Every form of entertainment has its own clichés. From films where the bad guy is the hero's dad/brother/hamster to books where it turns out to be all a dream, clichés are often found in the place of creativity. For a variety of reasons, video games are particularly prone to the same clichés being repeated over and over again, often being extremetly annoying to gamers. So here my list of the top five most annoying video game clichés.

1. Exploding Barrels

Yes, it's a good feeling when you manage to shoot a barrel from a distance, causing a huge fireball that takes out a lot of enemies. More often though, an enemy will shoot a barrel you though you weren't in the way of, killing your character and frustrating you endlessly.

What's actually inside those things away? Petrol? Napalm? Fat from liposuction clinics? Seriously, the explosions these things usually cause is huge. If even the slightest knock creates a huge fireball, why are they left out in the open, where anything could accidently damage them? I can even remember a game that had exploding crates, which is beyond ridiculous.

 2. Collecting Coins

Whlist platform games are the most gulity of this, alot of games force you to collect coins/stars/dog tags with OCD like precision. Whlist some games give you a reward for collecting enough objects, such as an extra life, some of the rewards simply make the player feel like they've wasted their time. For example, concept art is nice to look at, but it's not that good a reward for all that effort.

Destroy all Humans! for the Playstation 2 had the right idea, with the player being able to unlock an indepth making of feature with commentary from the developers, as well as an entire 1950's B-Movie for their efforts. Then there are the games which give you no real reward for collecting things, or make you unlock things that shouldn't be locked in the first place  (like Sypro the Dragon 3's final level), making the whole concept completely worthless.

3. Terrible Voice Acting and Scripts

Although jokes about the dialogue in the first Resident Evil have become a staple of gamer culture ("You were almost a Jill sandwich!"), in the 12 years since,  the majority of video game scripts haven't improved much since then.

Due to their interactive nature, it's understandable why games focus less on story telling than other types of media. However, the same generic plots (Aliens have invaded! Some youth must defeat a world destroying evil! Soldiers have captured some nuclear missles!) repeated over and over again do get a bit tiresome. One of the main reasons I praised Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was due to its strong story telling and characterisation, proving that telling a compelling story in a game is possible.

Although the problem of engrish in game scripts has decreased over recent years, most scripts are fairly lifeless. Poor voice acting doesn't help ethier, with a lot of voice overs sounding like they were done by the developer's receptionist. As for movie tie-ins, if they even manage to get the original actors at all, it sounds like they were recorded at gun point. However, there are alot of talented voice actors out there, and performances such as Malcom Macdowell in Fallout 3 and David Hayter in the Metal Gear Solid series prove that quality voice overs in games are possible.

4. Invisible Walls

We've all been there. You've got to a new area in the game, and you're running about, exploring. You see a place that looks interesting, so you run over, only to find your character stuck, running on the spot. Invisible wall syndrome has struck again.

This reminds me of the "fogging" from the first Playstation, where areas the consoles couldn't render were blurred to help create the illusion that the area was bigger than it really was. However, now the pracite of blurring has been dropped, and the developers aren't covering up areas they haven't created. It's annoying when you see something interesting in the distance, only to find that it's simply a backdrop and you are stuck against an invisible wall. Why couldn't the spot have been covered up with a wall or a cliff, rather than an invisble boundary? The worst is when the object blocking you is something your character should be logically be able to get past, or a poorly rendered boundary blocking you. Invisible walls are a source of much frustration in gaming.

5. Stupid AI

Here's one for you. Imagine that you are a soldier and a one man army has been tearing through your ranks like a knife through hot butter. Now he's in the same room as you. Do you:

A: Take cover and fire back?

B: Organise your fellow soldiers into a formation so you can attack in safety?

C: Stand out in the open and shoot blindly, hoping to hit him before he hits you?

If you answered C, you may be a video game enemy!

Although video game AI has improved over the years, I've still played lots of games where the enemies are eithier incredibly stupid, or outright suicidal. The AI in many games seems perfectly happy to simply stand out in the open, or run into your line of fire.

This isn't just limited to enemy AI eithier. As any Spoony fan knows, AI controlled team mates can be very obstructive and unhelpful ("You're in my spot sir"). I've seen games in which your allies will attack random objects, or even worse, get stuck on things and be unable to move.

Escort missions are the bane of most gamer's existance. Who actually likes these missions where you have to protect slow, bumbling idiots from harm? Why are they still put into games? Remember the missions in Metal Gear Solid 2 where you have to protect Emma? Those where some of the most irritating parts of any game I've ever played. If we have to suffer through escort missions, the AI controlled character we have to protect should at least have some common sense and a way to protect themselves. In Metal Gear Solid 3, when you had to protect an injured EVA, she was slow, but at least she was able to shoot enemies and have enough sense to stay hidden. It's just annoying that we are given such stupid allies in modern games.

In short, whlist  no form of media will ever be completely free from clichés, it would be nice if video game developers could cut down on some of the most annoying ones. Thanks for reading!