When a new or upcoming game is announced, what, if anything turns you off instantly to it?

Examples - cartoony, keyboard control, topic etc....

Ana

Cartoony or keyboard controlled.

Steam-only

Gore

Whiny voice acting

Motion sickness inducing movement -- 3D movement in a 1st person game usually gives me motion sickness -- especially if the point-of-view is only a foot off the ground. It's no fun playing a game if you feel like you're going to throw up the whole time.

Some cartoony graphics are a turnoff, but not all of them.
For example, Bulb Boy is cartoony, but it's not a turnoff sort of cartoony.

Specs that are way higher than what the game looks like it should need.

Flash-based -- Flash is a big agglomeration of security holes. Even Adobe is abandoning it. Updates mean a game that used to work may not work after the updates.

When developers claim a game is "like Myst" and it's nothing like Myst.

Excessive gassing, especially when combined with unfunny "jokes"

Achievement notifications obfuscating the screen while you're playing, destroying any sense of immersion, and suggesting that the game may be "phoning home" without your permission.

"Choose-your-own-story" style gameplay, especially when it's dependent on QTE's and other dexterity-oriented gameplay

Lack of a manual save

"To be continued" lack of a game ending

Advertisements for Facebook Twitter on the game menu -- I don't want to buy advertisements

As Jenny100 said: "Motion sickness inducing movement -- 3D movement in a 1st person game usually gives me motion sickness -- especially if the point-of-view is only a foot off the ground. It's no fun playing a game if you feel like you're going to throw up the whole time."

Not being able to save those are the two main issues.

It would be good if adventure started implementing an FOV slider. Playing at a higher FOV can alleviate/remove motion sickness for some people. An FOV of 95 or more all but cures it for me. Been playing Fallout 4 for ages and haven't suffered a single bout of nausea with it yet (touch wood) :-)

Only available via Steam AND/OR lack of a "save when I want" facility

Lack of save options is definitely a turnoff but not a "deal breaker".

What kills a game for me is arcade sequences that are too much for my slow reflexes to handle. Unfortunately, unless I learn from reviews or other players comments, I don't often learn of these events until I've already bought the game.

Game programmers really need to put a skip option in games that have these events IMHO.

- exhausting dialogues
- QTE
- illogical puzzles
- bad graphics

Motion sickness
Cant skip action sequences
Subtitles only - no voiceovers

Keyboard control.
Download only.
Cartoony.
Lots of dialogue.
Smut.
No control of "saves".
3rd person play (usually)
Timed puzzles.

Download only, Cartoony, endless dialogue, ability to make my own saves, not a true adventure game.

Timed Action Puzzles, Cartoony, No Manual Saves, and Keyboard Controls.

My worse gaming experience of last year was Ethan Carter and that god awful save system. I can't remember another game that I actually dreaded playing. Gorgeous game with brain dead game design. A real shame.

dialogues used as puzzle
cartoony
dark scenes where you can't see anything, used by developers to lengthen the game and save their work time

1. Waiting around like six or seven years for a game after its release date is announced....coughbrackentorcough....

2. Steam.

no walkthrough
keyboard controls
mild review
3D
unavoidable action scenes
puzzles without skip options

Most of mine have been already mentioned so,
Lack of locations, I like games that move, the more the better.
Poor, repetitious story lines. I’ve lost count of the times’ I’ve saved the world’.
Totally illogical puzzles i.e. Mix the handcuffs with the tooth brush “Are you kidding me?”

Third person games. I hate dialogue, even more so when it is part of the gameplay. Inventory puzzles that are cartoony and nonsensical. Multiple characters that you need to keep trying to talk to or try inventory on.
Anything with stealth, action, combat, conflict. Keyboard controls.
I play games to relax, not get a dose of reality.

I have one more, can't find saves.

It's amazing how similar we are in our pet hates. You'd think the developers would have the message by now, wouldn't you?

Lots mentioned but one more:
lazy puzzles - eg mazes as filler

For me it's games that have a different ending depending on how you played it, like the last Sherlock Holmes game. I'm always wondering if I'm doing the right thing.
Also if it's too cartoony. I noticed that they changed the look of the new Agatha Christie game, I'm not crazy about the new look although I'll probably buy it, I prefer the look of the other Agatha Christie games.
And I hate when I can't save whenever I want to.

Soon as I see it is a Chapter of many Chapters to come...
I like a game to have at least some kind of ending..

I also dislike mass dialog.

I like this thread. Very interesting as a "maker" to read. I won't make all of you happy of course, but I have been thinking about some of the things I've read here.

It's interesting how many of the "turnoffs" are to do with being able to play at all (let alone come close to completing the game) rather than simple preference.

I don't like a lot of keyboarding, but I don't get turned off by animated games. WHY?
'GRIM FANDANGO.' 'THE DIG'. 'GABRIEL KNIGHT: Sins Of The Fathers,' 'The Longest Journey', to name a few. These are all games I own; I'm not even a Gabriel Knight person, and I have 2 copies of Sins Of The Fathers (just found the second one recently)!!
Animated games can have just as much value, emotion and the stuff that brings you back again and again. I keep my old PC (2000) just so I can play games I've mentioned above, in addition to games I can't play any other way ('Dark Side Of The Moon' and 'Midnight Nowhere', among those. While 'Dark Side Of The Moon' is live action and no 'animation' it plays very nicely on the same computer that will play 'The Dig', a game that creeps up on me from time to time and even though it is animated, I just have to replay it. 'The Longest Journey,' a game I didn't think any adventurer had not played, tugs at me a lot. If any of these games had a lot of keyboard gymnastics to put me through I doubt if they could draw me in, make me want to replay them. But they don't. Their stories, and in most cases, voice acting stay in my mind just like seeing unanimated people. Lately, I'm at 'Resonance' and I don't think of this as cartoon-like 'The walking Dead' (which does get keyboardy at times) but is very compelling.
My opinions have changed with animated type games.

Anything that is timed! Was just turned off a game that I loved because it had some things that were timed. My reflexes just aren't what they used to be.

1) If the game is only offered on Steam - thumbs down !!!!

2) If it is Keyboard controlled for movement that is a no starter too.

3) If I read that it is heavy dialog, that too is a downer.

4) If the game is an "episode" of any kind - that's a killer too.

Too much action. It's not a deal breaker, and I like some games with action mixed in, though it's in spite of this, not because of it.

First person view. I want to be able to get into these games because I know I'm missing out on some great ones, but I just can't. I prefer to actually be able to see my character. The only one I really got into was Return to Zork years ago, and that was because that game never gave the player a "character" per se. Though I did wish it didn't assume I was playing as a man.

I'm going to take the opposite view of many posters here and say that low and especially no dialogue is a huge turn off for me. I love dialogue/story based games, they are my favorites. (In fact, it makes me sad when people ask for fewer dialogues because I don't want my favorite type of games to become less than what they would be. Everyone has different tastes, though, so I understand that, and there is room for all types of games.) They can have obscure difficult puzzles or little to no puzzles (though I do wish TellTale would at least add light puzzles again, as they had with the original Walking Dead), as long as I can get into the story and characters, I'm happy.

I agree with Steam only being a turn off, however, if a it's a game I really want to play, and it's only available on Steam, I'll purchase it there. Better to do that than not get to experience the game I want to play. Sadly, this seems to be happening more often lately. I will always go to GOG first (or another DRM free alternative) if given the option.

Lack of voice acting. Granted, I started with the older games in the eighties, and I still replay them frequently. Interestingly enough, I am fine with going back to play the old games without voices, but if it's a newer game with no voice acting, I find it oddly eerie. I remember even early on being very excited at the possibility of the characters actually speaking. My first game with voices was King's Quest V (I had already played the voiceless version, I got this one later), and the voice acting was terrible, but I was so excited to actually hear the voices that I (almost) didn't care.

I play PC games, not console games. So a game I get has to be for the PC.

I don't like a lot of action sequences, and I don't like action just for the sake of action.

Well here is my 2 cents worth!

Lack of a manual save

Cartoony

Action scenes (ie. "The Wolf among us", walking into a room and having to stop some goon trying to beat my head in is NOT an adventure game!)

Games, especially newer ones, that present themselves to be full length, but you can burn through them in an afternoon! (ie. "Morningstar")

Boring, tedious or illogical puzzles!

Bad foreign language translation

Overlong, boring, tedious dialogue (ie. "Culpa Innata")

Bad or irritating voice acting (ie. "Secret Files ; Tunguska", talk about finger nails on a chalkboard!)

Lousy story line

Glitchy games that the developer couldn't be bothered to fix

Culpa Innata and Secret Files: Tunguska are two of my favorite games, so I can't agree with that. I do agree that the voice for Nina was kind of annoying, but the game had some of my favorite lines. I am glad that they got a different voice actor for Nina in the second game, she sounded a lot better.

One of my favorite funny but incredibly stupid lines was when Nina commented on the freezer in the first game. "On the outside, it looks perfectly normal, but on the inside, it's ice cold."

I'm with you on Culpa Innata. One of the best games I've ever played, and it's a shame we'll never get a sequel. Bad or annoying voice acting isn't ideal, but since my first game with voices was King's Quest V, I'm a bit more forgiving, I suppose. Also sometimes, it becomes an endearing quirk of the game, like Nigel's irrelevant long pauses that break up his sentences.

I love all your answers! Great responses!

What Meryl and Oldman said. Don't have the manual dexterity I once had. Don't know why developers don't put in work arounds for timed segments or jumping. How hard would it be to be able to discover a hidden staircase or path or tunnel to get to another area instead of having to jump and fall, jump and fall... or find the slow-down switch or a skip for timed puzzles. Really, how hard would that be???? Don't you want to keep your customers or attract new ones?
Have been playing for years. loved the Myst games until the last 2 (too many timed pretty much impossible areas for me...and Uru was one I never finished...too much Action' areas/jumping/timed.. could not get across (swimming) in the later area because current kept carrying me away..(and also-how confusing was all of it near the latter part of the game??? only by watching some of it on youtube was I able to get an idea of what was what (sort of) but--still, knowing and being able to DO it are different things!)
Really dislike artwork like the new Agatha Christie games. Might be ok for a book cover but to play a game using it...no thanks. I want good, more realistic artwork and graphics. AND really dislike a pretty nice background with a main character that looks like a paper doll cut-out sliding around. Awfull.
Want to Save when I choose and when return, be at the same spot.
Want more realistic colours ! what is up with all the purples and blues??? or colours that are glaring or so muted you can barely see what is what.
Want a good soundtrack... one that doesn't repeat whenever played-the same thing.
Would rather have that dvd anyday instead of a download. Or if only available as a download only can be able to get through the developer.
Want Wm Fisher III to come back and continue with his great adventure games.
Want Jonathan Boakes to at least give us some more info on his games.
Want Matt Clark to do the same thing...how are those games coming along...videos???
Not knowing if a game will be available in this decade puts me off since this could be the last pc I own..so what's the point of becoming interested in something that could possibly not be playable on what I have?
What turns me off is junk writing/dialog, no originality- Would like to see very good stories (prefer mysteries/exploration/eerie) and for goodness sake-hire a proof reader if there is text-(e-writers/publisher too-(obviously I am not one).
AND please fix your glitches. We know you have 'testers' who give their opinions before your games are released. So don't foist a piece of cr...er...a game on us you very well know to be flawed.
Thanks.

1. First person games.

2. Poor graphics.

3. Looped music.

I can handle not-up-to-snuff graphics, repetitive background music, abysmal voice acting, even keyboard controls, if the game has great content and is otherwise engaging. What will turn me off a game is hearing any of the following are involved:

Not being able to Save when I want to do so (I bailed on Ethan Carter pretty early, even though I loved everything else about it.)

Any Timed and/or arcade elements. Being suddenly faced with 1) a lake of lava that I must cross by frantically jumping from one floating (and tippy!) piece of "lily pad" to another or 2) having to shoot a flying squirrel out of the sky to get what it is carrying, or 3) having to get past some randomly pounding stone hammers aimed at pancaking me, etc. I play games to relax and be mentally challenged, not to be stressed to the point of emotional trauma. There is a reason I don't play console-based Action games: I'm not 16, for heaven's sake!

Compulsory Combat. Seriously? I had to abandon Dreamfall because I could not master the acrobatics and timing of the imperative kick-fighting system.

Movement that will trigger my lifetime predisposition to motion sickness.

Torture scenes, overdone gore and abusiveness. A little may be pivotal to understanding character motivation, etc., but don't give me a gore fest.

Seemingly unending dialogue trees that are critical to making progress in the game, so you have to go all the way down every single branch to find that one piece of info that will allow you to go on with the game.

My number one dealbreaker is no saves. End of chapter/area saves I can just about handle if the game is exceptionally good, but when it includes any kind of timed action, jumping, shooting etc I want a skip button. I prefer thinking relaxed games with lots of logical puzzles.

For me too, the lack of no manual saves is a dealbreaker. I bought Brothers, a Tale of Two Sons and it only saves at certain points. It took me at least 30 minutes to move a bridge (another thing that I hate is arrow keys and not point and click) and I couldn't save after doing that. argh. I never went back to the game as I don't want to do that bridge again. But, with Grim Fandango and Simon the Sorcerer 3, I did manage to finish the games with arrow keys, but, that is something I would like to stay away from if possible.

also, I don't like first person games. I have finished Myst (following a walkthrough the whole way) but have tried Riven and other first person games and I get bored with them. Also, some of the first person games make me motion sick, so, in general I stay away from them. I played and enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes games that had either a first person view or a third person view and that helped that I could play in third person. I wish all game developers would put in that option!

I don't like gory/horror games either. I guess I enjoy the cartoony games the most, like Simon the Sorcerer, Broken Swords, Toonstruck, etc. I don't consider the Secret Files games cartoony, but, I really enjoyed them.

Hard puzzles that don't have a "skip" option! I want to finish the game but after playing for 3 days on one puzzle, I am sick of it and want to move on.

I think that is pretty much what turns me off a game.

1/ Zombies
2/ Gore
3/ Profanity
4/ Poorly-written press releases for games that are text-heavy!
5/ Storyline that sounds like it was written by a 6 year-old
6/ Quick Time Events