You know that feeling you get when you’re about to do something that’s going to end badly for you? I wonder if developers ever get that feeling during their meetings.
Some truly awful ideas have been implemented into video games over the past few years, after all, that make me wonder whether developer meetings are merely a license to get drunk. How any rational human being can sit down and come up with some of the ideas that I’ll be discussing in this article is a mystery to me. Some of these aren’t even ideas that are loved by some gamers – some things are publicly denounced as being terrible. Yet what do companies such as PC Gamer and IGN do?
They praise the developers for their ideas, they publish in international magazines that things like quick-time events herald a new age for gaming. Here’s 10 terrible ideas you won’t believe were included in video games.
10. Cut Scenes You Can’t Skip
I know you’ve put a lot of effort into a cut-scene, but sometimes I’m reloading a save or replaying the game and I don’t want to sit through a scene I’ve not only seen before but doesn’t have much to do with the main story. ME2 is one of the culprits, as well as AC2, Star Ocean, Crisis Core, Darksiders 2,Crysi–god there’s a lot isn’t there? A lot of these games seem to enjoy putting these scenes just before a difficult boss battle meaning if you die…that’s right, time for a re-run.
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11 Comments
You downplay Molyneux to a ludicrous degree. Sure the Fable games (and others) generally overpromised and the third in particular was disappointing. But I’d take someone aiming too high and falling short over someone churning out another generic FPS every day of the week.
His good games are far from limited to just Dungeon Keeper.
Populus was a good game, particularly compared to what was out at the time. Magic Carpet wasn’t bad either, nor was Black & White. And Syndicate was a genuinely great game.
None of the examples I gave were FPS developers or writers, they’re all in the same genre as Molyneux. B&W received good reviews at first, but later the reviews got more negative and even IGN (notoriously know for giving every game a good review) claimed it was bad and over-hyped.
Magic Carpet didn’t sell well, not only because it wasn’t designed for the correct platform but because gamers as a whole didn’t enjoy it.
As for Syndicate? It only got good reviews when it was re-released by EA last year after it was completely over-hauled.
Peter’s been in the business for over 20 years and he’s been involved in over 30 games and only two of them were a success; Populus because it was the first of its kind and Dungeon Keeper.
I loved the first two Fable games, so he’s alright in my book. Friendly worlds with pitch black undertones and genuinely satisfying combat and levelling – brilliant.
To be fair to point 8, it’s actually quite rarely I’ve felt like I’ve needed to go out of my way to grind in the Final Fantasy games. Because I spend time ensuring that I’ve checked everywhere in an area for all the treasure and secrets it might hold I get into battles on the way and level up sufficiently for their to be a great sense of challenge in the next boss I encounter, but it’s a rare occasion that I actually feel like I cannot overcome that challenge unless I grind. Whilst grinding can make a game stupidly easy if implemented to a crazy degree, it’s much better to play them through without that and actually experience them with a challenge as you are supposed to. Also is the picture and description of an angsty teen with a big sword supposed to suggest that Cloud is a bad character? Because that would be insane, he’s easily one of the best written characters the series has given us, with a widely detailed backstory and mysterious past. Yes he’s angsty, but then there’s no way his character wouldn’t be. If he was happy and smiley then his whole backstory would have been stupid, his growth is very well delivered throughout the game.
Also, Red Dead Redemption, it never claimed to be giving you important choices to make? At least not in the games central story, yeah you could occasionally let people live or die in the side missions but they weren’t exactly characters that were in the game long or were expected to return to help you. I’ve played it through multiple times, once as recent as last year, and cannot recall any missions that actually give you a choice to make that is supposed to affect the game, the story and ending were highly praised by the gaming industry, it was a brave move for them to kill off such a likeable character in a way that made it seem, just a little, possible to survive. Some people complain that the story was finished in a side mission after John dies but that’s not exactly true, it was his story, not his families, so when he was redeemed in death, that was that.
I must admit that I loved Theme Park as well, and that came from Peter Molyneux! Theme Park is a part of countless childhoods and was even released on Iphones in 2011 so he definitely must have done something right with it. I’m pretty sure that was a success too? It spawned Theme Hospital too, so people clearly liked the concept.
To deal with the Final Fantasy side first, I felt that the earlier games were entirely grind orientated. This can be excused though as the capabilities when they were made meant that we can have as much game-play and story as we do today. Although I enjoy grinding, I feel there’s no place for it in a single-player game today and that it’s just a cheap trick by developers to make their game longer.
Cloud’s picture is more to show the cliché-ness of his story, I did at first find him to be whiny and angsty but his act clears up later on. Actually to be honest the film tie-in for 7 is what really ruined his character, for me at least.
Red Dead Redemption may not have given you important choices to make as other games did, but it did boast that it had multiple endings which considering what we were given was nothing short of a lie. I enjoyed the game tremendously, but the way Rockstar tried to pull it off as a game with many endings tarnished the game for me.
I understand that some people may enjoy Molyneux’s games and I must admit I enjoyed Dungeon Keeper to a degree, but if you compare what he’s done over 20 years to many many other game writers and developers than he definitely doesn’t deserve the hype he gets. It’s not just the hype though, it’s his ego as well. he promises us fantastic games each times and has yet to deliver anything in the past 10 years that can be regarded as more than average. In an interview about his game Curiosity that failed, he broke into tears whilst describing the struggles of making a game. I can understand he’s passionate, but he needs to understand that the majority of his ideas aren’t good and that there’s a reason his projects don’t work out as he intended them to.
Rockstar never said there were multiple endings in Red Dead Redemption. Now if you believe every rumor you see on the internet, you’ve only got yourself to blame.
Agree 100% about downloadable content. It just makes sense to wait for the Game of the Year editions (which inevitably come out). Having bought Arkham City the day it was released to get some of the DLC and then have it completely short out the game on me… yeah, wait for the re-release. It’s worth the wait.
Most of these aren’t inherently bad concepts.
@Idris
“None of the examples I gave were FPS developers or writers, they’re all in the same genre as Molyneux.”
I didn’t say there were FPS’s. I said I would rather have a Molyneux, who aims high but sometimes falls short that some generic developer content to pump out endless FPS’s.
“B&W received good reviews at first, but later the reviews got more negative and even IGN (notoriously know for giving every game a good review) claimed it was bad and over-hyped.”
B&W’s reviews scores are extremely high and it has a long list of awards. Both its average professional critic and gamer review scores are high.
“Magic Carpet didn’t sell well, not only because it wasn’t designed for the correct platform but because gamers as a whole didn’t enjoy it.”
I do so love personal opinions presented as fact.
“As for Syndicate? It only got good reviews when it was re-released by EA last year after it was completely over-hauled.”
Absolute utter nonsense. In this statement you reveal your youth. Clearly you are someone who wasn’t playing games when Syndicate was first released. There was a reason it made best PC and Amiga games of all time lists. There is a reason it is fondly remembered 20 years after its release.
“Peter’s been in the business for over 20 years and he’s been involved in over 30 games and only two of them were a success; Populus because it was the first of its kind and Dungeon Keeper.”
Wrong. Theme Park was a success. Syndicate was a success. The Fable games have been a very good success for Microsoft.
Here’s a bit of business information you might find useful.
People don’t tend to remain prominent in a business for 2 decades based on a record of failure. Amazing I know.
Below is a link to an IGN pod-cast where the editors discuss voer-rated games, one of which is B&W. GameSpot also claimed the game was over-rated and cited that “a lack of true interaction with the game’s townspeople and poor use of the much-lauded creatures among reasons the game ultimately disappointed” in an article in September 2003.
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2007/02/27/ign-is-afk-podcast-overrated-games
Magic Carpet’s sales were low for two reasons; firstly it required an Intel486 when the norm of the day was an Intel386 and secondly many people preferred Doom 2 over it. Sure you’ll get die hard fans claiming it was better, but the sales reflect how people felt.
Syndicate was hit and miss, some liked it and some didn’t. Just a quick Google search of “Top Amiga games” shows it popping up twice on 20 review lists. I did end up playing Syndicate, but not until a few years after Syndicate Wars came out and what I remember most was that it was riddled with flaws that made gameplay very frustrating (I remember having enormous problems with the navigation) and very boring and un-interesting missions.
We’re going to disagree on how good peter Molyneux is and that’s perfectly fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Whilst a few of his games were a commercial success they do not reflect someone who has been working in the business for 20 years, nor do they reflect the promises of amazing games.
Even if I were to bite my tongue and agree with you that his games were good in the 90s, if we look at the projects he has been working on in the past 5 years anyone can agree that he hasn’t exactly been doing his best.
Fable III was a dissapointment, Project Milo was passed off as a tech demo despite reports saying it was a game, Curiosity received mixed reviews and Fable: The Journey was at best average.
I’m currious where this notion came from that rockstar boasted multiple endings in RedDeadRedemption? I’ve certainly never heard of it except through rediculous rumours online.