"Wait, I can do that?"

[lacktheknack]

I've been getting into X-Com (the first one), I bought it back around Christmas but only got to it now.

I was having a HELL of a time doing anything, as I'm only getting a few million and the end of each month and could't afford the space or engineers required to keep a factory-for-profit going, nor could I afford the space or manpower needed for intense research (and my "Potential Tech" list was ballooning!). So here I was, scrounging and using ammo as conservatively as possible, until I actually took a good look at the "Sell" list...

...and found out that I sell the alien weaponry, UFO pieces, and alien corpses for millions of dollars.

Durr hurr hurr hurr.

So, after three restarts, six hours and a bit of cursing, I finally realized that I can sell the stuff I get off the UFOs. How... obvious.

Ever had a moment like that, where you missed something extremely obvious that made the game a lot easier or less frustrating?

 

[go-10]

I kept myself in the dark to everything related to Skyrim and sorta went through the game like a mad man granted I sank in over 200 hours and counting but it wasn't until 150 hours in or so I found out the game has fast travel, yeah so I quickly realized that my 200+ hours are easily brought down to 30 hours at most.
No wonder I wasn't liking this game like everyone else

 

[putowtin]

first time I played Fallout: New Vegas I didn't realise these people I kept meeting (who kept saying things like "what shall I do now?") Could be companions.

My first play-through I was completley alone!

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Lol, I felt that way when I figured out I could transfer personnel right before the end of each month and they don't get paid. The monthly charge only applies if they are at the base. Must suck to be an X-Com scientist because you transfer back and forth every month and HR keeps "misplacing" your paycheck.

 

[Substitute Troll]

I kept myself in the dark to everything related to Skyrim and sorta went through the game like a mad man granted I sank in over 200 hours and counting but it wasn't until 150 hours in or so I found out the game has fast travel, yeah so I quickly realized that my 200+ hours are easily brought down to 30 hours at most.
No wonder I wasn't liking this game like everyone else

I'm guessing you've never played the Elder Scrolls before?

 

[Smertnik]

I thought Jedi Outcast was an unnecessarily difficult game when I found myself with 2hp and no ammo in the very first level. Then I found out by coincidence that the canisters you pick up throughout the game can heal you and the glowing green and orange box thingies which casually stand around all over the place replenish your shield and ammo respectively...

 

[Scarim Coral]

Pretty much the "swim back to the surface" button in Monster Hunter Tri. How am I suppose to know that the classic controller had another ability? (The Wii remote didn't had that ability due to less buttons.)
Before I discover it I had to manually turn up to get to the surfacve which the swimming part of that game is already bloody hard to handle! None the less it was alot easier when I discover it which make staying alive alot more quicker!

 

[The Wykydtron]

Shooting from cover in MGS2/3 HD. I discovered it three quarters of the way through MGS2. Yes i'm late to the MGS party.

Still there's an obnoxious amount of button holds/presses to do it so you're better off just not bothering. MGS controls are needlessly complicated anyway but the cover shooting's the worst offender.

Oh and I found out you could use the right trigger instead of two button presses (i.e. X+Y = RT.) in UMVC3 far too late. Makes all my dashes, Hypers, push blocks etc far more reliable.

 

[Leemaster777]

Katamari Forever.

For those unaware, this is the first game in the series where you can jump. The game has this mapped to a Sixaxis shake. This layout is... unwieldy, at BEST. I basically went through the entire main story mode without jumping.

Then, after beating the last level, I accidentally discovered that the jump button was also mapped to the shoulder button. After I had finished slapping myself in the face for missing something so PAINFULLY obvious, I went back and played the levels again. I felt like GOD playing those levels again, after beating them all the HARD way, being able to jump almost made them too easy.

 

[octafish]

I like to think that X-Com are selling the alien corpses to fast food outlets, it is my second usual source of income after manufacturing and selling medikits.

 

[mikey7339]

I kept myself in the dark to everything related to Skyrim and sorta went through the game like a mad man granted I sank in over 200 hours and counting but it wasn't until 150 hours in or so I found out the game has fast travel, yeah so I quickly realized that my 200+ hours are easily brought down to 30 hours at most.
No wonder I wasn't liking this game like everyone else

One of my friends did this with Fallout 3. Absolutely loved the game but had no idea about fast travel until a week into the game when he accidentally discovered it. Facepalmed so hard when he told me...

 

[Woodsey]

I just found that Skyrim does actually have hotkeys, after 101 hours of playing. In my defence, it seems like no one else realised this either ("wah, Bethesda sucks and didn't even let us use hotkeys!").

 

[Jadak]

Don't feel too bad, I still remember the time I came to the exact same realization you're describing, albeit some 15 years or so ago Think I'll go play some X-Com

 

[Ghaleon640]

Lost Kingdoms 2, after all that talk of combos, no matter what I did I could not figure it out. years later, after I beat the game, I'm playing through it again and am like, 'I am stupid. Should have looked this up online." laziness overcomes stupidity and causes more stupidity.

Oh, and couldn't figure out the map in Operation Darkness for a while. I was like, 'Why is it so hard to keep track of everything?' Granted, figured it out only a few levels in so it wasn't soooooooooo bad.

 

[Screamarie]

I love playing JRPGs. For those of you who remember FF8 and FF9 and the like, probably remember the tutorials for weapons and equipment, various powerups and gems used to do this or that...And I remember when I was 12 when I got my first console. I got Final Fantasy 8 and barely paid any attention to the instructions, partially because I was impatient, partially because I didn't really get it (mostly because I wasn't willing to take the time to consider the meaning of the words I was reading), and partially because I didn't think it was important (12 year olds, think they know everything).

Imagine my surprise when I'd come up to a boss I couldn't defeat and I didn't understand why. Hmmm maybe it's the fact that you haven't upgraded weapons or powers dumbass. So imagine my further surprise when a few years later I'd replay FF8 and find that it's actually quite simple if you just read the tutorial and pay a sliver of attention.

 

[MysticToast]

This was my friend actually, but he played through the entirety of Dead Space without knowing about stasis.

 

[Reaper195]

In fallout 3, where you press the button to drink water? Hold it down. You keep drinking. The amount of bricks I shat when I first found this out. Last year. November. I've been playing Fallout 3 since the month it came out. The amount of time I've spent pressing buttons to drink water for radiation when I could have spent more time in VATS with my fists.

Edit: Judas Priest! It would seem quite a few people didn't know of this. I thought I was the only o-NO! BAD!

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I played through GTA3 not once but twice before I answered the phone mission on the last island and found out you could use Uzis to do drive-bys. All those missions in pursuit of enemies thinking I had to ram them off the road ... ... ugh.

 

[MysticToast]

In fallout 3, where you press the button to drink water? Hold it down. You keep drinking. The amount of bricks I shat when I first found this out. Last year. November. I've been playing Fallout 3 since the month it came out. The amount of time I've spent pressing buttons to drink water for radiatio n when I could have spent more time in VATS with my fists.

Holy crap.... I love you. This makes me wanna play again.