Derwood

Use this thread to vent about frustrating times with video games.

I just took 2 evenings to get all the tags in GTA: San Andreas. I had a map and tag-by-tag guide printed out and went systematically through the list.

I crossed off my final tag but had just 99 of 100. I'm positive I didn't cross off any that I hadn't done yet.

At one point, the game froze, and I had to "reboot". I went back and re tagged all those I thought I had done since my last save. Maybe I missed one.

So now I have to start at the top of the list and go through AGAIN to find the one I missed!

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Stompy

GTA and frustration go hand in hand, hah. I read the subject and immediately thought "GTA". Kind of a bad thing, though... because those games are so frustrating that eventually they're no longer fun. I never did beat Vice City or San Andreas because the frustration got so bad that I just said, "fuck it, this game isn't fun anymore."

Metroid Prime almost did that to me, too... on the final boss. I beat that fucker with pure luck when I did... to this day I have no idea how anyone is supposed to last that long through both battles/forms. Actually it got so bad I was at the last boss and stopped playing for nearly 2 years (until the time Echoes came out).

There's a lot of games that offer a fun challenge, but then there are games that just offer flat out impossible ridiculousness. That's generally when I lose all desire to play.

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Bratwurst

I could never beat the end boss in Golgo 13 on the original NES. To this day it bugs me. Must have tried to beat that boss at the end of the game 1000 times.

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BigBen

I stay away from games whose plot lines resemble:

Get the map
to find the key
to open the chest
to find the lantern
that lights the cave
so you can see the lever
which you have to pull
to open the trap door
to find the wizard
who will tell you where to find the map
>back to top of list

And there I am, looking for a fucking lever in a cave for 5 hours straight.

If I need a cheat/hint book to complete the game, I turn it off and use it as a beer coaster.

my 2 cents.

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Hey, if you are impressed with my memorizing pi to 10 digits, you should see the size of my penis.

Lasereth

The GTA games can be rather frustrating. It's all about learning the method of doing each mission. That's what I like about the GTA games...if a mission is frustrating you, you can try a different method of completing the mission.

The Metroid Prime final boss was rough, but after 4 goes I got the pattern down. By the fourth time, I beat it without getting hit <I>once</I>. Just gotta get the pattern in your head and then it's simple. Some of the other bosses in that game were truly frustrating though (Omega Pirate).

One of the most recent frustrating games I've played is Devil May Cry 3. That game is unbelievably hard, but really really cool. Why is it frustrating? Because if it had a checkpoint or save system (like the first one...) implemented, then it would be a candidate for game of the year. That's idiotic on Capcom's part not to include a fucking ass save system in a game that hard. I don't understand why they'd take it out if it was in the first one to begin with.

-Lasereth

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Xazy

Prince of Persia 2, sorry some of those jump sequences, you needed to jump and move perfectly to just get to the next area... It is retarded!

This is not fight sequences, just jumping and twisting...

Jinn

In the original EverQuest, when you died.. you lost a considerable amount of experience -- hours and hours worth of progress, usually. There were quite a few times I'd level for like 8 hours straight, die twice, and be 2 hours in the hole. I definitely cried a little bit when that happened, I was so frustrated.

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mystmarimatt

King's Quest VI

Yes, very old. Very frustrating. There comes a point where you just can't beat a game that is so horribly pixillated you can't distinguish one thing from another, and yet, needs you to see something or do something miniscule within the confines of these rancid graphics.

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Derwood

The last level of Ninja Gaiden on the NES still ranks as the hardest level in any video game ever. I couldn't do it at all, but my best friend did, but was nearly in tears from frustration after countless attempts.

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Willravel

DAOC and every other such game. Killing 8000 wolves, trees, bushes, and bugs for money over an 8 month period, only to find that your friends leveled instantly by following higher levels around for 8 hours just isn't fun. If you're honest in an RPG, it takes months (or dedicating your every waking hour).

Suave

One of the damn Mario games for Gameboy (Marioland 2?) where you can get rabbit ears and crap. At the castle, they had the requisite lava pits and all of that, as well as spikes and flamethrowers. I normally gave up on the game at this point because it would end up going like this: jump-duck-crawl-jump-"DAMN!"... jump-duck-crawl-jump-duck-"DAMN!"... jump-duck-"#*&#%!"... and so on until I had used up around 50 lives and was in no mood for the game anymore. Oh how I loathe that game.

Xazy: I hear ya on Prince of Persia 2 (that's the Warrior Within?). I enjoyed watching my brother play, and sometimes fail to my amusement.

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RubenBaraja

How about Viewtiful Joe.

One of the later levels where you have to take on harder versions of every boss. When you finally beat them all again you have to face someone twice as hard - Fire Leo.

Loved this game until this level. Had to give up in the end.

Nikilidstrom

Glad somebody mentioned the original Ninja Gaiden. Damn that was a pain in the ass. And dont feel bad about Golgo 13, I could never get past the second level that was an underwater base. It did get me into anime at a young age though, so it wasnt all bad.

I think my most frustrating moment in gaming is a toss up between the last level of Kid Icarus for NES or the last boss of Bionic Commando where you had to shoot at just the right time while falling to hit the right spot, or you had to do the entire level over again. I think I spent as much time on that level as I did the rest of the game.

FngKestrel

Ninja Gaiden, already mentioned by a few people, was definitely a sore point for me. It especially sucked that when you continued at the very last boss, you'd have to start at the beginning of the last level again.

More recently, I've rediscovered how hard Dragon's Lair 2 was. Coppertop and I spent 5 hours playing the game at the Classic Gaming Expo last weekend. I checked the DVD later. We still had a long way to go to completing it.

guthmund

I frustrate myself more than the game ever does.

I procrastinate. I tell myself I just have to find one last thing, or go to one last spot and then I'll save it. Usually ends up with my character dead and me cursing because now I've got to do it all over again.

Xazy: I hear you loud and clear on PoP2. The save spots are ridiculously far apart at times and it's irritating to get so far and then mash a button while standing next to a wall to jump over the enemy and end up doing a wall jump off into the bottomless abyss below.

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RubenBaraja

Another frustraing retro moment I remember is for Trojan on the NES.

Pretty sure this was a prime example of the lack of saves in older games. I.e. get all the way to the last level after hours of play - die - go right back to Level 1.

A classic retro feature in games which I am quite glad hasnt really made it in to this generation. Games do seem easier now.

Quality thread by the way - will add more when I remember.

El Pollo

The good thing about the tags in GTA:SA is that it's very easy to see which ones you've already tagged. But in Vice City and 3, when you missed 1 hidden package and had to retrace your steps, you were never quite sure if you were in the wrong place for the package or if you'd already gotten the package.
As for frustrating, I don't know of anybody who ever beat Battletoads on the NES. Even with an emulator and constant save states I couldn't beat the damn speed bike part.

RubenBaraja

Thats another one - Battletoads. Had it for the Megadrive and could never get passed the speed bike level also. Think it was only level three aswell. If I remember you could have a two player co-op mode and it was still no easier.

I would love to test my skills on that one again

FngKestrel

Redjake

Two come to mind, one moreso than the other:

Last mission on Driver for PlayStation. While being a WONDERFUL game (this was before GTA 3), the last mission was fucking ridiculous. You had to drive the President of the United States in something along the lines of a Lincoln Towncar across the entirety of the game's rendition of San Francisco while you have HORDES of cars trying to ram you and spin you out of control. Easy to dodge them usually, the real clencher? TIME LIMIT. The time limit was RIDICULOUS. After the 57th try at the final mission, and I considered myself good at the game, I threw my PS controller across the room and put a dent in the dry wall (controller was ok). Turned off the PSX.

Next morning, booted it up, beat it the first try. I was in some sort of "clear casting" state (WoW) and saw things before they happened or something Most frustrating videogame moment I can think of.


In a close second: The Egg Viper boss in Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast. That boss was DAMN hard also.

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Kostya

Once you get past the speedbike level...

You find your way to the FUCKING CUNT kangaroo race level...

I don't think I would have seen that level on NES, but emulator or no emulator, those fuckers made a game you can't beat I tells ya.

djflish

There's 2 that spring to mind:

Bart Vs. The Space Mutants on the NES - Damn was that hard! I couldn't even get past the second level. Platform games are the bane of my life...

Streetfighter II - Championship Edition - I had it on the hardest possible difficulty, worked my way to the end and could I beat M. Bison?? Fuck no I couldn't! My SNES was this close to going out the window....

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I know which one I prefer.

Siege

Lufia 2 - the bonus dungeon.

99 straight floors of the hardest monsters in the game with no save points. Frustrating simply because it took me forever and i was killing monsters ad nauseum.

I guess also when I accidentally deleted my Romancing SaGa 3 save state. I was ALMOST done the game with stacked items/chanracters. I gave up playing that game after even though it was so good.

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GreenHell

hmm, one of the worst moments for me was while playing Final Fantasy VII, not that the game was too hard, though it had its moments, its just that one day when i was on the second disc (near the end, i learned later) when i booted up my game, my save data was gone. I only had one game of FFVII on my memory card. I was so pissed, and so shocked that i just sat staring at the tv in a silent rage. After about a month I started a new game and saved the game on two different files. I still save all my games on two files, if i can, just because i dont wanna have to go through that again. Im sure ill think of more later.

FngKestrel

Got another frustrating moment. FFX. To get the sigil for Tidus' super weapon, you're required to ride a chocobo in a race. For every bird that hits you, you're penalized 3 seconds, for every balloon you hit, you're rewarded 3 seconds. The goal is to get a time of 0.0. It was fucking ridiculous. subversve started playing the game at midnight, stayed up and played the game for 6 straight hours to finally get the sigil as sunlight was coming through the window. He swore he'd never play another FF game again.

Journeyman

Learning strafe jumps across the Urban map in action quake 2. Attempt, die, respawn, march to the top building, repeat. Then I finally remembered god and noclip, that eased me up a little bit.

t3m3st

I got that game when I was in the second grade and I couldn't beat it. Warios castle was just too much, even on easy mode. I hadn't touched it for a few years, and when PSP emulation came about for 1.5's, I loaded that up and beat it in a day. A day!!! I guess I have more skillz now that I've been playin Mario World on my new SNES.

Vice City, I'm short one secret package. Had a list from Gamefaqs, crossed it all off, and somehow, somewhere, missed one. I didn't bother with tags/clamshells etc. in San Andreas because of this.

I have a problem with games that send you back and forth through the same level, and call it a different level. I had a huge problem with levels always looking identical. I'm thinking Tomb Raider here. Every 5 one hour level looked exactly the same.

Then there's the impossible fighting game boss. Street Fighter Alpha 3 could be like that. Worse, Street Fighter 3. Marvel Vs. Capcom, I've still never beat Onslaught, or as he was called in my circle, Pwnslaught. Worse yet, omfgwtfbbq, Tekken 5. It takes you to a certain point with gradual difficulty increases, and then BOOM! IMPOSSIBLE!

There are actually alot of games in my collection that I've just gotten frustrated with and given up on. Especially the second time around, like with Chrono Cross. And when you put them down for a while, it's impossible to pick up from where you left off.

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Mr.Deflok

Omega Pirate made me almost give up playing that game! I got so freakin' pissed, I'd just continuosly get owned, what was worse is that one time I had him down to a sliver of health and I was still on a bar and I stood on some Phazon and got flanked my Plasma Pirates only to be finished off with a stomp from the big Omega himself.

A week later I picked it up again with a big overwhelming sense of futility and beat the shit out of him first go. Plan sailing from then on (though Meta-Ridley was bit of a bitch). Still, it wasn't a frustrating where I'd say to myself "Fucking Cube is using hax!", the difficulty is understandable, you've just gotta jump in with the right tactics and mindset. We all know how much I love my Prime bestgameevar!

They're demented, that's the only reason I can think of. It's fucking ridiculous to make your game that hard and be so relentless as to not allow the player to save. Fuck that I'll have my money back thanks.


Also, I foresee this thread having more swearwords in it than the GTA series combined.

Mister Coaster

Wow, so many games, so much frustration. Where to begin...?

Warcraft II for the PC. Got to the last level where I was royally getting my ass kicked, early and often. After a week of trying that level my gard drive crashes and my save game is gone. Bever played it again.

Game Boy Castlevania, the damn game never ends. It just keeps going back to the beginning, only each time you "start over" you take double the damage every time you get hit. After flipping it 3 times in one sitting, one hit was taking 8 life bars, I think you start with 10. I just gave up.

And then there was this stupid little Radio Shack hand held blackjack game. It remembered your money total, which was cool but it had 2 glitches... one was the fact that the dealer's down card was NEVER a 10. The other was that it was incredibly "streaky." I managed to amass some redicilously high amount of money, and would then not get a winning hand to save my life. I eventually smashed the fuckin' thing in frustration. I felt a little better.

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Gustoferson

Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver for the Dreamcast. This was easily the hardest and most frustrating game I have ever played, but not in the "i have no idea how to solve this puzzle" way, but rather the "i have no idea where there even was a puzzle or how to get there" sort of way. For instance, you'd be told to go east over the mountains to get to the next part. Only problem: there's no map or direction indicator and you're standing in a place surrounded by mountains on all sides. So you check literally every inch of the area you can get to without finding anything. Or another problem, which is you pass right by what was a puzzle but have no idea and don't reach the area that it is supposed to affect until 6 more hours of gameplay through. I only figured this out after trying to fall back on a strategy guide, but by then I couldn't figure out how to go back and get everything done. I would've had to use a walkthrough from the start, and I sure as hell wasn't going to start the game over after getting so many hours in. Never did finish that damn thing. It's really a shame too considering how awesome parts of the game were in general (the graphics, the storyline, the cutscenes, etc).

And another Dreamcast game:
That level was so simple in terms of what you had to do, but was too damn frustrating trying to pull it off. It was basically one long jumping sequence for a boss, where something would always happen to push you slightly off center and plunge to the death. Lather, rinse, repeat. Roughly 60-70 times if i remember correctly. I wish I was exaggerating.

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RubenBaraja

Nice Battletoads link.

Good to see someone else could not get past the second level on Bart vs The Space Mutants. Took absolutely ages getting past the first level too.

How do they reward you? Something double the already solid difficulty. For a kids game too.

Speaking of hard games aimed at children, try Fantasia. Looks similar to Castle/World of Illusion but is totally impossible.

pattycakes

two words

maniac mansion

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Slavakion

I think I added 20 hours to my game trying to get that. And don't forget the lightning dodging minigame where you have to dodge 100 in a row. Not difficult, but the tedium really makes you lose concentration after the first 30 or so.

Derwood

Okay, I topped myself because I just took 2 hours of my life to go through all the tags AGAIN in numerical order, and they are ALL tagged, yet I still only have 99 of 100 credited. NICE FUCKING GLITCH!

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ElwoodBlues

Oh man, I hear you on that one. I could not beat that driver mission for the life of me. Finally I used the cheat codes to find myself the best route to where I needed to go, and then did it without codes. What a frustrating mission.

Also, in GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas, I am having the hardest time beating the final missions. I have yet to beat them. I just kinda gave up.

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Bauer's the man.

El Pollo

It could be that one of those tags isn't finished. Take out your spray can and see if it will let you lock onto the tag. If you cannot, that means that one is completely complete. But if you got interrrupted or stopped short when making one of the tags, it'll look complete but won't be counted. Though I'm kinda doubting you're going to spend another two hours checking this out. But having those molotov cocktails spawning at your house sure is worth it...

Strelich

I think any game where a mission requires babying an incompetent or outright homicidal AI drives me nuts. It's the "Protect the NPC which likes walking in front of moving things or into the path of guns" kind of mission. In Syndicate (1996), there was the mission in Columbia. There was a mission in Mechwarrior 4 (2000) where the pathfinding AI for the unit to protect was atrocious, that is, if you didn't ruin the mission by stepping on the unit you're supposed to protect.

Well, I guess there's that kind of mission, and I've never liked FPS "jumping puzzles" either. One of the final missions in GTA: Vice City (the one with racing the guy who becomes the bank robbery driver) was insanely difficult. I finally got pissed, rammed the guy into a wall, and managed to shoot out three of his tires. I think that ranked as one of my most triumphant game experiences, seeing Johnny Racecar spewing sparks and going about 30mph.

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Monty this seems strange to me.
The movies had that movie thing,
but nonsense has a welcome ring
and heroes don't come easy.

Derwood

I've been offered two possible explanations by folks at gamefaqs.com

1. One of the green tags looks like it was sprayed but wasn't

2. I tagged an extra tag during "Tagging up the Turf" and the game didn't count it.

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"You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

ObieX

I'd have to agree with EQ being highly frustrating. 3 words that I'm sure will make more than a few people cringe: "Train to zone!"

Luckily WoW doesn't have that problem

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spongy

When I played Star Wars Galxies, there was a mission for people trying to become Jedi where you had to escort a captain back to the village.. yopu had to fight off tons of baddies on the way, make sure the captian didn't wander off while you were fighting, and get him a ridiculous distance on foot in a verrrrry tight timeline, then he often committed suicide right before you finished the mission ( I must admit I was going as an escort on one of these runs when I was the only one to get the unlock for the escort, but it wasn't even me officially escorting him.. weird)

Also ther was a Ren and Stimpy snes game that i could never gotpast the third level or so. Pissed me off.

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