How Many Of You REALLY Explore Games?

[KaDee]

Im curious as to how many of you avid gamers explore your surroundings when playing a new game, as opposed to those who just head straight for the door with the "exit" sign hanging above it, so I thought I would make a topic about it and see just how much alike most gamers are.

From another thread this is something that was said, which may give you an idea of what I'm getting at and give you a starting point.

i'm exactly the same as u.. but i have to explore absolutely EVERYTHING xD
what happens if i jump down from here?

Lol I know what you mean about the exploration of games, I look outside the norm, and think basically the same... "whats up there, cus I'm sure they put that hole in the ceiling for a reason... but I dont see any platforms to climb up on"... and if I feel theres a way to get up there I will hang around thinking on it till I get annoyed. Main time this happened was in the Fire Temple in OoT, you know you have the... either left/right most highest tower that has loads of rupees up there, and you need the scarecrow song to get there. Well when I 1st went through the Temple I noted Navi flying up to the platform where you summon him, but at the time I was clueless due to the fact I hadnt gone down to Lake Hylia at the time.

Im not slow on the uptake for puzzle solving though, but ah well just means you enjoy the game more when you do solve the puzzle :lol:

 

[KaDee]

I was wondering on how I was going to tackle my 1st go through on TP, and decided rushing through wouldnt be the best course of action, I dont mean literally rush intentionally but as my friend said, I would be done with the game in no time because thats the fate of the games I get

So I'm going to try and balance it so that upon second and third travels through the Hyrule of TP, I'm not bored and will be seeing things I didn't see before. So I will need to cut back on side-quests, and additional items/equipment and leave it a surprise and reason for a 2nd playthrough.

Of course we all will want to play through again anyway, but if I go through and do all the side-quests the 1st and 2nd time through then for the third I will be like :zzz:, during conversations, periodically pressing the button to skip to the next section of text, then half-heartedly dealing with tasks at hand. Of course I will intentionally skip side-quests due to the fact I will know they are by far, unnecessary for completion and I certainly wont need to go around looking for five heart pieces to make one container, because we know you dont NEED all heart containers to finish the game.

 

[Joe]

Well when it comes to Zelda games I do......but if the game dosnt intrest me.........well what would be the point?

 

[KaDee]

Well when it comes to Zelda games I do......but if the game dosnt intrest me.........well what would be the point?

Ok, talk abit more on it though, I think though you never got to read my 2nd post, you was probably replying to my initial post as I was sending my 2nd.

I want a bustling thread of ideas and feelings for the up-coming game and how people are going to tackle it... or how they say their going to tackle it , i.e. "I'm not going to play it that much really...", then thay come back to the forum a week or two later when people have been wondering about their absence and say... "I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish this post cus the caffien is wavering ... but I JUST managed to beat Zelda: TP and the ending... :drool:. I must now go back and play through again, yet I am not worthy :worship:".

 

[trishj]

I love to explore everything! Especially in the zelda games. :yesnod:

 

[KaDee]

I love to explore everything! Especially in the zelda games. :yesnod:

So it would be safe to say that you will definitely be taking your time through TP, taking in the sights and scenary to its fullest.

But due to wanting to see so much and finally fill in the blanks between the things we know about and those we have not a clue, do you think you will be able to hold back enough, or will you rush to the next statue before fully checking the base of this busk where you would of found a rusty key? (metaphorically speaking of course)

 

[rockyraccoon24]

for me its a mix of rush to get more of the items but also to explore and have fun, i dont really want to rush through the entire game to beat it first out of people i know, with zelda games i love to take my time and just explore things, i have a feeling im gonna spend tons of time just fishing in different locations it looks so fun, basically im just gonna stop reading about it online after i get it because i dont want the story to be ruined for me

 

[KaDee]

for me its a mix of rush to get more of the items but also to explore and have fun, i dont really want to rush through the entire game to beat it first out of people i know, with zelda games i love to take my time and just explore things, i have a feeling im gonna spend tons of time just fishing in different locations it looks so fun, basically im just gonna stop reading about it online after i get it because i dont want the story to be ruined for me

Yeah, I'm cutting down on reading info about it also once it draws nearer the release date/when I get it. I will check out the forums to see what other people have mentioned in terms of general gaming experience, but for those who have rushed on ahead and post spoilers, I will leave them to it and not read.

I hope there are more rewards to fishing this time round making it a more sort after mini-game. Fair enough alot of people fished for extended periods of time in OoT, but all in all, there was only the heart piece and golden scale to be rewarded with, besides the record for biggest fish.
I hope you win an additional piece of equipment or special item, aswell as maybe heart pieces and the like.

 

[MetroidZ]

me, all the time. u never know when u are going to find a "heart piece" or something

 

[deity_link]

I don't think I can rush a game I can't leave an area until I know I've perfected it or done evrything I can do at the moment and I do a lot of backtracking when I get a new item or something and try to see if anyhting I couldn't get previously I can get now. As for forums as off the 19th I'm signing off and not coming back til a bit after the wii launch down here in aus I don't want to here nothing about it...

 

[Jenova]

I definately don't rush through games. It's not fun if you don't take in everything around you, exploring everything, finding all the puzzles and weapons and items. I have a realy bad habit that if I see something, and it looks like there is a way to obtain it, get into it, or something along those lines, I will sit there for hours trying to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to do it.

 

[BlightedArt]

Like many here I don't tend to rush through games. However I'm more likely to explore tha map of a game if there was a fun way to explpre the map. Such as driving around aimlessly in GTA or using Epona in Zelda, or web-slinging in Spiderman.

I wouldn't want to run everywhere on foot, which is why I tend to use fast travel most of the time on Oblivion (the horse controls and animation are very bad).

Take a game like Shadow of the Colossus, the horse and character animation and programming are exceptional, and very fun to take advantage of. You can look around the plains and even though the whole world there is very empty for the most part, the long view you get of the Temple, the Bridge and various other easter eggs or landmarks are incredible to whitness on your journey to the next colossi.

Then take WindWaker, fun game, interesting style, one in a long run of exceptional games. But look at the travelling scheme. You're on a boat in the water, and the only thing you tend to see are sillhouettes (sp) of islands on the horizon, the odd seagul, other than that it's nothing. I usually find myself throwing the boomerang behind me and sail away from it just to keep myself preoccupied.

Ofcourse if you find something like an enemy boat or tornado on the ocean (but that's not likely to happen) then it still gives you something to do or look at rather than a looping sail-cycle. Please note that I'm just criticising the travelling, the action in Zelda WW is incredibly fun to play.

So yeah, to sum up this whole post in a nutshell (and pretty much nulling the reason why the post should be long to begin with), I'll explore a game's map and side quests if the means of getting to those locations is fun and far from mundane.

Edit: I'll also be doing what DeityLink said, and will be avoiding the forums from Nov19th - Dec 7th... Use that time to talk about me behind my back in the open. :3

 

[KaDee]

Like many here I don't tend to rush through games. However I'm more likely to explore tha map of a game if there was a fun way to explpre the map. Such as driving around aimlessly in GTA or using Epona in Zelda, or web-slinging in Spiderman.

Edit: I'll also be doing what DeityLink said, and will be avoiding the forums from Nov19th - Dec 7th... Use that time to talk about me behind my back in the open. :3

Yep I know what you mean about maps, and seeing all there is to see in and around the wall that determines how big your playing field is. All three of your examples I've had fun with, Driving in GTA, Horse riding in Zelda n Web-Slinging in Spider-Man, although of course horse riding in OoT/MM has NO meaning what-so-ever as opposed to TP where its imperative to have access to a horse. In OoT and MM the only places you really needed Epona were the broken bridge to the Gerudo Valley (OoT), high wall entrance to the beach/ocean (MM), unclimable fence entrance to Ikana Canyon (MM).

TP will give the real feel of a devine adventure to new-comers and veterans of the Zelda series, although veterans will/should have rode Epona before, they haven't rode like this .
Its not even about the horse riding alone, although you will have access to mounted battles and the like, but the whole enormous combination of playing field AND the right amount of tasks and quests to fill it, making it plausible and necessary unlike WW.

With WW they added alot of treasure digging to make the game seem longer/bigger but in actual fact, if you went straight for the story inspired tasks you would wrap up the case in next to no time, while of course adding the sailing time. However if they hadn't made the sea that big then players would of comlained and said, "the islands are too close together which gives free-roaming a "fake" feel, because on a real sea adventure you dont sail from one grid to a next having each main island right next door to one another". So I understand that point, but I guess more story inspired tasks were needed, or more specific treasures, besides heart pieces and rupees, so that treasure searches had real meaning the 2nd/3rd play through.

 

[breakpoint]

With GTA series on PS2, i tended to fall in and out of the main storyline... because the game allows you to do so...

these often is the case for games that allow you to "free roam"

also

games that dont actually have a definitive end i look for deeper details, bugs and things that you probably werent supposed to do... sometimes this envolves cheats

 

[BlightedArt]

Breakpoint: I know what you mean, on Shadow Of The Colossus a lot of the playing field is descolate, but still beautiful. Then I found the cheat (or sectret) to actually get ON TOP of the temple you start at (which is amazing because it's ABSOLUTELY HUGE), then when I got to the top of it eventually it was a secret well earned.

There was nothing up there item wise, but the actual look and feel they went for was definetely a feel of "the garden of eden" or something, and they pulled it off magnificently.

@ KaDee: It'll be good to see Epona being more crucial in the game, but what other ways is Epona useful besides mounted battles? I haven't looked into the horse-riding aspect much, the only things I could pin her importance to is the large map (bigger than Oprah!) and again, the mounted battles.

I guess I see what you mean about the islands on WW, if they were close together it indeed would spark that fake feeling. It really does feel like you're sailing far and wide (and for some odd reason I even got that 'home sweet home' feeling when returning to Outset for the first time)... but if there was more to do on the open sea, like jump onto pirates boats when sailing alongside them and have a small duel with the 1 or 2 people on the boat, that'd be pretty cool.