Your Most Difficult Moment In Gaming

[ace]

I've been thinking about this for a few days. Your most difficult moment can be an infuriating boss or level design, it can be an emotional character or story choice, or it can simply playing through a terrible game for whatever reason.

I'll start off with a few of my own.

Possible spoilers ahead.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 story decisions. Leave Kaiden or Ashley behind. Easy, Ashley's hot. Yet, over the course of Mass Effect 1, my character, Ace Shepard developed a strong bond with With Crewman Kaiden Alenko. I had to leave the game on pause whole I left to think about my decision. In the end I killed Kaiden on one play trough and killed Ash on another :p. In Mass Effect 2 if you haven't upgraded every facet of your shop BEFORE the suicide mission, your crewmates die. If you pick the wrong people for the final tasks in the suicide mission, people die. After spending 40+ hours with these characters, helping them out in their personal struggles and seeing Them grow as individuals, it's a hard decision. Of course, my next playthrough I simply upgraded everything and took the weakest characters with me, ensuring their survival.

Okami minigames - OMGWTFBBQ. Some of these mini-games are so infuriating that I was afraid I'd chuck my remote out the window at te nearest pedestrian. Luckily I was wearing the strap at the time.

Cooking Mama controls - bought this game for the GF, figured I'd I've it a shot one dAy since I love to cook. The concept is great and if they had nailed the controls, it would be a really fun game. But they didn't. And I'm not sure if it's the developer or the Wii-mote's fault, but the controlla really suck. I fail almost every challenge I start, because whatever I'm doing is not registering. another nearly-throwing-the-remote game. Why is this my hardest gaming moment? Well, had I not bought this game for someone else, I'd never have to see it again. But for some reason my GF LOVES it. Maybe she doesn't realize how shitty it is, but it's on the Wii often. All the time in fact n

Obviously these are fairly new examples from games I've played recently

[melancholy]

Without even putting much thought into it, the most recent case I can think of was at the very end of Prince of Persia (the 2009 one), where you have to chop down the trees. I knew exactly what was going to happen and I considered turning off the game before doing it just because I didn't want it to happen.

[cube_b3]

Nightshade (Kunochi) on hard mode, the Battle with Hibana's mentor.

[Specially Cork]

It's interesting you mention Mass Effect 2, because on my playthrough I lost Legion and Miranda. I hated Miranda throughout, and got Legion so late I didn't care. The thing is, I thought that was the point. It was only when I went online after I finished the game that I realised I could've lost anybody and I was lucky to keep all my favourite characters. Still, I kinda feel cheated out of an emotional conclusion.

Emotional times (SPOILERS):

- Tidus' death in FFX. First Final Fantasy so I didn't see it coming, and I was an emo teenage wreck at the time.
- Beating the original Shenmue and realising the story was only just beginning
- When I was 6, my mum and I beat the Master System version of Sonic 2 one night...but we hadn't collected all the chaos emeralds. After the credits rolled, the camera panned up to a starry sky...Tails imprisoned. I cried myself to sleep that night.

[pixel]

- When I was 6, my mum and I beat the Master System version of Sonic 2 one night...but we hadn't collected all the chaos emeralds. After the credits rolled, the camera panned up to a starry sky...Tails imprisoned. I cried myself to sleep that night.

Whoa … that's a pretty big bummer ending. Never knew the Master System version was such a downer.

[ace]

It's interesting you mention Mass Effect 2, because on my playthrough I lost Legion and Miranda. I hated Miranda throughout, and got Legion so late I didn't care. The thing is, I thought that was the point. It was only when I went online after I finished the game that I realised I could've lost anybody and I was lucky to keep all my favourite characters. Still, I kinda feel cheated out of an emotional conclusion.

It was important enough for me to play Mass Effect again just so I could keep Wrex alive, It was definitely worth it to go to the extra effort/planning involved in upgrading te Normandy and Picking the right characters for the right jobs during the Suicide mission. Who knows what characters will return in Mass Effect 3?

I liked Legion for his combat drone, and because he was basically a less annoying clone of Tali in terms of abilities. I actually love the whole Geth plot in general, very Battlestar Galactica.

And Miranda? For starters, I like Yvonne Strahovski (and the show Chuck, in which she co-starred). She was useful in combat since she had both Overload and Warp. And she was simply the most pleasing Mass Effect character to look at. So very pleasing. Hmm. Also loved her sub plot.

What didn't you like about her?

[Specially Cork]

It's interesting you mention Mass Effect 2, because on my playthrough I lost Legion and Miranda. I hated Miranda throughout, and got Legion so late I didn't care. The thing is, I thought that was the point. It was only when I went online after I finished the game that I realised I could've lost anybody and I was lucky to keep all my favourite characters. Still, I kinda feel cheated out of an emotional conclusion.

It was important enough for me to play Mass Effect again just so I could keep Wrex alive, It was definitely worth it to go to the extra effort/planning involved in upgrading te Normandy and Picking the right characters for the right jobs during the Suicide mission. Who knows what characters will return in Mass Effect 3?

I liked Legion for his combat drone, and because he was basically a less annoying clone of Tali in terms of abilities. I actually love the whole Geth plot in general, very Battlestar Galactica.

And Miranda? For starters, I like Yvonne Strahovski (and the show Chuck, in which she co-starred). She was useful in combat since she had both Overload and Warp. And she was simply the most pleasing Mass Effect character to look at. So very pleasing. Hmm. Also loved her sub plot.

What didn't you like about her?

Well, I gender bend as a female Shephard, so I was always the most pleasing character to look at (...or if you have the DLC I guess it's Kasumi). As for her character, she came across as a real bitch until her loyalty mission, but that's just it...by that point I barely wanted her loyalty, or to help her.

Also, as a kid who grew up with the Australian soap opera "Neighbours", and that being 100% of my exposure to Australian women, Miranda's accent weirdly reminded me of the show, and kept destroying the immersion throughout the entire game. But I guess that criticism is quite random and personal.

[DanteJay]

Also, as a kid who grew up with the Australian soap opera "Neighbours", and that being 100% of my exposure to Australian women, Miranda's accent weirdly reminded me of the show, and kept destroying the immersion throughout the entire game.

That was such a gay show.


Anyways, on my play-through of Mass Effect 2, most of my crew died. I didn't really care much at the time, since I already had my way with most of them. I kept Miranda alive, since I quite like Yvonne's sexy voice. Initially, I was a little undecided if I thought the idea of having sex with Jack was a little hot, since she was so butch and rude. But, something about her reminded a little bit of Natalie Portman. A bald, vulgar and tattoo ridden Natalie Portman... so I did her.

Good game.

[ace]

I really should play through ME2 as a female. Shepherd's female voice actor is supposed to be much better than the male, I just always find the male Shepherd to look more realistic. Plus I just find it jarring to use a Shepherd model that doesn't look like my first play-through model from ME1.

[Specially Cork]

I play a girl in pretty much every game where it lets me. I'm not entirely sure why - just when I'm given the option to design a character, making some hot woman seems the obvious choice. It certainly causes some difficult romance conversations in Bioware games, but playing an easy slut is still more satisfying than a manly stud.

[Jeeba Jabba]

THAT FIRST MOTHERFUCKING JUMP IN SUPER MOTHERFUCKING MARIO BROTHERS ON THE GODAMMN SON OF A BITCHIN NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM OR IF YOU'RE A BRITISH FUCKING FAGGOT COCKSUCKER DEVOID OF THE WORLD'S HAPPENING AROUND YOU, THE LITTLE BLUE SONIC FUCK HEDGEHOG FAG JUMPING AROUND, THAT WAS HARD

[Zealous zerotype]

Prob leveling characters to 9999 in disgaea. I don't remember if you could do it in the first game, but I know in the 2nd game you could do a kind of cheat to do it which really helped, but it wasn't really a cheat as the game rewarded you for breaking game mechanics.

[ace]

THAT FIRST MOTHERFUCKING JUMP IN SUPER MOTHERFUCKING MARIO BROTHERS ON THE GODAMMN SON OF A BITCHIN NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM OR IF YOU'RE A BRITISH FUCKING FAGGOT COCKSUCKER DEVOID OF THE WORLD'S HAPPENING AROUND YOU, THE LITTLE BLUE SONIC FUCK HEDGEHOG FAG JUMPING AROUND, THAT WAS HARD

You're a waste of skin.

[Jeeba Jabba]

THAT FIRST MOTHERFUCKING JUMP IN SUPER MOTHERFUCKING MARIO BROTHERS ON THE GODAMMN SON OF A BITCHIN NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM OR IF YOU'RE A BRITISH FUCKING FAGGOT COCKSUCKER DEVOID OF THE WORLD'S HAPPENING AROUND YOU, THE LITTLE BLUE SONIC FUCK HEDGEHOG FAG JUMPING AROUND, THAT WAS HARD

You're a waste of skin.

I don't remember making that post, but I'm definitely proud of myself.

[Jeeba Jabba]

I really should play through ME2 as a female. Shepherd's female voice actor is supposed to be much better than the male, I just always find the male Shepherd to look more realistic. Plus I just find it jarring to use a Shepherd model that doesn't look like my first play-through model from ME1.

I feel the same way. No matter what you do to a custom character, it looks far inferior (graphically) to the original Shepherd build. Plus, I've read all 3 books as well, and I like to identify with Shepherd as a fictional character as well defined as someone like Cloud, not a template for my own sci-fi persona.

[DaMadFiddler]

I'd have to say getting through Super Ghouls and Ghosts for SNES. I can't even count the number of hours building up to that successful playthrough, or how much of a struggle it was to make it through all the little infuriating gotchas of that game. Of course, you get to the very end, and they say "okay, if you want to actually see the ending, do it all over again... but this time, make sure to grab a gold ring that wasn't available on the first playthrough!" I seriously wanted to punch something.

That's still by far the hardest and most frustrating game I've played.

[ace]

I really should play through ME2 as a female. Shepherd's female voice actor is supposed to be much better than the male, I just always find the male Shepherd to look more realistic. Plus I just find it jarring to use a Shepherd model that doesn't look like my first play-through model from ME1.

I feel the same way. No matter what you do to a custom character, it looks far inferior (graphically) to the original Shepherd build. Plus, I've read all 3 books as well, and I like to identify with Shepherd as a fictional character as well defined as someone like Cloud, not a template for my own sci-fi persona.

Sorta but not exactly. See I did make a custom build for my first playthrough, one that I thought looked remarkably like me. Porting that build over to
Mass Effect 2 produced ugly results (blocky, low resolution, etc.) So I thought I'd try the default build, which, you are absolutely right, looks WORLDS better than any custom build. Only problem? I'm so used to the appearance of my character, that anyone else looks really awkward while talking. Did you On PC or 360? A set of tools, as well as a character database (the codes from this also work on 360) exists for PC that allows you to tweak the default appearance. Bioware should just let us do that from the get go. I just want to change his overly sharp nose and make him a few shades darker ffs

[ace]

I should just split all ME topics out :p

Boney, Jeeba, and anyone else who played ME1 and ME2 - elevator load screens: yes or no?

I miss them. Yes they were just slightly too long, but at the end of the day you're sitting through a load screen either way, may as well be something entertaining. I'm not sure why more developers haven't started incorporating their load screens into the scenes.

[Specially Cork]

I'd prefer developers spend more time on reducing load times than making them flashy. I can't say I know a lot about games development, but I refuse to believe the Normandy is so complex, my 360 can't handle more than 1 floor loaded at a time. For all the attention to detail that goes into game development today...I just wish they'd spend a bit more time on making things efficient. I fucking hated exploring that ship.

[DanteJay]

I'd prefer developers spend more time on reducing load times than making them flashy. I can't say I know a lot about games development, but I refuse to believe the Normandy is so complex, my 360 can't handle more than 1 floor loaded at a time. For all the attention to detail that goes into game development today...I just wish they'd spend a bit more time on making things efficient. I fucking hated exploring that ship.

Did you install the game to your hard drive before playing it? That helped making the loading times more tolerable.