I'm a masochist; recommend games

[Atmos Duality]

If you're okay with emulating snes games from japan, play Fire Emblem Geneology of the Holy war and Then, Thracia 776 with their respective english patches. Thracia especially will fuck you in the ass.

Thracia 776 chapter 17A. Fucking Cyas and his ten leadership stars.

It's not legitimately difficult if all you're doing is rolling dice.
But yeah, a few Fire Emblem titles did come to mind when thinking of games.

I'm currently doing FTL ship runs. It gets legitimately intense on Normal with several ship loadouts (avoid Stealth A unless you like to gamble...fucking Beam Drones).

Beyond that, I can recommend most of what everyone else has mentioned.

(EYE Divine Cybermancy isn't soul-crushingly difficult once you figure out how hacking works and you remember to pack an armor piercing weapon..but seriously, fuck helicopter-spawns-out -of-nowhere)

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

One thing I would suggest then is Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for the DS. Difficuly curve progresses fairly steadily as well.

Here is the box art:

(Side-note: Must switch mouse, right-click is completely unresponsive now)

EDIT: Right-click works better now, I swear this thing has a mood cycle. Should be looking for something more stable.

 

[kyogen]

I realised just a few minutes ago that when it comes to gaming, I must really like seeing myself in pain. ... Note that I own a decent PC, a Wii, DS and 3DS, and I live in Australia so that might limit my options slightly.

You play just for challenge, or do you have narrative/theme/design preferences as well?

For PC, I'd recommend roguelikes such as ADOM or Nethack. ToME4 is also good and has a tile set if you prefer that to ASCII graphics. Legend of Grimrock is a great new take on old-school dungeon crawlers. If you can handle really old-school rpgs, Realms of Arkania 1-3 are based on The Dark Eye system and are fairly challenging numbers games. If stealth is your thing, try the Thief series on hardest difficulty, no kills/knock-outs/detection, all loot found.

For DS, you might try Shiren the Wanderer: it's a port of a great SNES roguelike with really nice graphics and music. It's fun, it's really challenging to finish, and it's a great way to get a lot of use out of the DS. You might also have a look at The World End With You for its two-screen combat and hidden item challenges that unlock more of the narrative.

 

[sextus the crazy]

If you're okay with emulating snes games from japan, play Fire Emblem Geneology of the Holy war and Then, Thracia 776 with their respective english patches. Thracia especially will fuck you in the ass.

Thracia 776 chapter 17A. Fucking Cyas and his ten leadership stars.

Luckily you can warp/rescue a unit to attack the boss, which causes Cyas to retreat.
Still, that is a really hard game, especially once you get to the escape arc in the beginning.

 

[Drummie666]

You own a wii, good. Find F-Zero GX for gamecube and play the story. Normal is a ***** by itself, but if you want true hell, play on hard and hope to hell you have fast reflexes. Like, really fast.

 

[Jazoni89]

You own a wii, good. Find F-Zero GX for gamecube and play the story. Normal is a ***** by itself, but if you want true hell, play on hard and hope to hell you have fast reflexes. Like, really fast.

ohhhh...F-Zero GX is a total ***** of a game to play. So goddamn hard, and surprisingly so. Especially if you want to unlock the AX stuff, which you need to be a goddamn masochist to do. Some of those objectives are nearly impossible.

Also, try X-Com (pretty much every one, especially terror from the deep), Dark Souls, and Demons Souls, and the old school NES games, especially the Megaman games, and battletoads.

Don't try I wanna be the guy, or it's sequels, and offshoots. You might want to commit suicide after getting one death after another for hours trying to complete the same part of the level.

Those games are too hard for their own good, save your sanity.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Xcom is a good bet, even the new one. I tried playing it on 'impossible' mode and couldn't get past the first level. I'm actually not even sure if it's even possible to do so without aggressive saving and reloading. I would hide behind good cover, use all my grenades killing like 6 enemies, and engage them with my 4 soldiers vs their like two soldiers. And they still pretty much instakill one of my guys with every shot.

Witcher 2 Insanity Mode it actually used to not be that hard. I was like 2/3rds of the way through a playthrough when the Enhanced Edition came out and changed difficulty(or at least made quen not superpowered.) I died almost instantly because I didn't realize they had changed the game. I tried two more playthroughs on insanity both times I died and lost my whole saves after like two to three hours of work. The most depressing of which was being instakilled from full health in a single hit from a rotfiend.

Metro 2033 - Veteran Hardcore(?, think thats what its called)

I didn't find this difficult at all, it's just about conserving ammo until you need it. Buy stealth gear and that pneumatic bolt gun that's perfectly silent and has re-useable ammo. Sneak around and shoot people in the head when they are alone, loot all the stuff and make sure you get your bolts back. Use a silenced pistol to take out lights from afar. When things get actually hard you will be able to just go straight up full auto and pretend like its call of duty. You can even kill the flying demons for fun, though I would recommend using the pneumatic rifle and being very careful with your shots.

 

[Reyold]

Good to see I'm not the only one who likes hard games.

Quite a few suggestions:

Wii:
Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. You like puzzle? How about puzzles resurrected from the era of ridiculously hard point-and-click adventure games? This game's kinda like that. It's not impossible, but it is HARD.

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. A great rail shooter game. I only got to the final boss because I turned the difficulty down to easy. AND I COULDN'T BEAT IT. AFTER CLAWING MY WAY TO IT.

And because I'm short on time: Ikaruga, Viewtiful Joe 2, any Trauma Center game, Metal Slug Anthology, BIT TRIP Complete, Alien Hominid, Strider, Alien Soldier, Kid Chameleon, Solomon's Key, A Boy and His Blob...

3DS/DS:
any Etrian Odyssey game, Bangai-O Spirits, Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber, Elite Beat Agents

PC:
Spelunky, Super Crate Box

 

[shrimpcel]

Play Call of Duty... with no hands!

I remember seeing a video of a disabled Call of Duty player who had to play with his... well I believe it was his chin. I cannot say for certain what part of his face or body but he could not use his hands! And he was not that bad, although he had to resort to camping for obvious reasons. I am currently trying to find the video.

 

[Arklyte]

How has no one suggest dark souls yet.
From what I hear the only thing you're certain to do is die, plenty of times.

Let me tell you something in a manner of Kaldaria's local(land where Mount&Blade is set):
"Dark Souls? Health restoring potions, sidestepping slow arrows, footsoldier enemies that have less health then you, roll/evades and no 100+ on 1 battles? What kind of a sacrilege is that?!"

 

[JochemHippie]

Super Mario Kaizo.

You'll rage, you'll quit and you will lose.

 

[Sealpower]

The original Operation Flashpoint on any difficulty setting.

Guaranteed to drive you insane and/or induce godlike satisfaction.

 

[Arklyte]

Dishonored - Very Hard, get Ghost and no kill every mission. (no detection)

Part where you don't know if you're allowed to switch glasses with poison and kill weepers is quite annoying

Metro 2033 - Veteran Hardcore(?, think thats what its called)

Thought to myself before game start - I don't need challenge. I'm going just for the story.
Result: Veteran Hardcore - yes, kill three guys stacked together in 1 room with throwing knives and without alarm or mishits in armor/equipment - yes, killed black librarian in melee with a bayonet - yes, haven't left surface with burbon during infinite houler wave until got an achievement for 50 double barrel kills, found everything up to the last round - yes, haven't bought anything or wasted millitary rounds - yes, haven't touched addon weapons(rail gun and autocannon) - yes, got best ending - yes.
I guess all of us are a bit of masohists.(And a bit of sadist when it came to using overpowered revolver and knives)

STALKER Soc or CoP (dont play Clear Sky)

When you're an expirienced stalker, Zone is as peacefull as a walk in the park.

 

[Master Kuja]

As mentioned already, the new XCOM can be pretty unforgiving, especially on Classic/Ironman mode, where all choices and consequences are permanent.

I really need to stop naming soldiers after friends and family, it makes the losses that much worse.

 

[tehroc]

Nothing like starting a new game of nethack, take one step and get killed by a falling rock trap.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

X-Blades is the perfect game for a masochistic gamer. Not difficult to succeed in the game, just difficult to keep playing. It's The Grapes of Wrath in game form. Not worth continuing.

 

[Arklyte]

The new XCOM game on Classic/Ironman difficulty is pretty challenging, but not insane. If you really, really want to have your face ground into the dirt, then put it up to impossible difficulty. I'm not sure it's even possible to win on that difficulty, it almost feels like a joke for the people who want to suffer without any hope.

Until first patches some people will be able to beat Impossible/Ironman. Some of old xcom fans are much more hardcore than the xcom itself

 

[DYin01]

Dark Souls got released on PC a while back. I'm uncertain if I should recommend it for PC because I heard the port is a little shoddy. Then again, the original console version had its flaws but it was amazing nontheless.

This game will kick your sorry ass.

 

[Arklyte]

Also the Stalker series.

GSC created a title with a great atmosphere, but it isn't hardcore in any way.
And Chernobyl theme isn't very funny when you live a mere 300km away from it

 

[Icehearted]

I will speak from what only I know personally.

Well, for asinine challenge, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. Look forward to joyless mannequins telling you your hard-earned gifts are unworthy of them, then repeating this for the next 50 years of your life if you shoot for the achievements.

Hard games? Try getting everything, including speed runs, in Mirror's Edge. At times a bit unfair, but generally if you fail it';s becasue you suck, so you won't feel too cheated.

Harder? Bionic Commando Rearmed on hardest setting. You are a herculean gamer if you can beat all of it's challenges.

Look up Grand Pearl Pooh Bah and brace for impact.

And finally, if you really what your backside bloodied, Tobol No.1 "Quest Mode".