"Wait, I can do that?"

[twaddle]

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.

Same problem. While playing 8 I soon discovered that the monster level up with you. What I did not realize was the junction system and juctioning magic over to your stats to make the game a hell of a lot easier. It wasn't until the second time i bought the game 4 years later and i was playing it on my pc because i had never beaten it.

 

[doomspore98]

That whenever You go into dead eye in read dead redemption undead nightmare your ammo count automatically reloads. Zombie killing mayhem. Also, I didn't know how to repair weapons and armor in fallout 3 until later into the game (about 30 hours).

 

[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).

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.

Neither did I after nearly 300 hours of play. I noticed on a couple of occasions that after doing a certain action (I think it was picking up objects to move about), I would sometimes end up giving commands to my followers. At one point I took note that they were always in front of me when it happened. I decided to experiment to see if it was a bug or something, but eventually, by chance, I held the interaction button on the follower (the same button used to manipulate objects) and viola, ranged commands.

It was a proper "you're shitting me" moment.

 

[doomspore98]

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.

You can do that?
that will change how I play the game.

 

[Kataskopo]

On Gears of War 2, I was blasting my way through one of the last levels where you have to escape in one flying thingy with a machine gun, and after more than 10 tries I managed to do it.

Then in a loading screen it was shown how you can press a button to cool down the machine gun
¬¬

There was a little tutorial at start, but I don't remember ever seeing something about cooling the machine gun down!

 

[Jamane]

discovering companions can lock-pick chests in skyrim... I almost died

 

[DannyJBeckett]

Snippedy-snip snip.

One of my friends did this with Fallout 3. Absolutely loved the game but had no idea about fast travel until a week into the game when he accidentally discovered it. Facepalmed so hard when he told me...

I had a friend who did the precise same thing too. He told me how he didn't like Fallout 3 very much because he was constantly having to haul-ass all the way across the Wasteland to get anywhere. Then I told him about fast travel and it pretty much blew his mind. The best part of it was that he'd had the game for at least 6 months before hand, so he'd wasted sooo much time just walking from place to place. It gave me a good laugh.

 

[SanguineScale]

For the longest time I didn't know you could shift the camera on the overworld in FFVII. I went through, like 2 discs on first playthrough before I realized it. Then I was all like, "THIS WORLD HAS A SKY?????" wtf.....

 

[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.

You can do that?
that will change how I play the game.

Yeah, it was a little frustrating to know that I didn't have to put points into hacking and I could have tried shooting my way into everywhere. Ah well, the second playthrough was a lot more... Shall we say... Explosive

 

[lacktheknack]

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

Thanks! I try my best.

Now to find a creepier one...

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Lol, I felt that way when I figured out I could transfer personnel right before the end of each month and they don't get paid. The monthly charge only applies if they are at the base. Must suck to be an X-Com scientist because you transfer back and forth every month and HR keeps "misplacing" your paycheck.

Yeah, playing X-com is just one big series of moments like this. Even if you read that whopper of a manual, there's no way you can remember it all without having played through the game enough times to have figured most of it out on your own.

Edit: See also, combat flight sims. As someone who grew up on the X-Wing series, with the occasional foray into Wing Commander and games like A-10 II, I never understood how a genre that was so much fun died out. Well, this Summer I found a complete boxed copy of Starlancer, a Chris Roberts game and the predecessor to Freelancer. Cue me failing the first mission because I couldn't find the button I needed to lock onto the torpedoes I was supposed to be blowing up. The genre was at a sweet spot of complexity (and, notably, of easing you into it with training missions) in X-Wing Alliance. If Starlancer is any indication of what the other series were doing in the twilight hours of the space combat sim, it's no wonder the genre died out.

 

[Chanel Tompkins]

Hm...probably when I first got Pokemon Sapphire and realized it had a run function. I know it explains that to you, but I got it very late at night.

 

[dickywebster]

Dragon quest 9, i didnt realise where you recruited people until several dungeons in, as i was used to the other DQ games where you picked them up as you went along.
I was stupidly over leveled by that point, but theres only so far you can go with one person.
Once i got a full team, breezed though the rest of the game.

Actually theres been some RPGs where i havent known where 2 go, either run around for ages in the old bits or found a new higher level bit i wasnt meant to find yet and become stupidly high level and breezed through the game.
Turns out i was 20 levels higher than i needed to be at the end of the original final fantasy when i first played it...

 

[lacktheknack]

There's a sprint button in Skyrim! O.O

This blew my mind when I first realized.

IT BLEW MINE TOO!

I noticed that there was a blocking perk that mentioned sprinting, so I checked the control menu and nearly yelped. This was 50 hours in.

 

[Emperor Nat]

I won't bore you with the entire story, only the end: I came into the possession of morrowind with no manual or any pre-existnig knowledge about it whatsoever.
So figuring out pretty much ANYTHING (besides wasd = move) was a glorious moment.
Bear in mind that morrowind was nowhere near as user-friendly as oblivion or skyrim. You pretty much just pick a race and some favorite skills and than you're thrown into the streets.
And you know what? Looking back, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Several hundred playing hours later, I get this novel idea to check this odd new system called the interweb for some info on enchanting in morrowind and stumble upon some site called the unofficial elder scrolls pages. Today it's known as the elder scrolls wiki.

My mind was blown so many times that day, it never quite recovered.

The elder scrolls wiki is actually quite bad. The unofficial elder scrolls pages is however amazing and still exists at www.uesp.net

OT: Any complicated puzzle in any game ever. I always end up leaving the game for AGES before caving and looking it up. At which point I promptly realised that the puzzle isn't hard, I'm just a moron. :/

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Fallout 3: Hotkeys. Spent most of the game awkwardly using my Pipboy to switch weapons around.

Minecraft: Shift-click

Mirror's Edge: Aerial take downs. The achievement for doing so is called "Its-a mi!" or something like that.

Fallout 3/any Elder Scrolls game: Inventory sorting. I shat a brick when I found clicking on the title changes it from "Everything" to "Weapons", "Armor", "Food", etc.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Took me 40 hours to realize there's a sprint function in Skyrim

Yes, you can start laughing now

 

[Genericjim101]

I went through most of the Riddler object challenge...thingies in Arkham City without even realizing that you can hold down the pressure plate with exploding gel.

WHAT!? Oh holy shart XD Thank you.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

In Batman: Arkham City, I didn't know you could perform attacks with the wire-gun until I got stuck on the Mr Freeze boss fight and the hint menu came up. Same with flying remote batarangs through electricity to power up generators, being able to detonate gels one at a time for Riddler challenges and using ice grenades on the ocean...

Jesus I was an idiot at this game.

 

[Rhymer]

I've never facepalmed quite as hard as when I discovered how to mass dump/forbid in Dwarf Fortress. If you've played it, please imagine trying to clear stones out of a newly-dug, 40x40 stockplie room. One at a time.

Also, building a Viking and a Medivac at the same time with a reactor in sc2.