mhg83

I've been playing Darksiders and on the first dungeon I got stuck on one of the puzzles (rotating bridge) I spent nearly an hour trying to figure out what to do and had to refer to gamefaqs. It just got to a point where I wasn't having fun anymore. And later on the first boss was so frustratingly cheap I hit up youtube after dying ten times. For open world games however, I have more patience with since I can just go do a sidequest or two. But linear games I give up on if it's 30 minutes to an hour stuck in the same spot and dying more than ten times. What is your breaking point? Or do you just move on to a different game?

Liver&Onions

If you're stuck that early in the game, I'd consider retirement.

MrX

Yeah, you haven't seen anything yet

Among recent games, Darksiders is the closest I've come to just giving up.

mhg83

Well that was before I knew how the boomerang/ dormant bomb worked together. Now the puzzles are easy to do.

MoviePage

Guides are for losers!



So I look for one after I lose enough to get frustrated.

al_bundy

i'm playing mass effect and using the wiki all the time. i don't have time to explore every inch of every planet for the hidden metals and crap. some of this stuff is for people with mental issues

on black ops i tried for 30 minutes or so the khe sanh level until i went googling

Liver&Onions

You guys probably turn on the all the cheats too don't you? At least Superfro just puts the game on handholding mode (also called SuperFro Mode) when he plays.

Michael Corvin

For me it depends on a few factors.

One: did I buy the game, rent or borrow it? If it's on my dime, I try and figure things out until I'm frustrated to no end, then I'll look something up.

Two: am I really enjoying the game, plot or characters? Am I skipping cut-scenes? The guide comes out sooner if I'm just going through the motions to get to the credits.

Three: achievement hunting - I have too many games in my pile, I don't have the patience to wander around for hours on end looking for one "piece of the heart" anymore. Those days are long gone. I typically look for orbs, dog tags, etc. pretty thoroughly on my first playthrough, but if I fall short of getting 100%, that's where the guide comes in on playthrough 2.

starman9000

I made the mistake of looking to a character build guide for Oblivion and I ruined my enjoyment of that game by trying to max out all the attributes.

The only other thing I think I looked for were Crawermax in Borderlands and some of the hidden skulls in Halo 3.

fujishig

I think it was Final Fantasy XII that had you NOT open certain chests early in the game if you wanted a better result later on. Seriously, who thinks of that kind of stuff?

Liver&Onions

Japanese game developers.

Groucho

In my house, I AM the game guide. "DAD! DAD!!! How do I get past this part?"

Matt

I bought the $30 Borderlands GOTY hardcover book and I haven't even played the motherfucker yet!

FatTony

I'll check GameFAQs or Youtube if I reach a point of frustration but I'm still having fun with the game.

Giantrobo

At some point you just wanna have fun. Countless deaths are NOT fun.

Kedrix

I'm not sure I buy game guides for the same reasons others do. I don't buy them really when I get stuck. I tend to buy them either because a)they are cheap and I own the game already b)to just see if I missed anything or c)to entice me to play a game I already own. (I have a huge closet of shame ) I get stuck occasionally, but usually I will sit there a while before I resort to anything. I think I just like pretty pictures...*sigh*

orangecrush

I like to min/max games like Oblivion and Fallout, so I generally read up on character build ideas before I play. IMO nothing is more frustrating in a game like Oblivion than getting 7-8 hours in and realizing that the game is going to be brutal hard due to your initial choices.

For most other games, I usually only check the FAQ on certain puzzles that seem to have an obvious solution that I am just not seeing after about 20 min.

dvdjunkie32

I suck so bad at puzzles that usually after 10 minutes of being stuck, I feel like it is hopeless and run for the guide. Must have done that dozens of times with God of War.

al_bundy

you buy game guides when the info is free on the internets?

wow

they are all made by the same anti-social kids chained to their consoles and forced to play all night

sauce07

If i'm stuck at a part of the game and get frustrated, i'll youtube the walkthrough and find where I am in the game. No reason to get so infuriated with a game and give up over something small.

Groucho

What I hate is when you are stuck on something and none of the FAQs or guides are really helpful. For example, there's a part in the first God of War where you are climbing a pillar of rotating spikes. After dying multiple times, I looked online. All of the guides just glossed over this part ("Climb the pillar and then..." or "Climb the pillar (this is hard) and then...").

al_bundy

that's when i resort to the ultimate guide of all, youtube

foxdvd

I use a guide after I beat a game, to mop up on achievements...which sometimes is why I miss so many easy achievements, because I get bored of a game...I am always telling myself "do a normal or hard run, and then play a second time on super hard" and its not that I can't do it, its just that I don't want to...

So it has been tempting at times to have a guide while playing since I tend to only want to play a game once.... but I just feel like that is cheating...

DVDGamer

GameFaqs. As often as I need. I don't have the time to lose hours thinking of ways to figure things out. And for good games, I like to finish the game and get the most of my penny with the little time I can spend gaming!

Matt

I know no shame in using a walkthrough for various collect-a-thons for achievements. Just a couple of weeks ago I used one for the "collect 100 ingots" achievement in Fallout 3, and I just printed out one for the "smash 300-something antlion grubs" in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 on The Orange Box.

That kind of shit would drive me crazy if I tried to do it without a guide.