5 Video Game Design Decisions That Need To Vanish Next Gen

GP writer Jared discusses five game design elements that may be a bit outdated in the current generation and need to change.

[TrendyGamers]

I completely agree with the first point. Like Conan pointed out in the Resident Evil 6 review, how can a chair completely block you from passing by?

[pixelsword]

Chairs were made of studier stuff in the olden days...

Wood and Steel, and Good ol' American craftsmanship.

But mostly, it's stupid game mechanics.

[Krimmson]

Mahogany will do you wonders.

[Kevin ButIer]

What about almost infinite checkpoints?, who cares if you die you will respawn a meter behind, this trend is making games sooo easy.., this is one of the reasons I loved demon souls...

[SilentNegotiator]

@Kevin

How about 'NO'?

I don't want to play through the exact same part of the game a dozen times before beating a level. That unfortunate design decision used as a means of artificially lengthening a game has luckily nearly been dead since the 5th generation.

[iStatusQ3]

'MERICUH YEAH!

[SolidStoner]

You have to agree that "near" 2 steps behind respawns in online games are very bad this generation.

I agree that its boring to do same stuff for offline gameplay. But online have to be more professionally made next gen., with smarter respawns, something like battlefield 3 it has huge base where enemies cant enter, but still you can spawn behind squad and randomly in objective, still behind or in front the enemy...

what I wanted to say is that different games and game modes request different approach, and 2 step behind game style cant be used for everything....

[Gaming101]

Yeah, thing is they need to have some sort of limits to the environment. Game engines are sometimes tailored to open world games like Read Dead and Fallout, other games are tailored towards linear gameplay like most of what gets released these days.

Having every single door lead to another room isn't practical if your engine can't handle it. No game is 100% open where every single door leads to something, and there are no limits to anything you actually see. There will always bee a limit to the map you're in. Quite frankly it doesn't bother me, I don't need to explore every single room I see and every door must open. The game becomes less streamlined when you spend 90% of your time opening every door that exists, plus believe it or not it can get extremely disorienting and easy to get lost with so many doors in certain areas, and a player getting lost kills the enjoyment. There is a method to the madness believe it or not.

As for Red Dead, you don't need to keep tapping x, they made it so you can just aim your gun and the horse would keep to whatever pace you were at before you started aiming.

[SilentNegotiator]

SMARTER level design is the key.

Fine, don't make all the doors open. But perhaps rooms you can't access are collapsed or something instead.

Fine, you design in linear fashion. But perhaps instead of a CHAIR blocking your path, just design the hallways so that a sinister chair doesn't need to block open hallways (eliminate open dead hallways instead).

Fine, make certain paths undo-able in New Vegas for certain setups and scenerios. But instead of invisible walls half-way up the mountain, you could ACTUALLY make the mountain unscalable without ruining immersion and getting my hopes up when I'm almost at the top.

The game industry deserves a better caliber of designer and that will soon be ME.

[neogeo]

A few games like Skyrim you can open just about every door but then they blend it all so the inside starts to look the same after a while. Memory and programming is the problem. All these games must fit on a DVD for 360 also it's more work for the programmers. I still hate it.

[beerkeg]

'The game industry deserves a better caliber of designer and that will soon be ME. '

This is SilentNegotiator, and he's the best game designer in his whole bedroom.

[SilentNegotiator]

....said beerkeg from his bedroom, self-projecting.

Not like I said "soon" or anything. I'm still in College, Mr. Judgmental.

I offered 3 obvious solutions that industry leaders overlooked. Game design could obviously be better and I think the next generation of designers could provide that.

[beerkeg]

Well, along with learning game design at college, maybe you could learn how to take a joke.

[Reibooi]

The blocked path thing always gets to me. The fallout picture made me laugh. I remember playing the game when I came across a door I could not get through and thought to myself why the hell they even used that model for a "Locked" door when logically the character would be able to reach through and open it seeing as the entire top half of the door was gone. I mean I get the lock door but it's lazy when the devs put a door that looks like that and then label it locked...

[Ducky]

That door was pretty much put there as a joke. Nothing important behind it from what I recall.

[neogeo]

Also they give you huge bombs and a mini nuke gun in Fallout but an old pre war 200+ year old door can stop anything you toss at it.

[MobyRoyale]

COCO!

Yeah I love his perspective. It shows how used to, as gamers, we are to having crap like chairs thwart us.

[strangelove]

I feel like the Red Dead section was a bit more of a personal peeve, but seriously I don't have twelve fingers Rockstar!

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Yeah, like the author pointed it out, it was very frustrating to have shootouts while riding a horse. You needed the right stick to aim but you needed the x button to ride the horse. We only have one thumb R*!

[Blankman85]

Yeah. . .I don't know bout the rest of you, but I have TWO thumbs. Not one. . .unles of course yours was cut off or something, in which case I apologise.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

^^^lolz

You know what I meant. I only have ONE thumb on my RIGHT HAND R*!

Happy Ndivhu? I don't get why everything must be spelled out in order for people's imaginations not to run wild. Unless of course you have two thumbs on your right hand or something, in which case I apologies...

[TheRealSpy]

i'm pretty sure that while you were aiming, the horse would sort of go into a cruise control of sorts. it's been a while since i played, but i think i'm remembering that correctly.

there are definitely things i'd include in place of that. for example, throwing in the 6-axis just for the sake of saying you make use of the 6-axis. like when planting a bomb in killzone. they did it in a few places in the first uncharted, thankfully ND learned their lesson and got rid of that stuff.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

@therealspy

***"i'm pretty sure that while you were aiming, the horse would sort of go into a cruise control of sorts."***

That is true, but only for a short amount of time. Once you let get go of the x button the horse will continue to run for a bit, but then will eventually come to a stop. The most effective way for me to deal with shootouts while riding on a horse was to use dead eye.

***"there are definitely things i'd include in place of that. for example, throwing in the 6-axis just for the sake of saying you make use of the 6-axis."***

I agree. Like strangelove said it's a personal pet peeve, but I was able to tolerate it at the end of the day. I'd definitely say tacking on things like sixaxis for the sake of tacking it on is far worse.

[Godmars290]

I totally want to smack a dev with a wet fish because of #1.

[HammadTheBeast]

Why not a dry fish?

[S-T-F-U]

Better yet, why not a shark with lazer beams coming out of it's head? Or Danny DeVito left breast?

[Godmars290]

Not just a wet fish: a reeking, slimy wet fish. The smell of which once it comes into contact with human flesh and hair will linger for weeks despite numerous baths, showers and tomato sause treatments. A vittim of such will have to shave themselves bald.

Its the only fitting punishment for someone so lazy they use an overturned chair to block a corridor.

[Kingnichendrix]

Better yet grand theft auto style dildo baton

[Legion21]

@Kingnichendrix that's saints row the 3rd

[gobluesamg]

@legion.
I never played saints row but I know for sure that I was beatin people's asses with a dildo in San Andreas. It was from the sex shop on the Vegas strip.

[attilayavuzer]

My personal policy is that if I can do something in real life easier than my superhero grade character can, something's wrong.

In regards to #1 I think all games should have a button akin to the free running button in AC...not that allows you to free run per say, but is a general "get past shit like a regular human" button that at least allows you to clamber over tables and kick chairs out of the way.

[Blastoise]

lol Guy carrying an Axe, a steel pipe, a screwdriver and a handgun...Goes up to a door..."the lock is broken"

Oh no, now what?

[PS3Freak]

I'm so glad that they fixed this by at least letting you try in Skyrim.

[PS3Freak]

So the people who disagreed like to be locked out of places without being able to try?

Fallout 3/NV only say: "you need level 100 lockpick to pick this lock"

This doesn't make any sense as you should definitely be able to still try a la Skyrim.

[Canthar]

Please lose QTE's least in the amount of volume. QTE to open a fricking gate. Ugh...

[ChocolateGiddyUp]

THIS! Check out how pathetic quick time events made Spiderman look...

[pixelsword]

QTEs are like being violated by a cactus:

even if you love it, it's still a very, very painful thing to endure.

[HammadTheBeast]

OK, I wouldn't mind those, they're pretty funny.

[rCrysis]

Dude. 0:40 is the greatest.

[BitbyDeath]

If you got rid of QTE's then how would you perform moves like ripping the head off Helios?

This is an actual question, what would be a better way of doing it?

[Jazz4108]

If you get rid of qtes you will have to get rid of game movies like heavy rain and beyond two souls. Wow and getting rid of cutscenes that look much better than in game just eliminates most of sonys first party ps3 titles.

[kma2k]

Virtual Reality Visor & Gloves :)

[BitbyDeath]

@Jazz, Halo and Gears would also be gone, the only games that would really be safe would be Nintendos franchises. ^_^

@kma2k, too true. I will be waiting for that time.

[P_Bomb]

God of War does QTE's right. Simple yet rewarding. The RE6 demo does it wrong imo. From slider counters to that car scene, counter-intuitive. Even the button prompt foot stomps missed half the time.

[Ricdog]

There are no good QTE. I've always hated them since the beginning, seem rather pointless. I guess its a matter of personal opinion. I've played RE4 and God of War, loved the games but not the QTE.

I agree, get rid of them.

[Meep]

I agree. I don't really mind QTE's if they are presented in the right moment. The ripping of Helios head while spamming the buttons makes it more tense to some degree, but I absolutely hate when I have to open some regular gate/door by spamming the button. I just want to get through the damn door, not fight with it.

[Slayer_xXx]

yh i agree the QTE's to open doors in GOW was stupid & pointless bt those during combat wit bosses etc i didn't mind much...i thought d QTE's 4 RE4 especially d krauser fight 2 be fun tho i didn't press 4 each scene jus 2 c d different ways leon died XD

[Canthar]

I'm not trying to say get rid of them entirely. Just stop over using them. There is no need to tap to open a door and crap like that. Keep them impactful.

[omarzy]

How about AI blocking your path? A guy is trying to kill me and my damn partner or some random dude is just standing in the only part of the game that i can keep going on.

You know this needs to change when getting past a group of people is an actual technique in Assassins creed.

Open world games that are not open. My destination is at the bottom of this hill, but i have to take the loooong road filled with monsters that barely give more exp than the ones i can kill in one hit, but these ones can kill me in just a few hits.

Not being killed by 30 bullets, but if i fall into a river or off a 2 foot wall, i die. (looking at you, Uncharted)

[Canary]

My list:

1. Directional audio. I hate turning the camera and suddenly having NPC dialog go mute. SOUND DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.

2. Loot for the sake of loot. I mean, jesus christ, this is getting absurd.

3. "Adventurers." This is the lazy way to avoid writing anything decent. Give the heroes a job! A real job! Use clever writing to lead them from that occupation to the earth-shattering plot!

4. A new character archetype. I'm tired of short-haired snarkers, action girls and bulgy mchugemuscles. We need a fourth option!

5. Can we please spend less money on giant set-pieces that are pretty to look at and more money on expansive level design and game content? Please?

6. And let's start licensing out non-FPS game engines.

[Baka-akaB]

I especially agree on "3" , too often games hide behind the excuse of giving you a huge lands (usually empty except for scraps of craps anyway) and explorations , to literally avoid using a real plot and some writing .

No it wont tie you down and damper your freedom .

Imo it even enrichs your freedom to have tons of things to do in an open world , over being left alone and "free" to only explore damp caverns and randomly attack guards , without one iota of influence on your world

[MySwordIsHeavenly]

Bulgy McHugemuscles????

Is that a reference to the Space Mutiny MST3K?

[Knight_Crawler]

Alot of people blaming the developers but fail to realise that the reason why games on consoles are restricted is because the lack of RAM and 6 year old hardware.

Little things like
1.real time audio
2. Dropping items in one area and coming back 3 hours later to still find it.
3. In-depth look into main character life
4. Real time whether and time cycle
5. Giving NPC's unique (I took an arrow to knee) dialogues and personalty.

All this takes memory to program and consoles do not have it if they want to implement game play and cut scenes with all the above.

Also some people on here complain about games not being more realstic but forget how boring realim can make games (GTA 4) - games are suppose to be fun and not some sim about life.

imagine getting shot 1 time and having to restart the level every time you get shot.

imagine sprinting for 30 secs only to have your player tell you to hold up he got to catch his breath

Some times realism is not always a good idea.

[attilayavuzer]

Don't go from one extreme to the other. Dying with one shot and limited sprinting are different than having basic audio physics ignored.

[Baka-akaB]

" I'm sure the old death mechanic will still be in Persona 4: Golden, but there's always Persona 5, right?
"

And no offense , i hope they wont bother listening to you in P5 ...

[ChocolateGiddyUp]

I think it's hilarious how people in these games have zero regard for the main characters' lives, but I wouldn't really be sad to see this go.

[Baka-akaB]

because i just dont like his idea . We are not into it for the realism , and i find that it removes a bit of the few challenges remaining to not manage the health of at least your main character .

Also , your main is supposed to be rather special on a emotional and plot related level . We can't just nitpick every illogical aspects of a game at its detriment . Would be endless anyway

[Godmars290]

Still, its amazing how only one game ever removed/killed the main character and gave the rest of the party the option to either save them or complete the game.

And I shouldn't have to mention said game's name...

[N4Flamers]

If you read the article he states that ffx13-2 has that feature but killzone 3 let's npc's revive you.

[Ashunderfire86]

I say games should stop relaying on too many scripted moments and CGI cutscenes, that look better than the actual game.

[rpd123]

Amen. I also hate having to press buttons during a cutscene so that they can try and pass it off as gameplay. Do one or the other.

[Blankman85]

Despite the generation starting the way it did, there were not nearly enough giant enemy crabs in games and I for one would love if they made a return as a prominent game design or feature next gen.

[Godmars290]

Gamers pretty much have themselves to blame for that. All the mocking games like that one received made devs cautious.

[Gorbenshore]

Brings out some pretty good points

[nihonlight]

All games should have a first-person/third person option

[kma2k]

Hell yea! Borderlands 1 or 2 would be even better in the 3rd person!

[BitbyDeath]

Regenerative health needs to go IMO
Or if we can't take it out entirely just leave it on for the easy mode.

[Frankfurt]

Cinematic BS needs to go.

QTEs need to go.

Pseudo-platforming needs to go.

[Knight_Crawler]

So tell me sir would you like to get shot one time and not be able to play the game again because your character is dead and we all know you can not come back from the dead.

[BitbyDeath]

I prefer good old fashioned health kits.
You get shot you patch yourself up, makes things harder when in battle as you can't just hide behind a rock and wait, you could take a chance to patch yourself up but doing so whilst in battle is a bigger risk.

Games like Borderlands & Warhawk use health kits, works great and is a bit more realistic.

[ziggurcat]

rockstar's controls aren't that complicated... the author probably just sucks at the game.

[P_Bomb]

Warhawk and Twisted Metal had steeper learning curves than anything I've played by Rockstar. Twisted Metal even ran out of buttons and started doubling them up (eg. jumping) and using the SixAxis (boost), heh.

Far as more technical design choices, locked save files gotta go. Never had this issue with physical memory cards. Digital DRM is outta control when I can't back up certain saves to cloud storage despite paying for the feature (eg. Mass Effect 3, Splinter Cell Conviction, Halo 3 on XBL Gold).

Being limited to just one save slot per playthrough (eg. the Arkham games) pisses me off too. Especially in games with no chapter select.

[BongSmack]

The thing about dayZ is it's realistic (except for the zombies) The author of this article obviously doesn't get dayZ. It's set in a zombie apocalypse so I guess some people locked their doors. WEIRD!

[Ashby_JC]

Respawning the EXACT same enemies!!! Borderlands 1 and 2 are guilty of it.

I like what they did with Skyrim. You wasted a town of ppl. They wont magically respawn when you come back.

Killing the same exact enemies every time I ride or walk by a area is annoying. They need to come up with something better.

Make it so the area is either empty or at least make it so they dont respawn right away.

[attilayavuzer]

Far Cry 2...ergh

[Donnywho]

A lot of these little hangups and quirks are what make each game individual

[r21]

Smart list, agreed with all of them, especially number 1.

[Bathyj]

I'm sick of shooters that only let you carry two guns. I've always thought so but Borderlands is really ramming that home for me. It just limits your options at any given time. Some (tactical) games suit it and it doesnt bother me but most the time you wish you had your whole arsenal and were able to pull out any gun you have ammo for.

At the very least, even if theyre trying to be somewhat realistic, whats wrong with two rifles, two pistols and a knife.

And please make full button mapping a standard option. I dont want cars that control like FPS, I dont want the accelerator on the triggers, and I dont want reload to ever be anything but Square, EVER.

[hazelamy]

Borderlands does let you carry more guns, you just have to level up to be able to carry more.

but i agree, unless they're going for all out realism, then limiting the player to just two guns can adversely affect the gameplay.

like you said, give the player options and they're more likely to find the way to play that they enjoy more.

[Ashby_JC]

Maybe im reading you wrong...Borderlands is one of the few games you can have 4 guns mapped to your directional button ...and also have a crap load of mods and weapons at the ready in inventory....

and other items in your bank.

[Bathyj]

yeah thats what i mean.borderlands makes other games look bad

[Plagasx]

Any game that tries to be like COD.

[ALLWRONG]

What games are trying to be like CoD?

[DARK WITNESS]

every game that involves a gun..lol, joking

[ALLWRONG]

I get tired of exploding barrels and QTE's. It's just cheap and lazy.

[InTheLab]

Not sure if it's a design but loading times should not exist next gen. Most of the games I play on my PC have little to no load times...I'm talking less than 2 seconds for every game I own.

slow motion breaches...

follow some asshole

can't open a door because you must wait for a partner, or..

must wait for A.I. to open a door for you.

Escort missions

[Hicken]

I only really agree with the first one. The rest can kinda go either way.

In the case of the "game over" for rpg protagonists dying, it's really only present in the Persona games(and FF XIII), and it's not that big of a deal. I mean, what, three games? And that's enough to complain about? Instead of accepting it as part of what makes the games unique as compared to other games(I dunno about the first two(3) Persona games; haven't gotten to play them just yet)?

[HonestDragon]

I like lists like this because they are so true that it's funny.

Barriers That Aren't Actually Barriers: Totally agree with this one. It is extremely annoying when I come across a low level barrier that anyone would be able to scale in real life, but for some reason my character cannot. This was an issue in Lollipop Chainsaw would be a recent example for me.

Game Over Because Main Character Died: Also agree. It is very annoying when you can revive your party members, but you can't control them in time to save your main character. It's like, "What? I'm not special enough to be able to be saved, too?"

Blocking Exploration for No Reason: No argument here. It is irritating when you are deceived into continuing the story when you're actually looking for an alternate route or item.

Rockstar's Controls Are Crazy: I have been wanting to play Red Dead Redemption and still do. Kind of worried now with that description of the controls...

Buildings Exist Only to Take Up Space: We may not have the technological capabilities just yet, but it is still nice to have a good enough open world. His example for DayZ sounds really bad, though. That really sucks if you get caught because you choose the wrong building.

[Tontus]

I have no problem with QTE's when they're done amazingly like in the God of War games. It's not Sony Santa Monica's fault that after God of War released to massive critical and commercial success that other developers started using QTE's poorly and excessively in unnecessary ways.

[urwifeminder]

Im sick of fighting through a level to get to a chopper for extraction and then the chopper gets shot down so over used, id welcome a mechanical failure instead just to be different also would like to play a medievil rpg that has no dragons or magic in it seems way overdone.

[G-Ham]

Invisible walls are a terrible thing but in some games are obviously neccessary, Nothing is more of a piss take than not being able to push a table or chair out of the way to be able to get past. I think depending on the realism of the game there needs to be abit more closure on the characters inability to move small objects.

[saimcheeda]

Agree with that part completely!

[Braid]

I completely agree with the argument number one. It's obvious that the medium has a limited size and there needs to be some limit to where players can go, but you can at least try to make obstructions more rationally justifiable. If there's a small rock that I can jump on, I automatically suppose that I can jump over it. If you can do that in real life, your character can do that as well.

But if that small piece of rock is blocking the entire way I'm not supposed to go, that's a poor excuse. All we want as gamers is a rational explanation as to why you can't go that particular way. Just change that object with something else, something that'd make sense and your work there is done. Is that so difficult? :/

[madjedi]

What is the point of 50-60 extra buildings with nothing to do in them, i don't like when i find a new cave in skyrim and it's fully explored/looted in 5 seconds.

Fallout 3 lockpicking system was better in my opinion, but typically if it was a hard or very hard lock it usually had loot/short cut worth the trouble. Skyrim's chest loot is 50/50 to me half mundane items, and half semi useful gear early on at least.

I would rather get rid of the blocking ai characters.

[ajax17]

Lol the Fallout 3 picture!

[Saturne3]

Blocking Exploration For No Reason - linear games what else?