The Video Game Critic

DaHeckIzDat wrote:I started a new game of Metal Gear Solid today, which is one of my all time favorite games. But that part when you first meet Meryl and then have to fight off 4 waves of soldiers in that tiny room was definitely the worst part of the whole game. There's a reason MGS wants you to sneak everywhere- the shooting controls kinda suck! And it's in no place more obvious than when you're stuck in a small room with no cover, no place to hide, and only a pistol against several machine guns.

I saw on a speed run of the game that the guy used the enemy soldiers as cover. He would literally just kill one or two of them, grab the other, and let the opponent shoot him dead. I could never do the things he was doing in the game but it was pretty interesting.

The bats in El Viento.

Rev wrote:I saw on a speed run of the game that the guy used the enemy soldiers as cover. He would literally just kill one or two of them, grab the other, and let the opponent shoot him dead. I could never do the things he was doing in the game but it was pretty interesting.

Are you sure that was the original version? I know you can choke people, but I didn't know you could use them as cover. Sounds like something they'd add in for the Twin Snakes remake.

Vexer6 wrote:I like the original Gears of War, but it has a lot of needless frustrating bits like the junker section(where for stupid reason you can't drive and shoot at the same time), the part where you have to lure the berserker(which kills you in ONE hit, thankfully they toned that particularly enemy down in the RAAM's Shadow campaign in the third game) out into the open so you can hit him with the Hammer of Dawn, and of course the final against RAAM, easily one of the absolute worst boss fights i've ever come across in a video game.

Also love the Metroid Prime series, but some of the bosses were just irritating as all hell(whoever designed the Boost and Spider Ball Guardians can go to hell).

Sonic series can also fall prey to this, while I did find Shadow the Hedgehog to be a fun and underrated game as a whole, one level in the game was WAY too hard for it's own good-Cosmic Fall, mainly because of all the ridiculous jumps you have to make in that level(the awkward camera doesn't help much).

Just when I think I will never agree with Vexer on anything, this. Three in a row. Sonic games since the Genesis always either put in a level that's too hard or a boss that takes too long to kill (always in the most tedious way). The Metroid Prime bosses always required too much weapon/form/visor switching, making them more tedious than fun. And fighting RAAM is such a letdown after such a strong game. He's a "perfection boss." You have to do everything right during the fight, over an extended period of time, which is NOT fun. It's annoying.

I think me and Vexer find the same thing annoying. Levels or bosses that require so much perfection they slip from challenging to tedious. Nothing spoils part of a game more for me than feeling like something fun has become a chore.

Indeed, it's one thing if an entire game demands perfection(I.E. the Operation Flashpoint series), that can actually be enjoyable once you adapt to it, but it's not enjoyable to suddenly get kicked in the ass by a massive difficulty spike out of nowhere, games should gradually get harder, not suddenly kick your ass sky-high.

RAAM is one thing that definitely needs to be fixed in the upcoming re-release of Gears of War, I only managed to beat him by exploiting a glitch and that was on Casual difficulty, I don't even want to think about how insanely hard he is on higher difficulties.

Another game with a really lame final boss is Warhammer Space Marine, all he does is teleport around and send wave after wave of enemies after you until you damage him a certain amount(endlessly respawning enemies in boss fights is one video game cliche I absolutely despise, as it comes across as lazy and feels too much like fake difficulty) and then you defeat him in a lame QTE.

Another example I found in a Gears of War rip-off called Inversion, fun game for the most part, though there's one annoyign section where you have to fight a whole bunch of Slave Owners, which are close to being mini-bosses with how long they take to kill and how ridiculously powerful their attacks are, I died so many times trying to get past that one part that I actually had to tone the difficulty down just to easy just to survive.

I also shudder when thinking about the part in Resident Evil Revelations where you play as Quint and Keith and have to defend a generator from every single type of mutant you can possibly imagine, I must've died at least 30 times on that section before I finally got past it.

I also hate it when action games randomly throw puzzles in for no reason, especially when they're poorly designed, like the damned Rosetta puzzle in Dead Space 3, what were Visceral Games thinking when they thought that was a good idea? no way in hell I would've figured it out without using Youtube.

Then there's the final battle against General Kim in True Crime: Streets of L.A.(there's actually two final battles against him, one for the bad ending, and one for the good ending, the good ending battle is the one i'm referring to), holy crap did that drive me insane, the game's fighting system isn't exactly that great, and suddenly the game expects you to become an expert at it, I just button-mashed til I got lucky.

Dead to Rights had not one, not two, but three excruciating boss fights, the one with Diggs was tedious, the one with Fahook was cheap and unfair, and the final battle against Hennessy was overlong, frustrating and exhausting(your hands will be tired from all the button mashing you'll be doing).

Haha. Vexer6, what about the sliding block puzzle in Resident Evil 4?

It's been a while since i've played RE4, so I really can't remember that puzzle off the top of my head, so I guess it must not have caused me too much trouble.

DaHeckIzDat wrote:

Rev wrote:I saw on a speed run of the game that the guy used the enemy soldiers as cover. He would literally just kill one or two of them, grab the other, and let the opponent shoot him dead. I could never do the things he was doing in the game but it was pretty interesting.

Are you sure that was the original version? I know you can choke people, but I didn't know you could use them as cover. Sounds like something they'd add in for the Twin Snakes remake.

I think you're right because I glanced through all the old youtube video speedruns for the game and couldn't find anything that backed up my story. It must have been MGS Twin Snakes or something else... Sorry...

Vexer6 wrote:RAAM is one thing that definitely needs to be fixed in the upcoming re-release of Gears of War, I only managed to beat him by exploiting a glitch and that was on Casual difficulty, I don't even want to think about how insanely hard he is on higher difficulties.

bunch of pansies...I beat him on insane, solo.

I definitely agree those bat things in that game were obnoxious and take the fun away. If you do play it again, go for it on co-op. He's easier that away as someone can distract him and then you can shoot him with the arrows.

These days I play most of my games on easy as for some reason the wife frowns on me yelling curses and the dog looks on as if I've lost my mind. Who knew yelling at the TV would be considered counter productive? Shows how much my wife knows. She's never beaten RAAM on insane.

THAT FREAKING SLIDING PUZZLE. SOMEBODY MENTIONED THAT STUPID ASS SLIDER PUZZLE. NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I PLAY THROUGH THE GAME (at least 5 times a year, if you're curious) I CAN'T REMEMBER THE RESIDENT EVIL 4 SLIDER PUZZLE. WHY DID THE DEVS ADD IT? I HATE THAT PUZZLE. SOMEBODY PLEASE. HELP. PUZZLE. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.

(The SigSauerLover has been transported to the nearest mental health hospital for flashbacks of the Ashley puzzle, immediately followed by evil knight attacks. He will recover soon. )