So after dropping multiple 1000$+ in respawn fees in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands as I wandered off random edges ( with what appeared to be safe zones below) what are some game "features" that drive you crazy?

There are two that come to mind immediately:

• I find it really annoying when a game has a massive difficulty spike, seemingly out of nowhere...especially when it's near the end of the game. Don't get me wrong, if a game is supposed to be difficult, that's fine...I'm only talking about when there's a major spike in difficulty. For example, I played Story Mode on Tekken 5 recently and the difficulty felt fair for the most part, maybe even a little easy (especially since I had never played the game before), but then I got to the final boss. Oh. My. Goodness. That guy was ridiculous! I probably spent more time on him than I dd the previous 4 or 5 fights combined. I even checked online to see if it was just me and nope, it's apparently a well known thing
• As I've gotten older, I really can't be bothered with games that have no respect for my time. What I mean is, I really don't want to replay the same thing over and over because you wouldn't let me save or give me a checkpoint...or if there's a huge map and you don't give me fast travel in some capacity...or if you're going to pad content with boring tasks / quests just so you can appease marketing. I know the first two are more for older games and some of it was limited by the hardware at the time...but that's why retro compilations (or even straight emulation) are my go-to these days. For the third one (padding content), well, that's most AAA games that I've played in the past few years. I know this is a common debate, but give me a rock-solid 10 hours over a 40 hour bloat fest all day long!

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but not a huge fan of multiple endings for the most part. I think I appreciated it more back in the day, when I had fewer games and more time to replay them over and over, but now the thought of replaying the same content four or five times to see everything makes me wince.

It bothers me less when it's something like Virtue's Last Reward, where the many "endings" are really just steps towards the game's actual singular conclusion, and where it's easy to jump between branches to explore different choices. And I don't mind at all when every ending feels like it's had an equal amount of care put into it and all act as adequate conclusions to the story, as there's not the same pressure to see them all. But when you have three or four endings that are just blatantly unsatisfying and are expected to use a walkthrough or replay the same content repeatedly to get a proper conclusion to a story, it just feels a bit obnoxious to me.

I've gotta second the multiple endings bit. As a player who likes to complete what he starts to the best of his ability, multiple endings are the bane of my existence. For regular gameplay it's fine, but when I'm going through grabbing unlockables/trophies/achievements/whatever and things are tied to having to replay an 8 hour plus game multiple times, I get frustrated.

Also, I don't like time trials. Almost at all. Those are fine when games are based around momentum and movement and things like that, but a lot of games will force you to speed through a level or stage (or even the ENTIRE GAME) because they think it's a gameplay template or a completion criteria that "all games have", and that irks me as well. I can find this fun in something like a Sonic the Hedgehog or a Mirror's Edge because it feels like I'm just getting better at the mechanics. But for me at least, most of these games have me feeling not like I'm getting better at the controls and gameplay, but rather that I'm abusing the system or manipulating the environment to get me through faster. And I don't really find that fun at all.

Bad camera controls. There are a lot of games that would be good/great but suffer greatly because you're spending so much time and effort fighting with the camera. Mostly a symptom of older 3d games, but it's certainly not an eradicated issue with modern games either.

What a great question! I totally agree with the padded content. A solid short game is way better than a game that just ropes you along!

• I am not a big fan of escort missions. I think Goldeneye probably scarred me in many ways for that but most games where you have to protect someone ends up being frustratingly dependent on how well the AI is programmed.

• This one is a little specific but I don't really like when a player has to constantly switch between characters or items when the UI doesn't a lot for quick switching. Having to pause or go through multiple menu steps constantly breaks the immersion and gets tiresome to me very quick. Resident Evil 0 is my least favorite of the main series because of the switching aspect!

Oh, escort missions is a really good call. I can pretty much count on one hand the examples of that trope that I've not found insufferable to play.

Mandatory stealth in games where the stealth isn't really developed well.
Multiple endings.
Day 1 DLC Story Content (DLC in general, actually)

Any achievement which requires the game to be replayed or grindy achievements.

Some examples of the latter include "get X kills with X weapon" or "reach X level!". These types of achievements infuriate me, because they are neither creative nor fun. I get they are supposed to be for long term playthroughs and show your skill/expertise in a given game, but you can easily just cheese them by using a fan made map (in most games). I don't have time for grinding a game for hours every day, but my completionist brain simply cannot ignore achievements.

The former really depends on the game. I was never a New Game+ type player, but I can see the appeal. What really urks me, however, are achievements which require you to beat the entire game in a certain difficulty (e.g. Just Cause 2 or Bulletstorm). That either requires multiple playthroughs, or just one playthrough that's extremely difficult. Normally I play on easy or normal my first time around in order to get used to the game, but by the time I have finished a playthrough, I want to move on to something else, so I don't feel like replaying the entire game with just lower health and bullet sponge enemies.

I whole-heartily second the time trial sentiment mentioned above. When going for 100%, any game that requires you to master/perfect the game or force you to learn glitches/skips/tech that speedrunners use to achieve it is asking way too much from the player in my opinion.

For example, I recently 100% Crash 2: N-Tranced for GBA which requires all Platinum relics in the time trials (sapphire and gold are worthless and are simply there to give the illusion of progress, but really you'll have to revisit all the levels again). These platinum goal times are so strict that you have to play perfectly, any minor slip-up and you will not be hitting the goal time, plus checkpoint boxes are taken away from within the stages.

In my mind 100% should be about exploration, collecting items you've missed, finish side quests you passed up during initial playthrough, etc. Not researching exploits of the physics or coding flaws and grinding until perfect execution.
But i'll do it cuz ... 100% ... idk

One problem I encounter time and time again is how Savegames are managed:

I play Dynasty Warrior Gundam at the moment and found out that you can save inside the battle. Nowhere does the game tell you that this is an option nor that it uses a special save slot. But not only that, to use this "quicksave" you need to quit the game and start it up again. There is no way to load a save while ingame.

Another stupid decision is having the option to start multiple playthroughs with different characters, just to lump them in a stupid straight list in which you can only scroll down. Devs, please, I dont want to search for my manual save in this ocean of autosaves from my girlfriend´s character in Cyberpunk2077. :(

But the King of them all is only one active playthrough at a time ... like really? Even some of my Gameboy games feature save slots, why cant your PC game do that? xD

FOMO - Fear of missing out

I hate joining a game later on or even just not at the beginning, only to learn there's things I'll never be able to do. Battlepasses, pre-order bonuses, limited non-recurring events all dissuade me from investing time or money into a game since it'll never be complete.

Halo Infinite actually has a fair battlepass system. You can buy and complete them any time you want. This is cancelled out by limited time events though.

The only reason I didn't choose FOMO as my contribution is because my hatred for it far exceeds ranking it as a mere "pet peeve".

FOMO is a cancer upon all of gaming, up there with loot boxes (as they frequently go hand in hand)