Irritating Gaming Conventions

Since I’m already irritable from my broken 360, here’s a few random thoughts.  Playing Order of Ecclesia has made me think about some of the gaming conventions that have sprung up in the past few years across certain types and genres of games.  These conventions often - and ironically - become hallmarks of their lineage despite being largely pointless, if not actively irritating.  In many cases, these might have been initial innovations, only to become stale and valueless over time.  A few that I could come up with:

(Post-SOTN) Castlevania Games: Take a series of escalating sword-type weapons, add various fetch quests, use the same area themes, and make sure that most secrets can only be uncovered through a combination of numbing persistence and blind luck.  And all with a disturbing lack of Belmonts.  Offenders: Well, most post-SOTN Castlevanias.

Survival Horror Games: Resident Evil’s crappy movement controls come to mind; RE 5 looks like it might start bucking the trend, but this has been an irritant for ages.  Offenders: RE 1-3, plus the intermittent quasi-sequels.

Adventure Games: Modern Zelda-esque dungeons/temples feel like they’re built from a template at this point.  Insert [Fire/Water/Light/Dark] Temples at will and populate accordingly.  I love Zelda, but the temple themes need to be shaken up.  Offenders: Zelda 3, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Minish Cap on the Zelda side.  Plenty of similar problems in related games.

Insanely Difficult Games: Make a game so numbingly difficult that its difficulty becomes its only selling point and differentiating advantage.  Sell to masochists.  Offenders: Contra, Ninja Gaiden.

FPS Games: It’s been ages (since Duke 3D, possibly) since the weapon set of an FPS looked different enough from every other one to warrant comment.  Do we really need a shotgun, rocket launcher, and chaingun, people?  Can we try to come up with something slightly different?  Offenders: Lord, where do I start?

Sci-Fi Games: Let me save you some time: the problem was caused by a horrible experiment gone terribly wrong, probably aided and abetted by some shadowy government entity somewhere.  Bonus points if aliens are involved somehow.  Offenders: Half-Life 1-2, Dead Space, various Resident Evils, Metal Gear Solid…

I’m pretty sure there are plenty more out there… feel free to help me add to the list.  There are two requirements: the convention must serve no significant useful purpose that couldn’t be served in another (more creative) way, and it must appear in at least 2 games of the same type.  Thoughts?