Things In Video Games That Need To Go Away

[Draevyn]

DLC should not exist. Put it all into the game or put it in a sequel. Do not DLC me.

[Liam]

I don't mind DLC. More often than not, the game has enough content to warrant your cash. Past that, if you don't like the game, you won't pay for DLC. If you do like the game, you'll be happy to pay for more.

I never buy DLC it is worth noting, primarily because I don't ever really want to extent my playtime on any game I've played to a finish, and I won't buy it for games I've not completed either.

[OctoberRaven]

2 hours ago, The Fork Fork said:

DLC should not exist. Put it all into the game or put it in a sequel. Do not DLC me.

Eh. DLC when done right is just a modernized take on the expansion pack formula, which has existed for a long ass time.

At least DLC is rarely sold retail these days, so the days of getting an expansion disc for a game you don't have for your birthday are long gone.

[probablyoliver]

I just wish DLCs had an option where you could do a quick tutorial on the game before playing. I've never got round to the Spider-Man, Horizon or Bloodborne DLCs because by the time I gave them the chance I'd forgotten how to play the actual game.

[Draevyn]

38 minutes ago, OctoberRaven said:

Eh. DLC when done right is just a modernized take on the expansion pack formula, which has existed for a long ass time.

At least DLC is rarely sold retail these days, so the days of getting an expansion disc for a game you don't have for your birthday are long gone.

I don't like expansion packs either. If I wanted expansion packs then I'd play an MMORPG. When I play a console game, I want their to be an end game. If you have more story to tell then make a sequel. If the only reason you're doing DLC is because you don't have enough for an actual second game...then you should have included it in the first game.

[Schlitzbrille]

4 hours ago, OctoberRaven said:

Don't believe me? Look up the DLC for Train Simulator games.

Seriously, we're talking decent used-car money here.

[Draevyn]

25 minutes ago, Ollie said:

I just wish DLCs had an option where you could do a quick tutorial on the game before playing. I've never got round to the Spider-Man, Horizon or Bloodborne DLCs because by the time I gave them the chance I'd forgotten how to play the actual game.

This happens to me with a lot of games. I played Spiderman months ago but I wanted to finish RDR2 first....now I'm going back to Spiderman this week and it's going to take me an hour just to learn to play again

[Gabriel]

The idea of a yearly development cycle for sports games needs to go away. Instead, they should keep a small team working on patches for the current game, and a larger team working on the next iteration... so, for example...

NHL 20 gets released. 20% of the development team continues working on fixes, additions, upgrades, etc for NHL 20 to make it worth the purchase well after September. 80% of the development team begins work on the next iteration in the series, but instead of just outright saying that NHL 21 is on the way next September, they should work on fixing the things in the previous game that needed fixing, and then set a few additions they want for the next game as well as tweaks to the currently existing framework. If they can get it done in time for a September release for NHL 21, awesome... but if not, keep that 20% from earlier working on updating NHL 20 and push the next iteration to NHL 22 in order to make sure that the game is actually ready to go and works properly.

They could even do a DLC release at the beginning of a new season when there isn't a new game coming, and use that to give us the ability to continue downloading updated rosters, new jerseys, masks and equipment, etc.

It's not like they'd even really be losing money. The vast majority of people that I know who play sports games pick them up when they go half price or less. Myself, as a devoted NHL guy... I waited to get NHL 18 until it was dirt cheap, and then didn't upgrade to NHL 19 until Microsoft gave it away for free. I feel like people would be far more happy to pay the full price for the game every year on launch if it was actually worthwhile... but the only reason to pick up NHL specifically on release is if you're REALLY into HUT or EASHL.

[Adam]

I think the way that GTA monetised their online game, and of course the existence of Ultimate Team anyway, means sports titles could definitely bring games out less than every year and not really lose any money. The quality of the games themselves does suffer from them having to cram in a development cycle every year.

[Nerf]

Unplayable broken pieces of shit being released because the devs can just patch it later.

[GhostMachine]

DLC is fine when it is bonus content that adds to the enjoyment of the game. But roughly half of the DLC for Crusader Kings II is stuff that should have been in the game to begin with. Extra character classes being paid DLC, ie Borderlands 2, is also bullshit. 

Also, so much DLC that it would cost a fortune to acquire it all. Crusader Kings II, again, is a perfect example of that .

And personally I avoid multiplayer games that don't have a single-player option or are purely pvp. If there's no co-op mode, forget it.

[MDK]

Another little niggle that annoys me:

Games that don't let you change the brightness. Some games let you adjust the brightness in the game, others give you that BBC test card and tell you to change your TV settings, but I don't want to change my TV settings, I like my TV settings. Its not me, its you.

[OctoberRaven]

2 hours ago, MDK said:

Another little niggle that annoys me:

Games that don't let you change the brightness. Some games let you adjust the brightness in the game, others give you that BBC test card and tell you to change your TV settings, but I don't want to change my TV settings, I like my TV settings. Its not me, its you.

Worse is when they fuck with your gamma and don't change it back. Mostly older games there though.

[Lint]

On 12/06/2019 at 17:20, JMarushin said:

1. Games that get released 1 episode at a time - just finish the game

In some cases, I disagree.  When the episodic Hitman game came out, I downloaded the first episode.  Hitman had become a very bad series as it went on but the episode 1 had gotten great reviews.  So I figured "Hell, its only like $10 for the first episode.  If it sucks, its not like I'm out much money" but turns out it was great, I loved it and kept buying the other episodes when they came out.

TellTale is a bad example to use.  They were razor thin margins on licensed works, on a glitchy, buggy game engine.  While I loved TWD series, what I didn't love was the constant crashes, freezing or the few times I made a choice, but the game went "Nah fam, you actually picked this" 

[Rocky]

11 hours ago, The Fork Fork said:

This happens to me with a lot of games. I played Spiderman months ago but I wanted to finish RDR2 first....now I'm going back to Spiderman this week and it's going to take me an hour just to learn to play again

I literally did the same thing over the weekend.

[Draevyn]

4 hours ago, Rocky Champ Champ said:

I literally did the same thing over the weekend.

Spoiler alert, I was not very good. I failed at every Random Crime on this play because I just couldn't remember the combat. I'm going to try to play a great deal on the weekend and then keep playing so I should be better by then but holy hell.

[The Buscher]

I'm pretty much over annual sports titles because they are such cash cows there is no real incentive for the producers to do much more than make it a glorified roster update.  There will always be a few new features added, but rarely anything that on its own makes it worth a $60 first day purchase.  If I cave and buy a WWE game nowadays, it's nearly always after a price drop because I know realistically I'll get bored quickly.  Even MLB the Show, which is consistently amazing, I'm waiting until the midsummer price drop.

I got Madden 19 but it was the first Madden I'd bought in three years, I figured by then they'd have added enough new features to justify the upgrade (and they did, specifically custom draft classes are what got me to buy in).  But in all likelihood it'll be a few more years before I get another one barring a huge shake-up.

[Nerf]

Oh, I have another one that may be a little unpopular, but fast travel in open world games. I understand the convenience and how it may alleviate the more boring part of such games, but I realised recently that in the last few years I've become far too reliant on it and have actively had to make a conscious effort to avoid using it. Part of this realisation was that some of my favourite gaming memories come from getting lost in a world or the chance encounters you have along the way. I'm having much more fun just exploring and getting sidetracked with a vague destination in mind. Feels far less robotic than just going from Point A to Point B, and I'm finding a lot more value in games as a consequence.

[Benji]

1 hour ago, Nerf said:

Oh, I have another one that may be a little unpopular, but fast travel in open world games. I understand the convenience and how it may alleviate the more boring part of such games, but I realised recently that in the last few years I've become far too reliant on it and have actively had to make a conscious effort to avoid using it. Part of this realisation was that some of my favourite gaming memories come from getting lost in a world or the chance encounters you have along the way. I'm having much more fun just exploring and getting sidetracked with a vague destination in mind. Feels far less robotic than just going from Point A to Point B, and I'm finding a lot more value in games as a consequence.

I feel like I would prefer this as part of a difficulty setting/mode. Sort of like a "survival" mode, but still have the option to fast travel on lower difficulties.

[MDK]

53 minutes ago, Benji said:

I feel like I would prefer this as part of a difficulty setting/mode. Sort of like a "survival" mode, but still have the option to fast travel on lower difficulties.

Sounds good to me. But open up fast travel once you've completed the game. Like in RDR2, I've finished the main game and sometimes I just like to ride around, do a bit of hunting and fishing and generally enjoy the scenery.