Video game lessons learned the hard way

• Strange Journey: Don't use status attacks on unknown enemies. (After using Stone Bullet on an enemy that repels Gun attacks. One "schwing!" later: "[Raydere] fell...")
• EarthBound: learn2heal (As a child, not using healing items, leading to a quick death against Frank)

edited 26th Jan '11 9:19:44 PM by TsundeRay

• Half Life: Make sure to look at the ceiling and watch out for hidden stuff and enemies.
• Command And Conquer: Build up as fast as you can.
• Team Fortress 2: Always try something different.
• Borderlands: Charging head-on into battle is not always a good idea.
• Empires: Communication is key.

• Fire Emblem: People die really, really easily. Especially Pegasus Knights (with or without Archers).
• Metal Slug: Use all your grenades at every opportunity. Also, share guns in multiplayer.
• Pokemon: Just because you like them, does not mean they are good mons.
• Tales Series: Blocking and dodging are an integral part of not getting your ass kicked.
• Persona3/4: Fuck your party members, you're more important.

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

edited 26th Jan '11 9:24:01 PM by Deathonabun

• Pokemon: Don't replace Mewtwo's Psychic with Flash, even if you want to go in the Rock Tunnel for no good reason.

Also:

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit: Just because the Top Speed and Acceleration look bad doesn't mean it can't be good in other aspects. Oh, and Ramming Always Works.

edited 26th Jan '11 9:29:54 PM by RocketDude

• Strange Journey: Thinking that "I can totally take this Enemy Scan dude!" leads to horrible horrible deaths.
• Dawn Of War II: No matter how much armor or stamina Thaddeus has, he'll find a way to die. Don't use him. Ever.
  • Also, Frag Grenades are awesome and any talents that improve them should be taken.
• Mass Effect 2: Do not Biotic Charge into a group of more than two enemies.
• Fire Emblem: Kill fliers before they go behind your lines and one-shot your healers.

Dawn Of War II: No matter how much armor or stamina Thaddeus has, he'll find a way to die. Don't use him. Ever.

Thaddeus + Aegis of Fury (Stamina talent) + Chapter's Fury (Final strength talent) = FUCK OFF HORDES OF ENEMIES

He'll be continuously invincible while wrecking the shit out of everything.

Unless they changed or removed that in Chaos Rising (I have yet to get that xpack) or something.

This should sound obvious but... don't put knee high furniture in places that block Sims.

• Pokemon: Just because Hyper Beam doesn't look like a physical attack doesn't mean it'll work on Ghosts.
  • Your Charizard's strongest Fire-type move doesn't need a backup, and it really doesn't need a second backup
  • HMs can't be deleted (in Gen 1).
  • Beedrill does NOT counter Alakazam.
  • Onix not as good as Brock made you think.
  • Sometimes, switching into an attack is better than trading blows.
  • Trainers in the Battle Frontier know what a Focus Sash is. Don't send a non-sashed Glass Cannon against another cannon, especially in one-on-one matches.
  • In the earlier generations, you could rely on type-matching and stupid AI to get by with a grossly underleveled team. Nowadays, you'll just get your ass kicked.
  • Just because you can use an awesome TM on something unexpected doesn't mean you should.
• Resident Evil: Don't just stand in front of the telegraphed attack even if you do get a chance to Press X to Not Die. You might screw it up.
  • Don't assume that all enemies will target you over Ashley.
  • Wesker can dodge rockets. Jill can't.
  • Given the choice between removing Jill's Mind-Control Device with your hands or shooting it with a magnum, don't use the magnum. You might miss.
  • If you're not sure whether you can outrun the laser, don't try.
  • Don't assume your partner will automatically get out of the way of whatever dangerous thing you're doing.
• Half Life 2: Don't be afraid to use the big guns when necessary.
• Super Mario 64: If it can hurt Bowser, it can hurt you.
  • The Ground Pound won't stop falling damage if you use it ten feet into a hundred-foot fall.
• Prototype: You can button-mash while fighting many kinds of enemies. Super Soldiers are not among them.
• Chrono Trigger: Physical damage output isn't everything.
  • Don't use hit-all attacks against groups of enemies that can triple-tech counter you.
• Super Smash Bros: Throws might have been usable as finishers in 64, but not usually in the others.

edited 26th Jan '11 10:33:59 PM by ARandomSerf

Every game based on D&D rules: Learn how to build D&D characters. Don't "wing it".

• Pokemon
  • Attack! Attack! Attack! doesn't work all the time in-game, and hardly ever in the Battle Frontier and never Online.
  • Always have a stock of pokeballs with you. Finding a shiny Vulpix and realising you have nothing to catch it with is Angrish.
  • On the same note, save immidiatly after catching a shiny. It's Angrish inducing when you loose a RE Shiny Dunsparce in LG this way. Also save infront of E4 members and Gym Leaders.
• Super Mario Galaxy
  • Timing is everything when it comes to the Cosmic Luigi races.

edited 26th Jan '11 10:30:53 PM by PippingFool

• Devil Survivor: Blood Wine is stupidly ineffective. Tyranny works much better for MP recovery and conservation, and doesn't even eat HP.
• Minecraft: NEVER dig directly below yourself, especially in a cave. Unless you have a lava (or sudden fall into a very tall space) fetish.

edited 26th Jan '11 10:41:39 PM by TsundeRay

Disgaea: Figure out the criteria for each of the Multiple Endings before you get 3/4 through!

Pokemon: A Pokemon only needs to get to level 50 due to level-scaling in the battle frontier and multiplayer matches, raising 'em all to 100 is pointless and keeps you from redistributing the effort values.

Jet Force Gemini:Humanoid fur bags are disgusting and totally not worth saving.

Nanostray 2: If you can't figure out how you're supposed to do something, you probably can't. Look for other options. Also, if the game is Nintendo Hard, don't worry about how laughably low your score is, unless a high enough score is needed to advance.

Super Smash Bros:Almost any inherent advantages can be overcome by playing better. Anyone who's completed the latter two game's insane challenges will know this.

Need For Speed:The sooner you break for a turn, the sooner you can accelerate out of it. Number 2 actually had this as a tip, but I had learned it before, the hard way.

Battle Tanx:In war, always be observant, for death can come from anywhere, even from your allies, especially from your allies. If you're in an armored vehicle, sometimes it's more effective to just run the enemy over than to try and line them up in your cross hairs. Nuclear explosions cannot be outran, seek proper shelter.

Dance Dance Revolution: Don't assume you know how to play one version of a game just because you played another.

edit:now in bold print!

edited 5th Nov '13 6:26:14 PM by Cider

Professor Layton and the Curious Village: ALWAYS save before you do a puzzle; that way, you don't lose picarats and take longer unlocking bonus features.

The Legend of Zelda: Don't hookshot redeads.

Star Craft: No you cannot succeed with one of everything nor with an army of carriers

Chrono Trigger: Don't queue attacks from all three party members right out of the gate on an enemy you've never seen before. It might counter. All of them. Hard.

Gen 1 Pokemon:

• The type chart is full of shit. Nothing actually counters Psychics.
• Paralyze and Wrap. FUCK.

Gen 2 Pokemon:

• If you see a Shuckle, Safeguard. Immediately.

Gen 3+ Pokemon: Your enemies aren't total morons with no EV's and using idiotic movesets anymore. Your 30-levels-behind victory over Red isn't gonna happen again.

Sonic 1: Spikes go through pity invincibility. Don't attempt to get hit by an enemy then run across them.

Sonic 2: Level designers are dicks.

Sonic 2 & Knuckles: Knuckles doesn't jump as high as Sonic. This has repercussions on the final boss.

World Of Warcraft:

• If you're a warrior tank, don't put the button for your AOE taunt right next to the one for your AOE fear.
• If you're a bear tank, don't use Ctrl-Q for your stun that you use all the time to reduce the damage you take in critical pulls, and Ctrl-1 for a buff that takes you out of bear form and leaves you with no armor.
• If you're a mage, make sure the button to teleport forward isn't one you have even the barest chance of hitting on accident.
• If you're still clicking your bars, don't play in windowed mode lest you click the resize bar and lock up your screen for 6 seconds in the middle of combat.

Starcraft: When the dude in the chatroom says you can cheat to boost your ladder rating by holding Ctrl and typing "quickwins", the first step to attempting this is Ctrl-Q.

edited 27th Jan '11 12:45:07 PM by Pykrete

Star Wars Galaxies:

General, in high-level instances:

• Listen to the team leader when doing high-level instances.
• Don't have an enemy targeted until everyone's ready to go, as it isn't inconvievable that you might fire off a special attack on accident and kick off the whole thing, leading to a total party wipe.
• If you die and are covered by a fire effect, wait for the flames to go out before accepting the Medic's revive request, or you'll simply die again, immediately. Their combat revive has a loooooong cool-down.
• Have [All-object names] checked to [On]. Helps you see the thermal detonators that certain baddies toss out there, so you can avoid them by running the other way.
• During the Exar Kun instance, it's C T P, in that order.
• During Exar Kun and the gas attack is trying to get you, stick with the group. Don't lag behind, don't run ahead, or you'll make the gas spread faster, which will wipe the party out.

When playing a Smuggler (weakling DPS class)...

• Allow the team's tank to get sufficient aggro from the Big Bad before going all out. Better yet, don't go all out at all, your team's medic (who is also happens to be your Real Life spouse) will hate you for it.
• If your flurry of special attacks doesn't kill the enemy, ensure you're not too far away from the Medic, or they won't be able to pop some heals on you.
• You are not Han Solo - aggro'ing an entire room of high-level critters is a great way to take a trip to the cloning center.
• Pistol Whip doesn't stun everything, so don't use it as a last-ditch thing.
• Save your heal until you really need it. Which will be often, since you're about as durable as a cracked vase.
• Use your cloak to hide the Medic, if need be, in case they need to do a group revive. Since they need to be out of combat to do so, your cloak ability is the only whay they can get out of combat, short of them dying.
• Your strength is in dealing lots of damage over a short period of time, not in being durable. Forget that and you will wake up in a cloner.
• Illegal Pistol Modules are nice to have, even if the Smuggler-specific missions are boooring to do in order to get them.

When playing a Darkside Jedi:

• You can't tank. The carebear Lightside Jedi and the Commandos do that mess. You're melee DPS, deal with it.
• Drain doesn't always work, so have a secondary heal ready.
• Don't use Drain as an attack unless you actually have danage you need to heal, but don't wait for your health bar to be seriously depleted before using it, either. Use it often.
• Save your 5th-gen lightsaber schematics (which can be a royal pain to get) for when you have the proper resources and stuff to actually craft them. Nothing quite so bad as using So Okay, It's Average resources on a crafting session and then getting a bunch of crap experimentation rolls, resulting in something that ins't much better than the 4th-gen saber you already had.
• Everyone else with a saber is wearing a bathrobe. Be different.

King of fighters:

-Do not fuck with Omega Rugal. Just don't.

Pikmin:

• Never attack a Red Bulborb from the front.
• Be careful with Bomb Rocks.

edited 27th Jan '11 11:51:46 AM by rmctagg09

Fallout New Vegas:

• Stairs are a great place to find armed mines. And a great place to hide them yourself.
• If you hear a mine beeping or a tripwire activate, you have two options - run or backpedal. Decide quickly which is the better option and do it. Hesitation will get you dead.
• Buy every skill-boosting magazine you can get your mitts on.
• In general, staying on the roads is a good way to avoid trouble.
• In general, trail-blazing is good for discovering things, as long as you got the extra ammo and first-aid supplies.
• Avoid Deathclaws at all costs, unless you got a really powerful weapon and the skill to use it.
• Supressed and scoped weapons (like the Varmit Rifle and Sniper Rifle) make it a breeze to deal with enemies at range.
• Armor-piercing ammo will generally wreck anyone's skull in short order, if coupled with the above.
• Remember to switch ammo types, and even weapons, depending on the circumstances. What works great on one scenario might suck at another.

Pikmin 2:

• Pressing Y repeatedly to confuse the Pikmin is okay. Doing it right when the day timer hits 0 is not okay.

• If even the ship says the Waterwraith is invincible, it probably is. Don't try to fight it, and certainly don't go right back in with another 100 Pikmin to try and fight it again.

• Don't disband nonblue Pikmin close to a treasure that's in the water.

Pokemon:

• Never try to give special attacks to a physical attacker and vice versa, even if it gets STAB.
• If you really want to get 56 consecutive wins and both ribbons at the Battle Tower in 3rd gen, do yourself a favor and do it in Emerald, since you don't have to level up your Pokémon to level 100.

Civilization 3 - You can't win unless you're expansionist.

Civilization 4 - You can win without being expansionist, but you still need to create a sizable area for yourself.