Have you ever played through a game and completely missed a game play feature?

[mParadox]

Near the end of NFS: Most Wanted; discover via little brother's experimentation that there's such a thing as a time slow mechanic. Mind = instablown.

Near end of Mass Effect, realize that you could mod the grenades. (How did I miss this?!)
Also in Mass Effect, I realized I had much much better armour and weapons... in the inventory. I never equipped them in my first play through. (Oh the horror.)

 

[CleverCover]

You can apparently aim down ironsights in Bioshock, something which would have come handy during some of the earlier parts of the game.

Oo What? When did this happen?

Apparently, this feature. Now I have to pop in the game just to see if this is true or not. Damn. Would have been way useful.

It always takes me more than one playthrough to explore all the features/abilities of a game.

It took me two playthroughs to figure out how to make stuff in DA:O.

Just played ME2 and I just realized there was something on the side of Garrus' face.

 

[370999]

It wasn't until halfway through my second playthrough of Tales of Symphonia that I realized that you could change which character you controlled during battles. Admittedly about half an hour after figuring it out I switched back to Lloyd and never changed it since Lloyd plays like a Ferrari and every other character is like a bus, but still, it would have been nice to know. Also, I still have no idea what the titles do in Tales games. I know they have to do something, but I never figured it out ingame and I've never cared enough to look it up online.

Basically titles affect how you level up. When you pick a title it will show your stats in either green red or grey. Green means picking this title will result in a greater increase to that stats when leveling up, red means a decrease and grey means no change.

For instance Basically each time a character levels up all their stats go up. Titles however can add an additional bonus to certain stats.

Let's say Lloyd has a choice between title A and title B. A increases his strength while B increase his health. Both of these stats go up anyway when you level up but the title you pick helps on go up even more.

Point of it is so that when doing a new game you can carry over your titles meaning you can have some great stat boosts early on.

 

[JCBFGD]

I missed a series of missions, a godly weapon, and a godly companion in PlaneScape: Torment. I read something about the game, heard about all these things, heard also that it made the final battle much easier, and facepalmed. Hard.

Still a great game.

 

[Chunga the Great]

Holding A in Fallout 3 & NV allows to drink continuously.

You have got to be shitting me.

I honestly feel like I've missed my own wedding or something. Anyway,

*insert something about Supreme Commander here* That game was a pain in the ass to get into, but it was worth it.

 

[VuDuBU]

So basically, nobody here plays tutorials or bothers to read some instructions before playing a game??

 

[ex275w]

Never crafted stuff in Dragon Age, it seemed pointless and I couldn't access the craft menus.

Also I guess playing as certain classes or using specfic characters in RPGs.

Using hints in new Nintendo games, pshaw. i didn't know they were Bronze stars in Mario Galaxy 2.

Also modding grenades in Mass Effect 1.

I also went my first Fire Emblem runs without knowing about support conversations and even then I didn't know what they did.

Never knew about Program Advances in Battle Network 1 my cousin showed them to me in the second game.

I forgot about vaulting in Psychonauts, I remembered when I started fighting the luchadores in Edgar's mind.

I never knew magicite in Final Fantasy VI could be used to summon monsters.

My first Final Fantasy VIII playthrough was done without using stat junctions, and without giving the GF's new powers.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I played the original Bioshock about 4 times before I decided to actually use the Hacking mechanic. Then, what was once easy was now a brief stroll through a park that you have to stop and play a chinsy puzzle game on your iPhone every 45 seconds.
Oh, and I never even bothered with inventing in Fallout 3.

 

[Yellowbeard]

You can apparently aim down ironsights in Bioshock, something which would have come handy during some of the earlier parts of the game.

Oo What? When did this happen?

Apparently, this feature. Now I have to pop in the game just to see if this is true or not. Damn. Would have been way useful.

All you Bioshock people might as well calm down, the iron sights aren't actually helpful or anything (except on the crossbow).

My answer is throwing shit with kinesis in Dead Space. I was tossing around the asteroid chunks and stuff by turning and releasing.

 

[Ryu-Kage]

You know those giant boulders you see all the time in Super Mario Galaxy? The ones with the big red gems in them? I didn't realize that you could destroy those by spinning into them until I fought Bowser for the last time. I kept running away from Bowser in his boulder form for like five minutes trying to hit him in a moment of weakness, but said moment never came. Finally, I started to wonder if I was supposed to punch his face while he rolled toward me. After that worked and I eventually beat Bowser, I went back to Honeyhive Galaxy and tried the same thing on the boulders when the red gem was close. Whoa! Look at all those Star Bits!

Not sure whether to feel clever about that or incredibly dumb, but that started to wake me up in terms of trying to figure out games.

 

[Nooners]

I didn't learn about hammer-ons and pull-offs in Guitar Hero until GH3.

 

[Nieroshai]

In FF7... it never occurred to me to couple materia together. I always went for the best gear I could find, now I go for the most paired slots. Summon-juggling ftw! Also, using healing items on undead.

 

[Trivun]

I'm a little OCD when it comes to gaming, so I have this odd compulsion sometimes to, during downtime bits, press every button on the controller randomly. As a result I quickly learn every gameplay aspect quickly even without a tutorial section. However, in Halo Reach, I've played it several times and yet, despite me being a massive Halo fanboy, I didn't know about the collectible data pads in-game. Therefore, while completing the whole series on Legendary, I am now replaying Reach on Legendary and collecting every data-pad in the game (despite there being no achievement or anything for doing so ).

On a slightly related note, by the way, it took me a little while to adjust to the Reach control system, specifically with reloading and melee attacks, since it's a little bit different to the rest of the series, which I had gotten used to over the past few weeks playing the other games first .

 

[Nieroshai]

In Kingdom Hearts I never knew that you could switch weapons. I beat the game using all defaults. I even beat Lance Bass.

In Final Fantasy X I didn't know about the sphere grid or until near the end of the game.

I went through most of Dragon Age: Origins without choosing any specializations.

I never knew you could taunt in Devil May Cry 3. Didn't know about swapping weapons and styles either.

In Fable III I completely forgot about buying property until I was about ten million gold in debt. Needless to say I was ever so slightly pissed.

I beat InFamous without knowing that you could switch which arm you shoot with by hitting an analogue stick. Not too useful, sure, but still a feature I missed.

I didn't know I could issue orders in Mass Effect.

And I didn't know about upgrading in the first few Ratchet titles.

There are more, but my memory isn't what it used to be.

Tip for Fable 3: make as much money as humanly possible prior to even trying to start the rebellion. Then it won't matter what decision you make. Prior to the revolt, you have all the time in the world. Just keep in mind how much money you actually need. Your brother isn't going anywhere.

EDIT: this is what I came on to post, having waited until after the rebellion to raise gold, but I figured this would be useful.

 

[Threx]

My friend just asked me this on Facebook, and I want to see what you guys can come up with.

So, have you ever played through a game and completely missed a game play feature?

His example was: "I'm replaying Mass Effect 1 and I just learned that the vehicle has a canon and Right Bumper allows you to use abilities"

A guy from work played Skyrim for months and beat it without ever finding out about the quick-travel feature. He walked from point A to point B the ENTIRE game.

My dad does this by choice, he says it adds to the realism.

 

[Palmerama]

Holding A in Fallout 3 & NV allows to drink continuously.

Oh good lord do I feel stupid! Having just played Fallout 3 & constantly tapping A infornt of a fountain!

Also just found out on this thread that you can iron sight in Bioshock 1! I thought they added it in in Bioshock 2!

There's another from a while ago but its not coming to mind!

Also my friend went through the whole of mass 1 without levelling up his character! He didn't realise you could!

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Final Fantasy X.

On my way to go tear Sin a third corn chute when my buddy comes over, notices I'm about to take on Sin and asks to see how I've leveled my Aeons. To which I replied. "Did what to my Aeons?"

Yeah my dumb ass spent all 40+ hours of gameplay ignoring the fact that you could burn spheres to boost your Aeon abilities and stats.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

My friend just asked me this on Facebook, and I want to see what you guys can come up with.

So, have you ever played through a game and completely missed a game play feature?

His example was: "I'm replaying Mass Effect 1 and I just learned that the vehicle has a canon and Right Bumper allows you to use abilities"

In Dragon Age, Origins, I didn't know you could use the D-pad for anything. I played through the game twice not knowing this. My cousin picked up the game and in under 4 minutes figured out how.

 

[Realitycrash]

I'm honestly shocked at the amount of people who have missed the sprint feature in games (why is Skyrim said so much?!). I usually figure out how to sprint the second I have control of the game.

Skyrim was a surprise because, to my recollection, the other four didn't have a sprint option.

Nope, but you could make your own spells, so you either made a runspeed spell, or (the much more comical, and useful) Jump spell, that let you traverse Morrowind in three big leaps.

And kinda befuddles me how you can miss the sprint-function? I played on PC, and all the loading-screens (and there are a lot of them) have tips, which bring up sprinting.