Bad UI in Games

I was researching what constitutes as good UI in games, as I was inspired by this Gamasutra article and the Master's thesis it references. During my research, I wondered if there was a good collection of examples that demonstrate bad UI in games. I found a couple of examples (like one that made a kid cry), but no definitive collection of what not to do in a game UI-wise.

Since you guys collectively have played a lot of games, you would be a good resource to answer these questions. What games that you played have bad UI? What was it about the UI that made it terrible? And which ones were so bad that you refused to play the game anymore?

NHL series have the worst menu system ever. Nothing is where you think it should be.

But the game is too good.

This topic is near and dear to my heart. UI issues get under my skin unlike anything else. I'm quite sure I could write a book on the subject.

I pick on Bethesda a lot, but they've really earned my disdain. Vanilla Oblivion PC is one of the worst offending UIs I've endured. It's so bad it's kind of fascinating...

On second thought, I could probably write a short book on Bethesda's mistakes alone.

What not to do:

Brink HUD
NHL series' menus

The inventory in Mass Effect was a complete mess. I think most bad UI really comes down to bad organization (and redundancy). If you get someone lost, they aren't going to stick around.I just flashed back to Fable 2. I hated the menus in that game. There was so much stuff to dredge through and figure out what was actually useful it was annoying. I remember thinking the map system sucked too.

Burnout Paradise. I literally could not figure out how to exit the PC version without Alt-F4 for quite a while.

But there is a way I assume. Test Drive Unlimited 2 shipped recently with Alt-F4 the only means of exiting to desktop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Compass

I pick on Bethesda a lot, but they've really earned my disdain. Vanilla Oblivion PC is one of the worst offending UIs I've endured. It's so bad it's kind of fascinating...

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Having just bought this during the steam sale the other day I did not know pain until I attempted to equip items.

It doesn't fix everything (not by a long shot), but the very first thing you need to do with Oblivion is install DarNified UI. That goes for Fallout 3 as well. Like night and day.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time seems to want to require the mouse for menu confirmation every time, lame-ass when you're trying to kick back with a controller and saving requires you to hop back up to click OK.