whatever happened to secrets in games

[QualityChimp]

I think there needs to be a balance between single and multiplayer modes though.

I remember playing the simply brilliant Mashed Fully Loaded on the PS2. To unlock the tracks you'd have to win all the various races in single player. This means I'd know all the tracks, weapons and tactics but they'd not have that advantage or experience.

Luckily, there was a cheat input that unlocked all the tracks and meant it was a level playing field.

When I showed them Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, they were a little overawed with it all, but I was pulling off ridiculous combos, necessary to complete the single player. Not much fun for anybody when it's a bit one-sided.

That's why the XBox Live version should have all the characters unlocked in multiplayer, but singleplayer should have the quest to unlock more characters, in my humble opinion.

I wish I didn't know about the

->Open Spoiler<-

alien spaceship

in Fallout 3, as that would have been a great secret to find.

[fishbowlhead]

They died soon as profit became involved. Just look at the god of war series. 1 and 2 had loads of secrets and unlockable goodies. Then look at the special dedition of 3 quote "exclusive downloadable content" they cant even be arsed to put the stuff on the disk anymore for your ?100.

[J0e Musashi]

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[huxley]

I like personal challenges, getting good at a game is enough motivation for me to play it. Achievements/trophies fail to motivate me at all.

And make people buy and play crap games.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

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I don't think anyone under the age of 25 will know that one will they?

[Sam The Man]

I used to love the secrets in the Playstation Tomb Raider games. You could be casually exploring the level when you would uncover a hidden door or passageway that would lead to a hidden room or a dead end but with a hole above you where you crawled through and came out into this dark chamber and all of a sudden the ''SECRET'' sound would play and you would feel good that you uncovered it.

I remember spending hours after i completed the games going through them again searching for all the seceret areas.

Same with games like The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time trying to find all 100 Gold Skulltula's

Nowdays its slowly being taken away and put into downloadable content at an extra cost

[k0pp0]

I remember pushing 'Up' on pretty much every square inch of Wonderboy III's levels on the master system to try and find all of the secret shops.

Great days.

[TheForce]

good topic, and I must admit I never thought of it to be honest, but yes, they seem to be totally missing in today's games... Doom was a great example, the hidden levels were great fun as well, I remember that "club" level on the PSX version of Doom, that was great, dancing knights of hell !
getting the DevilCar on RidgeRacer and the Angel car from RRR are great examples as well

[J0e Musashi]

I don't think anyone under the age of 25 will know that one will they?

Probably not, but it's surely the greatest secret of all time.

[ItsThere]

The one that gets me is:

"Free in game character / weapon / car!"

When you order from retailer X.

Seriously... The content should be the same no matter where you buy an identical copy of the game!

[Flabio]

"Free in game character / weapon / car!"

When you order from retailer X.

These do vary. Burnout Paradise basically went with retailer branded versions of specific cars. Thats actually quite a cool thing.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has three characters that you unlock in game by finding items. For some retailers they put unlock codes for one of them in the box. Problem was, the unlock code was just a button combination, so you could early unlock all three just by looking up the button combination on gamefaqs.

I can see why retailers do it, they pay some money for the exclusive content in order to drive people to their store, but it is frustrating.

[icarus0]

I remember pushing 'Up' on pretty much every square inch of Wonderboy III's levels on the master system to try and find all of the secret shops.

Yeah I was exactly the same

Some of my favourite secrets were from platformers in the 8/16-bit days - the star road and special zone in SMW, the hidden levels in Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars, the heaven stages and warps (some of which actually took you to a previous level) in The New Zealand Story, The Addams Family, the bonus rooms/warps in Liquid Kids (esp the kiwi one)...

Happy times

[importaku]

It seems to only be home consoles that get shafted for secrets nowdays as handheld games are still packed with them.

[Flabio]

Saw a copy of this today, think I might pick it up once I'm done with my current pile of books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cheating-Advantage-Videogames-Mia-Consalvo/dp/0262033658

[Adam Stone]

This is one of the reasons why i love the Fable games so much, they are filled to the brim with secrets and hidden items and collectibles or areas of mystery and intrigue. Little King's Story is another, one of the very best secrets I've ever seen is hidden without that game and i was that close to never seeing it.