Solutions in games that made you feel really stupid

[Rhythm]

My friend and I recently picked up Tom Clancy's Rainbow six 2 for cheap and played through it a few times. It wasn't until we had finished the whole campain and started going through it again to level up our points when we realised that you could access a 'snake cam' by looking at the lower part of the door, thus enabling you to see inside the room without having to charge in like a headless chicken.

Needless to say we both felt rather foolish having burst into every room in the previous campain despite being a crack 'covert' team :/

 

[Althocke]

Recently played the trial for Limbo. There's a part where you come up to a box next to a pool of water. I figured you must have to ride the box over the water. About an hour later I gave up trying, so sure I was simply not balancing properly or something. My friend then told me I was supposed to pull the box back so I could reach a vine hanging from earlier on to climb up. I tried to use excuses, but everyone else I know who played it spotted the vine and figured it out instantly.

 

[kerkanka]

In Star Trek Online, there's a mission with an accolade for getting through it without engaging any security forces. My team and I had sneaked through jeffries tubes, locked guards in doors, timed running past guards while their backs were turned and smart-talked our way out of bad situations. We then came a across a large group of guards standing in front of the turbo lift we needed to access. We couldn't find a way through: no secret passage ways or switches, no dialogue options, no clever jumps to evade them. We consulted forum after forum and walkthrough after walkthrough; then one guy just walked right past them and entered the lift. The guards didn't even notice... we felt so stupid.

EDIT: this solution does make sense in context of the mission, but was so simple we'd dismissed it as soon as it was suggested.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Three hours into half-life 2 I felt really stupid...


This eventually changed because I learned to look for things and to pay attention, but the first three hours I got lost, confused, and frustrated multiple times because I didn't understand a puzzle.

The puzzles in Half Life are the things that made me hate the game.

 

[Ekonk]

Any puzzle in Silent Hill. I like to think of myself as an intelligent person, and most puzzles in games are not that hard for me but the ones in Silent Hill, for some reason, are.

 

[drbarno]

I remember this happened to me on one boss in Phantom Hourglass, the two headed serpent boss in the ice temple (or water, I can't remember the name right now) I started by trying to shoot it with arrows and nothing working, and seeing that you had to use rope to bounce off the shots they made, I felt really stupid after finding that out, the poles being right there in front of me.

 

[dancinginfernal]

I spent three hours looking for a way into Hydroponics in System Shock 2 when I realized I just missed a switch.

That wasn't even a puzzle, it's just opening a door.

For an actual puzzle, the one with the elevator, ramp, and crates in Limbo.

 

[Jedamethis]

I've never been stuck on a puzzle for that long. Or if I have, my brain has buried it deep and will never speak of it again.

 

[spartandude]

Shadow of the Collosus, killing lizards lets you hang onto monsters for longer?

 

[floppylobster]

Day of the Tentacle.

I can't remember the item, but to get it you had to enter the room and shut the door behind you to find it. I entered the room about 100 times. Then one time I shut the door.

Also Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass. You had to press a map or something. I couldn't work it out so I shut the screen to have a think about the solution...

 

[Jedamethis]

Shadow of the Collosus, killing lizards lets you hang onto monsters for longer?

Well of course they do, everybody knows that. You must have felt stupid...

 

[Geekosaurus]

Yes. The Star Wars Episode I game on PC. You have to escort the Queen through Theed to get her to the hanger so you can get away from Naboo. There is a giant rock in the way, blocking your path. Force push, force pull, lightsaber, thermal detonator, multiple thermal detonators, rocket launcher, cheat full-auto rocket launcher: none of them worked. Apparently all you had to do was walk up to it and actually push it...

 

[Soluncreed]

Recently played the trial for Limbo. There's a part where you come up to a box next to a pool of water. I figured you must have to ride the box over the water. About an hour later I gave up trying, so sure I was simply not balancing properly or something. My friend then told me I was supposed to pull the box back so I could reach a vine hanging from earlier on to climb up. I tried to use excuses, but everyone else I know who played it spotted the vine and figured it out instantly.

The same exact thing happened to me. In the end, I accidentaly jumped to the vine. My friend sitting next to me was just as suprised.

 

[John the Gamer]

Indiana Jones and the infernal machine. First time I got stuck and gave up, I had forgotten to push a certain block to activate the clock (picture)

wich ment I couldn't go the the next part of the map. After a year or two i tried again and noticed the block, hidden in the back of the room, and moved on.

Second time I got stuck was on a volcanic island because I failed to notice the ability to open a door by means of use-whip-on-statue. after another year or so, I figured this out as well and finally(!) ended the game.

Do keep in mind that I couldn't really speak or understand English at all before my third try. This was probably the first 'real' game I ever played, and also one of the hardest ones.

Fuck you, Infernal Machine. (game's fun though)

 

[Mighty Lighty]

Zelda, for making me YELL AT A DS ON A CROWDED BUS.

 

[aetharr]

I got one.. on the game Puzzle Agent, there is a little puzzle in which you a receptionist is unable to remember your room number, as the janitor wrote it down from the night before.. the solution, when presented to you is so mind-bogglingly simple. In the end, the game developers actually released a patch to alter how that puzzle appeared to make it more simple to understand.

Spoiler: http://gamecola.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Grickle101-2010-07-01-15-19-32-89-copy.png

 

[MissShortosity]

In Prince of Persia: Sands of time, there is a part where you have spikes on the floor, and need to get on the ladder hanging from the ceiling. No matter how I tried, I didn't manage to jump on it, I always ended up on the wrong side of the ladder, and couldn't figure out how to jump on the other side.
And then, I finally accidentally noticed you could simply turn on the ladder after you jumped on it.

That EXACTLY. Aaah! So frustrating!! I spent probably about 20 minutes at it, using up all my sands, and then did the same as you I feel your pain!

 

[smudgey]

Secret of Evermore, trying to kill a boss with a spear. Waiting for him to strike, do massive damage to me, then attacking like a mad thing.... only to realise later in the game you could actually throw the spear.

Half Life 2. Saw some enemies above me, killed them and then figured where they were was where i had to go..... after all, there were a heap of boxes nearby and a physics engine, so i decided to build me some stairs to climb up. But no matter how hard i tried, i just couldn't reach it. After much frustration and finally consulting a walkthrough, i found out you were actually supposed to go through a tunnel i hadn't even realised was there.

 

[johnnyLupine]

Uncharted 2, Limbo, but the one that sticks the most in my mind is the original MGS. I was pissed for hours trying to figure out what the colonel meant by Meryl's Codec is on the back of the CD case, and then I glanced at the case on the floor and realized he meant the game case.

Same here, i started off thinking it had something to do with the dammed CD that guy gives you, only to remember a friend telling me it had something to do with the actual game case. What did i do?

I took the case to pieces of course, scouring every inch of what i thought was the codes plastic safe.

I even checked the back of the game blurb, where the dammed picture was. It was only when id given up and was putting the last bit of the case back together, sliding the back into place that i saw her picture in a codec message...

Or thats how i remember it.

 

[Josdeb]

I recently got the Sly Cooper HD collection for the PS3 and I've been working my way through them.
In Sly 1, each level had 25-40 clue bottles you had to smash or touch in order to collect them.
On one level on the 3rd stage, there was a bottle suspended between a trampoline on the left and a ladder on the right. Unfortunately, they were both too far away from the bottle to reach by jumping from them. I spent about 40 minutes jumping over and over again.
I finally looked at a YouTube walkthrough. Apparently I was meant to attack in midair, because Sly's cane would give the extra distance.

Duh!
I'd done that about a million times already in the game, and I can' believe it hadn't occured to me.