The "What should I know before I play this game for the first time?" Q&A!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The "What should I know before I play this game for the first time?" Q&A!

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

I've started Condemned: Criminal Origins twice now, but it's so boring. Your guy walks at 0.5 mph and when you've seen one lead pipe fight you've seen them all. Does it get any better, or is the entire game comprised of walking around really slowly and occasionally beating the poo poo out of punks?

# ¿ May 3, 2009 22:09

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 00:52

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

I'm not very far into Bioshock. I've just fought my first Big Daddy, and I saved the little girl so I have 80 ADAM to spend. There's a vending machine nearby but what I really want is more plasmid slots, which are not available at this vending machine. Should I scrimp and pinch my ADAM or is it ok to spend it now? Also, there's a Big Daddy wandering around with yellow lights and he's not hostile. Is this what happens when you beat them?

# ¿ Jul 26, 2009 20:52

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Thanks for the advice, guys. I guess I'll hold on to my ADAM for now so I can buy a new slot when it's available. I haven't gotten the camera yet but when I do I'll be sure to be a shutterbug.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2009 22:50

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

projecthalaxy posted:

Shoot the other people until they fall down.

Any tips for Rainbow Six Vegas 2? I am using a SPAS and the starting machine gun right now. Are there consensus best weapons/armor loadouts?

You know how there are like 8 bars for armor? Due to rounding, only about four of the armor levels mean anything. I can't recall which ones they are though

0,1,4 and 7 maybe?

Hopefully someone else will remember.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2009 15:26

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Twitch posted:

Any tips for someone just starting out Viewtiful Joe 2?

This is from quite a while back, but I recommend saving your money for the item that charges your VFX power faster. That thing totally pays for itself immediately.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2009 15:25

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

I'm playing Gears of War for the first time. I got to the point in the first act where you use the hammer of dawn on the seeders. After that section I nearly threw the hammer away but decided to hold on to it for just in case. Sure enough, later I had to use it to kill a beserker.

Now I'm in act 2 and they said the satellites have moved out of position. I can't use the hammer but I'm paranoid about throwing it away. Can I drop it or will I need it again later in the game? If I need it later in the game will another one be provided for me or do I need to lug the one I have around?

# ¿ Oct 20, 2009 12:39

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Largejaroalmonds posted:

IIRC, you will always find one near where you need one.

GeneralFai posted:

I did the same thing when I played for the first time. Just drop it in favor of a better weapon; you'll come across plenty more of them. Like Largejaroalmonds said, they're good about making sure one's available when you need it, so you don't need to carry it around.

Thanks guys. Ammmo was getting a little tight but now that I know I can carry another weapon, that problem should be solved

# ¿ Oct 20, 2009 18:50

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

homerlaw posted:

What should I know about Dead Space for the PC

You upgrade your stuff with nodes. Rather than use them all up, though, it is a good idea to keep at least one on you at all times. There are multiple rooms that are locked off and the only way you can get into them is by using a node. These rooms are not mandatory, but have some extra supplies or money inside. Anyway, 99% of the time, the stuff you get in the room includes either another node or enough money to buy another one in addition to some other items.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2009 00:05

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Any pearls of wisdom out there for Lock's Quest on DS?

# ¿ Jan 26, 2010 00:46

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Anything I should know about Knight in the Nightmare? I'm just starting out and the tutorial is so freaking long there's no way I'll remember everything.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2010 13:58

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

The last part of the tutorial is just tons of info pages that you can skip and just get started playing. You'll probably want to come back to them as reference later but you can worry about that as you go.

If you've done the rest of the tutorial you should understand the basics of how the game works. The game is actually very easy other than one or two battles, but it's very complicated and you'll probably spend the first half of the game being confused and trying to figure stuff out.

Outside of Battle:

- It's impossible to screw yourself over so don't worry about it. If you run out of characters, the game assigns you free ones. If you run out of items, you can go to Leveling to get some. Neither of these things are likely to happen though.

- Leveling up characters gives them more Vitality and very slightly increases their base damage. It also somewhat effects Transoul. The most important thing though, is that it gives them access to stronger weapons.

- LI and CI are a characters real stats, they determine how much damage you do with those weapon types. Element is also very important since it determines which weapons you can use the High charge attacks with.

- For weapons, there's no harm in merging identical ones together, except that you might lose some +bonuses. Upgrading weapons makes them do more damage but in trade they will charge up slower, so it's not always great to upgrade.

- You're going to have a lot of items and characters. Fortunately the game gives you a lot of ways to organize and sort them. Play around with the menus and find the way that's easiest for you. Personally, for Units I like the list view sorted by Type, and for Items I like the small icon view (also sorted by type).

Transoul:

- Transoul is kind of obnoxious. Remember to look at the change arrows to see if LI/CI/Vit are going up or down. You will get HUGE boosts in stats if you sacrifice characters who have story relations to one another. You don't really need to transoul all that much but you might want to just to keep your units organized.

- If you sacrifice too many souls to the same person, it eventually stops working right and their Vit starts dropping off when you level them up. This takes a long time but if you do something like take a character from level 10 to level 50, it'll probably happen.

- How much you extend a character's 'max level' by is kind of a mystery, but it seems like you get less levels for character who have been leveled up. In other words, you want to sacrifice units who are not near their max level in order to increase the receiver's max level the most. YMMV though so feel free to experiment.

Battle:

- Hide Button. It's your friend. While hiding the battlefield is cleaner, you can't select anything, and you take less damage. Hide whenever you aren't purposefully doing something.

- The three most important factors in how much damage you deal are:
1) The Weapon's Element (vs the Enemy's)
2) The Weapon's Damage Value
3) The Character's CI/LI Value

- Knowing how each unit type attacks and moves is also very important. You'll want to shuffle around characters as needed to get the best attacks you can.

- For Movement, Dualists can jump upwards and Knights can charge in any direction. However, Knights can't change heights even though jump can. So you can get units 'stuck' up in high places. Just think before you jump and it's no big deal.

- You lose 1 durability for every turn an item is set regardless of how it's used. So reuse items as much as possible (IE use 2 knights so they can share) and don't set them unless you are going to use them. You get so many items it doesn't matter for common stuff, but if you have a weapon you really like, keep an eye on it.

- Some weapons charge faster than others, some weapons generate more gems than others. If you find a weapon that's really good, try to remember it and abuse it.

- Take the time to break everything that says it can be broken, you'll find key items or extra items from them.

- You can tell how many gems enemies will generate by either the thickness of the fog, or how full the current L/C icon is. Regular attacks don't change this value at all but still generate a full helping of gems.

- Key Items which can be used on someone in the current battle are highlighted in Yellow in the item list. Make sure you use them all before the battle is over.

Last Note, by default you will get a bad ending. If this really upsets you, you might want to spoil how to get a good ending. There are also plenty of good reasons to replay the game if you enjoy it too.

Cripes, thanks man. I'm bookmarking your post so I can refer to it along the way. Thanks again for all the info

# ¿ Feb 17, 2010 02:58

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Jarl posted:

Batman Arkham Asylum

My computer exceed the requirements, but when I tried the demo way back it ran like poo poo. Now I'm reconsidering buying the game, so are there some performance issues with the demo that the game itself doesn't have?

What else should I know before going up against the joker and his cohorts?

I don't know about the performance issues but if you decide to buy you might want to wait for the game of the year edition:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1077880p1.html

# ¿ Apr 24, 2010 16:17

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Zushio posted:

Batman Arkham Asylum:

It is not possible to outright miss any collectibles, aka Riddler's Challenge, due to a point of no return. You will always, at some point, be able to return to every area freely.

My brother was playing the game and got to the point where you lock up Harley. After she's trapped in the cell, you can enter a different one to get a Riddler trophy. When you walk into this other cell, she closes the door behind you and you have to find a new way out. Anyway my brother did not get the Riddler trophy inside that cell, and when he escaped he was unable to find a way back in. I fired up my game and tried for a couple minutes to reenter that cell and I didn't find a way either. I think he's screwed.

# ¿ May 22, 2010 04:27

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

When a worker finishes his building offscreen, he will tell you "Job's finished" or something similar. If you press the space bar at that point, the screen will jump to him.

More specifically, the space bar jumps to whatever the last notification was, so if your guys offscreen start taking fire and you are told "Your forces are under attack", you can press space bar to see what's going on.

Furthermore, if you hold down the shift button while ordering a worker, you can then click on another project and the worker will make a work queue. So if you have an SCV build some barracks, hold down shift and right click some minerals. He will immediately start mining once he's done with the building, however you will still get the notification that the building is completed. IIRC you need to get his job queue finished before he actually begins the building or else he won't do it...so you need to right click those minerals as he's moving to the new building site. He will say "yes sir" if it worked.

As far as overall organization, yeah you need to play more. The best players manage battles while making more units and ordering workers around. Once you get those skills, you will find them useful in like 99% of all RTS games.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2010 00:18

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

I just got the Megaman Zero collection for DS. I know you're not supposed to use the elves if you want the good ending, anything else I need to know? If I get a game over should I be using the retries or do you only get 3 per save file or something?

# ¿ Jun 20, 2010 23:20

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

muscles like this? posted:

Don't worry about missing collectibles the first time through an area as you can always go back and in fact a lot of them you can't collect on your first pass anyway. You'll also never get permanently locked out of an area that has collectible items in it.

Regarding Batman Arkham Asylum

I made this post earlier in the thread:

My brother was playing the game and got to the point where you lock up Harley. After she's trapped in the cell, you can enter a different one to get a Riddler trophy. When you walk into this other cell, she closes the door behind you and you have to find a new way out. Anyway my brother did not get the Riddler trophy inside that cell, and when he escaped he was unable to find a way back in. I fired up my game and tried for a couple minutes to reenter that cell and I didn't find a way either. I think he's screwed.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2010 23:50

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

sexual rickshaw posted:

It looks like I'll have a cart-only copy of Knights in the Nightmare heading my way soon, and knowing what I've heard about this game, it's a daunting task to learn it, so, where should I start?

I asked about that game a while back and got this very useful response:

Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

The last part of the tutorial is just tons of info pages that you can skip and just get started playing. You'll probably want to come back to them as reference later but you can worry about that as you go.

If you've done the rest of the tutorial you should understand the basics of how the game works. The game is actually very easy other than one or two battles, but it's very complicated and you'll probably spend the first half of the game being confused and trying to figure stuff out.

Outside of Battle:

- It's impossible to screw yourself over so don't worry about it. If you run out of characters, the game assigns you free ones. If you run out of items, you can go to Leveling to get some. Neither of these things are likely to happen though.

- Leveling up characters gives them more Vitality and very slightly increases their base damage. It also somewhat effects Transoul. The most important thing though, is that it gives them access to stronger weapons.

- LI and CI are a characters real stats, they determine how much damage you do with those weapon types. Element is also very important since it determines which weapons you can use the High charge attacks with.

- For weapons, there's no harm in merging identical ones together, except that you might lose some +bonuses. Upgrading weapons makes them do more damage but in trade they will charge up slower, so it's not always great to upgrade.

- You're going to have a lot of items and characters. Fortunately the game gives you a lot of ways to organize and sort them. Play around with the menus and find the way that's easiest for you. Personally, for Units I like the list view sorted by Type, and for Items I like the small icon view (also sorted by type).

Transoul:

- Transoul is kind of obnoxious. Remember to look at the change arrows to see if LI/CI/Vit are going up or down. You will get HUGE boosts in stats if you sacrifice characters who have story relations to one another. You don't really need to transoul all that much but you might want to just to keep your units organized.

- If you sacrifice too many souls to the same person, it eventually stops working right and their Vit starts dropping off when you level them up. This takes a long time but if you do something like take a character from level 10 to level 50, it'll probably happen.

- How much you extend a character's 'max level' by is kind of a mystery, but it seems like you get less levels for character who have been leveled up. In other words, you want to sacrifice units who are not near their max level in order to increase the receiver's max level the most. YMMV though so feel free to experiment.

Battle:

- Hide Button. It's your friend. While hiding the battlefield is cleaner, you can't select anything, and you take less damage. Hide whenever you aren't purposefully doing something.

- The three most important factors in how much damage you deal are:
1) The Weapon's Element (vs the Enemy's)
2) The Weapon's Damage Value
3) The Character's CI/LI Value

- Knowing how each unit type attacks and moves is also very important. You'll want to shuffle around characters as needed to get the best attacks you can.

- For Movement, Dualists can jump upwards and Knights can charge in any direction. However, Knights can't change heights even though jump can. So you can get units 'stuck' up in high places. Just think before you jump and it's no big deal.

- You lose 1 durability for every turn an item is set regardless of how it's used. So reuse items as much as possible (IE use 2 knights so they can share) and don't set them unless you are going to use them. You get so many items it doesn't matter for common stuff, but if you have a weapon you really like, keep an eye on it.

- Some weapons charge faster than others, some weapons generate more gems than others. If you find a weapon that's really good, try to remember it and abuse it.

- Take the time to break everything that says it can be broken, you'll find key items or extra items from them.

- You can tell how many gems enemies will generate by either the thickness of the fog, or how full the current L/C icon is. Regular attacks don't change this value at all but still generate a full helping of gems.

- Key Items which can be used on someone in the current battle are highlighted in Yellow in the item list. Make sure you use them all before the battle is over.

Last Note, by default you will get a bad ending. If this really upsets you, you might want to spoil how to get a good ending. There are also plenty of good reasons to replay the game if you enjoy it too.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2010 13:00

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Red Dead Redemption:

I am still fairly early in the game. John Marston's goal is to get to the guy in Fort Mercer. However, I've been doing some missions for both the marshal and the West Dickson guy. Both of them are telling me they'll help me eventually. My question is, do I have to choose one of them? If I do the missions for one of them, does that exclude the other guy from helping?

Also, where the gently caress are all these wolves and cougars coming from? I used to come across one cougar once in a great while. Now, in certain regions, there's a never ending parade of them. Does the game adjust how much wildlife you come across as you progress or was I just lucky all along?

# ¿ Sep 25, 2010 18:42

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

RagnarokAngel posted:

No.

No, just bad luck.

Awesome, thanks a lot.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2010 18:54

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

I kind of want to pick up Snake Eater for 3DS, but I haven't played a single Metal Gear game...is this a bad idea?

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 07:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 00:52

HaroldofTheRock: Jun 3, 2003; Pillbug

Great, thanks guys.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 13:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The "What should I know before I play this game for the first time?" Q&A!