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"Rubbish Game Cliches"

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Sun 29/09/02 at 18:26
Regular
Posts: 787
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
Sun 29/09/02 at 19:53
Regular
"ProGolfer"
Posts: 2,085
The ai in conflict desert strom are pretty good, sometimes better than you if you get there stats up. I belive it to be a margin which needs to be beaten or at least met every gamewith ai. The enemy could have been a little better though.
Sun 29/09/02 at 19:24
Regular
"A man with a stick"
Posts: 5,883
I hate enemy A.I. that can be incredibly stupid, and extremely accurate at the same time. An example is Delta Force, which has enemies who can shoot you from a mile off while your slowly crawling under the grass making little or no sound, yet up close you'll be lucky to see a soldier even look at you, let alone shoot you.

I had to laugh though, as one of the delta games was apparently used by the US military as a training simulator for its troops. How embarrassing.
Sun 29/09/02 at 19:12
Regular
"That's right!"
Posts: 10,645
When I used to make games, I'd put time limits in so the player couldn't stop to think "That looks pants" or notice the bugs...
Sun 29/09/02 at 19:04
Regular
"no longer El Blokey"
Posts: 4,471
ALL time limits suck.

Someone made a good post about it in Prime, "Don't rush me" or something. I can find it with the search, but I won't bother.
Sun 29/09/02 at 18:50
Regular
"smile, it's free"
Posts: 6,460
The thing is, you'll never really get decent AI unless it's at the same level as the player. Otherwise it'll either be so good as to render you useless (a la X-com Intrerceptor), or so poor as to be a hinderance(virtually every game ever).
Sun 29/09/02 at 18:35
Regular
"Picking a winner!"
Posts: 8,502
Couldn't argee more.

Death of Art level on Mafia is annoying me now. All weapons gone apart from one with 5 bullets. Always get so far then shot in the head and thats it over. Not fair, not nice and not enjoyable in a game.
Sun 29/09/02 at 18:32
Regular
"You've upset me"
Posts: 21,152
You see, I laught at your wording but it's oh so bloody true. Weapon strips, Paper Tiger (in reverse) doors and silly AI get dead teammate crappy people are the most annoying.
Sun 29/09/02 at 18:26
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
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

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