DRM. I don't play a lot of PC games anymore because of this. Not a huge fan of digital distribution, or requiring me to be online to play a game. Poopoo on these ideas. (I was planning on buying a new gaming PC, but I've found that my laptop can run Minecraft and Magicka just fine )

The "necessitous" nature of voice acting.

Linear first person shooters. In battlefield 3, the single player campaign is basically a joke. So many invisible walls and insta-death scenarios because you didn't play like the developers intended. I miss the days of the original Halo, where you could tackle enemies in a variety of ways.

The fact that most developers are too afraid to create new IPs anymore because it might not sell as well as the tenth [censored] sequel to something they've already done eleven [censored] times.

Modern JRPGs (with the exception of Lost Odyssey). Final Fantasy 6-10 were awesome. Some of the best games I've ever played. Anything past 10 is basically just a movie. (Haven't played 13 though, although user reviews suggest not a whole lot of change)

Modern Online Multiplayer. It's not the gameplay itself that bothers me, it's the ignorant and people with their awful language and bigotry.

I could go on, but I don't want to depress myself. The future of gaming is both bright and grim.

Streamlining, Stop trying to please everyone by dumbing the game down, all you are doing is pissing off more people then you are pleasing.

DRM, enough said.

Modern RPG's, if you can even call them RPG's.

This obsession with making everything None Linear, what happened to great story based FPS's like Half Life? nope apparently if its linear its automatically bad.

Sequel Madness, just make an original game already, stop trying to [censored] out a new CoD each year.

I wish that they would stop making clones.

(WoW clones, CoD clones, GoW clones...)

The fact that you can buy an iPhone game and then they expect you to pay $5 all the way up to $40 for in app purchases to make the game more playable. Like the new Scramble with Friends or whatever (Boggle with Friends really) is like $3 and then you get tokens in the game to make moves and when they run out you have to wait until your tokens refill to continue to play EVEN THOUGH YOU BOUGHT THE GAME! So if you want to play with a lot of people you have to drop additional money to have tokens...

Luckily I read the reviews before buying the game. I love Words with Friends, but I'm not going to basically pay a subscription fee for an iPhone game.

That game's problem is that it's half automatic. But i do like the combat system

Minecraft esque games.

First rule of GameStop. Ignore everything GameStop employees say

Second rule, if the employees don't shut up after 5 seconds of hyping a game and/or ignore your "no" response to their "do you want x with your y? " just leave. Just walk out. Don't buy anything, just head straight for the exit empty handed. You'll thank yourself every time.

No offense to anyone who works there, but I've encountered too many who just ask me over and over and over and over if I want to get their discount cards or w/e they are, and I've been conned into buying some bombs.

Political correctness. I'd enjoy a game that meddles with my real life beliefs. Something like Caesar's Legion in Fallout New Vegas, a faction that has extreme good sides and extreme bad sides so it falls entirely on personal beliefs whether one outweighs another.

Unprovoked violence is okay, love between two human beings is WROOOOOOOONG.

Game industry is falling behind. It's stuck in the same old cash cows like multiplayer shooters, open world RPGs and the like. Something new please.

Try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

I always hear horror stories about Gamestop and never really felt that way, the one that is closest to my home has always been soo great I never expected such poor service at other locations. Needless to say one of the few times I picked up a game from another location the game wasnt even in the case! Also my sister bought a used Wii Fit board that had corroded batteries inside of it when she purchased it. I've had some good experiences where I have been out of town, but had a preorder or when I was younger wanted a birthday gift but was on vacation, that I would have my mother buy from the locale Gamestop and then the manager there would make sure the transaction was transfered over.

Zach ( the manager of at least 10 years at this store) has always called me by name and been very honest with me and any other customer about games quality and went above and beyond the realm of typical customer service. When I was younger my preorder receipt for a must have game had been stolen and traded in for cash at that Gamestop ( however it was a different employee who checked it out and didnt check the ID), Zach gave me a copy of the game anyway and was more than apologetic. Overall I think that Gamestop can often be a faceless and sometimes a bit underhanded, buisness practices like the DLC debacles, preorder hawking and lowish trade in prices really do not bother me because they are, 1st and foremost a buisness. Also they primarily deal in console and since consoles do not have the piracy or DRM issues that effect PC gamers( thus resulting in Steam,GFWL, etc) prices tend to stay higher longer. Also, I dont feel you can really complain about Gamestops trade in prices...its like going to a pawn store for games, if you want top dollar for your used games you have to do extra legwork or you can trade in to Gamestop at a reduced return but knowing that you have a buyer.

Multiplayers mode, and single player mode, oh we just made this awesome game it has a single player option, sorry it only takes 2 hours to finish, but then you can go play multiplayer, if i want to play multiplayer ill go back to WOW, and the fact that the most games are made for multiplayer and not single player, single player games are becoming scarce, and when a game is basically really just a multiplayer game with a little side game, sell it as that.

Multiplayer whats the point when kiddy exploiters have cracked it within a day and are just messing up sessions anyway, help them get more achievements.

Achievements, i dont care if i get the, you sang while hoping on one leg, and killed 5 milllion chickens while blindfolded ultra mega achievement, what do i get, oh yeah the warm feeling i wasted time getting that achievement, so in the future in history books they can note how i got the, you sang while hoping on one leg, and killed 5 milllion chickens while blindfolded ultra mega achievement. Tell you what when i get the acheivement send me my money back for the game now thats an achievement. Generally what i do when i get an achievement i put my head out the window to inform everyone, that i have achieved the rank of ultra moron, suddenly people rush from their homes, and cheer my name, bells ring out across town, crowds gather to bathe in the wonderment of this achievement, the mayor hands me the key to the city, statues are raised in my honour, who cares its so one gamer can brag to another gamer, oh i got that achievement did you.

And the other thing about achievements, they unlock things on the console they were targetted at not pc. Oh and i love the latest starcraft, if you use the cheat codes, it disables the achievements, wow maybe they could just put a function in to just normally disable them, so i take great pride in only having one achievement in starcraft, what have i lost in not getting the others, nothing, nothing at all.

Cross platform games, first day of release, every platform tech support page is flooded with complaints, one good reason is your trying to make money on a whole lot of consoles and pc and not put the hard work into it, you end up with bugged games, guys stick to one or the other, they do it with halo now blizzard sticks with pc.

Is that really a trend? Other than Minecraft itself, the only one I'm really aware of is Terraria.

Dislike online activation, especially when it's combined with a disc check. Steam is all right, but authenticating and still needing a disc in is annoying.

Also a little sad that LAN gaming is an afterthought (hey there, Blizzard). Would have loved to play some StarCraft 2 out here, but the internet's too slow, and there's no LAN option.

To be fair, its probably difficult to make a cover mechanic better then Gears of War's.
This is one of the reasons why GTA IV is my favourite game ever. It has a singleplayer section that you can easily sink 40+ hours into and an incredibly multiplayer section, Red Dead Redemption also has both an incredibly deep singleplayer experience and a great multiplayer section. Though the reason why I never played Borderlands online on my PC is because I was worried about some kid wrecking my game with a RoseOmega shield or a one-shot Repeater.

I personally love multiplayer, but I do think that most multiplayer/singleplayer games should stay on the consoles where its more difficult to cheat or at the very least an effort should be made to make it even more difficult and convoluted to mess up the PC multiplayer experience.

I was referring to God of War. Gears of War is garbage and Vegas 2 is on par with cover.

Either way, but Gears of War is not garbage and this isn't the thread to discuss it.

It is garbage and I agree, it isn't the place. Sorry.

I will say I don't like the excessive amount of instructions on screen on what button to press. Having it say "Press right bumper to zoom in" every time I get into a tank gets quite tiresome, along with every other prompt on screen.

One-time bonuses for pre-ordering from wherever that you can't ever get later. I'm glad TES V had nothing like that.

The Sims series (which never got beyond a T rating) would suggest otherwise.

Apart from the trends already listed, I really hate the trend that http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealIsBrown. Nintendo are the only ones that I've seen put any variety in their colour palette recently.
Edit: Oh, and the current trend of having realistic graphics in everything. Games with stylized graphics (e.g. Wind Waker, Team Fortress 2) look far better than games with realistic graphics even though both of the examples are quite old now.

Yeah, Glad TES V had game crippling bugs instead of a pre-order horse or something.......

Suggesting a DLC horse would have stopped that from happening or... ? I'm confused.

Definitely agree. Can't wait until some sort of reward system is implemented; Perhaps for every 1000/1000 or Platinum, or every 10,000 Gamer score or Trophy Star, you earn some free credit in PSN or XBLA. Gives people more of an incentive to play the game through.

Too fast paced. I would like a game that lets me savour its content. I've been playing Skyrim exclusively lately, but I had the same issue with call of duty. No learning curve. No balance.
Maybe I just haven't noticed...
I remember a game called Spellforce(rpg/rts hybrid) and it had and awesome feel of smoothness to it, difficulty-wise. You are given new units, armor, spells, etc, VAST maps to explore, plenty of baddies to get your ass kicked, artifacts to discover...all in JUST right doses so you're not overwhelmed but still feel like you have a new toy to play with all the time. This feeling of discovery and excitiment was constant for me.
Gothic/Gothic2 had great smoothness, too.
It just doesn't happen with newer games.
In Demon Souls you are always ate th brink of death and in vanilla Oblivion you're never at the brink of death(unless you play at the highest difficulty as non-sneaky archer).
In skyrim it got better, though.

I dislike the trend of putting dreams/painted worlds into RPGs. They are never fun, they are always annoying, and I would very much like it to stop.

Pre-order/Collector's Edition DLC that can't be switched off and make the game easier.

I bought the Deus Ex HR Augmented Edition because I'm a Deus Ex fan. I like a challenge. I did not get it because I wanted to start the game with 10,000 extra credits.