Gil_Hamilton wrote:Sometimes it's just minor nuances, but other times major functionality is heavily obscured.
Right, but I don't mind discovering stuff like that (by accident or flipping through the manual) after having played for a while.
It's connected to the reason I enjoy games with tons of secrets I think. Feeling like there's always more to discover. Makes the game world feel alive. Being told of everything I can do before I start playing takes away from that initial joy of discovery.
blackmyst wrote:Oh come on, surely you of all people aren't the kind of person not to see the fun in finding out for yourself. :p
Personally I always used to read just a little bit to get me excited, but never the whole thing until I got a good ways into the game. I'd definitely avoid those parts of some RPG manuals where they'd fully spoil all the characters that would join your party.
I'm reasonably sure grinvader used to dump his games and reverse-engineer the ROM images so he knew everything before he started.
Nah, I'm just your everyday completionist. Checking the game code for goodies is more what Nach does after he's done playing normally.
I usually play so long and wide that I find everything by forcing the game to barf them at me just so it can take a break.
@blackmyst: I'm talking about manuals that are manuals, not those that spoil every dang thing. Nothing more frustrating that playing like a cripple because you didn't know you could press a weird combo of buttons to do a specific move. When it comes to controls, I prefer knowing. When it comes to contents, I prefer finding.
Good quality manuals have been replaced by ridiculously long in-game tutorials that hold your hand and insult your intelligence. I'd much rather figure shit out on my own. Long, irritating tutorials kill that sense of adventure and mystery I'd normally get by figuring a game's play style out on my own. Those old SNES and especially NES manuals were often really detailed and just flat out fun to read through.