Developers like there effects to make a game look more realistic, or rather make it look like it was shot with a camera (which really doesn't make sense in first person perpective) They usually go overboard though, I guess trying to hide low polycount and low res textures, and end up simulating the crappiest digital camera you can think of.


Chromatic abberation 
Starting of with an effect that's gaining popularity, chromatic abberation. In the real world it occurs when a cheap lens is used with a short focal point. Light of different wavelengths focus at different distances making it hard to get a fully sharp image, and you end up with color bleeding. In videogames it usually simulates the effect of a badly calibrated CRT monitor where red green and blue get seperated. It's not realistic, and don't bother making it realistic because it simply is ugly.

Example: Alien colonial marines



Motion blur 
Is it ever realistic? I turn if off when ever possible, it just makes things harder to see. It's a camera slow shutter effect, not something your eyes suffer from. Objects that you look at and track do not have motion blur, unless they are spinning. Keep it limited to wheels, helicopter blades, etc. I've never seen anyone's arm blur when throwing a ball, or the world turn into a blurry mess when I turn my head, or drive at 200 kph.

Example: Riptide



Bokeh depth of field  
A lens effect used to highlight parts of a scene. Great in photography, or even cutscenes, not so great during gameplay. The game doesn't know what you're looking at so you end up with either always having a blurry background, or very jarring changes. For example in Uncharted 2 while aiming through a fence, when the crosshair hits the fence it's almost like someone hit you over the head.
This screenshot also shows vignette, usually just darkening of the corners in games, pointless.

Example: 3D dot game heroes



Bloom  
I never liked bloom, sure you get some bloom in real life while driving into the setting sun for example, but games take it to the extreme. Most of the time it just results in an ugly bleeding effect, aka video bloom.

Example: Syndicate



HDR High dynamic range lighting 
Closely related with / responsible for bloom. Yes when you walk outside everything looks a bit bright at first, and a bit dark when you go into a dark room, but as with eveything else games dial it up to 11. White out skies, completely white exits of tunnels or buildings, totally unrealistic. HDR in photography works the opposite as in games,  used to capture the full range instead of blocking out parts. In human vision, you're either squinting for a few seconds, or color is a bit off for a short time when coming inside after being out in the snow in the sun for example. Actual human night vision takes much longer to adjust to.

Example: Lost coast

God rays / Sun rays
It makes beautiful pictures in photography, however it's not that common and only happens under certain atmospheric conditions. Games have you believe god rays are generated by trees. They're not that bad on screenshots if bloom is kept to a minimum, yet they often end up looking extremely fake in motion or when walking by.

Example: The Witcher 2



Lens flare  
One of if not the oldest video game effect. It seems we're stuck with it forever. Where do blue hexagonal lens flares even come from? And thanks JJ Abrams for making the horizontal lens flare popular.

Example: Forza 5


Killzone SF



Dirty lens  
An extension of the lens flare, now with extra dirty lenses. Killzone 2 added the vaseline smear effect as well, but Battlefield 3 is the king of dusty lenses.

Example: Battlefield 3


Unity 3D, I hope this is not serious.

Film grain  
Mostly used in horror games but also made an appearance in Mass effect. Dither the whole screen to simulate more detail? Film grain in movies can add to the emotional impact (watch City of god), however the poor attempts at simulating it in games don't do it for me. At least in Outlast it sort of makes sense, looking through the video camera night vision view finder.

Example: Outlast


Mass Effect 2

Silent hill origins



CRT effects  
Ah that retro gaming feel. Actually I quite liked it in Pixeljunk sidescroller. In Fract OSC it didn't add that much, a moving moire pattern that obscures detail in the distance and you mostly notice when it's not looking good. I guess it's better than fake fog to limit draw distance, but how actually would you get this effect in real life. Filming an irregular shaped crt monitor?

Example: Pixeljunk Sidescroller


Fract OSC



Any effects that I missed? Anyone really like these effects?
I wish developers would concentrate more on human vision instead of crappy cameras. Maybe VR will spare us most of these.

I don't think any of them are inherently good or bad, it all depends on how they are used.

For instance, the bloom in Syndicate is horrible, but in Metroid Prime 3 it's used wisely and enhances the look of the game.

I hate all of them but fucking bloom takes the cake.

From the poll list, I dislike film grain the most.

Any developer using these for VR should be banned from developing for VR ever again.

Most are okay with done well but i very much dislike the lens flare. I mean i just paid you some money and now you are assaulting my eyes.

Two big culprits: Max Payne 3 & Killzone: Shadow Fall.

Edit: That bloom picture from Syndicate looks horrible too. I quite liked the HDR thing they did in Lost Coast. 

Overuse of bloom in games annoys the hell out of me. Always turn that off or right down (given the choice). Also lens flares. That shit was horrible on Mass Effect 1. Using the standard assault rifle, every shot you do lights up the whole screen with ridiculous blinding flares.

It was quite cool to see it in action in Lost coast. Honestly I couldn't find any really bad screenshots of HDR that quickly, screenshots of a tunnel with a white square as exit aren't that interesting of course. Coming out of the tunnel on High speed ring in GT5 looks kinda bad though.

HDR + bloom is a deadly combination. And using it to constantly white out the sky is kinda ugly too. It annoys me to no end when I try to take a picture in real life, you can never capture the full scene as you see it, with a digital camera. Why simulate that in games.