There are a quite a few pitfalls that can exist in any genre of gaming. Many times these problems overlap. There is however one area of gaming that seems to suffer the most from poor design, lack of planning and sometimes just terrible development choices in general. Multiplayer and online gaming is a tricky beast. While folks are more than willing to spend their hard earned money on well designed titles, it stings pretty badly when you find that the experience you’ve been promised and the one you got were completely different.

It takes years of design, redesign and balance to get online gaming right and sometimes even after all of that there are still problems that arise; problems that can easily make or break a game. While much of this is trial and error that has been discovered throughout the years, there are some choices that are downright sinful to implement and support.

Confusing UI:

There are plenty of online shooters and MMO’s that do this right, and why wouldn’t there be? There are plenty of instances out there where the user-interface has been done wonderfully. That’s what makes this sin all the more inexcusable though. It’s understandable why it might happen.

A developer wants to try something different and if they can’t streamline their design, they may keep the screen fairly free of clutter. Sometimes this can go horribly wrong though. At a look at The Secret World, for instance. Its UI is confusing and feels bloated. While it is explained in the game, it does leave a bit to be desired. The organization and display of information in this interface is woefully lacking and can become confusing, especially for new players.

10) Misjudged purchase

With games costing the earth these days, buying a new title requires careful consideration. You may think a new release is a day one purchase but without substantial praise from eagle-eyed reviewers such as those here at GamingBolt, perhaps it’s best to hold off to see whether a game musters enough kudos. Who among you thought Star Trek or Lost Planet 3 were going to awesome, eh?

Plenty of games have some spooky moments in them. Some parts of games jump out and scare you, while other bits creep up into your spine, sending shivers through your body like a wave of suspense. Some of these games scare you and it’s done before you can even realize what happened, as your instincts take over, you  blast out at whatever it is that scared the hell out of you and you move on.

You cannot kill or deal with the horror that is dogging you at your heels. Sometimes it’s all the more subtle too, all that needs to be done sometimes is to have some good auditory and lighting queues to make a player jump. Whatever the flavor of fear, developers have quite a few tricks up their sleeves these days. While there are undoubtedly countless numbers of moments in gaming where people have been scared out of their pants we are going to stick to the one’s that have stuck in our mind. Keep in mind there may be a few spoilers in here, so careful what you read.

1. Gone Home:

There is a scene in this game where you find a secret room with a pentagram painted on a small, antique table with candles set up on all its points, with a book about the “other side.” This entire game is pretty spooky, actually. The main character gets home very late at night, in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm to an old, dark, empty mansion. The audio creaks and cracks, there are sounds that resemble footprints clunking around, but there was just something about this small, claustrophobic room with spiritual markings in it.

Well there are plenty of options out now and it’s easier than ever before to find older consoles, handhelds and PC hardware at great prices. Regardless of what you’re currently focused on;  old, new or you’re just working on a massive back catalog of titles until the new consoles come out  there is no need to rush into the future. With great older hardware available, or even the new and woefully under-appreciated Wii-U someone out there has whatever it is you might be looking for. We’ve got a whole industry’s history worth checking out before November.

Playing Currently Owned PS3 Games without Cloud Streaming

Sony announced that we’d be able to access our PS3 games via the Cloud. However, what about those of us who already own PS3 games? What about those who want to pick up a PS4 and don’t have fast internet connectivity (you know, the main reason people previously knocked the Xbox One?) but still want to enjoy PS3 games? It would be wonderful if there was a system for authenticating that some one owns the disc over the Cloud – and it shouldn’t be that bandwidth heavy to do – and then perhaps letting them install its contents on to the hard drive for playing. We can accept that there is no backwards compatibility but considering the propensity of great releases like The Last of Us and upcoming titles like Puppeteer, it’d be awesome if a lighter system was utilized for those of us who want to stick to discs.

Support for Mods:

Look at Valve. With the inclusion of workshop, the community has developed thousands of mods for various games on Steam. Since the PS4 follows a PC like architecture, this should be pretty doable. Imagine the possibilities if modders are able to enhance an already awesome experience on the PS4.

Full 4K media support:

While Sony is supporting 4K resolution; the next big thing in Televisions and displays, it is only for select media. Games and movies will have to be made to use this feature rather than simply being enabled with the console detects a 4K compatible display. If Sony really wants to get the most out of their graphics, pushing this option out to all the developers would certainly be a good way to do it. Sure, right now a TV like this is out of our price range but the way technology moves forward it’s not going to be like that forever. Sony might as well get in on the bottom floor with this one.

There are plenty of great games on there way already and we can’t even get our hands on the new consoles yet. I for one have been chomping at the bit just waiting for my PS4 to show up so I can play some of these titles that have not failed in getting noticed by the public. With this leap in hardware it looks like we’re going to be seeing as a lot more cross-platform titles too. So no matter what you choose, there is going to be some great new worlds to explore come November. Even if open worlds aren’t your thing E3 had so many titles to offer this year there was a bit of something for everyone.

Sometimes it’s due to an unavoidable technical fault, some incidents were caused by corporate ego and one particular example was the fault of a large group of douche bags that are sadly indicative of a small segment of the gaming press. Whether you love to hate or just want a cheap laugh, read on for ten embarrassing and awkward moments from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Do you agree with our list? Do you have anything else to add? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more exciting features and top 10 lists, please click here. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.

Stop Screwing Over Europe

I’d be foolish to argue that Europe is a more important market than America because, in terms of sheer numbers at least, it just isn’t as big. That said, anyone who has bought games in Europe knows that we always get the raw deal. Games come out over here slightly later, at a slightly higher price and currency conversion always means we over-pay for hardware and peripherals by about £40 a pop. That said, the discrepancy between the price of the Xbox One in the US and UK is a complete joke. Priced at $499 in the States, the UK price of £429 converts to roughly $672.50 by current market prices. Why the hell are we paying over $150 extra for the console in England? I can stomach and extra $50 or $60, but anything over a hundred is taking the piss. Jog on Microsoft. You’d better sort your conversion rates out if you want solid customer satisfaction in Europe.

Unveil Some Convincing Online Features

It turns out all those rumours of a hated always-on DRM policy are true for the most part, and I can’t imagine anyone is happy about it. The main issue is how unnecessary it feels from a consumer angle. Sure, it will crack down on piracy but, without an online feature that screams “always connected” it just feels like Microsoft aren’t putting their fans first. There are certainly a lot of online features built into the Xbox One, but plenty of other consoles can give us online features and an offline experience simultaneously. If Microsoft can justify their online policy with an essential online only feature, they’ll be sure to win back the sceptics. And by essential, I don’t mean Skype.

Sort Out the Price

The price is a joke, but it’s here to stay and unlikely to change any time soon. That said, the least Microsoft can do to justify a price tag some $100 higher than its competitors is throw in some extras or alternative options. Subscriptions may be a good way to start, offering cheaper consoles to those who sign on for a minimum subscription to Xbox Live. Considering Microsoft are apparently in talks with Sky about offering its console with Sky TV packages in the UK, it seems like this could be the best way to go about mitigating the price issue.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/10-ways-that-microsoft-can-win-back-fans/feed 0 160786 https://gamingbolt.com/10-greatest-moments-from-the-current-generation https://gamingbolt.com/10-greatest-moments-from-the-current-generation#comments Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:00:40 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=157009 This generation has been a mighty interesting one. The dawn of online gaming as a standard for console games, a multimedia focus and motion controls have been just some of the revolutions seen in the seventh generation of consoles, but not all these changes have necessarily been for the better. We thought we’d focus on the truly great moments of this generation rather than the bad.

Whether it’s a flash of genius or a trend that persisted for years, read on for the ten best moments of the seventh generation of gaming.

Do you agree with our list? Do you have anything else to add? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more exciting features and top 10 lists, please click here. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.

It’s not even always about games in the case of Microsoft’s misguided decision to bring Usher on stage, but more on that fiasco later. Indeed, sometimes E3 just gets weird, and we thought it would be worth bringing together some of the expos most amusing moments for your reading pleasure. Let’s just hope we don’t jinx it and wind up seeing any colossal fails at this year’s show.

Do you agree with our list? Do you have anything else to add? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more exciting features and top 10 lists, please click here. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.