The first time I played Ravenholm. It was pretty bad. I had seen my roommate playing it before, and I knew a bit what to expect. But I tiptoe into the first part of the level, into the first building, and seeing all the sawblades against the wall, I quickly grab one with the gravity gun. As I'm about to continue, I something smacks me on the back and realize that there was a zombie outside that I had somehow missed, which had then snuck up on me. I literally screamed, sliced it in half with the sawblade, and immediately saved and quit. I didn't try it again until my cousin and my friend came over, and even then my cousin said that I was pale, sweating, and gasping for air. He eventually pointed out that if I hate zombies so much, I should just kill them quickly and get it over with. I seized on this and now I can play it normally, but it still makes my mouth dry up a bit, and I always, always, ALWAYS make sure that first zombie is dead before I go in the building.

The emasculating part of this? My cousin is 15. I am 21. (Hides head in shame)

But seriously, that's why I refuse to play games like FEAR, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil, as I know I'll scare the living shit out of myself and won't be able to sleep. In fact, a friend of mine gave me Silent Hill 2 well over five years ago, and to this day, that disc has never gone anywhere NEAR my PS2 (Hell, just reading the plot synopsis on wikipedia will have me peeking around corners at night).

As for most emasculating moment in terms of the dumbass factor? That would be that fact that I was completely unable to figure out how to finish the first level of Goldeneye once I reached the end of the level. I literally walked around for fifteen minutes before I realized you have to jump off the platform. I was ten at the time, though.

P.S. For those who suffer from fear of headcrab zombies, I also found a fairly good therapy. Go up to one, and start beating it on the head with your crowbar. Every time it's about to take a swipe at you, jump back, and try to kill it without taking a hit. I don't recommend this against fast zombies, poison zombies, or zombines, however :)

Wazzelbe:
That time I got really into the Sims 2 and realized I was playing with a digital doll house.

It IS!

FUCK!

You've made me feel like a complete sissy. well done.

The first time I saw a hunter in HL2E2 and clicked away on my mouse the whole scene trying to kill it and save Alyx, only to remember afterward that I didn't have a gun, and that Alyx was an unkillable NPC.

When my little cousin kicked my ass in Super Smash Brothers, 20394832 times.
My family still won't let me down, man.

I'd have to say getting my ass kicked repeatedly by a boss in Kameo ranks pretty high(as would any kid-friendly game that bests you). Then, having to rely on the auto-aim function of the hovercraft in Half Life 2 on the 360. The auto-aim turned out to be so completely against every way I wanted to attack the helo that I eventually had to give up my macho frontal and side-on attacks in favor of "wait until it turns, then drops, then cross and whip around,the same way firing. Rinse and repeat.". I don't even mind trick/bullshit bosses that much, but when the UI and controls conspire with the enemies to force you onto a railroad it inspires my wrath.

Ok, so I thought of two more:
one day at my house my friends found a copy of pokemon snap in my drawer, to which I said "oh, someone left that over here" then one of them turns the game over and says "Really? Then why the hell does it have 'property of Luis Franco' written on it in your handwriting?"

Another time, way after that anecdote, I was in circuit city killing time by looking at Cds while my friend was at the dentist. Near the video game area there was this big Guitar Hero kiosk with a kid standing there playing it. Being a guitarist, I was naturally intrigued, since this was the first time I've ever seen Guitar Hero, so I walked over. The kid playing said "oh hey, wanna play co-op?" after a little while of me standing there with a puzzled look on my face. Naturally, I said sure, thinking this would be easy since I'm good at guitar. Long story short, the kid proceeded to wail on my ass like I was a rower on a Viking slave ship while I was plunked and wailed my way into defaulting the match to him. It was a textbook case of "Randy Marsh Syndrome" too, since I knew how to play "Holy Diver" on a real guitar (the song he kicked my ass at).

Both of those made me feel like I had gotten pantsed at school and it's hard for me to remember them after the emotional walls I put up over them.

As far as emasculation by fear: I have never got to the last temple in Majora's Mask, simply because there are Redeads in a room on the way. And their screams still freak me out SO much that, since I got this game seven years ago, I have never finished it because of those damn Redeads.

As for just downright piteousness... I have 406 hours logged on my Silver version. Yeah, one save file.

Rabid Toilet:
Back when I was about seven or eight, the drowning noise in Sonic 2 would absolutely terrify me for some reason. I would have to have my mom play through the water levels for me while I hid behind the couch. She never lets me live that one down...

Same here. I was TERRIFIED of the drowning noise, for years. I never even got past act two of stage two without using a level select cheat, because I was terrified of even going into the water (or whatever that pink stuff was).

Oddly, it seemed that it was only the noise that scared me, rather than the threat of actually drowning, because when we got a new TV with a mute button (our old one's volume control didn't go down all the way for some reason), I just hit MUTE on those stages and played right through them with no trouble at all. Weird.

One game that scared me shitless was probably... I think I'd have to go with Waterworld in the Mercinaries... or whenever Chainsaw Man's older brother Larry showed up. I screamed my head off and threw the controller at the TV, proceeding to curl into a ball and shake. I mean, come on! DOUBLE-BLADED CHAINSAW?!

Emasculating? Using EVERY SINGLE piece of ammo I had and STILL not being able to kill the first chainsaw guy in the Wii Version of RE4. Thank God the Wiimote has a power button on it! 8D

God, I have had some moments, but come on. I was 11 (15 now) when i played Ravenholm for the first time and I played it straight through no problem.

Forgetting what I just said, I still practically shit my pants whenever I have to kill Lisa Trevor in the first Resident evil.

Halo 3 on xbox live....when the person i threw a sticky grenade at bounced off his bubble shield he threw down and hit me in the face and i exploded listening to their laughter....jerks lol

When I died by that terrorist coming out of the washroom in COD4, Mile High Club...

My least glorious moments are not the results of scaryness but sheer incompetence.
I'm not bad in halo, I'd say; in most matches I'm the best player around. But on one server with PRETTY GOOD opponents (damnation, deathmatch), I emptied, like, 3 clips of ammunition with the sniperrifle on one guy without even hitting his leg. When the guy I tried to kill got rid of his enemy, he said "Hey moron in the piperoom, can't you hit anything?"
THEN I FELL IN THE CHASM WHILE WALKING BACKWARDS!

Also, in CoD 4 (only played it for a few days), I killed myself, trying to blow up a car for xp. As you can imagine, I was laught at pretty badly.

Being a giant Ace Combat fanboy, I went ahead and paid good money for a paint scheme I never thought I would use. I mean, come on, your F-22 gets a pink paint job and an underage anime girl emblazoned on one wing. Then, God help me, I actually used it and did pretty well. I then took off my belt and beat the shame out of me. My back is still a little tender.

I'm not scared by any horror game, when i was a kid however, i was scared of everything, if a game was called scary, I'd avoid it like the plague, i hadn't played a horror game, yet i was terrified at the notion, at around 10, i developed an urge to watch a horror film, being screamered by my friends prior inspired a kind of "fuck it." feel, i couldn't be any more scared than that now could i?

I played some horrors, my only thought being "these are meant to scare me, what kind of pussy was I?" i laugh at zombies that jump everyone else, you can't move for horror games, ok, i lie a bit, three moments i was scared or maybe just over-reacting.

-resident evil: dead aim, not great but it did keep me occupied one lazy summers day, i was on holiday, i got quite a few regular friends from where i go on holiday, many i now know live not so far from where i do, but that's irrelevant.
There's about 4 of us in the room, i was about 12 at the time, my mate playing as looking through a cabin, some ammo, we spend some seconds in total silence, he walks back to the door and must've forgot the action button because he isn't opening the door, only to have a zombie collapse out of the bath room, cue 4 horror enthusiasts not scared by anything prior and a loud but short scream, my mates were at the time 15 (the guy playing.) 11 (his younger brother.) and 9 (his youngest brother, the second biggest horror fan out of the bunch.)

-Resident evil 4, this was this summer holiday, at night the oldest brother would come round while our mothers went out and talked and we'd shut off all the lights in the caravan, boot up the wii and play resident evil, we beat it three times that week but none of the play through's were as fun as the first, When you went into the sewer and had to fight the "right hand man." we weren't scared but he was shouting at me "kill the mother fucker, run! shoot the barrels." we were treating the situation as if leon killed, We'd fucking die, truly funny and i look back on that night as one of my funnest gaming experiences.

-Team fortress 2, not being scared but this is an embarrassing defeat, followed by my reclamation, followed by an embarrassing defeat, it was 2fort and i was playing as a heavy in the intel room, i was standing behind the intel desk and a engineer had put a dispenser locking me into the corner from spies.
A disguised spy walked in, my usual policy of shooting them was about to be applied when somehow near enough all of my bullets missed him, i was feeling quite cocky so i guessed that he was a friend and i had shot him, he jumped on the intel desk, grabbed the intel, disguise gone, i still have it revved but he jumps over my crosshair, equaling in tons of missed shots, he jumped on top of me and stabbed my head, insta kill, i turn scout, time to bring myself back with my incredible love of kills with the bat.
I find him, surrounded by two heavies, a scout and a medic, i don't care if his mate kills me and caps, i wanna kill him, i run at them (they were in our base at the time.) they didn't see me coming, the medic must've been really hurt, since he dropped on the first hit.
the other scout didn't fare much better, one of the heavies turned around while the other kept and eye on the spy, as he was revving i circle him making repeated whacks, i felt awesome, i had lucked out three people, the other heavy turns and tries to melee me, i could care less, the spy was watching me, i double jump over the heavy and go to beat the spy to death, afew bats did the job, i turn to see the heavy, i proceed to gracefully pull out my scouts scattergun and shooting the guy to death.
I then turn around to see a spy running at me, i try to scattergun him but i miss each shot and get stabbed to death.

In The Darkness, I decided to run down the subway tracks to see what would happen... They anticipated people doing that, though, because I turned around and saw a blinding white light flying towards me.
That was enough to make me jump, but the fact that Jackie (the protagonist) cried out before being smushed to death... that threw in the creepy factor a bit.

Oddly enough, that scared me more than anything in any horror game I've ever played.

It wasn't an emberrasing game moment, but I was really kicking myself in retrospect for being a pansy. In Oblivion, I remember one quest with the mysterious haunted house in Anvil. I was scared half to death throughout the whole thing- the spooky decor, the waking up at night only to be swarmed by ghosts right by your bed, the talking lich in the basement as a final boss fight... yeah, I was SO glad that quest was over!

The ghostly enemies in Oblivion always do a good job of scaring the living crap out of me.

Rattatouille - a game for children

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

my sister proudly walks into the room with the purchase she has saved for a year to get, i obligingly lend her the use of my PS3 (after she pulled the PS2 off the shelf with the controller cord, wireless is a must)

she comes out in a fit of frustration hours later, and declares to me, as only a grumpy 8 year old can, that its impossible, it cant be done, the game is cheating and she wants her money back.

Flexing my gigantic gaming muscles, i take one patronising look at the game and vow to 'help you though the hard bits'

'Its ALL hard!" she replies
'sure it is...' i say, unaware...

My bulging, shirt-straining gaming muscles, masters of FPS, RTS, and whatever the hell you class mechwarrior as, unfold as a cartoony rat dances on the title screen

3 hours later

I stomp out of the room with a look of frustration on my face

"ITS NOT POSSIBLE"

we took the game back, i taught her to play half-life, she now wants to buy condemned... i put that suggestion down and proffered my game-boy with final fantasy tactics inside...

i dont know which is more emasculating... not being able to finish a childrens game, or being beaten at tactics by what is for all intents and purposes... a little girl.

Having played GH3 only once, on Easy at EB Games, I bragged to my friends that I owned it and already completed Medium Career Mode. I was getting it within the week so I thought it would be okay.

Well, I didn't know GH3 would end up at the party that weekend, and I was apparently "the one to beat."

Yeah, still waiting to live that down.

FEAR did it for me aswell, except I had already seen alma on the ladder before at a friends house and I was prepared for it... The screen that freaked me out and made me stop playing the game for about an hour so, was when I was walking through empty cubicle farm number 246 much later in the game. I was thinking to myself "it's quiet... too quiet!", and then suddenly nothing happened... no ambush... no ghost ninja things... nothing. so I keep walking along, only turning briefly to look at a blinking light in one of the cubicles... and then it happened... Alma appears out of nothing (as always) and comes leap running towards you on all fours and jumps you, only to disappear before hitting you. I was totally freaked, not the screaming kind... the total cognative meltdown kind

Mine would have to be the Ocean House Hotel level in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
It was the middle of the day, brightness way up and still can't believe how freaked out I was.
I was shaking and shivering, I had a cold sweat and then I turned off the PC and didn't play any game at all for 4-5 hours.
It was so fucking scary that it still gives me shivers when I think about it.

Agreed on the Vampire: Bloodlines Ocean House Hotel bit.

It was 2am, I'd started playing the game a bit after dinner that evening and I thought 'Well, just this one quest and then I'll hit the sack'. I got the key from the construction pad, thunder and lightning cracking through the sky, I walked up to the hotel and one of the lights next to the door burst. Had a slight gasp of scare but I got over it.
The next hour of my life was filled with sublime terror the likes of which I had never experienced (though seeing The Ring later would prove tough competition). Running ghost women, a dude with an axe appearing all over the place, having a kitchen go ballistic at you, and worst of all, the part where you walk into a hotel room, the lights go out, thunder cracks, the lights go on again and GET OUT is scratched on the wall. I could barely resist the urge to say "Yes sir, of course" and get the fuck out.
The second time I played a Nosferatu vampire, it's a lot less frightning if you consider you're a hell of a lot scarier than whatever ghost could be in there.

Also, Alien vs Predator 2; playing as a marine.
From my earlier FPS days, I've been an ammo hog. I usually wait, aim, then pop 2-3 bullets instead of spraying them like mad. The first FPS I ever played (one similar to Wolvenstein, Cyclone something I think) had precious little ammo in the game, and that mentality stuck with me.
In AvP2 however, I emptied whole clips on shadows, spent a minute in the corner of a room just firing bullets at random places in the room just for the flash of light and swore never to play it in the evening or at night. Goddamn aliens and dark deserted military bases.

Ultrajoe:
Rattatouille - a game for children

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

I have to agree. I couldn't finish the demo, and I tried for quite a while. It's a really tricky platformer that's lousy at cueing players into what paths are possible and what aren't. The camera kinda sucks, too. Not recommended unless you're really into trial-and-error learning, have cobra reflexes, and can exercise the patience of a sewer 'gator.

-- Steve

Playing through Systemshock 2 for the first time, I've quietly made my way though the game's creepy inner workings. Now, though at 4 AM (not realizing it's that late) I'm sneaking through the ship on the edge of my seat because my weapon is about to break and I'm almost out of ammo. Suddenly, I turn a corner and I'm lookin at the belly button a F***ing Rumbler. This is the first time I have seen this monstrocity outside of a brief moment at the start of the game. I'm screaming "DIE! DIE! DIE! AHHHH!" at the top of my lungs, prompting my room mate to come in and ask "What the hell are you DOING?" Sheepishly I turn off the game and say, "Pissing myself."

Well I can't really call it emasculating since I'm not a guy, but it's still plenty embarrassing.

I was playing Doom 3 a couple weeks ago because I was in the mood for something frightening. (I'd recently finished Bioshock for the 3rd time and f.e.a.r I'd played too many times so the horror factor had worn off so I was looking for something else creepy.

1am, lights off, no one around, I was doing pretty well and not too overly creeped out (after all zombies and fire spitting monsters aren't really scary compared to Paxton Fettle) until I hit the first bathroom, the one where you look at the mirror and it suddenly zooms in on your face as if you're a zombie with a heavy breathing and beastial growl. When that cut scene happened I screamed loud enough to wake my lover clear in the other room and well... Wet my dress. *blush*

That's the first time a games ever done that too me in over 10 years of gaming, (I'm 28 if you're curious) so despite being embarrassed I have to give kudos to the devs for a job well done. (over done?)

The other embarrassing moment was in S.T.A.L.K.E.R where you head into the tunnel after the underground stash. The eerie wind and moans combined with the flashing lighting set the scene nicely, but when I grabbed up a artifact and got double teamed by the two cloaking muties (the first time I ever ran into them) I jumped so bad I unplugged the mouse form it's usb port. (then screamed and freaked trying to plug it back in so I wouldn't get killed instead of just hitting the escape key on the keyboard like a sane person would lol )

This is sexist because emasculation would only be relevant to males and in any case demonizes femininity. All further comments have corroborated this statement. Not that it's that important, but I felt the need to point that out.

Playing COD4 online on PC and accidentally hitting the Windows Start button on the keyboard. Minimizes the game and leaves you standing around like a moron. Then you have to apologize to everyone if you lagged up the server. Very embarrassing.

Playing my first online game of supreme commander and thinking that i was winning and in all my concentraty glory i forgot i was playing a 3 man game and found that said 3rd person was still there when i heard the signal for a missile launch 10 fucking times!!

owned

Doom 3: Honestly, this game failed to scare me in most cases (though I did think the beginning was well done), but for me the only things that work are atmosphere and mindfuckery. Flashing lights and zombies jumping out of corners are just so obvious and expected that I usually fall into a game of "guess which wall has a zombie behind it" and since I'm prepared for them, they're not surprising or frightening. Also, as usual, zombies are always in a set position, so once you kill them you know they're gone for good (unless something drastic happens to the area that forces you to backtrack, in which case you can expect some new enemies to spawn.) The mirror scene might have worked, but I just happened to think to myself "this is a good time to have something scary happen in the mirror" right as I looked at it. However, I DID have one moment in the game where I managed to scare the crap out of myself, and it was my own fault. I was trying to talk to a scientist and was holding the flashlight. Instead of talking, I ended up swinging at him and nearly **** my pants when he EXPLODED. I wasn't expecting anything to happen since this was a safe area and I certainly didn't expect a guy to explode just from getting hit with the flashlight.

Back when I was like 6 or 7 I watched my brother play one of the wolfensteins and some RE's and I cried whenever he would kill a dog. It was pretty funny, looking back on it now, but he still mocks me about it.

Also, in the Yoshi's Story on the N64 I cried whenever one of the Yoshis died and was taken to the castle by those shy guys.

Anton P. Nym:

Nickolai:
Whenever I get mauled in Halo by a team of Grunts. Seriously, I'm good at that game. But those little demonic Smurfs never fail to kill me at least once per checkpoint.

It's not just the humiliation of being beat by the lowest caste in the game, it's how they gloat afterwards... "Yippee!" "Me! That was me!" "This's a waste of ammo, but me no care." (fires into my corpse) "Not so tough now, are you, tinman?"

Funniest Quote from the grunts was when I was play Halo 2 on legendary for the first time, walk into the first pack of grunts and promptly get mauled. one of the grunts looks down at my corpse and, in an incredulous tone says, "It DIES?!?"

I fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard.

It'd be the first time I played Forza 2. I went for a time trial in the Cadillac prototype car in Arcade mode.

Now, I had never played a 360 racing game before. My only racing experience was all on my PSone and PS2. All these games generally used the X button for acceleration, the O button for handbrake, and the Square button for braking. Forza, however, uses the right trigger for acceleration, the left trigger for braking and reverse, and the A button for handbrake.

In terms of hand-positioning, the X button on the PS2 controller is where they put the A button on the 360.

So, with a rolling start I mash the A button to go fast (out of reflex), and end up handbrake-sliding into the barrier.

I'm the only one who crashed off the line at the start of a time trial.

This one is damn easy for me. Conflict : Vietnam (at least I am fairly sure that's the one)

Playing Co-op story mode with a buddy, and we are getting mildly creeped out because the VC traps they use in the game, we know were based on what they really used, and they were very well disguised traps, just like in real life. This gets us a little edgy, but nothing too bad. That is until we hit the VC tunnel system level.

I am not a claustrophobic person, but the tunnel systems creeped me out. They always have, I think about it, and can't help but feel completely vulnerable. So me and my buddy are in one room, and after clearing it out he let's me know he's moving to the next one. I move to the tunnel he's getting in and proceed to follow him. I'm trailing him for about a minute when all of a sudden, I hear he's shooting. Look up at his screen and he's standing in a room shooting at the VC in there. I look at my screen and I am still following the person I thought was him. Look back up as his screen and then it all clicks in place.

I finally figure out that this person I am following is actually one of the VC AI and I scream. I scream way too loud, unload a clip into this guy in front of me, pause the game and walk outside for a smoke. I thought I could go back and play the rest of the level after that, but when we went back inside, I couldn't bring myself to start it back up. Another roommate had to finish it for me. I had never felt more emasculated by a game.

Getting beaten by the my 3 year old Nephew at a Tekken 2 arcade machine. My soul died a little.