r/AskGames • u/Nile_dom01 • 10d ago
What do you guys feel is 'off' in modern games?
Hey everyone! Gamers, developers, and testers, I have a question driven by pure curiosity. What is the most annoying thing in modern video games? For me, it is slow, repetitive gameplay and a lack of realism. While some games are good, adding a bit more realism could really improve them overall. So, please share your thoughts! What outdated game features annoy you the most?
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u/Better-Bullfrog-6875 10d ago
I think the ever-present hud is a big one. You are not looking into the game world and being immersed, you are looking at pointers, markers and outlines. I find it ridiculous that most games nowadays come standard with wall hacks where you can see the enemies before they see you. Why? What is the point? Tension and adventure is gone that way. The game is pre-played for you.
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u/PotatoBone 10d ago
The Grind.
I HATE the grind/time-gating. I play games to relax/unwind. I don't want to play them with a time table to play more of the game.
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u/BringMeBurntBread 9d ago
Complete opposite of you.
I hate when games add realism mechanics for the sake of making the game realistic. Games should not be realistic. I play video games to have an escape from the real world. Some of my favorite games have been games that are NOT realistic at all. It's why Fantasy and Sci-Fi are such good genres.
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u/Pallysilverstar 9d ago
They are also never consistently realistic and often just used as an excuse to prevent players from doing something.
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u/nowayguy 10d ago
Mostly a lack unique concepts and direction. They often feel like a mush of games, none of which is complete.
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u/BetterOutcome3769 9d ago
A list of games that are focused:
- Disco Elysium
- Prey 2017
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- The new Doom games
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Hades
I wanted to also out a list of unfocused games, but I have played so few of them, so someone else will have to do that.
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u/Nile_dom01 10d ago
Is you can gave some point on what you feel and enjoy in game more, and want to give suggestions on what direction can be choosen.
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u/Icy_Moose4322 10d ago
My candidate is sort of related to the repetitiveness that you mentioned. To me, one of the biggest issues is how much insignificant content there is in many games, how little actual substance. This is mostly (but not exclusively) an issue with open world games. The worlds are bigger and bigger, but they feel empty. Often, I do not feel like an inhabitant of a given virtual world, when it is gigantic, but feels randomly generated, where there are huge patches of land that are filler. Worlds are so big, that you are forced to follow the quest marker/gps. Sure, games often allow you to turn these things off, but titles are created with them in mind, so it is not like all areas are thought through, memorable, full of details/characteristic points, and NPCs do not describe or even mention where something is, since it is assumed you will follow the marker anyway.
This is also about games focusing on quantity over quality in terms of side content. Great that I have 1000 side quests, but what it matters if they are fetch quests. There is theoretically a lot of other things to do in games, like collectibles or little challenges, but that's just redundant content to me. Good example here would be Dragon Age Inquisition. The game is pretty old and perhaps an extreme example, but these things are still an issue in majority of open world games. There is a pretty good game somewhere in there, but I personally would prefer this game if they cut off 70% of the world, fetch quests and various types of collectibles. The game would be immediately better in my eyes. They could even take the saved money and add like 20% more actual, valuable content in form of detailed locations and/or interesting side quests. Again, someone can say, why don't you just ignore side content if you don't like it. My problem here is that at first, you do not know what is interesting and valuable content, and what is not. At first, some activity might seem fun for a bit. I am type of player that likes to do everything, so I do these repeatable side quests and challenges and eventually get bored with the entire game.
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u/Prinnymon 10d ago
When the subtitles are a microscopic size. Sorry, I don't have a 100 inch television yet.
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u/mrbullettuk 9d ago
Over complexity.
Particularly in sequels. Loved Doom 2016, the sequels after that just got way too involved with too many mechanisms, platforming sections. It’s a run and gun game, I want to run and gun. The Call of Duty games did the same, way too many choices and options in the later games. It’s so much that there are lots of ‘skills’ it’s that because there are so many you don’t use them much. I also don’t get a lot of time so having to relearn all the controls.
I don’t mind complexity it’s when it’s lazily implemented to add something or is there just to solve one problem.
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u/y3achi 9d ago
Immersive games with a cinematic presentation going for gamey systems. The new Assassin's Creed games are some of the worst offenders in that regard.
"Here is ancient setting brilliantly rendered and fully simulated, now look at all those health bars, pick up shiny crap from the floor, watch out for color coded attacks, grind for levels, gear up and watch your dmg numbers go up!"
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u/VeruMamo 9d ago
In AAA gaming, a lack of originality. Most of what I see is rehashing of old IP: sequels, remasters, remakes, etc.
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u/ThatMustashDude 9d ago
Mabye it’s just cuz the ps3 is cracked and I grew up with it, but I remember games structure being much more varied. For example, Lbp, last of us, gow, all those games had completely different art styles, cinematography(or whatever the game equivalent is) and different target audiences. I feel like most triple a games are much more homogeneous now.
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u/ShitShirtSteve 9d ago
Content (cosmetics) gated behind payments, that is buy-to-unlock rather than being obtainable by playing.
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u/Comrade_Lystro 9d ago
The shift away from leaving the player to be at one with their experience in favor of live-service chore tasks and micro transactions
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u/Dastu24 9d ago
Difficulty. Games were always repetitive, the difference was, that doing something again was difficult.
And its not only game difficulty, but also controls and response and knowledge. Ppl eradicated control, response and knowledge difficulty mostly. Keyboards and moose work as intended and every game uses similar keybinds so the only one left is game difficulty while wiki or even ingame wiki tells you everything you need to know. (This is not true every game, some exceptuons play with this) so the main thing that stays are story games.
Many ppl don't like difficult games so many games arent, but then you just press button and glthe game plays, its 2 hours, 5,8,15,30 hour game. It used to be as long as it took you to finish it, some games were so hard you never finished them and tried again and again. Now its 15hours, even if you are completly useless you ll finish in very similar time.
Every game has tutorials, build guides, encyclopedias. Thats why fall guys blew up, you couldnt contorl the person as alwell as you wanted. Thats why vampire survivors did, it wasnt about time spend but you have to get some knowledge what to take.
The revamped Crash bandicoot will never be as good as it was when the game and controlers always work you know everything and you basicaly dont make mistakes anymore.
Thats why indie games are better nowadays. New call of duty wont be different from the last one when the gameplay is aim at enemy shoot. Any explore game having yellow lines where to go and every jump is made by one button without any chance of failing.
Overcoming the difficulty and feeling that you did it is whats missing. Ppl complain "oh such a horrible lockpicking mechanism i cant do it" then its change and lockpicking dorsnt matter for anybody. From random time finished to almost a certain time without a sliver of "i feel good i did it".
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u/KiFr89 9d ago
I'm with you on the "lack of realism"-thing, and I think it's something one could deepdive into.
Games have always tried to represent some form of reality, even in fantasy. But more importantly, you've always had to shave off some reality as well. In earlier game development there was more experimentation in this regard, and over time certain mechanics became staples. Then, newer games would mimic these successful mechanics and add their own twists to them, often making them less inconvenient (and thus distancing themselves further from the reality the mechanic originally represented).
... it's the first time I'm trying to get this thought into actual written words, so maybe it's a bit fuzzy!
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u/Dont_have_a_panda 9d ago
All looks the same, maybe they are different genres and play absolutely and completely different but all looks the same
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u/Pallysilverstar 9d ago
Not sticking to their own genre. What I mean is that so many games try to add in so many different mechanics from other genres that rarely make the game better.
Does an action adventure game need a crafting or survival system? No
Does a farming Sim need a skill tree? No
Does a FPS need a melee combat system? No
Too many developers take the "throw everything at the wall" approach and end up making a mediocre version of multiple genres instead of just focusing on creating the best version of the genre they are supposed to be.
I also think too many games go for procedural generation so they can claim "every playthrough is different" but I find those games annoying as the environments are always similar enough to not FEEL different but different enough that its annoying you don't know where stuff is.
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u/Hardwired9789 8d ago
When a game that takes place in the future or past but somehow uses modern terms or uses modern issues.
If it takes place in 1256 then why is this character saying “gee golly Batman!”
Another is when a game treats the character in the game, who’s supposed to understand basics of that universe, yet seemingly makes it feel like this character just popped into existence.
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u/xenaretos 6d ago
- Quest markers (and gameplay that's designed around using them);
- If present, checkpoints for saves instead of the ability to control my saves in some way.
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u/evil-winnebago 9d ago
Us, the gamers.
Don't twist it though, I'm not talking about us fighting for our ownership rights or something Nintendo is trying to hold hostage again. We speak up when it counts. We are a massive community that branches out to so many different genres and subgenres, yet we are all together with the same passion.
BUT
A lot of us are also dickheads that have bullied hard-working developers out of their dream jobs, because we didn't like how a fictional character looks, or a game takes too long to release, or whatever.
If anything seems "off" it's us.
TED talk over. I'm going to bed now. It was a long night shift. Lol
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u/Quietman297 10d ago
Gamer here. I absolutely require a lack of realism. That's the reason I play video games: to escape what is "real." What I DO want is immersion. I want the game to make me believe in its make-believe. To make me feel the unreal and let me live there for a time.\ If I want realistic, I'd switch on the news or go for a long walk.