GOG.com Competition - Final Week!

[clawster]

That's right, it's your last chance to win any game you like from GOG.com.

What's GOG.com?
Classic PC games, DRM free, XP/Vista compatible, and cheap! Click through to their site and take a look.

Want to win a free one?
Click through to the forum thread (not the comments!) and tell us the story of the game you could never beat.


Couldn't beat down Bowser? Tomb Raider was too tricky? Master Chief... failed? Tell us about it.
Where did you get stuck in the game? How? Why? Do you go back to try and finish it off?

Winner will receive a code for a free GOG game.

We'll be judging on interestingness, humour and writing. As per usual, the best ones will be published on the main site and we'll also declare a winner.

Competition entries are limited to one per person and to website members only. Last entries on Sunday 30th August. Staff members and entries from outside Australia are not eligible to win. If you are not a member, why not sign up?

Good luck!

[Brad]

The game that I could never beat was Turrican on the C64 - for the uninitiated Turrican was one of the greatest side scrolling shooters of the period.  I got the game for Xmas in 1990 (I was 13) after reading a review of it in Zzap64 where they gave it 97% - I remember a line from the review where the reviewer stated something like "you'll believe that your C64 has turned into an Amiga overnight".  I didn't have a floppy drive for my C64 so it was the good old datacassette version for me!

Well the game certainly was amazing and I played that thing like there was no tomorrow.  But I got to this level and i got stuck.  I tried for months to get further and each time had no luck.  Since this was on a cassette, each time I tried I had to start from the beginning of the game - it's probably a good hour - hour and a half to get that far.  And then one day (it was about 7 months after getting the game) I realised that there was a platform that I could jump up onto.  That was it.  I played the game through to the end that afternoon - Turrican had one of the most memorable endings as well.  It's definitely a game that i'll always remember fondly.

[Brad]

Here's a link to some screenies of the ending if anyone is interested

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/c64/a/turri.htm

[mmmmmmm]

Super Metroid

We all know how bloody fantastic this game was (rather IS) and in my opinion is the all time greatest game as it throws in a good variety of adventure, with state of art graphics and intense gameplay that rewards the player for exploration.

Indeed exploration was the key to the game, but being the 8yr old kid I was back then, I was impatient and killing aliens was the only thing in my mind. Which was why I lock'd n loaded 100+ missles ready to kick some ass, so I ran far and wide knowing my next destination was "Miridia" where the boss was at. The phrase far and wide probably couldn't even describe the amount of times I ran around in the game looking for the path because it was three years later where by pure coincidence releasing a power bomb in a very specific underwater walkway that revealed the key to my troubles. The Walkway exploded to my sheer delight as I witness some spectacular 3D graphics of glass shards (well it was at the time, but perhaps they weren't glass shards but joyful tears ), and from that point on my adventure could finally continue.

I suppose, it wasn't a very hard puzzle but the fact that the other walkways couldn't be destroyed albeit this one, and given I was an impatient child. This has to my greatest video gaming feat, on something where 3yrs felt like an impossibility or eternity.

[Ben]

I have never been able to finish the good ol' classic Earthworm Jim.
I must've been 8/9 years old or younger when I bought this game from the bargain bin at Harvey Norman for PC. When I bought the game I was over the moon. Me thinking, "yay! Senseless worm violence" I went straight into it. The first few levels weren't particually hard. It was always a blast playing the first few. But then the levels got harder... and harder... and harder. Before I knew it I was at the underwater level trying to control the submarine/ pod. Well, that's where I'm up to, and that's where it'll no doubt stay

I tried for MONTHS trying to get past that particular levels. The save file got deleted often and I loved going through the other levels killing crows, hearing the weird sounds on the intro screen, but when I got back to the underwater level, it was completely beyond my ability. I spent hours on my still alive-and-kicking windows 98 computer. I was always so dissappointed. I'm sure I'd have a better chance of getting past that level these days. Now where did I leave that disc?

[Ilk]

I've beaten almost every game I started on. Those that I quit halfway, it's mainly out of boredom. But there's this one game that beats me instead. It's freeware, but it certainly was made with 15% love, 15% intelligence, and 70% pure cruelty. It's called "I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game". Yep, it not only gets kudos for hardest game ever, it scores for the most awesome name ever.

The story is simple. You're a 16 year old kid, called...well, The Kid. The Kid wants to make it big in the world. He wants to be a hero, The Guy that everyone idolises. So, you set off to kill evil villains and be The Guy.

I wouldn't say a game's impossible to beat, unless it's got game-stopping bugs, but IWBTG is the first game that comes closest to being that sans the game-stopping bugs. How do you win a game whose main aim is to stop you from winning? IWBTG is to a gamer what Skynet is to Sarah/John Connor.

It states on the main website that "this game is very hard". They're not kidding. If you're new to the game, like I was 3 weeks ago, within 15 seconds into the first level, you'll encounter your first death. I guarantee you that. I'll try to avoid spoilers, but traps are everywhere. You can die from the most seemingly harmless object. The game does not play fair. The levels are scripted, but it's almost as if the game intentionally does certain things to kill you just when you think you're winning. It's damn hard, it's clearly unfair, but somehow it brings a new level of unpredictability that actually makes the game addictive, as you look forward to the next gauntlet.

You die in one hit from anything that damages you. Then, you have to restart from your last save point, which means wasting another few minutes just to get back to where you were before you died - and that's provided you don't die in the process. I Wanna Be The Guy makes every other difficult game out there look like a piece of cake. It's just...amazing. The game just wants you to lose, period.

I still taking my own sweet time at the second level, but already the boss is making life incredibly hard for me. Like I said, I'm going to avoid spoilers, but the boss is just...sick. The odds are crazy. You can memorise the sweet spots that avoid getting you killed, but getting the timing right is a completely different story. There's a certain sense of adrenaline rush when you know you're getting close to killing the boss, but then the game continues to mess you up with unpredictable actions once more. Then you die. Then you repeat. That's how the game goes. I'm slowly getting there, but after many days of still being stuck at the second boss, I realised that life itself is just another excuse for space time continuum, that the universe is probably just a myth, and during a heavy storm, it rains frogs instead of cats and dogs.

Also, the fact that the easiest difficulty in the game is actually called Medium probably sums up everything.

[Josh]

Operation Wolf
NES

The same old story- rescue the civilians and kill everyone else.
When it came to failing on this game, I was serving it up as the epic variety. Being the early 90?s I was a mere child making my first attempt at home computer gaming goodness- and Operation Wolf gave me a nice old lesson in murder (off the dancefloor).

Just to let you in on how bad I was at the game, it was only after I owned it for around one year I completed the first level. I know what your thinking- n00b! But alas you would be incorrect that word wasn?t invented yet, it was the 90s.

Looking back on it I spent way too long on that game to grow up hating it, even tuning in to Beverly Hills 90210 would have been easier to watch.

[TheKingOfMonkeys]

Braid.
As of current, there are only two worlds that i have completely owned, whilst having the latter worlds completely own me. Usually when i reach this point, I would use a walkthrough, but you can't for a game like Braid, as the walkthroughs would ruin everything.
It was also pretty awesome to find out that Braid was based on this "nuclear bomb" - and the Princess, is the bomb.
The game is so well made that I've rage quit like 5 times, and have struggled to find most of the puzzle pieces.

Braid is a great game, but it is BLOODY annoying.

ALSO:
Super Mario Bros Deluxe (the one on Gameboy)
I've been stuck on 8-2 for the last 5 years. In fact, I think i somehow managed to beat it, but now can't beat 8-3.
DAMMIT FLYING CLOUD!

[clawster]

Braid.
As of current, there are only two worlds that i have completely owned, whilst having the latter worlds completely own me. Usually when i reach this point, I would use a walkthrough, but you can't for a game like Braid, as the walkthroughs would ruin everything.

you haven't finished it?

braid is like portal. the entire game is just a lead-up for the final level - which is STUNNING.

seriously, just stick some time in and work it out, finish it. it's worth it to see the last level.
and DON'T use a walkthrough, like you said. 

[trinest]

I've never finished many video games- but for ones just for pure "hardness" which is why I couldn't finish it Trauma Center: New Blood, the stigma missions are unrealistic and bat**** insane difficult - especially the last one. If I remember correctly I got to the last mission and gave up. I could also mention I haven't finished many Zelda games- not because they are hard but I never have the "push" to play it all through. A few other games like Starfox on the DS I never finished because of the crummy design choices for the main game.

[smokemeakipper250]

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

I was really excited about getting this game when I was young but when I played it, I couldn't pass the second level. Several times I played up to the part where you were in a large pit. After ascending the wall of the pit and attacking a few enemies, you would get up to the path that circled the pit but didn't lead anywhere. I spent a really long time trying to work out where to go next, I searched the entire pit, and circled the path many times, but I never managed to work it out so eventually I gave up.

I found a run through on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kn7MgUN_94&feature=related the level I'm talking about starts around 3:17.

Sometime later I went to a friend's house and the game was idling on his playstation, and by sheer coincidence on that same level. I mentioned to him how that part was virtually impossible, you couldn't go anywhere but he then showed me that you simply had to stomp attack the well with the wooden lid and you would fall through to the next part of the level. I felt really silly having gotten stuck so early in the game - it was my first 3D platforming game. I went on and played through most of the game but eventually got stuck by some tricky platforming and I never did end up beating the evil Baron Dante who imprisoned all the Gobbos.

I think I might dig up the old PSX and finish it off. After a decade I think it's about time Croc finally sorted out that evil Baron Dante.

[Ilk]

I remember Croc. The main reason it got criticized for was because....yep, you guessed right, it was too hard. But, it was damn fun, and I'm proud of myself for managing to finish it without a walkthrough. Trust me, though, the hardest parts are not going to be figure-it-out puzzle areas, but rather the action-y segments. Its not easy, but it's doable. Very cute game, especially the furry creatures that you have to rescue. Definitely worth playing through at least once.

[clawster]

That's it! We're done!
Check the main site later today to see if you won!
Thanks to all our entrants.