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187 Comments
- jeremyduffy, on 09/04/2008, -0/+89"When I boot up my Playstation, I want to play a goddamn game, not look at animated logos from software companies, or read about what the ESRB thinks about the violence."
Same with DVDs. Who wouldn't buy a custom DVD player that had a big "Play the F'ing Movie Right F'ing Now" button that you could push to make the opening scene start playing immediately. - inactive, on 09/04/2008, -0/+82Man do I hate sitting through five minutes of commercials before I can play. Fix that!
- netwraythe, on 09/04/2008, -1/+75Best way to improve video games? NO more escort missions!
- sk11, on 09/05/2008, -0/+58"Gameplay is king, performance is second, and graphics are somewhere after that. People have said to us, you know, Portal is cool, but it wasn't the prettiest game. Well, okay, it sold a whole lot, it was named game of the year by over 30 outlets, and many of the people who played it told me they finished it and had a great time. I would much rather have that than have people tell me it was the prettiest game that came out last year."
- Valve's Doug Lombardi - kyle415, on 09/04/2008, -0/+51Bring back same screen multi player. All the new games only allow multi player over xbox live or psn. I miss my friends.
- louiebaur, on 09/04/2008, -0/+46I can relate to this!!! Let Me Play the Game Already
- torgo112, on 09/04/2008, -0/+45Oh man do I hate cheating AI. I don't play much, but when I play NCAA football or something, the team I'm playing against suddenly becomes unstoppable in the last minute of a close game and their guy will break 30 tackles in the waning seconds so I lose. ARGH!
F you EA sports! Man I'm getting pissed just thinking about it. - a7r0p05, on 09/05/2008, -0/+42That's because Alyx could take care of herself and wasn't a flailing, retarded five-year-old with the motor skills of a paraplegic walrus.
- Jektal, on 09/04/2008, -3/+38Aside from Saving Anywhere and No Intro Videos this reads like someone who has no idea how games are made.
You want more creative environments? Non-cheating AI? You gonna give them the millions it costs to do that? - AmyVernon, on 09/04/2008, -1/+30I love the idea behind No. 1, the ability to pick up anything from the environment and use it as a weapon. That would rock.
- petebot, on 09/04/2008, -0/+28My friend has a kid, so they’ve been watching a lot of old Disney movies on DVD. Apparently, when you put a Disney DVD in, a screen comes up that says “FAST PLAY,” with an icon leading to the menu, and an icon labeled FAST PLAY. You would think “Oh, FAST PLAY will just play the movie, and I can go wash dishes. Hooray!” However, FAST PLAY plays 10 minutes of Disney commercials and THEN plays the movie. Pretty slimy, huh?
- Webnower, on 09/04/2008, -1/+29Here's an idea... Stop releasing ***** games that took the company a month to squirt out. I'm looking at you, EA.
- inactive, on 09/04/2008, -1/+27Better AI instead of cheating AI, definitely. That would definitely be my main complaint with Mario Kart in near-every incarnation. I'll be ahead by half a lap, and somehow they'll still rubber-band to be behind me right at the end. That's ridiculously annoying.
- vondrak, on 09/04/2008, -0/+24Halflife 2 did a pretty good job of that using the gravity gun.
Obviously there are limits, but you were able to use almost anything around you. - sexybobo, on 09/05/2008, -1/+23Alyx is more like co-op then escort. Plus she is hot.
- HolmesSPH, on 09/04/2008, -7/+29haha less buttons... old gamers like me... we want to go back to three buttons... lol we play for fun not competition and I don't have time to memorize 8 buttons, and 1000 combinations ha
- Haoie, on 09/04/2008, -0/+21Good games: Easy to learn, difficult to master.
- Infidelcastr0, on 09/05/2008, -2/+22So, in other words, Half Life 2....
- sk11, on 09/05/2008, -0/+20Half life 2 got it right though, I didn't mind AI Alyx at all.
- inactive, on 09/04/2008, -1/+20Make the games simple, fun to play and playable on the majority of computer, unlike a certain game... *cough* Crysis *cough*
- inactive, on 09/04/2008, -1/+19xbox games are the worst, especially when they put out games that were jointly developed and then you have to watch 1/2 hour of logos...***** i didn't pay to be pitched to. i already bought (downloaded) the game.
- novask, on 09/05/2008, -0/+17That's a bit much to ask for. We don't have better AI because it takes a lot of CPU cycles for a good AI, the better the AI the more CPU cycles. People always complain about how a game "isn't coded properly" but PC's of today just can't handle the ***** we want. People could program an AI that could tax even the best PC on the market and still crave more power.
The same thing applies to the console load time. It doesn't take that long because they want to show you logos, its because the games have to be loaded off a DVD several gigs in size every time. As for all the other things like environments, improvisation and realism, all those take time and unless you want games to cost $100 a pop or take 6+ years to complete, this won't be happening any time soon. Let me also say one last thing about realism, I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and I stopped half way through. I could carry 2 guns, ammo, a few med kits and everything I was wearing. Other than that I couldn't carry a damn thing and I had to walk everywhere. No thanks. - angelof, on 09/04/2008, -0/+15I don't agree with all of his points, but being able to save whenever I want like "The Orange Box" lets me would be great.
- GalacticRerun, on 09/04/2008, -0/+15I've got a couple of DVDs with TV adverts on them!! What the ***** is that!? I've already paid for the movie, I don't want to see ads! And I can't skip it either (28 Days Later, I should have taken that back to the shop).
As for video games, I don't see why they can't just put all the logos on one screen. Not – fade in --PlayStaion 3-- fade out... fade in --Konami--- fade out... fade in --Japanese football league logo-- fade out... fade in --couple of other league logos-- etc.
While I'm on the subject of Pro Evolution Soccer, we can do without a flashy intro. Nobody gives a ***** and it adds nothing to the game. - Schmapdi, on 09/05/2008, -0/+15Digg this one up 100 times if I could.
"Here mr Badass hero, who's singlehandedly killed half the enemies opposing forces, please get this 5 year old, weakling scientist, retarded chimpanzee across this sniper filled canyon!" - ry4nsm1th, on 09/04/2008, -0/+14Yea I can't stand failing those due to lousy AI.
- redtaboo, on 09/05/2008, -2/+16How about making a game that takes longer than 6 hours to beat!?
- patm1987, on 09/05/2008, -1/+14Although I would love to see all of these improved on (and many games are working on this) there are technical or licensing reasons behind these.
"Allow for Improvisation" - Many games are just lazy and force you to do one particular sequence of events that only make sense to some random designer that is anything but intuitive. But actually allowing total improvisation is very difficult to test and design and may actually make the experience worse. In the end, I'd prefer one well tested (and possibly thoroughly scripted and well engineered) solution to a problem rather than many possible poorly engineered and usually simpler solutions. Given time with improvements in AI, Physics, and innovation (games are still a fairly new medium and not everything has been throught of or designed) this should improve.
"Balance of Fantasy and Realism" - I agree that this can be improved on but it really depends on the developer and audience. I prefer more abstract and simpler games while I have friends who enjoy the hyper-realistic shades of brown games with really really powerful bloom.
"Creative Environments" - We are getting to the point where computers are powerful enough to shove things in arbitrary places, but in the end it comes down to content. A barrel is easy, you make one model with one animation and one algorithm to generate whatever possible "loot" and you can test it quickly and easily and scatter it around the world in extremely large numbers with minimal hit to the file-sizes of levels and code. Remember that every interaction in the game must be coded, tested, designed (drawn), and placed, and most of the people who would complain about arbitrary boxes scattered around also would complain about a game only lasting 6 hours because each level was meticulously designed and tested. Hopefully though, with increased power and storage you will get more creative and well designed environments where you can (if you really want to) rummage through drawers for ammo.
"Non-Irritating Advertising" - It's EA.
"Better AI Instead of Cheating AI" - In some cases the AI gets very artificial and very irritating bonuses. In the end, though, the AI always has to cheat. The AI is part of the game, the game knows where you are, what the level looks like, your health, everything. The trick comes in making the "cheating" invisible and many good AI programmers can do this. Also, I'd like to point out that any of the games I've worked on (all indy and not really good games) I usually design a controller interface and player input, networking, and AI all use this controller to move and act. So, although the AI may know where you are and to run at you at any time it can't break the rules of the game in actually acting (which is what people probably complain about most when they say the AI is cheating).
"No More Male Heroes Who Look Like Chicks" - Agreed.
"The Ability to Save Whenever I Want" - Ditto. Although limiting this ability seems to of stemmed from the lack of space available to the previous generation (and earlier) of consoles.
"Let Me Play the Game Already" - I really agree that intro logos are annoying, but in most cases the developer's hands are tied. Personally, I am always required to show an unskippable logo (it's a still though) and usually put in a screen for the team name (that can be bypassed and is usually also a still). But when you see logos for publishers, card manufacturers, SDK's, etc... it's usually so you can get the game. Card manufacturers (plays best on nVidia and such) are just for the money, but publishers require their logo to actually distribute the game, and the teams that make middle-ware (havok et. al.) greatly ease development and understandably want the credit they deserve so they demand a startup logo.
In short (bet you wish I put this up top) developers do enjoy input about this stuff but I'd like to point out that they aren't just trying to screw you over. A good number of these we're discussing in some form or another with a project that's just now getting underway (stuff such as environments and improvisation especially because we're a very small team with a very limited amount of development time so we have to minimize content as much as possible and design around the fact that we may not get an artist). - dood, on 09/05/2008, -0/+13Totally. And not just for deathmatch. We need more co-op games.
Lego Star Wars got that right. Game designers should have to play that game before writing up any docs. ;) - ericbenatar, on 09/04/2008, -2/+14I hate when I am close to beating a boss and I have to pee like crazy. Then I have to finish the fight standing up and dancing around hahaha
- Bean888, on 09/05/2008, -1/+12If it's a PC game try and use the game's developer modes/cheats. Developers don't like sitting through ads either.
[Edit] Oops, I forgot, if you're in dev mode you'll probably be staring at memory usage, frames rates and other stats laid over the top of the game.....scratch my suggestion. - palehorse864, on 09/05/2008, -0/+11Crysis does it somewhat, though you quickly learn that throwing a seabird or chicken is not effective. It is funny to watch the enemies dodge it though.
Half-Life 2 did it well, though it looked cooler in the e3 previews with vertical blinds getting shot up and Gordon using the gravity gun to put something heavy in front of the door and block the combine from coming in. In the actual thing, that was either scripted, or the door simply pushed the objects out of the way. It would be nice if they could have checked item mass and determined whether the door should open up within a certain range. - sexybobo, on 09/05/2008, -0/+11Halflife 2 did a pretty good job of all but Creative Environments they still have a lot of explosive barrels and crates.
- swern425, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10Uhh...the pause button?
- shawnanigans, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10I love the idea of putting items in coat pockets and stuff it's so small but adds to the realism. Plus he forgot randomly spawning enemies. ***** I hate when I've cleaned out a room and as I'm cleaning out another area enemies from the room I just cleared out shoot me in the back.
- SeventhSon, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10Can anyone tell me why so many games have the "Press start to continue" screen at the beginning of the game before the main menu?
And why do they tell me to press start when usually any button works? If they let me get away with pushing the wrong button once, what's to stop me later? - FrankTheTank17, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10As much as I'd love to see them skip all the intro stuff in the game, what ever happened to the awesome intro movies? Remember the intro movies to late 90's sports games? They got me ready to play the game, now they're so lazy they can't hire some video editor to make a 2 minute compilation of the best moves in the past season.
- Zarokima, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10You probably have a stapler somewhere that you could access very easily. Unlock the hinge, use the bottom part as a handle, and start wailing on someone's face. Staplers make pretty good melee weapons, and they hurt pretty bad if you throw them, too (my freshman English teacher in high school gave some smarmy ***** a concussion with one).
- Evilblobs, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10That's only because Alyx wasn't an escort, and except for a few parts where it was intentionally meant to be protecting her, she couldn't be killed.
- topdon23, on 09/04/2008, -1/+10they dont even have to remove them, just make them skippable, im sure its not that hard
- badenglishihave, on 09/05/2008, -0/+9But now you have VIRTUAL friends. And you don't need to feed them pizza.
- SSPink, on 09/05/2008, -0/+9"Better AI Instead of Cheating AI"
Yes! This, this, a thousand times this! This is just a sign of lazy programing. - DforSpiD, on 09/05/2008, -1/+9That's why when my sister and I used to play Mario Kart 64 we would always have one that stayed with the pack and shoot anyone who cheats to get past them, while the other raced as fast as they could
- wilf_brim, on 09/05/2008, -1/+9No more ***** jumping puzzles. And no ***** lava. The next development team who puts in lava levels should be flown to Hawaii and thrown in Kilauea.
- SpideR87, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Please send this to EA. At least Blizzard has most of this crap right.
- ghostlywind, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7They don't bother me if i can skip them, You hear that EA let us skip your damn logo
- swern425, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Deus Ex addressed many of these issues back in 2000.
Improv - Throwing random objects (a mod causes heavier objects to cause more damage, with the tradeoff being an Augmentation required to pick-up heavy objects in the first place).
Fantasy/Reality - Inventory limited geometrically; all objects take up a certain number/shape of boxes in the inventory screen.
Creative Environments - Well, the game does have plenty of crates and barrels. The environments were well designed for the time for the most part.
Advertising - Zero.
AI - Definitely had room for improvement but wasn't omniscient as to your location. On realistic mode both you and the enemy would die from headshots or extreme torso damage.
Metrosexual/Bishōnen hero - JC looked pretty badass.
Saving where/whenever - Affirmative.
Let me play the game - All logos are skippable. - MikeFallopian, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7I think the real issue is gameplay design and testing, rather than physics implementation. It's fairly straightforward to balance the difficulty of a level when every player has the same equipment at hand. But when you introduce 1,000 new usable objects into a small environment, maintaining that balance becomes much more difficult.
- unorginalityftw, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Isn't Valve just fan-*****-tastic!? =D
- Brododium, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7It's like the good ol' days of VHS previews... plus, if that's the 'fast' play, I'd rather not find out what the 'regular' play is.
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