"Wait, I can do that?"

[lacktheknack]

When I replayed Silent Hill 2, only to discover that you can control the camera a bit by pressing L2... Probably would have helped a bit to end frustration, even if I played through the first time without getting close to dying, had enough ammunition to turn 50 elephants into Swiss cheese, and enough medicine to make 50 elephants OD.

On that note, it appears that no one realizes that in SH2 and SH3, pressing both sidestep buttons makes the character do a fast 180.

This is IMMEASURABLY HELPFUL on a low-kill run.

 

[lacktheknack]

I've been getting into X-Com (the first one), I bought it back around Christmas but only got to it now.

I was having a HELL of a time doing anything, as I'm only getting a few million and the end of each month and could't afford the space or engineers required to keep a factory-for-profit going, nor could I afford the space or manpower needed for intense research (and my "Potential Tech" list was ballooning!). So here I was, scrounging and using ammo as conservatively as possible, until I actually took a good look at the "Sell" list...

...and found out that I sell the alien weaponry, UFO pieces, and alien corpses for millions of dollars.

Durr hurr hurr hurr.

So, after three restarts, six hours and a bit of cursing, I finally realized that I can sell the stuff I get off the UFOs. How... obvious.

Ever had a moment like that, where you missed something extremely obvious that made the game a lot easier or less frustrating?

How does selling corpses to the rest of the world makes any sense at all?? Isnt the player base the ONLY one existing and CAPABLE of defending against UFOs? Remember that if you bite the dust then the world gets conquered because apparently they got their asses handed without the tech that your base (barely) has. Why in the bloody do they need the corpse for??

Research. Terror tactics in police states. Museums. Hilarious pranks by the rich. Fast food. Alien-based cult ceremonies. Fetish shops.

I feel dirty now, thanks.

 

[Manji187]

I love playing JRPGs. For those of you who remember FF8 and FF9 and the like, probably remember the tutorials for weapons and equipment, various powerups and gems used to do this or that...And I remember when I was 12 when I got my first console. I got Final Fantasy 8 and barely paid any attention to the instructions, partially because I was impatient, partially because I didn't really get it (mostly because I wasn't willing to take the time to consider the meaning of the words I was reading), and partially because I didn't think it was important (12 year olds, think they know everything).

Imagine my surprise when I'd come up to a boss I couldn't defeat and I didn't understand why. Hmmm maybe it's the fact that you haven't upgraded weapons or powers dumbass. So imagine my further surprise when a few years later I'd replay FF8 and find that it's actually quite simple if you just read the tutorial and pay a sliver of attention.

Why are you describing me at age 12? XD

Got FF8 for full price (almost a year's worth of saving) a few weeks after release, didn't read the manual, didn't read the stuff in Squall's desk terminal, must have skipped Quistis' mini-tutorial at the gates. Got out of Balamb Garden, started fighting bugs, giant caterpillars and whatnot, wondering all the time why I could only attack and use items. Yeah, Day 1 was spent in confusion. Good times.

Did you by any chance also manage to attack FF7's robotic scorpion boss while its tail was up?

Actually I didn't know about FF7 until about 4 years later when I was a little wiser. I hadn't really even learned what a JRPG was at 12 cause while I was always allowed to play video games, my mother never really thought I was all that into them (because while girls can play video games on occasion, they're REALLY for boys, right? /sarcam) until I started begging for a playstation 1. So after I got a little further into the gamer culture that's when I learned of FF7 and didn't fuck up that one quite as bad XD

"Hah! They ARE really just for boys!" At least that's what my 12 year old self would have proclaimed. My world would have been shaken if I saw a girl holding a controller back then.

I'm sorry, but I'm really curious now. How did your mom "take the news" of her daughter's unmistakable interest in digital entertainment? Was it easy acceptance or something more along the lines of "Oh lawd...why!?" XD

Also, how did FF7, with its terribly polygon looking characters and relatively bland world-map, measure up after FF8 (and also after 9, I presume)?

Lol actually my mother took it rather well. It's not that she didn't think I couldn't play them because I grew up playing video games, tetris, super mario land 2 and begging my brother to let me play with his sega back when Sonic was actually cool. It's just she never really thought of me getting my own console or being as into them as my brother cause video games were exclusively marketed to boys, something I probably fell for myself cause on tv it's obvious what's meant for boys and whats meant for girls and video games was for boys. But once I started asking for my own console (more like on my knees begging "MOMMY!!! if you get one thing for christmas get me a Playstation! please please PLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSEEEE!!!") she obliged me. I think she was disappointed I wasn't a girly girl like she had been when she was a child, but she knew I was a tomboy and didn't deny me that.

As for the difference in graphics...well I was disappointed. I had seen the cover and the pictures in the manual and it was all the same beautiful bishonen and the somewhat scantily clad women that had been in FF8 and 9 so I figured the graphics might not be as pretty, but not that different. SO imagine me going "WTF?" when I first saw this oddly shaped Saiyan Goku blonde lego man coming off the train. I mean the world around him was beautiful, but Cloud wasn't so much. I had actually gotten into gaming just as graphics became really good (for the time) and virtual people actually looked like people, not polygons so you could say I was a spoiled gamer, but not so spoiled that I didn't play it and I loved it!

Begging? On your knees!? That's very...uhm...Japanese. "Okasan, onegai shimasu! ONEGAI!!!" The things a girl had to do to get her own console XD.

"Saiyan Goku blond lego man" lol. Although in that purple outfit of his, he's more like SS2 Gohan. What? Why are you giving me that look? "Don't judge me!" *hides in a corner*.

Ahh, the nostalgia. Say, have you played any other JRPGs that left an impression?

 

[snagli]

Well not me, but my friend didn't know that in Trine you can upgrade your skills. He went through the entire game without conjuring more than 1 wizard box, which is actually pretty impressive.

 

[Screamarie]

I love playing JRPGs. For those of you who remember FF8 and FF9 and the like, probably remember the tutorials for weapons and equipment, various powerups and gems used to do this or that...And I remember when I was 12 when I got my first console. I got Final Fantasy 8 and barely paid any attention to the instructions, partially because I was impatient, partially because I didn't really get it (mostly because I wasn't willing to take the time to consider the meaning of the words I was reading), and partially because I didn't think it was important (12 year olds, think they know everything).

Imagine my surprise when I'd come up to a boss I couldn't defeat and I didn't understand why. Hmmm maybe it's the fact that you haven't upgraded weapons or powers dumbass. So imagine my further surprise when a few years later I'd replay FF8 and find that it's actually quite simple if you just read the tutorial and pay a sliver of attention.

Why are you describing me at age 12? XD

Got FF8 for full price (almost a year's worth of saving) a few weeks after release, didn't read the manual, didn't read the stuff in Squall's desk terminal, must have skipped Quistis' mini-tutorial at the gates. Got out of Balamb Garden, started fighting bugs, giant caterpillars and whatnot, wondering all the time why I could only attack and use items. Yeah, Day 1 was spent in confusion. Good times.

Did you by any chance also manage to attack FF7's robotic scorpion boss while its tail was up?

Actually I didn't know about FF7 until about 4 years later when I was a little wiser. I hadn't really even learned what a JRPG was at 12 cause while I was always allowed to play video games, my mother never really thought I was all that into them (because while girls can play video games on occasion, they're REALLY for boys, right? /sarcam) until I started begging for a playstation 1. So after I got a little further into the gamer culture that's when I learned of FF7 and didn't fuck up that one quite as bad XD

"Hah! They ARE really just for boys!" At least that's what my 12 year old self would have proclaimed. My world would have been shaken if I saw a girl holding a controller back then.

I'm sorry, but I'm really curious now. How did your mom "take the news" of her daughter's unmistakable interest in digital entertainment? Was it easy acceptance or something more along the lines of "Oh lawd...why!?" XD

Also, how did FF7, with its terribly polygon looking characters and relatively bland world-map, measure up after FF8 (and also after 9, I presume)?

Lol actually my mother took it rather well. It's not that she didn't think I couldn't play them because I grew up playing video games, tetris, super mario land 2 and begging my brother to let me play with his sega back when Sonic was actually cool. It's just she never really thought of me getting my own console or being as into them as my brother cause video games were exclusively marketed to boys, something I probably fell for myself cause on tv it's obvious what's meant for boys and whats meant for girls and video games was for boys. But once I started asking for my own console (more like on my knees begging "MOMMY!!! if you get one thing for christmas get me a Playstation! please please PLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSEEEE!!!") she obliged me. I think she was disappointed I wasn't a girly girl like she had been when she was a child, but she knew I was a tomboy and didn't deny me that.

As for the difference in graphics...well I was disappointed. I had seen the cover and the pictures in the manual and it was all the same beautiful bishonen and the somewhat scantily clad women that had been in FF8 and 9 so I figured the graphics might not be as pretty, but not that different. SO imagine me going "WTF?" when I first saw this oddly shaped Saiyan Goku blonde lego man coming off the train. I mean the world around him was beautiful, but Cloud wasn't so much. I had actually gotten into gaming just as graphics became really good (for the time) and virtual people actually looked like people, not polygons so you could say I was a spoiled gamer, but not so spoiled that I didn't play it and I loved it!

Begging? On your knees!? That's very...uhm...Japanese. "Okasan, onegai shimasu! ONEGAI!!!" The things a girl had to do to get her own console XD.

"Saiyan Goku blond lego man" lol. Although in that purple outfit of his, he's more like SS2 Gohan. What? Why are you giving me that look? "Don't judge me!" *hides in a corner*.

Ahh, the nostalgia. Say, have you played any other JRPGs that left an impression?

Don't worry, not judging you at all. In fact you made me smile with that one.
Oh yeah! If you haven't tried the Persona series you should totally try 'em, just pick one and give it a try. I'd personally suggest Persona 3 or 4.

And around the same time I discovered Final Fantasy 8 I found Legend of Dragoon. That was SO awesome! It had such a great plot and I loved the characters in it! And I love Chrono Cross. I've wanted to play Chrono Trigger because I've heard it's very good but I've never gotten around to buying it.

And then I absolutely adored the Kingdom Hearts series but I worry they're getting a little too spread out with all the games to the point they don't exactly what they want to do with the story.

And you're probably already well aware of it but FF7: Crisis Core for the PSP was simply amazing....I need to find it and play it again.

What about you, what are some of your favorites? And I've gotta ask, where does your profile picture come from? It seems familiar but I can't seem to place it.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

Kirby Superstar

I didn't know Kirby had a block move for the longest time. That dragon on the second computer virus boss was so hard before I learned Kirby could block, and then so disappointingly non-threatening when I did learn.

 

[ChickNaney]

It isn't really a moment of "I can do that," but more of "so that's what that means..."

About a month before Battlefield 3 came out, I was playing with some friends on Bad Company 2. I got shot a few times and sat next to a medic crate, like you usually do. About halfway to normal screen colors, there was this sound that I can't really describe. I've heard it billions of times, but never knew what it meant or what it was. After the match ended, there was a hint saying that when you were injured and next to a medic kit and a sound goes off, it means that you are fully healed, no matter what your screen looks like.

That could have been incredibly handy to know about (roughly) 600 hours ago. I spent so much time in that game without knowing that.

 

[djAMPnz]

I kept myself in the dark to everything related to Skyrim and sorta went through the game like a mad man granted I sank in over 200 hours and counting but it wasn't until 150 hours in or so I found out the game has fast travel, yeah so I quickly realized that my 200+ hours are easily brought down to 30 hours at most.
No wonder I wasn't liking this game like everyone else

I'm guessing you've never played the Elder Scrolls before?

Morrowind didn't have fast travel, just public transport to major cities.

Also, I didn't realise that the first time I played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (for XBox) that if you used a recall potion to get back to the shop, you could just warp back to where you were. I'd run all the way back to where I was.

 

[SpAc3man]

Crash Team Racing on PS1 was a huge part of of my childhood. My friends and I had mastered hopping into a corner to drift around it perfectly, gaining heaps of boost. We were all super competitive. About a year ago we got out a copy of CTR for nostalgia awesomeness and to show that we all could pull a perfect drift on every corner. My friend's girlfriend wanted to play too. We decided to humour her and let her go head to head with the best. She destroyed all of us. Turns out she used to play heaps and that a hop and perfect drift has nothing on repetitive hopping all the way through the corner.

It was pretty huge for all of us.

 

[darkcalling]

I dunno if I just never figured it out or what (long time ago, fuzzy memory) but the junction system on FF8 wasn't explained very well. Made that game a lot more difficult.

Also my roommate was playing Amalur for 2 days before he figured out how to fast travel. He was complaining to me about it's lack of fast travel. I picked up my controller and warped myself back to Gorhart to sell some loot. He was sooo mad at himself for not knowing that. lol

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

EverQuest II, when it first came out and I first started playing. Rolled a Ranger, and spent the first... Oooh... Fifteen levels or so not realising I could use poisons to increase my DPS. Boy, did I feel like an idiot when I found that out.

 

[ChaosBorne]

I found out only recently that you can command Followers from afar in skyrim... this made it so much more interesting, as I could send my companion into melee and keep myself at range, while also giving commands for my companion to switch targets.

It also made stealth a heck of a lot more interesting, as I could command my companion to wait and then call them back from afar rather then running right back up to them.

That's the most recent thing that I can remember.

wait what? how do you do that?

 

[Comando96]

I just found that Skyrim does actually have hotkeys, after 101 hours of playing. In my defence, it seems like no one else realised this either ("wah, Bethesda sucks and didn't even let us use hotkeys!").

This... But with Fallout 3 and NV.

I completed fallout 3 twice after starting 5 characters, then arsing around, then completed NV for the NCR, Legion, House and Myself... Then discovered Hot keys.

I felt like the biggest dip shit in the world for a couple of mins afterwards xD

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I found out only recently that you can command Followers from afar in skyrim... this made it so much more interesting, as I could send my companion into melee and keep myself at range, while also giving commands for my companion to switch targets.

It also made stealth a heck of a lot more interesting, as I could command my companion to wait and then call them back from afar rather then running right back up to them.

That's the most recent thing that I can remember.

wait what? how do you do that?

Point at your companion and hold down the interaction button (the one you use to talk to them), it will automatically switch to the command mode, where you can get them to open doors, attack targets or wait in specific spots. (you'll know its worked when the crosshair changes to the one that expands and shrinks).

I'm not sure what the range limit is for it. Also, companions seem to stop using stealth when you issue a command while they are waiting... but it's still good none the less for creating diversions away from you. Also a good way to trigger traps and ruins, as long as it isn't poisonous or damages over time (as that will kill your companion).

 

[GoldenTriforce]

I always thought that Wonder Boy to the Sega Master System had an odd number of stages. 9 worlds with 4 stages each for a total of 36 levels. It always felt like a strange number for some reason. I've played through that game countless of times, since it's one of the oldest games I own, probably around 20 years.

I was watching a clip on youtube where they started talking about this game, and imagine my surprise (read as chock) when she says that if you collect all the hidden dolls on each level, you "unlock" an extra world bringing the number of levels up to a more logical 40. The resulting mind-blow practicly re-painted my room... followed by me realising that I've never actually beaten the game, despite owning it for over 20 years.

But to my defence, one of the dolls only appears if you run into a fire, which up untill that point have killed you instantly. It looks just as the normal fires as well, so you can't really blame me for not trying.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Playing through Deus Ex HR, spend all my time looking for alternative ways to break in as I couldn't hack some doors. Get to the final missions, have a heavy machine gun, mowing down badguys. Door gets blown off of its hinges and torn to shreds. Feel really dumb.

 

[Archl]

I found out only recently that you can command Followers from afar in skyrim... this made it so much more interesting, as I could send my companion into melee and keep myself at range, while also giving commands for my companion to switch targets.

It also made stealth a heck of a lot more interesting, as I could command my companion to wait and then call them back from afar rather then running right back up to them.

That's the most recent thing that I can remember.

wait what? how do you do that?

Point at your companion and hold down the interaction button (the one you use to talk to them), it will automatically switch to the command mode, where you can get them to open doors, attack targets or wait in specific spots. (you'll know its worked when the crosshair changes to the one that expands and shrinks).

I'm not sure what the range limit is for it. Also, companions seem to stop using stealth when you issue a command while they are waiting... but it's still good none the less for creating diversions away from you. Also a good way to trigger traps and ruins, as long as it isn't poisonous or damages over time (as that will kill your companion).

Wait... you can HOLD the interaction button, and command them, without going through the whole dialog menu?!

I never knew...

For that matter, I didn't realize there was a difference between pressing and holding that button.

 

[DasDestroyer]

After playing quite a few hours of Space Pirates and Zombies, getting to roughly level 70, during a mission, I realized that to get tech blueprints, you don't need to do quests or sell goons to improve relations and then spend tonnes of cash on them, all you need to do is destroy the fucking station. And by then, I could destroy any station in the outer part of the system, and most in the inner part.

 

[Elemental]

Aiming down the sights in Bioshock. That is all.

 

[ssgt splatter]

I've been getting into X-Com (the first one), I bought it back around Christmas but only got to it now.

I was having a HELL of a time doing anything, as I'm only getting a few million and the end of each month and could't afford the space or engineers required to keep a factory-for-profit going, nor could I afford the space or manpower needed for intense research (and my "Potential Tech" list was ballooning!). So here I was, scrounging and using ammo as conservatively as possible, until I actually took a good look at the "Sell" list...

...and found out that I sell the alien weaponry, UFO pieces, and alien corpses for millions of dollars.

Durr hurr hurr hurr.

So, after three restarts, six hours and a bit of cursing, I finally realized that I can sell the stuff I get off the UFOs. How... obvious.

Ever had a moment like that, where you missed something extremely obvious that made the game a lot easier or less frustrating?

Well no, not in recent memory anyway but can I just say, your avatar is really creepy.