Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
Now normally, I despise cheating in games. They quickly nullify any sense of achievement or progression through a game and ultimately make it quite boring.
Perhaps the last time I was involved in any form of active 'cheat' in a game (prior to the one I'll mention below) was with online Borderlands 2. I'd pumped about 50 hours into the game at that point and actively enjoyed the mission progression and occasional appearance of much better loot items. I went to the casket in the game where you got one shot at a decent weapon. I used my token and out came an averagely good gun, but it was certainly far from a WMD.
That was about the time I tried it online with a few mates. I was much further ahead than them in terms of level and for an hour or two, it was an interesting game dynamic to protect the other two in a firefight, while at the same time see them rank up rapidly, due to my much higher level.
Then Pete found the token 'repeater' hack online. This effectively made the casket of one-off decent weaponry, pretty much offload kit at an unlimited rate. What we didn't like we could sell for decent money and the better kit we kept for ourselves.
It was fun for a short while, but it made the game from then on a bit flat. Decent kit that I had previously fought tooth and nail for, now became no more than a quick revisit to the chest and see what was on offer there. As a consequence, I quickly became bored with the BL2.
Yet fast forward to this week and I thought I'd have a dabble at making XCOM just that little bit easier. The game itself has a brilliant balance of in-game tactics of risk & reward, paired with a character development and research section. One aspect that I always thought was silly with the whole game however, was with money. The entire planet is under alien invasion. The countries represented in the game donate trivial, paltry sums on a monthly basis that you can spend on upgrading your base or buying new equipment. But isn't that all a bit silly? The game uses it's own currency - but lets call it dollars. Why would the first line of defense against an alien invasion have a pot of currency valued at $316 - yet to simply excavate and make room for another facility - cost me $80 alone? Why would I not be able to purchase four interceptors per continent as an attempt at warding off alien craft? Oh, because I've ran out of money. Not just a bit - but literally no where near the funds for a picket-line defense.
This single aspect of the game pulls you too far away from the core function of tackling the aliens head on and instead forces you to become a bloody bean-counter. It's not a stumbling block - but a huge hurdle. One that makes progression achingly and agonizingly slow - simply because France got s**t on from an invasion and they refused to pay up their $20 this month.
Bulls**t.
So here I was, having a dabble with the rather excellent CheatEngine. Fired up XCOM and my recent saved game. I edited my $193 that I had in-game - to a much more healthy $500,000. Has this ruined the game? Not one bit. My team is still at high risk from alien attack. I don't research anything any quicker. I don't build facilities any quicker. I'm still just as reliant on scavenging the area after a mission for ultra rare elements and components for my R&D guys. But now I can assign the scientists, the researchers and alien materials in a much more enjoyable capacity - simply because the silly money aspect has now been nullified. I can now spend money on more med-kits that fannying about and trying to get the funds to bolster the single aircraft that's tasked to defend the entire North American continent.
In a nutshell, it's probably the first time where I've used a cheat that's actually improved the game for me. Sure, there will be the sado-masochists out there that want the budgetary gimp-suits applied along with all the other concerns of the game. But for me, it was a step a little too far by the devs. And I've just helped myself fix the problem.
D
Perhaps the last time I was involved in any form of active 'cheat' in a game (prior to the one I'll mention below) was with online Borderlands 2. I'd pumped about 50 hours into the game at that point and actively enjoyed the mission progression and occasional appearance of much better loot items. I went to the casket in the game where you got one shot at a decent weapon. I used my token and out came an averagely good gun, but it was certainly far from a WMD.
That was about the time I tried it online with a few mates. I was much further ahead than them in terms of level and for an hour or two, it was an interesting game dynamic to protect the other two in a firefight, while at the same time see them rank up rapidly, due to my much higher level.
Then Pete found the token 'repeater' hack online. This effectively made the casket of one-off decent weaponry, pretty much offload kit at an unlimited rate. What we didn't like we could sell for decent money and the better kit we kept for ourselves.
It was fun for a short while, but it made the game from then on a bit flat. Decent kit that I had previously fought tooth and nail for, now became no more than a quick revisit to the chest and see what was on offer there. As a consequence, I quickly became bored with the BL2.
Yet fast forward to this week and I thought I'd have a dabble at making XCOM just that little bit easier. The game itself has a brilliant balance of in-game tactics of risk & reward, paired with a character development and research section. One aspect that I always thought was silly with the whole game however, was with money. The entire planet is under alien invasion. The countries represented in the game donate trivial, paltry sums on a monthly basis that you can spend on upgrading your base or buying new equipment. But isn't that all a bit silly? The game uses it's own currency - but lets call it dollars. Why would the first line of defense against an alien invasion have a pot of currency valued at $316 - yet to simply excavate and make room for another facility - cost me $80 alone? Why would I not be able to purchase four interceptors per continent as an attempt at warding off alien craft? Oh, because I've ran out of money. Not just a bit - but literally no where near the funds for a picket-line defense.
This single aspect of the game pulls you too far away from the core function of tackling the aliens head on and instead forces you to become a bloody bean-counter. It's not a stumbling block - but a huge hurdle. One that makes progression achingly and agonizingly slow - simply because France got s**t on from an invasion and they refused to pay up their $20 this month.
Bulls**t.
So here I was, having a dabble with the rather excellent CheatEngine. Fired up XCOM and my recent saved game. I edited my $193 that I had in-game - to a much more healthy $500,000. Has this ruined the game? Not one bit. My team is still at high risk from alien attack. I don't research anything any quicker. I don't build facilities any quicker. I'm still just as reliant on scavenging the area after a mission for ultra rare elements and components for my R&D guys. But now I can assign the scientists, the researchers and alien materials in a much more enjoyable capacity - simply because the silly money aspect has now been nullified. I can now spend money on more med-kits that fannying about and trying to get the funds to bolster the single aircraft that's tasked to defend the entire North American continent.
In a nutshell, it's probably the first time where I've used a cheat that's actually improved the game for me. Sure, there will be the sado-masochists out there that want the budgetary gimp-suits applied along with all the other concerns of the game. But for me, it was a step a little too far by the devs. And I've just helped myself fix the problem.
D
