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Post by Vandelay on Nov 6, 2022 16:17:30 GMT
Edit - or don't bother reading the below and just read Aunt Alison's post before mine that says the same thing in a quarter of the words.
The lack of health bars in something like Hollow Knight isn't really a big deal. You only have 1 weapon and it has fairly linear upgrade path. You could kill all the bosses without ever upgrading it if you wanted to and that is often a valid thing to do, if you are speed running. Even if playing the game normally, you are likely to only get a couple of upgrades, as most of the items you need to get the attack damage up are fairly tucked away. The progress between bosses is fairly linear too (again, if playing normally), so the designer has a good idea how much damage you are likely to be outputting.
A From Software game though has dozens upon dozens of weapons, with different upgrade paths that can cause them to output a different amount of damage and different status effects. Then their is the player's stats, also effecting each of those. Then the boss themselves will have resistances and weakness to types of damage. The variables make it impossible for the player to know how effective they are being without that numerical indicator and they very well could be doing basically nothing to a boss with the weapon they are currently using.
In a From Software game, if you see you are only doing 20-30 damage to a boss, you are able to adjust your strategy accordingly. That isn't something you are likely to encounter in Hollow Knight.
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Ulythium
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Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Nov 6, 2022 16:23:04 GMT
I'm not saying that either of you are wrong for liking the lack of health bars in Hollow Knight - or even just not minding it - but it's a game mechanic I hate, so I stand by my posts  |
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 6, 2022 16:39:05 GMT
Regardless of a game's mechanics, I don't like if I can't tell if I'm 20% into a boss fight or 80%, especially in long battles. It's not always a big issue, but a health bar always makes it better.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 6, 2022 16:45:52 GMT
I think I heard Bruce Lee once say something about how you should focus on the moment rather than thinking about the victory, which is how I play video games. Like Bruce Lee
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Post by baihu1983 on Nov 6, 2022 16:47:23 GMT
You should play that Bruce Lee game..
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 6, 2022 17:04:39 GMT
Is that the one that's got actual dead people in it or something?
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Post by drhickman1983 on Nov 6, 2022 17:10:16 GMT
I can see both points regarding health bars, but I think I swing more towards wanting them.
I'm not great with games where I need to spend multiple goes trying to get a boss down After a few failures, if I can't see that I'm making progress I'll probably stop playing, as it's either that or get frustrated.
If there's no health bar it becomes a lot harder to judge if I'm actually getting anywhere. Like if it's one of those bosses that is whittled down, I like to know how much longer it's going to take.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Nov 6, 2022 17:25:46 GMT
I play video games like Bruce Lee Like someone who's been dead for 50 years? |
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Post by docrob on Nov 11, 2022 18:50:42 GMT
Don’t know whether anyone (possibly me) has posted this already, but that thing when games repopulate areas that you’ve cleared with harder enemies. Yes, I can see that occasionally this might be a plot point, but when it happens routinely in games where you have to backtrack, it is an absolute pain in the arse. I don’t want to have to clear the level all over again, thanks. This absolutely ruined the endgame of Prey for me, and is why I didn’t finish it.
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Post by simple on Nov 11, 2022 19:00:34 GMT
Relatedly, level scaling enemies so that you never get the sense of progressing into being properly powerful as even the scrubs are tracking you in terms of health bars and gear (looking at you in particular Oblivion)
It can also result in basic areas suddenly being full of big bads which feels very artificial and a bit immersion breaking
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Post by docrob on Nov 11, 2022 19:24:01 GMT
Relatedly, level scaling enemies so that you never get the sense of progressing into being properly powerful as even the scrubs are tracking you in terms of health bars and gear (looking at you in particular Oblivion) It can also result in basic areas suddenly being full of big bads which feels very artificial and a bit immersion breaking This too! I remember screenshots of bandits decked out in full glass armour. Which is just a bit daft. Plus one of the great pleasures of RPGs is when you can swan through what used to be a challenging area and own all the mobs. To be fair, this can be immersion-breaking in its own way, with all of the monsters in one area being far weaker than those in another, but it’s still better than the alternative. |
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Deleted
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Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2022 19:29:44 GMT
I hate that the AI in FPS games has never really improved since Fear.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 12, 2022 7:47:45 GMT
Limited air supply It was annoying in Sonic and it's still annoying  |
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hedben
Junior Member
Formerly: hedben2013
Posts: 2,198
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Post by hedben on Nov 12, 2022 8:20:07 GMT
Yeah I turned off oxygen loss in Hardspace Shipbreaker immediately. Don’t penalise me for staying still and thinking things through in a game that rewards “measure twice, cut once”
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 12, 2022 8:36:11 GMT
Don’t know whether anyone (possibly me) has posted this already, but that thing when games repopulate areas that you’ve cleared with harder enemies. Yes, I can see that occasionally this might be a plot point, but when it happens routinely in games where you have to backtrack, it is an absolute pain in the arse. I don’t want to have to clear the level all over again, thanks. This absolutely ruined the endgame of Prey for me, and is why I didn’t finish it. Absolutely agree. I think it was Far Cry 2 that was the first egregious example of this in games that I played. Clear a roadblock/checkpoint then 30mins later all the lads are back again, except now I have far less ammo and patience. Was why I stopped playing that one. Strangely though I don't recall it even being an issue in Prey and I both loved and finished that game. I vaguely remember they did that thing a couple of times in specific places but I guess it just have fit the narrative or I was appropriately skilled up by then so it wasn't frustrating to me. |
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 12, 2022 8:42:30 GMT
Playing Ghost of Tsushima at the moment and I'm so unbelievably bored of the:
- 'looks like they got away'
- 'we need to look for clues'
- wander around in a circle looking for R2 prompts
- camera pans to footprints
- 'lets follow the tracks'
- you can't just follow the tracks, you have to press R2 at specific points multiple times to examine the tracks otherwise the game tells you to go back.
If games absolutely must do this 'tracking' thing at least do it sparingly. Tsushima does it about 50 times.
I blame the likes of Arkham Asylum and Witcher 3. That Batman/Witcher senses mechanic was actually fun for a while but even they overdid it. Now it's absolutely been done to death. Every time it comes up now it elicits a groan. Following signposted breadcrumb trails is not fun guys.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Nov 12, 2022 8:43:16 GMT
Oh god, Far Cry 2 was awful for that. It wasn't even 30 minutes later when the roadblocks respawned, I think the enemies could respawn as soon as you were a (fairly short) distance and out of line of sight. You could walk a minute down the road and turn a corner, then go back and they would have respawned.
I don't mind things like that respawning, but it was far, far, far too quick, to the point of breaking immersion.
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 12, 2022 8:48:08 GMT
Oh god, Far Cry 2 was awful for that. It wasn't even 30 minutes later when the roadblocks respawned, I think the enemies could respawn as soon as you were a (fairly short) distance and out of line of sight. You could walk a minute down the road and turn a corner, then go back and they would have respawned. I don't mind things like that respawning, but it was far, far, far too quick, to the point of breaking immersion. Breaking immersion: I think that's why I didn't mind it in Prey, it felt narratively consistent and not a contrivance to make the game harder or longer. In Far Cry 2 it just felt like the devs were taking the piss. Big 'but I've literally just done this!' vibes. |
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Post by dfunked on Nov 12, 2022 8:52:02 GMT
Speaking of Far Cry 2 - first person games that wrestle control from you while your character has some kind of episode (malaria was annoying as fuck in that one!)
Dying Light 2 also did something similar every time you went near a bed to rest.
It's not at all immersive. It's just annoying.
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Post by Syrette on Nov 12, 2022 9:02:52 GMT
Having to read tedious document after document to gain a decent understanding of the lore, or feeling like you're missing out. See Control.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Nov 12, 2022 9:34:15 GMT
In general I dislike that, but I actually thought Controls were kinda fun |
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Post by docrob on Nov 12, 2022 21:30:40 GMT
Don’t know whether anyone (possibly me) has posted this already, but that thing when games repopulate areas that you’ve cleared with harder enemies. Yes, I can see that occasionally this might be a plot point, but when it happens routinely in games where you have to backtrack, it is an absolute pain in the arse. I don’t want to have to clear the level all over again, thanks. This absolutely ruined the endgame of Prey for me, and is why I didn’t finish it. Absolutely agree. I think it was Far Cry 2 that was the first egregious example of this in games that I played. Clear a roadblock/checkpoint then 30mins later all the lads are back again, except now I have far less ammo and patience. Was why I stopped playing that one. Strangely though I don't recall it even being an issue in Prey and I both loved and finished that game. I vaguely remember they did that thing a couple of times in specific places but I guess it just have fit the narrative or I was appropriately skilled up by then so it wasn't frustrating to me. The issue with Prey was that I was approaching the end (or at least not that far away) and I had just had a massive battle outside in space which had depleted my ammo. I then came back in via the Arboretum, which was now full of higher level enemies, and then the Nightmare started chasing me. Half a dozen deaths later, I gave up in disgust and haven’t been back since. |
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MolarAm🔵
Full Member
Bad at games
Posts: 6,831
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 12, 2022 21:45:16 GMT
The things people moan about with Far Cry 2 are usually justified within the game world, though. That doesn't mean you have to like them, but... you don't actually have to drive through the checkpoints. You can (and should) often go around them. It's a war zone, you're not there to clear the map!
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Post by dangerousdave on Nov 12, 2022 22:05:38 GMT
Far Cry 2 is the bee's knees. I loved everything everyone else hated about that. The malaria, the gun jamming and the respawning checkpoints. I liked that diamonds were found with a sensor, rather than a map. I liked the world design in terms of it feeling like a bunch of smaller open areas glued together, rather than one big open map. I liked that you couldn't mark (or tag) people. I liked only having 2 guns. Man, that game always felt like you had to fight your way around, rather than wander.
Far Cry 4 and 5 are not even a quarter as good as 2 was. They weren't even good games, but the fact they ditched all of the above just made them seem so hollow, lifeless, uninspired and unengaging in comparison. Ditching those design choices made the games worse. Way worse.
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Post by simple on Nov 13, 2022 0:32:06 GMT
Y’know games that don’t let you remap the controls?
They can fuck right off
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lukasz
New Member
Meat popsicle
Posts: 673
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Post by lukasz on Nov 13, 2022 2:18:30 GMT
Small hate for in game cutscenes not being rendered in ultrawide resolution.
When it all takes small patch (horizon dawn) or quick hex edit (witcher 3)
I do understand a little as you can get 'bloopers' because of that.
Still i hate it.
And games where the higher resolution the more zoomed you are.
More problem with old games. Settlers 2 10th edition is unplayable at 1440p ultrawide.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 13, 2022 9:57:08 GMT
Auto saving/checkpoint messages, especially in horror games as it makes it obvious something is about to pop off
Think they're mandated by the console makers but still rubbish
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Nov 13, 2022 20:35:06 GMT
Y’know games that don’t let you remap the controls? They can fuck right off Yes, very much so! This can make me uninstall something ouright if the default layout is unreasonable.
On Prey: Yeah, I remember got a bit tiresome towards the end with all the backtracking and all these random collections of enemies that I had killed so many times already. It wasn't much of a difficulty problem at that point, but Prey was the kind of game which probably could have profited from less and stronger enemies, different pacing and so on.
And as far as Far Cry 2 is concerned: MolarAm has already said it pretty much. There is no need to engage with most checkpoints. Aside from the fact that just driving through them gets annoying/boring rather quickly.
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Post by simple on Nov 13, 2022 21:28:42 GMT
Y’know games that don’t let you remap the controls? They can fuck right off Yes, very much so! This can make me uninstall something ouright if the default layout is unreasonable. Playing Death’s Door at the moment Standard melee attack = R2 Aim ranged attack = L2 Fire ranged attack = O I know its not a first or third person action title but aim/fire was standardised generations ago and here I am wasting extremely limited attacks due to pressing the wrong button. |
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Post by Resident Knievel on Nov 14, 2022 15:51:02 GMT
AWD conversion in Forza games.
It's been overpowered since year dot, ruins the feel of a car, but you have to do it to compete.
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