Inspired by the fact that I'm playing a horrible game that I have no desire to explore in, so I've opened up a guide and I'm following it exactly so that I'll finish up faster. How do you normally play video games? Are you the kind who finds/buys a walkthrough and follows it religiously all the way through? Do you look them up only if you're stuck on something? Or do you not use them ever, prefering to do everything yourself?
I'll use a walkthrough if I'm stuck, or if the game has missables. If there are missables or collectables, then I'll look for a guide with a checklist so that I can check them off as I find them.
Same as Geoff; only if I need to, or if there's a chance I'll permanently miss out on something. The only reason I used a guide for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was because there were certain Djinn you could miss if you didn't go to certain areas by a certain point in the game. It kinda sucked, and certainly didn't make me like the game more. :/
I usually try to do a blind run the first time I play again. I'll just do anything I come across and won't look into things further unless I'm absolutely stuck. If I liked the game enough, I'll go back after I've beaten it to do completion and follow a guide for that whether it means replaying it or just going through and collecting everything after. This sometimes bites me in the butt like in Tales games where there are only certain windows of time to do certain quests or you have to play at least twice to fill the item book or whatever but I hate spoilers so I'll avoid guides as much as possible before I've finished everything important. Lately, though, I've been trying to get through my backlog. I have a lot of games that I bought on the basis of "oh, I guess that looks interesting" and it turns out I don't like all of them as much as I'd hoped. So instead of spending a long time feeling stuck, I'll just look up where I am and continue on, looking at the FAQ as needed. I also pull up walkthroughs all the time to glance at their table of contents to gauge how far I am from the end of the game but that's as far as I usually go. :P
There are couple of good guides on GameFAQs for some Zelda games that I use when do a complete run. I just look at the table of contents. Whoever wrote these, decided to design it so that you get everything in the most efficient way - basically as soon as you can. So, I'll glance at the table contents and go "Oh, these are available to me now" and then go get them. I've played these so many times that I know how to get them XD But even if I didn't, I think I would just stick to the table of contents anyway
I've been playing a lot of LEGO Star Wars III and there are so many collectable things, it's hard to figure a few out, so I've been looking at a guide for those. Otherwise I generally play things all by myself with no help. It's more rewarding to figure it out that way.
I normally use walkthroughs for help with finding collectables (Assassin's Creed's flags/feathers, Batman: AA/AC's riddler trophies, etc.). Rarely due I use a guide to assist me with the main gamplay elements. If I'm stuck I try to figure it out myself unless I truly have no idea what to do and I've wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out.
If it's a game that I'm just SUCKING at, I'll most definitely use the walkthrough. I usually get the guide for games I haven't played before, and use it when needed.
