Here are eight button prompts we would have loved to see in some recent games -- even if they wouldn't all be particularly useful.
Video games give players the ability to do anything they want with just a few simple taps on a controller. Would you like to do a backflip? We have a button for that. Are you looking for Jason? Games have you covered. How about clearing a room of enemies via a series of increasingly complex fighting moves, including this really cool one that involves a lemon wedge and a stuffed duck? OK, that’ll be at least six or seven presses, but it will happen, and you’re gonna love it.
But sometimes, the interface fails, and we find ourselves wanting to do something that developers never really took into consideration. Here are eight button prompts we would have loved to see in some recent games — even if they wouldn’t all be particularly useful.
The BioShock series’ underwater city of Rapture is a wonderland of mad science and imagination, both of which lead to the creation of some of the most horrifying monstrosities in video games. I just wanted to take a minute to comment on how jacked up that place really is.
Corvo, the hero of this fall’s Dishonored, takes the silent protagonist archetype to new levels, refusing to even try to explain himself when accused of murdering the Empress of Isles at the beginning of the game. Not only did he have absolutely no motive, but he saw the murder occur. Despite the fact that future plot developments would render any of his explanations pointless, his silence under these circumstances is still somewhat confusing.
L.A. Noire witness Jessica Hamilton came to Hollywood to become a star. Instead of fulfilling that dream, she attended an “audition” in which the producer drugged and raped her and filmed it for his underground porn ring.
Even after all that, Jessica held on to the belief that she might still get the part, but I really just wanted to send her back to Wisconsin.
The DualShock 3 controller falls asleep after 10 minutes of inactivity. Meanwhile, Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4 contains cutscenes in excess of an hour in length. This is a minor issue, but it would be nice if the game warned us that our controller was about to have a snooze. You know, in case we had to get up really quickly to take a cake out of the oven or something.
Dogmeat is your canine companion in developer Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic role-playing game Fallout 3. He’s based on Mad Max’s dog from The Road Warrior, and if you’ve seen that movie, you know the trauma that awaits you if something were to happen to your canine buddy.
A PC mod for Fallout 3 offers a set of leather armor for Dogmeat, but I don’t think it goes far enough. Bethesda also offers a perk called “Puppies!” when your character reaches Level 22. It allows you to replace Dogmeat if he dies, but I think we all know that it just wouldn’t be the same. That puppy at the end of Turner & Hooch is NOT HOOCH.
Slender, Developer Parsec Productions’ terrifying indie horror game, is all about making the player feel lost and helpless. It worked a little too well in my case, though, because I kept losing the path and wandering around until I got really scared and exited the game.
I don’t think having a map would ruin the experience too much, and I never understood why your character didn’t pack one if she was going to a creepy place in the middle of the night.
The Unfinished Swan’s hero, Monroe, reaches the end of his fantastic journey to meet the King who created the world Monroe has been exploring. We know at this point that the King is Monroe’s father, but he never brings it up. Maybe he’s too young or amazed to have put it all together, but I could have used some answers from that weirdo.
It’s possible we were too engrossed in the story in GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year to spot a spring-loaded zombie when we saw it, but looking back, that was a pretty blatant set-up.
