Modern Game Features You Can Live Without [Archive]

Darth Marsden

10-08-2007, 04:50 AM

A companion piece to rock_nog's Modern Game Features You Can't Live Without (http://www.armageddongames.net/forums/showthread.php?t=99671).

- Death Animations. Call me old fashioned, but when people died, I liked it when they spun around in a pre-defined death spin. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing more satisfying then pinning someone to a wall with the crossbow in HL2, but when people die I expect a little more then to simply see them collapse in a heap on the floor. I liked to see them try, and fail, to get back up. Ragdoll physics has done a lot, but it still has a lot to answer for when it comes to killing the bad guys.

- Open-ended Gameplay. I blame Far Cry for this. When I'm playing an FPS, I like having one route to go. I like knowing 'I have to go there, there's only one way through, let's get cracking'. Having multiple choices scares and confuses me, and the plot will suffer because of it. One path, one plot, one point.

- Graphics. This is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it's allowed incredibly immersive games like Half-Life 2. On the other, it means that everyone's always pushing the boundaries and making me upgrade my perfectly functional PC. Bastards. We've hit a good level of detail as it is, do we really need things to be even more photo-realistic? Really?

- Steam. Yes, thank you for forcing me to subscribe to your software and be online just so I can play your latest game. Cheers for that.

Nicholas Steel

10-08-2007, 05:13 AM

i believe you only got to be online for the first check with steam... afterwards you can run the program without internet.

edIT: i can live without photo realistic graphics.

Darth Marsden

10-08-2007, 06:52 AM

They still force you to go online, even if it is only the once.

I'm not gonna go into my hatred of Steam here.

Yoshiman

10-08-2007, 10:49 AM

All-In-One Consoles- This is my biggest beef with gaming today. I could care less if my new console can play DVDs, save MP3s, and store photos. All I really want is for the thing to be able to play games. Unfortunately, all these added features are making the price go up, and gaming is already expensive enough as it is.

"Mud" Filters- For some reason, a lot of developers think that monochrome = realism. Too many games coming out seem to have really dull graphics. Gears of War and The Darkness are examples of games with the "Mud Filter." While I haven't played GoW, I did like The Darkness, and the near-monochrome color style did fit the game.

Hand-Holding- It's sad how many new games do this (Zelda). Quite frequently, a game will practically tell you where to go throughout the whole game, and point out the most obvious of things such as "Look at that treasure chest! Did you know you can open it?" or "Your shields are down. Take cover" like the flashing red lights and the beeping noise didn't tip me off. I kinda miss the SNES days of A Link to the Past and Super Metroid. They didn't tell you exactly where to go, but at least they tipped you off.

rock_nog

10-08-2007, 12:57 PM

This is funny, cuz the reason I created my thread was cuz I feel most new features of modern games are unnecessary, so I wanted to discuss the few that I think actually made a difference IMO as opposed to the many that don't.

Anyway, I could do without photorealism, I feel it is a poor substitue for good art direction. Plus the time/CPU resources spent on detailing could've been spent on making bigger, longer levels, more enemies, etc.

BTW, typing on the Wii is a pain in the ass (would use PC but sister's using it).

Din

10-08-2007, 01:17 PM

More than one payment. You may have such a great time playing a game you spent the money you were going to retire on, but then one day later, it says that you no longer have an account because you didn't pay enough, now you're bored and homeless.

Darth Marsden

10-08-2007, 01:50 PM

Sorry rock_nog, didn't mean to take away attention from your thread!

- Episodic Gaming. Let's make sure every game developer out there hears this. Episodic gaming doesn't work with action titles. It takes far too long to produce any kind of decent gameplay as it is without you trying to release stuff every six months or so. It's just not realistic. Are you listening Valve?

- Online Noobs. If I try to play online (rare as that may be), it's generally with someone I know, because otherwise you get stuck with irritating people who can't spell, 13-year old kids who won't stop whining, sore losers who always claim you cheated if you beat them and people who are just plain insulting.

- Old Games not working in Windows XP. I'm having this problem with Discworld II ATM - I've got it running in DosBox quite nicely, but unfortunately DW2 is a 2-disc game, so I'm gonna have trouble when it comes to that second disc. Bah!

MasterSwordUltima

10-08-2007, 04:43 PM

BTW, typing on the Wii is a pain in the ass (would use PC but sister's using it).

Impregnate your Wii with a USB Keyboard, does a world of wonders.

Probably the most annoying thing I think thats killing games, are when they load 'em full of mini-games. It seems to me lately that they're putting too much emphasis on giving the player more to do, when they should just lengthen the story/game.

Sure its fun to go fishing when you should be worrying about the world's impending doom, but when you HAVE to do that in order to get the best stuff...hmmmm [it works sometimes, but its just overused]

MottZilla

10-08-2007, 05:02 PM

"Mud" Filters- For some reason, a lot of developers think that monochrome = realism. Too many games coming out seem to have really dull graphics. Gears of War and The Darkness are examples of games with the "Mud Filter." While I haven't played GoW, I did like The Darkness, and the near-monochrome color style did fit the game.

Gears of War isn't Monochrome. And Gears of War is one of the best looking games so far. They are spectacular and worth every bit.

We could do without DRM. That's what we really need to kill.

Yoshiman

10-08-2007, 05:47 PM

Gears of War isn't Monochrome. And Gears of War is one of the best looking games so far. They are spectacular and worth every bit.
I didn't say it was literally monochrome, nor that it had bad graphics. The human models look great and have a ton of detail. However, real life has more color saturation than Gears does. :p

rock_nog

10-08-2007, 06:35 PM

Impregnate your Wii with a USB Keyboard, does a world of wonders.
Does that actually work? I thought they hadn't integrated USB keyboard support with the Internet channel. If that's true, that would totally kick ass, since I often find myself computer-less (big family).

Oh man, you can't diss online noobs. Sometimes, I have to confess, I find watching their antics to be more entertaining than the game itself. I'll just kick back, grab a bag of popcorn, and watch as the chaos unfolds. Especially in Couterstrike, because so many people take that game so seriously, it's just a hoot.

Ooooh, I would like to add in-depth storylines. What, am I crazy? No, see, my feeling is that if the game is too much about the story, it detracts from replay value. I mean, I love Zelda games, but it's so difficult to go back and start over again, because the story is so integral to the game. I prefer titles like Mario, where the only story is that you rescue the princess at the end, and then you just start over, and safely ignore the story and just squish goombas.

AtmaWeapon

10-08-2007, 10:07 PM

Honestly I feel like the gaming industry has turned a circle and is right back towards too-linear gameplay. This is the flaw with almost every game I've played lately, and except for the couple of cases where linear gameplay is an element of the experience, I'm severely disappointed by how the industry is treating us.

Take the difference between LoZ and Twilight Princess. There were very few tasks in LoZ that had to be completed in order, and in fact several of the "barrier" items were purchasable in stores. One of the first things I would do as a kid is get bombs and hightail it to level 8, so I could get a Magic Key and speed up my run through the game. You don't need a sword until the battle with Ganon, when it's the first logical item you should collect. This ability to do things out of order made the game very approachable to someone who wanted to replay it, because there's plenty of challenge to the game.

The games got progressively more linear as time passed, but from time to time there were still challenges. I remember my jaw hitting the ground when I saw how early a friend got Biggoron's Sword in OoT, and it was interesting how he was able to attack the dungeons out of order.

Twilight Princess, on the other hand, has one single path unless there are some glitches to skip areas. Don't want to pick up that item? Too bad, the rocks blocking your way won't be cleared by that Goron until you pick it up. Want to enter that dungeon early? Whoops, the entryway is blocked by something you need the item from the previous dungeon to clear. This is a sure-fire way to ensure that the game will be played once, then placed back upon the shelf.

Linear gameplay has a place in some games; FPS games can benefit from it but some of them are more fun when nonlinear. Disgaea is nothing but a power-leveling extravaganza and therefore there is one way through the game. But when one of the key parts of your game's mechanic is exploration, linear gameplay is a complete bonerkill. I'm looking at you, Metroid Prime 3, being able to go back to previously visited areas to get items is not nonlinear play.

Pineconn

10-08-2007, 10:28 PM

Twilight Princess, on the other hand, has one single path unless there are some glitches to skip areas. Don't want to pick up that item? Too bad, the rocks blocking your way won't be cleared by that Goron until you pick it up. Want to enter that dungeon early? Whoops, the entryway is blocked by something you need the item from the previous dungeon to clear. This is a sure-fire way to ensure that the game will be played once, then placed back upon the shelf.

Linear gameplay has a place in some games; FPS games can benefit from it but some of them are more fun when nonlinear. Disgaea is nothing but a power-leveling extravaganza and therefore there is one way through the game. But when one of the key parts of your game's mechanic is exploration, linear gameplay is a complete bonerkill. I'm looking at you, Metroid Prime 3, being able to go back to previously visited areas to get items is not nonlinear play.

This, in my opinion, is due to the increasing importance of the story. It wouldn't seem very logical for you to go to the Mirror Chamber at the top of the Arbiter's Grounds directly after the Forest Temple. I personally would prefer one way to beat a game, since it adds (IMO) to the logical progression of the story. An exception is OoT, like how you can do the Gerudo Fortress before you enter the Forest Temple (though the Gerudo Fortress is important to the story, so I suppose I'm contradicting myself).

In LttP, I rather dislike the non-linearity of the progression of the dark world dungeons. I want to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, boom. Done. But you can go in any of the following orders and likely even more:

1,2,3,4,6,5,7
1,2,4,5,6,7,3
1,2,4,5,6,3,7
1,2,4,3,5,6,7
1,2,4,3,6,5,7
1,4,2,3,5,6,7
1,4,2,3,6,5,7
1,2,4,6,5,3,7

Argh, too many for me.

Nicholas Steel

10-08-2007, 10:51 PM

i prefer multiple choices of paths.. why would you want to play a game if you HAVE to play it in order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? if you played it again you surely would think, geez i've done this before, why cant i go over here and do that? oh thats right, i need the item from the first dungeon *grumble grumble*... and then in the dungeon you probably gotta also follow the same set path and require items to progress but also make it obvious where the dungeon items meant to be used.

i prefer multiple paths in a dungeon, no or very little story line, multiple paths in the overworld, and logical restrictions that aren't placed in certain places just for the sake of it. like dont just block off the boss rooms in every dungeon till you beat the previous dungeon oO, try something new like just make a random room impassable in each dungeon instead and dont make it obvious you need the item from the last dungeon...

gdorf

10-09-2007, 02:17 AM

Oh, I have a couple. :)

Mandatory Story Elements
Zelda is good at this one. I'm playing through MM again, and I'd like to skip some of the videos I've seen before. As far as I can tell (I've mashed every button combo I can think of) some of the videos are required. Lame.

Console Patches
Patches lead to lazy developers and frustrated customers.

Nicholas Steel

10-09-2007, 03:36 AM

yea, i like the Sly Raccoon games on the ps2 but every single sotry line part MUST be listened to and CAN'T be skipped.

punkonjunk1024

10-09-2007, 03:03 PM

Easy fucking games. I haven't been challenged by anything in a long time. Sometimes it's neat to just blast through a cute game, but every goddamn game that comes out just hands itself to you.

Steam. Ect.

Half life 2 episodes. What the fuck, this is more annoying than golden sun fucking was. I'D RATHER WAIT A YEAR AND GET IT ALL AT ONCE. Maybe I will.

Crazy graphics with no lower options. Know what sucks? My PC was tits to the wall like 2 years ago when I got it, so you'd think it would still be moderately gaming capable 2 years later. I always kinda thought it was 4ish years to obsoleteness. Well I can just barely touch fucking bioshock, and those graphics look stupid anyhow. Seriously, I can play HL2 with pretty high graphical settings, and it looks better than bioshock hands down.

Shitty FPS's. Halo fucking sucks. I don't understand the draw at all. It just sucks.

Darth Marsden

10-09-2007, 05:03 PM

Easy fucking games. I haven't been challenged by anything in a long time. Sometimes it's neat to just blast through a cute game, but every goddamn game that comes out just hands itself to you.
It's the console syndrome. A lot of games these days are multi-platform, so they have to appeal to the lowest denominator. In the previous generation, it was the PS2, which meant that any multi-platform game HAD to run, and be playable, on the PS2, and all the other versions were basically ports of the PS2 version. The PC versions may have updated graphics, but the gameplay is still that of the console version, and is therefore piss easy.

Crazy graphics with no lower options. Know what sucks? My PC was tits to the wall like 2 years ago when I got it, so you'd think it would still be moderately gaming capable 2 years later. I always kinda thought it was 4ish years to obsoleteness. Well I can just barely touch fucking bioshock, and those graphics look stupid anyhow. Seriously, I can play HL2 with pretty high graphical settings, and it looks better than bioshock hands down.
I hear that. I'm in much the same boat - I can run HL2 on the highest resolution and it chugs along quite happily. Anything newer then that will struggle. Hell, I can't even get Doom 3 running at a decent resolution. Bah!

Shitty FPS's. Halo fucking sucks. I don't understand the draw at all. It just sucks.
It doesn't suck, but single player is, at best, average. I point you to this (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/77559-Zero-Punctuation-Halo-3)review of Halo 3, which, aside from the plot section, pretty much covers the entire trilogy. I think you'll find yourself agreeing with the man on a lot of points.

- Cease-and-Desists. This doesn't seem to happen a lot, but it's when big companies (I'm looking at you, Lucasarts) decide to shut down fan-games or mods by claiming illegal use of copyrighted characters. And it sucks.

- Pointless Sequels. If a game does well, it'll get a sequel. Whether it deserves one or not is irrelevant. For exmple, Red Faction sold faily well, despite it being woefully average, and got an equally 'meh' sequel, which we really could have done without.

vegeta1215

10-09-2007, 07:07 PM

rock_nog

10-09-2007, 07:34 PM

The Source engine runs decently on my PC, which couldn't even begin to handle most modern games (looking at you, Doom 3), and I really appreciate that. I think Valve should win some sort of freaking medal for designing a game engine that's easy on system requirements, and yet can still deliver absolutely gorgeous graphics if the system supports it. Furthermore, I think more developers could stand to learn from Valve's example.

Oh, and Darth Marsden, I'm not sure I'm following. Why should games be easier on the PS2 just because the PS2 has less power? I mean, lower detail shouldn't lead to an easier game, right? So confused.

punkonjunk1024

10-09-2007, 08:04 PM

Steam has nothing to do with the game. AFAIK, it's just a frontend for checking your legitimacy, updating games quickly, and pissing me off.

AtmaWeapon

10-09-2007, 09:25 PM

Collecting things that are long and boring that drive completionists like me crazy - some examples include Tales of Symphonia's cooking system (learning all the recipes isn't bad, but maxing out everyone's skills for each is), and the trophies/statue/weapon/item lists. All the cooking systems in the Paper Mario games, and the treasure map and card collecting in Super Paper Mario are some more. These are a few of the ones I haven't done because they are long a boring. If collecting is fun though, I'll do it.This. I am a hopeless diamond, and if there's sidequests to complete for some kind of item I am going to try and complete them. Collection sidequests have turned a decision to spend an extra hour in return for powerful items into some kind of stupid meta-game that takes longer to complete than the game itself.

I couldn't take any Final Fantasy after VI because they started turning into some kind of sadistic version of Mario Party; by FFIX the minigames had taken over so much that I honestly believe I spent more time pecking at the ground on a chocobo than it took me to complete disc 2.

Wind Waker is a heinous offender as well. The game would be about 2 hours shorter if it wasn't for mandatory item collection quests that aren't even fun.

Drakengard is probably the absolute worst offender of this rule. Seriously, just do yourself a favor and never. Play. Drakengard.

punkonjunk1024

10-09-2007, 10:29 PM

Nicholas Steel

10-09-2007, 10:52 PM

its not hard to find them tho. and moor's law is 2 years, not 4. every 2 years computer technology doubles or something like that.

MottZilla

10-09-2007, 11:30 PM

I didn't say it was literally monochrome, nor that it had bad graphics. The human models look great and have a ton of detail. However, real life has more color saturation than Gears does. :p

Well I think what you are describing is what makes it look dark and otherworldly. I think it's nice. :p

vegeta1215

10-09-2007, 11:55 PM

Oh my god don't even get me started on fucking windwaker.

I'm having fun, just a bit irritated about the stupid sailing, and then...

GO SAIL THE FUCK ALL OVER THE GOD FORSAKEN OCEAN AND SEARCH FOR THE GODDAMN TRIFORCE. SO I HEARD YOU DONT LIKE TO USE GUIDES YOUR FIRST TIME THROUGH A GAME, EH? WELL HERES 6 HOURS OF DICK AROUND FOR YOU, FAGGOT

I didn't really think it was all that bad. In fact it took me much longer to go hunt down all the heart pieces I missed near the end of the game, cause there were just so many of them (and several on the outer edges of the map which you don't go to during the main game)

rock_nog

10-10-2007, 12:17 AM

At least Windwaker allowed for a little wandering off the beaten path. Twilight Princess was so disappointing for me... When it dawned on me just how completely linear the game was, that was just the worst thing ever. In TP, there pretty much wasn't anything but beaten path. Nothing really to explore, no alternate routes, nothing except a couple of caves, but even those weren't terribly interesting.

I liked Twilight Princess, don't get me wrong, but it seriously has to be the biggest letdown in the Zelda series. Come on, some of the Mario games were less linear than Twilight Princess.

Darth Marsden

10-10-2007, 03:09 AM

Oh, and Darth Marsden, I'm not sure I'm following. Why should games be easier on the PS2 just because the PS2 has less power? I mean, lower detail shouldn't lead to an easier game, right? So confused.
If it's on the PS2, it has to appeal to the PS2's main audience, who all suck at games. The easy difficulty built for them then transfers over to all the other ports. QED.

AtmaWeapon

10-10-2007, 10:52 PM

Oh my god don't even get me started on fucking windwaker.

I'm having fun, just a bit irritated about the stupid sailing, and then...

GO SAIL THE FUCK ALL OVER THE GOD FORSAKEN OCEAN AND SEARCH FOR THE GODDAMN TRIFORCE. SO I HEARD YOU DONT LIKE TO USE GUIDES YOUR FIRST TIME THROUGH A GAME, EH? WELL HERES 6 HOURS OF DICK AROUND FOR YOU, FAGGOTActually you know if that dreadfully forgetful green dude had told me to do it that way I'd have probably had more fun.

Anarchy_Balsac

10-11-2007, 12:42 AM

I'd like to see RPGs go back to the days when they were played and not watched. Story development can be entertaining and all, but it should be a small piece of the entire game, like maybe 10% of it. Not 70-90% like it is nowadays. I play games to play them, if I want to watch something, I got my DVD sets for that.

Nicholas Steel

10-11-2007, 09:17 AM

Graphics: This is the revolution that keeps coming back. Face it, you would rather have 3D graphics and sound like from the real world, then just have a dot move around, and then it stops moving from coming in contact from another shot and disappears, it is the revolution.
photo realistic 3D graphics. we only need graphics that suit a game and this can be achieved extremely well if we stop making it so damn complex to do.

Darth Marsden

10-11-2007, 12:15 PM

A lot of people seem to be mentioning photo-realistic graphics... I didn't realise it was that big of a gripe!

- Girly Games. I'm all for games that appeal to both men and women - Nintendogs, Brain Training, etc, but when you make a game specifically for girls, it's going to feature a lot of pink, teenagers giggling and slang words. It will not feature any real gameplay at all, and therefore barely even qualifies as a game. If anything, they're an insult to the girls who actually DO play games.

- Cheats. This is, and I honestly believe this, what prevents a great deal of people from getting better at games. If things get too tough, it's not too hard to turn on God Mode, and it's surprising how many people will do that rather than actually adapting their strategy and improving their technique. I experienced it recently with this Half-Life mod (http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/residual-point-half-life/), and if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't access the console, I would have God-modded my way through Xen. But I didn't. And I feel so much more accomplishment for having gotten through on my own.

- Big Head Mode. I mean, really. What. Is. The. Point.

rock_nog

10-11-2007, 12:57 PM

I don't mind cheats, but then again, I don't generally cheat. Personally, I miss the good old days of Game Genie. Sure, you had your standard "God mode," "infinite ammo," etc., but the real fun was hacking the cheats to create really weird effects. Personally, I think there should be more cheats like that these days, where it's not just helping you, but it has some really weird effect on the game. Like I remember hacking a jump cheat in Super Mario World to get Mario to hover if you held the jump button, which was actually pretty cool. Or that time I made it so that in TMNT 2, every time you died, you would get 99 lives. Unfortunately, it was one of those games that you would get a game over if you got more than 99 lives, so you could only die once.

Anarchy_Balsac

10-11-2007, 01:59 PM

A lot of people seem to be mentioning photo-realistic graphics... I didn't realise it was that big of a gripe!

Amongst hardcore gamers it typically is because we don't like having 308587284737 GB of space on our hard-drive for something with so little effect on the game itself. Especially when you consider the fact that it also mean the game will take longer for the company to produce because of it. I personally think 8-bit graphics are the most fun to play with anyway, I can't really describe why, I just like it that way.

Nicholas Steel

10-11-2007, 07:18 PM

i cheat every chance i get ;) and i know im a terrible player at RTS games ;\ im good at FPS games like Duke3D so long as there is practically no lag at all, else i prefer co-op ;)

i just cant... stop... myself from cheating, like we had doom waay back and i never new the cheats, i was pretty awesome at the game and there even was a save with god mode on ^^ but that guy accidentally got trapped and saved in the trapped state lol but i never knew the cheats for ages and since i have, i have always cheated in the game.

vegeta1215

10-11-2007, 07:27 PM

- Big Head Mode. I mean, really. What. Is. The. Point.

It's funny, plus it makes head shots easy (thinking of Goldeneye 007 here)

rock_nog

10-11-2007, 07:34 PM

You know what kinda bugs me about modern gaming? You never know if a particular game's modding community is ever going to take off. I mean, part of the replay value of a lot of games, especially FPSs, is fan-made maps and such. However, I think partly because nearly every new game these days comes with modding tools right out the box, the modding community is stretched so thin that many games never really get any mods, and even popular ones might get one or two good mods.

I miss the old days of say, Doom, where you would just have thousands of user-made maps, many of them actually better than the official ones, and partially it's because Doom is easy to map for, but I think also it's because it was the only game in town at the time, as far as modding is concerned. Actually, a fair number of maps is still being made for Doom, come to think of it... I wish newer games had that kind of support from the mod community.

Aegix Drakan

10-11-2007, 10:24 PM

Lack of challenge. Phantom hourglass is WAAAAAY too easy for me so far. And Twilight princess...uh...the last boss...I could swear that at somepoint, he did half a heart of damage on me with a standard attack... Now, etrian oddesey...THAT game had a good challenge, and if it would've had a temporary save feature (so I could play in hour chunks, without going back to town whenever I needed a break) I'd have finished that game for sure.

also...

the uberfanboys/l33tists. I'm talking about the people who will insult you to hell and back if you say you don't like the game, and the peole who think that THEIR way is the only way to play. That aggravates me...also, I hate the uberAnti-fanboys. Some people on gmaefaqs have started trying to from an allianc eof peole who would dedicate themselves to gangin up on all sonic players in online brawl...So yeah, I could do without people like that.

DarkDragoonX

10-11-2007, 11:59 PM

Quicksave features. Because quicksaving is for pussies.

Matteo

10-12-2007, 01:40 AM

When graphics hinder gameplay. Modern Harvest Moon games AWL, MM etc are almost unplayable because of the "improved" graphics that slow down the game. There are many games like this. I cannot tell you how many times I just couldn't play an updated franchise because the new game was simply too slow paced for me. 3D gaming. There are simply some games that work better in 2D (Castlevania).

Sports Licensing. There just isn't enough great sports games out there that focus on gameplay anymore. A few come to mind (Hot Shots/Mario Golf, Power Pro Baseball, and ProEvo/Winning Eleven), but there is simply far too few of them. Most sports games focus solely on the licensing property, forgetting why the sport is popular in the first place (the game itself). EA having exclusive rights to the NFL and most of FIFA comes to mind.

And to add to that, movie/book licensed games. Common progression: Starts as a great book; then becomes a decent movie, then is developed into a bad (exclusive!) game. Thanks EA and UbiSoft!!!:mad:

Load Times. Similar to my first complaint. I despise load times, especially when they are in between menu screens and during simple procedures. I would rather have crappier graphics and a shorter game than to have to deal with waiting 10 seconds everytime I fight a monster in an RPG.

Franchise spin-off games. The hundreds of Mario, Sonic, FF, and other games that, if left alone and used original characters would have IMO more validity and respect from gamers and non-gamers. (see Wii Sports as a positive example.) I think that SSB and Mario Kart are rare exceptions, but I would much prefer to not have as many franchise games. Its a shame, because alot of them are great games, dumbed down and rushed out with a marketable image in order to sell more. Why are gaming companies so afraid of new franchises? Playing it safe. Its the ones that create original games that reap the rewards (see GH, GTA3, WiiSports; three phenomenons of the last 5+years)

Expensive controllers. 60 bucks for a controller? 60+ for a wireless headset? WTF? Peripherals are outrageous. When I get to choose between buying another controller or a new game, I think I am going to choose the game. I have 8 different controllers for my Wii, 2 Wiimotes, 2 Nunchuks, 2 Wavebirds and 2 classic controllers, as well as 2 GC memory cards, and an SD card, insanity!

Square Enix. What once was two brilliant companies has because the EA of Japan. Just an abomination. 1,000's of remakes of their games that the new ones can't hold a candle to, uber-franchising, and complete decimation of the Final Fantasy series.

Console redesigns. The Wii is the only one of this generation (including the portables) that hasn't been redesigned yet, and its been out less than a year, I'm sure its coming. The PS3 and PSP have been redesigned about 37 times each and the 360 isn't far behind. The newer versions of the PSP and DS pretty much rendered the original ones obsolete.

The fact that we live in a gaming world where the brilliance of the Dreamcast and its games fell by the wayside.