Blog Banter: sometimes, it's the little things...

Welcome, welcome to the 5th installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month, my ADD kicks in while I explain why I have problems finishing games. Sometimes, I just can't keep interested in a game long enough to finish it. The reasons behind it can range from it's just not good, or that another game I'm more excited to play comes out before I finish. Other times, life just gets in the way. Also, some games just can't hold my interest the same way others could when I was a kid; I say mostly due to not having as many gamer friends as I did when I was younger. I had some awesome gamer cousins live in the house next door to us way back when and we'd always just sit around the Sega Genesis and just kill every game we owned after school and every weekend.

If I had to sit down and think of the last game I didn't finish due to an actual game mechanic... I would have to say any console FPS because analog sticks aren't as fluid as the good old mouse and keyboard. Those minor setbacks didn't prevent me from playing, however. I learned, adapted, and forced my way through and came out on top.

But SOMETIMES, there are little things that just make me go UGH about games and I just stop playing. The most recent example of this would have to be Trackmania Nations Forever. You can get it free on Steam. I can't stand the menus. Maybe it's just be but whenever I press a navigation button, on keyboard or controller, it either feels like turbo mode is on and I can't accurately select menu items or it takes me to the wrong menu item in the logical sequence (it takes me right instead of down when I press down or something like that). Also, mouse clicks don't work. I can't even create an online profile because I can't type in the text boxes. After trying to figure out the quirks (which I didn't) for 10 minutes, I gave up and haven't played it since. Menus, though you try not to stay in them for long, are an important part of any game. Menus should be usable. They should be fluid and understandable. They should also look ok. I love audiosurf but when I first saw their menus, I wasn't sure I was playing the right game. The in-game screenshots looked like total eye candy but the same can't be said about their menu system. It is fluid and easy to get around, but something about it feels unprofessional, unpolished.

Another non-gaming mechanic that causes me to stop playing games are non-customizable controls. If I can't get used to a control scheme, I won't play it. It's one thing when you're having trouble with a game because you're learning the strategies, it's another when you can't even control your character in the way you want to. If a game doesn't have customizable controls but the default control scheme is perfect, awesome. If it doesn't follow any logical sense to use the default scheme, you better make the controls customizable.

That is all XD

Check out these other Blog Banter articles! Silvercublogger, Unfettered Blather, Triage Effect, Gamer Unit, Delayed Responsibility, Man Bytes Blog, CrazyKinux's Musing, Zath!, Draining Souls.net, Game Couch, Hawty McBloggy