(bright tones) - [Falcon] The gamer is a special breed with unique evolutionary instincts and well-developed highly attuned senses. The gamer mind can be an
intricate puzzle to comprehend, and man, is it ever nice
when developers get it. Hi, folks, it's Falcon,
and today on Gameranx, 10 times games understood the gamer mind. Starting off with number 10,
it's "Red Dead redemption II." Sometimes, games just know
what we're going to do before we do it. In RDR II's case, they knew
exactly what they were doing with this peeping Tom random encounter. Occasionally, when you're
out wandering around the town of Strawberry at night, you can spot two guys looking in a window. It's pretty obvious what
they're doing from context, and if you get close enough,
you can scare 'em off, which earns you a few honor
points for doing a good deed. Of course, they knew
people would be curious, they knew people would want to see what's in the mirror themselves, so the game gives you an
option and you get an eyeful. Inside is a woman that
can only be described as being in a very mild state of undress, who immediately catches
you looking into her window and responds by grabbing a
shotgun and taking a shot at you. (water rushing) - [Arthur] Just what are
those two peeping at anyway? - Not again, you filthy pervert! Have an eyeful of this.
- Oh, shit! (gun firing) I may have deserved that. - [Falcon] Also, you get
a bounty on your head as well as an honor hit. Now, I mean, I don't know what
you expected would happen, but why didn't she see the other guys? You're only one guy and you're
definitely quieter than them. I mean, they have a full scale
conversation about this lady taking her shorts off
and I'm quiet as a mouse. Why don't I get to look at this woman dressed like she's going
to a basketball court? Ah, well, Rockstar knew
everyone playing the game was gonna do something
they're not supposed to do, because that's why you buy Rockstar games, literally just to do things
that you're not supposed to do. And you know, they made it responsive, so I guess that's more immersive that way. At number nine is "Bloodborne." You play enough of these games and the traps start to
look a little predictable, but what happens when
the devs already know you're catching none of the tricks? Well, that's what you get here with this ridiculous
trap near the entrance of the forbidden forest. After crossing the bridge,
there's a pile of leaves and sticks in the middle of the road. Nice try, From, but I can see
this coming from a mile away. Thank you very much. You see the log hanging in the air, you know stepping there's
gonna be a trigger for the log trap, but you
don't wanna trigger it by mistake while you're fighting an enemy or rushing through, so
you do the sensible thing and set off the trap and
immediately get outta the way. It all plays out exactly like we expected. The log swings forward, then swings back. It was easy, why even bother? But then, suddenly the rope snaps and the log starts rolling forward. By the time we all
realized what was going on, it was too late. (wood creaking) (character screaming) These guys were already
famous for their gotchas and this is still one
of the all-time greats, but perfect comedy timing, like
well done, From, well done. And number eight is "Assassin's
Creed" Brotherhood," a more benign example
of developer foresight. In the follow-up to "Assassin's Creed 2," after the prologue, there's
an extended sequence where you control Desmond Miles while he explores a secret passage. There's a lot of "Uncharted" style banter between him and Lucy,
nothing too noteworthy, but there's one clever
little moment near the end where the devs obviously
knew what we were thinking. So there's a part where
you find this obvious path, which is to proceed forward
through this broken wall, but there's also a set of stairs nearby. No gamer worth their salt is going to turn down an alternate path. It's just burned into our
brains to fully explore an area and go down every optional direction before continuing down the intended path. Even in heavily scripted
moments like this, it's a tough instinct to ignore. So you go up the stairs
expecting something, but it's a dead end. There's a door but you
can't interact with it, so all you can do is go
back while they say that- - You'd think these stairs
would lead somewhere. - But they don't. - Oh, life is full of disappointments. - [Falcon] It's a small
detail, but an appreciated one, and rare to see a game acknowledge
all the pointless things we do as a gamer, as well as acknowledge the
limitations of the environment. - I wonder how old these tunnels are. - [Lucy] Middle ages probably. Luckily, the beams still hold our weight - After all this time in
the animus, I'm not so sure. - [Lucy] Yeah, I didn't
wanna say anything, but you're really getting fat. - Ouch.
- And number seven is "High on Life," speed
running, sequence breaking, just general boundary breaking. These are things we just
do as gamers, right? Finding ways to break outta the game, going places we're not supposed to go. It's just something that comes naturally. It's an instinct, it just has to be done. Video games almost never actually react when you do this stuff because, by nature, subverting the way you're
supposed to play the game, but once in a while, a game
knows what you're doing and calls you out on it. During the mission where you're supposed to hunt down Dr. Giblets
in "High on Life," your first task is to investigate the High on Life store in the city slums. There's an intended route to this place, but if you're creative with your jet pack and do a few careful jumps,
it's possible to skip most of the level and reach the store much quicker than you're supposed to. Doing this actually catches
the attention of your sweet OS, which directly comments on it. He's surprisingly supportive, basically just telling you good luck and I hope you get a world record. - [OS] Are you trying to speed run? Are you speed running right now? That's okay, you can do
that. We think that's cool. We think that's great. Good luck. I hope you get a world record. - [Falcon] I was honestly
expecting something a little more abrasive. This is "High on Life" after all, a game that does not shy
away from insulting player, but hey, it's interesting
enough that the game caught it. Even if you're not actually speed running, you're just screwing around, it's still a pretty amusing Easter egg. (gun firing) - They just keep coming! (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) Yeah, let's do this! - [Falcon] And number
six is "Baldur's Gate 3." Sometimes, you do things that they feel like they're intended,
and sometimes not so much. So one of the best examples of a time where the game knows exactly
what you're doing here is when you encounter the
runaway gnome with the explosives in the underdark. When you find her, she threatens
to blow up the explosives if you take a step further. Normally, what you're supposed to do and what a regular game
would force you to do is to talk her down,
but this game gives you a little more agency in
the situation, let's say. For example, you can trigger the standoff, switch to another party
member, sneak up behind her, and remove the explosive
barrel without any notice. If you do that, then switch back to your character who's in conversation, you can dare her to blow up the bomb. - Then let it be done. Gaerdel Ironhand, here
me now, set me free! Wait, what in the hells? Bugger it all. You moved them. Go on, drag me to moonrise. I'll make you cult-nutters suffer. - [Falcon] She'll actually do it too, but it doesn't work if
you've moved the bomb, if you've move the bomb
away from her, oops. So she just pointlessly
fires into the ground and sheepishly realizes
you've got the upper hand. The game actually acknowledges you doing something quite clever. Most of the time, you're just supposed to be a dumbass in situations like this, so it's pretty refreshing
that the game rewards you for doing something smart. - I know what you are, one of Nere's cult goons sailed right in. Better to die in this
shit-heap than rot in Moonrise. You want me? Come get me. - [Falcon] And number five is
"Alone in the Dark," 2024 one. So the second, or I guess third reboot of "Alone in the Dark," I
can't honestly keep track, but there's a safe you can find
near the start of the game, and you don't actually get
the code until much later. There's something stopping you from trying to open it though. So you know what that means, right? That means you can open it early, either just remember the code
from your second play through, which isn't too hard, it's a short game, or just straight up cheat
and look up the code online. Normally, it would just mean that you get the key item early, but the
game knows you're doing this and directly acknowledges
it when you open the chest. Depending who you're playing as, they'll make a comment that's like- - [Character] Oh, wow, I can't believe I guessed the combination, I must be- - [Falcon] Some kind of genius, said in the most sarcastic possible voice. You don't even get the regular item if you open the the thing early, you get this special collectible that's literally "Alone in the Dark," it's a book, but it's got the
cover of the original game. The devs knew that gamers
would want to do things before they're supposed to, so they used it to hide an Easter egg. I think that's the right move. I like it. - [Character] I don't have
the combination for this, but maybe Jeremy did. - [Falcon] And number four is "Undertale." Even when a game tells us
we're supposed to be stuck with our choices, we've
gotta live with them. It's hard to resist
the call for a do-over. If a game has choices
and lets you load a save, we're inevitably gonna do it and then do something different or try again if we screwed up, right? One of the first, most
important decisions in this game is when you fight Toriel do
you spare her or kill her? Many players will kill her by mistake because they didn't realize
they were able to not do that, (game beeping) and out of shame, went back, loaded, and tried to do it right this time. (game beeping) (eerie music) but the game knows and
it rubs our noses in it. That flower from the beginning
remembers what you did and straight up says you murder her, and then you went back
'cause you regretted it. You're OJ Simpson, this
flower is Norm McDonald. It doesn't care how
fired from SNL it gets. It's gonna say it. (game beeping) Honestly, it's uncanny
how accurate this is. Toby Fox must have done
a lot of plate testing to find out what people would do here, 'cause it's a pretty specific call out. And number three is
"Elder Scrolls: Oblivion." Put a powerful NPC, a king,
or even a God in an RPG and someone somewhere is
gonna want to kill him. If not kill 'em, then at
least take a few swings at 'em just to see what happens. Ever since players went
out their way to find ways to kill Lord British and the Ultima games, killing the supposedly unkillable has been a gamer tradition. In this game's case, it's gonna
take more than a few swipes to take down Sheogorath, the
Daedric Prince of Madness, whose realm you explore as part of the Shivering Isles expansion. Bethesda knew you were
going to attack this guy, because who can resist,
but it's not the best idea. Take a swing at him and
he'll freeze you in place and simply say you
shouldn't have done that. Enjoy the view (blow landing) (eerie music) - Shoo, go, be gone! - [Falcon] After a loading screen, you pop back into the
world a few thousand feet above the island, a long enough fall to think about what you
did before you go splat on the surface. (eerie music) (character screaming) And number two is "Bears in Space. If there's one thing gamers hate, it's a waist high wall, right? These things are everywhere, even now, and with games getting more
and more realistic looking, developers have to come up
with increasingly creative ways to keep you from going somewhere
they don't want you to. Creative, or in the case of
some games, really contrived. As previously established,
the mind of a gamer wants to be free to explore, and that means we're
going to try to jump over every waist high fence we could see, no matter how futile it ultimately is. The devs of "Bears in Space" know it, and that's why they
put this stupid gag in. As you're progressing through the game, you eventually reach a point
where it seems impossible to progress, a little tiny
fence with lock on it. - [Character] Max, that
gate is locked down tight. If I'm not mistaken, and I rarely am in all
things lock related, that's a Lockatronic 600 with
a solid robotinium pressed alloy body, a drop forge
crush proof shackle, and an anti bearing
double ricochet fastener. What I'm trying to say, Maxie, is there's no way we can
break this lock open. We need to find another way. - [Falcon] Oh no. Oh, what am I gonna do? The game makes it as explicit as possible. You can not open this lock and that it looks like you're gonna have to find another way. It's made all the more ridiculous by the fact it's an entrance to a prison. It's not just meant to keep you out, but also to keep the prisoners in. So what do you do? Well,
obviously just jump over it, easy. They knew you were gonna try to do that, and if there's one way to
burrow deep into a gamers mind, it's reverse psychology. The more you tell us
we can't do something, the more we're gonna do it. (soft music) - Hey Max and BT, thanks for saving us. - [Falcon] And number one
is "Lisa: The Painful" RPG. There's plenty of games
that use their understanding of gamers to effectively troll them, and that's basically From
Software's entire MO, but nothing in one of their
games comes even close to this. So if you're playing this game, you'll eventually come to a
rope that leads up to a sign that says very important above. So you start climbing it,
but it keeps going and going. (character scratching) There's gotta be something up there to justify this climb, right? Well, it takes a minute
and a half straight of climbing to get to
the top of this rope, so what's up there better
be worth the trouble. But you wanna know what you get? (somber music) It's a statue of a middle finger. Also, the game doesn't even
let you get down quickly. If you try to fall off one
of the ledgers, it says, nah, you don't wanna do that,
just climb back down. So that's three or so minutes
just completely wasted. It's so blunt and stupid
that I have to respect it. Like this game does not
care about wasting your time and screw you anyway. Most games use understanding
of gamer brains for a light ribbing or an
Easter egg or something, but "Lisa: The Painful" skips all that and it goes straight for
the weapons grade trolling. And that's all for today. Leave us a comment, let
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