Video Games: from Cheats and Tricks to Reviews
You know, nobody likes a cheater. But when it comes to
discovering video game cheats, "cheating" isn't what you're
doing. I prefer to think of it as "discovering shortcuts, tips
and tricks," or video game hints.
Video games have gotten so complex, since the days of Pong and
PacMan, that the game authors have purposely thrown in some back
doors and other shortcuts to aid the weary player. The problem
is, most of these back doors are so well hidden that these same
authors have to leak the game cheats or no one would ever find
them on their own.
And it's not only the blood and guts video games that offer
cheats. Take the perfectly bloodless "Finding Nemo" for the
GameBoy Advanced. Who'd ever guess that there were at least six
video game cheat codes hidden there?
Don't make the mistake of thinking that it's just the handhelds
either. If you play a video game online, like XBox Live, for
example, there are a whole slew of video game hints available.
Of course, video game cheat codes and game hints are sort of
useless if you don't own any video games. And that's where video
game web sites come in...
Any web site worth visiting will not only have video game
reviews and cheats for you to peruse, but they will also have
game walkthroughs. Video game walkthroughs differ from cheats in
that they actually "walk you through" the process of achieving
some goal. Video game cheats, on the other hand, are often
cryptic one or two liners like "Enter xx312 in the password
field."
There are different types of video game reviews. Each have their
good and bad points. Professional video game reviews are
typically written by paid reviewers who work for video game
magazines. These are generally well-written, in depth, and
definitely worth reading. The other most common writer of video
game reviews are the actual end users. While an end user will
generally have spent a great deal more time actually playing the
various video games on the most popular video game
systems,you'll often find that they are men and women of little
words. It's not unusual to see a review that says "Wow! Kick
Bu** man. I love it!" Now, that's probably actually saying quite
a bit about a particular video game, but -- your mileage may
vary.
The key point to remember is that you don't want to invest in a
video game until at least a couple of people have taken the time
to write a review of the game. Of course, if everyone took this
advice then there wouldn't be any video game review on any game
web sites, because everyone would be waiting for someone else to
write the review.
Right up there with video game reviews are video game previews.
A video game preview is a lot like a movie trailer. They bundle
all of the really exciting parts together and give you a fast
and furious glimpse hoping that you'll believe that the entire
video game is actually as cool as the 90 seconds of video game
previews that they let you get a peek at.
The video game industry is at a crossroads. With more and more
people clicking the play game online switch, and video game
systems like XBox Live and all of the XBox video games out
there, it is quite possible that the days of jamming your
joystick alone in your room are slated to become "back in the
day." As more and more video game systems opt for Internet
connectivity, you're likely to find that you never have to play
video games alone again.