Large amounts of hidden items in sandbox games. They are not bad if you only need about a dozen of the specific item but in games like Red Faction: Guerilla in which you must destroy 250 boxes and mine 300 ore deposits or kill 200 pigeons in GTA4. There are just too many things in a large area. The achievement just isn't worth it.

INVISIBLE COIN BLOCKS!!!!!!!!!

I recently started playing Super Mario World rom hacks on my SNES emulator. Overuse of coin blocks is not cool! Don't be fooled, they aren't a good element!

pointless minigames if they are part of the story ill play them a few times if they aren't well made then dont make me play them.

Impossible difficulty modes (imma lookin' at YOU, COD!). Why make an amazing game and such, then make us play through it in complete realism, like death in 3 shots? If we wanted realism, WE WOULDN'T BE PLAYING GAMES, NOW, WOULD WE!?

Also, the nagging voices that force you to rush into the next area to make 'em shut up. "Hurry up, you ain't gonna make it!" Yes, I am. I'm gonna make it in my own time, so DON'T RUSH ME!

Checkpoints placed at the wrong places! I don't really have problems with checkpoints, but at least, don't place one of them right before a long and boring tunnel in which you have to walk for ages before getting some action! This kind of stuff makes death far more annoying...

When I want to play a game, I want to relax, not flail my arms around like an idiot. Especially when they have NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT IS GOING ON ONSCREEN = motion controls.

Kooky costumes constituting replay value. I don't care if I get to dress up in a wizard costume and shine a flashlight with a big question mark--that doesn't make me want to play the game if it wasn't all that good in the first place.

Re-releasing one game in a series a zillion times on a zillion different consoles. Adding motion control, or new scenes or whatnot to 'enhance' the gameplay. Also, GOTY releases, where all the expansion packs and DLCs are included. "Enhanced...!"

Recaptcha: gruesome balls...yikes.

@Cyberninja: Certain parts of MGS4 kinda let you do that.

The 'over the shoulder' view would have to be my pet peeve. I think I can honestly say that every game every game released over the past 4 years has an over the shoulder view or some sort of element that includes it.

Mine is probably the "OMG the building is collapsing get out as-soon-as-you-can but y'know take your time" parts. The parts were it seems like a rush but the game only continues after a certain point is reached not time.

What I am sick of isn't an element that can be described as playable because it is all about crazy companies trying to get even more money out of a movie by creating games for them within a week with the story already written, no possible changes. NEWSFLASH, IDIOTS: Making HORRIBLE GAMES (I am not even sure if they could even be called "working barely interactive videos", let alone video games) will destroy the video game market in 3 ways: 1, driving away all the hardcore gamers who spend around $60 a month or more on video games (this includes downloadable content), which would probably by itself take down half of the video game retailers in the world; 2, make the most common gamer be casual (the kind that only ever buys one game, which they only get because it came with the game console (Wii Sports), and they suck at even that) which would make everyone make "Casual games" which are just board games that require electricity, keeping any next generation hardcore players out of the market; and 3, finally get the anti-video game people to go against poor quality in games, but at such a late time that the only thing left in the market are poor-quality games, thus destroying the entire industry.
In conclusion, these "movie games" might seem to corporate executives like the perfect way to make some money out of the gamer demographic, but there is a much better way for all of us that leaves us wanting more and not trying to throw all the makers of this "genre" into a sun that is about to go supernova: either focus on the game, THEN work on the movie once the game has at least NORMAL quality on today's systems (read: start the game about 9 months before the movie, and while the stories can (and should) overlap at times, make sure the game has a few extra things), or do like GAMER (coming out in September 2009) and just take a modern concept (online deathmatch free-for-all) and add a few twists (Death-Race-style competitors, mind control, Death-Race-style plotline, mass advertising). I am sure that a lot of gamers (and believe me, there are a lot of us) would love it if these ideas became the norm instead of the exception, and overall the whole "Movie game can start development after the movie" idea was completely forgotten for all eternity, since video game design is TOUGH WORK, especially the programming, and thus it takes a lot of time, often a year even for a PS1 game, let alone a PS3 game.

Here is the short censored version of what I just said: "Movie games" are the worst m*****f***ing things ever, and all we have to do to get rid of them is just allow the developers of the game more time than it takes to develop a movie to develop the game.

I am sick of QTEs right now. Developers, it's okay, we don't have to do everything and press buttons all the time, a cutscene now and again is okay. Some games do not need this, and some games do it terribly.
A few, very few, make them truly good.

I'm tired of two things, quick time events, and unnecessary stealth sequences.

I am absolutely sick and tired of having the freedom of choice in my games. I hated how in GTA IV I had to decide which missions to complete and which characters to ally myself with. That's why I only play Tamogatchi.

Linear Interactive Cutscenes are getting very overused. I'm tired of trying over and over again to hit a button at the exact milisecond to try and do something badass. Sometimes, it's even the same button!

It's like a game of luck like Geno's Whirl in Super Mario RPG. What happened to REAL cutscenes (Like in Bioshock with the Big Daddy and you are behind the glass). Cutscenes should be fully-interactive, not button mashfests.

Mini games that are harder than the main bloody game. Donkey Kong 64 is a good example. One of the mini games in that took me about 45 minutes and about 100 attempts to complete, I was so enraged that I repeatedly punched my N64 pad full whack until my knuckles bled all over it. The pad still worked though in typical Nintendo built to last fashion:). I enjoyed the rest of the game but that inane mini game ruined all the hours of real gameplay. Not quite as bad as License to Kill on The Spectrum, that game was so shoddy it resulted in me punching the keyboard into the motherboard. Had to blag my Dad into thinking that some books fell off the shelf. I think I might get a bit too uptight about games, sometimes I feel like I'm going to have an aneurysm when I walk into yet another Martyrdom grenade in COD. I should probably get Wii Fit to do some Yoga.

Turn-based fighting. If I come up against some super-powerful monster, I'd much prefer to dash about, shooting or slashing or whatever-ing the hell out of it rather than being forced to wait my turn before running up, hitting the enemy, running back and then waiting for it to do the same thing. Battles aren't that unrealistically polite.

I also could do without any games that let you live vicariously through a virtual depiction of yourself like some overbearing parent that lives through their kids by sending them to beauty pageants or soccer games. Plus, the number of things you can do in these games can actually be done in real life, plus the graphics are a whole lot better.

"Hey man, whatcha doin'?"
"Oh, I'm just watching my Sim watching the TV."

Of course, this crap is going to carry on.

"What's going on?"
"Oh, I'm watching my Sim playing The Sims, and his character in his game is also playing the Sims."

It'll be like a never-ending vortex of futile stupidity.

I would have to say the karma based decisions that have been in games lately. Why is it that these worlds are always so light and dark with no shade of gray? I guess nothing cashes in on "replayability" more than a good and evil ending. And why is my character either Mother Theresa or Evil McAsshat who eats the faces off of kittens. Why can't I just be a selfish asshole who makes no real mark on the world... like I am in real life?

not sure if this is a gameplay element but unskippable cutscenes and intro's. Man! Who the fuck thought of that?!

Stupid AI, especially if you have to escort the retarded AI. So many hours I have wasted and cusses I have said because of the AI.

Dead Rising 2, you'd better improve your older bro's retarded AI and save points, or I'll be forced to commit Arson

god....i hate with my god damned life unavoidable battles...you know when your playing ff running around just 2 get toa fucking cave to kill a boss and get a guardian force.....but instead of letting you go quickly they have to slow you down with a crapload of random fights with random montsers...and in many of these god damn fights you cannot run away...god its torture....but the best example of this besides any final fantasy(non tactics) is POKEMON...god damn u pokemon burn in hell....