What seemingly unimportant details you hate in a game? Something that you may even didnt realize until someone else brings it up. The following are some examples on tendencies that I consider should be banished from any future release.

1.- Loading screens leading to....loading screens. Ninja Gaiden 2 comes to mind since its recent release.
So you are battling a typically cheap boss and get killed; You are furious and want to get back in the action right away.
You are sent to the "game over" screen, "Continue?" YES!....loading.....then you get to another screen: "Chapter 9...blah,
blah, blah....loading...........ready" Why the hell do you have to go through two loading screens?? As I said NG2 is a recent
example of several games out there that resort to multiple loading screens in a row.

2.- Crrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaawwwliiiiinnnggg death sequences.
I can accept the tradition of touching and enemy and dying instantly (what? are the henchmen suits dowsed in fast action
poison?), but once my life bars falls all the way why do I have to watch my character slowly convulsing in slow motion with
the words "YOU DIED" or "YOU ARE DEAD" or "YOU SUCK", ok, I died, I realized it when my character stopped responding to
the controller input so lets go over it and CONTINUE....dont rub it all over my face. This is specially annoying in action
intensive games when you may die repeatedly.

3.- Condescending menu options.
Press X to exit. "X" Are you sure you want to exit?. "Yes" Quitting game will lose any unsaved data. Exit? "YES!!!"

4.- Stages in a snowy environment.
I hate those damn stages... They usually make for a beautiful scenery in games that the icy context doesnt affect the
game mechanics. I know ice is slippery and since the first Mega Man games I know that running or jumping on any icy
platform will make me slide along. So games like Mario Galaxy, want to innovate? Make the ice sticky for a change!!
Wrestling the controller and trying to maintain your character on route is no fun, its a chore.

5.- Inertia.
So in the real world you cant run from 0 to 15 in 0 sec. You start running, you build up speed and equally you gradually slow
down to a halt, thatshow it works in real life. When you are playing a game, prectically all the laws of logic and reality go
directly to the thrash can. So why does my character must build speed, or slow down before stopping? Dont we have analog
controllers now? You know, push the analog stick a little so Mario moves slowly, push it harder, make him go full speed?
Usually inertia means miscalculated jumps, constant falls in lava pits and more annoying icy stages.
So if we are fighting turtles and self conscious fireballs, I think we can give physics a break, dont you?

6.- No pausing during cut scenes.
Fortunately this tendency is disappearing from high profile games. But nevertheless, a pause option should be a must in any
cut scene for any game. Murphys Law calls for a telephone to ring, a wife/girlfriend to start talking exactly during an important briefing
or a game defining moment. So in these events you usually press "start" and a)nothing happens b)you skip the cutscene.
Pause option is a must!!

Thats what comes to my mind right now. What annoys you?

I could barely sleep the night of monday september 24. I was really excited about the next morning...rushing to GamePlanet /Mexican version of EBGames) to get my limited edition copy of Halo 3. The website announced they would be open at 9AM and a little shy of said time I was ready to go inside....lazy bums didnt open until 10AM. So anyway I picked up the game and walked towards the register when I noticed one of the clerks playing Halo3 with the audio track in spanish. I immediatly asked if they knew if the audio track in the game also included the english track, they said "no", they adjusted the console settings and only got the english menus and subtitles, but no english audio. I called xbox support and asked about this issue... and they were as helpful as a gore-tex jacket in the Sahara, the call ended like this: Me: "So, the only way I can be sure of what Im asking you is buying the game, testing it in my console and if I cant get the english audio track then theres no english track included?" Support: "Well...Yes". Dammit! I put back the copy of the game on the shelf and walked out empty handed.

When Halo 2 came out, I preordered the Limited Edition and never thought about the localization of the game...I was surprised when I heard all the dialogues in spanish; everything was translated literally so dialogues sounded awkward. I modified the console options to no avail. I went out to buy an importedcopy of the game form the "gray market" since when I decided to play it as it was it became unbearable, it sounded stupi, it made me angry.

Why MS, why the f***k could you not include both audio tracks in the same disc? Bioshock has both, Gears of War has both, Viva Piñata and several other games have both! "Gee I hope this latinos stop playing their soccer games and start playing Halo since now is in spanish" Well, f***k you!! I dont like dubbed media! I hate dubbed movies, tv shows and GAMES!! Ok, maybe there are lots of people that cant make s**t of what they are hearing or reading if the media is in english; but you are not offering any choice here.

I will have to wait some days until the import version is available, and Im exponentially happy that I didnt preorder, besides, preordering is idiotic, as if the DVDs were made in materials prone to extinction so you wouldnt be able to find a copy in Wal Mart.

Damn Im angry!

So to my expectations the Nintendo DS is a fraud (edit: at launch day, and as today I still think it was). The initial line-up was lame, the system appearance is lame and I don´t really care for the obvious ports from the N64....and I don´t really see myself swiping the screen to clear a path in the next Castlevania. I really get excited when a new console comes out, I LOVE gadgets....and I was tempted to get the DS mainly because it was so hard to find once it came out, that`s because I love the hunt.

Now the PSP is out and it looks really cool, and for a little steeper price I could buy it and be using it in less than an hour once I make up my mind about getting it. it has a lot of functions but I´m sure that as interesting as they sound, I won`t be using them (edit: yep, havent used them). Kinda of like a Palm pilot...you can watch videos, you can hear mp3s and do some complementary stuff. But If what I really wanted was to hear music, I`d buy an Ipod. All this four devices in one stuff is pretty lame because each function performs so-so, and don´t get me started about this UMD format for movies... Do I smell BETAMAX? (edit: Betamax lasted longer I think)

Well....I love gadgets, and I think I will fall under the spell of Sony. I believe Nintendo really dropped the ball with the DS as they did with the N64 (edit: while still wondering why people are still buying Nintendogs,there has been afabulous improvement on the titles)and Sony won´t miss the opportunity to feast on the big N`s carcass (edit: after two years still havent find the "killer app" for it).

UPDATE:

So here I am more than a year later.

Last june I bought the DS lite; with a cooler design compared to the old bulky DS. I own now several games for this system and even they are not really a breakthru in capabiliies, they are still fun. New Super Mario Bros. follows the "more of the same" formula but is still fun and great for a portable gaming system.

On teh other hand, there´s my PSP. Not enough games, some good games, that is it....just ports and portablesequels of existing franchises. As I predicted and as everyone (but Sony) knew, the UMD video formatsunk to the abyss of oblivion. So much features and so useless....