Comments on: Features Games Should be Required to Have

By: Son Cooler

Son Cooler — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:39:23 +0000

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By: troll bead

troll bead — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:07:16 +0000

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By: Monkey Pants

Monkey Pants — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:51:16 +0000

Dialogue subtitles for deaf/ hard of hearing gamers! wtf Assassin’s Creed part 1??

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:39:11 +0000

I am so sick of first-person shooters.

By: Big Bird

Big Bird — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:11:09 +0000

“Do not split parties up when using matchmaking. We take a group with into matchmaking so that we can play against others, not so we can be arbitrarily split up between two teams.”

Have you ever played with a group of random people against a clan in matchmaking? It may be fun for the clan but for everyone else it just makes you want to give up playing…

By: Mayor McCheese

Mayor McCheese — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:53:28 +0000

Make Splitscreen an option for Co-op play. I don’t wanna have to not see my friends to enjoy a game with them.

Something I’ll always want and never get:
Allow online multiplayer to cross systems. I like my friends with their ps3 and we own the same games so why can’t it work?.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:59:41 +0000

Very console-centric list… you’ll find all of your ‘awesome’ and little of your ‘turrible’ on PC.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:47:23 +0000

The problem isn’t really designing AI when designing non-binary decision making. After all, look at something as simple as pathfinding. Pathfinding, in no way, is a binary decision. It’s usually a very costly decision that goes through many branching paths.

No, it’s a simple matter of time and development costs and making players feel like they get the most bang for their buck.

Let’s assume that you have Studio A and Studio B. They both have the same amount of time and money to work on stuff. They’ve both been able to create a number of “scenes” (to borrow theater terms) and now they need to connect them.

Studio A, fed up by binary decisions in games, gives the player 4 options at each scene. In Scene A1 you can go to B1, B2, B3, or B4. At each of those you can go to C11, C12…, C21, C22…, etc. They now have 17 “scenes”.

Studio B goes with the tried and true binary decision. In Scene A, you can go to B1 or B2. At those you can go to C11 or C12/C21 or C22. Then you get D111, D112 etc. They now have 15 “scenes”.

Joe Gamer buys both games. He goes through Studio A’s game in a couple of hours and doesn’t bother replaying it (he was happy with all of his decision) and feels a bit ripped off about how short the game was. He goes through Studio B’s game in several hours, again not bothering to replay it, but he doesn’t feel anywhere near as ripped off because the game seems longer to him.

Basically, what I’m saying is that without some sort of algorithmic way of dealing with player decisions, developers are forced to spend time and money creating options that won’t be visited by most players and releasing a game which seems a lot shorter than it really is.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:45:42 +0000

Couldn’t agree more Re. customisable controls and the above comment about skippable cutscenes. It seems like sheer arrogance on the part of game designers to force you to sit through “dramatic” sequences that you’ve already watched many times and which, in terms of acting and script writing, are almost invariably of risible quality anyway.

By: Good Bad

Good Bad — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:18:10 +0000

“Figure out a way to do away with binary good/bad choices.”

How about multiple endings? Chrono Trigger anyone? Although they only had 13 endings and it all ended basically the same way (same last boss). I want to see 100+ paths I could take throughout the game with 20 different endings (including a wide variety of end bosses). Choices in one area affects the later game. The result would be extensive replay value. If you only have one ending to a game, it severely limits the storyline to that one ending. The end result is linear gameplay with limited replay value.

The “Achievements” systems developers are adding to get people to play more than once is not a good substitute for developing multiple storylines.

By: Kamo-Cobra

Kamo-Cobra — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:00:41 +0000

As a left handed gamer, the lack of fully configurable controller button-mapping is a real bugbear of mine. I’ll never understand why all games don’t include this as standard. If I can’t switch ‘look’ and ‘aim’, I’m screwed.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve downloaded a demo of a game I was thinking of buying, only to realise I can’t customise the controller to my liking. Instant lost sale right there.

It’s not so bad with one-player games like Bioshock, where you have the time to adjust your tactics. But with online multi-player games like MGO, Gears of War or Ghost Recon I just can’t aim as good as all the righties, and get totally owned.

Resistance: Fall of Man is a perfect example of the correct way to implement button-mapping. You’ve got a picture of your controller with all the button functions laid out. Click on a button to change it’s function and it will be swapped with the function of the next button you click. it’s all so simple, and could be written into ANY game at all (and barely take up 1/2 an afternoon for 1 programmer).

I thought the 360′s gamer preferences would eradicate this problem for me once and for all, but it seems not too many devs use this feature.

By: evan

evan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:17:05 +0000

Hey Yahtzee says he hates quicktime events when they make no sense / aren’t a large part of the game. God of War’s make sense and are a very big part of the game and he even said he had no problem with God of War’s quicktime events.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:36:41 +0000

I’d also add “let me save when I want to”. I hate savepoints, I bought the game I’d like to play it how I want and save it *when* I want.

By: RP

RP — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:34:50 +0000

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By: havoc of smeg

havoc of smeg — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:27:31 +0000

there are two rules i think should be added.

1. skipable cutscenes
these can be annoying when replaying a game for a 2nd or 3rd time, when you already know whats said, you just dont care ETC.

2. monologues that never end.
you know what i mean.
the bad guy or whoever is prattling on forever, all the while keeping you from proceeding.
for me the prime example of this is bioshock, like right at the end when tanenbaum is ranting away, and you have to wait for the little girl to let you through the big door.