The video game industry may have evolved by leaps and bounds, but it has in a lot of ways regressed, as well. Today, the cynic within takes a look at ten of the most annoying trends plaguing the video game industry.

Motion controlled gaming

Oh look at me, I’m controlling this character with my body. Oh wait, no, go left. No don’t drop the weapon pick it up. Not the pistol you dumbass, pick up the freaking shotgun. In case you missed the point of that rather exaggerated example that was me trying to control my character without a controller failing miserably at everything. Be honest, when was the last time you played a game on the Kinect or the Move and felt in complete control of your character? Yeah, thought so.

Multiplayer for the heck of it

I love me some multiplayer games. In fact, most of the games on my Steam list are multiplayer ones in which I’ve spent countless hours killing dudes on the battlefield. But, do I want multiplayer in every single game out there? No, I don’t. I am perfectly happy with games that offer an engaging and enthralling single player only experience, as well. Forcibly putting a multiplayer component in there just to appeal to the Halo/CoD crowd is just plain stupid.

Anal checkpoints

You’ve killed that annoying boss and his legions of minions, but that battle has left you on the brink of death. You wonder why Autosave didn’t kick in when you kicked his butt. You stumble around searching for health desperately but instead of medical aid, you come across a whole bunch of people baying for your blood. You try to survive but you go down faster than a Chicken McGrill (why are those burgers so freaking small?). And guess what, you have to restart the game aaaaaaall the way before the first boss fight. You scream, you break the controller, burn the game and slit your wrists. See what happens when you don’t allow players to save where they want?

Short games

I’m down with the whole short and sweet mentality, but then there’s something called painfully short. I’m talking about games that finish in under five hours making you wonder if the developers ran out of ideas or were just plain lazy to complete the game. 

Quick Time Events

Back in the day, when studios were limited by the power of consoles, Quick Time Events were designed to let players experience jaw dropping moments simply by pressing a few buttons in succession. Today with all the tech at their disposal, it just seems a tad lazy when at the press of a button my character can leap into the air, dodge rockets, blast fools in the face and land on his feet with cigarette in his mouth. Why don’t I just sit back and let the game play itself for me hmm?