Using modern technology to help you with games.

[Tanukitsune]

Recently I noticed how much modern technology is making gaming easier, back in the day you had to wait a while for a FAQ to load and then print it on a dot matrix printer, but now:

 

-You can watch video walkthroughs on YouTube, because a picture is worth a thousand words and easier to understand than the text version.

-You can read the walkthrough on your smart phone or tablet, so you never need to print another guide again, you can even watch the video walkthrough on it too.

 

Even better you no longer need to write down those complex passwords, you just take photo of them and you're done. Do you have to do a Simon-esque minigame? You probably have something that can record the sequence in your pocket.

 

You can take a screenshot of a map and edit it yourself (on a tablet) to remind of what you have left to do in that area and such.

 

 

Some of these are probably pretty obvious, but have any of you found any other ways that modern technology had made a game easier or less frustrating? And no, rubberbanding doesn't count.

[toblix]

Didn't Nintendo pretty much take this to its inevitable conclusion by having their games go «oh, I see you're struggling a bit. Here, let me,» and then play it for you?

 

edit: Wait, didn't they even give that feature its own marketable name, and then say all their games would have this and then not have it in any other games?

[elmuerte]

You can also use the brower in steam's overlay to look things up.

 

You know what would be great, if the Steam overlay had a notes feature that would allow you to make per-game notes. Also allow you to create and annotate a screenshot. This way I wouldn't need to resort to paper or boogie board,

[Tanukitsune]

You could just take a screenshot with the Steam overlay and then edit it with whatever software you have? Even MSPaint would work for this.

 

Or if you can't take a screenshot, take a photo and edit that, it's better than nothing.

 

Didn't Nintendo pretty much take this to its inevitable conclusion by having their games go «oh, I see you're struggling a bit. Here, let me,» and then play it for you?

 

edit: Wait, didn't they even give that feature its own marketable name, and then say all their games would have this and then not have it in any other games?

 

That doesn't really count if it's the game itself that does the helping.

 

 

Hmm, I think there are few games like Skyrim, which have unofficial "helper apps", which allow mapping, quest tracking and similar things?

[melmer]

Youtube is a god send these days if you are stuck on a game, most recently i've used it to grab those last few collectables i'd missed in tomb raider and i looked up the strategy used to get a certain achievement in trine 2

 

I try not to cheat in games, but the second i get frustrated and just want to know the answer i'm glad it's now mere minutes away on my phones browser

 

A lots of fighting games will have move list apps

[SecretAsianMan]

Wikis.  For any given game, there's usually at least one.  Even though most of them are extremely basic, terrible to navigate, full of ads, incredibly slow, and super ugly, I've found stupid yet useful information on a lot of them, enough that I go back despite how terrible an experience using the site actually is.

[melmer]

yeah totally, I had the Dark Souls Wiki bookmarked

[Sno]

It's basically impossible to play a fighting game at any level of competency if you aren't willing to dig through forum guides and match/combo videos.

[youmeyou]

I'm glad I am satisfied with playing fighting games at a thoroughly incompetent level, then. *Mashes all buttons then blames the joystick gate*

[Dewar]

It's basically impossible to play a fighting game at any level of competency if you aren't willing to dig through forum guides and match/combo videos.

 

God, I remember downloading the txt file for the entire KI movelist and printing it out at my Dad's work. I felt so dang clever doing that instead of getting the three gaming magazine issues in a row to collect the entire move list.

[SecretAsianMan]

My cousin once had a guide for Street Fighter II from Taiwan.  It broke down every single character and had a screenshot of them doing EVERY move in the game, from special moves to standing still and punching.  I remember it being really complicated and amazing to my 10-year-old self.

[Sno]

Besides just learning how to play fighting games, i find i now frequently search faqs and fan forums to essentially innoculate my RPG playthroughs against some of the annoying, evil things i've always hated about RPG's. (Basically, i want to know if there are any significant missables or points of no return. JRPG's, especially, are always real assholes about stuff like that.)

I'm usually pretty selective in my searches, to try and avoid spoiling things by having it all just laid out in front of me, though sometimes having it all just laid out in front of you doesn't actually detract from the game at all, but only adds to it.

 

Fire Emblem Awakening ended up being like that for me.

It's a game that doesn't really surface enough information for you to formulate any substantial plans for your character builds, but access to a detailed fansite really revealed a wealth of interesting and layered complexity in its systems and i ended up getting way deeper into that game than i probably would have otherwise.

[Tanukitsune]

I remember back in the Pokémon days I started to blind grind, well now that I have a tablet, the tables have turned I no longer have to blind grind with portable systems, I can simply watch videos or read books on my tablet while I grind.

 

Geez, Americans have Hulu, TivoToGo and Netflix apps, blind grinding must be so much easier for them now.

[Nappi]

Had to google what blind grinding means:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blind-grind

[Tanukitsune]

No, it's when you grind in an RPG while doing something else, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who uses this term, since I've used it with others and they understood me.

[tegan]

I've been trying to fill out my Pokédex in the last few days by checking encounter rates on Bulbapedia, which has been a godsend.

[Ucantalas]

Access to all of this data has kind of ruined Pokemon for me. I had a lot more fun before I knew things like EVs and capture rates and stuff. The exploration and apparent slight randomness made an interesting game experience that is forever soiled. Like when I started working at Subway and the romantic notion of personal sandwiches was forever dulled in my mind.

[Tanukitsune]

Who does EV training unless they want to play semi-professionally? It's seems a ridiculously waste of time unless you want to enter a tournament. they still have those, right?

[Ucantalas]

2 of the 3 people I am currently rooming with do, for example. (Also, I think Pokemon tournaments are still a thing? I guess? I have no idea.)

I sometimes dislike playing games around min/max-y types. I just want to play Dark Cloud 2 in peace, without grinding to increase my gun! Me play slashy-slashy, no like shooty-shoot.

[miffy495]

I have never used any kind of guide with pokemon. Uniques have representations in the world, so obviously you want to catch them. Any other pokemon, I just find it if I find it. It makes the world of the games a lot more exciting to me. I feel like if I started looking up any of that data, I'd fall down a path that I would never escape.

[Tanukitsune]

I've played enough Pokémon games to only need a guide when I'm stuck and don't know what to do, but that's about it. There are just too many for me too care to catch them all.

[tegan]

I haven't caught 'em all since Gen III, and I'm suddenly hooked on the notion of doing so this time around. At the very least, I'd like to fill my regional dex.

I'm not really cheating, either. The game gives you a "Habitat Mode" for the Pokédex. You can check what monsters are available in each route/cave/whatever, so you know when to stop bumming around one spot. I'm mostly using Bulbapedia because the Habitat Mode doesn't specify if you have to be checking rustling grass, etc.

 

Also, I don't really do EV/IV/Nature stuff, though I do try to breed for desirable moves. I don't get enough multiplayer in, though. Anyone interested in an Idle Thumbs Casual Pokémon League thing?

[Tanukitsune]

Hmm, I'm not that competitive, but maybe we should create a thread for the new game when it comes out for battles and trading in general.