Does anybody else miss Cheat Codes?

[Booze Zombie]

Saint's Row 2 kept it's self going with the cheat codes. The Pimp-hand Olympics are still something my friends and I do every now and then, for instance.

Cheat codes are good fun and also, very practical for Machinima purposes, as you may have noticed in the Freeman's Mind series, he's got God mode on, uses no-clipping and has the HUD disabled via cheats, as well.
Keeps the pace fast, the humour focused and ensures that he never has to break the fourth-wall and load the game... except for that one episode where he died, but that was explained as some sort of weird vision brought on by bad Doritios.

Anyway, cheats are still there, but more games need them as a feature. Like RE5's unlimited ammo!

 

[AbstractStream]

I miss them a lot. Especially for the SNES.
Down, Right, Up, Left, Y, B. Ten star speed for Street Fighter

 

[awmperry]

Yeah, I miss cheat codes. I have little interest in Achievements, and I seldom play games for the "challenge" - I don't have the time to grind a level over and over again, and I'd much rather play through it for the story. It's all down to individual tastes, and nobody can prescribe to someone else what the "right" way to enjoy gaming is. And that's why I tend to get rather irritated by remarks like this:

...you're pretty pathetic if you cheat in an RPG just saying, also as you get older you realize cheat codes are wasting your time since your cheating yourself out of the game.

And sure - if I enjoyed it less with cheats I would be. But I play RPGs (for instance) for the RP and story, and if I can make the (for me) tedious combat bits go away while I get on with the interesting stuff, then that should be my call. Do I cheat myself out of the game by not having to replay an irrelevant random encounter fourteen times? I don't think so.

So yeah. Bring back cheat codes. I want to play a GTA where I can make it rain polka-dot umbrellas. I want to play a shooter where I can make my character immortal and carry twelve different guns the size of small cars (IDDQD, IDKFA). I want to turn the lights on in Bioshock. I want to play Saint's Row 2 and give myself infinite money to buy myself an elegant ensemble of orange bikini, blue tuxedo jacket and roller skates. I want to open a console and type GOAWAYANNOYINGINSECTS to wipe out, for the entire game, the inevitable hordes of tiny, fast, bitey critters that exist solely to leap out of nowhere and eat my face (HL/HL2 headcrabs, CoD4 dogs, spiders in every game ever made, etc).

Does that mean I play games the wrong way? Well, I have more fun and it doesn't affect anyone else. So bring back cheat codes, please.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Absolutely! I loved having the ability to just blow off some steam by turning on godmode and spawning half a dozen enemies (dark jedis, AT-STs, etc) and just as many jedi in Jedi Knight and watching the carnage. It was fun I tell you! I won't even get into the stuff I used to do in the GTA games when they were still good, because it's extremely NSFW. Suffice it to say it involved a giant dildo, a flamethrower, several prostitutes, and as many of those satchel charges as I could fit onto one car. Good times...

As for the cheats taking the fun/challenge out of games? BULLFUCKINGSHIT! The challenge in games has been reduced to idiotic monotony, the same stupid fights over and over. And QTEs. And forced vehicle sections with bad controls. And regenerating health. And autosaves at every ten steps. Sorry, but games haven't been challenging in ages. Besides, it's not like anybody forces you to cheat? Sure, it's more satisfying to get past a certain difficult section without godmode, but is something as trivial as a trophy/achievement really worth the frustration? My $0.02: remove retarded achievements, and insert hilarious cheats instead. More fun for everybody.

To give an example, I was playing Clive Barker's Jericho a while back. It's a terrible game, I mean just about every design aspect is seriously flawed. The worst was easily the combat, as enemies could spawn atop of you (okay), spawn endlessly unless you move forward or hold a position, which is never actually clarified (sigh), suicide bomber enemies that don't damage enemies when blowing up (fuck), with lots of health (damnit!), and glowing weakpoints that your teammates diligently ignore (FFFFFUUUUUUU). I eventually got stuck in a narrow corridor where those bastards just kept spawning on both ends, and my retarded teammates found humping the walls much more edifying than shooting the enemies. I rage quit several dozen times, until I found a trainer that reduced the enemies' health by 80%. Wow, suddenly this game is fun! It's a bit like Painkiller, only bloodier and far from being as good. I could actually start to enjoy the horribly written story now. And experiment with the various powers my teammates have without the fear of getting blown up by a suicide bombing **** that spawn under my feet.

 

[mikecoulter]

I think cheat codes should be included in games as long as it doesn't effect the balance of the game too much. Or if they allow for hilarious antics, such as in GTA IV.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Cheat codes was nice back when you played multi player games in single player games, like age of empires. However now a days all the games you would use cheat codes on has gone interwebs multiplayer and thus cheat codes are no longer needed. Also for me there is no longer any reason to use cheat codes in single player games I do play since they are all RPG and you're pretty pathetic if you cheat in an RPG just saying, also as you get older you realize cheat codes are wasting your time since your cheating yourself out of the game.

I don't remember any RPG that had cheat codes (I guess the Game-Genie and Game Shark could have given you cheats but no input-cheats)

I know what you mean though. I loved popping in Starcraft on Single Player and nuking the entire map. Fun times even if it did waste some time but then isn't that one of the points of gaming? I felt more accomplished nuking the map in Starcraft than I feel building an Obsidian tower in Minecraft.

As for cheating in multiplayer, I don't see the fun in that. I like cheating in SP where you can just run through each room and hall and laugh as the enemies try in vain to kill you.

 

[awmperry]

I don't remember any RPG that had cheat codes (I guess the Game-Genie and Game Shark could have given you cheats but no input-cheats)

On PC there are lots - KOTOR 1 & 2, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Vampire, etc... All of them let you drop down the console and bump up your stats a bit. (Just like in real life, where you add +10 DEX while the GM's not looking...)

 

[Wondermint13]

Not really. Cheating just takes all the fun and challenge out of a game.

BORING! I dont know who you're trying to impress by saying that but stop it ok..

How is NOT fun blasting your way with unlimited ammo and health through a shitty story line or stage that has frustrated you for 7 months?
Finally seeing the asshole enemies that have made your life hell the entire game just get torn to peices by your godly powers!
Or just having unlimited money to by hundreds of troops or tanks in RTS's
Good times!

 

[gigastar]

Not really. Cheating just takes all the fun and challenge out of a game.

BORING! I dont know who you're trying to impress by saying that but stop it ok..

How is NOT fun blasting your way with unlimited ammo and health through a shitty story line or stage that has frustrated you for 7 months?
Finally seeing the asshole enemies that have made your life hell the entire game just get torn to peices by your godly powers!
Or just having unlimited money to by hundreds of troops or tanks in RTS's
Good times!

Its not. If a game is hard enough to stall you for half a year then youre obviously playing the wrong genre.
It doesnt affect me, I can actually figure out how to beat asshole enemies.
And I actually know how to play RTS games. RTS stands for Real Time Strategy not Un-Restricted Tank Swarmer.

Cheating in a game is equivalent to admitting defeat. Its like going 'I dont have the cognitive skills to learn any of this so im going to use hax to beat it'.

With your attitude it will shock you to hear that the real fun in a game is in overcoming a challenge, not in fucking about with the gameplay mechanics until you beat it.

 

[jhlip]

G-d yes. Anybody remember the cheats from Goldeneye? I loved DK mode and paintball mode. Why can't we have cheats such as these for local splitscreen and when they are activated, they are activated for everyone?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I don't remember any RPG that had cheat codes (I guess the Game-Genie and Game Shark could have given you cheats but no input-cheats)

On PC there are lots - KOTOR 1 & 2, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Vampire, etc... All of them let you drop down the console and bump up your stats a bit. (Just like in real life, where you add +10 DEX while the GM's not looking...)

I really need to get back into PC gaming. Mods, Cheats, Emulators...sounds like it'd be pretty sweet for me

 

[DesiPrinceX09]

Cheats take the fun and challenge out of a game, and things like big head mode are just pointless and look dumb. I don't mean to sound elitist with my statement here but seriously everytime I played a game with cheats enabled I no longer enjoyed it and I don't like that; but that's just me.

 

[awmperry]

And I actually know how to play RTS games. RTS stands for Real Time Strategy not Un-Restricted Tank Swarmer.

Nevertheless, it can be fun to build a hundred tanks and just run over any opposition.

Cheating in a game is equivalent to admitting defeat. Its like going 'I dont have the cognitive skills to learn any of this so im going to use hax to beat it'.

Closer, in some cases, would be "I enjoy gameplay but not tedious padding. I shall use cheats to minimise the time spent on it so I can better enjoy the parts of the game that interest me."

With your attitude it will shock you to hear that the real fun in a game is in overcoming a challenge, not in fucking about with the gameplay mechanics until you beat it.

The sheer arrogance of this statement is breathtaking. FOR YOU the "real fun" is the challenge. For others, it might be mucking about and being silly. Or following the story with minimal intrusions of pointless spider-slaughter. Or any number of other things.

All you can really say without having to possess simply astronomical levels of arrogance is "the real fun is whatever the person playing it finds fun".

Playing games is not, for most of us, a job. It's not something we get paid to do "properly". Most of us aren't in competition with other people, at least not in single-player games. We play games for fun, and if cheats make it more fun for us, then bring on the cheats.

 

[NotAPie]

Yeah of course, you know how dissapointed I was when I found out there was no flying car cheat in Grand Theft Auto 4?

 

[Souplex]

Almost every game that generation had a big head mode...
CAPTCHA: wordgobee ptregin

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

yeah, they were and are still fun in some games. I think they should be in more new games.

 

[-Dragmire-]

remember game genie? The best part about it was getting infinite lives(not health) in a game that doesn't benefit from a life system. We've long since gone beyond platformers that required quarters.

 

[gigastar]

The sheer arrogance of this statement is breathtaking. For you, the "real fun" is the challenge. For others, it might be mucking about and being silly. Or following the story with minimal intrusions of pointless spider-slaughter. Or any number of other things.

All you can really say without having to possess simply astronomical levels of arrogance is "the real fun is whatever the person playing it finds fun".

Playing games is not, for most of us, a job. It's not something we get paid to do "properly". Most of us aren't in competition with other people, at least not in single-player games. We play games for fun, and if cheats make it more fun for us, then bring on the cheats.

I'm less intrested in the argument now, partially because its been a week, partially because its obvious none of us are going to budge on our positions.

Im more interested in why you went out of your way to commit necromancy on a thread that had been laid to rest a week before. If you really wanted the keep the flames burning you could have switched to PM's.

 

[awmperry]

Simply because an arrogant, sweeping generalisation like yours, with that "my way is the only correct way to enjoy games", needed to be refuted. And it wasn't out of my way - and I don't want any flames burning, just a reasoned discussion.

Incidentally, my position doesn't need budging. Mine, for the record, is "enjoy games in whatever way gives you, the person playing them, the most enjoyment". I'm not sure how you can find anything to disagree with in that.

(EDIT: Also, surely five days can't count as a necropost? This is a forum, not IRC, and not everyone has the time to check the forums every day.)