I'm sure that everyone has little niggling things that annoy them about buying and playing games. Mine is packaging. If I pay upwards of forty dollars for a new game I reckon the least they could do is give me a jewel case so I can keep it in my CD rack. I don't like keeping the game in the box since then they get torn up over time and I have no desire to shuffle through a stack of identical white paper envelopes or deal with a cardboard fold out CD holder. What the heck is so hard about putting a cheap plastic case around the CD?

Okay, now that I vented, what gets your gaming goat?

Visionism, The jewel case vs. the paper sleeve has been a hot topic here before. I agree, I hate the paper sleeve. I put all my cds in plastic sleeves after I unpack the game, but I do like the jewel case with the front and back insert. It makes it a lot nicer for the collector, as myself.

I hate manuals with print that is too small to read - or is printed against a background that is almost the same color as the print. Even worse is no paper manual at all.

Paper sleeves are better than cardboard folders that leave cardboard lint all over the back of the CD. The worst packaging I ever had was a cardboard sleeve where the glue that was holding the cardboard together on the edges was stuck to the back of the CD. Essentially the CD was glued to the sleeve. Yecch!

I hate when you buy the game you are just dying to play, you get home, pop it in, but you can't get it to launch, and you have no idea why! Grrrrr....!!!

It's because you're using XP

Actually, it is usually because of some weird conflict between the game and the video card; at least, in my case. It is frustrating.

Sandy sleuth - me to!!!!! and its happening more and more

I'm with you Sandy AND Visionism regarding BAAGing a game that was hyped, like Sherlock Holmes Silver Earring, and finding out that not one of our 3 computers will run the darn thing. What gives? And then to see all the negative comments about the quality of the game on top of that makes me sooooooooooooooooo glad I did not pay a lot for it. And, yes I do have one computer with XP on it but the other 2 have WIN98 with different hardware in each of them, different from the other. But still, at $20 for one game that will not run I might just as well have lit a match to a $20 bill! I do like the Sherlock Holmes games and am very disappointed. And I truly hate it when I see that I have to be a Computer Genius to fiddle with all my settings just for one game that is being stubborn/stupid and then those settings mess up everything else I have on my machine......POO! (That's a polite way of saying c..p!) and NUTS! to the 'genius's that do this to us! Thanks for letting me VENT!
Love, Betty Lou "laughter is the best medicine" they say

I also hate games that come in a box without jewel cases for the cd's! Talk about cheaping off! It infuriates me to have to put my cd's in the box, search through the documentation for them when I want them, usually hurting the loose manual in the box and the box in the process.

I keep my boxes in a separate place from my cd's also, Visionism. That's definitely one of my pet peeves also.

Melanie

I have the paper sleeved ones in a drawer and the manuals stored seperately. It is a pain to go through the stacks to find a game to replay but then thats beacause I'm not organised enough to put em in alphabetical order!!

My pet peeve is when the settings are so dark it makes it very difficult to play certain areas. Surely it wouldn't take much to lighten them up a bit???

Sandy I think you jinxed me! Last night I came across my first ever "won't run at all" game with Syberia 2. Since it wouldn't get past the splash screen and some CD accessing I thought the copy protection might not like my wife's CDROM drive. Fixed it finally and now we're happily wandering around Romansbourg!

Like I said to her at the time, "Who's your favorite geek?"

My "hate", for the moment is that I have installed URU: Complete Chronicles and it won't make an AVATAR for me. It just sits there "creating" it but never quite making it. If the darned game can scan my computer and determine all the hardware, etc., that is on it and say it is compatible with the game then WHY is it hanging up at this point? Never had this happen before!

For a regular, always to hate problem, I guess I have to go along with Jenny100. Print too small to read but, even worse, print that is on a background where you can barely see it.....and too small, too (usually)

Visionism: Sorry!!! Never meant to Jinx you!!
Tigger, That just happened in the last game I played, Dracula. The settings were so dark, it was difficult to find the hot spots. I was forced to peek at the walkthrough for that very reason!!

Sandy

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Playing: Shivers

Wow, I feel really fortunate. There's only one game I haven't been able to get to run at all, and that was because of a software conflict.

My pet peeve in this area, though, would be games that crash for no apparent reason or games that don't run smoothly (choppy sound, video, etc) eventhough my system meets or exceeds the game requirements. It makes me think they're not being honest about what the requirements really are. Come to think of it, though, I haven't had much of a problem with that since I got my new 'puter.

WW

my hate is that I can't find any good games around at the moment!

Guess you must have played them all. Not a happy place to be in!

I never thought of putting them in a drawer, Tigger. That's a good idea but my drawers are a disaster. I must be more disorganized than you are.

I either put them back in the box or if I have lots of empty jewelcases at the moment, I put them on the shelf with the games that came with jewel cases.

Melanie

As far as CD's in paper sleeves are concerned, I simply remove the CD's and put them in plastic jewel cases. Usually the face of the CD identifies the game. However, I don't have the end identification and I use racks for storage, so I have to pull them out to check the CD.

Probably my pet peeve is to find technical gliches which hold up my playing of the game. VISIONEER has guided me on a recent difficulty. Why can't they get a game right without having to resort to patches? Are they in too much of a rush? Cutting back on Beta testers? Whatever, it's annoying.

The last thing I'll mention are puzzles that seem to have no logical solution. That is frustrating to me. I don't like cut and try solutions. There should be some good rationale to any solution. Otherwise its grumble, grumble.

My personal pet hate is upcoming games that have websites that haven't been updated in weeks or months. I like to get a sense that something new is happening with a game -- a new screenshot or a bit of news. Something to keep my hopes alive.

hmmmmm....my personal peeve...games that are called 'Adventure' and turn out to be Action/Adventure...(w/ridiculous timed puzzles and not a good length of time to solve in, and/or jumping/leaping), games that do not allow you to save when /where you want, games that do not have separate gamesave files for each save...U R U , and you have to wait FOREVER for it to reload ( ummm U R U )..games where you have to go back and forth so much you almost think your mouse is going to wear out. It is really a shame (for me anyway) about Myst IV...beautiful game, but i won't replay it...there are 2 puzzles that i cannot do (and believe me i have tried..you have no idea how many hours..)but dadguy got me thru, and Uru, same thing...except you are really out of luck there because you cannot even send a save and get help. i just managed to luck out for the jumps...of course i onlyjust finished Uru prime a month or so ago and now blundering in the expansion (been working on whole game for MONTHS) clueless. Again, beautiful , but so frustrating i will never replay. AND even worse, to me, not going to pre-order Myst V ! I loved the Myst series, but this last one has sort of put me off.

Very definitely! Broken Sword III has been a major disappointment for that reason. I keep leaving it and not getting back to it again and will probably never finish the game. And I loved the 1st two so much. Why'd they have to go and do that?

I hear ya Shadowimr! I'm waiting impatiently for some games too.

i agree with the thing about not being able to get games to run. is nothing simple anymore?

Gamenut, sorry to say it but you're really going to dislike Path of the Shell if that's how you feel about Uru Prime. I really, really disliked POTS and I *liked* Uru...

WW

Atlantis evolution was the same way-