You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake . . . I loved Portal.
Referring to the article you linked to:
#10, unlocking stuff - I agree with this, and I agree with it more as I get older and my reflexes aren't the same as 10 years ago. I don't want to repeat the same level 10 times trying to obtain absolute perfection. It's just not in me anymore.
Unlocking awards that don't affect gameplay is okay, but having to become a perfectionist just to finish a game is not.
#9-7, overused levels: Agreed. Those level types really are overused. In pretty much every game type.
#6, pistols: Agree, although IMHO Halo got it right by making the pistols actually useful as a mid-range sniping weapon. For most other games, however, the pistols are just plain useless.
99% of the time, it's because the pistol is the "infinite" weapon, and because game developers don't pass out enough ammo to the player in the game. In other words, to make up for sloppy level design.
#5, cut scenes: Agree. If you have too many cut scenes, maybe you should've made a movie instead of a game. May be more or less of a problem depending on the game type, though.
#4, save game points: Agreed. Save points need to be eliminated. Completely. I will not, under any circumstance, buy a game that prevents me from saving.
Luckily, those types of games are pretty rare on PCs, my gaming platform of choice.
Who REALLY cares if you can save anywhere? Is your level design really so important that we have to play it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again until we get it exactly right?
Frankly, that's absurd. I play games to have fun, not to become frustrated. Life is frustrating enough, I don't need my entertainment to add more coals to the fire.
#3, agreed. While this usually refers to fantasy and adventure games, I'd like to add MMORPGs to the list of guilty game types. Some monster drops some item that I've never seen before with a useless description, and I never know if it'll be useful for something later in the game.
And as an addition for the MMORPG types: I'm sick of using and collecting odd items as "currency," and I'm very sick of specialized, difficult to find vendors, both of which make the "useless items" situation 10x worse.
#2 - kinda agree, I guess.
#1 - never paid attention that much to gaming magazines. I ike games, but not that much.
