What are particularly big examples of the computer being a cheating bastard, in your experience?

What are the most memorable instances you can think of when the computer/game developers did something/put something in the game with an aim to hiking difficulty resulting in a dead annoying game.

For me?

I'd have to say the football manager series wins the title for me. In the fifa games, if you score a goal, there's a great chance that the next play, the opposing team will be un-tacklable and will shoot a perfect curling shot into the top right corner of the net, but that's nothing compared to football manager. In one of my games my star striker scored 3 goals in the first half, then, in the second half, the opposing team's right-back scored FOUR goals in 20 minutes. 'nuff said.

Ps. I realise there's a website that had this 'trope', and that it has a massive list of examples, but not everyone knows that and it's a good convorsation peice.

The SNES game Bram Stoker's Dracula. Three factors: Horrible controls that made it impossible to move with precision, levels littered with pits that had enemies running back and forth in them, and absolutely no "moment of invulnerability" when you took damage. Falling into a single pit meant getting pinned down by an enemy hitting you twice a second, leaving you helpless until you died.

I rented a lot of crappy games for the SNES, but that one is one of the few I ever took back before it was due.

CoD3

Goddamn nazis with their magic nazi bullets.

RTS Games in general, the computer LITERALLY CHEATS on the harder difficulties.

i gotta say im pissed with Oblivion on Xbox 360 i shoot a man in the face with an arrow and he's still coming at me with a huge axe...please explain?

don't mention mario kart
don't do it

Mortal Kombat series, the computer A.I.

spuddyt:
don't mention mario kart
don't do it

I just shuddered.

Onmi:
RTS Games in general, the computer LITERALLY CHEATS on the harder difficulties.

C&C 3 on the hardest difficalty had an INSANE money buff, same with the LOTRs... and presumably most EA RTSs then.
COD4 with the AI being able to blindfire.
Halo 3 Pre-empting (swear to god.. that bastard game)
Most boss fights, where you kick their ass only for them to use their bullshitty wipe-out-everything power in the next cinematic.

TNA Impact:The Video Game(Yes its a wrestling game,please dont hurt me!)
The opponent recovers energy faster than you,gets special moves faster than you and is much stronger than you,even on the easy difficulty. Also to get out of a pin you have to waggle the joysticks back and forth but it never reacts properly!

An early part in a GBA game called Medabots: Rokusho Version (or Metabee), you face two enemies that you can't hit without using Scout command twice. They use a technique called "Sacrifice", destroys their left/right arm to destroy everything on one of your Medabots. You can't miss it, and if your leader is dead, you lose. You better pray to God your leader isn't targeted. And after the "Sacrifice" bull, they fire crit. rockets. Yes, they are that overpowered.

EDIT: Oh, and did I mention they Sacrifice two times each?

Ned for speed: Underground I think it was. If you were too far ahead of the other cars in a race the game would actually make them catch up to you! Apparently it causes a "More tense race." Well it caused me to sell it.

conqueror Kenny:
Ned for speed: Underground I think it was. If you were too far ahead of the other cars in a race the game would actually make them catch up to you! Apparently it causes a "More tense race." Well it caused me to sell it.

EA has never been a bright mind.

Need For Speed Carbon's canyon duel where geting ahead by the slightest bit means that the opponent manages to have 10mins of nitrous and the ability to ram you off the cliff with a tiny tap

spuddyt:
don't mention mario kart
don't do it

This.

I also notice that after I've been getting my ass handed to me on some levels in some games, the computer decides to lighten up and let me through...but then when I get to comfortable it sends hordes of enemies my way and puts me right back into my frustrated state of mind again. Damn computers.

coffin:
i gotta say im pissed with Oblivion on Xbox 360 i shoot a man in the face with an arrow and he's still coming at me with a huge axe...please explain?

Maybe hes on some drugs? Crack? Cocaine? Speed? Heroine? Who knows man, those guys have their "magic" powder in Oblivion...

In Unreal Tournament if you set the bots difficulty to Godlike their guns do more damage than yours.

spuddyt:
don't mention mario kart
don't do it

Aww, but that was the first thing that popped into my head. Ok, I am going to say the Canary Mary Race In Banjo-Tooie, in the last world its a freaking pain in the ass to beat, as she doesnt have a set top speed, so if your going mach 1 and blast past her, she immediately steps it up to hyperdrive, and kicks your butt.

Street Fighter II - Snes.........but possibly ALL versions.

Okay, so you whoop the crap out of everyone else on menu of pain across the world, but then you get to M. Bison.

Beat the crap out of him 1st round, he didn't stand a chance.

Round two starts, you continue the upper hand until you get his health down to about a 3rd and then JESUS CHRIST he just got so much quicker, so much stronger and he doesn't seem to be bothered by getting hit anymore.

Then in the 3rd round he'd be just as nuts and the result would not please you.

This caused me to throw my joypad at the TV SO many times as a child.

Jinpachi. Jinpachi is terrible.

Also, I've had numerous matches on Smackdown 1 and 2 where I'd be tearing the other dude up and he just gets up, waves at me, and I can now be pinned.

Urban Reign generally has missions that do not want you to beat them. Ever.

http://dagobah.biz/flash/flashCHESS3.swf
This game. I swear it does not play by the same rules it makes you play by.
That and of course, Mario Kart and all of its variations. Cheated so many times I only see red when I try to think of one.

Call of Duty World at War, Veteran, mission called Vendetta.

something to add is mortal kombat. with some characters you can spam the same moves to stop anyone getting a hit on you. I really hate my friend for that

CHESS. Chess never works on a pc because the default setting is tear your bollocks out. But if you're looking for an actual game; Soul Calibur. I love the game but every now and then in normal difficulty the CPU forgot I was a human being and mashed all of Siegfried's combos at once.

Far Cry 2. If you drive away from an enemy base, no matter which car you are driving, the enemy car will catch up to yours and then hang with you until you stop.

Playing GTA 4 while on PCP or LSD. The AIs a bitch when you're high.

Galgamoth from Symphony of the Night.
I had to look for the cheapest tactic to beat him.

AKA: Spam the Magic Rod + Shield = Knight who appears and throws two gigantic spinning blades at him over and over again. I also turned into the mist to ensure that I wouldn't die.

edit- Soul steal is so hard to input on that game. I hate combo's that requre sliding the fingers.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Psychic enemies who only show themselves from whatever they're hiding behind when you sneak away silently, or reload or run out of breath whilst sniping. And also the fact that they can instantly jump out of the way when you shoot at them.

Basically any fighting game...DOA4, all the Mortal Kombats, Tekken 5 (damn you Jinpachi), and Soul Calibur 3 all come to mind. DOA4 is especially maddening with counters, ESPECIALLY that final boss...you'll sometimes get a match where she nicely bends over and allows you to beat the stupid out of her, but most of the time she will counter literally everything you do, do that damned cartwheel kick and then a couple of those insane grabs.

Soldier of Fortune 3 (shudder) really cheated a lot...the AI was really stupid, but could see and consistently hit you from a mile away while you were well-hidden...with an AK-47. That's more bad programming than anything, but it still fits.

Battlefield games. (And Battlefront games, I guess.)

It's not necessarily that the computer cheats, but the allied AI characters are so incompetent, it feels like you're being cheated. But strangely, the other team isn't so incompetent. Then, it switches. And it just keeps switching throughout the fight until one team manages to win. And it pisses me the hell off.

And Age of Empires games, but that's a given...

willard3:
...where she nicely bends over and allows you to...

Dear lord what have I done!
Have mercy mods Have mercy

Jak X: combat racing
The whole game, you will always be knocked out of first into 15th maybe, if you're lucky.

NBA LIVE, point gaurd getting rebounds over YAO, transision 3 pointers, Dunk contest

In CRASH of the Titans, i finaly beat the second to last boss(playing on hard) then they game froze, took it right back to blockbuster

Zetona:
Far Cry 2. If you drive away from an enemy base, no matter which car you are driving, the enemy car will catch up to yours and then hang with you until you stop.

this