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Just because you love a game, that doesn't mean there isn't a tiny change that would make the hours you spend in it just a little bit better. In fact, it's often only the really dedicated players hundreds of hours logged who spot the tiny details that could make all the difference. With that in mind, we got team GamesRadar to share the simple fixes that would make a huge different to their obsessions, and heard about everything from Fortnite frustration to Hearthstone headaches. This is the latest in a series of big questions we'll be interrogating our writers with, so share your answers and suggestions for topics with us on Twitter.
Add fast travel to Red Dead Online
If you've not played Red Dead Online then, no, that's not a typo and, yes, it is a game in which the fastest mode of free transport is a horse. Now it's true that a form of fast travel does exist in the game, via trains and stagecoaches, but just like in the single player, these locations are limited to the towns. The problem is that a lot of the mission and event markers are located outside of these locations - a good few minutes ride away. This is fine when you're starting out, but when you've already spent 60+ hours trotting around the same world in the single player, I should be allowed to skip over the five-minute journey from Valentine to Moonstone Pond if I want to.
GTA doesn't have this problem (as much) because you have access to a huge number of vehicles like, you know, fighter jets to get you across the map with ease. And let's be honest, driving a supercar around the streets is way more fun than watching a horse canter along a trail through the woods. Have you tried to power-slide around a corner on a horse? No. You haven't... because you can't. Yes, the environments look great and it's supposed to reflect the slower pace of the world at the time, but if Rockstar can bend the rules by letting me skin a bear in three seconds then I think a quick fade to black as I teleport over to where I need to be is going to be OK. James Jarvis
Make all decorations craftable in Monster Hunter: World
I'm not ashamed to admit that I cheated dozens of decorations into Monster Hunter: World on PC - partly to catch up to where I was on PS4, but primarily because decoration farming in World is a boring crapshoot. There are approximately 10,000 decorations in the game and roughly 17 of them are worth a damn. The odds of getting the ones you want are astronomical, and when the only alternative to using a single rare decoration is completely ruining my loadout with stupid armor just to get a niche set bonus (looking at you Guard Up), you'd better believe I'll cheat in a heartbeat. But it doesn't have to be this way. Monster Hunter: World already contains a solution to this problem: the Melder. This kindly old lady turns the random crap you have lying around into useful items, and she also does decorations. The thing is, she only does some decorations, mostly crappy ones. Actually, pretty much exclusively crappy ones. I don't care how much they cost or what I have to kill to unlock them, but please, Capcom, make all decorations craftable at the Melder. It would make building endgame armor sets so much better. Austin Wood
Cut down Fortnite's ridiculous number of loading screens
If you want to finger count how many loading screens you'll have to go through before you reach the battle bus in Fortnite Battle Royale, you'll need both hands. On console, there's a grand total of six loading in points between booting the game up and actually playing it, and it feels like it's been that way since time immemorial. For a game that's only gotten (if you don't mind me quoting Daft Punk) harder, better, faster, and stronger since its release, this absurd number of barriers before play seems like an odd oversight by Epic. It may also have something to do with the fact that, Nintendo Switch port aside, Fortnite Battle Royale can't be downloaded as a separate game to its Save the World PvE mode, which undoubtedly increases its memory size and rendering capacity, thus slowing down those agonizing load screens even further. Thanks to Fortnite, I've had about 500 cups of coffee that I never even wanted, purely because I was so bored of waiting to play that I went and made one in the meantime. Please, Epic, spare me the unnecessary caffeine, and reduce those loading times by half! Alex Avard
Quit it with the spaceship and space-travel animations in Mass Effect: Andromeda
Now, I know if the word ‘animation’ is entered into any discussion on Bioware’s latest Mass Effect game, it may open a can of worms - a face-tiring can of worms. Anyway, presumably to mask loading screens, the animations for travelling by spaceship reached peak ridiculousness in Mass Effect: Andromeda. On every single planetary travel, Tempest launch and landing, and even every scan of a planet, there was a camera-whizzing animation or cinematic. Even the most tolerable, brief ones are grinding. Want to scan this planet? Let’s look at it from at least two different angles first. Want to land on Aya or Kadara to do a quick mission you forgot about? Better put the bloody kettle on. Even to just leave the Nexus to go and do Other Things, you’ll have to settle in for a cinematic. It’s a game that’ll soak up the hours just by offering you normal Mass Effect things, but I can only imagine how much of my time playing the game was actually watching these animations. What I do know is that I won’t get that time back. *waves fist* Rob Dwiar
An 'open all my f***ing crates' button in Star Wars Battlefront 2
I entered the festive break expecting to finish Red Dead Redemption 2, but after 30 hours of - genuinely delightful - grinding to earn my Imperial Officer an enhanced Battle Command special ability, that's not how it worked out. After all the hoopla about Star Wars Battlefront 2 being 'pay to win' at launch in late 2017, EA's shooter is now surprisingly accessible and I've never needed to pay a cent to have fun. You can however, earn credits via online performance to spend on cosmetic upgrades and, more recently, new heroes like Obi Wan Kenobi. To that end, you get a free loot crate every 24 hours, like a little treat for logging in. You might expect this to act like a random daily pick-me-up, perhaps offering up a new Clone Trooper Heavy outfit here, or an Imperial Specialist emote there, but instead you get 500 virtual credits EVERY DAY. It's never something surprising. Just 500 credits. And if you don't play for a week… you have 7 boxes to open. One-by-one. Which always contain 500 credits! ARGH. A sentence that has never been typed by anyone outside of the Amazon returns department: my life would be immeasurably improved by an option to 'open all my f***ing boxes'. Dan Dawkins
Red Dead Redemption 2 needs a flexible fast travel system
I’m not made of time. I know that the 80 hours I poured into Red Dead Redemption 2 would suggest otherwise, but it’s true! I recently wrapped up the main campaign and two epilogues over two weekends. That’s six ridiculous play sessions that – and I’m 100 percent certain of this – could not have been good for my health. While I enjoyed my time with the game, I’m only too aware that I barely saw any of it.
Rockstar was so hellbent on simulating all the most boring aspects of existing in the Old West that it decided against integrating a flexible fast travel system. So, sure. I could have embarked on a quest to find Gavin; I could have wasted away the hours hunting defenseless animals; I could have looked into all of the weird and wonderful stuff hidden away in the world, and I could have done it before various YouTube thumbnails spoiled all of the surprises. But I didn’t do any of this, and do you want to know why? I didn’t do any of this because I simply do not have the time, energy or patience to endlessly trudge across such a bloody huge space. Have some respect for my time, Rockstar, please – my weekends are begging you. Josh West
Give us our voices back in Destiny 2 - for good this time
Although it sounds narcissistic, I miss hearing the sound of my own voice in Destiny 2. Well, my character’s voice. Besides a singular line in Forsaken, our hero has remained stubbornly mute for the best part of four years. They were relatively chatty in the original Destiny campaign, so this abrupt silence was noticeable. It still is. In fact, I’m starting to suspect my Exo robot has a mute button he’s accidentally hit. Reversing that would give them back a sense of personality. It would also stop our avatars being antisocial grumps in cutscenes who, like, totally can’t be bothered. Come on, Bungie - let our Guardians have their say again. Benjamin Abbott
Add an official Pauper format to Hearthstone
If you've ever endeavored to make a competitive Hearthstone deck, then you know just how expensive things can get. You either need to amass a metric ton of arcane dust to craft what you need, get extremely lucky when opening packs, or spend tons of money to facilitate those two methods. But Hearthstone could borrow a page from Magic: The Gathering's card binder and give budget-minded players their own paradise with a Pauper mode. In Pauper, decks can only be constructed using common cards, turning stuff that ordinarily looks like guaranteed junk into potential powerhouses or little-known combo enablers. Best of all, Pauper decks would be a cinch to craft, so you could enjoy way more variety for less money and/or time invested. It's amazing how fun a metagame based on a scaled-back power level can be, and even experienced players would appreciate a space where they don't have to see the same Legendary-filled Tier 1 decks over and over. Lucas Sullivan
What simple change would make your favorite game a million percent better? Let us know on Twitter.
