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!

«‹›896 »

Major Ryan: May 11, 2008; Completely blank

Quantum of Phallus posted:

Just started Alan Wake for the PC, anything important I should know?
I'm just at the bit after you crash in the woods, fairly early on in the game. Really cool game.

Running away is ok. In fact, running away is basically mandated at a few points in the game. If it looks like the odds are overwhelming and you're supposed to be going somewhere, go there - it might be easier than sticking around for the fight.

Also, don't be afraid to use the big guns. Ammo is limited but not too scarce and you can't carry that much anyway so hording doesn't get you very far.

Use flares when you need to too; they really help and again it's use it or (probably) die so don't feel bad about using what you've got.

Turn the volume up when you get to the farm...

# ? Feb 24, 2012 20:02

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 30, 2024 04:14

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

Herobotic posted:

I'm also wondering, is there a morality tree? Quests that cut off other quests? Seems very straightforward on some of it, and less than straightforward on other quests. In other words, if I want to be good, should I not be stealing things from people, or does it not matter in the slightest?

Feel free to steal and poo poo; if you are caught you will be thrown in jail (and can escape or serve your sentence and lose xp), or can simply pay a large fine to make it all go away but that's pretty much it. People will forget your crimes if you're away from the settlement for long enough.

I think it is possible to murder quest-important characters though. Not story characters, of course, but sidequests.

Also, you can fail quests.

As far as I can tell (about 20 hours in), there aren't any real quest lines, so unless you stab the quest giver, failing a quest will never cut you off from another. I wouldn't mind someone correcting me though.

# ? Feb 24, 2012 20:07

Gynovore: Jun 17, 2009; Forget your RoboCoX or your StickyCoX or your EvilCoX, MY CoX has Blinking Bewbs!

WHY IS THIS GAME DEAD?!

Frog 1.0 posted:

Skyrim: Don't use blacksmith/enchanting it will make you a god and pretty much destroy any challenge the game can have.

YMMV, but I think finding ways to break Bethesda games is half the fun.

# ? Feb 24, 2012 22:04

Zotwoz: Apr 2, 2011

I've been playing Ikaruga for a couple of hours and it is still kicking my rear end. What do I do to stop sucking?

# ? Feb 25, 2012 08:02

Mr E: Sep 18, 2007

I just picked up Icewind Dale. What should I know before I play?

# ? Feb 25, 2012 08:46

Major Ryan: May 11, 2008; Completely blank

Zotwoz posted:

I've been playing Ikaruga for a couple of hours and it is still kicking my rear end. What do I do to stop sucking?

I'm sure someone will have a lot more knowledge to impart about Ikaruga than me, but here's two things you should know:

First, your ship is much smaller in reality than it appears on screen. It's actually something like a think vertical line down the middle of the ship. So you can 'take' a hit to the wing because it's not actually hit you. That makes tight maneuvers much easier, especially on boss battles.

Secondly, just know what happens on the different difficulty levels. So on normal, ships you shoot of the same colour release bullets when they die, but alternate colour ones don't. Basically if you shoot an enemy of the same colour then immediately switch, you might get taken out by their final shots. So plan ahead for how you shoot things.

On hard they always release bullets on death, on easy they never do. Actually I think that's a third thing - Ikaruga is bloody hard, so don't feel bad about playing on easy with tonnes of lives/credits until you've got the hang of it.

# ? Feb 25, 2012 08:55

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Major Ryan posted:

Actually I think that's a third thing - Ikaruga is bloody hard, so don't feel bad about playing on easy with tonnes of lives/credits until you've got the hang of it.

This holds true for most games, but especially this one.

# ? Feb 25, 2012 10:14

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Anything on Etrian Odyssey 3?

# ? Feb 25, 2012 10:22

GulMadred: Oct 20, 2005; I don't understand how you can be so mistaken.

Mr E posted:

Icewind Dale

Many of the tips on the wiki for Baldur's Gate and its sequel apply. Here's some additional IWD-specific stuff found by google:

"Ddraig" posted:

Icewind Dale is pretty much just a dungeon crawler in the infinity engine. There is a plot, but it's not very character driven compared to something like Baldur's Gate. From what I can remember you can create your entire party from scratch, whereas in Baldur's Gate there's NPC characters that you're encouraged to take (although you can make a custom party too)
All three games use AD&D 2nd edition rules, which are very different from current rules. Two stats you should learn to love are AC and THAC0
AC is your armour class. The lower the number the better.
THAC0 is "To hit armour class 0" which is basically the number a character would have to roll to hit someone with an AC of 0. If it's 5, if the person your attacking has an AC of 0 then you would need to roll a 5 or higher to hit them. The basic calculation is "THAC0 - AC" so if someone has a THAC0 of 18 and the person they're attacking has an AC of 5, they would only need to roll a 13 to be able to hit them.

"Goofballs" posted:

Mages start off weak then become super powerful and poo poo on everything. At low levels they are support characters. So if you have a mage in your party at the low levels they want to be casting spells like sleep. This might knock down half the enemy force and make life really simple for you even if it does no direct damage. mage direct damage spells are kind of pointless at the low levels.
At low levels spells you should consider are sleep, shield, mage armour, horror and mirror image
Fighters rule at low levels. They are harder to hit, have more hitpoints and hit really hard. They continue to be useful through the games but more as impeneterable meat shields towards the end.
Mages want high intelligence and high dexterity. Fighters need high strength and high constitution.
Your rogue or thief classes will want high dexterity not only for their thief skills but so they can be useful in combat with bows.
Read up on the magic system, seriously. Knowing what the right spell to cast is the difference between the party getting wiped out and the party killing everything before it.

"Astfgl" posted:

You want a balanced party in IWD, but remember that the more characters you take (and the more mullti-classed ones as well), the slower your party will level up. You definitely want a fighter, a thief and a cleric. Personally, I always bring a mage but some people prefer to go with a druid or bard. To me, 4 is an ideal number, (especially if one of them is multi-classed).
Remember, this is an old school tactical RPG so don't rush around the map. Use your thief to hide and scout, and draw enemies to you. Use the long hallways to your advantage, and when you know you're heading for a fight have your casters take a moment to put some buffs on the party. Money should be spent outfitting your front-line fighters more than anything, and making sure your ranged guys have plenty of ammo. Casters should be learning area-of-effect and control spells like Sleep and Grease and Cloud Kill.
Enemy mages can be easily disabled by dishing out constant damage to them. Something like the mage spell Melf's Acid Arrow or the druid spell Insect Swarm can prevent most enemy casters from getting any spells off.
The game is one massive dungeon crawl, so don't expect much in terms of interactivity with the story. That being said, the developers gave the Dale region a pretty rich history that goes a long way toward explaining and contextualize the massive battles you keep finding yourself in. It's worth talking to anyone who isn't hostile as they'll probably have something interesting to tell you.
The game is also EXTREMELY linear. You will literally not have a choice about the order in which you do dungeons, and you won't be able to further "explore" the map until you complete your current dungeon. Just roll with it. There also aren't many "choices" when it comes to how you resolve situations, but this kind of changes when you get to Lower Dorn's Deep. All of a sudden, you're presented with a bunch of options as to how to treat people or approach situations, so try not to rush through that part. It's one of the better parts of the game.
There are a couple times when the game will make you backtrack through like 5 empty maps to get out of a dungeon (Dragon's Eye, I'm looking at you, but the Vale was also pretty bad). In those situations, you might want to turn the debug mode on in your ini file and use the Ctrl-J cheat to teleport. You can't teleport into the fog of war, so this isn't really a game-breaking cheat, just a fast way to traverse cleared areas.

# ? Feb 25, 2012 13:12

felgs: Dec 31, 2008; Cats cure all ills. Post more of them.

WrightOfWay posted:

Anything on Etrian Odyssey 3?

Around the end of the 3rd floor you're going to get the ability to multiclass.

Don't worry about defeating FOEs before you move to the next floor--they are intentionally hard.

Most bosses have a 'gimmick'--figuring it out makes them much easier. Someone will usually tell you/hint at it when you are on your way down.

Keep an alt party of farmers for farming. They are gonna get wiped for a bit; I ran my group with a hoplite for a bit until they were entirely self-sufficient. They're the main source of income for you.

If you do the ship stuff (it's really pretty optional), you'll usually get some cool stuff that will help make bosses much easier.

Map well!! Nothing is more frustrating than wandering around a dungeon wondering where to go because you accidentally drew a wall where there isn't one.

Princes are pretty much the best party healer for the first part of the game.

Zodiacs are useful at first, but things start losing elemental weaknesses as the game goes on and they get less useful.

There are two special classes you can unlock. If you want the shogun (sword wielder), select the Senatus' mission. If you want the yggdroid (robots), select the Abyssal King's.

# ? Feb 25, 2012 16:13

GOTTA STAY FAI: Mar 24, 2005; ~no glitter in the gutter~
~no twilight galaxy~; College Slice

FelicityGS posted:

If you do the ship stuff (it's really pretty optional), you'll usually get some cool stuff that will help make bosses much easier.

Also, the sea quest battles can be repeated as many times as you like, allowing you to gain experience points very quickly early in the game without having to walk around in the dungeon waiting for enemy encounters.

# ? Feb 25, 2012 17:00

Scaly Haylie: Dec 25, 2004

For the sake of my dear old mom who's playing it, anything about Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door?

# ? Feb 26, 2012 06:17

Barudak: May 7, 2007

Zotwoz posted:

I've been playing Ikaruga for a couple of hours and it is still kicking my rear end. What do I do to stop sucking?

Play on easy until you have the stages down. The game is a series of patterns and if you don't know them very well you will die. A lot. Which you will because you don't know the patterns.

Switch constantly. You should always when possible be the opposite color of enemy ships and be absorbing the bullets they cough out. Being the opposite color deals more damage and absorbing bullets is what gives you your burst/bomb/special attack.

Seriously, you will die until you have the patterns down. Thats just life.

Interesting but not necessarily useful fact; enemies always appear in groups divisible by 3. This is because you get points for killing enemies of a single color 3 in a row.

# ? Feb 26, 2012 06:23

Heavy neutrino: Sep 16, 2007; You made a fine post for yourself. ...For a casualry, I suppose.

WrightOfWay posted:

Anything on Etrian Odyssey 3?

1) Make a monk. Most classes are pretty useable, but you won't get far without a monk. Once you get the ability to multiclass, choose Prince. Afterwards, re-spec him/her (allows you to re-distribute skill points in exchange for losing 5 levels) and put their points into the the following Prince moves: Ad Nihilo (turns some bosses from a headache to a complete pushover), Prevent Order (same as Ad Nihilo), and Protect Order (the best healing spell in the game) as well as Form Qi. Avoid the passive healing moves; they're really not so great. Instead, spend a few points into the monk healing moves for out-of-battle healing.

2) Make sure you have a party of farmers, and that at least one of those goes for the skill that lets you completely avoid encounters. What this means is making 5-6 farmers at the start of the game and putting all their initial points into that skill that lets them get EXP while they're sitting out.

3) There's some really overpowered crap you can do with a shogun / swashbuckler, but don't worry about it until much later in the game.

4) Almost all FOEs have some sort of gimmick or weakness that lets you kill them easily once you know it. Sadly, this is a Japanese game so very few of them will ever be hinted at (strategy guide syndrome) but that's what GameFAQs is for!

# ? Feb 26, 2012 14:35

Gwyrgyn Blood: Dec 17, 2002

FelicityGS posted:

Princes are pretty much the best party healer for the first part of the game.

Not really... Monks make better healers for the first part of the game, and then Monk/Princess make the best for the second half.

quote:

Zodiacs are useful at first, but things start losing elemental weaknesses as the game goes on and they get less useful.

Also not true, things don't lose weaknesses ever. And even when you can't exploit elemental weaknesses, Zodiacs are STILL one of the strongest classes in the game.

Also, for your sanity's sake, it's a good idea to keep a Hoplite in your party in some form at all times. This is because they have a skill called Vigilance, which lowers the random encounter rate. Should be pretty obvious why that is so important.

# ? Feb 27, 2012 20:21

Farecoal: Oct 15, 2011; There he go

There's a sale for the Guild II collection on Steam, $5. Is it worth it?

Farecoal fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Feb 27, 2012

# ? Feb 27, 2012 21:53

A Fancy 400 lbs: Jul 24, 2008

I only bought Guild II Rennaisance, before someone mentioned it doesn't have a tutorial. So tips for it would be helpful, please. :p

# ? Feb 27, 2012 22:45

felgs: Dec 31, 2008; Cats cure all ills. Post more of them.

Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

Also not true, things don't lose weaknesses ever. And even when you can't exploit elemental weaknesses, Zodiacs are STILL one of the strongest classes in the game.

My Zodiacs all leveled off about midgame, and my shog/buc was doing more damage than any of their spells could. I had pretty much no use for Zodiacs by near end game.

My hoplite stayed in the whole game though, very good at protecting various glass cannons when they needed it.

Which just goes to show that a bunch of different playstyles work really well.

# ? Feb 27, 2012 22:50

thebardyspoon: Jun 30, 2005

Lizard Wizard posted:

For the sake of my dear old mom who's playing it, anything about Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door?

If she really likes the humor and dialogue then make sure to use the female Goombas tattle ability on every enemy because I found those very amusing. I don't think there are any permanent missables or glitches that would gently caress up the game. The game is as simple as you want it to be so there's no reason to have a build for Mario or anything like that.

# ? Feb 27, 2012 23:32

poptart_fairy: Apr 8, 2009; by R. Guyovich

Far Cry 2. Anything I can do to make this enjoyable for myself? I mostly just want to carve a wave of destruction through my enemies. :haw:

# ? Feb 27, 2012 23:33

Fergus Mac Roich: Nov 5, 2008; Soiled Meat

poptart_fairy posted:

Far Cry 2. Anything I can do to make this enjoyable for myself? I mostly just want to carve a wave of destruction through my enemies.

Normal mode is Doom in Africa but to be honest with you I find the game more fun on Hardcore.

# ? Feb 27, 2012 23:36

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

poptart_fairy posted:

Far Cry 2. Anything I can do to make this enjoyable for myself? I mostly just want to carve a wave of destruction through my enemies.

Especially in the first map, you can use boats to get around and avoid a lot of the annoying checkpoints. Don't worry too much about trying to keep your buddies alive.

# ? Feb 27, 2012 23:38

Gwyrgyn Blood: Dec 17, 2002

FelicityGS posted:

My Zodiacs all leveled off about midgame, and my shog/buc was doing more damage than any of their spells could. I had pretty much no use for Zodiacs by near end game.

My hoplite stayed in the whole game though, very good at protecting various glass cannons when they needed it.

Which just goes to show that a bunch of different playstyles work really well.

Agreed with your last statement there. As far as the first one goes, Shogun is pretty much just game breakingly broken so it's kind of unfair to compare other class combos to it.

Zodiacs are still really good relative to the other classes. You have to switch them over to a Meteor build to get the most out of them at the super-late game, but even still, Etheric Charge + Limit spells are really god drat good against almost every boss in the game.

# ? Feb 27, 2012 23:39

Astfgl: Aug 31, 2001

I'm in a Civ 4 multiplayer match right now and I know my buddy is going to attack me soon, but we're in an ostensible alliance. If I convince another civ to attack him, will he know it was me?

# ? Feb 28, 2012 04:28

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Astfgl posted:

I'm in a Civ 4 multiplayer match right now and I know my buddy is going to attack me soon, but we're in an ostensible alliance. If I convince another civ to attack him, will he know it was me?

I don't think so, though they may let it slip that someone paid them.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 04:40

Eggie: Aug 15, 2010; Something ironic, I'm certain

Dragon Warrior 7. What should I know? What kind of guide should I get?

# ? Feb 28, 2012 08:36

Bigass Moth: Mar 6, 2004; I joined the #RXT REVOLUTION.

he knows...

Eggie posted:

Dragon Warrior 7. What should I know? What kind of guide should I get?

Follow some spergin gamefaqs guide from beginning to end. Seriously, there are so many "gently caress you" things in this game that you will be kicking yourself later if you don't. Also expect around 100 hours of game, with probably 50 hours of that purely grinding.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 13:05

Dr Snofeld: Apr 30, 2009

poptart_fairy posted:

Far Cry 2. Anything I can do to make this enjoyable for myself? I mostly just want to carve a wave of destruction through my enemies.

Try all the weapons, try different tactics, try fighting at different times of day. Mix it up when you're fighting, you'll enjoy it all the more. Blow things up, set them on fire.

Stealth in the sense of performing an objective without being spotted isn't really feasible. Stealth in the sense of shifting around to the best position and picking enemies off before relocating is absolutely possible. If you crouch in long grass you're much harder to see, which is handy if a patrol comes by and you don't feel like fighting them; if you have the stealth suit upgrade you're nearly invisible. However the enemies are very good at following the sounds of your gunshots, so don't stay in one place too long.

Set everything on fire.

Assassination missions get you diamonds, convoy assault missions from the gun dealer unlock new weapons for sale - these are fairly easy once you deduce a convoy's path and lay down a few IEDs.

Seriously, burn loving everything.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 15:29

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

I just won myself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, but haven't played Brotherhood (have played the previous games though). I do have access to a copy of it by way of my roommate, but is it worth playing through Brotherhood before I do Revelations, or should I just skip it and read a plot summary or something?

# ? Feb 28, 2012 16:56

EddieDean: Nov 17, 2009

Dr Snofeld posted:

Try all the weapons, try different tactics, try fighting at different times of day. Mix it up when you're fighting, you'll enjoy it all the more. Blow things up, set them on fire.

Stealth in the sense of performing an objective without being spotted isn't really feasible. Stealth in the sense of shifting around to the best position and picking enemies off before relocating is absolutely possible. If you crouch in long grass you're much harder to see, which is handy if a patrol comes by and you don't feel like fighting them; if you have the stealth suit upgrade you're nearly invisible. However the enemies are very good at following the sounds of your gunshots, so don't stay in one place too long.

Set everything on fire.

Assassination missions get you diamonds, convoy assault missions from the gun dealer unlock new weapons for sale - these are fairly easy once you deduce a convoy's path and lay down a few IEDs.

Seriously, burn loving everything.

Seconding this. Dynamic fire is so much fun in this game.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 17:02

owl_pellet: Nov 20, 2005; show your enemy
what you look like

Morpheus posted:

I just won myself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, but haven't played Brotherhood (have played the previous games though). I do have access to a copy of it by way of my roommate, but is it worth playing through Brotherhood before I do Revelations, or should I just skip it and read a plot summary or something?

For me personally, if I didn't take a break between playing AC games I would burn out super fast. There are little tweaks between them going from AC2 > AC:B > AC:R, but they're just too similar for me to play any two of them back to back.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 17:10

Susat: May 31, 2011; Taking it easy, being green

Morpheus posted:

I just won myself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, but haven't played Brotherhood (have played the previous games though). I do have access to a copy of it by way of my roommate, but is it worth playing through Brotherhood before I do Revelations, or should I just skip it and read a plot summary or something?

It is, kind of. It sums up what happens in Rome, and explains Ezio's status in the assassin's guild. It'll also introduce a ton of new elements that you'll see in Revelations, like assassin assistants, and mission challenges.

Also if you're interested at all in what happens to Desmond, it's pretty :psyduck:

# ? Feb 28, 2012 17:22

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

Righto, I do like the present-day plot stuff. Going to play through Brotherhood with a focus on plot and maybe some assassin assistants, take a break, then do some Revelations.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 17:36

poptart_fairy: Apr 8, 2009; by R. Guyovich

Thanks for the advice on Far Cry, guys. Had a fantastic two hours of skulking about in the bushes shooting and stabbing, infiltrating a villa to dispose of soldiers, intimidating someone into misleading my actual target (then gunning him down afterwards for no penalty at all), got my jeep blown out from under me on arrival which lead to me being saved by a friend, only to then be dumped into a tiny loving shack which the enemies could all loving shoot through and I couldn't fight back because there wasn't space enough for me to loving well fight back without getting shot even further making me rage quit. :argh:

I'll try again later, methinks.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 17:39

Eggie: Aug 15, 2010; Something ironic, I'm certain

A sibling is starting Breath Of Fire IV. What advice is there for her?

# ? Feb 28, 2012 19:57

Zedd: Jul 6, 2009; I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?

Morpheus posted:

I just won myself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, but haven't played Brotherhood (have played the previous games though). I do have access to a copy of it by way of my roommate, but is it worth playing through Brotherhood before I do Revelations, or should I just skip it and read a plot summary or something?

Do play Brotherhood, Rome is brought to life really well and it is a direct continuation of AC2.

Take a few weeks between ACB and ACR btw, otherwise they will feel stale.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 20:05

Zotwoz: Apr 2, 2011

Just got a copy of Pikmin and read through the manual yesterday, the gameplay looks pretty complicated and the time limit seems daunting. Any tips for not messing this up?

# ? Feb 28, 2012 20:16

Susat: May 31, 2011; Taking it easy, being green

Zotwoz posted:

Just got a copy of Pikmin and read through the manual yesterday, the gameplay looks pretty complicated and the time limit seems daunting. Any tips for not messing this up?

Don't rush to get everything your first playthrough, just relax and try to enjoy the exploration, if you feel like you really messed up you can always restart the day over by just not saving and hitting reset. The worlds will get bigger and more daunting as he game goes on, so it's pretty key to keep looking around.

# ? Feb 28, 2012 21:09

Polite Tim: Sep 3, 2007; 'insert witty Family Guy/ Futurama/ Simpsons/ Little fucking Britian etc quote here'

Zedd posted:

Do play Brotherhood, Rome is brought to life really well and it is a direct continuation of AC2.

Take a few weeks between ACB and ACR btw, otherwise they will feel stale.

I'd say a few months really, the games are amazing but AC2 and AC:B are very similar and I imagine AC:R will be the same. I finished Brotherhood about five months ago and in about another month i'll be ready to play Revelations

# ? Feb 28, 2012 21:20

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 30, 2024 04:14

ahobday: Apr 19, 2007

Is it worthwhile playing all of the SKATE games, 1 through 3?

Or is it similar to Forza, in that I can just get the latest title and not feel like I've missed anything from the first two?

# ? Feb 28, 2012 23:43

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

«‹›896 »