Are cheats dead?

[mobiusclimber]

The PS2 had cheat codes released on discs by some company or other.

[Jorpho]

Surely The Sims still has "button-press" cheat codes? Maxis (or whatever might count as Maxis these days) was always good that way.

I think since games have been focusing on being more realistic, they've gotten a bit easier

Awuh? I didn't know you could get better after being shot just by leaning against a wall for a few minutes.

[Swamperon]

As I recall, a couple of Wii games do. Let's Tap and Boom Blox have some codes built in. I imagine there's more.

[Robocop2]

Duke Nukem Forever has cheats that you can enable once you beat the game. No special code needed. I also suppose you could consider the skulls in the Halo series as "cheats" though you find the skulls and then can activate them so maybe not and as they modify the game mostly in ways that make it more challenging they kind of are anti-cheats in a sense I suppose.

But yes I do miss cheats overall. Not as much because it allows one to beat a game more easily but moreso because sometimes its fun to be invincible and have unlimited energy/ammo/whatever. I think they add another dimension to the gameplay personally.

[Mr Smith]

I have never considered this, but am suddenly aware of how saddened I am by the demise of cheat codes. Long gone are the days when you would spend hours trying to tap in the correct button combination for the most pointless alteration to the game play experience - good times.

[garagesaleking!!]

This thread made me realize I havent cheated in a game in probably 10 years...

[ScourDX]

These day it is all about preordering first to unlock cheats or buy cheats. The days of free cheats are fading replacing by paid cheats.

[BetaWolf47]

While we're on the subject, I miss Game Genie and Game Shark. I'm guessing Sony, MS, and Nintendo would never allow something like that again (again, mostly for the shitstorm it would cause with online games).

Don't forget about Action Replay. That lasted until GameCube/PS2/Xbox for consoles, and is still alive on handhelds. In fact, cheating is possible on some online DS games and yes, it does ruin matches. From what I understand, Nintendo has a machine for testing Pokemon teams during tournaments to ensure that they aren't "sharked".

[Jorpho]

From what I understand, Nintendo has a machine for testing Pokemon teams during tournaments to ensure that they aren't "sharked".

Interesting! I was reading about the way Pokemon data is stored once (in conjunction with the legitimate "catch Mew" trick for R/B/Y) and it never occurred to me that they might have designed the data in such a way to make such testing possible. Or maybe it's just a coincidence and they weren't thinking that far ahead at the time.