PC Games Hall of Fame/Shame Badge

M

MfA

Legend
I thought a while ago that we need a hall of shame for PC gaming ... with the name of the main developer next to them calling them out for their failings ...

What is the minimum level of finesse we can all agree on which should be present even in glorified console ports?

- keyboard remapping
- invert Y axis support
- gamepad support
- fov 80+
- support for non fixed resolutions and aspect ratios with hor+ (ie. eyefinity/surround)
- SLI/Crossfire support

None of this even qualifies as a major request if taken into account from the start of development ... the only reason for developers not to support this is because they're either lazy bastards or poor planners.

Obviously I'd like stuff like decent MSAA support too, but since so many engine developers refuse to do any real work on DX10.1/11 support it's kinda hard to blame the individual game developers for that.
 
Not just keyboard remapping but properly implemented keyboard remapping.

Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur would fail since neither can properly remap keys. Maybe a patch has been released for them which fixes keymapping issues, but at least in the case of Skyrim the game is such a disappointment (IMO) that I haven't bothered to follow it for months now.

Regards,
SB
 
MfA said:
- fov 80+
Click to expand...

This is the single thing that makes me want to murder the developers. How difficult it it to have a FOV slider, or even an option in a config file I can change? It turns great games into piles of shit in just this one omission. It's the single worst thing we've been forced to accept with all these console ports on the PC.
 
And another pet peeve of mine: ability to disable mouse smoothing and mouse acceleration. Even better, they should be off by default.
 
Silent_Buddha said:
Not just keyboard remapping but properly implemented keyboard remapping.
Click to expand...
That should speak for itself.

Anyone have any other suggestions for the list of things a PC game developer shouldn't be allowed to fuck up with first/third person 3D titles? Mouse smoothing/acceleration disable is a good one.
 
- Quick application exit (2 actions, ideally 'menu' + 'exit to desktop') Hard to believe some games still get this wrong.

- Don't punish gamepad users or keyboard users by only displaying one set of keys during the tutorial or whenever. On the fly detection is really nice, but even just letting us set the controls old school style should make your app give us the correct info easily.

- AA support. For the love of Bob we're in the 21st century. This is the future. I can just about accept no flying cars but you can shove the jaggies.

- Shouldn't need to be online to play single player. I don't game on a laptop. I game on my always on the internet PC. However even though my PC is always on the internet your servers fucking aren't, so unless you guarantee me that they won't be crashing / updating every five minutes like they seem to then don't make me have to connect to them unless it's essential to the game (i.e. multiplayer with ranking / matchmaking).

- AND BRING BACK LAN - you can easily use lag detection to filter out the VPN noobs if that's your beef.


Excuse my vitriol, it's 02:30 and way past my bedtime.
 
bigtabs said:
- Shouldn't need to be online to play single player. I don't game on a laptop. I game on my always on the internet PC. However even though my PC is always on the internet your servers fucking aren't, so unless you guarantee me that they won't be crashing / updating every five minutes like they seem to then don't make me have to connect to them unless it's essential to the game (i.e. multiplayer with ranking / matchmaking).
Click to expand...


Yes. This!!
 
Silent_Buddha said:
at least in the case of Skyrim the game is such a disappointment (IMO) that I haven't bothered to follow it for months now.
Click to expand...
Skyrim still has the same remapping issues it did at launch, almost half a year ago. You remap the keys, but the on-screen UI still displays the default key presses.

Then again, Skyrim's entire UI is utter shite, so it's not very surprising they haven't bothered to fix this. It's the aspect of the game they arguably spent the least amount of effort and polish on, bar none.
 
Things I'd like to see fixed:

1. Game launching minigame

Sadly, it's currently norm that procedure of launching a game is more complicated than launching a notepad or web browser. One click is not enough. It must be followed by Esc-key Decathlon for skipping splash & intro videos.

Your fucking publisher/dev-studio/engine/middleware/hardware/RPG-license names and logos are unimportant to the consumer. The only time when it is appropriate to display splash & intro videos, is when player selects New Game from the game menu.

Displaying splash vids at every game launch is as stupid and rude, as would be displaying credits at every exit.

And then there is scum, that makes their splashes unskippable...


2. Quickload blindly loads quicksave.

This often results in reloading previous level. Properly implemented quickload should simply load the latest save, whether it's auto-, quick-, or manual save. Not a rocket science, but only Max Payne got it right.
 
I don't care so much about the common annoyances, it was more that I was annoyed about rush job porting going wrong the same way so often, with stupid mistakes and a general refusal to take into account PC specific semi-standard features.

Especially something like hard coding a couple of keys and having most keys go through remapping does not save time ... it's just bad coding. These are anti-patterns which every developer working on a port should know.
 
It's especially bad in a supposedly AAA game with a large budget and long developement time. Smaller Indie titles or XBLA games I can somewhat understand. Limited budget port means maybe they just couldn't squeeze in the time to do proper keyboard support.

But multi-million dollar developement projects? And you can't get something as simple as keyboard configuration correct? WTF?

Regards,
SB
 
That funny as hell letter that Gearbox sent out for Borderlands 2 also underscores just how fucked up the situation is. They shouldn't have to promise a fair bit of what they did, it should be in the damn game already.

Plus, some of the promises they made in that letter were also made for BL1... So, let's see how true they are.
 
I.S.T. said:
That funny as hell letter that Gearbox sent out for Borderlands 2 also underscores just how fucked up the situation is. They shouldn't have to promise a fair bit of what they did, it should be in the damn game already.

Plus, some of the promises they made in that letter were also made for BL1... So, let's see how true they are.
Click to expand...


Yeah, amazing they are making a selling point out of basic features we were enjoying ten years ago. Console ports actually degraded those things away to the point where they are now considered "extras" instead of "basics".
 
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros. said:
Yeah, amazing they are making a selling point out of basic features we were enjoying ten years ago. Console ports actually degraded those things away to the point where they are now considered "extras" instead of "basics".
Click to expand...

Look at that list again, I can see some shit being extra(LAN support in this day and age isn't as needed anymore, for example. It was half mandatory back in the day due to shitty net connections), but otherwise, I agree.

The FoV slider is needed because standard console widescreen+monitors being closer to peoples' faces=OMG MY EYES.

The most embarrassing, IMO, is the 100% mouse usable menus. When your last game used page up and down for fucks' sakes, something is horribly wrong. At least use the arrow keys or WASD. Christ.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1. Game launching minigame
Click to expand...
How about game ending minigame - looking at you assassins creed 1

how about driving games that have no wheel support - wheelman (should be renamed joypadman)
blur is another
 
I.S.T. said:
When your last game used page up and down for fucks' sakes, something is horribly wrong. At least use the arrow keys or WASD. Christ.
Click to expand...
Ugh! What game would that be, so I know to avoid it...?

There isn't even any pgup/dn keys on a laptop's keyboard typically, so how could they do something like that? Terrible design, just terrible.
 
3+ mouse button support (configurable)

Several graphical settings and not just the low/high that will turn on effects that will degrade performance a bit too much, or, you don't like.
 
I'll start:

Mass Effect 3...

* no gamepad
* internet for single player (connection issues to EA servers hence incorrect single player ingame stats)
* no real graphic options

...shame!
 
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