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ME2 did the whole "pick one track the whole way or you end up gimping yourself" thing and didn't allow for Paragon/Renegade scores to carry over between playthroughs, which I was very disappointed with. Still, the redeeming factor with the series as a whole is that the divide between the two moralities is at least slightly blurrier than "saving orphans vs. kicking puppies," like in Jacob's loyalty quest - do you send his corrupt father off to face court justice at the hands of the Alliance, or bloody justice at the hands of the people he enslaved for ten years?"
Without the ability to look stuff up in forums and on wikis about how the game mechanics work, where to find/buy the materials to improve your weapons and armor, and the best places to farm for souls (like the infamous area past the Crest of Artorias door in Darkroot Garden), I would have been stuck with crappy equipment on a low-level character and I would be positively miserable. I don't play the game with a walkthrough constantly by my side, but I think that occasionally turning to the 'net for hints before I get too frustrated helps give me direction and allows me to get those tangible rewards that Layton talked about missing.
From Software already designed the game with the idea of a player community helping each other - hence the messages - I simply decided to take it a step further. I may not be playing it "right," but at least I'm enjoying myself more than I would otherwise."
Hopefully, Gamestop will do the same thing with their PSN codes."
In the FPS world, I think BioShock handled it well by A) not really giving you anything with a scope and B) making the enemies so fast that getting headshots is both impossible and impractical. I will admit that Fallout 3 got a little too easy if you just relied on endless headshots in V.A.T.S., which is why I stopped using it except in emergencies and attempted to play as much of the game as I could in real-time.
On that same token, it must be said that there is an incredibly simple solution to an overpowered headshot that gamers can easily implement - DON'T SHOOT ENEMIES IN THE HEAD!!! Honestly, anybody who complains that a game is too easy, or that one overpowered tactic renders the rest of the arsenal useless, is seriously lacking in self-control. There are tons of things that we as gamers can do to increase the challenge of our games - difficulty levels and self-imposed restrictions included - and why bother playing games, an interactive medium, at all if you're not going to take advantage of the different choices you're offered?"
"My lack of funds has created an enormous backlog of unplayed games that I have no hope of ever completing."
Um...what? If you have no funds with which to buy new games, doesn't it make sense that the best games for you to play are the ones you already paid money for? I realize it's a little counter-intuitive, what with the entire games industry being hyper-focused on the Next Big Thing and all, but it's actually kind of liberating to put the hype machine aside and put some quality time into a game that you don't have to worry about being spoiled by a blog post reporting on new DLC that casually spoils the ending.
A good game is a good game, after all."
This especially stinks in role-playing games, where some arbitrary system says that I can't be a badass in a situation where I'd like to, simply because I haven't been enough of a badass in prior situations. Well, what if the character I'm trying to role play didn't call for badassery in those prior situations, but it does now? What benefit to the story or gameplay does it serve to lock us in to these tracks at the beginning of the game?"