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[Crayon]

I only do these if they are fun.

Getting red coins in Mario Sunshine is awesome. That's collecting done right.

 

[KevinCow]

Playing through Jak 3 right now. What a piece of shit game.

No, I don't want to fly through rings anymore. That is not fucking fun at all.

No, I don't want to race a clock as I have to pick up and drop off people.

Every fucking thing in this game is based off fighting a clock.

It's like Naughty Dog was trying to make a bad game.

There were only a couple of time-based missions in the game. They were also all pretty easy. And flying through the rings wasn't time-based, it was not-fucking-up-based.

I only do these if they are fun.

Getting red coins in Mario Sunshine is awesome. That's collecting done right.

Getting blue coins, on the other hand... ugh.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

* Uncharted lets you go back to any chapter so you can find items you've missed

The problem with Uncharted was that it gave you no indication as to which chapters you were missing stuff from, so in order to replay the specific chapters you would need an FAQ. That's really the crux of the problem. It's not that the games give you stuff to collect, it's that they give inadequate ways for the player to track what they have already collected, and hone in on where they are missing stuff from.

 

[nbcjr]

i'm hating collecting purple coins in mario galaxy, i'm almost giving up.

 

[bluemax]

Collect-a-ton defence force has entered the topic!
As long as it is said how many of ItemX's are left, I'm happy.

No. Fuck no. There needs to be a way to know which ones I've picked up.

I can think of why there isn't from a development perspective but really these boil down to someone not getting their ass in gear.

Spoiler

Not that I have room to talk on this subject so much

Still I've given up on collectathon shit, especially in action games.

 

[Death_Born]

i'm hating collecting purple coins in mario galaxy, i'm almost giving up.

I only had 2 purple coin hunts left, but I gave up after spending half an hour on that ice world, trying the long jump and failing because I missed one coin before :lol

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

If you're tiring of game's because you're getting bored of collecting things you shoulder move onto multiplayer titles whether it be Viruta Fighter or Counter Strike. If you're tiring of game's because it's too difficult start playing games with some form of narrative or stop playing games.

Seriously, most easy games revolve around collecting shit from personas from P3, to mirror fragments in Zelda, to Jiggy's in Banjo Kazoo.

 

[Ike]

The collect-a-thon almost, just almost ruined Wind Waker for me. Good thing the other 80% of the game was so awesome.

 

[sonicmj1]

One of the things I like about collecting in Crackdown and Metroid Prime is that there are audio cues for the collectibles. If you're near something, you can hear it, even if you can't see it because it's on some ledge in a building. Then you can use the sound to help locate it. It makes it a good deal more fun to find things.

Assassin's Creed's flags, on the other hand, make no sounds, but they're just as difficult to find by sight. Then, you have to scour every corner of the environment, instead of just being in most general areas. That sucks.

I don't tend to follow most collectathons to 100%, but I like to get things I can find. Audio cues help me find things much more easily, without putting giant glowing beacons everywhere.

 

[TheExodu5]

In all fairness, at least killing 200 pigeons was more varied than the rest of GTA4.

 

[KevinCow]

If you're tiring of game's because you're getting bored of collecting things you shoulder move onto multiplayer titles whether it be Viruta Fighter or Counter Strike. If you're tiring of game's because it's too difficult start playing games with some form of narrative or stop playing games.

Seriously, most easy games revolve around collecting shit from personas from P3, to mirror fragments in Zelda, to Jiggy's in Banjo Kazoo.

There is an enormous difference between something like the mirror fragments in Zelda, which were just another way to see that you've beaten a level, and the collecting that this thread is talking about.

 

[Allan Holdsworth]

Getting blue coins, on the other hand... ugh.

Yeah I had to use a FAQ for the last 15 or so. There were way too many.

 

[Akuun]

Going into one DK64 level and seeing the level completely filled with bananas of varying colors was when I decided I had enough of this collectathon crap. As mentioned before, it's fun when done right but not when it makes you feel more like a janitor than a treasure hunter.

 

[permutated]

Sadly, it's people like the OP that are responsible for the death of platformers...

No wait...it's the lazy ass developers who couldn't come up with anything better to fill the void.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Sadly, it's people like the OP that are responsible for the death of platformers...

No wait...it's the lazy ass developers who couldn't come up with anything better to fill the void.

Platformers were never about collecting shit until the N64 era.

And something I've noticed is that collecting items in a game is only fun if the game itself is good.

 

[Antithos]

I hate collecting shit.

I don't think I have a single achievement on my gamertag that involves any type of "collect all of..."

I got 27 of the Call of Duty 4 intel laptop things just by playing through the game's campaign twice. I could find the last 3 to get my achievement, but really? I have no idea how to figure out which ones I have or don't have... and can't be bothered to go exploring for the last 3.

COD4 actually makes it fairly easy to figure out which intel laptops you still need to find (at least more so than most games). When you start up any particular level, go into the menu and then bring up the Cheats page. At the bottom it will tell you how many intel you've collected for the level, out of how many there are to find. Its usually like 2-3 per level. From there it's a quick visit to Youtube to figure out where they're located.

But yeah, collecting useless items really pisses me off. I found ALL the collectibles in San Andreas, but after clearing one island of stunt jumps in GTA IV, I'm saying screw it to the rest of them and the pigeons. Don't even get me started about the flags in AC!

 

[Llyranor]

If the challenge of collecting said objects isn't reward enough, I ignore it. It was well done in NSMB - gave the game somewhat of a challenge, which it needed gravely. Crackdown's orbs are another good example.

 

[Doodlebug]

I agree that if it's rewarding and fairly easy to track your progress, I'll enjoy doing it a lot more.

 

[Zoc]

Siren: Blood Curse has one of the best-designed collectible systems I've seen. There are fifty items and fifty weapons in the game, and each one is named and numbered. As you find them, you can see squares on a grid in the pause menu fill in with them.

Even that wouldn't matter, but the stuff is all really interesting. You can find little video clips, diaries, books, drawings, etc, that really fill out the story. You can also find a bunch of neat, weird weapons, like a pair of crutches, sake bottle, etc, that all have unique attack animations.

 

[KevinCow]

Sadly, it's people like the OP that are responsible for the death of platformers...

No wait...it's the lazy ass developers who couldn't come up with anything better to fill the void.

I find it interesting how having big worlds and a bunch of stars to collect was just Mario 64's way to offer a similar experience to the world/level thing in previous Mario games while dealing with the N64 cart's limited storage space (so each painting was a world, and each star/mission was a level), then everyone else just kinda took it and ran with it.

 

[permutated]

Platformers were never about collecting shit until the N64 era.

And something I've noticed is that collecting items in a game is only fun if the game itself is good.

Well put sir

Let us remember that not all collectathons are bad, either

 

[inpHilltr8r]

Congratulations on taking the first step.

 

[Drkirby]

Am I allowed my internet in the form of a gift voucher?

*Reads fine Print* The internet is only worth £10? What a rip off D:

 

[SapientWolf]

I think Braid is one of the few games to do this right.

Spoiler

You will shit bricks.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

I agree with you

 

[permutated]

I think Braid is one of the few games to do this right.

Spoiler

You will shit bricks.

+1

One of the best games this gen. 2D love for us purists

 

[scitek]

I love collecting things and unlocking Trophies, but games like Resistance do it wrong. It doesn't tell you how to achieve the goal UNTIL you achieve it...before you do it just says "???"

Stupid.

 

[Core407]

I'm not a fan of collecting for the sake of collecting but if it serves a purpose in a game, I'll be all on it. Oblivion/Morrowind come to mind but the collecting was on a much more discreet level. Basically you'd collect as you progressed so it wasn't blatant.

 

[Android18a]

There should be a standard feature like Yangus' radar from Dragon Quest on PS2. Like, when you enter an area, you can look at a "radar" and it will say something like

"There are XX number of YY left in this area"

So at least you could know you had everything before moving on.

 

[ZealousD]

Best collect-a-thon is World Ends With You.

Every pin has a use, every piece of clothing can help your stats, and the Noise guide is a great reference.

 

[Man God]

Over 100 posts and no SFA with matching Penny-Arcade comic? For shame, GAF! :lol :lol