View Full Version : Know your limits
How many of you test the games limits when you first get it? Like playing monster hunter (staggers etc if you know what I mean), I tend to mess about a lot in games to begin with. That way I start figuring out stuff like 'headshot is a straight kill, but you need 5 shots to the arm' or 'Grenade has x timing and x blast radius'
How many other people experiment in this way?
I find skateboarding games are very liberating for testing ones limits, especially the earlier ones, where you can't get off or walk around, at first it seems impossible to get on the roof of something, but once you get the hang of the controls, you're practically soaring with very little holding you back.
I find experience comes from various things, not just how many shots per kill, games like Uncharted 2 and Counter-Strike require reading your opponents movements and intentions, just as badly as how many shots it takes to kill them, or how fast do they heal.
draconacticus
11-11-09, 14:47
Frequently. I tend to do it as i progress through the game though. I think some of it is subconcious - like when Half Life first came out, how many shots from which gun in which body part to take something down just became second nature. I was also able to pretty much zero where i wanted the grenade launcher on the machine gun to land by judging the angle and distance and the speed of the guy coming toward me.
I think the more you play a game the more intuitive it becomes. As Bruce Lee said, "Don't think, feeeeeeeeeeel"
True true, "Be Water my friend!";)
I'm pretty much like draco there, possibly a remainder of the old school one-hit, two-hits, three-hits opponent strength or select-water-on-fire-beast gameplays..., but sometimes I do me that favour and experiment ... yet under Limits I understand how far the Game can be played under my intentions to play it.
thezombiemessia
11-11-09, 19:06
I always experiment with my games...but I don't think it's to see my limits, I think it's just to have fun.
I can spend hours doing the most mundane things in some games, but for the most part I tend to spend the introductory levels of any game testing out buttons, combinations, and seeing how far I can push the AI.
I guess that is testing limits, but I don't think about it like that. :p
It also depends on how linear the game happens to be. The less room for exploration & adaptation, the less likely I am to test.