Games with the best and worst menu designs?

[DylanC]

21 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

I like Skyrim's menus a bit more than Fallout's menus, but it's hard for me to put my finger on why. But nothing is more annoying than switching back and forth between Skyrim and Fallout and continually mixing up what buttons to press. The menu systems are so similar ... but just different enough that it trips up my brain. It usually takes me a day or two to "reset" mentally, and I still end up doing a lot of wrong button presses on a continuous basis. 

@DylanC You mentioned previously that you like Skyrim's menus. How do they compare to Fallout's menus in your opinion? Incidentally, I actually like DA II's menus much more than Origin's menus. The radial thing is a lot faster to navigate through than having to press R1 or L1 (or whatever it was) continuously in Origins to get to the screen I want.

 

 

Strangely enough, I find it fairly easy to go from Fallout to Skyrim and vice versa controls-wise. I think I've just played them a lot together in many gaming sessions for my brain to get over the little differences. In all, I'd say I prefer Skyrim's slightly more easy-to-pick-up controls over Fallout, but there's not much in it tbh. I think some of Fallout 76's menus are a little annoying - but I think that comes down to there being a lot more freedom to do more things in that game, if that makes sense.

In stark contrast, I found Dragon Age's control scheme to be very off-putting. But I'm not a huge fan of that game's pseudo real-time/turn-based combat amalgamation. It takes some getting used to, put it that way...

Edited May 13, 2019 by DylanC

[StaceyPowers]

4 minutes ago, DylanC said:

Strangely enough, I find it fairly easy to go from Fallout to Skyrim and vice versa controls-wise. I think I've just played them a lot together in many gaming sessions for my brain to get over the little differences. In all, I'd say I prefer Skyrim's slightly more easy-to-pick-up controls over Fallout, but there's not much in it tbh. I think some of Fallout 76's menus are a little annoying - but I think that comes down to there being a lot more freedom to do more things in that game, if that makes sense.

In stark contrast, I found Dragon Age's control scheme to be very off-putting. But I'm not a huge fan of that game's pseudo real-time/turn-based combat amalgamation. It takes some getting used to, put it that way...

I've been going back and forth endlessly between Fallout and Skyrim for years, and I still mess up. Then again, I have poor executive function skills. Maybe it is the visual design of Skyrim's controls that make them easier to pick up? I think they may simply be more easy to read than the Pip Boy display (the map sure is).

DA's combat amalgamation that you mention is indeed confusing to me as well, and the control scheme in general is a nightmare. I just thought the menus in II were more accessible than they were in Origins. That being said, on the whole, they're still quite poor IMO.

[Bravosi]

I like Skyrim with improved UI!

[kingpotato]

On 5/13/2019 at 11:30 AM, StaceyPowers said:

I like Skyrim's menus a bit more than Fallout's menus, but it's hard for me to put my finger on why. But nothing is more annoying than switching back and forth between Skyrim and Fallout and continually mixing up what buttons to press. The menu systems are so similar ... but just different enough that it trips up my brain. It usually takes me a day or two to "reset" mentally, and I still end up doing a lot of wrong button presses on a continuous basis. 

@DylanC You mentioned previously that you like Skyrim's menus. How do they compare to Fallout's menus in your opinion? Incidentally, I actually like DA II's menus much more than Origin's menus. The radial thing is a lot faster to navigate through than having to press R1 or L1 (or whatever it was) continuously in Origins to get to the screen I want.

 

 

Yeah that was my problem to, intuitively I tried to open the Fallout menu like it was Skyrim, so I ended up doing a lot of scrolling and going a lot through the menus because of that mistake.

[StaceyPowers]

10 minutes ago, kingpotato said:

Yeah that was my problem to, intuitively I tried to open the Fallout menu like it was Skyrim, so I ended up doing a lot of scrolling and going a lot through the menus because of that mistake.

Hahah, yeah, exactly what happens with me. In fact, I’m so used to it now that when my muscle memory fails to kick in and push the right buttons to move through the menus, my brain auto-corrects a moment later without any conscious thought and pushes what it should. Too bad it can’t seem to get it right the first time.

 

[kingpotato]

18 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

Hahah, yeah, exactly what happens with me. In fact, I’m so used to it now that when my muscle memory fails to kick in and push the right buttons to move through the menus, my brain auto-corrects a moment later without any conscious thought and pushes what it should. Too bad it can’t seem to get it right the first time.

 

Right 😆 is like you mentioned, the brain has to go through a small reset to get the controls right.

[StaceyPowers]

21 hours ago, kingpotato said:

Right 😆 is like you mentioned, the brain has to go through a small reset to get the controls right.

Or maybe it's just that it needs the bad feedback. The moment the right screen isn't pulled up, the brain is like "oh, it's this button this time."

[kingpotato]

2 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

Or maybe it's just that it needs the bad feedback. The moment the right screen isn't pulled up, the brain is like "oh, it's this button this time."

Yeah, that also happens a lot when I change between shooter games.

[Bravosi]

One of the best menu designs is RE4 in my opinion.

[StaceyPowers]

21 hours ago, kingpotato said:

Yeah, that also happens a lot when I change between shooter games.

Oh man, don’t even get me started on that. I can’t tell you how many times I die for no other reason than that I’ve pushed the wrong damn button.

[skyfire]

I recently played the Evertale RPG. And it has the worst menu design. And even worst is the navigation in between the menus. I mean must be 4th grader failed made those type of designs.