Things in games that you didn't realize until WAY after you started playing

[AstroManLuca]

I played all the way through Fallout 3 one time and started a second game before I discovered I could continuously drink water by holding the use key instead of just tapping. I almost finished New Vegas before I discovered hotkeys for items.

In Diablo II, at first I didn't even realize what other skills were for. I was using my basic attack on my first character (a Barbarian) for a while. Also took me a while to figure out you could hold down on an enemy instead of clicking repeatedly, and even longer to learn how to assign a skill to the right click and then just hold down on the ground to both move and attack.

Got halfway through Resident Evil 4 before I figured out how to run.

I had an old space trading game (Escape Velocity) and I spent days trading resources to get money for a good ship, only to learn later that I could have gone much faster had I hired escort freighters. Could have carried 7x as much cargo.

There was even an old electronic handheld game I had where you had to get a key and then turn around and go back, but I didn't know what to do when I got the key. Months, maybe years later I found the game and tried it again and immediately understood how to actually finish it.

Anything else like this? Common things that you should know but didn't figure out for whatever reason?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Perfectly normal. When is it you leave for work again?

 

[shortylickens]

Thats because people are too damn lazy to read the manual anymore and game companies got tired of printing them, so now almost everything is part of an ingame tutorial. The problem is they rarely show EVERYTHING you can do in the regular part of the game. End result is loads of features that get ignored, many of which can actually make the game easier (hot keys in Fallout for example). Did you know you can hotkey weapons, armor, AND aids?
I keep the dartgun on 1 and a good takedown weapon on 2, my favorite grenade on 3 and a melee weapon on 4. Stealth armor on 5, heavy armor on 6. Stimpaks on 8 and most common food item on 7. When that food item runs out I program another one. 7 is the key that gets changed the most.

 

[Dankk]

Got halfway through Resident Evil 4 before I figured out how to run.

lol. RTFM maybe?

 

[drebo]

I played all the way through Dragon Age: Origins before I realized you could increase the size of your skill bar.

Beating that game with 10 skills was tough. With 30 skills readily available, though, it's a cake walk.

 

[Glitchny]

This reminds me of all the people I met when I played WoW who didn't know it was possible to eat and drink at the same time.

 

[RPD]

lol. RTFM maybe?

Real gamers never RTFM until they need to figure something out, I know I never do and it's served me well. Telling someone to RTFM only applies when they ask about how to do X when it's clearly in the manual and they are just being lazy - IMO.

 

[apoppin]

Anything else like this? Common things that you should know but didn't figure out for whatever reason?

Crysis 2. i never bothered to look at the mini-map because it was so easy to figure out where to go. Then i got turned around jumping from ledge to ledge and had an epiphany - 'so that's what the blue dot is for'

Also in Dungeon Siege III. i started playing it yesterday and i haven't needed a manual - although i have NO idea what the hot keys are individually for - i just mash them in fights .. and so far it is not a problem ... level 21 .. so i am doing something right

.. it's the best looking top down action RPG game in S3D ... the story is generic and the voice acting seems to be done by way too few people and with too little variation - but the loot is great.
:\

 

[Zap]

In COD4 I was past level 30 before I found out that I could create a custom class. This was completely in multiplayer, since I don't really play single player shooters.

 

[gorcorps]

I didn't know I was playing as a girl in Portal until later when I could make 2 portals and see myself.

 

[gothamhunter]

I played all the way through Dragon Age: Origins before I realized you could increase the size of your skill bar.

Beating that game with 10 skills was tough. With 30 skills readily available, though, it's a cake walk.

I never knew that I played with only 10 skills!

 

[CPA]

Thats because people are too damn lazy to read the manual anymore and game companies got tired of printing them, so now almost everything is part of an ingame tutorial. The problem is they rarely show EVERYTHING you can do in the regular part of the game. End result is loads of features that get ignored, many of which can actually make the game easier (hot keys in Fallout for example). Did you know you can hotkey weapons, armor, AND aids?
I keep the dartgun on 1 and a good takedown weapon on 2, my favorite grenade on 3 and a melee weapon on 4. Stealth armor on 5, heavy armor on 6. Stimpaks on 8 and most common food item on 7. When that food item runs out I program another one. 7 is the key that gets changed the most.

I know it can be done in FO:NV, but I can't figure out how to assign the weapons to hotkeys.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I never knew that I played with only 10 skills!

I'm playing it now, and only have the 10 skill bar. How do I get 20 more?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I was 20 hours into Torchlight before I read (at GameFaqs not in the lousy manual PDF) that you could transmute enchanted items into ember instead of selling them for next to nothing.

That was my first normal difficulty warrior so I wanted to restart on hard with a new character anyway. Now I'm playing with a dual-wielding alchemist.

 

[gorcorps]

I know it can be done in FO:NV, but I can't figure out how to assign the weapons to hotkeys.

With your pip-boy out and on the weapons menu, hold a number down and click a weapon. Except for #2. For whatever reason that # is hardwired to be your "switch ammo type" button. 1-9 work otherwise though.

 

[terry107]

I never knew that I played with only 10 skills!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know this.

 

[Kroze]

In COD4 I was past level 30 before I found out that I could create a custom class. This was completely in multiplayer, since I don't really play single player shooters.

noob

 

[Possessed Freak]

I didn't know you could hold down the mouse button to redirect movement in Diablo. I kept clicking to redirect my hero.

 

[shortylickens]

I know it can be done in FO:NV, but I can't figure out how to assign the weapons to hotkeys.

While in the menu, hold down the 1 key and click on the text for Pool Cue, 9mm Pistol, etc.

 

[fatpat268]

I didn't know you could hold down the mouse button to redirect movement in Diablo. I kept clicking to redirect my hero.

Something similar: In diablo style games (Diablo, Torchlight, Titan Quest), I used to right click for each swing of the sword or whatever attack. I used to actually hate playing these games because my finger would get tired of all the clicking after a while.

And then, a good friend of mine told me all I had to do was hold the right mouse button while attacking. Damn I felt stupid.

 

[Via]

I bought Pool of Radiance:RoMD as a jewel case and actually sorta got into it.

It wasn't the greatest dungeon crawler ever, but for what I paid it was hypnotic and vaguely fun. Only one thing really bothered me: my party moved SO SLOWLY.

If I had to go from one end of the map to the other I would go fix myself a drink while my party ponderously trudged there step by step. And when I got back they'd still only be half way there.

It was only after getting stuck in a certain part and checking the internets for a solution that I found out about the auto-run key. This was at least 15-20 hours in.

Those 15-20 hours should have been half of that.

In my defense - I'm quite certain the game doesn't mention the auto-run key (not even the control mapping part), and the jewel case had no manual with it.

 

[shortylickens]

I bought Pool of Radiance:RoMD as a jewel case and actually sorta got into it.

It wasn't the greatest dungeon crawler ever, but for what I paid it was hypnotic and vaguely fun. Only one thing really bothered me: my party moved SO SLOWLY.

If I had to go from one end of the map to the other I would go fix myself a drink while my party ponderously trudged there step by step. And when I got back they'd still only be half way there.

It was only after getting stuck in a certain part and checking the internets for a solution that I found out about the auto-run key. This was at least 15-20 hours in.

Those 15-20 hours should have been half of that.

In my defense - I'm quite certain the game doesn't mention the auto-run key (not even the control mapping part), and the jewel case had no manual with it.

I think these days most games are artificially extended by slow running speeds. You can make many of them more fun if theres some sort of speed incread. KOTOR has it with console codes, as does Elder Scrolls and Fallout, Baldurs Gate 2 has it with the save game editor.

 

[BoberFett]

I never knew that I played with only 10 skills!

Maybe that's why I can't beat that end boss dragon. I got my ass handed to me several times and got sick of that stupid game.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I think these days most games are artificially extended by slow running speeds. You can make many of them more fun if theres some sort of speed incread. KOTOR has it with console codes, as does Elder Scrolls and Fallout, Baldurs Gate 2 has it with the save game editor.

This is one of the things that bugged me about Mass Effect 1. No sprinting outside of combat and very large levels, so it can take a long time to get anywhere. ME2 made the environments smaller and allowed sprinting anywhere (although you can only sprint for a few seconds at a time). ME1 has a superspeed console command, but it's kind of tedious to use when you have to constantly enable and disable it.

 

[coldmeat]

Kind of related, but not really. I didn't realize my tv had a power button until over a year after getting it. I lost my remote once and had to unplug it to turn it off lol. I accidentally hit it when swiveling it one day, they are touch sensitive.