When I first played Morrowind on the Xbox I saw a message in the corner of the screen. "You have leveled up. Rest and meditate on what you have learned". I didn't realise that you had to rest to actually go up a level, by the time I figured it out I was at level 7-8. Needless to say the game suddenly got a lot easier.
I also remember a moment in a browser game (the name of which eludes me) when I was stuck trying to jump up to a ledge but couldn't quite reach. I spent ages pushing a box across the level to use it as a step only to find out you could double jump. I stopped playing.
What box? This cardboard one? I thought they were just for hiding in? Oh, it would appear it is as there's nothing written on the outside, even when zooming in. Oh well, time to try every single frequency until I find the right one.
For me, I completely forgot you could kick in Dark Souls until I got to my second playthrough. After the tutorial the first time through I completely forgot it existed.
I remember once my friend was wathing me play Mass Effect one, and when I made the Mako jump he was like "What?!?! you can do that?" Then when I zoomed in with the cannon he lost his shit.
When I finally convinced my best mate to play Mass Effect she kept texting me saying she couldn't get past the geth on Noveria cause her "stupid tank" didn't have guns, after explaining that it not only had guns, but rockets and that you could zoom in with said cannons she lost it too!
I made it halfway through before I found out that the Mako had that cannon thing. I made it all the way through to Virmire, only using the little blue rapid-fire thing that apparently fires blue peas.
I did it by accident after shitting myself at the size of the many legged beasty that lives in the sewers and running off in a panic (so at least 15 or so hours in).
I then looked it up in forums to discover you can indeed jump in Dark Souls by double tapping the B button and was enlightened by an action that I singularly failed to pull off every time I tried to jump a gap and would watch wearily as my character simply somersaulted into oblivion.
Seriously, this probably cost me more souls than trying to take on the Laurel and Hardy bosses in Anor Londo by myself. Just goes to show that such discoveries are not always welcome...
Agreed. Mine, and not until my third playthrough, was:
YOU CAN SAVE PAUL?
(I just figured those enemies were overpowered and an instant lose.)
I don't mean to undermine this thread, because its a fun one, but before the internet, I think this was actually a major part of the gaming experience. There are too many to count or remember from my youth.
One that sticks out for me is YOU CAN KEEP LEVELLING UP FOR EXTRA LIVES (into hexidecimal) in Zelda 2: Adventure Of Link. You're bound to die a ton of times on the final stretch of what is easily the most difficult Zelda title, but it turns out that there is a way to get so many lives that you can withstand a few deaths and play the game "trial and error" style, like you would any other, instead of "trial and fucking start over" that the game imposes on you. It just requires a few hours of mind-numbing grinding.
When first played Demons Souls I tried blocking Tower Knights attacks, and was promptly murdered. I took away from this that you can't block boss attacks. I made it through the whole game like that, and beat it with much difficulty frustration. I yelled so many times that "IT'S TOO HARD TO DODGE ALL THESE ATTACKS"
Then playing Dark Souls and I was having trouble beating the Tartrus demon because he would knock me off or I would roll off the bridge and one of my friends pointed out casualty that "If you stopped trying to be fancy and dodge you would kill him easy." To which I replied "But you can't block bosses right, like in Demons Souls" and then in a confused tone he pointed out "You can block boss attacks in Demons Souls too."
The last boss was kicking my ass, when I accidentally pushed a and x at the same time, and discovered that there is a dodge move. WHAT!?!?!? This entire game I had a dodge move!!!!
For me, it's Ripper mode in Metal Gear Rising. I got all the way to the last chapter wondering why my Blade Mode meter turned red. Then after being stuck on a fight for a while, I looked up a VR tutorial. I was like "wait, what?! That makes everything SO much easier!"
Agreed. Mine, and not until my third playthrough, was:
YOU CAN SAVE PAUL?
(I just figured those enemies were overpowered and an instant lose.)
I don't mean to undermine this thread, because its a fun one, but before the internet, I think this was actually a major part of the gaming experience. There are too many to count or remember from my youth.
One that sticks out for me is YOU CAN KEEP LEVELLING UP FOR EXTRA LIVES (into hexidecimal) in Zelda 2: Adventure Of Link. You're bound to die a ton of times on the final stretch of what is easily the most difficult Zelda title, but it turns out that there is a way to get so many lives that you can withstand a few deaths and play the game "trial and error" style, like you would any other, instead of "trial and fucking start over" that the game imposes on you. It just requires a few hours of mind-numbing grinding.
I kind of managed to do both of these on my first playthrough.
The first one by accident, seeing as I accidentally equipped a proximity mine and thought I had "wasted" it.
The second one because I decided "FUCK THIS SH*T, THIS IS NOT HOW I AM GOING TO DO THIS, EAT FLAMETHROWER"
Also, I usually find every ability in a game, simply because I have the urge to press all the buttons all the time until I figure out which button does what.
And I always see if pressing a button longer will get ma laser charged etc.
For me it would probably be "YOU CAN CHANGE THE DIFFICULTY IN OBLIVION?!" I can't tell you how many times I had gotten my ass kicked before I found out about that.
Came for the Game Grumps reference in the title. Stayed for interesting subject.
OT: Skyrim. I didn't know that I could spend those dragon souls that I had been saving up to unlock new shouts any time I wanted. I thought I would get to unlock more as part of the main quest or something, so I didn't actually begin to question it until after spending at least 40-something hours in the game using my just measly Fus-Ro-Dah all the while with a stockpile of dragon souls.
EDIT: Oh yeah, rotating the Dragon Claw too. I don't know if it was more intuitive on consoles or not, but I had no idea I could rotate items on the PC so, after getting tired of doing the first couple doors through trying every combination, I resorted to having the claw item out and ramming it into counters/walls/etc. to rotate it. XD
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