Sometimes games are genuinely shoddily designed (see last year's Amy above, an extremely promising game that succumbed to terrible design flaws), whereas others simply ask the player to think about the world they're traversing in a different, even abstract way that they are just not used to. However, impatient players will be quick to dismiss this as the game not being designed well because it doesn't cater to their basic notions of what a game should be. A lot of people complained about the Sniper Rifle in the first Crysis game not being mandatory but basically making the game a lot more difficult if you didn't have it. They claim the game should have made it clearer how important it was, but frankly, this just sounds like players complaining about not being skilled enough to take the game's challenges on. It's not poor game design - it's a choice given to the player, and if you didn't think having the Sniper Rifle was a good idea in a game primarily known for its stealth, then I don't know what to tell you. What crappy gaming excuses do you find the most ridiculous? Or are some of these actually legitimate? Let me know what you think in the comments below.