Gaming irks

[JSR]

Side-Missions:
Save Points:

We aren't in the 90's anymore and yet some games still have them. There's no excuse to implement them in genres such as rpg's anymore.

You would rather have the ability to save the game freely? That's in many cases game breaking.

[losersclub]

Personally i would rather have the optional sidequests found in games such as ME & Fallout 3 than a compulsory fetch and carry quest tacked onto the main game to add length

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Side-Missions:

They are nothing more than a distraction from the main quest. I hated them in just about every game I've played that implements them I.e Oblivion, Mass Effect, etc. Such quests have been added just to pad out the game.

I actually enjoyed the side quests in Fallout 3 and far from padding out the game, I felt they added a lot more to it.

Finding a random manhole cover and discovering a quest that makes you seek out areas that you wouldn't have usually explored was great fun.

[sj33]

With side quests, it depends on the type of game. If we're talking about an open-world game such as Oblivion, where the entire point of the game is having a huge world to explore (and the main plot is almost an afterthought), then it makes sense to have plenty of quests to do in that world, and there's no reason why they would necessarily be connected. I understand that this can be a hard adjustment for people who are used to the average Japanese RPG, but the focus is very different - it's less about telling a story, more about giving the player a world to enjoy. In these games, the main quest is almost a distraction in itself from what you should be doing. On the other hand, for other types of games where the focus is on narrative, then I'd agree that these are resources that would be better used to flesh out that narrative.

Irk of the day, developers that insist on making mobile-exclusive chapters of certain series'. I have nothing against mobile phone games in themselves (though they don't appeal to me in the slightest), but it's a real problem when you have certain (for example) Kingdom Hearts or Resident Evil games that are only avaliable via specific mobile phone carriers, meaning anyone that prefers to use another provider cannot play the game. In the case of Kingdom Hearts, SquareEnix were smart enough to re-release them on the DS as Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, but there are plenty of examples of other games that are destined to disappear into obscurity as people upgrade to new phones and these games just become lost.

[Ady]

You would rather have the ability to save the game freely? That's in many cases game breaking.

Not at all. The way I see it the player should be able to save whenever they like (within reason). If the game's challenge has to be built around preventing the player from saving freely then that suggests to me that the game is somewhat broken.

It's one or the things I hate about pre-4 Resi games and, as the first guy said, it's so 90s.

Games like Fallout3 and Half Life 2 don't suffer any for allowing free saving. And automate should be mandatory nowadays anyway.

[Brad]

Yeah, I mean don't let me save halfway through a boss battle but otherwise there's no reason for me not to be able to save anywhere I like. In particular I'd like to see the next Metroid game allow this.

[sj33]

I think he means game-breaking in the sense that you can encounter bugs in a game and find yourself unable to continue, or save yourself into a dead end. This seems to be becoming more common with every console generation so it is not an unreasonable worry. I do agree with the concept of being able to save anywhere though, I think the industry has moved on from the days where we need to artificially increase a games longevity by manipulating save point placement.

The solution is simple of course - do what most PC games have been doing since forever, include the ability to quicksave anywhere alongside 'permenent' saves states at the start of a level.

[Dogg Thang]

I've been playing Lego Clone Wars on 3DS. The levels have a fair amount to them and are divided up into several acts. But the game does NOT save between those acts. No problem, it's a 3DS so you can just put it into sleep mode to take a break, right? Yeah, that's fine as long as... your game does not crash. I've had a bunch of black screen crashes with that game, sometimes just right at the end, and I lose all progress from that level and have to do it again. And invariably it's a level with a godawful space battle.

If you can't code a game without bugs, you should allow saving everywhere, all the time. And have about a million save slots.

[Brad]

That sucks. As an aside, what's the game like mate?

[Dogg Thang]

Overall, it's very good. The space battles are a bit of a chore but the rest of the game is good Lego gaming with plenty to do and loads to unlock. Not sure how big it is but it feels meaty and has quite a bit of variety. My only real issue with it (crashes and space battles aside) is that I'm not into the source material so find it far harder to get in to than the movie games. Much of the time I have no idea what's going on. But it's a good game and the kind of game I wanted on 3DS - I really should have bought it at launch. I'm getting loads of play from it.

[abigsmurf]

It's worrying the 3DS is crashing so much. I hope the crashes aren't HW related.

[Dogg Thang]

Well Lego Clone Wars is the only game I've had that I've had crashes with. RR, SFIV and Pilotwings, I haven't yet experienced one crash with. That's not to say I won't, but I haven't yet and have played them a lot. Based solely on just my own experience, seems more like software issues but the experiences of others could tell a whole different story.

[abigsmurf]

Increasingly dull and boring sales which have no real bargains, just stuff at the price it's been for 6+ months, occasionally something is a couple of quid cheaper but it gets lost in the rubbish.

[Thumperer]

Increasingly dull and boring sales which have no real bargains, just stuff at the price it's been for 6+ months, occasionally something is a couple of quid cheaper but it gets lost in the rubbish.

I get this feeling every time I look through a TheHut / Zavvi Wii/DS sale. Steam's annual blowouts keep me happy on the PC side, though.

[Bond James Bond]

Console exclusives and the fanboys that expect everyone of them to be brilliant, in their eyes every exclusive to their console deserves a 10/10. We all know this isn't the case, not every exclusive is a good game, personally i found MGS, Halo, Forza, GT, Gears of War, Killzone, Resistance, etc to be crap/mediocre titles. But because they're "exclusive" gamer/mags give such titles the benefit of the doubt and sometimes hand out silly scores. Or are paid to!

Anyway, i hate exclusives, only fanboys care about them. The thing about fanboys is that they’re like a kid with a cookie jar, aren’t they, in that they don’t want to share the goodness with others.

I'm glad more publishers/developers are moving away from exclusivity. All they do is limit the folk who want to play the game. Not to mention developers/ publishers losing **** loads of money. You see less console exclusives with each generation, this one is no different and you’ll see even less exclusives next gen.

Exclusives will go the way of the dodo IMO, not unless they are bank-rolled by one of the big three or are first party.