lost something special in my view and those entries have never really appealed to me (small exception, the Mario game where you can be a cat has enough unique characteristics of it's own that I can enjoy it).

fujishig

I've said it before but the thing about Nintendo is that unlike Sony and Microsoft, they are a gaming company first. Sure they could become a successful third party like Sega but they are built around making videogames, they can't really afford to keep up with the arms race that the other two companies are doing. And it's not just hardware, it's the cost of developing the games themselves. And I'm fine with them being a generation behind if they can optimize and come out with compelling games. In many ways working around the limitations of hardware in inventive ways has been their trademark (all the way back to the mustache on Mario). It's not for everyone but then everyone else has the other two consoles.

Agreed with the "losing something in 3d" though I think Mario did it fine (the experience was different though). But there's a reason these franchises return to 2d (or close enough) and to great effect. So it's not like you're missing out if you want a 2d Mario, Sonic, Megaman, Metroid, Castlevania etc.