<![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I just want a game that if you die the game breaks and you can't play it anymore.

BitKid

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I had my dad play Portal one weekend and he's never really played anything other than Solitaire, so it took him a while to get the 3D movement down, but ever since he got stuck on the boss I thought being allowed to skip tough parts would be a great idea. On the "easy" mode of a given game, if nothing else.

unmarkedone

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Great to have the option there for people who want it. It is no worse then getting on gamefaqs to check how to get through a tough portion.

MrSatan

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> While this idea strikes me as odd at first glance... it's actually not so bad. I'm a fan of high-difficulty (so long as it's no hard only due to cheap, exploitive AI).... so I'd be glad to see higher difficulty in games, but have this feature for those wusses/non-gamers that just want to play through as quick as possible.

RemyDuvalle

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @nevergod: Agreed. That'll weed out the games with no replay value too.

supercrap

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @nevergod: I seem to remember an episode of Magnum P.I. that had a game that had a "you die, you're dead forever."
I think the spaceships looked like the old BS galactica dogfighters.

vincevl

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> A significant problem in the game industry is how to make a game that is challenging yet still accessible to unskilled players. This solution seems more like a cop out to me, where players can progress but ultimately end up missing out on chunks of the game.

If a section has a puzzle or technique that is hard to figure out, I would rather see the game find a way to provide clues or hints for the player to follow. If the section is difficult to overcome because the player's skill isn't up to par, I would rather see the game find a way to make it easier for this player.

I like this feature as a way to skip to certain parts of the game, like the first poster said, but I think it's a very poor solution to the problem it is attempting to solve.

UltimatePancakeSensation

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> i just want a game where if you die you start over.
period.

nevergod

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Wow.

Ultimate wuss out mode. This makes Ninja Dog mode on Gaiden seem a little outdated.

How about making a game that has a well designed difficulty limit rather than easy sections segmented with hard sections so difficult you are preparing ways for the player to skip them?

I can't imagine the story will be much good if they are putting this feature in.

EdwinJ85

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Sounds like heaven to me. I have a pile of unfinished games that annoyed me too much to finish. Yeah, I suck.

robotrousers

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> It's an option. You don't have to take it, no reason to have a problem with this feature.

Jamie_W

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @dowingba: I like to think that I have more self control than that. I play games for storyline and gameplay, so the thought of skipping over a part of the game that could potentially be the best thing ever would bring me more guilt than pleasure.

And that's another thing I should add: people act as if the skips can take you anywhere in the game, based on where you want to go. This isn't a fast forward system, this is like scene select on a DVD. The game is cut up into different parts, and due to its episodic format, skipping around takes you farther than you might hope for or vice versa. There is a consequence to using the skip option, and that's having no control over where you end up and what you miss.

Ninja-Z

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> More like skip directly to achivement points... Achievement for killing a boss? Well lets just fast forward to boss man here... and Ping

Evil_Snow_Man

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Ninja-Z: Come on. You know for a fact that when you come up to some hard section, you will just be constantly thinking about pushing the "skip it" button. The temptation is going to be huge. And by pushing it, you'll be ruining the game. And you probably will push it.

dowingba

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Nobody's forcing you to use the feature. Play the whole game if you want to while the non-gamers or not so hardcore gamers use the feature to actually beat the game. It works out for everybody.

Ninja-Z

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> That's kinda sad. If you ever actually NEED to do this, then the game's design is really poor. If you can't get through it even after bumping the difficulty down, then something is seriously wrong with that section of the game and giving players a "skip it" button is not the correct solution.

Moonshadow101

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This is seriously going to suck. Just having that option there will be haunting me endlessly.

dowingba

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This is really awesome. About time. ABOUT TIME!!!!!

Snappywave

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Thank you god. I can not tell you how many games I said "Fuck it" with and just gave up on after getting stuck on one part... not necessarily a hard part, but just a dull one that I had no motivation to finish. This should definitely help eliminate that problem for me.

Touy

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This isn't nothing new, Starcraft done it with "there is no cow level" cheat ages ago. You could skip all of the levels right to the end. If you are willing to spend £40 or $60 on a game and then skip right to the end that's fine by me, you aren't wasting my money. This feature would be cool for replaying certain levels as people previously mentioned.

2SBs

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> OK, now I really feel old for the first time, because this sounds to me like they finally ruined video games. At least make people have to beat it the first time before using this.

supercrap

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold:

Xenogears was kind of easy, especially the last boss - it took a bit of trial and error to know destroying which spheres made the fight easy without completely screwing up your fuel supply though.

If any fights were tough, it was the first Ramsus (character, not gear) battle, and the one against the elemental sentai wannabe chicks. The boss in the Kislev sewers was a bit of a bitch too (Redrum?).

Koztah

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Jekht: It's worth doing with Wild Things...

Anyhow I don't like the idea, I wouldn't want to use it. Because the story is an incentive to play. And I have a ton of unfinished games but they're on my 'to do list' and if they had this option they probably wouldn't be.

TearsandScreams

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Sounds like a handicap for the casual/no-skill gamer.....kool.

GameraTheGreat

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> For a linear game, skipping sections would be abit... dumb, don't ya think?
It's like skipping a scene in a movie you've never seen before to get to the 'good' bit.

I suppose having the choice is nice if you've played it before.

Jekht

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I couldn't give a rats ass about achievement points; I play for entertainment, not harnessing a giant numeric point boner to show off to XBL. I would have prefered if they had a reward punishinment scheme for skipping out on hard parts. Maybe you are barred from a special weapon or special items but you can still beat the game with stock items if you can't do the so called hard parts.

DELICIOUS BUNNY

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @photoboy: The only problem I have with that is that sometimes I don't want the game to get easier, I want to do it at full difficulty and fail as many times as I want until I get it. If they are going to do that they may as well let it be an option rather than a feature.

Personally I think this is fantastic, and a step in the right direction. One of the main reasons I loved Goldeneye 007 so much was the chapter system. I could play and master each mission individually and go back and replay any of them as I saw fit.

nintend0nick

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I've always disagreed with people who say games are too easy these days and are getting easier still but a development like this makes me think that this kind of skipping ability will detract from the overall game. I mean, some of the hardest parts of games that I've played were by far the most rewarding or crucial to the plot in some way. Swallowing your pride by using a FAQ is too cumbersome for today's gamers, according to these developers. A little troubling indeed.

Gagamus

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @derFeef: You know that the option to skip is entirely... well, optional. You do not have to do it. So to say that you would never buy something for a feature that you may never use is... well, let's just say that it makes you look like you will no longer be a candidate for Mensa.

I think that for harder games this is a great option that developers could use instead of creating a very easy difficulty option. I mean do we really need 3+ difficulty levels? Shouldn't one be enough and if the game is too hard you either learn to get better or in this case skip ahead and try again later.

The concept sounds interesting but only time will tell how effective it really is for casual gamers. I would never use it, but it might be fun to use for friends when they want to see how the game plays in a single night.

Hiero Glyph

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I guess that's cool. You gotta be penalized somehow for this though, right?

sadkermit - soon to be banned for standing up to the ummm nazi.

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Its a joke, isnt it? What the hell... is the game that less enjoyable that you want to skip parts? I´ll never buy this.

derFeef

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> You know what? I'm actually okay with this. I've been begging for something like this for a while... not so that I could skip ahead in a game (that's for pussies), but so that I could go BACK to certain really awesome parts.

I first thought this would be a great feature while playing MGS. I would have LOVED to been able to "Select a Scene", and redo a boss fight, or event just for kicks.

I won't use this feature to skip ahead. And I'm sure a lot of other people won't either. But if we can also use it to go back and show our friends "this really awesome part", then I'm all for it.

Insomnia Bob

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @pandafresh: Put it... on my PSP? I wouldn't know the first thing about how to do that. Is it legal?

baked ham

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> You kids have it too easy, we didn't even have save feature back in the days.

Quasimodo X

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This is okay insofar as if you skip hard parts you don't get the "best ending". There should be bonus material for people willing to actually TRY.

DankPanties

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> why not just put xenogears on your psp...
I guess people looking forward to this arent the type that play games like Godhand or DMC on the hardest setting. It can be frustrating sometimes, but once you get past it, you feel a bit more accomplished, least i do.

pandafresh

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> All you Xenogears talkers... damn you. I'm going to have to play through that game again, now. I just got a PSP, and I've been wanting to play through a PSone game on it through remote play, and I knew it should be a turn-based game due to the possibilities of lag over the network connection. Xenogears sounds like a good choice!

baked ham

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Toprem: My only gripe was the retarded NPC AI, but otherwise I loved it. One of my best purchases last year (yeah, I got it late).

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @cheeses: What was wrong with Dead Rising? The only thing that was hard was the very first play through of it before you leveled up, but even the first play through became easy once you gained some levels.

Toprem

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Captain Impulse: Absolutely, its combat system far superior to the standard, static, and boring turn based system used by most jRPGs today. I liked how the characters had to dart around their environment to attack enemies (jump over holes, rocks, round obstacles etc), it made it feel more dynamic ever though it was till turn based.

Btw if any game is in need of a graphical remake I would say Xenogears qualifies.

Geckosan

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @cheeses:
"which I've yet to finish because of either (a) rubbish game design (yes, Dead Rising) "

a-f*cking-men

I really, really wanted to play and enjoy DR, but I got stuck on one of the first escort missions (nimrod civilians would keep wandering over to check out the zombie riot . . . hint to AI: stick close to the guy with the gun that rescued you and STAY AWAY FROM THE FRIGGIN ZOMBIES), and after about 5 hours replaying the same 13 minutes, I gave up. I'm sure the game got better later on, but unfortunately I never got the chance to see it . . . and now I'll be very, very hesitant to get DR2 (if/when) because of the frustrating memories rather than waiting for it on launnch day because I got to enjoy the fun parts.

busboy33

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This is a very good idea!

One of Eurogamer's new year's gaming resolutions was to "just walk away" when a game is driving you nuts. This would male a fine companion to that.

frostcircus

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Geckosan: I know we're completely off-topic here (still), but Xenogears combat system was pretty damn sweet. Sure, it was turn-based, but there were so many nifty combinations of attacks, plus the death-blows, spells, and the ability to fight in AND out of your Gear (yes, you could go hand-to-hand against a Gear, and win - Fei was that friggin' awesome)...someone needs to bring that system back, in THIS gaming generation.

And no, not like Xenosaga's failed attempt at imitating it.

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Captain Impulse: Yer, Citan certainly ruled once he got that sword. A pity that it's mostly the second disc that you can actually use it :(

You know, I'm somewhat getting the urge to dig out that game and play through it again :D

Geckosan

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Captain Impulse: holy shit, you're a tactical genius for that. i get around to replaying it one day, i gotta do that.
seconded on cican, too.

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Geckosan: That game's combat is pretty easy to break, if I remember right. Do you remember the fight on the sky bridge in Shevat (I think?) where you face off against Grahf and Miang (again, I think?). On my second time through the game, I had Citan with his sword, the Speed Boots, some other Speed-increasing item, and the Power Belt that made it so the lower your HP is, the more damage you do. I started the fight with Citan having 1 HP, cast Haste, and he took 8 turns before any other character (enemy or ally) even got a chance. I actually killed both bosses before any other character had a chance to act.

Citan = God.

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> No achievement points? All my moron buddies will loose their respect for me and I'll have no one to invite on Xbox Live, if I ever felt the need to host a mulptiplayer session.

No but seriously, this is fucking grand. There are a ton of games (read: two) sitting in my library which I've yet to finish because of either (a) rubbish game design (yes, Dead Rising) or (b) the game having scary bits which startle and frighten me (RE4). Now I'll be able to just skip on right ahead.

cheeses

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold: That's odd, I don't recall there being any problems with that fight. As long as you have Xenogears itself tripped out with the best mods (ie to do stupid amounts of damage) and you've also got Citan you can walk that fight.
I seem to remember that the section towards the end including a fight with Ramsus being somewhat harder (I think you have to fight 2-3 bosses without refuelling?).
Anyway, surely one of the best games ever made :)

Geckosan

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This ain't a bad idea, why not skip to your favourite parts? This works for this kind of game.

This is what I like about this gen of gaming. New, unconventional thinking. Sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes it does.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold: I remember that one mini-boss whose attacks drained your Gear's fuel. Yeah, that was fun. I liked having inoperable Gears. ;/

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @sirpilf: no, what you seem to want is for games--inherently active experiences--to mimic movies and television--inherently passive experiences. Plenty enough of people have expounded on this point but suffice to say to twist games in such a way is inherently wrong. There's a good reason that after more than 30 years of game development this feature is still considered cheating.

Gunhaver

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Fyren: lol all those gamesharks and stuff rules :P

I remember Ghost recon on old xbox, to get the best guns for online play you had to complete the single player, something I refused because I hated it and played the game before on PC, that game made me get an action replay, I'm ashamed. I also have to admit using xploder for GBA to get the 251 or 252 pokemon that you could not get unless visiting a toy store sharing a line with 8 year olds :D Don't tell anyone :(

Irenicus-the one and only

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Fyren: Yeah, my friend was actually insane enough to go through and do those achievements in BD. He said it involved a lot of just leaving the 360 on with checking it every now and then.

@TheIrishNinja: Yeah it was the form you had to fight with the mechs, and the boss had the most cheat attacks ever. D:

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Irenicus-the one and only: Game Genie + NES= Big-eyed with astonishment.

@Witzbold: I passed on Mistwalkers first production but took a quick breeze xbox360achivements.org to see what you were talking about. Although I don't know much about BD, it seems like "Max **** class" and get "perfect **** stages" seem alot of fun :/

I think thats too heavy for me, its like GOW leet achievement.

Work is not proportionate to achievement=does not compute.

Althogh, the 10,000 kills for undertow was begging to get done due to "Get new Gamerpicture" reward.

Fyren

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Captain Impulse: yeah that was it and goddamn it was stressful and LONG. D:

Almost as bad as boss fights in romancing saga.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @TheIrishNinja: That does sound sorta familiar...man, it's been a long time since I've beaten that game. I think the ending also plays second fiddle to some of the other awesome memories I have of that game, though.

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Captain Impulse: coulda sworn the last, last fight with deus before kreilan leaves was with deus, and after awkward voice-synching (actually, during, though this was years ago) there was definitely nakedness on fei's part, as well as elly's.

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @TheIrishNinja: Yeah, you nailed that...you had to divide up your group, which means I had to balance my teams with a mix of my godlike characters and my really under-leveled ones. Like that damned stuffed animal. Grr.

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold: If I remember right, the last boss in Xenogears had about 4 guys orbiting around him, and defeating each one weakened the core boss. You could skip the four around him but it made the end fight really tough. And some of the orbiting mini-bosses were a pain, too.

I don't remember a naked with with Deus, though...
(scratches head)

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold: wait, im recalling a few forms but only one was a bitch and i think its the one you're on about; mech battle, yeah? didnt you have to fight it in teams or something? i hate it when RPGs remind me why i shouldve bothered leveling/armoring the less interesting characters.

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Yin: Damn straight! Back in my day, if you wanted to get psat the hard parts, you'd better have a roll of quarters in your pocket. Mwa ha ha!

Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was a step in the right direction for difficulty. While I won't complain that this feature of AotD is bad or anything (since I won't be using it, it doesn't affect me), I hope they ramp up the difficulty because of it. I don't want a game with watered-down difficulty AND a way to skip past the hard parts. That would suck.

Captain Impulse

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @TheIrishNinja: The one with the single form with the 2 smaller enemies that circle around him or something. I think that was the last boss in Xenogears.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> It's an interesting mechanic, for sure. I don't know how tempting it will be to use it. I'm one of those obsessive compulsive types that flat out REFUSE to play a game on any less than the hardest difficulty setting, even if it has me screaming at my PC and breaking shit. So given a one-click option to skip a tough part? Urgh, it's going to be TWICE as frustrating, knowing I can do it and refusing to.

Still, it's good for people who prefer a more casual experience.

I'd much rather this than have the game adjust to your playing ability, personally. It'd annoy the hell out of me to be stuck at a tough part and only getting past it because the game went soft on me. Where's the challenge in that?

faultymoose

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> ok people needa stop their bitching about it, personally i think this is a great idea. a lot of people play video games these days as entertainment, not to be challenged to the point of insanity. could you imagine if you were watching a movie like memento, and it would only let you watch the next scene if you FULLY UNDERSTOOD the scene you just watched? no... and making it so you miss achievments also makes sure the "hardcore" gamers dont get jibbed because they still have to play through the old fashion way if they want the achievements to show they actually did.

to me this just shows how flexible and varied the video game industry can be in entertainment and story telling compared to other industries.

sirpilf

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Genius! So many games I haven't bothered to finish just because one damn boss was insanely hard and I couldn't be fucked to frustrate myself any longer. I just want to see the next damn part. Fuck making games harder.

Zerozaki Ishiki

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold: wait, the naked fight with deus?

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> If anyone remembers the last boss in Xenogears, if only that friggin fight could have been skipped. D:

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> As has been mentioned, this'll be great for replaying the game. Though the completist in me can't comprehend someone skipping a hard level.

Actaeus

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I really wonder how much people will use that function to skip content on the first go through, and I wonder how far ahead it skips you.

My bet is that the people that use it are the people that would have given up or quite anyway with a few people that would normally have toughed it out but hated it mixed in.

This also makes replaying the game easier, once you play through it once you have these areas that you just hate that sometimes go on just long enough to stop that replay.

Morberis

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Aimless: aw, hell yeah. it took me hours to be Borgan in Lunar 2 (Sega CD version) and literally, it was one of those "him or me" moments where i pulled off a critical attack as about the last man standing, and i felt like a million bucks, as opposed to all the times before that night. shit was epic, man.

i figured that's why we've got hard/crazy mode on most action titles these days, for those of us with something to prove, or just loving the pain. you know, like maldron.

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> It is nice for those who would like to enjoy the story though I think.

Kinda makes me wonder just how hard do they plan to make their game though? Since one would assume it would have an "easy" mode alone.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold:
I was thinking of mentioning that.
----------------------------------
Seriously though, I don't think all games lend themselves to being hard.
Shooters aren't so bad, but at the same time, dying in one spot in COD4 on veteran about 80 times is annoying as hell.
An old platformer won't make you worry too much - restarting a level in SMB3 doesn't hurt. Restarting a purple coin challenge in SMG does.

RTS' should be balanced with occassional defeats from the computer.

Ultimately, I feel modern games don't lend themselves to being hard (as in losing often) as much as old games - odd, since we seem to want more hardcore games these days. I feel a game should instead provide a heart-pumping challenge which you'll eventually overcome, possibly without dying - intense action on a game like Call of Duty is better served when the flow of the game is not interrupted by death. Similarly, an intense boss fight in a turn-based RPG is all the more memorable when you're on the edge of death but end up winning by an extremely small margin.

There's a fine balance to be achieved.

Aimless

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Didn't HL2 (originally - PC version) "monitor" your progress and would "ramp down" difficulty if the player continually had trouble completing a stage? IIRC, that data was sent back to Valve and eventually resulted in a patch that affected certain levels. WC3 also offered to decrease the difficulty on repeated tries on the same levels if failed repeatedly. Again - IIRC. I'm all for it, as long as it only pertains to a particular scene/area/level - whatever, and as long as I have the option to not tone it down on that particular part. I don't like to miss content due to difficulty. Fast Forwarding/skipping is just that - skipping content.

SumDum_Guy

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @VanFinale: People bitched back then too. Besides, you don't have to take the "easy route" and not so long ago there use to be a thing called cheat codes for every game made and gamefaqs is still getting hits everyday.

I think these days are most of the time better then the past, nostalgia just makes it seem bad now.

Irenicus-the one and only

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> does this mean the game isn't balanced properly?

Gutek

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Witzbold: yeah, ive yet to see anyone max 1,000 on that. or rock band, or even orange box, come to think of it.

@Morberis: its got that going for it, but i think its a fine idea for another genre. isnt this the chapter of the game dealing with phobias? i thought that idea was really interesting, but it'd sure take a bit've the edge of knowing you can skip the parts that really fuck with you, and that's kinda a shame for a horror game.

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> WTF this is the reason people think the industry is in trouble and miss "the good ol days".

VanFinale

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Morberis: Yeah, I like replying certain levels. I think it should be mandatory that unless a game isn;t structured in levels and chaters (e.g Okami) that you should be able to replay any Level/Chapter (e.g CoD4) this is something Gears of War severly lacked in my mind, but also made Insane more rewarding in a way than CoD4 because you couldn't just skip stupidly difficult levels.

Tempestora

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> the amount of times i've got stuck on a game and tried it in,
its really quite a lot -_-.
so this is awesome,
^_^
i just hope theres a cap or something on it, so impaitent people just dont skip right to the end.
its a twin headed gift horse this one.

Naif

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> @Fyren: If you havent already seen the Blue Dragon Achievements I think you might retract that statement of yours. ;D

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Why not charge $60 for a 8.5 hour movie?

Archavious

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> We need harder games, not easier! I want Nethack(or most Rougelike)/Steel Battalion-style death, no "extra lives" or "save points" :P

Yin

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I wish some of the FF series had achievement points. Lost Odyssey might be the first time I tried to get all skills and magic just to fill up the GS since trying for all Materias and Knights Of The Round. I didn't realize the addiction until Pacman CE.

I will most likely try to get every single achievement, let alone pass any content in any game.

Fyren

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> You've got to be kidding me.

AnEternalEnigma

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> While I don't think this is the best way to do this, I think it's about time games allow this. Personally I think the AI should just reduce its difficulty every time the player gets killed in one place thereby keeping the structure of the game intact. But sometimes you do just get completely stuck at a point in the game and bashing your head against the wall trying to do it over and over just isn't fun.

photoboy

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> I actually like this idea, it makes it easier to replay areas you liked too.

Morberis

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> This is at the same time bizzare, intruiging and possibly game crippling. I don't know what to think... it's like having cheats, you intend to use it just once, then you end up relying on it.

I'm assuming that you either can't skip through story, or that this game has little to no in-game story exposition.

I'd read 'teh linkz' but I am at 'teh werkz'

Tempestora

]]> <![CDATA[Rubbish At Alone In The Dark? Skip The Hard Bits]]> Hmm, dvd stule menu with chapters, I like it! I would love for games to come like that, sometimes I wanna replay an RPG for instance but don't wanna start from the begining, same with fps games etc and sometimes I don't have saves for each "level" or "chapter".

Irenicus-the one and only

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