The most Annoying Things in video games - Part I

I enjoy video games. And if you stumbled upon this blog, you probably do as well. However, as with basically everything in life, there are aspects of gaming that are simply bad or, in this case, "annoying". Why just "annoying"? Because it all comes down to perspective. Something I find deeply frustrating or unfair might very well please another gamer who likes that sort of things. It goes both ways as well. For example, I know many gamers don't like fetch quests found in many RPGs, but I usually don't mind them, especially since most of them are side quests anyways. You get the point. Today we'll talk about difficulty spikes.

Unless you've lived under a rock for the past five years, you've surely heard many gamers complain about the lack of difficulty in today's games. Sure, many games have either 56 checkpoints per chapter, or auto-aim, or in-game guides, or no-death gameplay, or slow-motion shootouts, or lazy A.I., etc. Anything to help the gamer get through the game without any hassle, just entertainment. And, to be honest, it suits many people quite well. I've got some friends who only want to play on easy because they don't wanna be bothered with restarting the same objective all over again, they just wanna be entertained and kill people and think as little as possible. Games are fun, period.

For other, this kind of laziness is basically the fall of mankind. They like it old-school, when games were tough and you had 3 lifes to get through the whole thing, period. They will enjoy Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls, and will play each and every game on the toughest difficulty setting. They like to be challenged.

Me, I don't mind a challenge from time to time, but I like to play games to have fun and, more importantly, the way they were supposed to be played. In most cases, I will select "Normal" on the difficulty settings the first time I play a game. Sometimes, often for fun because I liked the game the first time around, or for a trophy hunt, I'll select a higher difficulty setting. In other words, I usually don't mind a bit of a challenge.

But there's something that REALLY gets on my nerves when I play a game : difficulty spikes. Obviously no game has even difficulty throughout, that would be boring. But some games go about their business for an hour or two, a few quests including a few fights, maybe a death or two while figuring out an enemy's weakness, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then BAM! you get to fight an enemy, sometimes a boss, who is absurdly stronger than anything you've ever seen. You might die 23 times before you are able to hit him. He has one-hit-kill attacks. You can barely get within 12 feet of his position. You might throw your controller so hard you break your neigbor's car window. And you stop playing the game, eject the disc and return to the shop to yell at the bewildered clerk. I might have exaggerated a wee bit, but you understand what I'm talking about.

Sometimes the enemy (or set piece, puzzle, adversary, race, etc.) makes sense, because you don't have the tools/weapons/skills yet and you've tried to defeat it too soon. Or you just didn't figure out what damages him (that happens a lot). But sometimes it's just too hard, way harder than it ever should be at this stage of the game. Even if it's an game ending boss. Like Crysis' final boss, the gigantic alien mech thingy on the battleship. I played the whole game on the hardest difficulty setting without suffering any major setbacks. A few tough set pieces, sure, but nothing appallingly hard. Then I get to the boss, and I do what I'm supposed to do at the beginning of the fight to make it weaker (those who played the game know). Then I shower him with thousands or bullets/rockets/whatever I have on me. No point, it doesn't affect it one tiny bit. But he can kill me with one attack, even if I'm BEHIND cover. I tried probably 15 times with a few different tactics, even went on www.gamefaqs.com (shame on me, I know, but it's a GREAT website for gaming help). Nothing doing. I still haven't finished the game to this day. And it's a great game.

I know some of you may find that boss easy, or not that hard, but it was the first example that came to mind. I could talk about a boss in Dragon Age II for which I lowered the difficulty TWICE, but still wasn't able to get through half of him and his army. Or that impossible set piece in Uncharted : Drake's Fortune (granted, it was on Crushing difficulty, so I can't complain) that I must have tried 30 times at least. I'm probably forgetting some... You probably all have an anecdote about a game you rage-quitted because of a difficulty spike, and please feel free to share in the comments.

Anyway, that's one of the most annoying things in video games, difficulty spikes.

What Am I Playing NOW - Part II

So these past few weeks I've gone over more than a few games, traded-in about 8, bought 4 and started/finished some games on PSN I had bought a few weeks/months ago without playing them.

What's new?

The 4 games I bought : SSX, Ace Combat : Assault Horizon, Sonic Generations and DiRT 3.

SSX : Very, very good but somewhat infuriating at times for weird difficulty spikes. It takes quite some time getting used to the controls, especially in some "Survive" events where the track is usually narrower. You move your joystick a millimeter and your character goes flying a 100mph in a unexpected death hole on your left. It gets better when you get the feel for the different events and characters' abilities. But overall, it's a extremely fun game, and it's pretty rewarding as well when you win some races or "Trick it" events (I'm only a third into the career mode and have only done 20/160 events in Explore). When you get the grip of it : how to land tricks and stick together a combo, which characters to use when, how to use the different equipment, it becomes an exhilarating experience.

Ace Combat : Assault Horizon : Haven't started it yet, got it today...

Sonic Generations : I only did a few levels, but so far it's pretty fun, even if in side-scrolling mode it almost gave me a headache for unknown reasons (never happened to me before, pretty weird). I can't really pronounce myself on the game so far but it looks (a lot?) better than Sonic 4, which I feel was off with its controls and level design.

DiRT 3 : I first got DiRT 2, did about 25 career events then lost all my data when my PS3 died. So I went and got DiRT 3 Complete Edition instead of starting it all over again. (It doesn't make much sense, I know). Opus #3 feels more modern and polished, less "extreme" than the previous one, which captured better what rallying is about in its presentation. It's not a bad thing, just a style change. But the important part, the racing, feels as awesome as ever. It's a bit hard on slippery and uneven terrain (I never played a rally game before this one), but it is SO amazing to play.

PSN : Basically, I "finished" Crysis in a few days, finished Sly Cooper 1 HD in 3-4 days, started Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare.

Crysis : I was REALLY looking forward to this game, having heard reviewers and hordes of PC gamers sing its praises for years. I like the fact it gives you a lot more freedom than Crysis 2, you could always decide how to attack a base or complete an objective. The graphics are still amazing 4-5 years later (seriously, how the f*** did they do that?) and the gameplay is solid. Now I haven't finished the game yet, because I cannot figure out how the hell you beat that final alien/mech thing on the boat. I get killed in one-shot even if I'm hiding behind cover, my attacks don't do nothing to him/it. So I'm stuck there, if you can believe it. And it was easy all the way through (even on Hard/Delta). I don't understand... But apart from that, it's a great, great game.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus : I got this game for free (PS+ is worth it if you like to try many, many games, I'm telling you) and I really enjoyed it. I didn't have the chance to own a PS2 so that's one of the many gaming classics I've never tried. It's very easy, sure, but it's very enjoyable nonetheless. The story served the game well and was interesting enough, the locations were diverse and fun to play through, the characters endearing (well I did get mad at Murray in those levels you have to protect him, but that's only twice and it lasts about 2 minutes or so) and it simply looks great, HD or not.

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare : Got this one at a surprising discount, the whole game was a mere 25$ (Red Dead AND Undead Nightmare) on PSN (PS+, again). The downside? Both games take about 18 gigs of HDD space together... good thing I've got a 500gb disk then... On to the game then. I liked Red Dead Redemption quite a lot, and was eager to see whether this expansion pack was really as great as reviewers made it out to be. Well so far it's pretty damn good! They did a good job keeping the same locations with those cool and crazy NPCs while going in another direction completely. And hey, who doesn't like to shoot some zombies in the head? No one! It's great fun to explore that world once again. I've only just started though, with only 3 or 4 main quests done and 2 side quests completed.

Side note to developers everywhere : THAT's how you make DLC/expansions worth their price.

What else?

Well I've lost my game save in Skyrim (that REALLY sucks...) so I'll start over again soon enough.... And there's something deeply wrong with NBA 2k12 in-game rating system... Oh, and I'm nearing on lvl 45 in Battlefield 3 multiplayer, I'm currently sitting at lvl 44, with a K/D ratio of about 2.1... You can add The Witcher 2 (360) on my 2012's most-wanted list. I really want to try this game...