Games that become REALLY annoying!! (Like Infinite Undiscovery)

[ManicMatt]

*Potential plot spoilers for Infinite Undiscovery! Although I've been very vague so you might be okay! But don't blame me otherwise!*

Do you ever find yourself enjoying a game and then it throws something into the mix and suddenly you take relish in the thought of snapping the disc in half? Of course you do!

There I was, happily playing when I found myself in a jungle. A jungle with seemingly random warp barriers everywhere that keep teleporting you back to an earlier point. For hours, I tried, till I thought "sod this" and looked up a guide:



Simple enough! *choke* okay if I go here.. then here.. okay. I finally get to the finish!

So i move on. Oh but no, then my characters find they can turn evil if they're exposed to something for too long and attack me due to a plot point I won't spoil for you. So I have to backtrack through this jungle fighting enemies, and I've been given something to stop my friends from going mental and killing us all. Except the item isnt explained very well, and using it doesnt have much effect. and when they go mad I can't even touch them. So I've now got to go to someplace north of this forest. Whilst watching my back on these allies. And fighting monsters. Suffice to say I died. So I forget them lot, and go out with my pet bear who won't turn evil. But can I find the north exit? Nope. ARGH!! This isn't worth the nuisance!! This is going to be the first second hand copy in my shop..

Anyway! Name a game that pissed you off loads, and how!

[Ryan Timothy B]

ManicMatt, considering you own a gaming store and I'm assuming you know lot about games, you'll probably laugh before I even finish the title of this game..  I unfortunately, due to boredom and lack of games to play, bought Vampire Rain.


Ok.. Ok.. enough laughing now.  It was HORRIBLE!  I later found out it was voted worst xbox360 game of the year!  That's a pretty hard title to achieve.  I actually beat the game, and you have no idea how many times I cursed myself for wasting the full price for that game.

The second worst game for my 360 would definitely be Stranglehold.  I can understand invincible vampires in Vampire Rain, but in Stranglehold there are invincible humans.  The bosses after each level take hundreds and hundreds of bullets to their raw flesh to actually kill them.  I could understand if they were wearing some type of body suit, I would ignore it a little easier, but they aren't!

Argh, I'm getting angry thinking about those games. haha

[R4L]

I'd have to say... Battletoads on NES, Super Metroid at times, Turok on N64, I Wanna Be The Guy,  Resident Evil 3, and Mortal Kombat 3.

Everyone knows that Battletoads is a BITCH to play. I never made it past the 3rd level.

And I love Super Metroid. It's a fantastic game. However, I would always get SO close to a 100% item completion, because of missile expansions that seems IMPOSSIBLE to get. There's one in Maridia where you have to super run, save it, get to a certain spot before it runs out, and super jump straight up into a one block wide hole before it runs out...

Or, getting a missile expansion by super running, morphing into a ball and rolling into the wall that's only big enough for morph ball. The thing is, I have no f*cking clue how to do it. I've tried everything.

Turok on N64 is a great game, but the jumping parts in the game are so frustrating at times, especially when you're trying to speed run it. Oh, and don't forget finding all the gun pieces so you can kill the Campaigner at the end with little effort. If not, you better hope you have all the guns and every bit of ammo, and good accuracy to hit him.

I Wanna Be The Guy is supposed to be annoying. It's a very hard game. I hated when I killed Mike Tyson, only to die after because you have to fall out of space, go two screens left, dodge a flying killer cherry, and land in a pool of water before you burst into flames from falling from the atmosphere and die. Oh, not to mention that the Dracula boss is totally random. IWBTG + random = NOT GOOD.

Resident Evil 3 pissed me off so much. I used to speed run this game, but I'd often miss out on a good time because the game has randomly generated items. Counting on an herb to be at some spot, only to finally get there and see it isn't there? Yeah...

Mortal Kombat 3 was so unforgiving. Not only was it new because of it's combo system and speed, but you could play the 1 player mode on normal, and you'd have your ass handed to you at the second guy if you didn't master running and blocking. I played Killer Instinct instead of that.

There's a lot of games that annoyed me a lot. I might post more.

[LimpingFish]

Matt's shop only stocks bad games. It's all EA and Wii Fits as far as the eye can see.

Gears of War is a game that pissed me off to no end. Even on "casual", enemies absorbed bullets like sponges, and grenade aiming was impossible.

Regardless, the whole tone of the game became immensely annoying. Epic Game's sole purpose must be to supply armchair-jarheads with wargasm fantasies.

Yeauuccchh! Poxy.

[Domino]

Not really a game, but this should count. Have it for PlayStation.



I like the software, but damn, i could never come up with a good song. I made one decent song, but trying to navigate the menu's and all the other stuff required to make a masterpiece really made me mad.

I should go back and try again..with a little bit of patience i might have a song that could sound somewhat decent.

I did have a song with a whale echoing in the background...that was cool.

Also, i agree with GOW, game pissed me off. Looks beautiful, but i play shitty.

[TerranRich]

I don't think I've ever found a game that made me want to destroy it with prejudice. Maybe Super Mario Bros. 1 when I was a kid, there was always a point in Level 8-3 (I think) that I could never pass for months. I just gave up.

Thing is, I'm just bad at all games in general. I still have never beaten any type of game without cheats, a walkthrough, a FAQ, cheat codes (like Codebreaker), or a combination of the four. So I guess you could say all games are like that for me. :p

[Ryan Timothy B]

Hmmm, see I never had a problem with Gears of War.  I fully enjoyed almost every moment in the game (except for the area where you have to run from the house to your car, through the garden. I started getting frustrated.  but only because every time you'd die you'd have to restart back in the attic and make your whole way through the back of the house again. over and over).

[Makeout Patrol]

I have had this experience with a ridiculous number of games - I probably have hundreds of dollars worth of games that I've never even come close to finishing. Games with checkpoint save systems do this to me a lot, especially if there are cutscenes that need to be endured in the meantime. (I almost gave up on Final Fantasy VII when you go through the caves underneath Gonaga or whatever the place was called; it was a long cave with a lot of monsters, two minibosses, and a proper boss that was extremely difficult - all without any save points, of course. I probably would have ditched the game if I hadn't been told that you can instantly kill the boss by using an X-potion on it, of which you were given at least one in the game's main storyline.) Corridors piss me right off - I've never finished the "library" level in Halo, for instance; I don't mind tossing a couple of claustrophobic areas into a game to mix things up, but extended sequences of identical hallways reek of lazy level design - but their darker cousin, labyrinths, are even worse. If I'm anything close to typical, a lot of people probably abandoned Quest for Glory 2 right at the beginning, because of the labyrinth which is the game's very first challenge. This also pissed me off near the end of American McGee's Alice.

I also have it quite often in multiplayer games. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like constantly being annihilated by foul-mouthed fifteen-year-olds who apparently sit around playing the game for six hours a day. I recall playing America's Army and getting trashed quite often, then starting a new map and doing quite well. I wandered over a hill, saw moving figures on another hill, and shot at them, killing two people. A third ran by, so I shot it, too, and got kicked for team-killing.

[Akatosh]

This only really happened to me once, with an otherwise awesome game: XIII. It's a cel-shaded ego-shooter with a charming comic-esque look and compelling gameplay. It's mostly actiony, but there are some "sneaky" levels where you must not trigger an alarm. This is usually doable - the alert isn't triggered immediatly, so you have some time to shoot the guard who spots you before he can press one of these big red glowing buttons.

Except in the very last goddamn mission of the game.

In that, you're in a secret military base, and for some reason, you must not kill a single guard. The whole thing is SWARMING with enemies, and of course with big red glowing alarm buttons. You MAY knock them out, but the base also seems to consist solely of unbreakable see-through glass walls with an alarm trigger every three meters or so. And you can't save freely - the whole thing works per checkpoints. And there is precisely one - at the very start of the level (eh). You can't even cheat your way out of there, because the only cheat there is is one that gives you infinite ammo. GAAAAAAH.

I never finished that game.

[miguel]

All ZX Spectrum games except Bruce Lee (the only one I could finish)

[ThreeOhFour]

Tony Hawk's Proving Grounds for Nintendo Wii. Never ask me to complete an action which is almost impossible to complete due to absurdly sloppy controller implementation. Anyone who has tried "Skate Checking" in this game on this console will understand what I mean. After trying for half an hour to finish a single lousy mission with this ridiculous "innovation" and wondering rather angrily whether anyone had actually playtested the game at all, I realised that it could be completed if I held the 2 controller sections at an absurdly odd angle in a completely unnatural grip I could manage that mission. Then went on to find that one of the final missions required me to beat some guy in at least 2 out of 5 things. When I beat him in 4 out of 5 but could not finish the last one, causing the game to state that I had failed the mission, I lost patience.

Neverwinter Nights 2. I breezed through the game very easily indeed. When I got to one of the final sections, I found that resting had been disabled. Considering that the strength of my party was basically fully dependant on being able to rest, the area was full of kickass enemies and I couldn't go back and restock or rest in another area despite having the item and character necessary to do so I gave up. Never before had I breezed so easily through a game only to be defeated so quickly near the end.

[Radiant]

The two that immediately come to mind are Codename: Iceman and King's Quest V...

[InCreator]

Stronghold series have insane difficulty level. Thing is, in latter games, only way to win is by exploiting shortages in AI and bugs (Like blocking enemy gate with ox tether, using "attack here" to make catapults shoot further or making a moat maze, since enemy never fills in moats when there's a path... Even if this digging-free path leads seventeen circles forth and back through arrow/mangonel fire and is moistured with very flammable pitch!!!).
For many scenarios there's no way to win "normally", play a game without being remember that you're human and against AI in every move. Don't get me wrong, I'm in love with this game.

Since there's no better way (yet) to put some sharp arrows into screaming peasants while building a castle into dark forests, I will always love Stronghold (especially Crusader), but difficulty and lack of AI is really annoying.

Only exception is Stronghold Legends, which I don't play, since it's fucked up from first code line. This game takes "annoying" to the next level, and should be described with stronger language than "annoying". Yesterday I picked it up again... Got stuck in 4th or 5th mission.
And so bad, I memlocked gold so I had infinite, trying to win this one, and even having unlimited gold I still got beaten like a sick dog. So long, Legends, you won't never find your way back to my machine.

Ghost Recon games are insanely bad. Even though there's cult-like followers claiming it's the best shooter ever, I never saw this. First games are about walking until direct bullet hit from unknown location ends it in a second, Advanced Warfighter games are a bit better, but have same theme plus need to exploit weaknesses of bad AI code.

One thing is hard game (Contra?) you can master in time, but digital masochism is way another thing.
I really tried to like it. I spent, like, 3 months trying to beat first game. Years later, I did beat AW I and II. It left me empty and disappointed.
I love a realistic game. I like a shooter. But Tom Clancy's Duck Hunt (starring player as blind, paralyzed duck)?
No thank you.

Art of Fighting 2 on arcade/Neo-Geo. Not many people can claim that they've ever beaten this game. I still play it occasionally, it's IMO best 2D fighter ever made, and bruising up (literally!) some bastards after hard day is really satisfying. But not many people make it even to 3rd opponent at easiest (level-1) difficulty. There's like, 50/50 chance that I, even been playing this for over 10 years, can still get beaten by first opponent without even sustaining him/her any damage. Damn!

World of Warcraft....
...
"The real fun starts once you make it to level 70"
Really? How can anyone get through this mess of a RPG so long? And what "fun" starts then? Quests and "storyline" won't be lame excuse for more grinding and letter deliveries anymore? Yeah right.
I will never ever make it to level 40. I simply get dead bored and annoyed after level 20, when levelling up drops to turtle pace. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was only RPG that ever had story-driven, interesting quests. And even this was killed with badly planned gameplay, such as city-size dungeons with billion monsters and no reward of any kind ("6 Gold, yippee!"), etc.

Commandos series. I love them and hate them. They can be mastered, but they are SO diffiiicuuult!!!
Ah, and Commandos 3. That's one hell of a letdown. I regret I ever tried this, world would be better place for me if I knew that there's 3rd game somewhere and it could be as wonderful as second game was. Sadly, I broke this illusion by really trying Commandos 3.

Civilization (ANY, especially IV) makes me always angry: I evolve from dark ages to a tech dream, have most horrid weapons ever developed and ready to wipe all other civilizations to dust. I've built largest cities, explored all tech available. Let the destruction commence...
...50 turns left!
WTF?!

Sure, you can skip time victory and play further, but "no score recorded" and... well, I don't wanna. It's not "right" anymore.

And generally, any games (RTS usually) that force you to accept heavy losses. I always want to play perfectly, have unbeatable defense, make a superb, overwhelming offensive. As most perfectionists.
Some games, such as mentioned Stronghold, are done so in the end of the mission, you have only ruins and three wounded units left. It's like - needed, goes with story. Why?

I could go on, but those are worst ones I could remember.

[TwinMoon]

Definitely Zelda II, the last castle.

You start up the game.
First you have to travel across the entire map, and then through that very difficult swamp where every time your jump isn't spot on, you die. And you only have three lives.

Then you arrive at the castle with all your experiences in defeating enemies, and suddenly they changed it: your shield is now useless and enemies jump at you, rapidly-firing. And they have more hit points, and those jumping ones are impossible to hit.
Add to that the castle is a maze where everything looks the same.

So after a few dead-ends you run out of lives and have to start again.

I never finished it on the NES, but when I discovered about emulators, I downloaded it and made it through, saving all the time.

Man, what a disappointing ending after waiting 14 years.

[LimpingFish]

Hmmm, see I never had a problem with Gears of War.  I fully enjoyed almost every moment in the game (except for the area where you have to run from the house to your car, through the garden. I started getting frustrated.  but only because every time you'd die you'd have to restart back in the attic and make your whole way through the back of the house again. over and over).

Maybe it's just me. I find it ridiculous that it takes a whole clip to take down a generic Locust, making the standard assault rifle (not to mention the handgun) almost useless. Enemies don't even seem to react to being shot, until the requisite number of bullets has been pumped into them, resulting in a pointblank standoff to see who has to reload first. I can empty four clips into those big rocket-firing bastards, and the only change in their demeanor is when they pause to reload their launchers. It's shockingly lazy game design masquerading as "tactics"; forcing you to "tactically" avoid their rockets until a predetermined maximum bullet absorption counter ticks over. Head-shots and shooting their legs out from under them seems to work on a purely coincidentally basis, making strategic aiming frustratingly ineffective.

Ignoring all that, that story is so devolved and the characters are so one-dimensional, generic, unpleasant toss-pots, that the whole game becomes an exercise in messy bloated pointlessness.

And I normally enjoy this sort of game.

[R4L]

Some more games:

Ghosts n' Goblins (NES): WOW. This game was a BITCH. Not only was it boring as hell. but it had the worst jumping system, unforgiving enemies, and flase sense of security. Seriously, your so called "armor" breaks after one hit! Talk about cheap!

Gradius 3 (SNES): This game was great. I loved it, and I actually did beat it, but never have I gotten such a headache from a game than this one. Near the last level is a part with the most horrible level design ever. You know in Mario on 7-4 how it had the dead ends? Yeah, well this game has them too, which is STUPID because you have to trial and error your way through it. Not to mention that in the same part, the game speeds up really fast and makes you navigate through small narrow passages with a bunch of enemies shooting at you. If you die, you're toast. There aren't enough upgrades to get your speed up enough to be able to navigate that fast through the passages.

Then, you get past that part, and you have to fight a boss. Great.

Grand Theft Auto 3 (XBOX): Hey I love GTA! Except the missions that meant killing people with guns... and that was a lot of them. The lock on system in that game is simply awful, and I spent a lot of time doing missions over because of it.

Rainbow Six (PC): Anyone remember that mission where you started on the roof and had to infiltrate the building without getting seen once? I stopped playing there, because it was simply impossible for me. Everything I did got me caught.

Breakdown (XBOX): I love this game. It's better than Halo IMO. But there's a part where you have to fight a massive amount of enemies, all different types, with hand to hand combat. You get ganged up on by fighters, and get your ass kicked, while getting shot by ranged enemies with lasers, and you have to kill every single one of them to progress further. It was one of the most annoying parts.

And there's a section where you get chased by a guy you can't kill yet, and you have to get to three rooms filled with enemies, kill the all, and turn a valve in each room, so that you can open a door somewhere. All the while you're doing this, this guy just KICKS YOUR ASS the whole time. Plus, the door you finally open, it's really heavy, and it takes forever to open, so you have to have perfect health to even get out of there alive. I died too many times on this part.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (XBOX): This game was a blast to play, except one level, mainly the construction level. First off, it's a long ass level. Second, it's very hard, and third, you have to beat it not once, but TWICE. First as Max Payne, then as Mona. The level wasn't even cool, so playing through it twice was just boring. The part I hated the most was protecting Max Payne with a sniper. The enemies take a few shells to die, and Max has this set path and it sucks because if you don't kill a lot of the guys fast enough, he just walks to every next point getting shot at.

And the apartment level... The jumping on that game is horrible. Died a lot on those parts. There's one part in particular, where you're on the side of a building, and suddenly a van pulls up and out jumps 5 or 6 guys, who just unload on you. There is no cover, so you have to make your way down this thing while they shoot at you. By the time you actually get down, you have such a low chance of surviving unless you can rack up bullet time fast enough.

Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX): I've had this game for some time now, and I haven't even gotten past the 5th battle. It's too hard for me.

Oh, and Halo 2 has the worst single player campaign I've ever went through.

[InCreator]

And the apartment level... The jumping on that game is horrible. Died a lot on those parts. There's one part in particular, where you're on the side of a building, and suddenly a van pulls up and out jumps 5 or 6 guys, who just unload on you. There is no cover, so you have to make your way down this thing while they shoot at you. By the time you actually get down, you have such a low chance of surviving unless you can rack up bullet time fast enough.

That's what the bullet time is for. As soon as van gets there, throw a nade/molotov, after it explodes, switch to bullet time and wipe out any survivors.
But yes, apartment level was trial-and-error at most points.

[Makeout Patrol]

Civilization (ANY, especially IV) makes me always angry: I evolve from dark ages to a tech dream, have most horrid weapons ever developed and ready to wipe all other civilizations to dust. I've built largest cities, explored all tech available. Let the destruction commence...
...50 turns left!
WTF?!

Sure, you can skip time victory and play further, but "no score recorded" and... well, I don't wanna. It's not "right" anymore.

Oh man, I can't believe I forgot Civilization, although I've never managed to get anywhere near as far as you. For me, these games come to a screeching halt at the very beginning because the AI is so goddamn unreasonable. Say I've got a neighbour, and I want them to give me free passage through their country for trade and whatnot. For me, an acceptable trade in this situation would probably be giving them free passage through my country. BUT NO, THAT'S NOT ENOUGH. I also have to give them hundreds of gold, two or three technological innovations, and one of my cities! How is that reasonable?

I have similar problems with the Total War games, but I'm determined to someday get into Rome. I'd mention that I get frustrated with RTS games, but honestly, that's more boredom than frustration.

[LimpingFish]

Breakdown (XBOX): I love this game. It's better than Halo IMO. But there's a part where you have to fight a massive amount of enemies, all different types, with hand to hand combat. You get ganged up on by fighters, and get your ass kicked, while getting shot by ranged enemies with lasers, and you have to kill every single one of them to progress further. It was one of the most annoying parts.

*memory jolt* Yes, you're right. Breakdown is a true underdog game, in every sense of the word, and so very nearly a classic. The first time you drive out onto that vast mountain range, after spending so long in endless gray corridors, equals the sense of awe that HL2 achieved with Highway 17.

And it's one of the few Xbox games that has a permanent place in my collection.

But that stupidly difficult section near the end is truly awful.

As for RTS games, I just don't have the patience.

[ManicMatt]

I must defend my (wii fit-less) shop now! It has The Dig, Broken Sword 4, Leisure suit larry collection, eh.. stronghold, tunguska, dreamfall, carte blanch (?), and will have So Blonde when it comes out! Yes it has EA games in it too, you gotta please as many people as you can! Most asked release date for a game in my shop? Fifa 09. How exciting is that?

One customer just said to me "When is 09 out?" so I said "Jan 1st". He went "Ha ha. I mean for Fifa!" Oh how silly of me!

But I digress!

Yes, the Max Payne apartment jumping sucked. And I can't remember if it was in the first or second game, but there was a section where it was pitch black, with thin white drawn lines you had to stay on, and jump around. I fell off so many damn times (on xbox), it was so annoying! And had annoying baby screams to help annoy me more.

Domino, Music 3000 on ps2 is the best music making software on any console, although not as powerful or flexible as most decent pc music making software. But it did let you actually, compose, instead of picking pre-made loops, which is nice.

Haha, I love Oblivion, but I have to agree it's frustrating to go inside a random dungeon and get to the end of it, and wonder what the point of it all was.

PS - Vampire Night? hahaha. Go play Kengo Zero, it's brilliant.