Seriously, y’all. There are so many games that I want to play because I want to see the story and stuff, and because other people enjoy them, but I suck so hard at them that I can’t get anywhere! (See also: the “getting lost in games” thread.)
I got GTA 4 because it just looks so awesome and interesting, so I’ve been playing it for two evenings and I just threw my controller at the Xbox and gave up. Because the first real driving mission, the one where you beat up those two guys and then follow one? I can’t pass it. I CAN’T. I’ve tried it at least ten times. I’ve wrecked the car, mostly. I’ve lost him a few times. Once I got stuck between a light pole that was still standing and a light pole I had knocked down. I am become Death, destroyer of pedestrians. I get lost. Sometimes I hit some button and the camera is in front of the goddamned car. Most of the time the camera is up the goddamned tailpipe, so I guess “hood-o-vision” might have been an improvement. I gave up when it seemed like I was going to catch him and then I ran into a wall and tried to make a sixteen point turn, realized I was never going to make it, and creamed another pedestrian.
This is fun? This is what I work to enjoy? This sucks. I know, I know, don’t play, right? But I want to find out what happens! I want to see what’s supposed to be the most awesome game of the year, and by “see” I don’t mean “see spinning around on its roof” or “have a fat imaginary Russian man scream at me about my shitty driving.” Grr.
Sorry, I feel a bit better now. Surely I’m not the only who has this same love-hate relationship with “fun”?
I have similar problems with Freelancer and its damnable auto-pilot, which occasionally believes that through that planet’s core is the superior path to my destination. I would like for it to NOT plunge me into the nearby star.
I’ve been trying to play The Sims 2 and feel like I spend all my time with the character’s eating, sleeping, pissing, and failing to get the work done to keep my character happy and not mad at me because she isn’t have fun or doing well at her job. It’s like… life, only nothing is actually getting done. Grr. So I get exactly what you’re saying. When does it start to be fun?
That’s because you need to earn enough money to buy better stuff so they’ll be happier faster. People cheat, but I never enjoyed that. It takes a while to get to “maintenance level” with your sims.
Alternately, you could send your sims on vacation to Liberty City and I’d put them out of their misery in ten seconds flat. Assuming I could find my car.
Time to move on over to WoW. You go at your own pace, people will help you (most quests can be done solo but almost all quests can be done with at least one other player), and there is plenty to do!
Since my lag is horrible on sattelite, I usually work on my crafty skills… and, I really enjoy fishing. WoW fishing, not real fishing. Oh! Especially when I find debris spots and any time I pull out a trunk! And of course, there’s the cooking skill too.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe these games aren’t for you, and you should read a good book instead. I’ve heard GTA IV has some screwy driving mechanisms, which may be the source of your troubles, but that is something that you should know before even buying the game (that a good part of it is going to be driving away from pursuing cops, bad guys, angry car owners). I can understand wanting to play what “the cool kids” think is a great game, but if it isn’t up your alley, you don’t have to. If I think I get your point, think of video games as books. You generally know, if you commit to a book, what the book is going to be about, and can select books that you think you will like. Same with video games.
But, as I said, if you’re angry over the driving mechanics, that’s fine. But don’t let what people say about a game (or a book) dictate what you play (or read).
I hear ya. Sometimes I get so caught up in completing a game that has beat me over and over. “Fun” is no longer the goal, its all about getting through that one area of the game. And sometimes, the game designers don’t make it easy.
I remember a part of Freelancer that was a race. The rest of the game was about blowing up enemy star ships and battle stations, but for this one quest, I had to race some bloke through a series of rings, while solar winds randomly pushed me off course. I tried and failed so many times for days. Finally, I gave up and found a hack for the game, that let me “win” the race, so long as I could finish before I blew myself up. Later parts of the game were hard because you needed skill and tactics to fight the enemies who outnumbered you. This race was hard because you never knew what way the winds were going to push you… if they caused you to miss one ring, you were screwed and couldn’t possibly win.
I remember that. Oddly enough, dropping copious amounts of countermeasures would confuse the AI, and it would fall prey to the same pitfalls as the human racer.
I know what mission your talking about. Do what I did because I too think the game is absolutely gorgeous (and I love the way my sound system interfaces with it) and just drive around for a few hours screwing around. It’s fun and you get much better at driving.
You stole an old car and the police are after you? Try to out run them. It’s fun. If you get caught you lose a few bucks but you get to try it again. I also love listening to the talk radio stations. Especially the ultra-conservative one.
“My wife has never had a so-called ‘female orgasm.’ But she doesn’t need that. We have our faith to keep us satisfied. And let me tell you, my wife is very satisfied. She has a personal trainer and she works out every day. She’s getting really good at tennis…”
I feel you, Zsofia. I love the thing I suck at – FPS games. But I hate that I suck at them, because I would looove to go online and try my hand at multiplayer. Because I’m so horrifically, embarrassingly bassackwards as a player, I know I’d get gutshot the second I spawned, and if I did manage to last for a little while I’d be mocked for the whole ten minutes.
I mostly play Half-Life and my favorite activity is running headlong into enemies and basically blasting everything willy nilly. Strategy? Stealth? Erm, not my strong suit. I try, but I do dumbass things like walk around a corner forgetting to duck or look both ways. If I’m in some largish warehouse area (for example) and I see an enemy in the distance, I suppose the proper thing to do would be to duck around, sneaking up on the guy and picking him off from behind if possible. Instead? CHAARRGE!!! If the G-Man could see my version of Gordon Freeman running like a total loser headlong into Combine fire, he’d give up on me damn quick. God knows the Vorts and Rebels would be embarrassed to be worshipping me all those years.
And now that I’ve started S.T.A.L.K.E.R, I’m just as sucky as before – and getting killed even quicker, because my ridiculous lack of tactics are especially dimwitted in this brutal environment.
I just know I’m playing all wrong. But I still have a helluva lot of fun. That’s all a girl like me really wants in a game, anyway.
I think being good at a game is secondary to enjoying it. I gave up playing GTA3:SA because it seemed that to do the latter you had to have the former, which was a bit crap for me as I was stuck on a level and got sick of redoing it.
I gave up years ago the notion of playing online against people other than close friends because I’m just not that competetive enough to build up my skill and strategy to be a worthy match. I went through a phase of playing Warcraft 3 online with people through their matching programme and it became obvious quickly that there were set processes you had to go through and activities to do to be successful - I couldn’t really play the game I wanted to or at a pace I enjoyed, so I wasn’t having fun (which is the whole point).
I agree with Hamlet, maybe GTA4 isn’t the game for you, pick up something else.
I wish you could just take a damned mulligan, though. I mean, I paid for the game, it’s mine, and if I just cannot, CANNOT beat that spaceship full of aliens in Final Fantasy VIII, I ought to still be able to see the rest of the game!
Interesting that you mentioned this, because I had a similar thought a few days ago in the “cheap moves” thread… I’ll just quote myself…
Now, multiplayer in an FPS is a different story. I DON’T suck there, and, choie, I can give you some simple advice… You said in your post “my favorite activity is running headlong into enemies and basically blasting everything willy nilly”. Guess what? That is the only strategy you need for a good ole’fashioned death match. Tip #1: Never stop moving. Tip #2: shot at everything that moves. You typically aren’t alive long enough to execute any real strategy anyway. Sure, there is a learning curve about knowing the ins and outs of each map, and where the best weapons are, and how to aim while coping with lag, but that just comes with time. I can understand if you don’t like it, but it sounds to me like your play style is perfect for multiplayer.
As for driving in GTA4 the most important thing, like in real life, is to learn how to apply throttle and the breaks.
Don’t just stomp on them but learn how to gradually apply it in increments.
Also make sure to steal a decent car as some cars handling is appalling.
You might want to play some racing games first to get the hang of using the throttle and break efficiently.
Stick with it, you will get better in time.
Also, make sure to use the in-car camera position.
That way you won’t have to control the camera along with your vehicule, and for some reason the controls feel a bit tighter.
I can’t even drive in a straight line with the chase camera on.
