I have a life outside of playing games, and often I don’t get time to finish a mission (as I tend to walk around for 30mins to an hour on a map). I would much rather close mid-mission and get to restart it another time, than losing everything when turning it off, or having to rush through to complete it and screw it up in the process
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I never did it with Elusive Targets, and I’ll never do it in Freelancer.
I feel like if I allow myself to altF4 just once, I’ll never feel the same tension again, since I’ll know I could just quit every time I fail. And personally I value my gaming experience a lot in this regard.
Considering raging bugs, or wallhacks, that didn’t happened to me yet, so I don’t know how I’d react but I guess I’d still continue my run and try my best.
This being said, I really don’t mind people doing it. Each person have their own experience, or don’t have much time to invest in gaming. That honestly doesn’t affect my way of playing, I even think it’s cool people have an exploit to continue playing without being discouraged.
I guess the ones who have a problem with this in a SOLO game are most likely enclined to have an ego issue 
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The only time I choose to use the Alt+F4 is when I feel like the game has been highly unfair to me. Prime example, had a target in the log huts on Haven Island, this was in Hardcore withe Silent Assassin as my compulsary prestige objective.
I lured the target under the hut, and shot him so that he would drown in the sea (counting as an accident, and meaning not having to worry about the body). Another NPC INSIDE the hut somehow spotted me shooting him through the solid floor.
Why should I have to accept a loss, when there is nothing there that I have done wrong to result in a loss.
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New games ever since dark souls became popular with kids:
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Ya I’m in my 40’s and grew up with Atari and nes. Games back then didn’t have a time for gamers to vent to the creators. They made the game and you were stuck with it. It was either git gud or too bad and move on to something else.
But now, with the internet, gamers, especially with the new ones, they are starting out with say, ps3? And so gamers this gen and last are not really prepared to handle loss. Back then when we lost, we didn’t complain. We just played until we got it and it felt so good to finally pass it the way it was made. Now it seems a lot of gamers just want games to play to how they want it so they can succeed.
When ppl say these games are hard…even games like dark souls, I laugh. Go play battletoads on nes. Go play contra 3 on snes on hard mode.
Just funny reading what you said there. Reminded me of those days. 
Ps: I’m not trying to insult or undermine anyone, I just see games at a different perspective having grown up with games from when consoles were starting. It’s funny seeing the differences of how gamers from then play games now compared to games being played now from gamers from this gen. It’s such a big difference in mindset.
Edit: wanted to add, as for alt+f4, i only use it in ets cuz I prefer to do my runs more like a specially executed speedrun. So this tactic is needed. Now as for freelancer, I will never use it because I want to play it more like a sim. If a bug or wallhack occurs, I don’t care, I just go on with it. I don’t mind starting over either.
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I’m in a similar age group to you then. I remember when games couldn’t be won. There was no realistic “end” to get to. They just played forever until you either gave up or used up all your lives. There are games that I’ve legitimately played for hundreds of hours and never “won”.
Somewhere at my mom’s house I think I still have my Pitfall certificate for “beating” the game. You had to take a photograph of your screen and mail it to Activision. Beating the game just meant playing it for 20 minutes and still being alive. LOL!
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Hahaha. Ya I remember pitfall and that screenshot thing. Oh man!
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Eh I think that’s too narrowminded. The Dark Souls genre is extremely popular right now among people who want games that are punishing, and if you don’t specifically like Dark Souls there’s also punishing platformers like Celeste/Meatboy/Hollowknight, or there’s competative realistic shooting games like Modern Warfare, or there’s a shitton of Roguelike/Roguelite games built around the concept of permadeath. Then there’s also plenty of completely opposite games for people who just want to feel comfy and farm or build stuff like Animal Crossing/Story of Seasons/Stardew Valley.
I think there’s plenty of both right now. I remember the 90’s and I remember the games I played back then. Not all games I played were good, and often I would play games only because I did not KNOW they were bad, or because I didn’t have that many games to choose from because when you got a new game you usually were stuck with that game for a long time and you wanted to make it feel worth your money.
I think the one thing we’ve really lost is the experimentation. A lot of old games were SHIT because they had no idea what made a game a good game and they were just throwing stuff at the wall seeing what would stick, but a lot of games were also unique and inventive because they tried stuff that hadn’t been done before and realized that it worked. Games made these days have a much more clear view of what people want in games, and what they do not. Because of this they are also a lot more cowardly when it comes to trying things they don’t know will ensure a profit. That’s why I generally like Indie games quite a lot, not being governed by big companies usually means they are allowed to be a lot more experimental.
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The thing to remember though is that if you pick up a Dark Souls game, you go into it pretty much knowing what you’re going to experience. If you pick up a Stardew Valley, you know that is going to be like too.
This is a 180 degree turn from where we were just a month ago.
Freelancer (and Hardcore Mode specifically) take a lot of the game play that players were used to and turn it on its head. Losing Merces (which weren’t even in the game prior), tools, weapons, and failing a campaign are elements that many players weren’t expecting. A lot of Hitman 1, 2, and 3 players find Freelancer to be a departure from the Hitman they were used to, even if it’s the same core game.
A brand new player who had never experienced Hitman before might see nothing particularly exotic about Freelancer versus the main story-mode of the game but we’ve been absorbed into Hitman (World of Assassination) for years now. Suddenly we have this new mode which just isn’t the same.
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I think it would be simpler to get rid of the auto-fail feature for exiting the game.
True! I’m over 40 too and I remeber hours and hours playing tetris with my gameboy. When you reached the “last” level you could hardly see the pieces coming down anymore due to the insane speed 
You simply had to accept it as part of the game 
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If IO Interactive ever sold out to 343 Industries, Alt-F4 will be one of the first things to go and power/internet crashes will no longer excuse losing Freelancer or Elusive Target.
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And that’s why, despite a few questionable choices, IOI is one of the better companies in the industry.
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For me it’s more the lack of developer mistreatment and predatory monetisation practices (so far).
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On my first go-through for Hardcore Mode - most of the missions have been… Not “easy” perse, because you do have to be careful, watchful, and plan most of the time. Other times you can improvise.
I’ve only had one mission that gave me a lot of trouble… It was in Bangkok (& I’m using the Variations mod). This one had both ETs in the hotel, and one target was one of the Warlord’s guards. I could’ve brought in a Seiker (and probably should’ve), but I didn’t want to use a weapon from the wall in case I got gunned down… But I was ready and willing to use Alt+F4 anyway. 
I still don’t know what happens when you merely fail a Prestige Objective. I’ve only had it happen 3 times. I guess I’ll count this as the run to secure the unlockable suit, then try it again with a more honest approach (unless the game cheats and screws me over 
).
Mama I made it! I was the very first person (to my knowledge) that documented the sniper strategy. I posted this video within 24 hours of Freelancer’s release and I am happy that people have learned and utilizied it.
Something that I have always complained about is the showdowns. Imagine you are travelling to destinations, you have multiple challenges and targets, and then you meet the final boss and it becomes a clue simulator
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Congrats on picking the low hanging fruit. Got any good strats? lul
Really enjoyed Freelancer, especially the traps you can set with water and oil. Got to lv 60 before losing interest. However, if it wasnt for the fact that you can re-roll maps and restart missions by closing the game, I would not even TOUCH it. The game is unfair enough with all its glitches of guards spotting you through walls etc, and losing a whole campaign because of that is totally not fair. If the game can cheat, you should allso be able to. Would just have liked more interactions in the house, e.g. sitting on the couch, etc. Here are the highlights of my campaign:
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(19 more s to make it 20)
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