Have loading screen tips ever helped or revealed mechanics to you?

[Chance Hale]

Playing the Destroy All Humans remake and saw a tip near the end of the game while loading that said you could mash the button to complete brain extractions faster. Had zero idea that was even a thing and changed how I played the last few missions.

First time in my memory I've had loading screen screen advice actually say something other than x to attack lol, ie shit you already know

 

[Feep]

Yes, but it's a really bad, completely random way to reveal interesting or important information to the player. :/

 

[RedSwirl]

No. I wish I had an option to just leave loading screens blank. Or fill them with some cool loading screen art.

 

[2shd]

Yes, but it's a really bad, completely random way to reveal interesting or important information to the player. :/

Click to shrink...

Isn't the main idea just to take people's minds off the long loading?
Hopefully it won't be necessary this upcoming gen.

 

[Fuzzy]

Yes, but it's a really bad, completely random way to reveal interesting or important information to the player. :/

Click to shrink...

What's worse is when you finally get to one you want to read and then loading ends and you don't have a chance to read the whole thing. 🙁

 

[Blackpuppy]

Yeah in BOTW. But that's one of those games where the developers thought of every possible combination of the elements. As a gamer you're so used to artificial boundaries and eventually you think "there's no way if I throw a metal sword towards enemies during a thunder storm that it could work to my advantage....

 

[LewieP]

In hitman they confirmed my suspicioun about how hiding in a locker etc works, no one will find you in them unless they see you go in. But yeah in general either I have no idea what the systems they are referring to are, if I just started the game, or if I've been playing a while they are redundant.

Shout out to Spec Ops: The Line for using them in an interesting narrative way.

 

[Yossarian]

Yeah. Divinity helped a few times. TLOU2 too.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Yes, I play Tekken 7, a fighting game with no tutorial whatsoever.

 

[Deleted member 10629]

'This is all your fault' - SpecOps

 

[HardTimesFamilyPride]

Yes and like you it's usually near the end lmao

 

[RockmanBN]

No

 

[nekkid]

This was me more than once during SoT loading screens:

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Yes

Final Fantasy VII Remake (holding L1 when using items/healing spells to quick select them multiple times)

 

[Deleted member 420]

No it just spoiled god of war for me

 

[Plasma]

Sometimes but it's usually when I come back to a game after having a break from it for awhile then not remembering all the systems/controls.

 

[KingBae]

TLOU2 for sure. Especially seeing how much the gameplay expanded since the first game, so I needed the reminder that things can be done differently now. It helped to be context sensitive too. Just made me realize how much effort it must've taken to implement that.

 

[Kazooie]

As a gamer you're so used to artificial boundaries and eventually you think "there's no way if I throw a metal sword towards enemies during a thunder storm that it could work to my advantage....

Click to shrink...

This is not an artificial boundary. Making sure this work requires a deliberate effort by the designers.

 

[BasilZero]

Yes.

Ironically giving me a tip after learning a mechanic or aspect the hard way.....

 

[skeezx]

kinda sorta. i can recall like 2 or three specific times i was like "huh.. i can do that"

but even if it isn't helpful i like the "chillax a sec and learn tips/lore" premise. will miss it assuming it is on its way out

 

[Boy]

Yep, especially in Sekiro.

 

[Kieli]

I honestly prefer mini-games like Tekken 5 or DBZ Budokai 3. Too bad Namco somehow got a frickin' patent on loading screen mini-games...

 

[Laserbeam]

Yep.

Or refreshed me after having stepped away from a game for a bit.

 

[Fredrik]

Very very often.

 

[Skitso]

Nothing I can remeber, no. Witcher 3 had a nice story recap in it's loading screens though... I'd love to have stuff like that more common.

 

[formasymphonic]

Yes and I'm wondering what the process for them will be in an age of SSD loading. I know you can always include them in a menu, but I get the feeling that people generally don't dive into those as much as they should. They could use UI overlays temporarily but then you get into design questions of "how often do we do these", "what does that do to information density" and so on. I'm really interested on how stuff like that gets solved.

 

[MizneyWorld]

So far just once. Ghost of Tsushima. I remember hearing about a "clean sword" button, but figured maybe it was switched out or I just misremembered.

Thankfully a random tip screen still early in the game revealed the touchpad swipes. I don't recall the game explaining the swipes and I'm surprised I even caught the tip with the fast loading.

 

[Pyro]

Definitely. I wish I could remember some specific examples but I know I've gone "Wait I can do that?" while watching the load screen. It's a shame though, I think if that happens then they've failed to teach me how to play properly.

 

[roguesquirrel]

having recently replayed crash 2 and 3 on the n sanity trilogy, i appreciated that the loading screen helped jog my memory of the arbitrarily arcane secrets in those games

 

[Blackpuppy]

This is not an artificial boundary. Making sure this work requires a deliberate effort by the designers.

Click to shrink...

My argument is that it's a cultural one. BOTW barely explains anything and it's up to the player to find out all of these mechanics.

I don't think it's a flaw... I really enjoyed the experimentation that the game allows. I'm so used to games that explain all of the mechanics that said game will give you that it was shocking (but refreshing) to play BOTW where the designers were like "Go at it".

 

[KingBrave]

Some WoW ones when I first started playing it. It was my first MMO so it helped.

 

[ntinosaur]

Yeap. I'm currently playing Death Stranding and i learnt this way that you can throw cargo at Mules (super fun btw).

 

[Chance Hale]

.

 

[FaffEra]

Yes. I resent any game that doesn't mention these mechanics anywhere else though, especially if it is some obscure button combination.

 

[Ducayne]

I think they are most helpful when trying to return to a game after a long while, so you can quickly relearn the mechanics.

 

[AmirMoosavi]

'This is all your fault' - SpecOps

Click to shrink...

This game also has a ton of actual gameplay tips in the loading screens, I was surprised how many mechanics I was learning abouy late into the game.

 

[Deleted member 1476]

Back in the day, no.

Nowadays? A lot of times.

 

[KenOD]

Rarely unless the game is just bad at explaining things or it's been a long time since I played the game.Kingdom of Amalur for example after not playing for a couple of years, it was good to remember how to quickly replenish health in battle with a single button I had forgotten on keyboard.

While not the exact same, I very much appreciated Bayonetta's combo tutorial area while the game was loading stages and areas. Showing off your combos, letting you test out weapons, etc.

Not actual load screen tips, just tips in general, Ring Fit Adventure is solid in helping for newcomers with what it does in writing and audio.

 

[Dr.Osiris]

Never for me as I don't read them.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Not once

 

[gebler]

Nothing very remarkable, but sure, they've occasionally told me something I didn't know or had forgot about. MGS V is one game where I remember them as helpful.

 

[Ra]

For the last 5 or so years I've been tempted to make a thread about how because load screens go by so fast due to my SSDs, the fact that there are gameplay tips on them just PISSES ME OFF. I have to practice being a damn speed reader because I have a few seconds at best and sometimes the developers includes a few sentences, or explanation of button/key combinations.

I'm like "Blah, blah okay... Ffff I missed it."

But complaining about load screens being too fast would be the dumbest thing ever, right? First world as anything. It's more that load screen tips are clearly designed to parlay with slow HDD users, but if devs are gooing to put actually useful stuff there, they should put those tips somewhere else in the game for PC players who only get to see the load screen for 2 to 3 seconds.

 

[Chance Hale]

Yeah I have an ssd on pc and might have only noticed because destroy all humans is one of those rare games that makes you hit a button/key to continue these days

 

[SofNascimento]

The most important info about games are always in the loading screens! Especially the ones that go fast and don't give you proper time to read. Example:

 

[Gvon]

There have probably been a few times over the years but none I can recall. I find that load screen tips are ideal if you haven't played a game for a few months and help jog your memory.

 

[Vitamin_B_Complex]

Yes, but it's a really bad, completely random way to reveal interesting or important information to the player. :/

Click to shrink...

One and done, I wouldn't miss them and I really hope next gen will usher in an (almost) no loading screen future.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

When you have an SSD, you miss pretty much all of them if you can't read rapidly fast. T_T

 

[WedgeX]

Yeah, they've been helpful.

Maybe even more so like 25% the way through a game. Not far enough along to have figured everything out, but I'll probably have even forgotten some basic things from the tutorial.

 

[Cokomon]

Yeah, a couple times where I've been reminded about a move I only used briefly in the tutorial.

 

[RecRoulette]

Good old Spec Ops