Playing with a walkthrough
 

I've come across this issue a few times with my friends and I. Back in the day, my friends would buy new games (FFX for example) and would purchase the the guide to match. This really irked me because I was always gung-ho about not having the game's secrets spoiled. However, my friends had a lot less time to play games than I did and now I'm finally starting to see. They just wanted to play the game and get everything because they didn't have the time to explore.

Right now, I'm finding myself in the same position as them where I don't have as much free time anymore. Does anyone play with FAQs, or are you up for finding games' secrets yourself?

I don't like to go looking for secrets in RPGs, so I often grab a FAQ to make sure I don't skip things.

A lot of the time, I used to be a perfectionist, so I would go through my RPGs with walkthroughs only to get items and such that I never wanted to miss (eg. All 8 flame jewels, and best ending requirements in Valkyrie Profile), otherwise I would have to repeat all the events again, despite knowing what happens.

Nowadays, I only glance at a walkthrough when I actually think I'm stuck or don't want to do something too risky, like wasting an item on a difficult fight when it it is more urgently needed for a later fight.

Sometimes, I'll just look at the walkthrough even if I'm doing fine in the game, to see if the writer interpreted certain points of the game to be tricky or easy in comparison to me, and I'll just read up to the point where I'm at in the game.

Depends for me, I will only play the game with a walkthrough for RPG's, but I don't do it all the time. Sometimes I'm in a perfectionist mood, and sometimes I don't give a crap and will play the game a second time to get the missed stuff. I always get spoiler free walkthroughs though, I hate when the guide starts explaining cutscenes and such.

On my first playthrough on a game, I will not generally use a guide. I will, however, look up a FAQ on gamefaqs IF I am painfully and hopelessly stuck somewhere and have exhausted all in-game avenues available to help me figure my way out of the jam. I will look only at the section regarding the specific spot I am having problems with. Any subsequent playthrough, I will usually keep a guide by my side while playing, mainly for maps with item locations marked.

I usually don't go through a game with a walkthrough, but then again it entirely depends on the game itself.

For example, games like Katamari Damacy don't need guides. Arcade and fighting games don't either. But games like Disgaea do, especially if you want to get into the technical side of that game with item world, levelling items, specialists in items et cetera. I usually won't look up a walkthrough unless I'm extremely stuck.

I also don't look up stuff for GBA/NDS titles. It's just retarded. How can you possible get stuck on any GBA or DS title, unless it's in japanese. And when it concerns japanese, generally I won't find a guide. Most japanese games don't have guides for them, but some do.

For codes and secrets, I generally don't check them out until after I've completed the game. Even then, if there's a glitch or something that'll mess up my game save, I probably won't touch it. This happened with Ocarina of Time, it's not happening again.

I'll only use a walkthrough if I have time constraints, or if the game is really damned confusing. I recently played through Chrono Cross, and since I only had four days, a walkthrough was somewhat important. And hey, it's Chrono Cross, and the game was so poorly explained that I needed a walkthrough so no more shit would be confused out of me.

Generally, though, I don't use walkthroughs. There are certain games (Xenogears, Tales of Phantasia) that would just feel... Ruined.

It really depends on the game and the situation. Ideally, I like to play through once without a guide, then use one on a second play-through to try to do and get everything or (if applicable) get a particular ending. But if the game gets EXTREMELY annoying and I end up wanting to finish it just for the sake of the plot, I'll cave in and use a guide. Silent Hill 4 is the biggest offender here; when I reached the second half of the game and realised that I was going to have to spend the entire rest of the game re-playing old levels and babysitting annoying NPCs, I just said, "Screw this," and used a (plot spoiler free) FAQ to race through the rest of the game as quickly as possible.

In most games (especially when it comes to RPGs) I might glance at the side-quest section of an FAQ before heading off to the final boss, just to see if there's any extremely obvious quests I've missed. But I'll rarely use the guide for the game itself until I'm hopelessly stuck or annoyed enough that I just want to finish it as fast as possible. I don't like needlessly cheating, and far too many FAQs are riddled with spoilers anyway.

Absolute no-no for me. If there is a secret there, it is called a secret for a reason, and I'd hope the designers intention was for me to derive some joy from discovering those secrets by myself, otherwise why put them in at all? I've felt great satisfaction from discovering something new on my 3rd or 4th playthrough of one of my favourite games. What a hollow waste to rob myself of that.

This marriage of gamer and obsessive compulsion that bears "perfectionism" is really baffling. Why want for perfection when you're not actually going to do it yourself? You might as well just hand the joypad to somebody else and let them play and discover the game for you, as you silently watch along. Sort your lives out.

I like to explore on my own, only when I hit a roadblock do I refer to such a guide. But it really depends on what kind of game it is to me.

I've never been a fan of walkthroughs, and have never used one, first-time round.
I like to go through a game by myself, exploring and finding everything i can the first-time through. When it comes to the second or third time through an RPG then i will have a look through a walkthrough, and see what i could have gotten the first time.

Walkthroughs also help with the more difficult aspects of games. FFVII Gold Chocobo breeding for one. (Well, i had to use a walkthrough to do this. Eventually got one on my seventh time through the game.) But i don't use them if i get stuck on a particular part of a game that is a main part of the game, i just stick at it, and explore more and take the time to enjoy the game more.

Overall i find that walkthroughs/ FAQS/ cheats take the fun out of games. Once i have finished a game once, then i'm all for using the above mentioned methods to see if i can get anything more out of the game.

Similarly to Amanda, I also used a FAQ when playing through Silent Hill 4.

I knew beforehand that there would be much running back and forth to get inventory and stuff sorted out, and I knew that that part of it would just kill the game for me. So I used a FAQ so I could sort of plan ahead a bit, and not have to go back to the Room every single time I found a new item and so on.
In that case, the FAQ really helped me enjoy a game I would've otherwise disliked (and I'm a very big Silent Hill fan).

I think that's the only time I've used a FAQ for an entire game playthrough (though I mostly focused on what items I'd find and stuff).


I definetely use FAQs to find secret stuff in RPGs. There's no way in hell I could motivate myself to go out and find things like that nowadays (though I did it in FFVII for some reason).

I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth if I don't discover everything the game has to offer, so I will often buy a guide for that reason, especially in RPGs.

I always get this dirty feeling if i use a walkthrough on a game if don't truley need it. I will use one on occasion if i'm horribly stuck, and my usual strategies for the situation don't work.

I generally play games with guides from GameFAQS because I don't have the time to play them more than once. I like to see as much of a game as I can the first time through. However, I some times take breaks from games near the end of them and don't get back to them for months or years.

nowadays I always play with walkthrough, my instinct as gamer has been dulled already because I havent played much games in several years. I have yet to beat Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

;_; shame on me.

I play with walkthroughs only if I get stuck in certain places and don't have the time to figure out what happened to get me stuck. However, I don't read the entire walkthrough because I want to continue finding stuff on my own.

It depends on the game. If I'm playing an import RPG *coughXenosagacough* then for certain there'll be one. Other games I typically try to avoid them at least the first time through, but it just depends.

I've never read a walkthrough. Scrolling past all that text to get to the area I'm stuck at would make me tired and I'd probably fall off the chair and sleep for several months. If I get stuck, I'll like, scratch my noggin until it's raw and bloody. Then if I'm still stuck after all that, I'll turn the game off and play it again later on.

Sometimes this takes years. For example, I got so annoyed at some dungeon in Zelda OoT (Water Temple .. I think?) I didn't play it again for three years. Then I tried again, and eventually beat it. What a day that was!

I don't have a huge amount of time, and I generally don't like playinjg a game twice until a long time has passed, so I'll generally use walkthroughs on the first playthrough in certain circumstances.

Usually, if you have to do obscure things in-game in order to get a special ending, I'll use the walkthrough for that. I always thought it was cruel that people who tried to figure out the game by themselves got the crummy ending anyway.

I used to play games without FAQs and walkthroughs but it took awhile for me to beat them, especially when I'm stuck at a certain point and don't know what to do. I usually use FAQs when I'm playing RPGs for the second or third time just to clear the entire game. Now I use walkthroughs for almost every game I play because I'm too lazy to figure out what to do or where to go next. It also saves me a lot of time, giving me the chance to move on to other games asap.

I have nothing against Walkthroughs and use them all the time if I get stuck or for tips if the game doesn't have that many checkpoints. Running around in circles because I need to talk to X at town X, is just something I have no patience for.

I don't recommend following Walkthroughs meticulously unless you are looking for secrets or collecting though, as it can get boring.

I don't like walkthroughs because they almost always spoil something really important in the game, even if you only read up to where you are. I really don't get stuck in games often but when it happens I will resort to a walkthrough as a last resort.

I used to be a perfectionist but now I rarely use a walkthrough for playing through games first time. It's hard to imagine I was playing games and having the element of surprise captured in a moment of text. It's like watching football highlights when you already know the scores. If I got really stuck and I rated the game highly enough then I'll will look up that part. If I really love the game and want to find more of the cool stuff then I'll refer to a walkthrough for these.

For the most part, unless I am truly stuck, I don't use a walkthrough. On the first playthrough anyways. If I ever wanted to do a Master Game, I'd have a GameFAQs page right next to me and read it through. But Master games only come after the first playthrough anyway (at least for me) so there aren't any surprises, so to speak.

Side Quest FAQs are win. Esp. in long games with only one ending; unless the game is OMG FAVORITE GAME EVER, I'm probably gonna use a SideQuest faq. umm. Oh, and to understand Disgaea, I used the hell out of a class faq. I didn't really need help with stages. Maybe understanding requirements for opening different endings, but yeah. And when I finally DO sit down and play Vagrant Story, I'm probably gonna do it with a guide at hand, because jesus christ I need help understanding the weapon system.

I am a real big newbie when it comes to playing RPG's, so I did get the guide with every game I purchased, I found it quite enlightening.

But then again I don't explore, even if I had the time.

i have never bought a guide book for anthing other than an rpg and even then i only use it after completing the game at least once.

i don't like using game guides..i prefer to find the secrets by myself :) that's fun, and you have more from your game :)

I'm playing Jak & Daxter right now, and am about 65% of the way done. I haven't used a guide yet, but I'm going to because I'm stuck on a part. I find that with action/adventure games, using a FAQ is difficult because it breaks up the action so much. For example, I used a FAQ for Silent Hill 3. I would never have made it through without one, especially during the "burning walls" part toward the end. However, it made the game super slow going. However, on RPG's I almost always do use a FAQ now, because if you miss one stupid secret 20 hours in it can keep you from getting the good ending after playing for 80 hours. Do I really want to waste 80 hours because I didn't bother to look in a FAQ for some stupid secret?

I truly feel that in this day and age, there should be NO secret in an RPG or any other game, for that matter, that you can't backtrack to complete later in the game. That's a pointless function of the game from a by-gone era...

For the most part, I try not to use walkthroughs unless I'm having a lot of problems with some part in a game. I really don't like to use them to solve puzzles or other things in a game that make me think, since I think that doing so sucks a lot of the fun out of games...Super Metroid would be kind of boring if you didn't have to think about how to use your equipment to get through all of the traps and stuff in it.

That said, I do pull up guides if I'm having trouble with menial, boring parts of games, like RPG boss battles. Even then, I usually stick it out unless I'm getting utterly creamed for some reason.

I usually buy the guide if I buy the game new, but that's usually for the art...

As far as walkthroughs are concerned, I don't use them except in the following circumstances (each presented with an example at work):

1. "It's been three days and I can't solve this freaking puzzle!" (Alundra)
2. "I've fought hard to get this close to 100% and one or two missing widgets are all I need found!" (Super Mario Sunshine...blue coins, how I hate you)
3. "Good Lord this game is terrible. I'm just going to pull up the script FAQ and see how it ends." (...Eh, why start a fight? I'm sure everyone's played a game that made them feel this way)

Anything else is strictly post-game.

I don't play too many games (I already waste more than enough time on other things), but when playing Morrowind or Oblivion I usually check with a walkthrough or the UESP to check whether the dungeon I'm in holds some quest-related items I'd better get or not (I know the games sometimes glitch with certain items, or a quest may end if I lose the item, etc). In the case of some tough enemies (e.g. Umbra) I checked some FAQ to see whether it was worth it killing this thing for his armour, especially since I was still at Lvl 16 and was getting my ass kicked by him.

I usually use walkthroughs on the games I play. Usually I get them from Game FAQs or from IGN, but I did buy guides for Final Fantasy X and X-2. I get easily frustrated, so I don't like having to hunt down every little secret or spend hours solving puzzles. I'm also paranoid that I'll overlook something in an RPG, especially, that will force me to backtrack or even replay the game later I don't mind getting spoiled about what's coming up; I'd rather just play through the games quickly so I don't get hung up on parts that break the flow of the games.

My way with guides (or gamefaqs) is to first beat a new RPG or other game without a guide.

The 2nd time I beat it, in the future, I like using it for walkthroughs of 'who to talk to next in the storyline so I can hurry up and keep going with the game'. Sometimes I get stuck like that and need a guide to help.

Using a guide to help fight bosses, etc, is pointless because I'd rather have the challenge.

Rarely will I use a walkthrough, although lately I have been more often than I probably should. I like being able to go through the game without knowing what's coming up next and to solve the puzzles myself, unless it's something annoying that I should be able to figure out on my own but can't for whatever reason (for example, it took me a while to solve that "charge up your spin attack to cut all the ropes at once" puzzle in Wind Waker because I NEVER needed to actually use it throughout the course of the game up until then and completely forgot about it). Otherwise it sometimes takes the fun and satisfaction out of completing something by yourself.

However some games practically REQUIRE walkthroughs. I have no idea how anyone could've gotten through Ecco: Defender of the Future without constantly refering to a guide of some kind. Even when you know what to do, the puzzles are STILL difficult, so how they expect people to figure out the solution and execute it without any help is beyond me. So for those, I'll use a walkthrough when I need to, since some of those games are actually MORE fun when you know how to get through the sections and can concetrate on actually doing it.

Lately I've needed to use guides to get by a specific part in a game, but unfortunately I find that once I start using one I get "hooked" and start looking ahead in it, because I'll develop this obsession to need to get 100% of everything from then on after I read about all these cool things that the guide says you can get, even the useless little secrets that don't actually help you.

I don't mind using a guide to find secret things afterwords though. Like I used the walkthrough for Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando almost religiously after I beat the game to get all the bolts, upgrades, and skill points. Some of that stuff I never would've gotten had I simply looked for it, so I didn't mind using a guide for it. Oh, and I also prefer NOT having games that "lock you out" of doing something once you reach a certain point. RPGs are notorious for that, like if you miss some super useful item in the first dungeon you're totally screwed out of it forever or something. As long as you can go back and get pretty much anything, I prefer not using a walkthrough unless I'm super-stuck or already beat the game.

Oh, and 95% of the walkthroughs I get from Gamefaqs. The only ones I buy are the ones I get for like $2-$3 on clearance, and even then it's mostly for the art and such.

i don't use guides unless i get stuck or tired of something and just want to get past it.

I tend to play a game through without using a guide on GameFAQs. If I really think it's worth the time to get 100% out of the game, I'll follow one of the guides on there.

I, like yourself, don't really like to have secrets revealed until I come across them, but I can see their point in not having a lot of free time to play, but then again I would take my time to play a game and not rush it.

I don't understand why anybody would spend £30 on a game only to beat it in a few days, seems like a waste of money when you could simply rent it out.

I think there`s nothing horrible playing with a walkthrough except of the case when you print it and do everything looking at it (especially non-boss combat tactics). It appeared that I played some games a long time after reading a solution so I didn`t need to think how to kill Painkiller bosses for example.

But knowing the way doesn`t give you an EDGE - even if you know the method you have to realize it yourself (I don`t think you ask your relatives to pass the hard place for you ? :) ) and depends on your skills in gaming. For example, beating Painkiller - BOOH last boss. It` s your own challenge to survive long enough to kill Alastor with both your sacrifices and enemy attacks.

And I had some cases myself when I couldn`t find some switch for a long time and had to use a walkthrough.

2006? What on Earth were you searching for when you found this thread?

As a rule, we tend to discourage people from reviving threads that are more than 3 months old unless it's something like a new game announcement thread and there's been a new development.

Who knows though, this might get some attention after all this time so I'll leave it open. Just bear the 3 month rule in mind in future please mate.

Life +1

I've only ever used guides to:
1. Help me obtain 100% (RPGs)
2. Understand game mechanics better, thus making me a "pro" for show (racing/fighting/LG games etc.)
3. Locate Easter Eggs and/or other trivial oddities (adventure/sandbox games)
4. Provide clarification as to where my next destination is, why I'm going there etc. (old-school RPGs)
5. See how others do it... Especially when, say, I defeat a boss using a most retarded method (SotC and others of its ilk that allow for numerous solutions within the confines of the game engine).

This is usually what does it for me. For Gran Turismo or Initial D (word) there is almost no way I'd spend the time figuring out on my own how to play the game. Those games are painfully tedious when you are bad. Reading about where to take the curve at what speed and with which car set-up makes it so much easier to get to an enjoyable skill level.

I always thought basic racing theory was fairly common knowledge. Do you really need a walkthrough to tell you to brake in a straight line then accelerate smoothly through the apex of a corner, shifting down to slow you faster and keep the revs up? Beyond that, all you need to do is learn the brakeing distances for the corners and that'll be different for every car amd no walkthrough will tell you that. I suppose you could use one for the car setup but it's all explained in-game as you go.

For Initial D everything is in japanese, so the walkthroughs are pretty handy with helping figure out the effect of each new part you are getting, as well as whether or not you should go for them (they are awarded after a certain number of credits).

As far as racing theory in general, I guess you are right that most games are similar and common sense, but I have just picked up the genre as a whole a couple of months back, and walkthroughs were very helpful in getting familiar, especially in GT4.

Heh, I can see how one might need a guide trying to play something in foreign, fair enough. :)

Gran Turismo is actually a pretty great game to learn racing theory on as the physics model is pretty spot on and the other cars never leave their racing line, meaning provided you pass them in sensible spots, they won't go out of their way to fuck you up afterwards (Like they would in GRID or something similar). Also, the various driving aids and being able to fuck about with the suspension settings means you can make even the most powerful MR cars pretty driveable, so long as you don't brake whilst turning.

I think the thing that's always put me off Gran Turismo FAQs was that I was looking at one to see what races unlocked what cars when the first one came out (Oh look, there is a point to them after all, silly Shin) and noticed the author suggesting to people they stay on the X button and tap the brake button round corners. Given the game shipped with the first analogue controller and given that the analogue sticks allow you to properly control smooth acceleration, pressing buttons at all, other than to change gear in GT is retarded. That's the ultimate problem with gameplay guides rather than factual guides. If it's just telling you where to go in an rpg then you can't go far wrong. If it's telling you how to control a racing game then it could be teaching you a stupid way to do it or at any rate, a way you might not get the best results from.

I don't play with walkthroughs, but for big enough games, I'll spend the second playthrough with my laptop on my knee, looking up items, characters and places of interest in a dedicated wiki. Fallout's is excellent.

It depends on the game for me as well. Now, I usually DO buy guides with games (like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, etc) but that's mainly for artwork and I stay away from the walkthrough bits... unless I really need it. (Or I want to get stuff like Ultimate Weapons, etc)

For games that I get stuck in (or I just didn't buy the guide or anything for whatever reason) I'll head to Gamefaqs. Second playthrough and all though, I use either strategy guides and/or gamefaqs to find what I've missed.

Like a lot of people here I tend to only use the walkthroughs if I'm truly stuck, and it also depends the type of game. If it's a puzzle game or a puzzle in a game I have a lot more fun consulting another mind (whoever's around) than going to an FAQ, but if it's something in an RPG like "I can't figure out who to talk to" or I've tried a boss battle 13 times to no avail I have no shame in checking an FAQ. I'm not hardcore enough to hide the fact that I'm simply sucking at a certain section of the game :p.

I remember Dad used to buy me the walkthroughs to RPGs he bought me for christmas or whatever, and I always TRIED to avoid them but having the guide right there tempted me to look at it a lot more for some reason.

Also, if I'm playing an RPG a second time for completion I'll definitely use a guide so I don't miss anything.

I rarely play games more than once these days. As a result, if I've spent a long time playing a game and got what I think is most of the stuff out of it on my own (RPGs this is), I'll normally look over a guide or more likely these days through a message board just to see if there's anything special I'm on track for at which point I'll use the guide sparingly to get it.

Case in point, I spent a shit load of hours on Last Remnant up to what I assumed was the end of disk 1 then checked to see if you got anything for doing all the side quests, found out there was an achievement, checked which ones were missable then played the rest of the game by myself, only making sure I spoke to Duke Ghor between each bas battle. I also spent a bit of time reading message boards towards the end of the game but they were mainly full of idiots asking obvious questions over and over again.

I find myself going to message boards more than FAQs these days as you get discussion about optimal character builds and so on. I often disagree with what people say but it's interesting to see how other people approach a game and people do occaisionally discover useful tricks (like Solo-Rush grinding in Last Remnant). Most games though I'm not bothered enough about getting everything to care about a guide, I'll just have a look if I think I've done most of the stuff so might as well do it all.

I prefer to not use walkthroughs at all that could spoil the game for me. The only time I really use walkthroughs is when I get stuck and I can't figure out a solution on my own.

I used to be a person who would never dare look at a guide unless I was completely stumped about how to proceed in the story.

Nowadays, however, I find myself depending a lot on guides and, if applicable, wikis. Generally I gravitate towards wikis, but it depends on the game and the dedication of its fandom. The World Ends with You has a phenomenal wiki, with all badge evolutions well documented and displayed in a variety of ways to make searches so much easier. Beyond that, there's extensive discussion on locations, fashion brands, characters, post-game bonuses, and so forth.

However, I'm not looking simply for an abundance of information. An example of what not to do would be the Last Remnant's wiki, where there's information, but it's full of holes, poorly organized, unverified, or extremely difficult to find. In this case, I go to guides.

But yes, I now general use guides to make sure I don't miss out on nice things.

I only use guides for two purposes:

1. After I beat the game with no help (new game); and
2. When I'm stuck in a rut and need a way out fast.

However I find myself looking at a guide every now and then when there is some cool shit that I need to have, stat. The World Ends With You game is an example of that; I find myself looking at the guide for pin evolutions, accessory locations and game music hidden in the world before actually beating the final boss.

Good god, this thread makes me feel old.

In any case, even 3 years later, my position really hasn't changed, unlike some others. I still prefer to slug it through a game figuring out things myself. The thing is I usually play RPG (usually JRPGs) which are already pretty linear. Getting from the beginning to the end is usually relatively straightforward and therefore, wouldn't really require the use of a walkthrough whilst playing.

When I go through a game the second time, however, I'm very likely to be following a guide just to get the most out of the game. The only reason this isn't the first time through is because I don't like reading about spoilers, and there's a sense of achievement that I get when I figure something out on my own.

But really, RPGs are the only types of games this applies to. I'm not into fighting games really, so I wouldn't need to look up movelists, not to mention most of the new ones give you the moveslist in the game. Every other genre, I can't imagine why anyone would need a guide.

This. I never use guides my first time through a game, no matter how frustrating it can be without one. I'm looking at you, The Last Remnant.

I often miss tons of secret things or achievements as a result, but I'm stubborn about the first time playing a game being my play through the game, efficiency, items, and secret bosses be damned.

I'm not opposed to asking others for tips on this or that though, like "X enemy is giving me hell, how'd you beat it?"

This doesn't apply to fighting games or other things with no important story modes, though. Or MMORPGs.

I may use walkthrough IF I have a book... but I am not gonna go on gamefaq and search it up... it just gets too annoying to go on PC when ever I am stuck =(

And yes, I try to stay away from walkthroughs when I play through first time...

me play with
 

i never play with a walkthrough.....though i played with a walkthrough for 2 games...MAFIA and POP2.... warrior within was so tough as it was confusing...keep posting...

so then... saying you never... play with a walkthrough was.... in fact... a fucking lie.... stop posting...

Unfortunately, since I only have time to play each game once, unless the game is one of my top 3 or 4 titles of all time, I usually am forced to reference a walkthrough on my first playthrough. Otherwise, trial and error, searching for hours on end for something I *might* stumble upon based on some useless clue that isn't even correct because the devs couldn't be bothered to use logic in their design, grinding, and loading saves to replay the same area would turn me off to video games completely. The whole industry is moving away from this sort of thing as games get shorter with bigger production values, fortunately...

I've played a few adventure games in my life, but I don't think I've ever beaten one without resorting to a walkthrough at least once. Sure, there are times when I felt justified ( "That's what I was trying to do and it wouldn't work!"), but I almost always felt bad about it.

Over the past week, I decided to change this statistic by posing a little challenge for myself. I bought and played through Riven, absolutely refusing to look at any kind of hint. As a result, it was one of the most satisfying games I've ever played. However, I wouldn't have stuck with it if I didn't have confidence in the design--I knew from reviews that the game was free from glitches, pixel-hunts, or ways to lock yourself into an unwinnable situation. If I was stuck on a puzzle, it was because I had missed something or hadn't understood the clues.

A lot of games don't instill that sense of confidence. So, the use of walkthroughs can come down a design issue. Although it's hard to precisely peg what's "unreasonable" (or just plain tedious) in terms of design, most people can think of examples that definitely fall into "practically an Easter Egg" territory. Also:

This. Although I like to stay spoiler-free the first time around (I can't really "explore" and enjoy stumbling upon new things if I know what's coming, can I?), I think it's clear that games like Fallout 3 or Grand Theft Auto aren't expected to be 100% completed by any individual player. I usually don't replay them, though--I just like reading about some of the neat stuff there is to see.