Aah, i think it was tie-fighter, where you could lock on and press a key to match speeds with an enemy - (albeit instantaneous only). Maybe it was there in x-wing, but i feel like it was one of the minor qol improvements in tie-fighter that made it better.

And then there are games that seamlessly matches your pace and animation with the NPC once you get close to them. cooms

Especially when this happens in small indie games.

You were the chosen one Anakin!

Yeah, or you can pause the game by opening the menu, but not when you're in dialogue, when it matters most.

One thing I love about the Nintendo Switch, you can suspend any game at any time (except online multiplayer ofc) with a single button press

During EA for Hades 2 if you paused while fighting the god of time he would say "I control time here!" And unpause the game. It was funny, but if I need to answer my door I don't want to lose my run. Thankfully that has been changed.

The simulation part tbh makes little sense to me, at least if I pause by going on the menu. Unless it's multiplayer there's little reason for you to prevent me to pause on menu, even if your aim is to be as realistic as possible.

At the end of the day it's still a game and if I feel overwhelmed or the need to pause for whatever reason give me the option to. The people who want absolutely 0 pause can simply not go on the menu or if you really want you can put an option to disable pause on menu IG. Or yk they could do whatever they're simulating IRL, within reason.

I've noticed this is especially bad in Japanese games for whatever reason.

Alaternatively, PUBG lets you quit to desktop from the in-game pause menu, and I've hit it accidentally so many times.

Honestly this is my favorite feature of the Steam Deck and SteamOS. I can (and do) even shut down the entire PC in the middle of a game.

May I introduce you to my good old friend: alt+F4 😬

All this. Everyone focuses on not being able to skip a cutscene but not being able to pause it is even worse for me, especially when trying to pause actually does skip the cutscene.

Another one is QTE in the middle of a cutscene, ugh.

I never pause cuscenes, not because I don't want to ever but because I'm always afraid I'll skip it instead.

Extra annoyance points if escape immediately skips the cutscene without any indication it’s going to.

Rage inducing absolutely.

My wife has the unique ability to always want my attention during cutscenes.

For me, it’s cutscenes in general. I know there are people who do care in general, but for me a game where I care about the plot is very rare. And the examples I can think of (Outer Wilds, or Ico, for two examples) either have no cutscenes or very few brief ones, and tell the story in a different, more immersive way.

For me, a general rule is - if the game forces moments on me when I can put the controller down and wander into a different room, then that’s not what I’m interested in. I want to actually play the game.

Unskipable splash screens are the worst.

This and full white dev/publisher logo screens. I have a pretty large HDR monitor and whenever I boot up a Bandai Namco game I’ll flashback myself if I don’t look away in time.

I've noticed more and more indie devs at least have begun to set master volume lower by default. I appreciate that.

Isn't this what the volume on your sound system is supposed to do? Master volume in a game should be pretty much maxed out by default and the volume on whatever you use to output the sound should be set so loud isn't blowing your ears out.

Unless you are actually complaining about sound levels of stuff that shouldn't be loud (like menu clicking or background music) but that's relative sound levels of different categories in the game, not the master volume.

Cries in shadow warrior

oh, hey, you haven't launched this game in a year

please download and install the new launcher. please login to the new launcher. your login does not work, please go to the website to reactivate your account. you must restart your system to reset the launcher login screen. please wait a full minute for the launcher to finish loading. please wait thirty seconds for us to process your login credentials. please wait fifteen seconds for us to begin the process of launching the game.

It's even worse in VR games. As much as I love Half Life Alyx, there were certain barriers that are literally just a pile of rubble or a chain link fence.

Unskippable cutscenes absolutely need to die. Even on the first playthrough - give me the info I need in a notes section or something, but do not waste my limited time on this coil with slow “exposition.”

I usually quit those when they get too grating and move on, but it’s frustrating nonetheless.