A few things that come to mind..

Killing slimes and rats, and other defenseless animals with huge weapons

Young man who's village is destroyed/family is killed/girlfriend is kidnapped and he has to go get her back, forming a party of unnaturally strong teenagers

Mindless grinding to get things, which can be a good thing, if the game is fun enough..

what do you guys think?

Mindless grinding.
Rpgs :3
Every game has a clichщ. I consider leveling up a clichщ because it's done in EVERY GAME EVER MADE. I can't think of an annoying clichщ though.

PRESS X TO NOT DIE!

Standard storyline for shooters:
Step 1: Everything goes according to plan.
Step 2: Suddenly, everything goes to shit.
Step 3: Everything goes according to plan again and the heroes win.

Not necessarily. But quite often, yes.

UT3 ends with the main character losing his sister (that though is a clichщ)



I'm annoyed at the cliffhanger endings almost every popular game gives so that they have an excuse to make a less than satisfactory sequel (UT3 is also guilty of this)

Also the amnesia story. You'd think they'd come up with something more unique after using that story for a few years, but I guess not.

Then there's the 'you aren't strong enough yet' story. Why is it that the person who is supposed to save the world always starts off having trouble dealing with a large rat? Like I'd trust my fate with that loser <.<

Lastly, the betrayal story. Of course the shady character is gonna stab you in the back near the end of the story. Or of course it's the guy everyone doesn't expect, but avoids all the danger somehow.

Oh yes.

And what's this about "balanced leveling". You know, when your character levels up, the monsters and everything becomes tougher aswell.

This is particularly well-depicted in Oblivion, where the guards are always just as tough as you. I mean, hell, if everyone were equally good at kicking ass, why would they need this one person to save the day when they've got 200 city guards that could each eat a small dragon for breakfast?!?

War games

especially ones with "aliens breaking your stuff go kill them"

You are a hero by destiny.
You also have amnesia.

Actually, as long as they focus more on action and less on plot I like those kind of games.

You know, when it's "you're a good guy, they eat children, kill they ass".

When they're trying to be deep though, action-steroid-action games suck a bloated whalenut.

Quick-Time Events are very annoying indeed