[General Discussion] Have you hit a wall? (noclip FTW)

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Stephen Totilo, at MTV Games, has hit a gaming wall. At the newly un-flashed Multiplayer site he talks about the bane of gamers everywhere, what developer Jamie Fristrom calls a 'shelf-level event': a gaming wall that makes it hard if not impossible to complete a game. While a lot of gamers can overcome difficulties to reach the end credits, there are some frustrations that can suck all the fun out of play. He cites the bosses from Final Fantasy X and Super Paper Mario as dealbreakers. I personally am playing through God of War again, and the incredibly frustrating spear trap in the 'Paths of Madness' section of the game never fails to provoke hysterics. Have you run into any such obstacles lately? What game obstacles have caused you toss away a controller in frustration and swear off a game entirely?

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../02/06/2154237

Interesting article about straws that break the proverbial camel's back. I know I've had a few in my day, one of which I posted in the ensuing discussion on the Slashdot page.

Originally Posted by yours truly

Zone of the Enders 2. Let me start by saying that I played and LOVED the first ZOE, and have finished and LOVE MOST OF the 2nd. Gameplay-wise, the 2nd is a vast improvement, or perhaps refinement, over the first and just plain shines.

Until you reach a certain boss. Those of you who have played the game probably know where I'm going with this.

The boss battle basically consists of fighting against a possessed ally whom you must cure, but CANNOT KILL lest you lose the fight and have to start over. It's essentially a battle of timing, as you have to attack the boss at the same time the boss attacks you, repeat 2-3 times, and then grab hold of it to cure your ally of the virus infecting their ship ("frame" as they're called in the game).

This battle is next to impossible in all but the initial playthrough of the game, and even then it's no picnic. The reason it actually gets harder as you replay the game is that you start over from round 1 with a maxed-out character. This means all special abilities/weapons, max damage, near invulnerability to enemy attacks, etc.

Problem is, when you reach this boss, the boss will die in 2-3 direct hits due to your superpowered ship, yet you're still required to line up the same 9-10 perfectly-timed hits as in the first time through so you can grab the boss and cure the possession. Add to that the fact that the timing required is ridiculously precise and that the game really, truly seems to cheat half the time (properly-timed attacks wind up hurting the boss instead of opening the window to grab) just to get an edge over you, and all semblance of fun and enjoyment go straight out the window. It also merits mentioning that the boss is EXTREMELY talkative and, to my knowledge, there is no way to shut off character voice-overs. Couple the repeated loss of the battle with having to hear the boss constantly taunt your character and the battle gets really old, really fast.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the most fun parts of the game (the 2nd half or a little less), including a couple of amazing battles, are AFTER this maddening boss fight.

I've gotten to the point where I consider the level immediately before the boss (a nifty train chase) to be the de-facto end of the game, and I just turn it off after that. The battle is so horrible it quite effectively ruins--completely and utterly ruins--what is otherwise a great action/adventure title.

So, Viola AI battle for the lose, but has anyone else here experienced an "oh, fuck you" moment that caused them to abandon a game?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I remember fighting the Valmar parts in G2. I seem to recall having more trouble with Valmar's Eye than with his Core, but the battles were all bastards. Thing is, they were (for the most part) fair, so I couldn't just accuse the game of cheating. Though what DID seem like cheating (and what incidentally led me to a post-endgame wall in G2) were the demons you fight in the Raul Hills who have the nuke-you-ler asplosion spell that effectively lays out your whole party with no way to defend or recover.

There's nowhere I can't reach.