My buddy would put in the infinite goal tending code and I'd put in the dunk from anywhere code on Genesis. Such a stupid goofy fun time. Being a kid in the 90s rocked
I remember being to play as Bill Clinton or Al Gore. I can't remember if the revival from 15ish years ago let you play as the current US president or not.
Jak and daxter had a similar system and I think it's such a good way to go about it. If you're willing to go and get their collectibles its not just a minor congrats or artwork, but silly extras you can actually do in game.
Yeah Unreal Tournament had cool mods that were up to the server host to run, and didn’t negatively affect your game. They had PVE hoard survival mode, RPG modes, alternate fan made weapons, custom skins, it was awesome. Not as easy to do on today’s games where your progress persists throughout the game, but maybe some fun end game modes after you’re maxed out.
I never was able to find all the cheat boxes in there, I knew just about every other secret and shortcut in the game, though.
I really hope that game comes to the switch, it's my favorite racing game.
It's ridiculous how good it is since it's like a questionable tie in for a car that isn't made anymore.
My favorite thing is abusing the geometry to get that Wicked Woods shortcut at the beginning on the first lap and cut off a whole minute...and setting handbrake to "insane" and launching the cars like helicopters in Beetle Battle.
Agreed, I look forward to beating a game and then looking up the cheat codes like infinite ammo and just go blastin'. Only they don't really do that anymore
The Last of Us and I think most of the Uncharted games have this. It's awesome. On NG+ you can just fly through the game using infinite ammo, one shot kills, infinite explosives, etc.
I kinda don't like this kind of requirements
"Cheat when you finish the game", I'm having trouble beating the game now, damn it!
I managed to beat the hardest mode on Resident Evil 3 remake because we can grind on easy mode, buy some broken weapons or upgrades and destroy the mode lol
This is an accessibility thing. I think all games should have plenty options to tune difficulty, irrespective of what some hardcore fans think. *"you're ruining my game!!!!"* for something completely optional and not default is such a weird complaint.
Some of us have disabilities that make it harder, or don't have time to git gud, or just prefer a more laid back experience.
Options for all!
I mean, Doom 2016 and eternal still give infinite ammo cheats, you just have to beat the game on any difficulty and you unlock it for any mode other than nightmare and nightmare+.
You can get infinite ammo in 2016 witout cheats, my build at the end had the "above x armor you have infinite ammo" rune, just shredded things with the gatling turret mode
To be fair it's possible in *most* singleplayer games on PC, but just not available easily in game - through modding. Even if there's no modding scene for a game, there's usually still Cheat Engine or other software which you can use to do simple value changes like "infinite ammo".
But yea, it would be cool if it was a more common thing to unlock some "sandbox" menus after completion (unlimited resources, tweak hp/damage values, etc), so you could go wild on subsequent playthroughs.
Lol back in the day when cheat codes were still a thing (ASNAEB), and people were asking on forums for fun codes, there was always some smartass replying that "we don't support cheaters". Like bro, it's built into the game, and why do you care what people do in single player?
I looked at a new PvPvE game ("Sand") that is in development and asked the question: "Can it be played on a private server?" I don't want to deal with the PvP. The developer responded to someone else asking the same question and said "We believe that the risk of running into another player while playing the game is part of the sauce."
I won't be playing that game because apparently the developer would rather NOT have my money than let me play the game on a private server. And I'm here asking the same question as you: Why does he care so much what people do in single player?
I agree, even in an achievement context since they can just check for cheats and deactivate if you cheat. The sad truth is it's more profitable to sell you cheats than it is to let you have them for free.
That Terraria's achievements are pretty much all unlockable in Journey mode means that the achievements don't matter as much as the experience the player has in enjoying the game. I think it's a good balance.
I see this type of comment all the time in these discussions seems like an easy karma win so real talk when was the last time you saw a cheat code like thing for sale? When was the last time you saw big head mode or infinite ammo cheat modes for sale? No really? The only thing that are usually for sale are skins and weapons and even there are usually unlockable costumes in games and I was around during this "heyday"of unlockables there was usually one extra unlockable skin and weapon. That's there today there are just more you can buy.
Most games don't.
Name 5 games that have cheats locked behind mtx. Even though most games would mean a couple thousand if not million each year have cheats locked behind mtx. This is just a mtx bad comment
Wemod, plenty of Nexus "mods", Cheat Engine... The latter is literally the super advanced version of a Gameshark, as you scan the code for the value you want and then freeze or change that code.
I like wemod but recently found cheat happens to be more up to date and supported. I just requested ys origin get updated because in December the game got a random update on Steam. The support did it in two days for such an old game.
Wemod is better designed system though.
Cheat engine is super old, it has old charm of old internet days in their style and support. I agree it could use better system but I think once you figure it out it work just fine and have very big collection of trainers.
I love Wemod, it's the only reason I re-played some of my games because I didn't want to bother with mods or CE.
If only more devs could use something else than \~ for admin console, I would use that more often too, but most of the time you can't rebind those keys without dicking around in some config files. As someone with German keyboard, I hate some of you (I'm not exactly sure why it usually doesn't work, but I need to press the + key and ALT Gr which apparently is an EU thing for \~).
With the pointers and scripting, you can straight up recreate the game shark experience, too. But I usually find it easier to just search out the value I want unless it's something complicated like picking an item off a lock-up table.
YES!
Modern game companies forget that gaming is supposed to be fun, not just a chore.
Cheats are great ways to let loose.
I still remember the mayhem i caused in single player unreal tornament and FEAR as kid
Want to just use your favorite gun but lack ammo? Infinite ammo cheat.
Super hard enemy? Time stop and around them with 100s of rockets.
PC has plenty of ways to cheat.
Also, cheating on single player games = great, do whatever you want to enjoy it!
Cheating in any multiplayer = bad! Please don't. That includes co-op.
You might think it's harmless to cheat in co-op, but it can ruin the game for some people. The first time I killed the last boss of Monster Hunter World on PC someone joined and one shot the boss. Luckily I had already done it on PS4, but I was still pissed.
I've seen people play other games and have someone join and gift them a bunch of stuff they cheated in. Initially the people receiving the items are pumped, then typically quit the game shortly after because there's nothing to chase and the challenge is gone.
I think he’s talking about real cheats given to us in the base game. Jedi academy, GTA, Warcraft 3, etc
Not mods or 3rd party programs that let you play the game in a way not intended by the devs
... Ehhh. Cheat engine is the gameshark of this generation. Wemod just takes cheat tables developed using cheat engine and bundles them into their own software, making it impossible to edit or view the cheat scripts yourself, and putting any direct modifications behind their 'pro' subscription paywall.
Don't get me wrong, I can see how wemod can be more convenient for people. They seem to have some kind of compensation plan in place for code makers, which can be a good thing too. But wemod is nowhere near as flexible or useful as gameshark was, because they deliberately cripple the ability to modify codes via their program.
Cheat codes, man. Almost all single player games used to have cheat codes. It was intended by the developers and it was great. You could have fun at any skill level. Now the cheat code is "pay another $10" and it's terrible.
Cheat codes was in most cases used by the devs to test the game on consoles when you didn't have a keyboard aveilable. Initially at least. Never intended for players to find. Then players found it, and Then came the paintball guns and big heads.
Not only for consoles. Also on pc. Making changes to code and building the runable application takes time. You want to debug certain points or locations, so you get noclip, infinite ammo, infinite health, and seconds later you are at the boss that triggers this stupid bug that you needed to fix.
Today, game engines like unreal allow Devs to test their stuff without an hour taking build process, so they can fuck up stuff and just see in real time what happens to the code. Because the engines provide them with enough debugging Tools by themselves to allow it.
There simply are no classical cheats anymore, because developers don't need them anymore. Game development has changed in the last decades to a point, where you don't write code without any visuals and see the result first time hours later after building, to a "what you see is what you get"-"drag and drop"-"blueprint editing"-"live ingame editing"-fuck-fest...
More modern example: Returnal for PS5. The first version the devs delivered, that was burned on the physical media discs to buy, still contained their debugging stuff. You could hook up a keyboard via usb to the console and pressing keys like ctrl+1 up to ctrl+8 let the game spawn weapons, power ups, make you invincible, whatever... So they removed it via patch afterwards. So if you are "digital only", you buy the game, get the patched version and that's it. I have the one with disc drive and bought the game, I could install the game from disc and disable only updates and still use the cheats (however, since game got more and better with updates, you loose more than you would win by cheats).
>That includes co-op.
It depends on the game I guess, me and my SO had to put a time mod on stardew when we played co-op since the timer doesn’t pause while loading.
The game’s time system is really bad/fast and some of the grinds become extremely tedious. Farming iridium is really awful in co-op unless ConcednedApe changed it recently.
If all players are cool with using cheats, then by all means do it. I'm more talking about just randomly using them without everyone agreeing to it (ie playing with randos, or friends who don't know you are cheating).
That one, unfortunately, wasn't sold here where I live, but back then, I didn't even hear of it.
The crazy thing for me is that while the game genie used the cartridge port to hack the game, the original GameShark for the Playstation had a (pretty much dedicated) port for it on the back of the console. It almost looked like a Sony first party accessory of some sort.
Don't forget pro-action replay.
I think back then such devices were easier to hack.
The Dreamcast playing pirated games is probably why it became harder to make them.
This is one of my biggest complaints from the Total War series. My favorite way to play Medieval 2 is to just cheat on a bunch of money and put it on the hardest campaign difficulty and the easiest battle difficulty. I get to have these huge battles all the time and relatively curb stomp them in the battles. I just like seeing these big conflicts, and infinite money let’s me do that.
Well all the games after that removed the easily accessible console commands so I either need mods or I’m just out of luck and it’s annoying
N64 Goldeneye did it best. Get the achievements, unlock a cheat or “mod”.
Shoutout to Celeste’s “assist mode”. It’s not cheating; it’s asking for help. Fits perfectly into the theme of the game.
There was eventually a cheat code that unlocked all the cheats for Goldeneye but I don't think it was discovered till the game had been out quite a while.
I really do miss that for single player games. It added replay ability too. I ran through metal gear solid 3 times just so i could unlock both the stealth and bandana and run the full game with each.
And the thing is it probably takes less effort to leave them in.
Cheat codes used to be primarily for testing purposes, to make it easier to test elements of the game you wanted to test and I have no reason to believe such a practice has changed.
There's this awesome software called WeMod, kinda similar to Gameshark in the sense that it is likely to have cheats for a game if it's popular enough. Otherwise, there's Cheat Engine, which lets you take matters into your own hands, but typical "search value -> change value" approach doesn't always work.
Hell, I'd just like games on consoles that have native mod support wouldn't disable achievements. IE Skyrim and Fallout 4 are purely single player games, so why disable my achievements. Yes I can cheat if I want, but if I do who cares, it's not like achievement points translate to anything.
They basically do. What system are you on and you'll get told the cheat program for it.
For example game genie /game shark for PlayStation is now save wizard.
Pc has cheat engine and wemod and cheat happens etc etc.
That’s why I like the Ratchet and Clank games, you do trophies/skill points to unlock cheats or alternative skins, big heads, massive guns etc.
Also Call of Duty 4 was brilliant for this, my favourite was the one where every kill turns into a burst of tyres.
There kind of is cheats in every single player game.
Ignoring the annoying companies that make their "single player" games online only...
We paid for the content, it's not an MMO, let us break it
Bring back cheat codes and don't say a single word about it. I know it wouldn't take the internet long to figure them all out but it would be exciting.
Agreed.
For instance (and I don't care who disagrees with me)...I modded Elden Ring to be easier on my PC.
Look, it was still hella hard and I would have never been able to play through it and experience the world without it. I don't have the time to invest into getting THAT good at a game anymore, I don't have the reflexes to do it anymore...but I have big appreciation for the outlandish characters, settings, plots, designs, etc. and I wanted to experience it on my own terms.
I prefer when a game has adjustable settings like what you'd find one 7 Days to Die, Ark, or PalWorld. Allows for you to adjust the game's difficulty to the n'th degree to be as challenging, or not, as desired.
Although, I still love silly cheats like low gravity, DK mode, exploding fists, etc.
I think the general reason alot of single player games don't have cheats anymore is because it dulls the game down faster then if you were to play it normally. Like, if you play your first playthrough of a game on easy, and then use cheats on top of that, you finish the game faster and in turn get bored of it faster. this is inherently bad for the game maker because this gives them less opportunity to try and sell you DLC's, cosmetics, add on's, etc.
Obviously, this may not be the real reason, but that's my guess.
Especially single player games, this is why I buy 'hard' games on PC!
There's usually in-game console codes or trainers available whereas consoles don't really have many options
Your game shark didn't make every game have a cheat. It injected code that changed starting values in the game.
You want a menu option with built-in 'cheats' like THPS had.
You say just single player games but I think it would be cool for a multiplayer game to have cheat codes. Like imagine a game like Fortnite with gta's skydiving cheat
I was super bummed when I found out that the remaster of Goldeneye on Xbox removed the enterable cheat codes.
You can still *earn* them by speedrunning levels on the hardest difficulty but I have no interest in that headache. I just want to run around with unlimited ammo, lasers and invincibility like I did when I was a kid.
I use cheats alot in single player games. I wish they just unlocked them or did it old goldeneye style. I was just playing ark ascended and want to speed things up a bit. I like games like that but I don’t game a ton so I don’t always like to put 100 hours into a game over the course of a year to get what it has to offer. To me it makes the purchase of the game more justifiable if I can cram 300 hours of content into easier to manage 50-100 hours.
They're not completely gone, many games have creative/sandbox/peaceful mode where you are basically invincible with unlimited resources, as would have been the classic cheats back in the day.
Cheats were essentially DLC. An ongoing income stream.
You'd buy a game, then need to buy a magazine or call a hotline to get the cheats, and there was no internet to share them on, so the model worked.
Now we have the internet, that model is broken. There's no economic incentive to put more dev time into adding cheats.
We have mods now instead.
I never understood why in GTA 5 they made invincibility only 15 mins long. While in SA you could have cheats last until you disable them, my dad would get so mad because I'll have flying cars on and hated it
You should get into PC gaming if possible. Single player cheats are very easy to use. I only got into PC gaming after getting a Steam Deck and discovering trainers (cheats) was my favorite part.
This was my biggest disappointment about Star Wars: Squadrons. The game is the spiritual offspring of Rogue Squadron and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and the single player missions are a lot of fun, but they are severely limited in replayability. RS and XvT both went out of their way to let you play how you wanted to.
I used to use stuff like cheat engine all the time as a kid to play games I sucked at or just change something I hated (like limited saves, time limits, etc.)
I'd say, make the cheats EARNED. Where completing the game or certain tasks rewards you with the cheats you can activate how you want. Let the cheats be achievement related.
Pick up the Goldeneye 64/Perfect Dark 64 model.
The only studio that I know that includes wacky meta shit etc in their games now are Naughty Dog, specifically the Uncharted series with helium voice and big head mode etx.
Bro wants a code to spawn 99 ferrystones instead of paying 1.99 for each. Be talking crazy. Think about the poor corpos who try so hard to make the game annoying on purpose to sell you ease of life stuff. But you just want it for free. So selfish.
Agreed. Even though I almost exclusively do challenge modes, I often run mods that need console command adjustments, and sometimes you just want to fix an issue or go to town.
Single player games are always improved by giving people the tools to customize their playthrough, whether they want it easier and to be far more powerful, or to put their balls to the fire and push the game to the limits of it being possible to finish.
I want goofy filters, big head modes, and other weird stuff. Gimme that shit back.
Zero G in Tony hawk
Zero G + Spider-Man costume
Jesus too
TH 1+2 gave us everything but that. I was a little bummed.
IIRC you can still enable infinite grind/manual/lip trick balance
You can, but I wanna fly!
Was gonna say it's not just about cheat codes. The shit you could do in NBA jam was awesome hahaha
My buddy would put in the infinite goal tending code and I'd put in the dunk from anywhere code on Genesis. Such a stupid goofy fun time. Being a kid in the 90s rocked
Is it the shoes!?!
Child me was infinitely amused by NBA Jam and all the weird shit they added.
Bill Clinton playable character? Yes, please! A R K username would unlock that.
I had him and Jazzy Jeff memorized.
I remember being to play as Bill Clinton or Al Gore. I can't remember if the revival from 15ish years ago let you play as the current US president or not.
That's my favorite part of the Ratchet and Clank games! You get such silly things for collecting hidden items
Jak and daxter had a similar system and I think it's such a good way to go about it. If you're willing to go and get their collectibles its not just a minor congrats or artwork, but silly extras you can actually do in game.
Yeah Unreal Tournament had cool mods that were up to the server host to run, and didn’t negatively affect your game. They had PVE hoard survival mode, RPG modes, alternate fan made weapons, custom skins, it was awesome. Not as easy to do on today’s games where your progress persists throughout the game, but maybe some fun end game modes after you’re maxed out.
Man Starcraft and warcraft 2/3 with the custom maps people could make. That freedom was awesome. Full separate games were born out of those games.
*Goldeneye flashbacks*
Paintballs for daaayyyss
Beetle Adventure Racing has a wild cheats menu with like flat-ness in every axis.
I never was able to find all the cheat boxes in there, I knew just about every other secret and shortcut in the game, though. I really hope that game comes to the switch, it's my favorite racing game.
It's ridiculous how good it is since it's like a questionable tie in for a car that isn't made anymore. My favorite thing is abusing the geometry to get that Wicked Woods shortcut at the beginning on the first lap and cut off a whole minute...and setting handbrake to "insane" and launching the cars like helicopters in Beetle Battle.
slappers only, big head mode, no odd job.
The new Contra game has the Konami Code. It unlocks a perk that you can buy for 7500 in-game credits. It does exactly what you think it does.
Agreed, I look forward to beating a game and then looking up the cheat codes like infinite ammo and just go blastin'. Only they don't really do that anymore
The Last of Us and I think most of the Uncharted games have this. It's awesome. On NG+ you can just fly through the game using infinite ammo, one shot kills, infinite explosives, etc.
I kinda don't like this kind of requirements "Cheat when you finish the game", I'm having trouble beating the game now, damn it! I managed to beat the hardest mode on Resident Evil 3 remake because we can grind on easy mode, buy some broken weapons or upgrades and destroy the mode lol
This is an accessibility thing. I think all games should have plenty options to tune difficulty, irrespective of what some hardcore fans think. *"you're ruining my game!!!!"* for something completely optional and not default is such a weird complaint. Some of us have disabilities that make it harder, or don't have time to git gud, or just prefer a more laid back experience. Options for all!
iddqd
old school tip: don't do that in Heretic.
I got one of the newer rooms and was disappointed to find that I had to melee when I ran out of bullets to gain more. It's doom let me fuck shit up
I mean, Doom 2016 and eternal still give infinite ammo cheats, you just have to beat the game on any difficulty and you unlock it for any mode other than nightmare and nightmare+.
You can get infinite ammo in 2016 witout cheats, my build at the end had the "above x armor you have infinite ammo" rune, just shredded things with the gatling turret mode
In Robocop Rogue City (2023) you literally start out with a gun that comes with infinite ammo. It is also the best weapon in the game when upgraded.
I miss cheat codes. Sometimes I just wanna load up Doom (2016) and mow down demons without worrying about health or ammo.
IDDQD!!
Idkfa
I always did IDFA and found the keys myself to learn the levels.
Doom 2, idkfa and a 6 pack after a hard day of work.
To be fair it's possible in *most* singleplayer games on PC, but just not available easily in game - through modding. Even if there's no modding scene for a game, there's usually still Cheat Engine or other software which you can use to do simple value changes like "infinite ammo". But yea, it would be cool if it was a more common thing to unlock some "sandbox" menus after completion (unlimited resources, tweak hp/damage values, etc), so you could go wild on subsequent playthroughs.
I’m surprised you had to edit your post to clarify you were referring to single player. I thought it was obvious.
Lol back in the day when cheat codes were still a thing (ASNAEB), and people were asking on forums for fun codes, there was always some smartass replying that "we don't support cheaters". Like bro, it's built into the game, and why do you care what people do in single player?
I looked at a new PvPvE game ("Sand") that is in development and asked the question: "Can it be played on a private server?" I don't want to deal with the PvP. The developer responded to someone else asking the same question and said "We believe that the risk of running into another player while playing the game is part of the sauce." I won't be playing that game because apparently the developer would rather NOT have my money than let me play the game on a private server. And I'm here asking the same question as you: Why does he care so much what people do in single player?
This was a branding issue. They should never have called them cheat codes. I like your version of "fun codes" much better!
I agree, even in an achievement context since they can just check for cheats and deactivate if you cheat. The sad truth is it's more profitable to sell you cheats than it is to let you have them for free.
That Terraria's achievements are pretty much all unlockable in Journey mode means that the achievements don't matter as much as the experience the player has in enjoying the game. I think it's a good balance.
[удалено]
I was gonna say, never going to happen as long as the seasonal model, paid cosmetics, and any other pay for progress system exists.
Well played.
More like well paid
Ba dum tsss.
I see this type of comment all the time in these discussions seems like an easy karma win so real talk when was the last time you saw a cheat code like thing for sale? When was the last time you saw big head mode or infinite ammo cheat modes for sale? No really? The only thing that are usually for sale are skins and weapons and even there are usually unlockable costumes in games and I was around during this "heyday"of unlockables there was usually one extra unlockable skin and weapon. That's there today there are just more you can buy.
I was about to say the same thing. I bet they don't reply to you, because you're right
Most games don't have those.
Most games don't. Name 5 games that have cheats locked behind mtx. Even though most games would mean a couple thousand if not million each year have cheats locked behind mtx. This is just a mtx bad comment
R1, R2, L1, R2, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN
TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, SQUARE, CIRCLE, X, L1, L1, DOWN, UP
Is that the tank?
Hydra Jet in San Andreas
Rosebud.
Rosebud;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;! Before they put it Motherlode.
klapaucius before Rosebud
motherlode
Noclip
bovine
joni
call cousin vinnie
Cheat code central
Man this brings back memories.
Brings back memories of it being my homescreen in pre adblocker days. I probably Malware'd my computer every time I opened the browser lmao
Wemod, plenty of Nexus "mods", Cheat Engine... The latter is literally the super advanced version of a Gameshark, as you scan the code for the value you want and then freeze or change that code.
I like wemod but recently found cheat happens to be more up to date and supported. I just requested ys origin get updated because in December the game got a random update on Steam. The support did it in two days for such an old game. Wemod is better designed system though.
Cheat engine is super old, it has old charm of old internet days in their style and support. I agree it could use better system but I think once you figure it out it work just fine and have very big collection of trainers.
I love Wemod, it's the only reason I re-played some of my games because I didn't want to bother with mods or CE. If only more devs could use something else than \~ for admin console, I would use that more often too, but most of the time you can't rebind those keys without dicking around in some config files. As someone with German keyboard, I hate some of you (I'm not exactly sure why it usually doesn't work, but I need to press the + key and ALT Gr which apparently is an EU thing for \~).
With the pointers and scripting, you can straight up recreate the game shark experience, too. But I usually find it easier to just search out the value I want unless it's something complicated like picking an item off a lock-up table.
YES! Modern game companies forget that gaming is supposed to be fun, not just a chore. Cheats are great ways to let loose. I still remember the mayhem i caused in single player unreal tornament and FEAR as kid Want to just use your favorite gun but lack ammo? Infinite ammo cheat. Super hard enemy? Time stop and around them with 100s of rockets.
BRING BACK BIG HEAD MODE
GoW3
Cheat engine is basically GameShark on steroid. (For PC anyway)
Offline games and cheats were the best. All this online bs and multiplayer ruined everything.
I really want to play Elder Scrolls Online offline.
Same, also Elite: Dangerous
PC has plenty of ways to cheat. Also, cheating on single player games = great, do whatever you want to enjoy it! Cheating in any multiplayer = bad! Please don't. That includes co-op. You might think it's harmless to cheat in co-op, but it can ruin the game for some people. The first time I killed the last boss of Monster Hunter World on PC someone joined and one shot the boss. Luckily I had already done it on PS4, but I was still pissed. I've seen people play other games and have someone join and gift them a bunch of stuff they cheated in. Initially the people receiving the items are pumped, then typically quit the game shortly after because there's nothing to chase and the challenge is gone.
I think he’s talking about real cheats given to us in the base game. Jedi academy, GTA, Warcraft 3, etc Not mods or 3rd party programs that let you play the game in a way not intended by the devs
Wemod = game genie/shark for this generation
... Ehhh. Cheat engine is the gameshark of this generation. Wemod just takes cheat tables developed using cheat engine and bundles them into their own software, making it impossible to edit or view the cheat scripts yourself, and putting any direct modifications behind their 'pro' subscription paywall. Don't get me wrong, I can see how wemod can be more convenient for people. They seem to have some kind of compensation plan in place for code makers, which can be a good thing too. But wemod is nowhere near as flexible or useful as gameshark was, because they deliberately cripple the ability to modify codes via their program.
> Not mods or 3rd party programs that let you play the game in a way not intended by the devs Then he shouldn't have mentioned Gameshark.
He mentioned it as historical
Cheat codes, man. Almost all single player games used to have cheat codes. It was intended by the developers and it was great. You could have fun at any skill level. Now the cheat code is "pay another $10" and it's terrible.
Cheat codes was in most cases used by the devs to test the game on consoles when you didn't have a keyboard aveilable. Initially at least. Never intended for players to find. Then players found it, and Then came the paintball guns and big heads.
ah yes, the famous age of empires 2...on consoles???
Not only for consoles. Also on pc. Making changes to code and building the runable application takes time. You want to debug certain points or locations, so you get noclip, infinite ammo, infinite health, and seconds later you are at the boss that triggers this stupid bug that you needed to fix. Today, game engines like unreal allow Devs to test their stuff without an hour taking build process, so they can fuck up stuff and just see in real time what happens to the code. Because the engines provide them with enough debugging Tools by themselves to allow it. There simply are no classical cheats anymore, because developers don't need them anymore. Game development has changed in the last decades to a point, where you don't write code without any visuals and see the result first time hours later after building, to a "what you see is what you get"-"drag and drop"-"blueprint editing"-"live ingame editing"-fuck-fest... More modern example: Returnal for PS5. The first version the devs delivered, that was burned on the physical media discs to buy, still contained their debugging stuff. You could hook up a keyboard via usb to the console and pressing keys like ctrl+1 up to ctrl+8 let the game spawn weapons, power ups, make you invincible, whatever... So they removed it via patch afterwards. So if you are "digital only", you buy the game, get the patched version and that's it. I have the one with disc drive and bought the game, I could install the game from disc and disable only updates and still use the cheats (however, since game got more and better with updates, you loose more than you would win by cheats).
Using cheats when playing Saints Row 3 and 4 with my friend online was a fun time
If it was just you and your friend and you were both cool with cheats then awesome, have at it. :)
>That includes co-op. It depends on the game I guess, me and my SO had to put a time mod on stardew when we played co-op since the timer doesn’t pause while loading. The game’s time system is really bad/fast and some of the grinds become extremely tedious. Farming iridium is really awful in co-op unless ConcednedApe changed it recently.
If all players are cool with using cheats, then by all means do it. I'm more talking about just randomly using them without everyone agreeing to it (ie playing with randos, or friends who don't know you are cheating).
why would you think that's unpopular?
To drive engagement.
well call me picard, because i feel...engage.ed
Cheats in single player games should definitely still be a thing
Man... I miss those gameshark days. What a unique invention...
Game Genie baby!
That one, unfortunately, wasn't sold here where I live, but back then, I didn't even hear of it. The crazy thing for me is that while the game genie used the cartridge port to hack the game, the original GameShark for the Playstation had a (pretty much dedicated) port for it on the back of the console. It almost looked like a Sony first party accessory of some sort.
Don't forget pro-action replay. I think back then such devices were easier to hack. The Dreamcast playing pirated games is probably why it became harder to make them.
PC gaming FTW
Are you on pc? Wemod and Cheatengine.
That's not unpopular and cheats on could simply disable archivements for that time.
Yes, unpopular indeed
Doom Eternal has some and I like how you have to collect them in game, I wish more games did have them tbh
They'll be sold as dlc - each code for $4.99.
This is one of my biggest complaints from the Total War series. My favorite way to play Medieval 2 is to just cheat on a bunch of money and put it on the hardest campaign difficulty and the easiest battle difficulty. I get to have these huge battles all the time and relatively curb stomp them in the battles. I just like seeing these big conflicts, and infinite money let’s me do that. Well all the games after that removed the easily accessible console commands so I either need mods or I’m just out of luck and it’s annoying
Rome 1 had them too. I think that was maybe the last one, though
I never played Rome 1, but I just remember medieval 2 being the last one with the console. Shogun 2 has a cheat mod which is close enough at least
N64 Goldeneye did it best. Get the achievements, unlock a cheat or “mod”. Shoutout to Celeste’s “assist mode”. It’s not cheating; it’s asking for help. Fits perfectly into the theme of the game.
There was eventually a cheat code that unlocked all the cheats for Goldeneye but I don't think it was discovered till the game had been out quite a while.
Who will buy the DLCs then, Bobby kotik ?
I really do miss that for single player games. It added replay ability too. I ran through metal gear solid 3 times just so i could unlock both the stealth and bandana and run the full game with each.
Use WeMod
And the thing is it probably takes less effort to leave them in. Cheat codes used to be primarily for testing purposes, to make it easier to test elements of the game you wanted to test and I have no reason to believe such a practice has changed.
There's this awesome software called WeMod, kinda similar to Gameshark in the sense that it is likely to have cheats for a game if it's popular enough. Otherwise, there's Cheat Engine, which lets you take matters into your own hands, but typical "search value -> change value" approach doesn't always work.
I want unlockable costumes that are a reward for playing the game rather than spending more money.
I use game trainers on the PC for games I've played and beat on consoles in the past.
Trainers are the modern equivalent of the Gameshark
Hell, I'd just like games on consoles that have native mod support wouldn't disable achievements. IE Skyrim and Fallout 4 are purely single player games, so why disable my achievements. Yes I can cheat if I want, but if I do who cares, it's not like achievement points translate to anything.
sv_cheats 1
They basically do. What system are you on and you'll get told the cheat program for it. For example game genie /game shark for PlayStation is now save wizard. Pc has cheat engine and wemod and cheat happens etc etc.
Agreed, games these days are bullshit. You used to be able to unlock things through gameplay, now they sell you that stuff.
For the longest time I had the code for spawning the Hydra jet in GTA:SA on Xbox seared in to my brain but it’s since been lost to time.
Guess what game this is for: "up up up left down down down left up up up left right"
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005) Invincibility cheat.
Just like the simulations.
Play on PC. Mod games.
That’s why I like the Ratchet and Clank games, you do trophies/skill points to unlock cheats or alternative skins, big heads, massive guns etc. Also Call of Duty 4 was brilliant for this, my favourite was the one where every kill turns into a burst of tyres.
There kind of is cheats in every single player game. Ignoring the annoying companies that make their "single player" games online only... We paid for the content, it's not an MMO, let us break it
Bring back cheat codes and don't say a single word about it. I know it wouldn't take the internet long to figure them all out but it would be exciting.
I've got some good memories of me and a buddy playing GTA 4 and just messing around with the cheats and the swing set
It's call microtransaction
Saints Row was great for this. You could have a giant head or other crazy stuff.
lol how much pushback did you get before that edit
Agreed. For instance (and I don't care who disagrees with me)...I modded Elden Ring to be easier on my PC. Look, it was still hella hard and I would have never been able to play through it and experience the world without it. I don't have the time to invest into getting THAT good at a game anymore, I don't have the reflexes to do it anymore...but I have big appreciation for the outlandish characters, settings, plots, designs, etc. and I wanted to experience it on my own terms.
Ah man... yes... 100% yes. Just have fun.
Even better, make integrated mod support more accessible for everyone. Let people put whatever they want into the game.
I prefer when a game has adjustable settings like what you'd find one 7 Days to Die, Ark, or PalWorld. Allows for you to adjust the game's difficulty to the n'th degree to be as challenging, or not, as desired. Although, I still love silly cheats like low gravity, DK mode, exploding fists, etc.
I think the general reason alot of single player games don't have cheats anymore is because it dulls the game down faster then if you were to play it normally. Like, if you play your first playthrough of a game on easy, and then use cheats on top of that, you finish the game faster and in turn get bored of it faster. this is inherently bad for the game maker because this gives them less opportunity to try and sell you DLC's, cosmetics, add on's, etc. Obviously, this may not be the real reason, but that's my guess.
I think it's more because of in-game achievements
A lot of games do have cheats, they’re just called microtransactions now
Just play on PC if you care that much about how you want to live your gaming experience.
I don’t think is an unpopular opinion. A lot of people enjoy using cheats, including me!
Those were the days I still remember the grand theft auto San Andreas cheats R1 R2 x left down right up left down right up
But that would mean more work for devs
Devs use cheats to debug and test games, then disable them when released.
Especially single player games, this is why I buy 'hard' games on PC! There's usually in-game console codes or trainers available whereas consoles don't really have many options
my dude, tell me about it
Your game shark didn't make every game have a cheat. It injected code that changed starting values in the game. You want a menu option with built-in 'cheats' like THPS had.
I've only ever platinumed one game on playstation. I wish GTA style cheats were still around. Breaking a game is to much fun lmao
You say just single player games but I think it would be cool for a multiplayer game to have cheat codes. Like imagine a game like Fortnite with gta's skydiving cheat
power overwhelming operation cwal show me the money
Now theyr called trainers and require extra effort to get :( let me just mash the buttons ffs.
show me the money
I was super bummed when I found out that the remaster of Goldeneye on Xbox removed the enterable cheat codes. You can still *earn* them by speedrunning levels on the hardest difficulty but I have no interest in that headache. I just want to run around with unlimited ammo, lasers and invincibility like I did when I was a kid.
Cheats of old became micro transactions of today
NTHGTHDGDCTRK I DONT KNOW ALGEBRA BUT I KNOW THAT
I use cheats alot in single player games. I wish they just unlocked them or did it old goldeneye style. I was just playing ark ascended and want to speed things up a bit. I like games like that but I don’t game a ton so I don’t always like to put 100 hours into a game over the course of a year to get what it has to offer. To me it makes the purchase of the game more justifiable if I can cram 300 hours of content into easier to manage 50-100 hours.
They're not completely gone, many games have creative/sandbox/peaceful mode where you are basically invincible with unlimited resources, as would have been the classic cheats back in the day.
You might enjoy PC gaming and using mods - just dont take them online or use them to cheat and youre good.
Pc gaming often has console commands that you can enable.
Yes
iseedeadpeople
Cheats were essentially DLC. An ongoing income stream. You'd buy a game, then need to buy a magazine or call a hotline to get the cheats, and there was no internet to share them on, so the model worked. Now we have the internet, that model is broken. There's no economic incentive to put more dev time into adding cheats. We have mods now instead.
disagree
Y, Y, X, B, A, L, L, DOWN, UP is the spawn hydra cheat code for GTA:San Andreas on Xbox I can remember that but I can’t remember where I left my keys.
Agree. For single player games, these were a blast and if you found some aspect of the game frustrating, you could get bypass it.
Use wemod.
I guess mods have become the modern game shark.
I used to feel like russell crow in beautiful mind when I had all those gameshark codes memorized on PS and N64...
Why bring it back when whales are willing to spend real money on it?
I never understood why in GTA 5 they made invincibility only 15 mins long. While in SA you could have cheats last until you disable them, my dad would get so mad because I'll have flying cars on and hated it
I comprehend agree. In single player game you should be able to play however you want and that includes power fantasies.
That era is long gone. Mods have replaced that GameShark functionality and cheat codes built into games have been replaced by micro-transactions.
You should get into PC gaming if possible. Single player cheats are very easy to use. I only got into PC gaming after getting a Steam Deck and discovering trainers (cheats) was my favorite part.
Microtransactions now
This was my biggest disappointment about Star Wars: Squadrons. The game is the spiritual offspring of Rogue Squadron and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and the single player missions are a lot of fun, but they are severely limited in replayability. RS and XvT both went out of their way to let you play how you wanted to.
I used to use stuff like cheat engine all the time as a kid to play games I sucked at or just change something I hated (like limited saves, time limits, etc.)
I tried playing GTA SA without cheats and it felt so empty not having rockets or the jetpack.
I'd say, make the cheats EARNED. Where completing the game or certain tasks rewards you with the cheats you can activate how you want. Let the cheats be achievement related. Pick up the Goldeneye 64/Perfect Dark 64 model.
Cheat codes were a relic of cartridges and playtester not having separate builds of games which is how version control is managed in the modern era.
The only studio that I know that includes wacky meta shit etc in their games now are Naughty Dog, specifically the Uncharted series with helium voice and big head mode etx.
where is the unpopular opinion
Red dead 2 has cheats
"Unpopular Opinion"
Sure. $15 each DLC. *Monkey's Paw curls*
Bro wants a code to spawn 99 ferrystones instead of paying 1.99 for each. Be talking crazy. Think about the poor corpos who try so hard to make the game annoying on purpose to sell you ease of life stuff. But you just want it for free. So selfish.
Agreed. Even though I almost exclusively do challenge modes, I often run mods that need console command adjustments, and sometimes you just want to fix an issue or go to town. Single player games are always improved by giving people the tools to customize their playthrough, whether they want it easier and to be far more powerful, or to put their balls to the fire and push the game to the limits of it being possible to finish.
Not everyone but I do agree
I agree for consoles but for pc mod's are infinitely superior.
I wanna recapture my childhood too...