Games that defeated you.

[Nerexor]

psychonauts. that fucking meat circus level at the very end made me rage quit and never come back

This. I found it to be an exercise in anger management. While I'm usually pretty good at those, after the fiftieth time of Little Ollie wandering to his death while I had to navigate the most annoying bit of platforming I've ever attempted, I just gave up and sat back and watched the little bastard die a few times while I did nothing to save him. Then turned off the game. I have replayed it since, but only up until the meat circus. I just stop there because the game ceases to be anything resembling fun at that point.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Generally speaking, few games 'defeat' me. If I stop playing, it is because I'm not having fun, and the point of games is not to have a unpaid second job.
Still, there are some games I've stopped playing without finishing.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements: Clunky subtitle: The game was a game that was in theory quite fun. Theory. You can choose three standard classes (wiz/ass/fig), but the game has only one linear path for each as you level up, so that takes away from char. customization and replay value. I played a wizard and half the spells were useless or clunky as all fuck to use, and the combat in general was a mess of sub-par controls, a bad engine and half-baked ideas. And the story and characters, by Vishnu, I have rarely seen generic fantasy THIS uninspired, that's all I'll say. Also, big elaborate set pieces here and there just fall flat to me. I could've kept struggling through the game (albeit it does pull a bioshock and double each grunt's health at around the halfway point. Sigh), but I wasn't having fun.

Enchanted arms, despite being a JRPG, has much of the same problems as DMMM:E, in that it's a fantasy story that just does a straight rip from the trope book of its region of game development and has a theoretically kinda cool battle system, which ultimately falls flat. Also, it is grindy as all hell, and the story drags on needlessly and the characters are somewhere between 'empty cipher' and 'anime stereotype unaltered'. Again, could've powered on, but I didn't want to. I wasn't interested in the characters or story, or even beating up satanic robots.

Borderlands made the implausible possible - fucking up shooting guys in the face. Aside from being a unremarkable FPSRPGOMFGWTFBBQ, it works on MMO logic (I.E. "hey, I'll shoot this guy in the head from behind, point blank, with a incendiary shotgun, that's bound to kill hi-...HE SURVIVED? JUST 'CAUSE HE'S TWO LEVELS ABOVE ME?? Aaand now he's torn through my shield as if it were tissue paper, nevermind the absurd amount of money I invested in it.") Plus a dull story and repetitive combat. I *could* have grinded to godly levels, but it'd just be a boring timesink.

Dark Souls I purchased like, 8-9 months ago, then had to put it down to focus on studies. I need to get back to it, although it is kind of a fucking timesink, what with the constantly being slaughtered and whatnot. Still hasn't 'defeated' me tho.

Planescape: Torment was unique in that only the gameplay deterred me from enjoying it. Like, the isometric perspective (Never liked it, could barely bear with it in Baldur's Gate), which made several quests confusing, as was navigating the city. That's what made me walk away. I guess I could've powered on, but I wasn't having fun, so...eh.

Silent Hill 2/MGS (I have similar things to say about them) I actually thought was interesting, but dragged on a bit, and I'd really have liked to just get on with it. Still, good game which I need to pick back up some time.

Dead Rising 2 has a uninteresting plot, barely-there characters and annoying escort quests and one biiig timer for when the game is over and several smaller ones for each quest. Unless you're either the god-king of space or doing the quest(s) again after restarting the story or doing a second playthrough, you will not reach them all in time, and maybe not even then. And the zombie-killing is good, but hampered by your support character yelling in your ear or more quests appearing. And the boss encounters. Sheeesh. To paraphrase yahtzee (horribly): "Boss battles which on the first playthrough are about as fair as a man with nitroglycerine injections in his buttocks entering an asskicking-contest". They have insane amounts of HP (one took about 30 hits from the defiler before going down, while swiftly pouncing me and stabbing me to 1 health square regularily, with little way to defend against the fucker. Also, inter-toilet stall teleporting, dafuq.
I want to love DR2, but it's giving me a headache with all its stupid shit. But hey, it's capcom, I guess this is to be expected.

C&C RA3 XBOX360. What is there to say, except "Console RTS? LOLNOPE". So that's more of a dumb impulse buy hampered by system limitations.

AssCreedBro is currently infuriating me with invisible walls and ridiculous 100% sync challenges, and I *almost* feel like playing a bit of FO3 instead, but again, to quote yahtzee "This shit will not beat me". Plus, it does have enjoyable aspects I s'pose, but it's not much different to AssCreed 2, except...Hm...I'm lacking words right now.

So...Am I making sense? Doing like an Egyptian fish and living in De Nile? Do let me know.

 

[Robert632]

That Turok remake. Though it was mostly due to the game sucking so much ass that I could see ass hairs and...other things stuck on in it.

 

[Fishyash]

For me, it was Sonic 06.

I beat all the main stories, but halfway through the final section in the game I just got too frustrated and tired of the game and I stopped.

I rarely let a bad game get the better of me, especially when I was younger, but holy crap.

In regards to good games, one that comes to mind right now is rayman 1.

Daaaaaaamn that game is relentless, especially with the leap of faith camera mechanics.

A while ago I would have said planescape: Torment. It kinda did get the better of me because I do have to use a walkthrough for that game. But it keeps crashing on me, I've tried modding it, using bugfix mods etc. but wow...

It's a pretty messy game I have to admit.

 

[Anget Colslaw]

That one section in Donkey Kong 64 with four of the original Donkey Kong levels. To get the coin that you needed to reach the final boss you had to beat the damn thing twice. I've had that damn fucking thing for a good 13 years now and every time I try to get past that damn bit it always destroys my character, sanity and morale.

That's what that thing was for? I was wondering what else I needed for a while now.

I actually nearly beat it multiple times just for fun. Only thing that constantly beats me is those damned springs that bounce around on the third level.

 

[Irridium]

Daikatana

It broke me.

John Romero did indeed make me his *****.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne comes to mind.

 

[Carnagath]

I grew up with a PC, so many point and click adventure games had me running for a walkthrough when I was younger. Shit like Ripper, Black Dahlia or Riven were just unbeatable without help. Other than that, I never managed to finish any of the campaigns in Dark Reign 1, KKND 1 and KKND 2. And I REALLY TRIED. Holy fuck, those were some hard RTS games. I also never managed to complete Z. It just became too grueling at a certain point, about 10 missions in. Also, Commandos 2 and 3 (I did beat 1, but the games became much harder as the series went on, to the point where my brain was leaking out of my ears). In the current generation, nothing has really given me much trouble. I don't think I've played an overpowering game in the last 10 years. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I don't consider them hard, you just need to adjust your playstyle a bit. Especially Dark Souls is easily bruteforceable, since it's much easier to become overleveled/overgeared than in Demon's Souls, and I'm talking single player here, since online with 3 other people you just roflstomp everything.

 

[Carnagath]

X3, if you don't want me to play your game, then I won't. You win game. I shouldn't have to go through a six week learning course to learn how to play it.

It looks more intimidating than it actually is. You can control the game 99% of the time with a grand total of 5 buttons and a couple of clicks, other than that if you need to know what each of the ships/weapons/commodities do, most of them have voiced descriptions if you mouse over them while docked at a space station that carries them. Of course they are at fault for not telling players anything at all pretty much. You have to actually read the controls to figure out how to fly and what you can control, but the navigation in itself is not really all that harder than any other space game. Other than that, it's a free roaming game. You need to get a feel for the needs of the sectors and stations and trade accordingly, build a cargo fleet slowly, then assign fighters to defend them so you can trade in more dangerous sectors, and then upgrade to building factories of your own and eventually an entire fleet. You need to explore a lot. Endlessly. That might not be your thing. It's really not thar complicated though.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

None. I refuse to be beaten by some dumb game. I can't even count how many times I've said that exact phrase. It's like some kind of obsessive personal policy.

 

[Bernzz]

I think whether people remember it or not, a fair few people would have been defeated by I Wanna Be The Guy.

Don't worry, I gave up on Mike Tyson.

Also, Gears of War on Hardcore. Fuck RAAM.
Gears of War 2 on Hardcore. Fuck the Reaper flying level.
(I'm bad at Gears of War, okay?)

My most recent play through of an unpatched Fallout: New Vegas. Fuck constant freezing.

 

[Cowabungaa]

- Ninja Gaiden 2 when I encountered neigh-impossible to dodge explosive shurikens that kept screwing up my combos.

- TLoZ: Minish Cap. For some reason I just could't beat Vaati. Haven't tried in years though.

- X3: Terran Conflict. Oh I have to follow you guys? Wait, where are you? What do I have to do? ... Help?

- Arcanum: Of Magick and Steamworks Obscura. I was locked inside a cave with a way too high-level ogre between me and the exit. There was no indication that the quest in question was too difficult. But in the end I was powerless. Screwed up my save.

- Fallout 1. At one point you have to venture out and look for the source of some problem. But then I started coming across Super Mutant patrols who made mincemeat out of me. I apparently invested in the wrong skills.

The Battlefield 3 campaign, I gave up after the shitty shitty shitty jet mission.

At least it felt fucking awesome. Or at least, the launch did with my headphones on turned to 11. Yeah that was a big "Woah!" moment. Shit gameplay though.

 

[timeformime]

First of all, great idea for a thread, and great replies.

I'm 2/3 of the way through a NG+ on Demon's Souls, I have Golden God on Super Meat Boy, so if I want to meet the challenge of a game I can. But some games have either made me really rage or made me stop caring, so, in a way, they just defeat my motivation to play them...

I was having a terrible day and decided to relax with Ratchet & Clank Crack In Time, and I got to the boss level with Nefarious - everything went fine until there was this questionably designed on-rails section. You have to run around this big ring, jump to some small island ramp things with your hover-boots, and it kind of controls you, but kind of not, and the fact that I was trying to maneuver and the game over-maneuvered me off course really, REALLY pissed me off, and after falling to my death the 5th time I... broke my first controller. Slammed the poor black hunk of plastic on the carpet and cracked it. Its left analog stick was shot, and since I haven't got any experience with game controller surgery I had to toss it. Crack in Time is not the hardest game I've played by a long shot, but it caught me in a really bad mood.

Then I came back 6 months later, beat the entire game (including another, much harder boss sequence) 30 minutes later, and realized how truly off I was that day.

Also, I have to agree with a previous poster about AssCreedBro, because some of those 100% syncs are just tedious little buggers. The fact that the game's mechanics and balancing were so shaky in the first place made me stop caring about the game altogether, so that I have fully upgraded Rome, but I have yet to complete the final chapter. I love to just bathe in the atmosphere of Rome, but the story is not very interesting, and, even worse, the wishy washy mechanics are just not worth the time it takes to complete the challenges. Especially after Demon's Souls, because it just blows most games' combat out of the water.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Final Fantasy XIII. In short, in order to finish the last part of the game, you have to spend days, maybe weeks grinding XP, otherwise you get utterly destroyed by everything there.
Yeah. Not gonna happen.

 

[auron200004]

Final Fantasy XIII. In short, in order to finish the last part of the game, you have to spend days, maybe weeks grinding XP, otherwise you get utterly destroyed by everything there.
Yeah. Not gonna happen.

Man, I'm glad I gave up on that game early on, then. Can you pace out extra leveling before you get there if you know beforehand? Or are you pretty much required to get brickwalled and forced to grind no matter what?

Captcha: honey mustard. It's weird because I literally just had honey mustard chicken wings from Cecil Whittaker's like 2 nights ago.

 

[Aegwadar]

I'm surprised... No Skyrim?

It was just a grind. Just got boring after the 50th hour of play.

and one more for good luck.

Deus Ex: The Human Revolution (THE BOSS FIGHTS...gah)

 

[bigfatcarp93]

I could never get more than two hours into Dead Rising, and it wasn't for lack of trying. It's fucking impossible to survive in that game without taking your sweet time and finding the supplies and save points you need... UNFORTUNATLY there's a FUCKING TIME LIMIT to everything, so that's not an option.

Also, Fable 3 defeated me with boredom.

 

[gigastar]

Only one I can think of is X3, I just.. How. How can that game be fun.

Even still I don't consider myself beaten. I know I will go back to it, one day, when I have a death wish.

I was once like you. I can tell you theres a certain satisfaction to be had in commanding your fleet of frigates to destroy entire sectors, or basically taking over a sector with your own stations.

For the record, in the current versions of Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude, frigates and missile frigates outperform almost every capital ship per-the-cost of buying/biulding and outfitting destroyers and carriers. The only excpetion is the Split Raptor carrier, and only because it can haul more fighters than any other normally available ship and its one of the fastest ships in its size class.

Albion Prelude does have super-destroyers to think about, but despite thier increased shields and firepower theyre even slower than regular destroyers meaning missile frigates can kite them in realative comfort.

And i later learned that The Elder Scrolls doesnt hold a candle to this series for modding potential. The Egosoft site is all but drowning in them.

And if all else fails, declare war on the Boron.

 

[bluerocker]

RE: Code Veronica. Only main game in series I didn't finish. I even beat RE2 with Tofu and got the infinite chain gun, and the hand cannon in 4. But CV...I hate that game. The plot, the everything. I actually got past the Tyrant on the plane, which was a really shit thing to have to fight in such a small space. I think I beat the boss with the heart weakpoint, and maybe a vampire bat thing, but after that I don't remember what actually prevented me from finishing. I think it was a guy with a huge axe and my inability to do whatever quick time event like thing to not die instantly or something. Rental so I had to return it.

*Twitch* No! Don't make me remember!! GAAH! DAMN THOSE POISON MOTHS!!!

Of course, the first one in the series I played was 4, followed by this one, so that doesn't make for a good break into the series. AGH!

*Ahem*

Apologies for that little outburst, but if there was one game that has driven me up the wall and back, it would be this one:

Screw you Atlus. No, I do not want to have to die (and thus loosing your entire inventory and having to start completely over) for the sack of plot progression.