DLC related

- Overpriced DLC (CoD Map Packs, LBP cotumes, a million things)

- DLC that is an 'unlock' for what is on the disc (Street Fighter IV costumes)

- DLC that offers what used to be unlocked with a cheat code (Soul Calibur IV tower unlocks)

- DLC that offers what should have been something to earn and unlock and used as replay value (Dead Space gun skins/Rigs).

- Exclusive DLC (Tomb Raider, Fallout 3)

- DLC that was part of the main game but left out to be sold as DLC instead (Tomb Raider, again)

- DLC that doesn't use the PSN and instead some retarded unique system (Metal Gear Solid 4 MGO expansions -what the f**k?)

- Exclusive pre-order DLC that isn't offered outside the US or ever sold on the PS store (a bunch of these, the Resistance 2 pre-order skins come to mind)

- DLC that never drops in price (all of it)

- DLC that isn't released in all regions at the same time, so by the time you get it it's nothing new...



Away from DLC

- Co-op being tacked to everything (just you wait and watch Uncharted 2)

- Consoles fanboy wars, worse this gen than ever before, probably because no clear winner.

- Friend codes.

- Paying for online when I already pay.

- Wii games being dumbed down to the point I question why I even want to play them, even Nintendo games.

Shovelware and wii/ps3 are doomed articles.

QTEs are probably the worst because they are a trend that won't go away. Visual styles like cell shading and genres like FPS will see their time in the lime light then fade away. QTEs, however, allow developers to take control out of the player's hands without them noticing (okay, obviously a lot of us notice). They want to tell some grand, probably idiotic, story and not give us enough influence to stray from the path. We have movies and books for that. Of course, I hated FMVs when they were introduced for the exact same reason. I really want to tell a few hundred devs "I don't want to read/watch your hackneyed story that couldn't get published/filmed." I play games to play them, not to watch them play themselves.

Secondly, I want the current games to not be so long. LoZ:TP is so loaded with time wasting filler crap I can't play it. Give me the original any day, even if I can beat it in an hour or so. It's a hell of a lot more fun than being forced to collect shit I don't care about and can't do anything else with... every fucking time I want in a palace. It's not as bad when it doesn't influence the flow of gameplay, of course, but more and more often I see games where I have to collect mountains of shit to get anywhere. I just want to play the game, and I'd have a lot more fun if the devs took the 20 hours of crap out of their 25 hour game and let me enjoy the leftovers.

That aside, most other complaints mentioned in this topic don't affect me the same way:

I think some DLC is ridiculous, but a lot of the time there simply wasn't time enough to build it and make deadlines. If they paid above their expectations to expand the game, it's not unfair to pay them for it.

Games getting shorter is ridiculous. I've seen nothing but the opposite. When I started playing if an action-based game lasted you more than an hour - just one hour - either it was hard as hell or you sucked. Plus, as I've gotten older I've learned that the time could be better spent elsewhere.

Popular genres and milking them. They come and go, as do their clones. Notice how some people complain that there aren't enough of genre X? Tastes change. companies that want to make money and companies made by avid gamers are both likely to focus on whatever they think is cool right now. Any company that doesn't just loses money or is Nintendo and constantly accused of abandoning their loyal followers.

Lack of split-screen. Sorry guys, I'd much rather play with actual people too. In fact, outside of Diablo 2 I've never played a game online extensively (and I only did that for inventory swapping). But this is legitimately what people are asking for. I mean, how many times have people complained about Nintendo's online?

And the annoyance of voice chat I saw mentioned goes with that last one, too.


Really, though, the only trends that bother me are the ones gamers didn't ask for. People want to play the hot new genre, they want online, they want tacked on multiplayer and other artificial game extenders. If gamers didn't want these things, they wouldn't happen. Only QTEs and some aspects of DLC represent genuine departures from the demands of gamers, as far as I can tell, and neither of them are going to go away regardless.