Averted in Alone in the Dark (2008), although the monsters do seem to move a bit more slowly than they otherwise would whenever the player is accessing his inventory.In that case, expect the results to be bloody. However, if a friend joins you, suddenly the game unpauses while you're still on your phone. In Saints Row: The Third, you may check your cellphone while you fight 10-or-so enemies, which pauses the game. Multiplayer sessions usually does not have Menu Time Lockout since it would be quite annoying for everyone you play with, but the game may have it in Single Player.Compare Real-Time Weapon Change for a similar effect outside special screens.
You also very often get something similar with dialogue, but the player is normally locked into the dialogue and unable to do anything, See Talking Is a Free Action for details. In these cases, you may also be able to get this trope if you are able to play this to your advantage. For instance, lock picking frequently gets done as a Hacking Minigame. Menus are the most common place for this to occur, but it often happens with certain other types of interactions. Especially prominent in Role Playing Games, in which the player often spends a great deal of time in menus handling equipment or abilities. In virtually every video game with a pause feature, time stands still, enemies and environments freeze in their tracks, etc., and while at first this, being the very definition of a pause, might not seem unusual, when Fridge Logic sets in you can't help thinking about the fact that in many cases the pause screen is the same as the inventory screen, allowing a character to rummage in his Bag of Holding or Hammerspace and use items, equip different weapons, chug potions, stuff a whole barrel of raw potatoes down their throat and even completely change his wardrobe essentially instantaneously.