digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

See the original image at delsquacho.com —

Improving Video Games

delsquacho.com — A few suggestions to overcome chronic irritants in video games.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Crackerpat, on 09/04/2008, -0/+82Man do I hate sitting through five minutes of commercials before I can play. Fix that!
    • topdon23, on 09/04/2008, -1/+10they dont even have to remove them, just make them skippable, im sure its not that hard
      • Bean888, on 09/05/2008, -1/+12If it's a PC game try and use the game's developer modes/cheats. Developers don't like sitting through ads either.

        [Edit] Oops, I forgot, if you're in dev mode you'll probably be staring at memory usage, frames rates and other stats laid over the top of the game.....scratch my suggestion.
      • ortucis, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3If it's a PC, then there are more ways than going into dev mode, which should be the last thing you should try anyway.

        Usually, replacing or removing annoying Bink video files help.. unless it's Space Siege like ***** where movies are nicely packed away in their own archives so the only way to skip them is to press Esc key.
    • ghostlywind, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7They don't bother me if i can skip them, You hear that EA let us skip your damn logo
      • championchap, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5Challenge Everything!
        Including you and your "I'm SO not sitting through this ***** Logo again!" attitude.
    • mdeba, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4Depending on how much it bothers you, you could always delete/rename the logo and intro movie files from the data directory. A lot of games now store them separately as bik files. It's worth doing just so the game pops up straight away. But yes, they should just make them skippable in the first place.
  • louiebaur, on 09/04/2008, -0/+46I can relate to this!!! Let Me Play the Game Already
    • SeventhSon, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10Can anyone tell me why so many games have the "Press start to continue" screen at the beginning of the game before the main menu?
      And why do they tell me to press start when usually any button works? If they let me get away with pushing the wrong button once, what's to stop me later?
      • Brododium, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4Good question, what I'm wondering is why Chrome is telling me that 'accidently' is spelled incorrectly.

        It may be so you can watch the starting videos if you don't touch anything, so you can admire the main screen without menus, or maybe to prevent you inadvertently starting the game when you're not ready.
      • HangoverBoy, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4Probably because the original spelling is "accidentally". I've never actually seen it spelled accidently, but it's in the dictionary...also, Firefox doesn't like that spelling either.
    • isomika69, on 09/30/2008, -0/+0Great

      http://gametimearcade.com/
  • jeremyduffy, on 09/04/2008, -0/+89"When I boot up my Playstation, I want to play a goddamn game, not look at animated logos from software companies, or read about what the ESRB thinks about the violence."

    Same with DVDs. Who wouldn't buy a custom DVD player that had a big "Play the F'ing Movie Right F'ing Now" button that you could push to make the opening scene start playing immediately.
    • petebot, on 09/04/2008, -0/+28My friend has a kid, so they’ve been watching a lot of old Disney movies on DVD. Apparently, when you put a Disney DVD in, a screen comes up that says “FAST PLAY,” with an icon leading to the menu, and an icon labeled FAST PLAY. You would think “Oh, FAST PLAY will just play the movie, and I can go wash dishes. Hooray!” However, FAST PLAY plays 10 minutes of Disney commercials and THEN plays the movie. Pretty slimy, huh?
      • Speed, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5I work at a store where we quite often have Disney movies playing on our demo TVs. It's gotten to the point where we turn on the DVD player, throw in the movie, and leave to come back 10 or 20 minutes later to start the menu, since there's so many damn commercials.
      • Brododium, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7It's like the good ol' days of VHS previews... plus, if that's the 'fast' play, I'd rather not find out what the 'regular' play is.
      • TheBlackLotus, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Well tis good when u have a kid, cause fast play just repeats the movie over and over again, so u never have to touch the DVD player after u hit play.
      • SamOut, on 09/06/2008, -0/+2^ Yay for lazy parents! But the movie on loop and go to take a nap in the bedroom..
      • psibladeZX, on 09/09/2008, -0/+2I noticed the same ***** when I put on aladin for my nephews, who started to bug me to start the movie already... ***** load the movie already.
    • GalacticRerun, on 09/04/2008, -0/+15I've got a couple of DVDs with TV adverts on them!! What the ***** is that!? I've already paid for the movie, I don't want to see ads! And I can't skip it either (28 Days Later, I should have taken that back to the shop).

      As for video games, I don't see why they can't just put all the logos on one screen. Not – fade in --PlayStaion 3-- fade out... fade in --Konami--- fade out... fade in --Japanese football league logo-- fade out... fade in --couple of other league logos-- etc.

      While I'm on the subject of Pro Evolution Soccer, we can do without a flashy intro. Nobody gives a ***** and it adds nothing to the game.
    • dood, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4That's one of the most irritating things about the DVD spec. It puts the publisher's will above the user's.

      I was so happy when I learned that my DVD player would let me skip the unskippables by going in to the DVD hardware menu for a second, and then hitting play.

      As petebot noticed, Disney is the absolute worst about the commercials.
    • ortucis, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Right Click > Goto "Insert the Chapter/Screen here" in Media Player Classic.

      Works in some other players as well (PowerDVD and Windows Media Player).
    • Katana, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5If you copy the dvd you own, most programs will allow you to remove the PUO (Protected User Objects) that stops you from skipping to the main menu, some will even allow you to remove the adverts fro the dvd altogether.
  • HolmesSPH, on 09/04/2008, -7/+29haha less buttons... old gamers like me... we want to go back to three buttons... lol we play for fun not competition and I don't have time to memorize 8 buttons, and 1000 combinations ha
    • penterz, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Eight whole buttons?! Back in my day we had just one button and a joystick!
    • HangoverBoy, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2psshh...3 buttons...1 button and a joystick is all you need. Sometimes, just a single wheel-like knob will suffice.
  • torgo112, on 09/04/2008, -0/+45Oh man do I hate cheating AI. I don't play much, but when I play NCAA football or something, the team I'm playing against suddenly becomes unstoppable in the last minute of a close game and their guy will break 30 tackles in the waning seconds so I lose. ARGH!
    F you EA sports! Man I'm getting pissed just thinking about it.
    • Schmapdi, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6Yeah - Its one of the things pissing me off about Mario Kart Wii, I'm winning handily then I get hit by 3 blue turtle shells in a row! What a crock!
    • dark2025, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3It's the same with Madden NFL games. If the CPU is down in the last 2 minutes of either half they'll go on an unstoppable passing spree. They'll just keep throwing deep and the receivers will keep making catches and nothing I do seem to have any effect.

      Let's also not forget about the new Need For Speed games. I'll see CPU drivers crash and come to complete stops and after a few seconds they'll be right on my ass again, even though no mistakes or slowdowns have been made on my end.

      I don't know about Mario Kart Wii, that could just be random. Sometimes I get bombed a lot, and sometimes nothing hits me the entire race. I still think the CPU cheats a little though, because sometimes in the very start of the game I'll get a really good boost and get the #1 spot, then when I get a box the icons would still be spinning in the corner of the screen when I become the target of a shell that the second place driver got. How he could fire the thing before I even get mine bothers the hell out of me.
      • HangoverBoy, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2"when I get a box the icons would still be spinning in the corner of the screen when I become the target of a shell that the second place driver got. How he could fire the thing before I even get mine bothers the hell out of me."

        If it's anything like the other Mario karts, you can hit the "fire" button and the box will stop spinning immediately. You don't have to let it spin and spin.
    • SSPink, on 09/05/2008, -0/+9"Better AI Instead of Cheating AI"

      Yes! This, this, a thousand times this! This is just a sign of lazy programing.
    • Stormwern, on 09/05/2008, -4/+3Ägree, the reason the Halo series are the best single player FPS ever is because the AI is so good they can afford to give enemies realistic weaknesses such as reaction time and fear.
      • Dpack1, on 09/05/2008, -1/+6Halo invented AI!

        /sarcasm

        Seriously, if you think the Halo series is the best FPS experience you need to get off your console and take a gander at some PC games.
      • Stormwern, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2I don't have a console, Halo 1 and 2 exist on PC. Was there any particular game you were thinking of? I play a ton of them and I've never seen AI as good as Halo.
    • OneLess, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3This and not being able to save within a game anymore is what ultimately irks me about Madden lately. I like longish quarter lengths so that I can get realistic stats in franchise, but sometimes I don't have as much free time as I thought I did when I turned on the game and have to leave in the middle of it. That means that the slight lead I managed to gain over a better team than me (and which is now being demolished anyway because of comeback AI) was a waste of time.

      If you could do it on last-gen, EA, you'd better damn well bring it back for current-gen.
    • Fhwqhgads, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Cheating AI. In Goldeneye 007 I empty thousands of rounds into that bastard on the Cradle level and he doesn't die. Only when he gets to the bottom can you kill him. That is *****.

      Not just this game tho. Lots of times a character can be shot and not die until a certain point where the plot calls for it. Not realistic and not fair.
  • michaelwong38, on 09/04/2008, -1/+19xbox games are the worst, especially when they put out games that were jointly developed and then you have to watch 1/2 hour of logos...***** i didn't pay to be pitched to. i already bought (downloaded) the game.
  • netwraythe, on 09/04/2008, -1/+75Best way to improve video games? NO more escort missions!
    • ry4nsm1th, on 09/04/2008, -0/+14Yea I can't stand failing those due to lousy AI.
      • quasipolymath, on 09/06/2008, -0/+2"I'm just going to run into this hill over here and then run in place while I get shot in the head."
    • sk11, on 09/05/2008, -0/+20Half life 2 got it right though, I didn't mind AI Alyx at all.
      • a7r0p05, on 09/05/2008, -0/+42That's because Alyx could take care of herself and wasn't a flailing, retarded five-year-old with the motor skills of a paraplegic walrus.
      • sexybobo, on 09/05/2008, -1/+23Alyx is more like co-op then escort. Plus she is hot.
      • Evilblobs, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10That's only because Alyx wasn't an escort, and except for a few parts where it was intentionally meant to be protecting her, she couldn't be killed.
      • ortucis, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5Agree with what blobs said. They cheated to keep her working the 'right' way for the player.

        Or else it would have been a pain considering the amazing AI of combine allows me to blow their heads off one by one as they walk into me sitting inside a toilet with a shotgun aimed at their virtual melons (yes a dirty trick, but has worked in most games with 'amazing' AI).
    • Schmapdi, on 09/05/2008, -0/+15Digg this one up 100 times if I could.

      "Here mr Badass hero, who's singlehandedly killed half the enemies opposing forces, please get this 5 year old, weakling scientist, retarded chimpanzee across this sniper filled canyon!"

    • ak4444, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6damn it scientist, stop trying to walk through that wall.
  • AmyVernon, on 09/04/2008, -1/+30I love the idea behind No. 1, the ability to pick up anything from the environment and use it as a weapon. That would rock.
    • vondrak, on 09/04/2008, -0/+24Halflife 2 did a pretty good job of that using the gravity gun.
      Obviously there are limits, but you were able to use almost anything around you.
      • sexybobo, on 09/05/2008, -0/+11Halflife 2 did a pretty good job of all but Creative Environments they still have a lot of explosive barrels and crates.
      • Gizza, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6I was thinking the exact same thing while reading this. HL2 pretty much succeeds at every point he mentioned.
    • ikarimaru, on 09/04/2008, -1/+8As I read this, I found myself looking around my cubicle and realized there was absolutely nothing in my vicinity that would be a useful weapon (unless you count the boomerang my company gave me for some reason). So, unless you're caught with your pants down by enemies in a "big-ass gun history" museum, I fail to see how everything being a weapon would be useful...
      • Zarokima, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10You probably have a stapler somewhere that you could access very easily. Unlock the hinge, use the bottom part as a handle, and start wailing on someone's face. Staplers make pretty good melee weapons, and they hurt pretty bad if you throw them, too (my freshman English teacher in high school gave some smarmy ***** a concussion with one).
      • legatus, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3A pen, phone, stapler, letter opener, keyboard, cord from pc or any cord for that matter, shoelaces, laptop power brick and much more.
      • Cancerkitty, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I work in an office too, and there's tons of ***** I could use as a weapon if I was really desperate. Off the top of my head: scissors, the blade from a paper cutter, or a heavy paper weight.
    • palehorse864, on 09/05/2008, -0/+11Crysis does it somewhat, though you quickly learn that throwing a seabird or chicken is not effective. It is funny to watch the enemies dodge it though.

      Half-Life 2 did it well, though it looked cooler in the e3 previews with vertical blinds getting shot up and Gordon using the gravity gun to put something heavy in front of the door and block the combine from coming in. In the actual thing, that was either scripted, or the door simply pushed the objects out of the way. It would be nice if they could have checked item mass and determined whether the door should open up within a certain range.

      • venomoushealer, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5please keep in mind that HL2 was made in...2004? its an old game. for as old as it is, it did PRETTY DAMN GOOD
      • Nescirian, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Sadder is that we're still referring to it. Yes, it was awesome, but the fact that we have to refer to a 4 year old game says sad things about the games that came out since then.
    • DforSpiD, on 09/05/2008, -1/+2It really isn't that hard to implement into an environment either... you really only need the following
      -Your character can try try to pick up/push anything
      -All loose items have weight & sharpness parameters (if you want to get more complex you can distribute the weight)
      -Your character has a certain amount of strength which translates directly to how much they can lift, push or throw
      -The ability to break/cut items into usable pieces [optional]
      -Aerodynamics for throwing [optional]

      After this the way everything else works can be factored directly into the physics engine...
      • MikeFallopian, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7I think the real issue is gameplay design and testing, rather than physics implementation. It's fairly straightforward to balance the difficulty of a level when every player has the same equipment at hand. But when you introduce 1,000 new usable objects into a small environment, maintaining that balance becomes much more difficult.
      • DforSpiD, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3It depends on the situation.
        In an arena style FPS there's no problem... just more things for players to play with
        With puzzle solving you definitely have a point because when relying on the engine to make it work you can't necessarily factor in every possible solution...
        Still it couldn't hurt to begin to implement this sort of thing where it isn't too difficult, when it happens someone's bound to create a solution to some of the other problems..
    • swern425, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Deus Ex handled this one fairly well. A mod made the throwable objects much more useful since they were given weights.
    • purzzzell, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4It's funny that this concept has been done in so many games, and everyone mentions the one they've played.

      Dead Rising.
      • Squidwalk, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3That's the first one that came to mind for me too. And Dead Rising exemplified that anything can be used as a weapon, but most things aren't very good weapons.

        You could do the "barrier of crap" tactic to keep out zombies in Dead Rising and have it work, though making a barricade for those purposes isn't really that much fun.
    • Monkiest, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1.... and Alone in the Dark 4 (despite is other obvious failings).
    • linkerm, on 09/06/2008, -0/+1Totally agree -- that's what I love some much about the Elder Scrolls series (at least Morrowind and Oblivion). You can go and do the main adventure or go do whatever you want -- makes for great fun!
  • Jektal, on 09/04/2008, -3/+38Aside from Saving Anywhere and No Intro Videos this reads like someone who has no idea how games are made.

    You want more creative environments? Non-cheating AI? You gonna give them the millions it costs to do that?
    • CraigCarlyle, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6Number 1 especially...
    • dood, on 09/05/2008, -3/+2They've got the millions already.
    • badenglishihave, on 09/05/2008, -1/+3Games today are made with no creativity. They are produced in large teams (which makes it expensive) and are mostly geared to make a profit, not an entertaining game.

      It doesn't necessarily take more money, it takes more talent and less corporate BS.
      • Trigonometron, on 09/05/2008, -2/+7"Games today are made with no creativity."

        Ahem, have you PLAYED any games in the last few years? Seriously- there is more content than ever, and a ***** of quality. Name one of these "not-for-entertainment" games. Jaded gamers are the worst.
      • badenglishihave, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5There have been some GOOD games lately (CoD4 stands out in my mind) but you don't have truly creative titles that are destined to become classics like the Monkey Island series, Age of Empires or even Doom.
      • eedok, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4you could play flash games. A lot of those are made with small teams, and there's tons that don't make a profit.
    • quasipolymath, on 09/06/2008, -0/+3The AI part is a major point. Gamers (myself included) bitch about this constantly. Most current era game AI is rooted in paradigms that are 30 + years old, most egregiously in pathfinding, and nowhere near state of the art. That said, state of the art is expensive and most of all time consuming, particularly if there is any form of learning involved. Practically, you need developers who are more specialized. Generally anyone that specialized or knowledgeable in AI is in hot demand for much better paying jobs than game development. Take that against the fact that every douche with an eye towards gaming knows A* pathfinding and the like and variants of rubberbanding or stat coefficients have worked in racing and strategy games since the dawn of their era. These tools have been "good enough" for a long time, and it becomes evident that the companies have no impetus to change. If this inertial state weren't "good enough", we wouldn't continue to bitch, we would just stop buying. Add this to the fact that multiplayer is so heavily emphasized in modern gaming and we see that this is just another way that game companies have dodged the bullet on current era AI.
  • Mathieugothax, on 09/04/2008, -1/+20Make the games simple, fun to play and playable on the majority of computer, unlike a certain game... *cough* Crysis *cough*
    • KloroFormd, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Games occasionally gotta give hardware developers something to aim for. Look at the slow progress we were having before Crysis...

      The 6800GT wasn't THAT much slower than a 7800GT... then there was a huge jump to the 8800GT around the time Crysis came about.
  • kyle415, on 09/04/2008, -0/+51Bring back same screen multi player. All the new games only allow multi player over xbox live or psn. I miss my friends.
    • dood, on 09/05/2008, -0/+13Totally. And not just for deathmatch. We need more co-op games.

      Lego Star Wars got that right. Game designers should have to play that game before writing up any docs. ;)
    • badenglishihave, on 09/05/2008, -0/+9But now you have VIRTUAL friends. And you don't need to feed them pizza.
    • Fhwqhgads, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3But if they did that, you and your friends could play off ONE $60.00 copy of the game. That's bad for business!
    • legatus, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2We have this issue on trips, only same screen multiplayer games are usefull as we only have the one screen in our van for the 360, ps#, wii. Our solution is laptops, aircard with a wi-fi cradle. Lan games work well and we could play wow for 10 of the 15 hour trip. Five of those hours we were just to far out to get a rev a signal.
    • quasipolymath, on 09/06/2008, -0/+2I agree. I love split screen games. The problem with this is, when you are running the graphics engines of modern consoles to the bleeding edge, you don't have the additional capacity to render a completely separate instance of the view without taking serious hits to performance.
  • angelof, on 09/04/2008, -0/+15I don't agree with all of his points, but being able to save whenever I want like "The Orange Box" lets me would be great.
  • Haoie, on 09/04/2008, -0/+21Good games: Easy to learn, difficult to master.
  • ericbenatar, on 09/04/2008, -2/+14I hate when I am close to beating a boss and I have to pee like crazy. Then I have to finish the fight standing up and dancing around hahaha
  • ikarimaru, on 09/04/2008, -1/+27Better AI instead of cheating AI, definitely. That would definitely be my main complaint with Mario Kart in near-every incarnation. I'll be ahead by half a lap, and somehow they'll still rubber-band to be behind me right at the end. That's ridiculously annoying.
    • DforSpiD, on 09/05/2008, -1/+9That's why when my sister and I used to play Mario Kart 64 we would always have one that stayed with the pack and shoot anyone who cheats to get past them, while the other raced as fast as they could
    • Evi1d33d, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6Damn blue shell!
      • ikarimaru, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3*woooooooooooooooosh*, *explosion* "*****!"
  • frostbyt, on 09/04/2008, -3/+8Make a game with rock, paper, and scissors in mind. For example take a game like CS. The (rock part) would be a sniper finding a nice long hallway. The (paper part) would be the spot the sniper is in would be easy to get to by a close combat unit. The (scissor part) would be the hallway to the spot where you can get the sniper has a counter.

    Playability first and graphics second.
    • spaceshipsix, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5That made little sense. A good analogy for rock paper scissors is Starcraft and the unit balancing in that game.
      • KyleMistry, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Starter Pokemon, yo.

        Grass > Water > Fire > Grass...
  • Webnower, on 09/04/2008, -1/+29Here's an idea... Stop releasing ***** games that took the company a month to squirt out. I'm looking at you, EA.
  • FrankTheTank17, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10As much as I'd love to see them skip all the intro stuff in the game, what ever happened to the awesome intro movies? Remember the intro movies to late 90's sports games? They got me ready to play the game, now they're so lazy they can't hire some video editor to make a 2 minute compilation of the best moves in the past season.
  • sk11, on 09/05/2008, -0/+58"Gameplay is king, performance is second, and graphics are somewhere after that. People have said to us, you know, Portal is cool, but it wasn't the prettiest game. Well, okay, it sold a whole lot, it was named game of the year by over 30 outlets, and many of the people who played it told me they finished it and had a great time. I would much rather have that than have people tell me it was the prettiest game that came out last year."

    - Valve's Doug Lombardi
  • redtaboo, on 09/05/2008, -2/+16How about making a game that takes longer than 6 hours to beat!?
    • massaks, on 09/05/2008, -10/+1
      • indigit4l, on 09/05/2008, -2/+7I agree w/ your comment more, but boo to your grammar. Here's a lesson: they're = they are. So repeat what you wrote and replace "they're" w/ "they are"... it doesn't work. Use "their".
      • darkphenox, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4so the game lasts longer for you why would you complain about that.
      • purzzzell, on 09/05/2008, -5/+1***** you...two of my friends died playing all day in they're moma's basement.
      • HangoverBoy, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3It's "their"
    • Scrappy1850, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5you obviously didnt play CoD4... that took me 6 and a HALF hours.
      • quasipolymath, on 09/06/2008, -0/+2I don't know. I must have played the Epilogue like 150 times before I beat it. 60 seconds?!
  • ThantiK, on 09/05/2008, -1/+5How about them loading screens. Can anyone tell me why there even ARE ANY in ***** like rockband and guitar hero? Load some frets, play a video in the background. GG - how hard is that, honestly?
    • darkphenox, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3welcome to the world of Disk games, most cartage games did not load it was just BAM in the game
      • Squidwalk, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Actually, I think a lot of the load is DLC related for Rock Band. It's still entirely too long without DLC, but I have a pile of songs downloaded and it's murder. My friends have a pretend band fight every time we hit a load screen to pass the time.
  • Infidelcastr0, on 09/05/2008, -2/+22So, in other words, Half Life 2....
    • unorginalityftw, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Isn't Valve just fan-*****-tastic!? =D
  • chilldeity, on 09/05/2008, -6/+3Final Fantasy VII
  • massaks, on 09/05/2008, -13/+0
    • Zarokima, on 09/05/2008, -0/+61: People don't steal games online. They download a copy of it from someone else. To use a response from someone else when some idiot like you compared piracy to going into a muffin shop, stealing the muffins, and selling them outside the shop without giving the owner anything, piracy is much more like going into the shop and buying a muffin, then setting up a stand across the street giving away free muffins that you were able to infinitely replicate from the one you bought at virtually no cost (wow, that was the longest sentence I've ever typed).
      2: Nobody mentioned piracy.
      3: You lose.
    • Webnower, on 09/05/2008, -2/+4I downloaded Spore today.
    • Squidwalk, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2What's "that game"? We aren't talking about a specific game, or piracy. The article is about development choices. If you want to rant about piracy, that's fine, but there's a time and a place.
  • Junior612, on 09/05/2008, -8/+5I wish Digg was a video game.

    Although I'd be losing terribly and MrBabyMan would have over 9000.
  • wilf_brim, on 09/05/2008, -1/+9No more ***** jumping puzzles. And no ***** lava. The next development team who puts in lava levels should be flown to Hawaii and thrown in Kilauea.
    • noahgelman, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Hail Xenu
    • chaosblade77, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4I don't know... a Mario game just wouldn't be a Mario game without lava at SOME point.
      • Fhwqhgads, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4but not in the first person when you have no feet
    • KingGorilla, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2yeah puzzles are pretty lame in game full of violence and carnage. ***** I just want to beat ***** up sometimes
  • ExRe, on 09/05/2008, -2/+3How about allowing more customization and flexibility for what the user wants?

    Something kind of like how Forge is (or more specific, how it was supposed to be) for Halo 3. Along with that give us every option to customize for each game you can think of AND allow us to use a server list and pick what we want to play.

    If one good game could just get that right (along with it actually being a decent game to start with), it would be the most popular FPS ever. Yes, I know there are tons for PC, but consoles are just more fun. There, I said it. I know controllers suck, but it is more fun to play on a console.
  • vimbuza, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6When you turn around, how about your character moving his feet, not magically hovering 180 degrees. Dunno why, but that has always bugged me. Also, would it be too much to ask for characters to be able to move their eyebrows?
    • Goombellaofgoom, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Moving your feet takes an extra two seconds... which could get you killed.
  • RobotKeaton, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4How about protagonists that aren't boring as *****?
  • facepalmjpg, on 09/05/2008, -1/+1This is surprising. I was under the impression that companies had totally given up on improvement and were comfortably sitting on the strategy of pumping out the same ***** with different characters and titles, while still making millions because most people do not have the attention span to finish difficult puzzles and dislike looking stupid and imcompetant, even to themselves. So instead companies are making millions on dumbed down ***** games so players can feel smart and satisfied when they finish puzzles and games that with an alternative story could be marketed to children.
  • novask, on 09/05/2008, -0/+17That's a bit much to ask for. We don't have better AI because it takes a lot of CPU cycles for a good AI, the better the AI the more CPU cycles. People always complain about how a game "isn't coded properly" but PC's of today just can't handle the ***** we want. People could program an AI that could tax even the best PC on the market and still crave more power.

    The same thing applies to the console load time. It doesn't take that long because they want to show you logos, its because the games have to be loaded off a DVD several gigs in size every time. As for all the other things like environments, improvisation and realism, all those take time and unless you want games to cost $100 a pop or take 6+ years to complete, this won't be happening any time soon. Let me also say one last thing about realism, I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and I stopped half way through. I could carry 2 guns, ammo, a few med kits and everything I was wearing. Other than that I couldn't carry a damn thing and I had to walk everywhere. No thanks.
    • khyberkitsune, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Umm, my current STALKER loadout is the Military Armored Suit, VLA Special with the scope and 10-round clip, Tunder S14 modified for standard AK rounds, Big Ben, and with just that I have more than 14kg free. What DID suck about STALKER is that artifacts weighed .5kg each, and there were so many of them lying around you'd weigh yourself down in no time just nabbing them all from dead bodies. BTW, STALKER is about being stealthy and stuff to avoid needing to use bandages and medkits. I just beat it on Master mode today. Ignore the Exoskeleton suit, even if it does boost carrying capacity to 70kg. You're not able to run at all.
    • EntangledPhysx, on 09/05/2008, -1/+2Damn stalker was ***** gay.
    • invinciblechunk, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6STALKER needed a push cart. That would have been perfect. It wouldn't have broken realism, either. Sorta.
  • copet, on 09/05/2008, -1/+3It really depends on the game. Some games I would love to be 100% realistic, but some I can understand being Rambo.
    • MikeFallopian, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5Are you trying to say that Rambo was not 100% realistic?
      • copet, on 09/06/2008, -0/+3They really underplayed his impact against the defeat of the Soviets. I just want him to have credit where its due.
  • SpideR87, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Please send this to EA. At least Blizzard has most of this crap right.
  • patm1987, on 09/05/2008, -1/+14Although I would love to see all of these improved on (and many games are working on this) there are technical or licensing reasons behind these.
    "Allow for Improvisation" - Many games are just lazy and force you to do one particular sequence of events that only make sense to some random designer that is anything but intuitive. But actually allowing total improvisation is very difficult to test and design and may actually make the experience worse. In the end, I'd prefer one well tested (and possibly thoroughly scripted and well engineered) solution to a problem rather than many possible poorly engineered and usually simpler solutions. Given time with improvements in AI, Physics, and innovation (games are still a fairly new medium and not everything has been throught of or designed) this should improve.
    "Balance of Fantasy and Realism" - I agree that this can be improved on but it really depends on the developer and audience. I prefer more abstract and simpler games while I have friends who enjoy the hyper-realistic shades of brown games with really really powerful bloom.
    "Creative Environments" - We are getting to the point where computers are powerful enough to shove things in arbitrary places, but in the end it comes down to content. A barrel is easy, you make one model with one animation and one algorithm to generate whatever possible "loot" and you can test it quickly and easily and scatter it around the world in extremely large numbers with minimal hit to the file-sizes of levels and code. Remember that every interaction in the game must be coded, tested, designed (drawn), and placed, and most of the people who would complain about arbitrary boxes scattered around also would complain about a game only lasting 6 hours because each level was meticulously designed and tested. Hopefully though, with increased power and storage you will get more creative and well designed environments where you can (if you really want to) rummage through drawers for ammo.
    "Non-Irritating Advertising" - It's EA.
    "Better AI Instead of Cheating AI" - In some cases the AI gets very artificial and very irritating bonuses. In the end, though, the AI always has to cheat. The AI is part of the game, the game knows where you are, what the level looks like, your health, everything. The trick comes in making the "cheating" invisible and many good AI programmers can do this. Also, I'd like to point out that any of the games I've worked on (all indy and not really good games) I usually design a controller interface and player input, networking, and AI all use this controller to move and act. So, although the AI may know where you are and to run at you at any time it can't break the rules of the game in actually acting (which is what people probably complain about most when they say the AI is cheating).
    "No More Male Heroes Who Look Like Chicks" - Agreed.
    "The Ability to Save Whenever I Want" - Ditto. Although limiting this ability seems to of stemmed from the lack of space available to the previous generation (and earlier) of consoles.
    "Let Me Play the Game Already" - I really agree that intro logos are annoying, but in most cases the developer's hands are tied. Personally, I am always required to show an unskippable logo (it's a still though) and usually put in a screen for the team name (that can be bypassed and is usually also a still). But when you see logos for publishers, card manufacturers, SDK's, etc... it's usually so you can get the game. Card manufacturers (plays best on nVidia and such) are just for the money, but publishers require their logo to actually distribute the game, and the teams that make middle-ware (havok et. al.) greatly ease development and understandably want the credit they deserve so they demand a startup logo.

    In short (bet you wish I put this up top) developers do enjoy input about this stuff but I'd like to point out that they aren't just trying to screw you over. A good number of these we're discussing in some form or another with a project that's just now getting underway (stuff such as environments and improvisation especially because we're a very small team with a very limited amount of development time so we have to minimize content as much as possible and design around the fact that we may not get an artist).
  • Velnich, on 09/05/2008, -1/+7A balance between realism and fantasy- yes!

    Also tired of people whining, "it's a game about zombies and you're judging it's realism?!?!?".

    ***** yes I am. I want it to be immersion because that means more fun and better scare.
  • JoeRW, on 09/05/2008, -3/+7What would improve games 100%? Fix the realism factor by making all pipes, wheels, barrels, noses, bottles, poles, helmets, rivets and screws ACTUALLY ROUND instead of bloody pentagons.
    • Nescirian, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4yay infinite polycount
    • Days, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4So you are talking about having polycounts in the range of what feature movies use? Take Wall-E for example, it takes pixars render farm (hundreds of cpu networked together for parallel processing) anywhere from an hour to 2 hours to render 1 frame.

      You think you could play a game that runs at 1 frame per hour? If so, have all the realism you like.
  • jaydog3199, on 09/05/2008, -1/+5A ***** remake of a side scroller (sonic, golden axe, streets of rage) that's actually a ***** side scroller.
    • chaosblade77, on 09/05/2008, -1/+5Why a remake, just a new game all together. I think the only way we're going to get a good Sonic game out of Sega is if they start making 2D games for Wiiware, PSN, and Live Arcade.
      • BuddingMonkey, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3braid, castle crashers, and pixeljunk eden are examples of 3 excellent new in 2008 side scrollers (castle crashers is technically a beat-em-up). And for Jaydog what about bionic commando rearmed?
    • Goombellaofgoom, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4Lessee... Bionic Commando... Mega Man 9... New Super Mario Bros...

      Do any of these count?
  • pisseddog, on 09/05/2008, -2/+6Bioshock
  • shawnanigans, on 09/05/2008, -0/+10I love the idea of putting items in coat pockets and stuff it's so small but adds to the realism. Plus he forgot randomly spawning enemies. ***** I hate when I've cleaned out a room and as I'm cleaning out another area enemies from the room I just cleared out shoot me in the back.
  • NotYourProdigy, on 09/05/2008, -5/+0Wow, thank you for telling me, a manager at a retail store, on how to fix video games. I guess I should get right on it, right?
    • Cancerkitty, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4My god you must have some ego to think that this was directed at you.
      • NotYourProdigy, on 09/05/2008, -1/+0I could sit here and write an artice "directed" to Hollywood on how to fix movies, or an article "directed" to the U.S. President on how to start paying our debt. Would that deflate my ego? Or would I become a know-it-all writing about things that are none of my business?
      • Cancerkitty, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1First of all, you acted like the whole article was written for your benefit for some reason. Second of all, as a consumer, the quality of products that I'm paying money for is none of my business?
  • extremeg24, on 09/05/2008, -0/+5No quick time events.
  • aereaus, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2As I responded to in the article... check out Bethesda's Fallout 3. It's going to rock and has addressed a lot of these issues.
  • kishosingh, on 09/05/2008, -3/+3Recently, Microsoft has lowered its Xbox 360 gaming consoles prices also.
  • evilskittles, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3God i wish the developers would read this article. and i have one more thing to add to it.
    Game Ideas that take more then a 2 minute brainstorming session to design.
    -This is how i envision the deadrising idea squad.
    "What should we make a game about?"
    "hmm, Zombies?"
    "Zombies! great idea, ok where are the zombies gunna be?"
    ".... uh.... umm, a shop..ping mall?"
    "Perfect! ok team, lets get this game going!"
    Wow, that was so hard. Seriously, make games with some actual thought into the premise of the game. Like Mass Effect, Oblivion, or Fable, more great games like those.
    • ScionX, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3I know what your saying, but I thought DR was basically supposed to be a take from Dawn of the Dead, and that's why it's taking place in a mall.
    • HangoverBoy, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Have you even played Dead Rising?
  • swern425, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7Deus Ex addressed many of these issues back in 2000.

    Improv - Throwing random objects (a mod causes heavier objects to cause more damage, with the tradeoff being an Augmentation required to pick-up heavy objects in the first place).
    Fantasy/Reality - Inventory limited geometrically; all objects take up a certain number/shape of boxes in the inventory screen.
    Creative Environments - Well, the game does have plenty of crates and barrels. The environments were well designed for the time for the most part.
    Advertising - Zero.
    AI - Definitely had room for improvement but wasn't omniscient as to your location. On realistic mode both you and the enemy would die from headshots or extreme torso damage.
    Metrosexual/Bishōnen hero - JC looked pretty badass.
    Saving where/whenever - Affirmative.
    Let me play the game - All logos are skippable.
  • Speed, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Only problem with first element: in order to make an item usable as a weapon is to program it as a weapon. Then we're back with the same problem of using what you want as a weapon and not what the developer wants (though Dead Rising came pretty close)
  • RawOysters, on 09/05/2008, -1/+4I hate completely linear games!
  • 2Bnor2B, on 09/05/2008, -0/+21. Support user submitted content.
    2.
    • 2Bnor2B, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Sorry, Digg did not post the comment correctly. I'll have to retype it.
  • 2Bnor2B, on 09/05/2008, -0/+41. Strongly support user submitted content.
    2. A game should continue to evolve even after its release date (not just bug fixes and patches)
    3. No intrusive DRM - a game should run from the hard drive.

    * Note: Valve's Team Fortress 2 accomplishes all these.

    Additional ideas...
    - Downloadable AI. Multiple AIs with different personalities selected randomly.
    - AI's that share their "experience" with the developer which can tweak their formulas
    - Allow the AI to use distributed processing among the game PCs (think skynet meets starcraft)
    - Server based AI's. Can't find a good player to challenge you, try a match with a offsite server based custom AI

  • esc27, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2The Ability to Save Whenever I Want: The normal reason that you can't is because saves can be used to cheat the system, and make the game too easy. The solution are "field saves." A temporary save that ends the game and must be resumed whenever you start back to play, essentially a long pause.
    • Cancerkitty, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1I'm fine with "field save", but honestly, why should the developers care if we cheat the system by reloading saves? Is it really their intention to frustrate people by making a game harder? If people want the challenge, they won't cheat, and if the don't want the challenge they will.
    • fuzzynyanko, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2I like the saving system in a lot of DS games. Basically you have a single, save anywhere slot that deletes the save right after you load it, but the usual save point slots.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 64 of 64 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.