I’m talking about an end of level boss that made you pull your hair out and gnaw your finger nails down to the stumps. A race in a driving game that you just could not win. Something that you think that trying to complete it is as futile as resisting the Borg (Star Trek not the tennis player).

My particular nemesises, nemesis’s the ones that caused me the most trouble were the last level on Driver, and the driving school on GTA San Andreas.

Driver

Driver was an immense game. Bomb round various cities doing missions for bad asses and it rocked. But it only rocked until the last level, then it sucked. The Presidents Run. 3 words that still fill me with dread.

The mission – drive the president through NYC to an underground car park on the other side of town. Over and over again I tried, left at Central Park, then right. Then straight through the middle plowing through the flowerbeds. Slow down when the limo’s bear down on you, then speed up. Go really slow so they don’t see you, then try to lure them down the wrong way. Try to time it right as you cross their paths at a crossroads.. and on.. and on.. Not a single one of those tactics worked.

And then it just clicked. I sailed through central park with just a couple of near misses, dodged a limo at the critical right turn (or left turn if you hung a right at Central Park) and tentatively made my way into the car park. Job done, Game Over.

I’ve never loaded the game since – I don’t think I could go through that again.

GTA San Andreas

The driving school was a pain. There were loads of tests to do and you could pass them in varying degrees of success – bronze, silver and gold. Most of them were fairly easy but there were 2 really hard ones, “City Slicking” and “Burn and Lap”. And getting Gold on those wasn’t just hard, it was ROCK hard.

Drive across town and back again in less than 100 seconds. Oh, and you can’t put a scratch on the car. Nearly did it a few times but I swear the game had it in for me and threw a random car in at the last corner just to put a little dent on the front wing.

After many many nights spent on the driving school, I finally finished them and got posession of a Hotknife, whatever one of those is.

Any others?

There’s got to be other games that have caused you a few problems and I’d love to hear what they were. Had particular trouble getting a gold award on Gran Turismo? Or maybe you found Rainbow Islands a bit tough – let met know whatever it was!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jBKKV2V8eU

This YouTube video found it’s way into my Inbox today.

I think it’s something a lot of people can relate to. I certainly can. And it’s all down to Metal Gear Solid.

It’s probably the most addictive game  I’ve ever played. Call of Duty is a close second but it pales into insignificance compared to MGS. It should have a government health warning on the box or something. Either that or a free weekly pass to Gamers Anonymous.

Snakes

It all started out so innocently. A quick blast early doors getting to grips with Solid Snake and then out for a beer later in the evening …

But the hours just flew by. I figured out how to sneak up on guards without alerting them, became a crack shot with my rifle and had taken out a couple of end of level bosses within a couple of  hours or so. I skipped lunch (it wasn’t that long till dinner anyway) and pushed on.

Some psychic dude called Psycho Mantis proved an obstacle, but only till I figured out that I had to switch the controller port over. Sniper Wolf was dispatched as was Revolver Ocelot.

Before I knew it, I’d wasted 8 hours and it was time to head out.

Guards

But when I got to the club we were going to, I found myself trying to stay out of the gaze of security cameras and making sure I walked directly underneath an overhead gangway when a guard punter walked above me.

I’d played too much. If there was a line to be crossed then I crossed it.

I can totally relate to the Duke Nukem guy in the video (yes, I do know it’s not actually real) – but I don’t think I was that far from thinking I was actually Solid Snake.

Have you played a game too much and thought you were the main character? Leave a comment and let me know if you have – I promise I won’t tell anyone!

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