That game is cheating!

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Ever have that moment in gaming where you think, at least for a second...well, see the title? Well, this is a topic to share your moments. Or maybe even corroborate someone else's moments.

For me, I just had that moment playing X-Com: Enemy Unknown. Granted, I'm playing the Long War mod, which is supposed to be a significant step up in difficulty, but I'm still kind of bothered by the fact that I can take 5 50%+ chance shots and hit once if any, while the AI takes 4 30% chance shots and hits 3 times at least. Yeah, it was probably just statistics coming to bite me in the ass, but even if the game wasn't cheating...it still felt like it!

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I don't mind playing a game where RNG dictates something like item drops, capture rates, encounter rates, etc but when RNG is used for hit rates that can get really annoying. X-Com Enemy Unknown is one of my favorite games that I never got half-way through because of the RNG coupled with permanent character death. Another game that seemed to hate me thanks to its strict RNG was FTL: Faster Than Light. It seems like no matter how lucky I am when it comes to picking up resources and, crew and, good equipment, I inevitably make it to a difficult fight wherein I lose all/most of it or I make it to The Flagship which massacres my ship. The first few times I tried to fight the flagship straight-up and I was able to defeat it once...then swarm missiles murdered me. I soon realized that the teleporter was incredibly powerful when mixed with heavy-hitting crewmen! I managed to kill everyone on the Flagship...but oh wait, it has a hyper-advanced AI Autopilot because of course it does. FTL is a game that I stopped playing and never beat because it wouldn't allow me to beat it and I just can't be bothered to go back when I could let the RNG in Yokai Watch keep me from meeting a number of colorful creatures instead.

 

[Zenn3k]

I don't mind playing a game where RNG dictates something like item drops, capture rates, encounter rates, etc but when RNG is used for hit rates that can get really annoying. X-Com Enemy Unknown is one of my favorite games that I never got half-way through because of the RNG coupled with permanent character death. Another game that seemed to hate me thanks to its strict RNG was FTL: Faster Than Light. It seems like no matter how lucky I am when it comes to picking up resources and, crew and, good equipment, I inevitably make it to a difficult fight wherein I lose all/most of it or I make it to The Flagship which massacres my ship. The first few times I tried to fight the flagship straight-up and I was able to defeat it once...then swarm missiles murdered me. I soon realized that the teleporter was incredibly powerful when mixed with heavy-hitting crewmen! I managed to kill everyone on the Flagship...but oh wait, it has a hyper-advanced AI Autopilot because of course it does. FTL is a game that I stopped playing and never beat because it wouldn't allow me to beat it and I just can't be bothered to go back when I could let the RNG in Yokai Watch keep me from meeting a number of colorful creatures instead.

In contrast, once you know what you need to beat the end ship, its incredibly easy to win at least 60% of the time, sure, sometimes you just get fucked and the drops are just not there, but thats not always the case.

Also, its wise to run from some of the fights as you travel, just because its a fight doesn't mean you have to do it. Running away from some of the harder fights is often recommended.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Racing games and Fighting games spring to mind. The rubber banding and in the case of combat pick ups of the AI in many racing games just drives me up the wall and just makes it a very unfun experience in many cases.

As for fighters er yeah those just hit the big red fuck you button on occasion and read your inputs react with impossible reflexes and combo you into oblivion unless you can find an exploit yourself, oh yeah and do charge moves only without charging first gotta love that. I am also generally not a fan when they purposefully break the rules of their own game usually with bosses such as removing hitstun from your attacks or some other nonsense.

I have had my doubts in RNG games as well but I dunno maybe I was just very unlucky like failing an 80% cast rate in Chaos Reborn 7 times in a row being a recent example of some of the BS I have seen.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Ever have that moment in gaming where you think, at least for a second...well, see the title? Well, this is a topic to share your moments. Or maybe even corroborate someone else's moments.

For me, I just had that moment playing X-Com: Enemy Unknown. Granted, I'm playing the Long War mod, which is supposed to be a significant step up in difficulty, but I'm still kind of bothered by the fact that I can take 5 50%+ chance shots and hit once if any, while the AI takes 4 30% chance shots and hits 3 times at least. Yeah, it was probably just statistics coming to bite me in the ass, but even if the game wasn't cheating...it still felt like it!

haha oh man, prepare your butthole, incoming "deal with it/git gud n00b" comments for this.

OT: the classic mario kart case of getting blue shelled 3 times on the last lap, or having a golden mushroom and having AI magically keep up with you somehow as you boost infinite times on the last straightaway. as of more recent, the amount of times the AI worked together with perfect precision to attack me on all flanks when I wasn't in first by a long shot and I was even good friends with a couple of them.

yeah, fuck you ghandi and napoleon

 

[CeeBod]

I find the games where you only ever have indirect control are the absolute worst for that feeling of "This game is totally trolling me by cheating it's computerised arse off!". Football Manager type games used to be a major weakness of mine - I'd spend so much time playing them, and only a fraction of that time actually enjoying it. Mostly I'd be thinking "Here we go again, it's going to be another game where we create 78 chances to our opponents 1 and somehow we'll lose 1-0, or it'll be one of those games where Grimsby Town (or equivalent!) suddenly magically morph into Barcelona and run rings around us with a previously non-existant creative passing game.. oh wait no it looks like it'll be the goalkeeper getting sent off in the 8th minute conceding a penalty at the same time, and damning us to another defeat that I can do nothing about... why am I playing this again?"

 

[Neverhoodian]

AI opponents in every RTS ever.

I understand why they do it, as I'm sure it's much easier to just give it infinite resources and shorter build times instead of coding an entire set of dynamic rules and strategies that change depending on the player's actions. It doesn't mean I'm fond of it though, particularly when they don't try to hide it ("sweet Emperor, how many Defilers does Chaos have?!").

 

[M0rp43vs]

Speaking of Xcom: I was playing Enemy wWthin last night and was doing a defend the transponder mission against eXalt early game.

Managed to get my entire team on high ground, full cover over the jammer thingy. Move my agent to hack a comm thingy (does doing so actually do anything? I feel they don't) and pop 3 goddam pods of Exalts who immediately swarm the jammer.

Minor set back but most are in half cover and every one of my soldiers has a 64% chance to hit something so should be fun right?

Cue 3 whole turns of NOTHING BUT FUCKING MISSES FROM THE SQUAD. All with the same hit chance. Even with Holo-targetting. But, oh, suddenly exalt is staffed with Revolver Ocelots and the score more than half of their shpts.

Getting desperate, I aim a shredder at a nice group near the jammer and aim just enough to hit all of them and miss the jammer. Rocket shoots wild. Hits the jammer. Doesn't touch the enemy. Miss all attempts to stop exalt from reaching the transponder.

Funny enough, afterwards it ends up being a sweep in my favour but still, this game sometimes.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Ever have that moment in gaming where you think, at least for a second...well, see the title? Well, this is a topic to share your moments. Or maybe even corroborate someone else's moments.

For me, I just had that moment playing X-Com: Enemy Unknown. Granted, I'm playing the Long War mod, which is supposed to be a significant step up in difficulty, but I'm still kind of bothered by the fact that I can take 5 50%+ chance shots and hit once if any, while the AI takes 4 30% chance shots and hits 3 times at least. Yeah, it was probably just statistics coming to bite me in the ass, but even if the game wasn't cheating...it still felt like it!

You stole my claim! Any time random number generators are involved and it is borderline impossible for something to happen.
"Oh, that enemy only has a 12% chance of hitting me? I'll be--oh. Okay. Bye arm."
"Ha! He's got a 1% chance of landing a critical hit? This fight is--WHAT?! What just happened? Why is my face gone?"

This happened a few times in Fire Emblem games, but yeah, X-Com: Enemy Unknown...it seemed like it was happening WAY too much according to the numbers I was being shown. On the higher difficulty, the enemies were pulling off shots from across the map, while I was lucky if I hit them while standing right next to them. I eventually gave up, because strategy could only carrying me so far it seemed.

 

[DementedSheep]

Unless long war changed it someone did run the numbers for X-Com and found that yes the percentage it gives you is accurate but it sue doesn't feel like that at times. I did have a sectopod spawn in the middle of the room a couple of times though (glitch?)

Anyway, the bloody demiliches in BG that spam imprisonment which is instant death if it hits your character if even someone in your party has freedom (the counter spell for it).

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Unless long war changed it someone did run the numbers for X-Com and found that yes the percentage it gives you is accurate but it sue doesn't feel like that at times. I did have a sectopod spawn in the middle of the room a couple of times though (glitch?)

Anyway, the bloody demiliches in BG that spam imprisonment which is instant death if it hits your character if even someone in your party has freedom (the counter spell for it).

Like I said, it was probably just statistics biting me in the ass. Makes it no less frustrating when it feels like you are losing not through any fault in strategy (granted, that may well not have been the case), but because the game just plain doesn't like you.

And yeah, Baldur's Gate is definitely one of those "Aw, come on!" type of games.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Match 3 games, like Gems of War or any of thr Puzzle Quest games. When the computer sets off a cascade of perfect matches and everything falling in magically matches and they build all the mana they need to spam spells.

 

[Totenkreuz]

My "load game" to bullet count in Xenonauts, with some overhaul mod which I can't remember the name of, are about 1:1. My god, I really, really hate those percent chance to either "do something or do nothing" type of game mechanics.

I would also like to list dark souls 2, might not be 100% accurate but I always feel like they made things with the sole purpose to make the game harder than it should be. Things like placing every 2 enemies right behind a corner or enemies having one special attack which you can't expect at all. I don't know, it all just feel like the game is cheating or abusing the game mechanics to get a cheapshot.

Cheers.

 

[s0denone]

I find the games where you only ever have indirect control are the absolute worst for that feeling of "This game is totally trolling me by cheating it's computerised arse off!". Football Manager type games used to be a major weakness of mine - I'd spend so much time playing them, and only a fraction of that time actually enjoying it. Mostly I'd be thinking "Here we go again, it's going to be another game where we create 78 chances to our opponents 1 and somehow we'll lose 1-0, or it'll be one of those games where Grimsby Town (or equivalent!) suddenly magically morph into Barcelona and run rings around us with a previously non-existant creative passing game.. oh wait no it looks like it'll be the goalkeeper getting sent off in the 8th minute conceding a penalty at the same time, and damning us to another defeat that I can do nothing about... why am I playing this again?"

u wot m8

Did you really just include "Football Manager" as an example of a game that is cheating, because your poor management left you unable to score goals and win games?
I get you may just be letting off some bent up steam (and trust me, I've had loads of that in regards to FM) and thus not actually believing the game to be pulling your leg.

At least I hope that is the case. Otherwise you need to take a good hard look in the mirror: Are you really the manager that Colchester deserves? Are you really the leading man of Bath FC?

@OP
Generally all games that simply increase statistics on enemies rather than improve AI or change encounters for the harder, on higher levels of difficulty, seem like they're cheating. It is cheap, at least; lazy, cheap and if you already mastered the easier difficulties, the harder ones require nothing other than more time. It becomes a chore.

 

[Odbarc]

I hate it when you can see %chance and it's never actually what it says it is. I wouldn't mind a difficulty curve that was at least honest.
Final Fantasy 2 had a hit% chance stat and anything less than 99% felt like 40%.

Final Fantasy tactics more often than not had a 10% penalty me, 10% bonus AI. Very irritating. If it just said 80% instead of 90%, I'd be alright with that.

I also get that AI often has a limitation. Lack of imagination and cheating is often the measure to exceed difficulty beyond normal. Like Street Fighter 2 on hardest difficulty let the AI do 2~3 combos to defeat you while you needed 5 or more to win.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

People so often say the Souls series is "hard but fair", but one aspect makes this statement completely false. It's very simple: enemies can hit you across corners, while your weapon will bounce off the walls. This made fighting the Titanite Demons in the lowest level of Sen's Fortress and absolute pain in the ass, since there was no effective way of retreating, and their sweep attacks have insane reach. It's weird that even in Bloodborne this issue remains the unresolved. It can't be that hard to have the enemies' weapons obey the same collision detection rules as your character's, can it?

 

[maninahat]

RTSs, especially HomeWorld 2, in which the enemy fleet is designed to change in size from mission to mission, depending on how big your fleet is. In theory, it is a good bit of rubber banding that means you can't make the next mission unwinnable. In practise, you get to the last few missions with your fleet capped at the full size and with a maximum of 2 battlecruisers, but you still have to take on 10 or so enemy battle cruisers. This was eventually patched out, though I never knew at the time because this was the days before games would automatically look for updates.

It's a similar, but not insurmountable problem in Oblivion, wherein even impoverished bandits try to mug you even though they are holding on to the most expensive weapons and armour in the World.

Oh, also the first Witcher tended to have these annoying situations wherein you would enter a building, and within the literally millisecond of the room loading, an enemy would already be hitting you, causing you to stagger backwards through the walls and get trapped in the scenery. I call bullshit on that.

 

[william1657]

The NBA Jam Arcade.

That quarter-muncher just won't let CPU opponents drop the ball! Shove them three times and they still don't let go. If the CPU shoves the player once they drop the ball.

 

[LordLundar]

AI opponents in every RTS ever.

I understand why they do it, as I'm sure it's much easier to just give it infinite resources and shorter build times instead of coding an entire set of dynamic rules and strategies that change depending on the player's actions. It doesn't mean I'm fond of it though, particularly when they don't try to hide it ("sweet Emperor, how many Defilers does Chaos have?!").

You think that's bad? Try the Command and Conquer series. The AI starts with double the money that the player does, Their harvesters have double the capacity and get double the amount per harvest. So while it LOOKS like the AI is playing it straight they're actually at a minimum 2 to one advantage. Even if you destroy their command center, if they have the buildings to make another MCV, as long as a full harvester can get back to the refinery they can build a new one. And theat doesn't even factor into all the other cheating they do.

 

[CaitSeith]

Undertale's Sans battle. Whoever has gone through it knows how cheap the game can get.

EDIT: And whoever that has not, well, the game describes Sans as the easiest enemy. With 1 hp and attacks that do only 1 damage. Yeah, that's true. But what it doesn't tell you is that he evades your attacks, your after-hit invulnerability is reduced from 2 seconds to 0.05, contact with its attacks causes a poison-like effect that damages you constantly, eventually he attacks you while you're in the command menu and sparing him kills you.