Top 5 gaming clichés that should be eradicated next generation

Take a look at 5 gaming common gaming mechanics that should be handled better in next generation games, but are more than likely to remain as they are.

[TenSteps]

As far as the Huge Pockets No Weight thing. Is that really a cliche, I mean besides RPG's like Fallout most shooters are stuck on the two weapon system. And plus it shouldn't be much of a problem if the weapons are as diverse as those in R3.

Games that use that are going for the fun of the fight, being able to just use any weapon that might make the fight look awesome as opposed to the fun of surviving it which is what the two weapon system and weight system supports with the scavenging for rounds or conserving your ammo. Two different concepts but each enjoyable in their own ways.

But again my point is this gen from what I've played the amount of games who use the more tactical approach of not having an instant arsenal at your disposal outweigh those arcadey ones that do give you said arsenal anytime anywhere.

[RaidensRising]

In some ways it's like developers on one hand try and balance things out (encumbrance in games like Oblivion) but on the other hand still allow you to carry insane amounts of gear and junk.

Like you said, many shooters offer tactical options nowadays but then still allow you to run, jump and sprint like you're carrying next to nothing.

fun versus boring I guess.

[TenSteps]

It's not so much as fun vs boring, some games that gave you an arsenal from my experience in the past were still boring and some that are more tactical were more fun than those with Arsenals.

It all depends on how you do it, for the arsenal focused the imprtant thing are what the arsenal is. Insomniac always had great weapons. For the two weapon system it's the thrill of how the fight goes, when the enemy attacks and whatnot. That's why the AI director in the L4D games is a good fit for these games.

[Trainz]

May I join the ninesteps family?

[SuperbVillain]

Rainbow 6 vegas....i loved that your weight,mobility and all that depended on the type of armor n junk you would equip yourself with

[OhMyGandhi]

I agree.
I feel that having a vast inventory is a cliche, but one that we NEED.
I hate having to swap a shotty for a sniper or a rifle for a "pulse beam" and what-not.
that's why games like the old Duke Nukem, or Unreal were so damned fun. It gave you all you needed to kickass and not need to worry about inventory management. It's old school, but I feel that it's far more rewarding then going through a 18 hr campaign with two weapons that you are most likely sick to death of.

I can't stand the majority of protagonists in games these days. Why can't males sound like males? and not like Nick Nolte? why can't they be somewhat relatable. Nolan North has a smooth, easy voice that is easy on the ears. He doesn't sound like some pompous airhead who works out at the gym and can't stop flexing his muscles in cut scenes.

I loved Cole from Infamous. I hated his voice. the only exception to the rule is Gears of War: those kinds of voices work because they *look* like they've been to the gym every day for six hours. It's works within the context of the game and the character design.

People then complain that when games have characters that make them relate more to the player (read: have lots of issues that mean nothing in a large context, like pimples on their faces, or a slight pain in their neck from sitting at a computer all day, or cramping in their legs etc) that somehow the game stops being a fantasy and becomes boring or "lessens the mood" of the game in general.

I think cliche protagonists in general need to die.
And that's where the good people at Naughty Dog, Double Fine, and Insomniac need to step in and practically give seminars to other developers on how to mix it up a bit and avoid adding them.

[madpuppy]

Look what happened with Resistance 2, when they went 2 weapon, they had to lay the weapon you needed conveniently to kill boss so that you had it when you needed it. that is a great way to make a game like resistance predictable. that is one of the reasons why just about every fan of the Resistance series asked for the weapons wheel back. plus, its fun to have more than 2 weapons, damn realism, if I wanted that I would have joined the army instead of playing Half Life. :P

[bunt-custardly]

When I think of a game's difficulty, I think Ninja Gaiden, and when I think Ninja Gaiden, I think RAGE, and I am not talking about the game.

[SageHonor]

Yeah in Ninja Gaiden the enemy ai starts to move differently and react differently to attacks

[LoLZoRz]

>implying video games must have realistic things like the writer listed.

sh*t article.

[Inception]

Agreed. If the writer wants realism than i must question why he likes video games in the beginning -_-

[soundslike]

B.S

I like realistic games as much as "arcadey" ones and this article still sucks.

[Slade]

how about the gaming cliche of the bad article writer?

[torchic]

how about the gaming cliche of writing top 3 - 10 lists?

[Rhythmattic]

Dont know why anyone would disagree with both comments above.

Love the "Huge pockets no weight" Picture reference.
Hmm R3, guess he hated K2 for being the total opposite.

[admiralthrawn87]

i hate radar systems in online shooters. they borderline ruin the experience. instead of people being aware of their surroundings they spend most of their time looking for red dots.

[scrambles]

b-b-but how would noobs know when theres 3 guys coming towards them? So he can camp and wait for them to get close then spray em down. Its not like most shooters have foot steps so they can LISTEN for them. Maps are just for noobs

[admiralthrawn87]

me and my friends always system linked halo 2 and had radars disabled, it was amazing. When i jumped online..the whole experience was downgraded due to the way radar completely changes the flow and strategy of the gameplay.

[kaveti6616]

There is strategy involved with radar.

Because everyone in a Halo 2/3/Reach mach has radar, a new dimension opens up as to how to approach the enemy. Radar forces some players to move in a crouched position or to take up a position in a particular location and stay put.

I don't think Radar is a bad thing. I've played matches in Halo 2 and 3 where there is no radar (MLG PRO). There are one hit kills and it can get pretty frustrating because 1) you don't know where anyone is, and 2) whoever sees you first usually gets a kill. The only strategy is to put your back against a wall and hope the opponent gets bored and moves into your line of sight. So, in my experience, radar is not a bad thing.

Edit: Crouching in Halo makes you invisible to radar.

[SeraphimBlade]

Aside from #3, this all REALLY depends on the game you're making. Was Half-Life 2 any less immersive because of the huge arsenal? Or MGS for its radar? (which, by the way, disappeared for alerts when you really needed it. And also saw different, more realistic iterations in the last two entries) Regenerating health, like the radar, is only an issue when its unbalanced and makes the game too easy. And adjusting difficulty can be very frustrating if you actually want the challenge and the game keeps dumbing it down for you instead. Though I agree it should be more creative then the enemy doing more damage and you doing less.

And what does Ivy's rack have to do with any of this? Because "Relying on sex appeal to attract 14-year-old boys" could have actually been a decent entry.

[scrambles]

Games w/o regen health are SOOOOOO much more intense. you KNOW theres a likelihood of you dying soon and if you manage to scrape by without dying then youll feel like a badass.

[kaveti6616]

True, but as I said with radar, when everyone has regen health, it doesn't matter. The dimension of the game no longer has to do with running around for health packs. It has to do with making sure your timing is correct. If your shields are down, the strategy becomes: "where can you hide until you recharge?" I've played both Halo 3 (which didn't have health packs) and Halo Reach (which had half health packs and half shield) and running around in Halo Reach for health packs was really cumbersome and sometimes unfair.

Consider that it takes a while for health packs to respawn on the map. You get into a firefight and take major shield damage and you health drops, so you do the sensible thing and retreat to a location to get a health pack. But too bad for you, because someone went to that location for a health pack 30 seconds ago and it still hasn't respawned. There's no way to account for other players using health packs on the map. It's something you can't control with any level of strategy so it's out of your hands, and thus, a frustrating element to the game.

Edit: I agree. Sorry, I was thinking of multiplayer games with med packs. In single player games I also prefer for there to be some form of med pack to make me more cautious. As an RPG fan, I would hate for regen health to invade the RPG genre.

[scrambles]

Im saying is when i play a game and i have a limited number of med packs, i have to play better and harder to keep those med packs for boss fights and such. Then you get down to your last med pack and things get intense

Regen hp is a crutch in most games where it comes back in 5 seconds.

[NovusTerminus]

I like carrying an entire arsenal of weapons.

And I like my difficulty selection, I am very good at DMC, SS ranking all of DMC3 and 4 and beating Hell and Hell on DMC4. But you know, I do not always want to play at DMD level...

Why is SCV used as the picture if it is never used in the article?

[falsegod]

Calling for attention with Ivy's boobs has become a thing.

[falsegod]

I think this article is blowing a lot of things out of proportion, making it seem like all games that can include this or that thing seem to do so (I might give an exception to nº 3 due to the number of generic characters being too damn high). Per example, the radar system fit MGS perfectly, and its inclusion had an in-story explanation. It didn't make the game less immersive to a lot of people, why the complaint? Or the difficulty setting, the way it works changes from game to game very often, and it doesn't necessarily translate lazy design.

[Rupee]

Terrible article... Video games as a whole aren't realistic! I get what you're saying but if every game had those features than THEY would be cliché! You need variety. Some games have realism some don't. Realistically, ONE BULLET will kill you more often than not.

[Lord_Sloth]

Somebody doesn't know what a cliche is. XXXD

[Tacklebait]

agreed, crap article. I'm not looking for a simulation. I'm looking for a fun game.

[Conzul]

Agree with all except regenning health.
Kids these days.........:P

[bobrea]

List articles and your website should be eradicated.

[smashcrashbash]

Please. What they need to do is stop the gun limit and make the game harder not limit your guns to give you the illusion that the game is harder. I had tons of guns in R1 and RE4 and that didn't stop the enemies from kicking my @$$. Anyone remember the church battle in R1 when the crawlers were everywhere? By the time I was finished the battle I was practically scrounging for ammo.

If the enemies were hard to beat it wouldn't matter how many guns you had. Like I have told people before I want my guns there for me to use them.If i want to use my shotgun and bring the rocket launcher and plasma cannon along for the ride that that's just fine. Don't limit my weapons and pretend that you are doing it in the name of strategy. Deciding if to bring the shotgun or the rocket launcher along with you and realizing you made the wrong choice is not strategy. Its just an excuse for you to get killed so you have to go back to the checkpoint to make the game seem longer

[Kahvipannu]

Why, why, why, and so on... If the game's game-design needs all seeing radarmap, then it will be there, if not, then it won't..

Not all game include deep pockets, realism isn't always the best option..

Regenerating health, for example in SR it would be pain in the ass to use med-kits or something...

And so on, it all goes down to the game-design. Bitch, bitch, bitch, moan, moan, moan, always the same...-_-

And on final note, if you want to remove for example radarmap, play with PC and find out the awesomenes of mods, and quit bitching...

[D3mons0ul]

I don't know about you but I think having a carry burden is fucking stupid. I like the way Dark Souls does it by giving you the option of storing all of that nonsense just for the sake of making the menus easier to navigate rather than forcing a dumbass limit on you.

[Der_Kommandant]

Red Barrels

[ChrisGTR1]

the one cliche that makes me mad is when your objective is to get to a helicopter so after killing dozens of enemies playing over an hour , you finally make your way to it to have it blow up in front of you / blow up while your leaving

[Fatty]

I really don't know why I keep clicking on links to anything that... site... produces. It's always a consistent stream of terrible.

[Brownghost]

This website and others have nothing better to do but write "top 5 this", " the worst this" or "the best games coming out next year". Its getting annoying and we dont care what you think.

[aaronobst]

This site is fail
CGI or not, catwalk models with large breasts are A-OK in my book

[Brownghost]

lol, they dont affect the game but a good addition

[Bathyj]

He wants to get rid of Huge pockets no weight?

Why? For the sake of realism?

I say screw realism. Get rid of the Halo Arsenal Syndrome.

I dont want to carry only 2 guns in a shooter, I want every weapon I've collected so I can use them in any situation I see fit to use them in.

Unless its a more tactical shooter like Rainbow 6, I dont see why you should be limited like that.

If you want realism, you probably wouldnt have 10 magazines either. You'd probably have 2 or 3 and then have to keep reloading the mag when they ran out. Do we really want that, or games worry more about fun