The Cheating Confessional

[janjotat]

I have always played legitly since the action replay on the PS2. I cheated on Battlefront 2 (back when I still wasn't good at video games) I played with invincibility on. But when I stopped cheating I destroyed, because I had learned to aim and move independently.

 

[Cabisco]

When I was younger I cheated all the time (or enlisted my older brothers help). I liked 'winning' more than the challenge and so the second I had to try hard I always resorted to just cheating my way through. Now I've either started to appreciate the challenge or I'm just enjoying torturing myself...

Notable examples of this included putting a super weapon that killed everything into the game morrowind and giving myself hundreds of units on Civilisation (can't for the live of me remember which one).

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I always cheated in the GTA games. It was just so much fun to drive around in Tanks and such.

I haven't cheated in a while as lots of games don't have cheats any more. They have EXPLOITS where you can break the game, but not good old fashioned cheat codes.

 

[sextus the crazy]

In FFTA, made Marche lv99 with max stats because I didn't feel like grinding to kill the last totema. my Marche was so boss that anyone who successfully hit him would level up.

 

[C117]

Whenever I play A Dance With Rogues (look it up yourselves, it is a very exstensive and very NSFW mod for Neverwinter Nights 1), I have to whip out a walkthrough. Also, if a boss battle is just way too hard (mind you, I am already playing this on Easy...), I go for the Debug Mode and cheat a bit.

Otherwise, I've stopped cheating. I used to cheat a lot, many years ago, but as I grew up I realized that all the fun and excitement quickly drained if the game was no longer a challenge.

 

[Eternal Skies]

I recently started playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, I got it through the steam sale, and after a long and complicated Process I got it to run on Windows 7 with a minimum of issues.

I found a certain Boss fight (Hint for the Curious: Foxy Boxes Warehouse.) slightly more... challenging than I expected, so I refilled my nearly empty Blood-Supply through the Console and Fought the boss using nothing more than Bloodbuff and a Baseball Bat (Malkavian FTW).

I won, thankfully

Oh, and I may have also given myself some extra XP To add to my almost none-existent skills and even the odds a bit.

 

[BoredAussieGamer]

I usually try to hold off cheating until I've finished a legit run of the game on at least normal. That said, if the game is comically easy, I'll cheat my way through shamelessly.

 

[SilverBullets000]

I recently bought one of those Datel cheat devices for the DS and used it on Poke'mon White to make all my pokemon level 100 super shiny badasses. I never play the multiplayer anyway, so I don't see much of a problem with cheating to beat the game or get shinies, as I've never ran into a shiny before and didn't know they existed until I jumped on the internet.

Not really cheating, but I've made the Tower of Latria in Demon's Souls have a pure black world tendancy and ran up the stairs to the boss chamber about a hundred times to farm souls off the mind flyers. Let me tell you, that is boring as all hell, but having a video analysis of something playing while you're doing it makes it bearable. Wish I could beat the game; Dark Souls has been sitting in my game collection unopened for about six months now, and I'd rather beat the previous game before playing the next. Even if it isn't technically a sequal.

 

[Bad Jim]

what bugs me so much is, when your vs'ing the computer opponent, they cheat ALL THE DAMN TIME (RTS's in general), so it's absolute bullshit when you can't do it even though they can, and most games don't inhibit them with the fog of war that you are.

It's bullshit when I'm building my first barracks (with bow and arrow and basic sword guys) and the cpu is already debating on building cannons or knights for it's next move.

Unfortunately, AI's are terrible with things like hidden information, and would be highly exploitable if affected by fog of war. It would be a technically fairer fight, but much less satisfying. Even an all-seeing AI usually has a worse understanding of the battlefield than a good human player, since the human will have lots of experience while the AI only knows a few programmed responses to common situations.

However, AI's don't need to cheat to roll over your 10 grunts with 30 tanks. Economic management is one of the things that humans are usually bad at but AIs are naturally good at. It's the main thing that separates good players from bad ones. For example, bad players often die with lots of cash sitting idle that could have saved them if only they'd spent it. More subtly, an average player might recognise the importance of putting income to use but a pro might just be more efficient at it.

I'd say that difficulty settings are more important than cheat codes. That way you can enjoy a balanced game if you aren't a great player. It is fun to cheat and just roll over the AI, but if you have difficulty settings you can just put it on Super Easy and roll over it. Who cares if the AI cheats but you can't when you can crush the AI anyway?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

what bugs me so much is, when your vs'ing the computer opponent, they cheat ALL THE DAMN TIME (RTS's in general), so it's absolute bullshit when you can't do it even though they can, and most games don't inhibit them with the fog of war that you are.

It's bullshit when I'm building my first barracks (with bow and arrow and basic sword guys) and the cpu is already debating on building cannons or knights for it's next move.

Unfortunately, AI's are terrible with things like hidden information, and would be highly exploitable if affected by fog of war. It would be a technically fairer fight, but much less satisfying. Even an all-seeing AI usually has a worse understanding of the battlefield than a good human player, since the human will have lots of experience while the AI only knows a few programmed responses to common situations.

However, AI's don't need to cheat to roll over your 10 grunts with 30 tanks. Economic management is one of the things that humans are usually bad at but AIs are naturally good at. It's the main thing that separates good players from bad ones. For example, bad players often die with lots of cash sitting idle that could have saved them if only they'd spent it. More subtly, an average player might recognise the importance of putting income to use but a pro might just be more efficient at it.

I'd say that difficulty settings are more important than cheat codes. That way you can enjoy a balanced game if you aren't a great player. It is fun to cheat and just roll over the AI, but if you have difficulty settings you can just put it on Super Easy and roll over it. Who cares if the AI cheats but you can't when you can crush the AI anyway?

yeah i get that, i just wish someone would come up with a way to have the AI play by our rules a bit more effectively, just like how rubberbanding is frustrating as fuck in racing games (like mario kart).

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I had a Game Genie (remember those?) for my Sega Genesis[footnote]remember /those/? [/footnote] as a kid, which I used heavily, especially on a little game with a good story but murderous difficulty called Target Earth[footnote]Assault Suits Leynoss in Japan[/footnote]. It was a sidescrolling shooter with interesting, but nearly impossible, gameplay, and a fairly involved story for the time. It was totally worth cheating at the stupid thing to see it. You might know its SNES sequel, Cybernator[footnote]Assault Suits Valken in Japan[/footnote], better. I only had one book of codes, though, and at the time didn't know you could find them online, so I only used it on a few games, and really only used it on Target Earth. That game was freakin' hard, and it was actually possible to lose at certain points despite having all of the invincibility codes on, because it had different types of damage that had to be turned off individually, and the Game Genie had really limited memory.

I also had a GameShark for my Gameboy Color that I played around with for a while, enjoying the built in code hacking features, but it was poorly made and eventually shorted itself out, fortunately not damaging the system or the game attached in the process. The danged Game Genie /still/ works.

Edit: I also used the built in cheats in a lot of PC games back when that was a thing. I particularly remember cheating in Doom, Betrayal in Antara, Warcraft 2, and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Warcraft 2's cheats were particularly entertaining, since there were individual codes for things like extra money and resources.

 

[Brainwreck]

I cheat to the point that when there are no cheat codes and trainers made for a game, I'll make them myself. (of course I don't cheat online)
And I don't even need them. I've yet to find a game that I am actually incapable of beating. I killed the Asylum Demon in Dark Souls with a broken sword as a thief. I whacked away for at least 15 minutes without taking a single hit. This was the very first time I played the game.
I think I might have a problem.

 

[Abomination]

If I ever encounter a "grinding" portion of a game I find a way to cheat through it either through in-game options or with 3rd party programs like CheatEngine or trainers.

I also mod games a lot to take out time-consuming portions whenever possible.

Basically if I have to -work- doing repetitive tasks in order to progress in a game I try and remove them. My time is too valuable to waste my enjoyment time doing crap I don't enjoy.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

I used Poke Save for my 4th gen teams in Pokemon Platinum,. I kept them legal, but at their max potential. Breeding is an annoyance.

I did have a friend who killed Dark Cecil in FFIV. he wasn't aware that you're supposed to defend. In most games, his solution that if the first 100 times don't kill it, you weren't trying hard enough.

 

[mechashiva77]

I used a Gamesshark to capture Kyogre and beat the Elite Four in Pokemon Sapphire. I WAS ONLY 8 *cries*

 

[KingFall]

GTA Vice City. Low Grav cheat. Tank. Reverse cannon, full ahead. Fire cannon repeatedly.

Skytank. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9r-jf3mZE]

 

[lunavixen]

does minecraft creative mod count as cheating? because i swear i cant even remember how to craft a pick anymore?

I don't think it does, i think it's more for those who just want to build without having to mine all the resources or bother with the mobs, I use it a fair bit, got a huge collection of pixel art.

I try not to cheat on the first playthrough unless i am truly stuck and have been for ages, then i'll look up an FAQ or use a cheat to get past that bit.

I regularly cheat in GTA (why should i bother with going to a military base to steal a tank or a plane or whatever when i can just cheat them in), though i only ever just stuff around in GTA and never do the missions.


I never EVER cheat in multiplayer, those who do are rotten fun ruiners

 

[gyroscopeboy]

Most recently I used the Skyrim glitch to get max speech...and yes I felt dirty afterwards but it was totally worth it.

I'll have to go home and try that one! The only one i've used recently is the Max Smithing glitch in Skyrim, and I don't think glitches are in the same category as other cheats, as they're still fucking hard work haha.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I cheated in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in order to have Super Sonic available in the very beginning of the game...

 

[Kashrlyyk]

Used "killallhostiles" in Dragon Age Origins. After beating Branka legitimately which means running around in a circle hitting her every now and then I couldn't summon up the will for yet another "run around in circles" fight against Ser "WTF what's her health and damage?".