I have to say the Japanese version of Tekken 5 takes the michael!

I can play the European version easy on Hard mode without the game raping me... but the Japanese game takes it too far...

I found myself being KO'ed constantly on Very Easy ._.

ultra_v_89:
In God of War I, when you just get pandora's box after a solid couple of hours spent in the bloody castle, then Eros senses your success and throws a freaking pillar to the other side of the continent and nails you to the door while harpies nick your box! That was bullshit! That was MY GOD DAMN BOX!!! GET YOUR OWN! Seemed unfair to me.

i remember that!!!! it was kind of awesome and i was left yelling "what the F*ck!?!?!" for about 20 minutes lol

Probably getting to the end of the sewer level in Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox and then having the game freeze. I haven't played that game since.

The ones that spring to mind at the moment are:

1. The total lack of an autosave on DMC4 - Thank you very much for that Capcom, I desperately wanted to play through those three levels again

2. The overzealous police response in Just Cause. Come on officer, I only nudged his car. I know we're in a militaristic junta, but is the helicopter gunship really necessary?

3. Respawning Guards in Assassin's Creed - Apparently my throwing knives didn't kill the guards, they just made them very sleepy.

During Ninja Gaiden Black for the xbox... When I just beat one of the most irritating bosses and then in the very next room I get to fight TWO AT ONCE.

OH COME ON

Either that or in Zelda: phantom hourglass when you run out of time inches away from passing the stupid, STUPID multi-leveled temple thing.

Or perhaps the end of Halo 2. If it counts.

My first glance at 6-4 of Jumper (or Jumper: Redux, original mode). It's just about impossible. BUT I BEAT IT! I BEAT IT, I TELL YOU!!

People who have played this well-designed platformer will know what's going on.

chenry:
Call of Duty 4 on Veteran mode is a long string of "NO FAIR!!!" moments.

Particularly the Mile High level on Vet. After hours of trying to get it finished, I finally get to the hostage and promptly shoot him in the face.

Hahaha! Yeh, I did that aswell! You get so pumped from all the killing and become unable to distinguish friend from foe

my worst horror story from any game is getting the dead rising "zombiecide" or whatever the achievment is where you kill all 53,000 something zombies. i was at it for about 6 hours and was almost exactaly 1/2 way done. i headed to the save point, walked in the bathroom in the wonderland plaza and it froze........i havnt been able to play the game since

Halo 3: Fighting the two scarabs, about to take one out with a fuel rod cannon, then get nailed by the other scarab through the tiniest gap

Any game ending where they seem to think that just piling on WAY WAY more of the same baddies WAVE after WAVE in a "That seems to be the last of them Frank.... NO! Bugger me here comes some more!" kind of fashion.

I hates that.

It feels like the designers run out of ideas, so decided to waste your time until eventually you despise the game like they have come too.

Going really, *really* old school for a moment...

Two words: "Babel fish"

For any SNES players out there:
The Final Boss in Super Metroid (Metroid III) when you are about to die and the metroid saves your life and dies in the process from Mother Brain. It's painful to think about the cruelty and unfairness to this day. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME THAT DIED THAT DAY!

Idiots that think it is cool to play f*ckd up muzik through teamspeak while you are busy using your ears not to DIE!

Vector Man

I was on that weird ass rail-road thing and got knocked off it instantly.. Yeah I wasn't happy.

Many unfair moments, one cause: Lag.

But after seeing all those CoD4 moments I'm inclined to mention going through Presitge mode, and those hard-to-get challenges like "Kill 2 enemies with one sniper bullet", "Kill 2 enemies with one rocket" and "Kill two enemies with one claymore"... you get them before you've unlocked them.

Assassin's Creed: "Sneak... Sneak... Sneaaaaak... now... STAB! OH S**T THE CIVILIAN GOT IT!" Not to mention fleeing guards in the docks area of Acre, hopping with insane alacrity from one mooring post to the next, only to notice there must be a red light up ahead, because all those staggering drunk who had fled the sight of murder had ALSO jumped with INSANE alacrity and now occupied the very posts you intended to jump to... a line of three of the LEGLESS BASTARDS all in queue.

Any sports game made by EA: "Woo! Leading by 3 with 3 minutes to go! Too easy"
1 minute later: "Okay, still leading by two, this should be fine..."
2 minutes later: "Right boys, hold on to that one point lead, come on..."
3 minutes later: "GET TO THE GOALS, GO! NEED TO SCORE..." [Ball gets intercepted, opposition scores with with 3 seconds remaining, you quit the season, grind the disc to dust and use it as baby powder]

And for the more obscure, friendly fire f***ups in the first two Escape Velocity games... it's called a dumbfire rocket for a reason, I can't be held responsible if I decide to use them against fighters.

Bulldog19892:
I can't think of any specific examples, but I can absolutly guarantee one of them came from Devil May Cry.

yeah. Vergil in DMC3 on Dante Must Die Mode. so incredibly unfair. whoops, i killed you by LOOKING AT YOU. or nightmare, from DMC1, or Sanctus Diabolica from DMC4. another complete bitch. his tactics involve flying away from you like a cheap ass while launching all kinds of **** at you should you manage to get close.

as for halo 3, how about getting nailed in the big toe by a jackal sniper on Legendary? you die from a toeshot? so unfair...

2 words 'Scout Raped'.

And destroying the companion cube, we were going to run away together.

EDIT: Someone beat me to the 'two words' line.

Mine would have to be: playing through like half of 'The Getaway' on the PS2 and not realising that i can heal damage by leaning against a wall.... (though to be fair this was mainly de to my own stupidity than any fault of the game)

*Spoiler*
Or maybe the First time i played through KotOR II: TSL and right on that last boss fight Kreia suddenly spawns 3 magical floating lightsabers, i remember thinking... "no fair, why cant i do that :("

Swenglish:
SPOILER

The end of HL2: Episode 2 when you are forced to watch the advisor sticking its tounge into Eli's brain when all you want to do is to smash it so bad with the crowbar. That scene was so damn sad, I actually cried.

Oh god damnit dude, not cool.

Boss fights with multiple forms can be a pain in the ass. Resident Evil and Parasite Eve spring to mind. Just when you think you've reached that much deserve final sequence, the bastard transforms into an even bigger monster, and you're left thinking, "Awww, what the fuck?!".

either in CoD 4 [spoiler] when you are the American and you crawl out of the heli after the nuke explodes and you think you are going to get out but you just keel over a die or in HL2 on the first long vehicle level and you find the people and you think the vehicle shit is over and then you find out you have more to go and they're just equipping you with a gun...

Being trapped inside of a fucking mountain in Crysis. They tell you to load up on ammo and go into a temple. Problem is you run out of ammo easily when you reach the big wind-tunnel room.

Dicking around in Assassin's Creed in the first level and saving the town, then losing all of your gear. Bitches.

Half-Life 2. I left my hovercraft at the gate of the level purely on accident. I got to that one ramp that you have to prop up with weights and being fucked over by the sheer fact that the gap is 2 inches more than you can dash-run.

Being ambushed by the Desert Eagle weilding fuckers in CoD4

Two words: "Confiscation Field"

Y'know, for those few seconds where you watch it disintegrate all your weapons, before you realise it gives you the Ultimate Gravity Gun of Flailing Death Limbs.

Not the crossbow...

Cheeze_Pavilion:
In a game of Civilization realizing you're on a continent with Isabella, Shaka, and Montezuma.

I thought I would be the one noting this! So another one then.

Killer Instinct on the SNES: Eyedoll uses his club to knock you up WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up into
the sky... and then stomping his hoof so HIS ENERGY RETURNS.

No fair.

TerribleTerryTate:
I'm also relieved to read that it isn't just me who gets infuriated with CoD4. Shooting someone in the head at point blank range with an AK-47 only for them to turn around give you a grin and headshot you unscoped with a sniper rifle. Grr.

Yeah, the damage seems to be off in the multiplayer, especially with explosives.
I would have my custom character carry a pair of RPG launchers from the start of the match, and the amount of times Ive hit right by someone, or at least the wall they were hiding behind for them to just turn around and kill me.

I had a non-gun related 'no-fair' moment on it though. After getting killed by a guy who was hiding in the grass, I went back there and killed him as he was moving position, only for another guy hiding right next to where he was to kill me.

COD4 aside, my biggest no fair experience this generation has to be Alpha, the boss from DOA4, theres no real winning method of dealing with her.
You rush in, she grabs you and does a throw for huge damage.
You move in do a quick combo before backing off, she either rushes in and counters you just before the first blow hits, or she teleports behind you and does a combo, both doing huge damage.
Or you stay back and wat for her to come to you, she just teleports behind you, usually in mid-kick when she appears.

Then again, Ive felt that all the latest fighters have messed up the AI (DOA4, Tekken 5, SC3) I noticed that even on the easier difficulties, the enemies will start off easy, but quickly increase their skill, and usually by the time you get to the last-but-one enemy, they are at the 'I'll dodge all your moves and always hit you with my most powerful attacks' stage, especially the true form of that guy with the scythe in SC3, you always think your out of range, then he does this spinning motion and you get knocked down...

Spoilers of Course...

But in the original Half-Life. You're inside the warehouse, after killing ninja assassins. There are tons and tons and tons of boxes and crates. You get fully stocked on pretty much anything after spending about 5-10mins breaking all of the boxes, only for everything to go black and wake up finding yourself in a dumpster with absolutely nothing.

Digital Devil Saga and it's elemental healing.

m_jim:
Lol. Funniest thing I've read all day. I was jealous of being a console tard and not being able to experience the magnificence of Crysis (namely, I thought the "bad guys speak Korean" mode sounded totally badass). Now, I'm a little bit less so.

They still only have 1 quote for each action so you should have figured out what means "grenade" and "enemy spotted" after your first 10 kills. Just don't get near those boats and pay attention to the guys in sniper positions with their infinite range.

I've got a few:

Rome: Total War. Me and the other two factions have taken over the whole map. Then the senate tells me that the other two factions are traitors and I have to attack them by the next turn or I'll be castrated. And all my armies are way the hell over in Spain and Britan trying to keep mobs from burning all my cities down.

Baldur's Gate. Having bunch of Basilisks attack by throwing a ball that petrifies one of your characters then throwing another that shatters said character causing permanent death.

Any of the Gabriel Knight games.

Daegen:
How about just the entire Ninja Gaiden for XBOX. That game in and of itself was unfair, due to its high difficulty and learning curve.

Ain't that the truth. Though Black is even harder, which I didn't think was possible.

Also, going "old school," any game that's made for the NES by Hudson in which you had one hit + you'd be dead, but there were no passwords or save points in the game, so you'd just have to start over from the beginning. Specifically I'm thinking of Milon's Secret Castle. Sure you could get a shield which made it so you would have two hits before you die, but the enemies keep respawning and the level designs make it so you have to deal with them. You just sit there + go... "Really?! Come on now!" + scream obscenities at your TV screen

Solo B (and to a lesser extent the whole solo) in Jordan from Guitar Hero II

I thought conquering and five-starring Bark at the Moon in the original made me a badass. I figured nailing the solo in Freebird was a monumental achievement. Hangar 18? Piece of cake. Misirlou, nothing to get upset over. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can prepare you for solo B in Jordan. Even on songs you can't beat you can at least comprehend what's going on and understand what you need to do to eventually win. Through the Fire and the Flames and The Devil Went Down To Georgia are crazy-hard, but they make sense to me. When I lose I know that I wasn't strumming fast enough or my hands couldn't hit the buttons fast enough.

Solo B is just random noise and the notes that supposedly represent the sonic onslaught that is battering you. All you can do is strum wildly while fretting as close to the right notes as possible and pray that your starpower lasts long enough.

Lee's infinite kick combo in Tekken series. You think someone would eventually get rid of a 1 button infinite combo. And that combo moves him foward as well so you can't just walk backwards and watch him kick in place.

Any multiplayer, team-based game in which you bust your arse for an entire round and lose because your teammates are inadequate.

For example, Murphy's Law dictates that when only one machine gun is available, the 300-pinger who's AFK half the round, doesn't speak English and can't shoot for shit will get it, dooming the rest of the team to slaughter at the hands of entrenched enemies no one has the means to suppress.

Half Life 2, the late setpiece in Nova Prospect with the three turrets and the 2 billion Combine troopers. It all goes well at first, the guys pop out, the turrets go off, you lend a few rounds of your own while you're not covering the entrance that the turrets can't reach. You quicksave regularly until you don't spot the grenade and find your new save position is a quarter second before it goes off knocking over at least one turret and it all goes downhill from there until you find yourself cowering in a cell with 3% health and 6 bullets to kill the 4 remaining guys. Fun.

Before I read a walkthrough that suggested just turning the turrets round in their cubby holes and clmbing in the fourth one yourself I had actually started carrying the two turrets from the previous section over the electrified lake with the gravity gun to make use of the extra firepower. I felt a bit of a chump afterwards, but I also couldn't help wondering if that was what Valve intended or if they actually expected you to take on a whole regiment with your trusty shotgun and three pea shooters on wobbly tripods.

-Nick

Amen.

For me? DOW (LOTW mod), having a Baneblade with a few Leman Russes rolling into an enemy IG base and suddenly getting raped by DROVES of Guardsmen and Ogryns.