No matter what option you pick you either get a penalty or not. Such as presenting evidence for a murder weapon. You have three or four pieces of evidence relating to a murder weapon yet you MUST present evidence A and not Evidence B even though it’s the same thing so the game shoe horns you into every option and you really don’t get to play the game. That’s the one thing I hated about that series, it played itself otherwise they weren’t bad at all.

Back to the topic at hand. Sure it’s cool to give the player some help, but if it’s a mandatory download or something that displays hints on the screen without my say so, that will make me NOT want to play the game as I don’t get to figure anything out. Nothing would be worse than playing the newest Zelda game and then all of a sudden:

Game Hint: *blip* Push this block here, climb up on it, shoot arrow at target on other side to lower the bridge

Me: WTF?! Thanks for telling me what to do game. I wanted to figure the damn thing out for my self. Oh well, the boss is next let’s whoop his ass!

Game: *enter’s boss room*

Game Hint: *Blip* To beat this boss you must first shoot the boss in the head, then equip the Iron Boots. Grab a chain and yank on it for a moment, then attack the glowing point on the boss.

Me: DAMMIT, I WANTED TO FIGHT THE BOSS MY SELF!!!!!! STUPID GAME *shuts off system*

Now it would be understandable if the hints only kicked in if you are taking a LONG time to solve a puzzle of you died several times in a boss fight because you don’t know what to do. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but I’m not at all excited for this.

I LOLed.

Elmer, you have no say in what will pass as “game design” in the future.
Right now Shigeru Miyamoto is making the decisions that will shape the industry for the next decade or so. I hope it isn’t optional; that it will be one final blow to your weakening “hardcore gamer” ideals.