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#Gaming

Edited by Buggy Virus: 3/19/2013 6:12:15 PM
10

Greatest Personal Gaming Achievements

Throughout my life, gaming has been a large part of it. I've played a wide array of different games, and over time got myself sucked into the zone people call hardcore. By hardcore I don't mean the kids you have prestiged multiple times in call of duty, or the new Halo players that really care about what gears is on their spartan. I mean the group of players that value a game that will make them die fifty times until they get it right the fifty-first time, and build a skill set and strategic thinking. This attitude towards thinking has made me decide to play some truly masochistic games. Despite having been a clan Halo 3 player, and a clan level Battle Bad Company 2 player (the best kind of Battlefield), those aren't the kind of achievements I'm talking about. I'm talking about those singular moments where you resolutely complete a game or defeat something. And I've done the classic ones, like beat the elite four, etc, but these are the ones that aren't comparable, where completion was a matter of time and attrition. Here's my list of greatest achievement in video games (In no particular order): [b] 1. Beat Sebulba in Episode I Pod Racer for the Gameboy[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Hitting the wall and exploding [b]Best Part:[/b] Realizing Anakin's pod upgrades itself [b]Feeling:[/b] Incredulity at my triumph [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] I was playing as Anakin Basically it was like this: [url]http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/t/24760-star-wars-episode-i-racer-game-boy-color-screenshot-tailing.jpeg[/url] A top down pod racing game for the gameboy. The game was apparently so powerful it needed this: [url]http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Star-Wars-Episode-I-Racer-Nintendo-Game-Boy-Color-1999-/00/s/NTc3WDEwMjQ=/$%28KGrHqR,!iYE6Z2WfKTqBOy1drQl%28!~~60_35.JPG[/url] A fat cartridge which took another precious AA battery required to play your gameboy color. The objective was simple, play as Anakin, going from world to world, beating aliens and collecting their pods which you could then race in order to win more pods. There had to be over 20 courses and pods, and each one was a battle to get. Being that it was top down, you could only see the what the screen was showing you in your limited vision. But at the speed you were going, you could possibly react in time, along with the fact that you drifted through your turns, and the turns were not forgiving. There would be complete right angles during which you could just take a hit or brake all the way through. The way the game compensated for this, is about a second before extreme turns, and arrow would pop up telling you the direction. Even with this you couldn't possibly make the turn unless you knew the course inside and out. Failing one turn on the later stages meant one thing, you would lose. The AI drove the pods through the courses at the fastest speed possible. You had to play flawlessly while actually bashing your pod against the computers in order to win. And every bash brought your already low starting health lower. Oh yeah, your health was also your fuel bar for maximum speed. This is the type of game that looks easy, and then you play it, and nothing can humanly be done. Suffice to say, Sebulba was the last race. He had a pod which threw the rules that were balancing the pods up until that point out of the window. Beating him meant my pod was forever in front of his after accelerating by him around one turn, forcing him behind me while breaking my all time record. Sounds dumb, super exciting.[/spoiler] [b]2. Beating Frankenstein In Castlevania Original for the NES[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Suiciding at the beginning of the level if I didn't reach the boss area with 3 lives [b]Best Part:[/b] None of it [b]Feeling:[/b] Complete Dread of having to do it again if I closed the game [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] Never beat Death [url]http://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/e/e1/Castlevania_Boss_Frankenstein.png[/url] Go watch a playthrough of castlevania, I dare you. This is a game that is easy to understand, and looks easier to play. Still one of the toughest games out there. Go play it, you'll understand. Watch every strategy guide, then go play it, it won't be any easier. Here, just watch some: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKi_avjC3kI]Actually god playing[/url] Watching it, it looks slow, it looks like enemies are slow, and watching good players, it looks like enemies die to the simplest tap of a whip. What is hard to understand, is every most you make in castlevania is a commitment, one that carries more weight their you mumbling after your girlfriend asks you what you think about marriage. But Frankenstein, it's incomprehensible what this boss wants from you. It walks around while Igor hops everywhere on the screen shooting fireballs. This is the boss which make people quit playing an already impossibly hard game. One needs to dodge fireballs coming from every direction, while staying cognizant of the damage you need to put onto Frankenstein in your limited time, since you are going to die, and you will do so quickly. I finally beat Frankenstein, with only a hit of pegs left, using nothing but the whip, and it left me with a feeling of such triumph and dread. I was dreading losing my data and having to ever play that again. I wish this could have been beating death. But I can't beat death.[/spoiler] Apparently this is also a thing: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZ7Aayi9Z4]F***ing Holy Water[/url] [b]3. Beat Super Meat Boy Dark Levels, collect all bandaids on PC[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Random Lag [b]Best Part:[/b] Fly Wrench [b]Feeling:[/b] Objective awe of what my runs looked like [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] Didn't beat all the warpzones [url]https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/433297487/meatysticker2.png[/url] This is a game which does in fact look hard to the naked untrained gamer mind. You fling meatboy around at a break neck pace, slowly mastering every iota of movement while you make increasingly impossible jumps. If nothing else, it's hard. And there is a deep satisfaction watching all your failed attempts toss themselves into buzz saws. This is the game which is why my two arrow keys, left and right, are cracked down the middle from intense wear and tear. And for those of you who don't know, dark levels were insane twists on the already increasingly absurdly hard meatboy levels. To understand, watch this montage, and understand that these are the easy levels. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snaionoxjos]Trailer[/url][/spoiler] [b]4. Beat Epic Battle Fantasy 1-3 On Epic on PC[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Epic Battle Fantasy 1's lack of save points [b]Best Part:[/b] Slime Bunny or Soul Eater Cleaver, can't decide [b]Feeling:[/b] Tactical superiority [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] Still need to beat EBF4 I'll be able to also add EBF4 in a day or so with walkthrough for god cat. [url]http://ahkong.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/epic-battle-fantasy-2-02.jpg[/url] These games are flash parodies of final fantasy. That being said, they are some of the best turn based fighters on the planet, and perhaps my favorite series ever. Especially for their epic difficulty. To beat a boss on epic difficulty in this game, you need to use every single one of your turns perfectly, and still have luck on your side. On epic, this is the type of game, that even with infinite items which can revive and heal your entire party, you will game over, alot. Just for example, the second to last boss of Epic Battle Fantasy 2 consisted of a two headed undead dragon. both heads had a turn, and both could cast instant death magic during their turn which would kill one of your two parrty members. Meaning at full health, fully buffed, you could lose. To counter this, you needed to play with a specific behavior that right before that fight the game would give you the option to get a perk for one of your party members. Either that your tank had a chance to survive big hits with 1 hp out of 9999, or that your healer had some resistance to insta-death magic. This type of challenge was consistent throughout the entire series, and that example wouldn't even be the most extreme case. Yet it was always fair, always your fault, something wrong with your strategy, and the best part is that there are multiple different ways and builds to tackle each boss. I always used soul eater.[/spoiler]

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  • Edited by Buggy Virus: 3/19/2013 6:10:58 PM
    [b]5. Halo 2 Legendary[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Jackal Snipers [b]Best Part:[/b] Accidently finding a skull [b]Feeling:[/b] Crap, I accidently found Iron [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] I didn't manage to get all of the skulls in one run [url]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100330024106/halo/es/images/b/b4/Jackal_Sniper.jpg[/url] I've played more halo than I would like to admit. I was a clan player. Every time a new halo comes out me and my friend go to one of our houses and spend the entire night just beating it on legendary in one sitting. I have to say, I'm upset at how they have handled legendary since Halo 2. Legendary with most skulls turned on is my default difficulty for all Halos, and I'm still not likely to die more than four or five times in a level. But Halo 2. This games legendary. Only recently did I beat it, because it took regimented playing and raging through it. This is the difficulty where single shield jackals will casually kill you if you try to attack them from too far away. But the best example of the sadism of this game is jack snipers. When a sniper hits you, and if ever you are in a position to be shot, they will hit you with their first shot, they headshot you. And Halo 2 pulls no punches, headshots on you are one hit kills. Quiet, efficient, and you should hope they take a second at your dead corpse, or you will have no idea where the sniper is. This punctuates the experience. Walking into areas where there are 5+ jackal snipers, all who will kill you within a second of spotting you, you come to understand, this game does not want you to win. There are other things. Elites that can take two plasma grenade sticks before their shields deplete. Elites that dual-wield plasma rifles and don't stagger, meaning they'll tear you up in a matter of seconds. Many more flood with rocket launchers. Drones are no longer an encounter you narrowly survive, but an encounter you always lose. The point is, Halo 2 takes Halo, a series about having a reasonable amount of health that recharges and fighting enemies with similar health systems, and cuts your health down to that of the hardest difficulty in Battlefield or COD (god, a terrible series), and then doubles the health of the enemies around you. Even with Halo's generous checkpoint system, this is a slog, a hard slog.[/spoiler] [b]6. Beating Cave Story's Hell[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Falling blocks [b]Best Part:[/b] Curly [b]Feeling:[/b] This would be adorable, if it wasn't so hard [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] There is a hard mode [url]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110811101324/deadliestfiction/images/f/f1/Quoted.jpg[/url] Cave story is a cute game about an adorable robot protagonist and a race of rabbit people. It's also an example of some of the finest platforming ever to be in an indie game. Boss fights are a blast, and have a surprising amount of depth and difficulty for a platformer. It really puts your balls to the wall on the last few normal bosses, which introduce perhaps the four toughest fights in the game, and decide to award you no health or save point in between them. This then pales to Hell. An area you unlock by doing various arbitrary tasks. To explain how the Hell works. Cave story, being a platformer, has spikes. Spikes of various kinds. Small spikes, big spikes, even insta-death spikes. Anyways, I dropped into hell, and say I was falling towards some spikes, so I use my jet pack to pass over them, until I got to the next place I could drop down, having used all my jetpacks charge. I expected to fall to an area with land where I could charge up my jetpack. Instead I fell to more spikes. The point was, I was going to hit spikes, but I had to maneuver myself to hit the spikes would would take away as little health as possible as I continued on, and to avoid the insta-death spikes, which were everywhere. This is the attitude of Cave Story Hell. It doesn't help that there are no checkpoints at all in it, and a four stage boss at the end. Hope you saved a life pot.[/spoiler] [b]7. My first time doing a 4x4 Rubix Cube[b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] What is this? [b]Best Part:[/b] What is this? [b]Feeling:[/b] What is this? [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] Still haven't discerned the algorithm that fixes the alternator (don't worry about it) [url]http://www.llstudents.org/2012/rubiks/images/rubik4x4%28301x301%29.jpg[/url] Ok, ok. . . it's not video games. But it is still in the same theme of gaming nonetheless. It is still a mental challenge, that we wouldn't think twice about if it had been introduced on steam this year instead of decades ago in physical form. Now, I can do the 7x7, with my first blind trial of the 7x7 being around 1 hour and 23 minutes. But the 4x4 has a special place in my heart. Sadly, I did 3x3 with help from a friend, who taught me algorithms, and for awhile I was content with that, and still in total awe of those who could teach themselves to do rubix cubes. When I got my 4x4 I told myself I would learn it myself. After about four hours of twisting it that way and this way, it was a mess. Slowly I learned to look at how every turn affected the cube, and to consider it purely analytically. I didn't just blindly hope to solve it, I kept a strategy in mind of where I wanted to get to, and what order of solving was realistic. I solved it in about five to six hours. Looking back, that's a terrible time for a 4x4, and I could probably solve a similar puzzle blind in about twenty to thirty minutes now. But that was the first time I could condescendingly tell people that I actually could solve a rubix cube, and didn't just look it up online. Oh, and note to those who just think, "eh, rubix cubes aren't that hard, it is just memorizing specific algorithms." Maybe it is, if it is so easy, I challenge you to pick up a 4x4, and without any help solve it. After that, try a 7x7.[/spoiler] [b]8. Beating Dark Souls, Soul Level 1[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Four Kings [b]Best Part:[/b] Invincibility Frames [b]Feeling:[/b] Depression. It's Dark Souls. [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] I could still do NG-infinity naked only melee [url]http://thecontrolleronline.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/dark-souls-logo.jpg[/url] So, we all know this. Dark Souls is hard. That's the hook of the game, it's meant to be hard. The game tries to kill you all the time, death means you lose all of your currency for leveling up or buying weapons, and other players are encouraged to invade your world and kill you for their own selfish gain. It's a hard game. If you don't believe me, there are plenty of videos of people rage-quitting it. But it's not impossible, and you genuinely get better at it and become more skilled. The first time I beat it took two playthroughs, and about 100 hours. Now I run through the game without a shield, around level 30 in about two to three hours. It's a complex combat system which is about your skill, not your level. With that in mind, you can beat the game at level 1. Most of the bosses will kill you in one hit, and the damage you do can be described as minimal, but it is possible. You just have to get good at dodging everything. After countless hours of rage, me, and my reinforced club (which is the best weapon you can get for level 1, a club), smashed down the final boss. I could now do the same playthrough in about four hours, but it was the time I understood how much better I had gotten at the game, and that I really had developed a strategy and skill for it. It's a good feeling. I highly recommend it.[/spoiler] [b]9. A 1,000,000 point trick in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3[/b] [spoiler][b]Worst Part:[/b] Cruise ship nets [b]Best Part:[/b] Special Tricks [b]Feeling:[/b] Saturated with 90s hip-hop [b]Thing I Ignore:[/b] The other bastard games in the series [url]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/Tony_Hawk%27s_Pro_Skater_3_Coverart.jpg[/url] This game had it all, ridiculous tricks, huge levels, even Darth Maul. The first time you play it, it was pretty hard. The best of the Tony Hawk games though. You had to finish the objectives and get to the next levels, which was never really difficult to do, being that there were so many objectives. You might not be able to get the sick score, but you could collect s-k-a-t-e, or find the secret tape. The real road blocks were the competitions, where you were judged from 1-100 on your run, against other pros with arbitrary scores. You needed at least third place to pass, which at times seemed nearly impossible, especially in Tokyo where the judging was ratcheted up to 11. So, I played this when I was pretty young, I went back to it about two years ago. I remembered the only way to win was to string together ludicrous combos with manuals and grinds. So I did. And was impressed to see my ranking in the competitions to effortlessly become 99.9. The best way to describe me playing this game, is in television, whenever they portray people playing video games, they are nonsensically pressing all the buttons on the controller and making this load clacking noise, and once in awhile jump up in joy or frustration. I literally look like that. It's fun, especially when you perform a single trick for an entire 2 minute run and get over 1,000,000 points on just that. Twice the cumulative sick score of the final level. That was when I knew I had beat the game.[/spoiler]

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