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"Rubbish Game Cliches"

Been playing The Thing, Mafia, Medal of Honour and some others, and there are certain things that have come to light as being generic game cliches.
Some are alright, some really really really aggravate. And I mean REALLY aggravate. (I'm not stuck on a certain section or anything)

1) Having your weapons stripped.
Why? Why must I suffer this cruel fate? It sucks. It's taken me many hours and many many reloads to get to the point where I no longer have a pistol with 5 shots. Nope, I now have a flamethrower, machine gun, shotgun, pistol and enough ammo to sell under-the-counter to 3rd world dictators that we don't like anymore.
But what's this? I've been captured and drugged/knocked out and have come to with no weapons?
Ahahaha, this is sure amusing to be right back where I started, but with angrier and bigger enemies to defeat. What I'd love to do is charge around
for a while until I find a tossy little handgun and then start all over again building up my arsenal.
Rubbish. I earned those weapons, let me keep them. It doesn't conjure emotions of fear and "Oh no!", it conjures emotions of "Oh for fu...." and a turning off.

2) Having crap AI mates that just stand there and let you get dead.
It's in Mafia, it's in The Thing and it's in Medal of Honour.
You round a corner and meet a whackload of enemey. Now, the usual response is to hide and shoot.
Nope, what you should do (if controlled by the computer) is to stand in the middle of the corridor/room/wide open space and try to stop the bullets with your big stupid AI head. Thereby losing the mission and making you start again.
Or, if The Thing, stand directly in front me trying to incinerate a Thing by blocking my way past and getting dead.
I mean is it that hard to programme "RUN AWAY" when faced with insurmountable odds? I think not, but it would appear to be the case. Or, and this is my personal fav, in Mafia.
Sam & Paulie, garage level - You've spent 20 mins reloading and retrying to get to the bottom level of the garage. What happens? Sam decides to run down the staircase, taking on 5 tommy-gun wielding blokes with what?
Thaaat's right, a pistol.
Dead. Restart level.

3) End of Level Bosses
Rubbish.
Castle Wolfenstein is an prime offender. You are working your way through the game, and meet periodically, end-of-level bosses. Does this happen in real life? No. There are no end-of-level supervisors at work are there?
Yet here comes Blaskewitz, shooty shooty and....HERE'S A MASSIVE LUMBERING NAZI DEMON.
*yawn* I dont want mid-level bosses. Continously.
Medal of Honour didnt have these did it? No. Seamless "Blast to the end" gaming with no stupid hulks to kill to progress.

4) Timed levels.
Max Payne, Castle Wolfenstein etc etc etc. Be it a building collapsing on fire, or having to drive to a certain point or win a race. You design a level, you pack it with detail and gorgeous eye-candy. Then you ruin it by putting a time limit on, so the player has to mindlessly run through the level, concentrating only on reaching the final goal.
Why? I want to take my time, plan my attacks. Not dash like Daley Thompson on a benny. Stupid idea.

5) Locked doors.
I have guns. Lots of guns. And some grenades. And C4. And bazookas. But do you think I can get through that flimsy door? Nope. Which means I now have to spend 20 mins searching for a key/switch/trapdoor that I missed (usually whilst dashing on a time-limit). This is a silly thing.
I have the means, why I not able to smash the door down? I would do in real-life, and this game purports to have incredible AI, realistic setting blah blah blah. But no, the trusty hero is foiled by a paper-thin door bought from "Evil Doors R Us".

6) Incredibly accurate AI Shooters.
You didn't see him. You had no idea where it came from. You only poked your head around the corner for 1/10 of a second. Or you rounded the corner and what happens?
BANG YOU'RE DEAD. RELOAD HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
A bloke 150 meters away, armed with a pistol has managed to see through the foliage, across the expansive level or through the window and suddenly develops into the world's greatest sniper.
That sucks.
---

There are more, but I'm determined to get through the "Death of Art" level on Mafia. A perfect example of weapon stripping + too many enemies and no weapons, incredibly accurate AI and very annoyed reloads.

Bah

Thanks for the cookie, though it did smell a bit fishy it tasted good.

I bow before your superior being Totoro.

I accept you as the all-wise gamer and you are obviously the better man than I.
Have a cookie

In the Death Of Art level in Mafia you don't need to kill any police at the beginning, just run from Paulie's flat without waiting for them to come get ya.
Also, as has already been said, you need to go to Yellow Pete's gun shop to get tooled up before going to the gallery, so if you are running out of ammo on this level it's because you haven't done what you are told to do.

Number 3: Bosses!

*clenches fists and whirls around in circles*

I detest bosses with an unrivalled passion.

Goatboy wrote:
> Yep.
> "I'm being shot at/chased by angry mutant. I must stop, gingerly
> walk to the ladder and turn to face the oncoming death. Oh dear, I
> have fallen"
>
> *slams fase into monitor over and over and over*


I feel your pain brother.

Sod the angry 10foot fire breathing mutant death thingy, its the dodgy ladders that pose the greatest threat.

Dont you just hate the way you can slide off the sides on the way up/down in a kinda smooth, frinctionless manner. Hard to explain but SO DAMN ANNOYING.

Yep.
"I'm being shot at/chased by angry mutant. I must stop, gingerly walk to the ladder and turn to face the oncoming death. Oh dear, I have fallen"

*slams fase into monitor over and over and over*

Sister company of "Evil Doors are Us" is also to blame. The aptly named "Evil Ladders are Us" are prime offenders and deserve to die a nasty death involving a pineapple.

All the ladders ever to exist are either too narrow/high/bloody hard to climb without getting shot. Actually, they are just bloody hard to climb full stop.

"Oh look, a nice innocent looking ladder leading leading to the end of the level." ...... Famous last words.
Reload.

this is why PD on n64 rules, the AI is variable, there are some decent guards and some who run away screaming, they all duck and fire at you but neevr with brilliant accuracy, if you come up behind a guy and walk into him he notices, weapon wise tis easy to get a gun from a man. Red Faction 2 has everyhting destroyable (or so they say) so when you come to an obstructive door you can blow it off its hinges. Anwyay i want this topic to win a GAD! it rules.

I think it's in Hoboken.

Now I couldnt remember where that is, any idea?
Yellow Pete or someone?