Hardest video game you ever played?

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Get through this, and then we'll talk.

[John Dibble]

Battletoads for the NES. Never beat it.

Portal is pretty easy imo.

Yeah, Portal isn't hard. Once you've figured out the solution to a problem it's easy, and the puzzles aren't that difficult. Portal 2's co-op campaign is harder as you have to think with four portals, but still not that hard.

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Being on PC makes shooters easier, IMO. Aiming with a mouse is easier than aiming with joystick - you get greater precision.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Starcraft. It takes forever and ever to master.

[John Dibble]

Starcraft. It takes forever and ever to master.

The single player campaign is moderately difficult but hardly impossible - you don't even need to master the hotkeys.

The real challenge comes in when you're up against other players who are more experienced than you are, know the hotkeys, and have a high number of actions per minute. I'm not really sure you can call the game itself difficult when the most significant difficulty factor is another human being.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Starcraft. It takes forever and ever to master.

The single player campaign is moderately difficult but hardly impossible - you don't even need to master the hotkeys.

The real challenge comes in when you're up against other players who are more experienced than you are, know the hotkeys, and have a high number of actions per minute. I'm not really sure you can call the game itself difficult when the most significant difficulty factor is another human being.

That's what I mean. The campaign itself is fine, but it takes years of practice to be decent at competitions and you likely have to be Korean.

[King]

Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle III.

[argentarius]

Being on PC makes shooters easier, IMO. Aiming with a mouse is easier than aiming with joystick - you get greater precision.

The physical shooting is much easier, but it's very hard to move around. Tough to get a feel with no controller Half-life is a game in which you often have to move around on very thin ledges and walk around in such a way that avoids detection by monsters.

[John Dibble]

Being on PC makes shooters easier, IMO. Aiming with a mouse is easier than aiming with joystick - you get greater precision.

The physical shooting is much easier, but it's very hard to move around. Tough to get a feel with no controller Half-life is a game in which you often have to move around on very thin ledges and walk around in such a way that avoids detection by monsters.

I still don't agree, especially on the thin ledges thing - WASD control actually makes that easier. With a stick you're more liable to fall off if you jerk the stick slightly in the wrong direction by accident. I also have little problem with stealth in games that actually support stealth play, and I don't recall all that many times in Half-Life where stealth is required.

[Bacon King]

     Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. I never imagined that an SRPG could be that hard.

If you thought Thracia 776 was hard, I'm sure you'd love Genealogy of the Holy War.

[Yelnoc]

Minesweeper.

[後援会]

I second Thracia 776. But it's not as bad as Yggdra Union. Oh god Yggdra Union.

I also mention

Kagetsu Touya (argh permanent lock-out)
Touhou - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (lolol no visible hitbox)
Daiteikoku (CORE ROUTE OH GOD)

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. I never imagined that an SRPG could be that hard.

If you thought Thracia 776 was hard, I'm sure you'd love Genealogy of the Holy War.

     I found Genealogy to be much easier by virtue of the fact that it lets you save at the beginning of every turn. The game does throw some really nasty enemy formations at you, but not losing 20 turns of progress because you died takes a lot of the sting out of them.

[John Dibble]

Minesweeper.

1. I wouldn't consider that a video game. It's more like a digital board game - you could easily  make Minesweeper using pieces of paper.

2. It's not hard. No, really. The real problem is that it's poorly designed as a game, particularly as a puzzle game. Any well designed puzzle, no matter how difficult, will make it so that you have everything you need to completely solve the puzzle. The only thing stopping you will be your wits. Most versions of Minesweeper require guessing at multiple points as you try to solve the puzzle, leaving your ability to solve the puzzle to pure luck, so they aren't good puzzles.

[Yelnoc]

1. I wouldn't consider that a video game. It's more like a digital board game - you could easily  make Minesweeper using pieces of paper.

[/quote]
There are plenty of other video games which, at there core, are merely puzzles.

2. It's not hard. No, really. The real problem is that it's poorly designed as a game, particularly as a puzzle game. Any well designed puzzle, no matter how difficult, will make it so that you have everything you need to completely solve the puzzle. The only thing stopping you will be your wits. Most versions of Minesweeper require guessing at multiple points as you try to solve the puzzle, leaving your ability to solve the puzzle to pure luck, so they aren't good puzzles.

That's what makes it so hard.

[John Dibble]

1. I wouldn't consider that a video game. It's more like a digital board game - you could easily  make Minesweeper using pieces of paper.

There are plenty of other video games which, at there core, are merely puzzles.

Yes, but I don't equate playing sudoku online as being in the same class as playing Portal. You can put sudoku in a digital format, but that alone doesn't turn it into a video game.

2. It's not hard. No, really. The real problem is that it's poorly designed as a game, particularly as a puzzle game. Any well designed puzzle, no matter how difficult, will make it so that you have everything you need to completely solve the puzzle. The only thing stopping you will be your wits. Most versions of Minesweeper require guessing at multiple points as you try to solve the puzzle, leaving your ability to solve the puzzle to pure luck, so they aren't good puzzles.

That's what makes it so hard.
[/quote]

Hard is a difficulty level. Guessing isn't difficult, it's rather easy in fact. What skill is involved in guessing in Minesweeper? None. In a game hard is still fair. Minesweeper is not hard, rather it's not fair.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Little King's Story.  I played it once and it was fun but I couldn't figure out how to recruit people for my army, etc.

[John Dibble]

Hard is a difficulty level. Guessing isn't difficult, it's rather easy in fact. What skill is involved in guessing in Minesweeper? None. In a game hard is still fair. Minesweeper is not hard, rather it's not fair.

Decided to play a bit of minesweeper to test this. I booted up the hardest difficulty level. Aside from the initial click I was surprised to find I didn't have to guess at all. There were some spots where I appeared to have to guess, but a bit of forward thinking solved them... until I got to the last two mines.



There are two solutions that are equally valid by the numbers - mines diagonally in either direction - but only one of them is right. It's a coin toss. And of course I guessed wrong. Whoever designed this game should be dragged into an alley and beaten.

[Bacon King]

I don't think the initial click can really be considered a guess, since the game is programmed so that you never hit a mine on your first click (IIRC, the program doesn't even decide where to place the mines until then).

[memphis]

Without a doubt, Contra (without the Konami Code). Absolutely ridiculous. The original Mega Man was also stupid difficult. They obviously figured out that it made the game less fun because all of the sequels were much easier.

[Badger]

X-Com or the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, where you can die in the first scene...

My choices exactly.

[後援会]

Without a doubt, Contra (without the Konami Code). Absolutely ridiculous. The original Mega Man was also stupid difficult. They obviously figured out that it made the game less fun because all of the sequels were much easier.

Ah, the Konami Code. Is there anything you can't do?

[John Dibble]

X-Com or the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, where you can die in the first scene...

My choices exactly.

Speaking of X-Com, anyone else stoked for the new one coming out next month?

[5280]

I'm playing Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, it can be challenging depending on what you're doing and how leveled up your character is.

[後援会]

I'm playing Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, it can be challenging depending on what you're doing and how leveled up your character is.

If you're a fail like me and your only good skill is enchanting, speech, and restoration, you're screwed.

[Badger]

X-Com or the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, where you can die in the first scene...

My choices exactly.

Speaking of X-Com, anyone else stoked for the new one coming out next month?

No, by all accounts and looking at the preview it's utterly forsaken the original on so many levels. It's been pilloried in the blogs.

Fallout did an amazing job converting to first person shooter format, but I fear X-Com won't make that leap.