Things devs should be punched in the face and crotch for

[Sarge]

Oh, I meant like actual fighting game bosses

Bison being able to do Psycho Crushers while walking forward is bullshit.

This is exactly the scenario I was thinking about, having recently fought that son-of-a-biscuit-eater.

For anyone that's played Tecmo Super Bowl, remember what happens to the CPU players in the playoffs, particularly the Super Bowl? Man, things get ridiculous. Talk about stat boosts.

Also, R.C. Pro-Am, when you hear the sound that signifies the AI is kicking in to destroy you if you get too big a lead. Nothing quite instills fear like knowing if you miss a missile or bomb shot that you'll never, ever catch him. It puts the rubber-banding in Mario Kart to shame.

[foxhound1022]

Oh, that reminds me of how horrible that is in Mario Kart 64. Man, if you get caught in the pack and don't get the leader in sight before the halfway point of the 1st lap, just forget winning

[Tanooki]

How about Mario Party vs entirely AI? Most often when you do this, at least with the original, you can be in the lead and hit that last spot on the map where it triggers some kind of event that can send you back on the game board like 1/2 way or more. And the game will repeatedly do this game after game more often than not. Total demoralizing the game would do this.

When you create AI pitfalls that allow the player to be kicked in the teeth for doing too well is garbage and old games did this as a form of punishment instead of just ramping up difficulty naturally. Board games, rubber banding (car) AI, etc.

[ElkinFencer10]

I hate it when developers make games that aren't Hyperdimension Neptunia.

[Anapan]

LJN were pretty bad, but I liked Jaws and a couple of others.
Ubisoft - yeah they should be crotchpunched.
My friends and I played so much original Star Control on PC (and later my friend and I spent a lot of a summer hotseat playing the 2nd). We all hated the third. I actually didn't know it came out on cartridge until just now. I really want one all of a sudden. Also didn't know starflight existed (or that there was plans for another with elephant dicks).
I do like water and ice levels too.

[Tanooki]

Oooh nice link there.

By the way Star Control on Genesis complete is cheap. It has some nice inserts I think you'd appreciate beyond the usual manual. I think there's an alien handbook with all sorts of data and a bit more, maybe a fold out star map too. I haven't owned it in over 10 years. Had I not got turned off console gaming on the TV quite a bit this year it had been tops on my buy list right along with Dune 2 which I did get (another PC port of that first Westwood RTS, pre Command and Conquer stuff.)

[Fragems]

I am amused by the fact that all these complaints are applicable only to modern games.

Well if I were going to harp on older games it would be something like

1. Off screen enemies with ranged attacks.
2. Requiring Pixel perfect jumps
3. Games that are not score based but last all of 2-3 minutes. (Airlock (Atari 2600))
4. Tight fields of view in a fast paced platformer.
5. Games which impose ridiculous amounts of grinding to pad length.
6. Feel as you go game mechanics not clearly explained in the manual.
7. Games with enemies who are pretty much immortal or super OP where your only real option is to run, but the game gives you no heads up to do so .
8. Areas with infinite enemy spawns where the enemy spawn point is invisible and they just spawn into existence without warning .

I'm alot more lenient with older games though. Modern games where they couldn't be bothered to code extra stuff or where they've disabled common features like jumping so that they don't have to worry about extra testing bugs the crap out of me.

Putting your government name on the title of a game. Will Harvey, David Crane, Sid Meier, Archer Maclean, Garry Kitchen.

Bugs the heck out of me that Ubisoft is going to continue using Tom Clancy's name on games that he clearly had no say in .

[marlowe221]

Ubisoft - yeah they should be crotchpunched.

If nothing else, Ubisoft should be crotchpunched for driving the Assassin's Creed series into the dirt.

It started off good, got GREAT... and then a kind of sequel-itis induced madness took over and they decided it would be a good idea to abandon the overall narative of the first game/Ezio games and to release another title every 6 months or so.

(I secretly want to see the movie though)

That said, I am currently enjoying the hell out of Far Cry Primal.

[Tanooki]

The movie probably should be fine.

But really of all things, sequelitis aside, I think one of the most damning things Ubisoft has done was force an online connection on PC/Console games for single player titles just so they can spy on you in the name of verifying you paid for the game. I haven't bought a game of theirs in years because of that outside of the DRM/spy free Rayman titles up on GoG.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Rayman

That series is so good, that I can never hate UbiSoft. Also, it has produced some wonderful "indie-like" games such as Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Child of Light, No More Heroes, Valiant Hearts, etc., and IMO, it is one of the best big video game publisher in existence today.