Oh right, an update and such. Well..
Today I'll be talking about stuff that grinds my gears. Though I'll be making sure to mention things that are universally annoying and/or reviled, as opposed to the things only I dislike (usually because I suck at them).
The first are compulsory puzzles in action games: Now, there's a fair degree of monotony in some action titles. You run over here, shoot a dude, run over there and shoot a dude. It's all good in the 'hood if that's what you're into, but sometimes having to use your noggin to get around a problem alleviates the repetitiveness and challenges the smartness centre of the brain instead of the part that just likes to watch things blow up. Some games, like Tomb Raider and Zelda, wouldn't be anything like what they are without their intriguing puzzles and mysteries to solve.
However, I do believe there is a line that can be crossed with these puzzles. And it can be crossed in two ways: Difficulty and Monotony.
Difficult puzzles are entirely unwarranted in an action game, especially when there are no hints that difficult puzzles exist anywhere in the game description (and no, calling them "action/adventure" doesn't count). I've been told that sliding puzzles (where you shift squares around a block to make pictures) and the ones where you hit switches to make some platforms go up and some other ones go down are the two biggest offenders for "What the hell? I just want to get through this friggin' area and save it. It's 1am, I gotta work tomorrow" angst. The monotony part is when you have to go to the opposite ends of the Earth for some key or other, or you have to find a full set of items in order to continue for no apparent reason (and one of those items can only be found by doing a sliding puzzle). Of course, if the puzzle is for an entirely optional benefit and not something that is in your way, it's fine. Better than fine, even.
In fact, since it's right next door I'll just go onto compulsory subgames which attempt a different game genre than the one the rest of the game is in. The most prevalent of which are racing mini-games in action/platformer games, jumping puzzles in FPS games and stealth sequences in games which don't have "STEALTH" anywhere on the box. Seriously, no thanks. The reason these extracurricular subgames tend to blow is usually because a designer decides to add a mini-game at the last second. A mini-game which just happens to need an entirely new batch of code and end up being rushed and buggy. While optional versions of these mini-games may also be terrible, they are entirely exonerated by the "optional" part.
Platformer games which take away a series of collectible items if you die, making you start over. Sort of personal this one. It can be seen in the original Mario 64 (you lose all your coins and need to start over) and Acclaim's Vexx (which had enough going against it already).
Sailing. Relaxing for some, monotonous for others. Suikoden IV and Wind Waker both seemed to slow to a crawl because of excess amounts of sailing to places.
Cameras in Survival Horror games. But then, this is sort of like the gamer nerd equivalent of "Man, what's the deal with airline food?". This doesn't include actual cameras in Survival Horror games, by which I mean the Camera Obscura in the Fatal Frame/Project Zero series. The game would be kind of short without your main weapon.
If I come up with any more of these or read about other folk having issues with a game for whatever reason, I'll bring them up. I figure by listing all these unappealing game flaws, I'll be less likely to accidentally use them myself at some point in the future.
