What's the most annoying non-gameplay effect in games today?

[Mischief Maker]

My vote, high pitched squealing after explosions to simulate "ringing ears," especially when you're wearing headphones.

[MX7]

As an advocate of high pitched squealing noises, this sounds pretty cool. Do you have any examples of games which do this?

[Op Intensify]

Half-Life, CoD, Battlefield, pretty much any modern FPS out there has the "ringing ears" effect.

I wouldn't call it a non-gameplay effect because it puts you at a disadvantage, you can't hear where shots are coming from for a few seconds, so you'll be more easily confused and taken down by surprise. The flashbangs found in many FPS games have this same effect, in addition to temporarily blinding you.

[Ed Oscuro]

Half-Life 2 and FEAR to be more precise.

I was noticing this the other day - no big deal really. I believe the intention was to save our ears a bit from repetitive loud bangs - I'm not sure which is more dangerous long term though, but the squeal usually isn't terribly loud.

I'd like some games to have a mouse grenade though (which makes a variety of squeaks when detonated).

[cools]

Unlocking difficulty levels.

Unskippable cut scenes.

Unskippable tutorials.

[Mischief Maker]

I wouldn't call it a non-gameplay effect because it puts you at a disadvantage, you can't hear where shots are coming from for a few seconds, so you'll be more easily confused and taken down by surprise.

I've got a brilliant new invention to unveil once the kinect fad gets put out of its misery: a controller that kicks you in the balls every time you take a hit! HOWEVER, you can use this information to locate the enemy by the direction its kicking you from!

Not recommended for use while playing Rez.

[Ed Oscuro]

Sir, that invention clearly fails, because the balls are not known for their subtlety. Balls are the anti-subtle.

[Specineff]

Quick Time Events.

[guigui]

Quick Time Events.

This

[null1024]

Unlocking difficulty levels.

Unskippable cut scenes.

Unskippable tutorials.

This, especially unskippable tutorials.

[Op Intensify]

I've got a brilliant new invention to unveil once the kinect fad gets put out of its misery: a controller that kicks you in the balls every time you take a hit!

Some Germans already made it.

[stryc9]

Quick Time Events.

This

Yep, these pretty much exemplify the dumbing down of game software for the masses.
Whats funny is that it reminds me of the way the old laserdisc games used to work (input directions or buttons at specific times).

Retarded. In fact I'd rather play Road Avenger because at least that never existed under the pretense of being a 'real' game.

[louisg]

Quick Time Events.

This

Yep, these pretty much exemplify the dumbing down of game software for the masses.
Whats funny is that it reminds me of the way the old laserdisc games used to work (input directions or buttons at specific times).

Retarded. In fact I'd rather play Road Avenger because at least that never existed under the pretense of being a 'real' game.

I've argued before that we never really left the laserdisc era. A lot of times, games give us an illusion of control while expecting us to do things a precise way in cinematic set-pieces. Boring!

That said.. I tried The Run and thought it was pretty fun (if shallow) Yeah, it's essentially Road Blaster for 2011.

[t0yrobo]

Fucking bloom. Makes 50%+ of the games this gen look like shit imo, and it's going to look as dated as a harvest gold kitchen before long.

[Gozer]

Motion blur.

[Op Intensify]

Fucking bloom. Makes 50%+ of the games this gen look like shit imo, and it's going to look as dated as a harvest gold kitchen before long.

Not to mention "wet" textures and character models that look like clay. That crap is going to age as gracefully as a Michael Jackson timelapse next gen.

[Eno]

Overreliance on bump maps. It always goes like "Oh hey, Is that some nice depth over there?" and then you change your perspective a bit and "Aw, no, it's just a parallelepiped poorly chiselled by fancy textures".

[njiska]

Fucking bloom. Makes 50%+ of the games this gen look like shit imo, and it's going to look as dated as a harvest gold kitchen before long.

Five years ago I would have happily agreed with this, but lately devs have finally figured out how to use bloom effectively for creating transitions between different amount of light.

[Stormwatch]

"Real is brown". I mean, seriously, which one looks better:

[Ruldra]

"Real is brown".

Also known as "piss filter".

[Zaarock]

Battlefield 3 has instead of a brown filter a blue color filter over everything. Most people like the look of it without the filter but yay for stupid filters for "art direction"

[Ganelon]

I've never been a fan of lens flare.

[gabe]

"Real is brown".

Also known as "piss filter".

+1

[Ed Oscuro]

"Real is brown". I mean, seriously, which one looks better:

With all them color, how I gonna know where the guy at?

[Vexorg]

I'd have to go with excessive patching here. A lot of PS3 games seem to be particularly egregious offenders on that one. I've got some games that would require at least an hour and a half of downloading patches before I'd be able to actually play them if I put them into my PS3 right now.

[beatsgo]

I'd have to go with excessive patching here. A lot of PS3 games seem to be particularly egregious offenders on that one. I've got some games that would require at least an hour and a half of downloading patches before I'd be able to actually play them if I put them into my PS3 right now.

Ah...I remember when consoles use to be internetless and most game developers (including testers) took the time to debug a game before release. GT5 comes to mind whenever I have to update my ps3. God patches for console games are now in the range of 100 MB to a GB which is ridiculous.

[Ruldra]

Ah...I remember when consoles use to be internetless and most game developers (including testers) took the time to debug a game before release. GT5 comes to mind whenever I have to update my ps3. God patches for console games are now in the range of 100 MB to a GB which is ridiculous.

Well, GT5 is a special case. Kaz wanted 2 more years before releasing the game but he was forced to do it when it wasn't ready. All those huge patches are content that was supposed to be in the final product.

Other than that, I agree that plenty of developers have a "release now, fix later" mentality that leads to broken games at launch.

[Casper<3]

There is nothing I hate more than Quick Time Events/Real Time Action Sequences.

Seriously, who the fuck ever thought it would be fun to press a random button in the middle of a cut scene? It's beyond stupid.

[njiska]

There is nothing I hate more than Quick Time Events/Real Time Action Sequences.

Seriously, who the fuck ever thought it would be fun to press a random button in the middle of a cut scene? It's beyond stupid.

Cinematronics?

[powersoul]

Annoying, repetitive voice overs that doesn't help. One good example is the Time eater boss in Sonic Generations.