Things You Hate About Game 'Programming'.

Garrett

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My all time hate in game is not having the facility to turn off head bobbing in first person games. OK it may be more realistic but I hate it and at times it can make me feel sick.

Screen resolution on menus being tied to in game resolution. You have a top graphics card so you bang the resolution up to maximum, then when you have to access the menu screen it is that small you cannot read it.

Game saves where you cannot name the save: sometime I want to save a game at a spot and show a mate what happens next so it can be a right pig finding the right save to show them especially if there is a limited number of saves, as you may accidentally save over the top of the one you want to keep.

One/no save: e.g. Diablo, some times you want to see what the consequences of an action is or choose a skill. Once you choose to do something that’s it it is set in stone even if you make a mistake by clicking the wrong thing.

Loading time between areas which are next to each other. Why don’t they make use of machines with large memory? If you go through an area and are starting to get to the next why can the next section be cached. But no you have to wait for it loading and instead of something original with an explanation in keeping with the game, bring you back to the fact you are only playing a game by stating LOADING NEXT LEVEL.
 
Changing camera positions during the 'action' in a game,
that make you either run into walls, or , worse, die 112345 times
before you figure out the exact moment when you have to alter your key.

agreed with all of your points especially stupid save game options/no save game options.
 
Loading a game on to the HD with 2 disc that keep asking you to put the other disk in and loads a little than ask for the other, and even if you have 2 drives they do not make use of them.
 
Games where changing the resolution require you to step through all the intermediate resolutions, with a change every time. WHY OH WHY can't we just pick the res we want and then click "Apply" ? :thumbsdow

Games that seem to hang because your PC is stalled waiting for a response to a background program like ZoneAlarm.

Games and camera viewpoints :censored: - nuff said.

Games where you cannot skip intros, or where the same pointless intros are displayed every time you run the game.

I don't need to be told every single time I start up a game which developer made the game, which publisher it's from, which codecs it uses - all with their own 'clever' animations / logos etc. Just launch the bloody game and get on with it! :mad: If you want to include credits, make it an option to view them but don't enforce them.

Finally, my all time #1 hate with games. Crap interfaces. There are hundreds of games out there to look at for which interface ideas work, and which don't. So why do developers continue to make interface pigs like Hearts of Iron? :suicide:
 
I hate all the intros and the scenes that some games do between levels - like the Command & Conquer stuff used to do. As far as I'm concerned they'e wasted valuable programming time doing that stuff that adds nothing really to the game.
Another big one for me (being an analyst/programmer) is that quite a lot of games are released in a state where they just do not work. To get things running you have to spend ages downloading patches (that's a pretty way of saying bug fixes) before you get your game working.
Only one save is another for me. The latest Sim City has gone downhill as far as I'm concerned as you can't name the save.
Games that cheat like :censored: annoy the hell out of me. It seems that some of the less well programmed games just cheat when you raise the skill level to the higher settings. Even the later C&C games do this. It takes 3 lots of superweapons sometimes to destroy a building - yet your computer enemy takes out your building with one
I'm sure I'll think of some more !
 
I really hate it in C&C style games where rather than work on the AI they just allow the computer to build stuff seemingly for free and super quick. I think Warcraft 3 was one of the worst for this on the multiplayer skirmishes.
 
I agree on the random camera shifting (Metroid Prime, on some of the morph ball puzzles, has an absolutely vile camera angle) - and the pointless, unskippable intros are some of the most annoying things possible in a game.

Another problem: badly written games. When I say that, I mean games that both run and look like a dog's dinner on an otherwise quite decent PC. Examples are: Halo, which both looks and runs worse than the original Unreal on my PC, a 2.4 gig p4 with a GeForce FX 5200 (the xbox is a pentium 3 733, with a geforce 3.5 and 1/10 of the total memory. All coding being equal, my PC should win every day), and GTA3, while running on a Duron 1200 with a Radeon 7200 (yes - the ORIGINAL radeon...) installed, had to have the resolution turned down to 640x480 and almost no detail (I will never compromise on view distance) in order get some kind of illusion of motion on my screen.

The problem with the saves lies in a point that you stated yourself, eviljohn2: they are meant for consoles. The saves I have for Sheep, Dog and Wolf (damn funny game...) are a small string of hexadecimal data in the windows regristry. Presumably the same format used in the console version - as small as possible so that it will fit on a memory card.
 
I just don't like bugs. :mad: Bit of a pain when you shell out for a game, take it back and find that it needs some patch or other.
 
I don't like first person perspective games which follow trends just because the money men financing the game don't like to take chances so we're handed combat, combat and yes, you guessed it - more combat!
Call me crazy, but imagine a 3d game set within a city with functioning traffic, pedestrians, businesses, buildings vehicles, laws etc and the ability to interact with all of these elements with complete freedom - now I'd snap that up in a second!
 
"I really hate it in C&C style games where rather than work on the AI they just allow the computer to build stuff seemingly for free and super quick." - Kronenbourg

Too right. :mad:
 
gargoyle said:
I don't like first person perspective games which follow trends just because the money men financing the game don't like to take chances so we're handed combat, combat and yes, you guessed it - more combat!
Call me crazy, but imagine a 3d game set within a city with functioning traffic, pedestrians, businesses, buildings vehicles, laws etc and the ability to interact with all of these elements with complete freedom - now I'd snap that up in a second!

I think you'll find that the main trend over the last few years was to take a traditional FPP game and make it Third Person Perspective TPP.
Alot of games developers were pushed into redisgning view modes simple because the publishers wanted something "that sort of looked like Tomb Raider" - as that was doing major business.
So after Dagger fall and Battle spire came Red Guard - the first 2 being FPS - the third being TPP .... completely ruined.

Different game genres suit different types of interface - god sims suit the isometric / overhead - diabloesk action rpg games suit isometric - single person rpg suit first person.
Its all about emersion into the game environment, Aliens v's predator , Thief etc would have lost most of the shock factor and atmosphere had they been isometric or third person.
I have no idea why third person perspective made its way onto pc games .... its for console type jumpy about disengage brain fodder.
Apart from having stupid camera angles that randomly switch to postions where you suddenly can't see that important ledge or monster etc, they dissasociate you from the character - you are less likely to feel you are the actual character if you can't see things through their eyes - and more likely to just feel like you are controlling somelse
 
I totally agree with what Ethics Gradient said above.
Third person is totally artificial where in life do you view the world from a third person perspective apart from a mirror?
As in a first person game you see the world/game through the computers eye and thus you become one with the game and you are the character you are playing.
Whereas a third person you are controlling a character that you have to look after yet control which is false and take you a step back from realism.

I have jumped a few times playing Thief and know a few others that have done also, one member even told me he got his wife playing and at one point she ran from the room she had go so immersed when something frightening happened.
During the game I also had moved my chair back whilst sword fighting and once turning on a monster and running back down a corridor felt it was behind me.
Now that’s what 1st person and good programming can do that 3rd cannot as you see things coming and are not that person.

Before Tomb Raider I cannot remember any third person adventure games but since its conception and huge success 3rd person games became the rage and lots of 1st person games became 3rd, and I avoid.
 
In complete agreement with the above - you can thank the consoles for this particular trend.
I'v just bought the brilliant 'Mafia' but the game is let down by the slightly comical 3rd person perspective - sticking a representation of the character at the bottom of the screen adds nothing to gameplay, indeed, it can impede it as its harder to judge jumps and positions, not to mention that adding the third person means added polygons - this means when you crank the graphical tweaks to maximum, you lose out in terms of loss of speed and fluidity.
 
How about the need to keep the :censored: CD in the drive while playing? I know this isn't necessarily the developers fault, but probably down to the publishers, but why do I have to download a hacked EXE for every legally bought game I own just so I don't have to keep the CDs handy every time I want to play? That annoys me to no end.
 
I think it is to do with piracy as you could lend it to a mate and load it up on his machine and still play it yourself. But I had one game which continually spun the disc whilst playing :mad: which must have taken some wear on the drive.
 
I often wonder why they waste time programming driving games like CMR4 with different camera angles. If you play this game from the view of sitting in the car it is absolutely brilliant - totally immersive and almost believable. This game takes my breath away whenever I play it. But why on earth would anyone want to play this with the camera positioned behind the car ?
I was so pleased with Colin McRae Rally 4 that I phoned up Codemasters tech support to thank them for a wonderful game. I think the bloke at the other end of the phone thought I was taking the **** at first - they obviously don't get too many calls of that nature !
 
I hate having to bind the Keys all the time, each time i play a FPS i have to remember which keys do what.

But the time it takes to bind the keys realy sucks
 
Why, when you've levelled up greatly on the latest RPG, and can pulverise dragons, smash bosses with the magic you've learned and slay all enemies in your path, do you come across a locked door guarded by a couple of puny soldiers then are made to turn away without so much as an attempt to get through by aggressive means?
 
Why, when you've levelled up greatly on the latest RPG,

Do you go into a shop and find that the merchant can hand your ass back to you on a plate!!!

Anyone who has played Online RPGs will know that generally even the lowliest NPC beggar can kick your butt in the cities.
 

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