Complaining about video games is a part of gaming culture. We complain about bad games, we complain about games that could be good but are broken, we complain about games because they’re on systems we don’t own, and so on. Today I’m going to take a different tact on that act, and point out things I don’t like about games that I love, and I would like to hear your takes on this as well.

Here are the ground rules for this mind game. No complaining about multiplayer issues, meaning things that are the result of other players’ actions and not the game itself, and it has to be a game that I actually enjoy, so I can’t poke at flaws in Hard Time, for example. Lastly, this is a good-spirited exercise, intended to make me take a critical look at my favorite games. Let us begin, shall we?

NBA 2K15 MyCAREER

I don’t care if you won Finals MVP. You’re still a dumbass.

I love NBA 2K15, but I dread every time my imbecilic MyCAREER player opens his yap. He has a long and storied history of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or doing something off screen that I had no control over that gets him in hot water. Every time a cut scene starts I hold my breath in anticipation of what my dumbass avatar did this time.

I love Borderlands 2, but Claptrap needs to die in a fire. Whether he’s calling me his minion and going on about his greatness or trying to beatbox or “sing” dubstep, he’s my personal bane in Borderlands 2, and I have wasted countless clips of ammo fruitlessly shooting him in the vain hope that the game would glitch out somehow and he would finally die. It never happened, and I was sad.

I love Minecraft, but I hate redstone. I hate it because I want to be good with it, and I’m not. I have had multiple people try to teach me, I have done my research, I have watched tutorial videos on Youtube, but alas, nothing has helped and redstone continues to be my Minecraft white whale.

Morrowind Cliff Racer

I patched you out, so I win. Game, set, match to the player character.

I love Morrowind, but I hate cliff racers. Anyone who has played Morrowind needs no further explanation and is likely sitting there right now nodding their head, saying “I hear ya, man.” For those who didn’t play Morrowind, cliff racers were flying lizard creatures that were annoying as hell not just because they constantly flew just outside melee range, but because the damned thing were everywhere. I, like many a PC Morrowind player, eventually got fed up and installed a “no cliff racers” plugin, and all was well.

That’s my take for now. If you want to share your dislikes about games you love, leave it in the comments below, and if we get some good ones I’ll feature them in an upcoming article here on AAGH.