19 Things Video Game Fans Are SICK Of
Not this again...
2026 has been a weird year for video games.
On the one hand, you could argue this has been one of the greatest ever years to be a gamer. Capcom have produced hit after hit (after hit after hit after hit), Star wars has got its gaming groove back, the Switch 2 has started producing the goods and GTA VI will be dropping jaws and opening wallets come November.
However, this apparent gold rush has also seen gamers crack their teeth on the pyrite that is worsening industry practises. Infantilizing mechanics, hoary storytelling tropes and rushed products dulled the shine of an otherwise glittering year for the industry, with the sparkle being further dimmed when you take a look at what's been happening behind the scenes.
Eye-watering numbers of layoffs, ludicrous price hikes and obscene cash bonuses for the people in charge of have made gaming a particularly difficult hobby to defend this year, to the point where you could forgive video game fans - and developers in particular - for remembering 2026 in much the same way the luxury cruise industry remembers 1912.
Speaking of titanic mistakes...
19. Rushed Endings
It's always annoying when an otherwise great game fails to stick the landing, and 2026 has seen two prominent titles fall face-first on the dismount.
Star Wars Zero Company may well be the best game set in the galaxy far, far away since 2003's Knights of the Old Republic, but it rushes to its conclusion like a blaster bolt fizzing towards Luke's lightsaber. After the Big Twist, the game's various side stories are hastily concluded one after the other, and a late game mechanic involving the player character is given so little time to develop you wonder why the developers bothered including it.
Similarly, Resident Evil: Requiem may have started by letting players explore the series' single best location since the original game's Spencer Mansion, but it finished with yet another Evil Umbrella Laboratory and an insultingly lazy final boss fight (the last one stings a bit more, as Capcom apparently had something much better planned before Requiem's messy development schedule caught up with them).
When confronted with disappointments like this, it's hard not to hear the voice of prominent game critic & developer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. He suggested that, when creating a game, developers should work on the beginning and the ending first as they're the parts everyone remembers. That way, when everything inevitably goes to hell during development its only the filler middle chapters that get affected.
Sound advice from Mr. Croshaw. But not sound enough to pardon him for the next sin under discussion...