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What
are my top 3 to 5
Video
picks for
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Video Games: Design, Ticks, Theats and Reviews
Would you admit to being a cheater? Probably not.
However, when it comes to discovering video game cheats, "cheating" isn't
what you're doing. I prefer to think of it as "discovering, tips, shortcuts and
tricks," or video game hints.
Video games have gotten so complex, since the days of Pong and PacMan, that the
game designers have purposely thrown in some back doors and other shortcuts to
aid in the design and development process. Often the designer will then leak
these back doors to their friends, who tell there friends, who... You get
the idea.
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 bunch
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."
The walkthrough can be really helpful if you've gotten
stuck and want to continue on, unlike cheats, which are not designed to keep you
in the natural flow of the game.
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. On the other hand, some 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. After
all, they'd rather be playing the writing a review. It's not unusual to see a
review that says "Wow! Kick a** man. I loved 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.
This can become a catch 22, since somebody has to invest enough time in a video
to play it and then write a review. If nobody steps up to the plate then
the video will only find itself in the discount bin.
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. Again, your mileage may
vary.
Playing video games used to be pretty solitary
experience. But now, XBox and the other latest crop of video game boxes
have internet connectivity built in. Now you can trash your friends online
no matter whether they are sitting next to you or are half way around the world.
Enjoy.
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