The C-E staff give their views on gaming's most important issues.

They're two things guaranteed to send the self-confessed hardcore group into a rabid frenzy. Just whisper them and they shall swarm upon you like a pack of angry locusts. Cheats and strategy guides. Oh bugger, they've heard me. Gotta go...

Bas B:

Sure it is. I think getting every blue coin in Super Mario Sunshine without using gamefaqs.com is a waste of time. Games are entertainment, but I don't get much joy out of spraying each square centimetre of a wall with the FLUDD in search of that last coin.

Cheating is a different issue. It doesn't belong in multiplayer or online sessions (unless all players agree it does), but otherwise it can be useful for skipping a dreadful part of a game or allow to explore the game that wouldn't be possible without cheating. GTA for instance has some great cheats. By entering some codes you can allow pedestrians to carry weapons and have them shooting you... and eachother! The city turns in some kind of battlefield and the framerate drops because people are using grenade launchers all over town. It's quite hilarious to see two granny chasing eachother with flamethrowers. But you might want to get that 'all weapons' code in case they spot you...

Dan:

Wow. That's a good one! I would say it is better to use a guide than a cheat. There is nothing better then the great feeling you get because you have rasied the Pokemon, got the money, finished the level, whatever it may be, on your own with your own skill! I don't know how I would have done FF:CC without a guide! When you have finished a game it's good to use cheats! Like on Enter The Matrix you can unlock 2 player mode! Or Big Heads in Goldeneye. But nothing that affects performace!

Pesten:

It depends on the purpose. Cheating can be pretty fun.. If it's cheats like those in Tony Hawk games which make the gravity go away and stuff like that. But cheating to help you complete a game.. Well to me, that would be a sin. Guides on the other hand is acceptable. I know how frustrating things can get when you're stuck in a game, and I admit that I have used guides a couple of times.. (and each and every time I was reading in the guide I went like- "Of course that's how you do it! I'm an idiot!")

Generally, I get a better feeling when completing a game without using guides - and I recommend to stay away from the guides as long as it's possible..

Did you really get all those blue coins by yourself?

James:

My golden rules of gaming:

1. Never use cheats until the game is long completed and you are using them for fun rather than completing the game.

2. Guides should only be used when you are completely and utterly stuck and should not be used for an entire game.

Steve:

I never use cheats! There's no point in buying and playing a game if you're going to cheat your way through.

Now, strategy guides I sometimes have to use, like some of the other guys have said, without a guide for the blue coins in Mario Sunshine, I'm sure it would be near on impossible to get them all, well I know I wouldn't have been able to find them all without a guide.

Sometimes you just get so stuck on a game you need a little help, just a hint on what to do, where to go next and a guide can give you that without using cheats.

I agree that guides should only be used if you're well and truely stuck and cant figure out what to do. They shouldn't be used all the way through a game.

Franklin:

About cheats (infinte health, ammo etc), sometimes I don't get why they are put in the game or why people use them. Maybe if you've already beaten the game and the cheats give something different to the game then ok. But to use a cheat the first time you play a game? What's the point? You're just cheating yourself out of the whole experiance in my opinion. Where's the skill in it all?

As for guides. Well actually considering I have written several guides for Cube-Europe (including a Blue Coin Super Mario Sunshine one) it would be some what ironic for me to be aggainst using guides. A guide should be a last resort. For when you feel you've tried everything you can but still have no idea what the hell you should be doing.

Some might say "But sure isn't that the same with using cheats for some people?". Well to that I say, if you use a cheat (eg: infinite health) it takes less skill to achieve the goal, because you no longer worry about your health. If you use a guide, you're learning what you need to know and do, but you still need to hone your skill on the game to achieve the goal.

Trying to get all that SOA has to offer without a guide? Hardcore

Jayseven:

I think James has hit it on the head, there. I know people who use guides to 'get the most' out of the game the first time they play. I don't think this is the right philosophy, remembering about that wall of sandstone which you can now destroy thanks to receiving the morph ball bomb expansion, or remembering that piece of spaceship that needed 50 of your finest 'min to carry it back, and realising that you've now bred enough pikkers to do the job... Remembering and realising such things whilst playing a game is part of the whole experience. Being guided by the hand through an adventure game such as Pikmin or Metroid really does detract from the whole "adventure" part of the game (which, as the genré name suggests, a large chunk of the game).

Often games stores do offers on game guides when you purchase the same game which promotes the "use the guide to play" school of thinking, which to me is not right! People complain about games being too linear, so why pay �50 (for the game and guide) to make a game so linear?

Sure, if you play a game to death and STILL can't catch 'em all but want a collection of COMPLETE games then I shall allow you to get a guide.

It's more important to get the most out of a �40 game than it is to get the most out of a �10 game guide.

And cheating... well that's just cheating! People who use hacks and aimers and trainers are rather pathetic; not sad enough to lose hours of their life by investing their soul into a game but sad enough to piss off others who try and enjoy the game? it's like being banned from a forum, claiming it is below you and a crap forum then proceeding to spam the place, it makes you sadder, really.

Cheating to get ahead in a game is the same as using a guide, to me. It detracts from the full game; let's use infinite ammo against the army of drones around the corner or use infinite health and run through areas infected with gun turrets getting shot to death instead of using skills to take down those drones with the accuracy needed to headshot them, thus saving ammo or using stealth to sneak past the turrets without them even knowing where you are.

Of course, cheats in the vein of Goldeneye or Perfect Dark are great, they're rewards for being ace at the game. In order to use them you have to have mastered the game, which means you have to have gotten the most out of the game, thus getting your money's worth!

You do use strategy guides, don't you? Go on, admit it, you big cheater you.