Do you cheat? (1 Viewer)

Just wondering. I've been cranking on quite a few games recently and just remembered my "don't buy guide books, don't look at walkthroughs/faqs, just play the game and finish it" policy.

So - do you use game guides or other aides? If so at what point to you use them? After a few hours of frustrating, getting nowhere play?

For me I'll get some help if I've played the game a few days and am getting nowhere. To the point of not wanting to play the game anymore. Quick hint and I'm back on track. Probably happens on about 1 out of 10 games.

Cheating? That all depends on what your definition of "is" is.

Generally I play a game straight through without looking anything up until I reach the final boss. Then if that game requires me to get 100% of something for a special ending, I'll look up what I've missed. In a game like Metroid Prime I could waste endless hours searching for that last missile expansion pack, but I've got other games I'd like to experience.
My general rule on getting stuck is if after three continuous hours or three days of an hour each I still can't find the solution, then I'll look it up.

Recent games that I had to "cheat".

1) SMS for gamecube. beat the boss and got almost all stars, but needed a little help with getting all 240 blue coins.
2) THPS4 for xbox - finding some object on the final level.

Of course I use FAQs. There's too many games out there to spend days hammering on one particular problem in a game. Do I turn to them at the slightest bit of bother? Nope, but in "dire situations", I think it's worthwhile.

I think for some people who use games to "compete" to finish them the fastest, guides/faqs are too easy an option. They burn through games playing them till they see the ending, dump them & move onto the next one.

I don't buy the guides though, don't see the point. I personally haven't seen one with enough content in it to justify the cost vs what's available online. But I understand the "added value" in them that makes them worthwhile to some people.

So Kip...that's a yes?

Yep, but lately I've been trying to avoid that sort of scripted game - if it's no fun to cheat and it's no fun to get frustrated...

My brothers and I are pretty solid "non-cheaters". We will discuss games with one another and have asked each other on occasion for hints. But, for the most part, I don't use cheat codes until I have completed the game and want to go back and play it with unlimited ammo or invincible health or something.

I don't use cheat codes except on Simpsons Road Rage to see stuff you can't see other ways but I will get a walkthrough and refer to it from time to time when playing a game like Splinter Cell or Halo. After I have gone through 20 times and still can't figure out what to do to get through a mission I will read the walkthrough to help me get by. Like in Halo, when you have to activate the light bridge in the 3rd level IIRC, I played that crap for days, drivng the Warthog as fast as I could to jump the gap and then walked and walked after Cortana says "maybe there is a way to activate the light bridge" before I got a walkthrough and it still took me 20 minutes to find the darn activation point.

If a game is too difficult, I might get a guide or FAQ from GameFAQs.com but I usually just find out what unlockables or secrets are in a game and how to get them without using cheat codes. I only use cheat codes if I already beat a game, don't plan on beating it, or it's too difficult.

My only goal in any game that I play is to finish it. If I have to use an invincibility cheat, a game guide, power-ups or walkthroughs it doesn't bother me. The satisfaction is in completion, not driving myself crazy trying to do it unaided. A good example is LOTR: The Two Towers, I really love the game but some of the levels are extremely difficult, (The Breached Wall drives me completely nuts) I used the health power-up cheat to finish the level with Aragorn and came back later to finish it up with the others under the invincibility cheat.
After finding www.gamefaqs.com a few years ago, I've only bought one game guide, TimeSplitters 2, because of the complexity of beating the challenges.

I'm not a big fan of cheat codes, but I use walkthroughs and message boards all the time. Usually if it's something tedious that has no reward, like trying to find the next dungeon in Wild Arms 3, I'll head over to gamefaqs and look up the coordinates.

I rent games so yes I use gamefaqs all the time.
short attention span.

I'm the same as Ted. I don't have time to go on a collect-a-thon just to see a different ending. I have to work, play other games, watch movies, the Fiesta Bowl, etc... I find as much as I can while progressing through at a decent pace, but that's it.

I also don't normally take the time and play through games more than once. I'm not going to try and memorize everything just so I can rush through a game a 2nd time and get a better time-based ending. I have other things I would rather do.

So, I'll cheat to see the other endings, or just download movie clips of them, but I don't cheat to get through the game the first time.

Depends on the game, anything from Squaresoft, I buy the Game and the Guide at the same time. I would consider myself a pretty thorough guy, buy Square is just nuts for exact time events, and no going back situations. I played Final Fantasy 7 from start to finish without any guide, then started reading a few mag's that had some secret things in the game, and realized just how much I missed, and how many things I could not go back and do ; ) So I picked up the game and played it again. No when I pick up a guide, I just hit the secret section, and make a few little tabs for where and when to do certain tasks/get certain items, and that's about it.

Most games though I have to be stuck, and I man extremely suck (10hrs) plus before I hit the net.

Personally I find most guides enhance the game, hell I havent finished a Final Fantasy game under 90hrs yet, not bad game value in my opinion. Less that $1 an hour, sweeeeeet.

KC

I also use GameFaqs in 'Dire Situations'. If I'm stuck in a game for a few hours and can't figure out what to do next, off to GameFaqs I go. But it's not like I'm there every 20 minutes figuring out what to do next.

It seems like RPG's are one instance where I use FAQ's more than any other. For example, it would have taken me months to get all the Ultimate Weaponsin Final Fantasy 9. Using a FAQ, it only took me a few days.

I also buy Squaresoft Game Guides with each game. What I do is I play a section, then read about it in the guide afterwards so I can see if I missed an item and want to go back and get it. This way, the strategy for bosses and such is mine, but I still get everything.

TimeSplitters 2 has some pretty good guides at GameFAQs.

If the game is a rental for a few days just for fun, cheat away. But engrossing games I buy like Metroid Prime, Halo, or Zelda are cheapened by cheating (I will, however, use FAQs for things like missle upgrades and that last frickin' blue coin).
Another related question: How many times do you search for something in a game, finally resort to a FAQ or guide, then get really, really mad at yourself for overlooking the obvious solution? It happens to me every time. I did this exact same thing Lee did in Halo and was really pissed when I finally read a FAQ:

Like in Halo, when you have to activate the light bridge in the 3rd level IIRC, I played that crap for days, drivng the Warthog as fast as I could to jump the gap and then walked and walked after Cortana says "maybe there is a way to activate the light bridge" before I got a walkthrough and it still took me 20 minutes to find the darn activation point.

Just wondering if everyone is as dense as I am sometimes...I sure hope so:frowning: .

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Sometimes I'll use Unlock Everything codes on certain games. Some games are good, but too monotonous, to play through again and again just to unlock things. It becomes a chore to play.

For me an example is Tony Hawk 3. I don't have the mindset to play the game like other people do. I'd say I suck at it, and I'll never be good enough to unlock everything. But, I would like to play as Darth Maul & Wolverine for the dopey value of it all. So I use a gameshark to unlock things. It didn't detract from my value of the game at all.

I don't use cheats on games that I'm actively playing through. If I'm stuck, I will check a magazine or go to gamefaqs for a tip. It's better than just giving up. Plus, I import a lot and there's a bit of Japanese that I'm clueless about. That reminds me, I gave up on FFX: International a few months back, maybe I should pick it up again...

The one game in recent memory that I cheated to finish was Final Fantasy VIII. I got sick of the endless boss battles in the latter part of the game where it seemed like the computer would toy with me for half an hour before nailing me with a huge attack that wiped out my party. I said, "the story is important here, not these damned battles" so I used the Gameshark to level up. And I still barely beat the game. And that is why I wholeheartedly believe that random battles in RPGs are a cheap tactic the developer uses to boost their "hours of gameplay" stats.