Have you ever not beaten a game legitimately.

[TheBadGamer]

Any GTA game I just can't stop using the Remove wanted level code.
Contra, do I even need to say anything?

 

[Dark Prophet]

Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and Far Cry

 

[Enrathi]

Contra. Three lives just wasn't enough for me to finish it.

 

[krugerrand123]

Pokemon silver, i used a hack to copy my best pokemon three times.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Warcraft 2, I was a big time cheater in that game. Warcraft 3 was the same.
I used a lot of cheats originally in Doom 2, but once I got decent I beat it legitimately.
A lot of old PC games I used to cheat on, but I can't remember them.
Oblivion, if you count using mods as cheating. One mod (no idea which) glitched the game out. Whenever I start a new character, I have ridiculous stats (the amount goes up for every new character). I start off in the thousands for health, mana, and stamina. That saved me arse when I was a vampire caught out in the daylight because it wouldn't let me fast travel because some non-existent enemy was behind me.
I only beat Fallout New Vegas due to a mod for a .50 cal rifle. I would have otherwise been royally boned by Deathclaws. I saved while close to the mines where there are hordes of them.

 

[Durindana]

The one time I actually beat the main quest in Oblivion, this was about my 500th time going through the same quests in Mage's Guild etc. I didn't want to go through the grind of leveling skills and stats again, so I used the console to set all my stats and skills to 100. Technically, that's not cheating, since 100 in everything is attainable in game.

Also, I could only beat System Shock 1 when I set all the difficulties to 0. Again, not really cheating, but having the monsters not even be hostile and die in one hit feels a lot like cheating.

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

Too many to remember. I've given up my cheating ways now, but when I was younger, I'd use Game Genies and Game Sharks like crazy. That's how I beat FF7 the first time. To my defense, I wasn't interested in the challenge of the games, I just wanted to play through them. I regret nothing!

 

[RetardedKitty]

Prototype - I had a very crappy computer when i was playing the game and after middle of the game it became so difficult and shrouded with enemies my frame rate was tragic and i wasn't ale to technically complete the game because i couldn't react fast enough to situations, so i had to use invincibility cheat, because i was so curious about the story.

 

[Moc]

Countless games, I always try to beat it legitimatly but at some point I just don't give a shit any more, and so I choose to use a cheat or whatever simply because I want to beat it.

But from a philosophical standpoint: Does cheating count as beating a game? I mean at some point cheating has the same effect like watching a Let's play or a replay. Because I did not beat the game only because I know what happens after the final boss, I beat it because I was able to overcome all obstacles in my way.

 

[xXtentarafooXx]

Don't know if this counts, but I looked up the map for the 'Great Palast' (AKA last dungeon) in Zelda II; also I used the 'kneeling trick' to defeat Dark Link/Shadow Link, because he was bloody impossible to beat otherwise...

 

[JochemDude]

Fallout:New Vegas, Last point in the game a trigger didn't go off, so I had too use the developer console to trigger it manually. I hope they keep that thing in for Skyrim because else a lot of people are going to have a problem

 

[Thundero13]

Final Fantasy III, it was so bad that I just couldn't be arsed doing it properly, also my captcha is telling me to rate the brand apple... what the hell escapist?!

 

[zehydra]

Mario Bros. 3 I always use that damn warp whistle.

that's not cheating though, that's part of the game

 

[Roofstone]

GTA san andreas.. I just could not get Big Smoke to shoot those guys ontop of the train... (Act 1 of the game)

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I have a really difficult time playing a Bethesda game without using console commands. You name it, at some point in Fallout 3, TES4 and Fallout NV, I've gotten really pissed and spawned an obscene amount of money in my inventory.

It's not because the games are difficult, it's just... The console just sits there, calling to me, speaking quiet promises of making all my dreams come true...

Hah, i've never once played oblivion legitimatly, i must have spent at least 200 hours playing it, and ALL that time ive had god mode on, just because i couldnt be bothered with the crappy combat.. i was playing as a sneaky theify assassiny guy who uses a bow, and frankly the bows are terrible, considering there isnt a seperate hitbox for the head.. so it takes 100 arrows to kill a guard.. so most of my fun in oblivion was going around unseen, rather than the actual challenge of combat.

Apart from that i try not to cheat, i normally dont have fun if i've cheated.
Although you're right about the console calling to you, in fallout i added caps so i could buy all the house upgrades early on

 

[loc978]

Like some others here, Contra is the only one I can think of. I required...

 

[Zeraki]

Yes. Several times. In most cases it's been after having beaten it legitimately, mainly for my own amusement, but the one very notable exception is the Megaman X series...

I cheated my way through Megaman X, and X-2, and... X-3

By giving myself infinite health.

It's a testament to how difficult megaman games are, that even with permanent invulnerability, it was still difficult to finish the games.

(To be fair, invulnerability of the kind I was using still meant falling down any holes would still kill me. - Some of the most difficult portions involved near impossible jumps through sections where getting it wrong would land you in a pit.)

The pits were never really much of an issue with me, then again I was freakishly good at those games. Mapping dash to the R button helped a lot too. What I hated were the damned spikes, especially the ones in Launch Octopus' stage(with the submarines) and the X3 Sigma stages that had seemingly nothing but spikes.

I suck at the 'classic' Mega Man games though, and usually never get passed one boss. I never have felt so humbled as I did the first time I played Mega Man 9. -shudders-

OT

Goldeneye 64 comes to mind, I don't think I ever really legitimately played that without cheats. I usually feel dirty doing that with a game I haven't beaten though.

It's funny/sad how most modern games are so easy, you might as well be playing with cheats on to begin with.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Warcraft 3

I hate missions where I don't get a base - reveal map, god mode

edit: any GTA - more fun with cheats