What are you willing to accept... or not

[Bells]

I'm willing to accept that a game is short as long as the ride is enjoyable and/or the price is lower or that the re-playability is high. But it's not Ok to talk about action and adventure games as though 4-6 hours were "the norm" on the length of it.

We're ok accepting Cartoonish character design when the game is trying to be light hearted or, lately, Fantasy-like. But it's hard to coop with that when the game is trying to be all mature and grown up.

You see... there are all these little details about games, things that make or break games. I can usually see those in Gaming site reviews and the such... if the reviewer likes the game, he accepts all these little nooky and cracks that on a game he doesn't like, he would use it to rip it a new one.

So, just like Suspension of disbelief... what are you guys willing (or not) to accept in your games?

[Kim]

Backtracking. Especially in games with random encounters. Personas 1&2 are both very guilty of this.

Annoying characters that nobody acknowledges as being annoying.

Poorly delivered dialogue. Some dialogue writing in games is just so damnably terrible.

Lack of subtlety. This is one of the reasons I am increasingly wary of Dante's Inferno.

[Mirai Gen]

Arbitrary needless game-lengthening bullshit. This is what totally destroys most games for me; Transformers:RotF for 360 was alright up until they told me I needed to go back and get higher scores on previous missions to unlock more of the story mode.

Sluggish plot progression. This completely killed Resident Evil 4 for me, RE4 spoilersas you'd spend hours navigating underground railroads, tunnels, haunted mansions, lakes, and other such interesting locations only to walk up to Mr. Napoleon, exchange two lines of dialog, and have him drop you down a hole where you'd need to find your way back out, to him, again.

I especially recall navigating through the hedge maze trying to figure out the puzzle only to have Ada Wong pop out, beat me up, and run away, leaving me with more backtracking and even more dumbfounding questions than when I started.

[krogothwolf]

10 minutes of gameplay followed by 30 - 45 minutes of cut-scenes. Seriously, MGS 4 was great, when you could play it and when you could play it it was way to short.

[Jagos]

Most offensive was the first game of Xenosaga. Best movie I have ever played.

[krogothwolf]

Originally Posted by Jagos

Most offensive was the first game of Xenosaga. Best movie I have ever played.

Oh god, I forgot all about that!

Also quick time events that require insane vision to just see the buttons you need to press. I have one eye and it is at times hard to focus to see it all.

[Jagos]

oh... one more thing:

Was I the only one pissed at this?

[h4x.m4g3]

Willing to accept:

Extreme, not-cheap difficulty levels - i.e. not giving enemies more health and they hit harder.

Short high quality games - Z.O.E. 2.

Trailing endings that leave the fate of one or two things undecided, but the main plot points are fully resolved.

Not willing to accept:

3rd/1st person shooters that extremely devalue accuracy/tactics, i.e. getting the heavy machine gun and holding down the fire button is more effective (if not the only way to accomplish anything) then using a carbine or other rifle waiting for the wait moment and then firing.

Games that let you skip key items that you won't need until the end of the game, only to have to back track for them. In the original Ninja Gaiden I forgot to pick up one of the 'keys' a boss dropped (bonehead move, but I was in a rush or something), and had to GameFaqs where to run back to.

Tap 'Blank' to open/break 'blank' in a non-tension situation.

Games that require you to completely replay the game to get the best ending (multiple endings are fine but not in the vein of Drakengard 2. Beat the game - ending 1, unlock hard, beat the game on hard - ending 2 (completely different), unlock hardest difficulty, beat the game on the hardest difficult - ending 3 (completely different again - best ending). Especially true in games that require 20+ hours to complete each time.

The worst offenses:

Having to beat one game to unlock the other game in a game marketed as a two pack. See Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles and Symphony of the Night.

Introducing a plot point/character that should have some major reveal/explanation at some point in the game only to abandon it completely in favor of the ridiculous main plot points. See Bionic Commando (the new one).

[Loyal]

Originally Posted by Jagos

oh... one more thing:

Was I the only one pissed at this?

...what the hell was that?

[Mirai Gen]

Oh, I'm willing to accept plot points that get brought up and unresolved on the sidelines...but not at the cost of the main campaign making any sense or detracting from the game, Gears of War 2.