Games That Should Be Played "The right way" - Real or imagined

In action games, unless the game devs made the ranged combat options way more in depth than short range (including making short range more of a "oh shit" mode than a realistic option, then I reserve the right for calling someone who doesn't engage in honorable short range combat a faggot
 
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Judge Dredd said:
I don't blame anyone for using a guide on that bloody train maze section.

I've heard of tone deaf people being unable to do the wind puzzle. I didn't have that problem, but makes sense.
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I didn't have this problem with Myst specifically, but there was a similar game--Zork Nemesis--that I recall having this absolutely irritating piano puzzle. Apparently 7th Guest (which I've never beaten) also has an annoying music puzzle, made worse because the game's standard BGM is still playing while you're trying to hear the metronome.


Judge Dredd said:
This is actually a way to make the game easier. Having the radio off means you can tell which monster is around by their unique sounds. ...unless they're standing still in the dark...

The light off is said to make monsters slower to react, but it's hard to tell.
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One thing about horror games in general is these days, I play them because I'm trying to drain myself of all fear.

I feel like its worked too well though, because often--especially if I'm playing one of those "doesn't give you a weapon" games--I just get annoyed. Being unable to fight back feels artificial.... especially when I'm still sidestepping around the monsters like a boss or finding ways to effectively troll them.

Once when playing Amnesia the Dark Descent, I was able to get into a safe position and throw so many boxes at one of those facey flesh golem things that the game basically glitched. This was on the Switch--I can't imagine what pussies they'd be if I had a proper mouse and keyboard.
 
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I always found it fun to do well but not mathematically optimal, so to speak, in 4X games. I don't sperg when cities share tiles or aren't in the most perfect spot in Civilization games, for example. Part of the fun is building up the civilization through thick and thin and weathering challenges, much as has actually happened in history.
 
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Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines is vintage jank, and with finite XP and no respecs, a player should be aware of a few things: guns scale, melee does not (exception: Celerity abuse.) Social skill utility drops off a cliff in the late game. Building tall instead of wide during character creation is most efficient.

Mayor Cody Travers said:
I always found it fun to do well but not mathematically optimal, so to speak, in 4X games. I don't sperg when cities share tiles or aren't in the most perfect spot in Civilization games, for example. Part of the fun is building up the civilization through thick and thin and weathering challenges, much as has actually happened in history.
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The only exception to this I can think of is Venice in Civ V. Restart scumming for an optimal start is almost necessary.
 
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Fascist Frederick said:
The original Deus Ex's default renderer is way too dark on modern hardware, and the brightness setting has no effect. This is easy to fix but nobody knows it's a problem because "atmosphere" or something. Every goddamn youtube video of the game has the issue, the game isn't supposed to be particularly dark even though it takes place entirely at night. Everyone is playing it wrong.
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Gave the game a try recently, and how fucking dark everything was fucking drove me nuts. I knew I wasn't fucking crazy when I thought "this is  too dark, I can barely see a got damn thing!". Especially when I went to adjust the brightness setting and it did diddly dick.
CuzinEd said:
One game that comes to mind is Deus Ex. It's a good game. But it's very specific in the way you play it. You mostly need stealth because the gunplay is terrible. You can get to points in the game and screw yourself over by neglecting a certain skill or lack an item. Like if you need to hack a control panel but can't. You are basically screwed. This can seen in the opening level of the game.
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Let's just say I gave up on Deus Ex pretty quick. The above issue was bad enough, but when the opening level of the game tries to insist "stealth" and "guns blazing" are equally valid options, only to die 20+ times on a casual difficulty trying the latter and to have the former just flat out not work constantly, my patience wore thin very, very fast.
It doesn't help the stealth seemed really hit and miss as is, sometimes I could literally crawl right underneath someone's nose and they wouldn't notice me, others I could be completely fucking hidden except for a pixel 50 feet away, and they see me. Never been a fan of stealth games, but I sure as shit don't have to patience for one that up and decides when it wants to work.

Don't even suggest to me "gun blazing" is viable when I can be 1 shot by an enemy when my head is a fucking pixel in their view. It would of been way less insulting if right at the start of the game there was a big sign that said "fuck you, this is a stealth game, don't try anything else, faggot".
 
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Nick Gars said:
Gave the game a try recently, and how fucking dark everything was fucking drove me nuts. I knew I wasn't fucking crazy when I thought "this is  too dark, I can barely see a got damn thing!". Especially when I went to adjust the brightness setting and it did diddly dick.

Let's just say I gave up on Deus Ex pretty quick. The above issue was bad enough, but when the opening level of the game tries to insist "stealth" and "guns blazing" are equally valid options, only to die 20+ times on a casual difficulty trying the latter and to have the former just flat out not work constantly, my patience wore thin very, very fast.
It doesn't help the stealth seemed really hit and miss as is, sometimes I could literally crawl right underneath someone's nose and they wouldn't notice me, others I could be completely fucking hidden except for a pixel 50 feet away, and they see me. Never been a fan of stealth games, but I sure as shit don't have to patience for one that up and decides when it wants to work.

Don't even suggest to me "gun blazing" is viable when I can be 1 shot by an enemy when my head is a fucking pixel in their view. It would of been way less insulting if right at the start of the game there was a big sign that said "fuck you, this is a stealth game, don't try anything else, faggot".
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I have it installed right now. I also have the Give Me Deus Ex mod installed so it will run and look a little better on modern PC's. My first time playing it was on the PS2 a long time ago. Probably in the mid 2000 to late 2000's. I didn't get very far in it. It's clunky and hell. I never noticed the game being too dark. If I do get to places that are too dark, I just use the flashlight.

I played it a about 2 years ago and I got to the level under the UNATCO building. That's the farthest I have ever gotten. lol
Krokodil Overdose said:
Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines is vintage jank, and with finite XP and no respecs, a player should be aware of a few things: guns scale, melee does not (exception: Celerity abuse.) Social skill utility drops off a cliff in the late game. Building tall instead of wide during character creation is most efficient.


The only exception to this I can think of is Venice in Civ V. Restart scumming for an optimal start is almost necessary.
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I have been playing VtMB and it's pretty good. But as you said it's janky as hell. It had a really troubled development, and it seems like the developers overextended themselves it seems. I know people like to blame Activision but that probably didn't help either. When someone gives you a deadline you have to stick to it.

I watched a few videos before going on. The guns are kind of useless. I just use Melee mostly. I haven't boosted by social skills up much past what I had at the start of the game.
 
CuzinEd said:
I have been playing VtMB and it's pretty good. But as you said it's janky as hell. It had a really troubled development, and it seems like the developers overextended themselves it seems. I know people like to blame Activision but that probably didn't help either. When someone gives you a deadline you have to stick to it.

I watched a few videos before going on. The guns are kind of useless. I just use Melee mostly. I haven't boosted by social skills up much past what I had at the start of the game.
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Troika ran out of time and money and launched against WoW with predictable results. C'est la vie.

The power on the guns is basically quadratic. Having a Saturday night special with mediocre skills is an exercise in frustration, having a Deagle and a bullpup with maxed skills in Chinatown makes you a death god. Melee starts strong but will not carry you through the late game unless you're exceptionally patient or can abuse Celerity and/or Potence.
 
Nick Gars said:
Don't even suggest to me "gun blazing" is viable when I can be 1 shot by an enemy when my head is a fucking pixel in their view. It would of been way less insulting if right at the start of the game there was a big sign that said "fuck you, this is a stealth game, don't try anything else, faggot".
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I had similar trouble (though I was playing the PS2 port). I was later told that to make guns viable you have to use the heal bot and the super sniper rifle. What heal bot? What rifle? Turns out there's some obscure secrets that you're just expected to know.

System Shock 2 is kind of the same. I had a miserable time because it turned out psionics are under powered unless you know all the secrets. The guns are made of cream crackers judging by how fast they disintegrate, making the "beginner build" a melee build. I didn't know that, so it was apparently my fault that I had a sucky time because "everyone knows the wrench in System Shock 2 is OP".
 
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The only self imposed rules I have are in souls games.

1. First playthrough must be Unga Bunga strength build. I honestly feel like they give the best impression of how to fight most bosses because you really need to work around boss patterns and find safe windows to whack bosses.
2. During invasions, everything is fair game. Doesn't matter if I'm invader or invaded, all is fair. Cheap weapons, kiting to enemies for backup, hiding around corners with large aoe spells, taking advantage of retards that bow. It's all fair. I'm here for your souls, not for a balanced fight.
 
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I have a specific procedure I go through, usually, when boarding a ship in Jimminy Cockthroat: Maritime Edition.
First I rake the deck with the swivel/puckle gun.
Then I take the lift to the crow's nest, coutersnipe the snipers. Run over, steal their musket and use it to pick off targets (especially officers and powder barrels). Then usually lynch someone with the rope dart, like to do it to an officer or even to the captain. If there's a flag or captain, I handle it last because it's the "cinematic" way to finish off the ship (instead of just cutting down an arbitrary crew member).
That approach gets the most gameplay variety out of a raid on the ship, aside from not involving swinging to their deck. Sometimes I will mix it up, like say hitting the deck first.

I also find it more fun to play Just Cause 2 if I make up a "strategy" to what I'm doing. Like saying "I'm going to take this river to cut their supplies in two, then encircle this mountain, disable communications first, etc." I'll scope it all out in a jet fighter (deep recon flight) first, to know what's there, then plan out the sequence in which I'll 100% the locations. I've done most of the desert biome that way, until I got bored and put JC2 on the shelf again (because the game is well made to be played when you feel like, not in one go as an experience).
 
I always play Fallout as unarmed/melee fighter in contrast of a more general post-apocalyptic approach with guns or laser crap.
Sorry bros, but i prefer 100% dealing critics with my bare hands or a super sledge.
 
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Civilization games are only fun if you allow yourself to drift off and roleplay. E.G if you're a playing western nations you damn better be colonizing your neighbors.
 
Playing racing/driving sims in cockpit/bumper camera modes. I grew up primarily playing kart games and games with arcadey physics, primarily Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing, and the Cruise'n games. In any game with realistic vehicles, I used to think anything else but chase/3rd person was unbearable.

It wasn't until I played Test Drive Unlimited 2 that I really starting using the first person camera. There was an achievement for driving X amount of miles in cockpit view, and being someone who cared a bit too much about achievements, I forced myself through it.

It must have stuck with me because nowadays, I'm the absolute opposite. Whenever I'm playing something like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo, I find myself unable to use anything but first person, even if the vehicle in question has shit visibility through the windshield. Something about 3rd person camera fucks up my spatial awareness and ability to gauge if I'm on the racing line or not.

I wouldn't say it's an "essential" way to play a game, but holy shit does it increase the immersion, especially in games that go through great lengths to capture authentic audio from inside the cabin.
 
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The dark souls players that say Unga Bunga is only legit way is hilarious. Like okay..managing ranged vs melee is boss dependent as there are many bosses where staying underneath is far easier than staying far away.

The one game that comes to mind that I play is Monster Hunter. It's not looked down upon but the "gun spam" to end hunts quickly is fairly real.

World also added this claw mechanic that pretty much turned the game into a procedural fight that if you didn't do you just made the hunts longer.
 
Croaking Spider said:
Playing racing/driving sims in cockpit/bumper camera modes. I grew up primarily playing kart games and games with arcadey physics, primarily Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing, and the Cruise'n games. In any game with realistic vehicles, I used to think anything else but chase/3rd person was unbearable.

It wasn't until I played Test Drive Unlimited 2 that I really starting using the first person camera. There was an achievement for driving X amount of miles in cockpit view, and being someone who cared a bit too much about achievements, I forced myself through it.

It must have stuck with me because nowadays, I'm the absolute opposite. Whenever I'm playing something like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo, I find myself unable to use anything but first person, even if the vehicle in question has shit visibility through the windshield. Something about 3rd person camera fucks up my spatial awareness and ability to gauge if I'm on the racing line or not.

I wouldn't say it's an "essential" way to play a game, but holy shit does it increase the immersion, especially in games that go through great lengths to capture authentic audio from inside the cabin.
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I find it usually much harder to play a game in first person perspective - tighter view - but it does make things more intense. So sometimes I'll switch to it. When I play Steep (snowboarding Tony Hawk-like game) I'll usually do the actual challenges in third person, just because its too hard otherwise, but if I'm just fucking around I go first person, it's crazy zooming down a mountain dodging rocks and trees, jumping where you get all disorientated from the flips and spins. It would be ideal for VR but nobody seems to have capitalized on that.
 
if you didn't:
- savescum in Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005) to get the pink slip for every Blacklist member's car;
- beat Darkest Dungeon without anyone dying, while also bringing Reynauld and Dismas to the final boss;
- beat Day 49 in Lobotomy Corporation without using Backwards Clock;
- have Roland kill Finn, Walter, Tomerry, the Shi section dudes, Iori, Xiao, the black dude that gives him his gloves back and Argalia, as is per Library of Ruina's canon;
- kill every boss in Elden Ring without armor, healing, summons, magic, ashes of war, jumping or dodgerolling;
- win every battle in any given Pokémon game without having a single of your Pokémon faint;
you didn't beat the game.
 
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