OXCGN – XBox News Reviews and Views

Getting Stuck Sucks:

OXCGN’s Games That Frustrate

Games should be fun.

But sometimes they get to a point where the challenge simply becomes beyond frustrating and makes you feel like an incompetent, so you don’t finish.  Sometimes maybe it is your lack of skill, but other times it is just poor game design.

Or maybe the game becomes so boring that it becomes too frustrating to even bother finishing.  After all, every second is a second lost of your life you’ll never get back, and who wants to be stuck playing a game that’s no longer fun?

Here are some of the games that have got under the skin of our staff.

Please let us know what games have pissed you off in the past (or present) in the comment section below.

Axis of Reality:

THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND (Xbox, PC)

I was excited about getting Morrowind – after all, the Lord of the Rings movies were fresh in my mind and I couldn’t wait to enter a full, completely open world to make my own path through. My journey lasted 2 hours. Unfortunately it was just too open, putting it on the player to provide their own motivation and in the end it just felt pointless playing like I wasn’t achieving anything or going anywhere with it. I was bored with freedom.

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

I was so excited for GTA IV, still having not finished San Andreas but loving every minute of it. While previous GTAs actively encouraged mayhem and going off the beaten track, GTA IV seemed determined to do everything in its power to stop me: irritating phone calls from contacts wanting to be taken everywhere and the punishment of removing bonuses for ignoring them, not to mention overly bouncy driving controls that destroyed any fun in police chases when every corner sent me sliding into a wall. I stopped playing when I realized that this GTA didn’t want me to have fun anymore.

Shadow Wave:

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

I wasn’t very excited going into the GTA universe once again, but judging from all the hype and the very impressive reviews I thought maybe its improved a lot since San Andreas, a game I never beat. But sadly GTA4 was just as frustrating as its processor. Phone calls, realism and annoying side missions made this very frustrating for me. But I soldiered on through to about 30% of the game when main missions went from lasting around 5 minutes to being a full 30 minutes, with no checkpoint system. I eventually walked away from this game. There are only so many times I can sit are repeat what I just did over and over.

BLUE DRAGON (Xbox 360)

Blue Dragon was a great game until the last disc. It was easy, fun, and just a great game to play when you wanted to enjoy a story and not really worry about that dreaded game over screen. As it was a very ‘beginner’ RPG, long time RPG players such as myself found it pretty easy. But then suddenly at the climax of the story the game suddenly takes a huge turn for the worst and becomes quite difficult, forcing you to spend hours of grinding to strengthen your characters. But I guess as a long time RPG player I’m quite sick of grinding and when I realized I needed to grind, I turned the game off with the intention of coming back to it, but sadly it has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years now untouched.

Betheo:

SPORE (PC)

I know, I’m probably going to be shot for this, but after evolving to a space faring civilization, I just got over it. It started to feel repetitive once I got into space and really, I just didn’t feel like going anywhere.  So, I guess it was with some regret over the loss of creature customization after spending so long in it, that I basically stopped playing Spore altogether.

That and I seemed to be the universes bitch due to my weakness…

GHOST RECON: ISLAND THUNDER (Xbox, PC)

I know it’s an older game, but it still sticks out in my mind as one of the few militaristic games that I just could not get into. I guess it was the AI that did it for me, both allied and enemy. That, and I really didn’t enjoy the missions all that much, give me urban, or… well, just give me urban. The jungle scene was a pain in the arse.

Lame360Gamer:

TOO HUMAN (Xbox 360)

It was a grind to get all the way to the end with the CONSTANT death sequence that you couldn’t avoid, but I stuck with it all the way up to the end. However, as I had pretty much ignored all the leveling up and building of items, by the time I got to the end the final encounter proved too difficult and almost had me in tears having to go through the sequence again and again and again as I hadn’t powered up enough.

There are other games I have probably given up on out of lack of interest but the above was pure frustration.

ChiefJimbolaya:

ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS (Nintendo DS)

I’m a huge Zelda fan, so naturally I was super excited when Phantom Hourglass came out. But by the third trip to that stealth palace I was ready to throw my DS through the window. I hate timed levels & missions in video games. And I don’t really like stealth levels. So this double-whammy had me seeing red.

NINJA GAIDEN 2 (NES)

I could never beat the second level. The one where you had to time your jumps with the wind. The few times I did make it to the boss, he killed me so fast I never had a chance to figure out his patterns.

BATTLETOADS (NES, Amiga, SEGA Megadrive, Gameboy)

The bike level has to be one of the most frustrating in history. I don’t think I ever passed that point, which is a shame since the first two levels were so awesome.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (NES)

The underwater level was a killer was the source of much frustration in my childhood.

dkpatriarch:

SONIC UNLEASHED (Xbox 360)

Though I loved the visuals and concept, having to repeat certain races with perfectly timed jumps or boosts just drove me and my poor low-attention-span kids nuts!  Just let us get to the next section already!!!

FROGGER (Arcade and handheld)

Being un-co is annoying at the best of times. It means I’m not co-ordinated enough to quickly process that I’ve seen an enemy player on Live and then aim and shoot quickly enough before he kills me.  It means that games that require perfect hand-eye reaction times inevitably frustrate me…when I was young it was Frogger.  I paid lots of coin at the arcade to have people watch me die in a few seconds. Q: Why did the frog cross the road?  A: Mine didn’t…he just got hit and ‘croaked’.  Groan.

FORZA 2 (Xbox 360)

Forza 2 and in fact most racing games frustrate me because I suck and lose all the time. That is, unless there is a “L” driver mode and stupid bots that let me win…(L is for loser, not learner…) and then you just feel like you are a loser anyway for choosing that easy mode.  Plus I think going round and round the same track is boring, unless there is pretty scenery.  Yes I’m a lost cause when it comes to driving sims…I keep trying but, sorry.

OBLIVION (Xbox 360, PC, PS3)

I love this game and have played more hours on it than any other this gen, but when a glitch (maybe I killed someone I shouldn’t have?) caused a guy to fail to show for a meet for a Dark Brotherhood quest that prevented me from continuing until I restarted the game with a new character…I was beside myself with fury.

GAMES WITH IMPOSSIBLE BOSS FIGHTS (All consoles)

Any boss fight that take perfect knowledge of pattern make me throw my controller out the back deck door.  My memory is like my co-ordination: poor.  I’ve erased said games from my mind due to post traumatic stress and poor recall, but I know there are a lot of them.

darkmurder:

ARMA 2   (PC)

It’s great fun to play Arma 2 (Armed Assault 2) but sometimes building up a great ambush only to have it go horridly wrong can just become too frustrating. You spend ages getting into position only to have your cover foiled by an enemy who hits you with one hit. It’s annoying but so realistic which is also why I love it!

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