Where Have All the Cheats Gone?

[Bat Vader]

Whenever I play GTA IV, Dragon Age: Origins, TES IV: Oblivion, or Fallout: New Vegas I always use cheats. I love turning on God Mode in Oblivion and running around the world killing monsters. I find it to be very entertaining. I don't care about playing the game properly or boasting to friends about what I did. I play games to have fun and using cheats in a game is fun for me.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Wow...that was one hell of a typo in my post (even though you got my meaning anyway). I meant to say I "would happily", not "wouldn't happily".

I completely forgot about the Pelican. I used one of those on a friend's Gameboy, though I can't remember for what game.

With the Gameshark, there were those times when I entered the code wrong. Then I had to double-check everything. So I had to get back onto the internet [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svmYyeRY11o] (provided no one was using the phone), wait forever for the pages to load, make sure to write down the code this time...

Cheating was hard work.

Don't worry, I must have missed it and glossed over the error. It's why I don't catch errors like that that I make.

Oh, I remember how much hard work cheating was. I had a Game Genie for my SNES. It came with this huge think book that had codes for most every game that was out at the time. And all codes were some ungodly length of letters and numbers, and printed in incredibly small type. One wrong character and I had to start all over again.

We didn't have too many games that actually needed the use of the thing, or actually had decent codes for them. But there was a game called "Road Runner's Death Vally Rally" where you play as the Looney Tunes Road Runner. Man, the only way I could beat that game was with cheats. Was like Sonic the Hedgehog on crack. While running at Road Runner speed, you have to jump to ledges over death drops and collect other flags and items.


But yeah, I remember going to cheat code sites using dial-up. Oh I am thankful every day that I now have cable internet.

 

[Amphoteric]

Cheats are gone?

Well I don't care, I have the console =D

 

[Senaro]

I seem to recall Saints Row 2 having cheats available from the moment you got a cell phone, only that turning them on turned off all achievements. How hard could that be for any other game to do?

 

[Adam Cammock-Sands]

Games are too easy these days, we dont have any need for cheats.
Id like to see a game as hard as croc: legend of the gobbos

 

[ghostrider409895]

I had forgotten how much fun it was to play games with cheats turned on until I read this article. I have been so caught up in getting trophies, and trying to be successful and challenging myself according to what the game allows, that I had forgotten how much fun it was when I could type in a code that would give me unlimited damage, or have unlimited ammo so I could clear a room full of bad guys with the coolest weapon available. It is even more upsetting to realize that not only did we lose cheats that helped us play the game, but we also lost cheats that unlocked cool levels or mess with character skins and what not.

I still remember when I would go on Cheatcodes.com or gamefaqs.com to try and find any new cheats to a new game. I still remember putting in a long cheatcode for my Fantastic Four gamecube game so I could play the bonus level in Hell, or typing in various codes in Turok: Evolution so I could go through and wipe out countless enemies and dinosaurs without having to worry about being killed every few steps by a velociraptor or sniper. I think that over time of playing more recent games, I have lost track of what cheats used to mean. I began to think that they were cheating, and there was no purpose to have them if you take the time to be good at a game. Now I remember that they did have a purpose. They made gaming fun. They took games I could play for hours, and let me escape the normal mechanics and rules for a little while, allowing me to just enjoy doing stupid and crazy stuff without risk or restarts or gameovers. They sometimes put new life into a game I would have otherwise grown tired of, and in some cases made a game that would be too difficult for easier so that I could actually enjoy it. Sure, I receive a sense of accomplishment if I unlocked something cool after a long hard fight. I feel good that I was able to beat the test and unlock that ultimate weapon on armor. It is awsome that I was able to unlock a new area by myself. Still, where is the codes that made everything in slow motion, or let me blow up anything with one punch. I miss the days of when there were cheat code forums rather than trophy or achievement help forums. I am glad to have been reminded of those times, but am sad to know that it has been so long that I have forgotten.

 

[Damien Granz]

Cheat codes aren't gone, they're just now individually priced in Microsoft points.

It's not achievements that killed cheat codes, it's on-disk 'downloadable' content, that they can sell, such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 3's 'new' characters, or it's purchasing health potions from a microtransaction store, or it's purchasing all the songs in Eternal Sonata, etc.

 

[Stravant]

Cheating isn't dead at all on PC.

Look at the adundance of mods for games like GTA4.

Also GTA4 is one game where I wouldn't mind the single-player cheat codes carrying over to multiplayer.

 

[robandall]

There are plenty of games that I'd have kept playing if I could cheat. Primarily Japanese ones to be fair - Bayonetta, DMC 4, FFX, FFX2, Far Cry 2, Crysis 2, Deus Ex: HR, Phantasy Star Online, Borderlands, Dead Space 1 & 2 just to name a few. A few lines of code would a good few hours of extra gameplay - at least devs could patch in codes 6 months to a year after release.

But there are cheats other than the ones that alter the gameplay experience or game mechanics. There are cheats that unlock content as well. Charlie Brooker said that games are unlike any other entertainment media in that much of the content *that you have already paid for* is locked from the get go. Obviously unlocks add challenge and motivation but at some point with certain games and certain unlocks (think FFX's celestial weapons, sphere grid unlocks, HP/MP limit breaks) a person may just think - "f*ck it, this just isn't fun"! Sure there are completionists (read - obsessives) who love the feeling of unlocking that final stage/weapon/boss but, as a averagely skilled core gamer, if I'm not enjoying the grind enough to justify the dev's "end" (no c*ck jokes, please), does that mean I *never* deserve that content? Content that, as mentioned, I've already paid for? Charlie's not so sure about that, and I have to agree with him.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I am not the only one making sweeping fallacies. 100% wrong? Even if I was just talking about you alone and NOT ANYONE ELSE. Are you prepared to say that you've never had anything handed to you or had anyone around you tell you how awesome you are?

Irrelevant. Because:

If any of this rubs you the wrong way it's likely because everyting you have in your life has been handed to you with little or no question all the while people around you have been telling you how awesome you are.

Not. "One instance". Not "Some of the time". Not even "most of the time". But "Everything".
"Everything" Is not an indefinite measurement. It means ALL. 1/1. 100/100. Ln6/Ln6

You have no way of proving that at least someone on this forum doesnt fit that description. The most I could be is 99% wrong. Too bad you couldnt somehow cheat and change that ;P

And you have no way of proving at least someone DOES fit that description.
Baseless assumptions do not prove a statement, so we discard them as evidence.

Or for the statistician: "There is not sufficient evidence to support the claim."

 

[Epona]

Sooner or later people will realize how worthless achievements are but that won't bring back external cheat devices because there are still two obstacles.

Online multiplayer is a problem for the success of external cheat devices, thankfully online passes will kill online multiplayer in time. For those confused by this statement. Online passes will ultimately mean fewer people playing online.

The last obstacle is the ability for console makers to patch out external cheat devices. I see no cure for this except that gamers make it clear they want external cheat devices back.

 

[cefm]

The 2 main motivations behind not having cheat codes are tied to online play.

1) Multiplayer needs to be based on all the same rules, and if someone is in "godmode" or has unlimited ammo or better abilities, it's broken. When you're all playing 4-player on Goldeneye and you turn on big-head mode or change the damage settings everyone in equal and is present to agree (or vote) on it. Online multiplayer would be non-functional with cheats.

2) Achievements - really they're meant to be a crumb of cheese to keep you playing. You get a little reward for your own contentment, but also it is bragging for everyone else online. You can report in on progress boards, etc. too. But it only means something if everyone has the same settings.

I'd be happy with a middle-ground where you have options to modify play settings but it was only available in "unofficial" mode - no multiplayer and no achievements earned.

 

[CRRPGMykael]

So, wait. You're not the only one who noticed the disappearance of cheats? Atleast there's still a few games with commands for random stuff, so yeah.

 

[Scrythe]

Hopefully the new Saints Row game will maintain it's cheat codes and remind us how cheats are fun.

Never fear, they did maintain cheat codes. And for the fun, fun price of $2.99!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55390/

 

[faspxina]

Hopefully the new Saints Row game will maintain it's cheat codes and remind us how cheats are fun.

Never fear, they did maintain cheat codes. And for the fun, fun price of $2.99!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55390/

I did not know that and I do not know how to express how I feel about it...

Spoiler: Oh wait! I do.

 

[willis888]

You're missing a "b a".

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, start

or for 2-player

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, select, start

I've tapped that code out SO many times playing Contra.

 

[mjc0961]

Achievements and trophies did not kill cheating. Lazy developers did. Plenty of games out there still have cheat codes that simply disable achievements until you reset the game. To ignore this and blame achievements is just asinine. Place the blame where it actually belongs, with the game developers. They're the ones being too lazy to add cheat codes. They're the ones being too lazy to make said cheat codes simply disable achievements if they don't want people to cheat their way to a platinum trophy or 1,000 gamerscore. Hell, some developers don't care and let you have the cheats and unlock achievements with them.

Cheating used to be an integral part of videogame culture, but lazy developers ruined that fun in a lot of games, but not all of them. To say otherwise... Quite simply, you're wrong.

Hopefully the new Saints Row game will maintain it's cheat codes and remind us how cheats are fun.

Never fear, they did maintain cheat codes. And for the fun, fun price of $2.99!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55390/

I did not know that and I do not know how to express how I feel about it...

Spoiler: Oh wait! I do.

There are still some cheat codes in the game without having to pay anything extra. Why they made you pay for some cheats and not others, I don't know. But Capcom started this "pay for cheats" shit with DR2OTR, and if it keeps going beyond that and SRTT...

 

[weirdee]

Cheat sites aren't dead, they just remodeled to focus more on walkthroughs and strategy guides, which are largely more useful anyway.

 

[Vlywncint]

The imput has changed. You don't get a set aside area to make them. Moding is essentially the same thing if you know what you're doing and can give a lot more customization than what the preset codes were. I wish they'd let us get keyboard implemention on the consols so we could mess around without having to move to a PC version ...

 

[ConstantErasing]

For me cheating was usually just a way of getting some small laughs out of a game and now I got glitches for that.