What game genre kicks your ass?

[General Zod]

RTS games for me. Most games I don't have a problem with, but when it comes to micro-management and how many apm you can perform, forget about it. I wind up getting swamped by the cpu because I can't keep up with how many units its producing because of my meager ability to micro.

[Zixinus]

RTS games, although not because of the difficulty. I did and can do several levels of several RTS games, I simply do not have the patience to go trough it.

I might add Rhythm too, as I don't play games like that and I either focus on the music or on the screen.

Also, fighting games. I don't actually have that much experience with them, but what I have, I am owned.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Sports, though it's out of lack of interest rather than ability.

I can (And do) play just about every genre, from Adventure (DOSBox for the Win!) to RTS to FPS to Synaesthete.
The problem is, that due to my below-normal hand-eye coordination, i'm not very good at them, as Ace likes to harp on before crushing me in FPS's. (Before I slaughter him mercilessly on anything involving a console ).

[Covenant]

Anything when Nephtys is playing on the other end. She plays like a Xenophobic Vulcan, and the only time I even get to see her is about an hour in when I've fallen into some devious scheme and defeat is creeping up behind me--and more importantly behind my giant army. Needless to say we play mostly RTS games, and it's hard to find a good common ground.

I fall into the "I want to mash tanks together" catagory of RTS player, with little to no interest or stomach for the boring resource aspects. I wish I could let the computer handle that the same way it does for itself when I play against the AI... would that be so hard? Let the computer manage the econ aspects via a small control window where I tell it either to expand my econ or not, and it waddles off to do that?

Anyway, I fall into that catagory which makes me rather good at Starcraft and Warcraft and Dawn of War, where econ is more or less a side-effect of your rapacious horde cleaving through an enemy's civilians. But it seems like game developers off in some mile-high ebony tower think that a 'smart' RTS player shoul beat a 'stupid' one, and only stupid people attack people with units. That it's so much smarter to attack them with small pinpoint strikes to their econ, crippling specific operations and resources until they've more or less become an impotent non-threat, and then you sweep in via some special conveyance to wipe up what's left.

The problem with this theory is that I really hate it. I don't want to play Real Time Risk Management Simulator, I want to play a strategy game? Can anyone point to chess or checkers or some other such game where the Ninja is? Where the Ninja is that piece who can slip behind the other pieces and kill your king even when you still have all your knights and pawns? Because I certainly don't remember it. I think a strategy game involves forming and adapting a strategy, but I hardly see the strategy elements in a lot of these games because it's so obviously a superior solution. Give the Allies on D-Day the option of sending in James Bond to shut down all their defenses first and they'll do it--it's hardly a strategy, it's just common sense. And the kick in the balls is that these options are often far more inexpensive and less risky than doing it some other way.

From where I sit I've often heard and believed that Risk Equals Reward. A daring and dangerous strategy should reap larger benefits than the dependable safe one. Sending in a commando that costs less than one of the tanks, but it invisible, able to destroy anything he touches, and easily replaced and ferried around is not a risky strategy! You might claim that one such unit is a lot harder to keep alive than one tank, but you'd be wrong, since the game at that point is really more about forcing the opponent to waste his time playing "hunt the bastard" at that time than actually doing anything else, like attacking your tanks which you ALSO sent in.

And a lot of games have these. Helicopters that carry enough ammo and move fast enough and are durable enough to raid econ successfully anytime it comes up. Long-range artillery supported by short-ragne artillery and then gun emplacements designed to engage an enemy's econ and base without ever approaching. The aforementioned commandos. Strategic weapons which can turn the tide of the entire game quickly, if they aren't noticed, and they rarely are when placed within the impregnible walls of Fortress Noballs. It goes on and on! They put in so many ways to avoid the fight that you even wonder if they realize that commando-stratweapon-artillery game could actually be a lot of fun if they catered to it instead of making it the one dangling protrusion of a foreign beast inside the dimension of Tank Battle.

Some people do prefer econ, and for those I say "Go play sim city," I'm not going to suggest they're doing anything other than being smart by utilizing all the tools available, but I will say that when I do those same things I get no joy from it at all, and that all I want to do is play a strategy-type game where you have the same focus on engaging the enemy as a Total War series. You can have depth and intelligence in a genre without the need for bases, resourcing operations, or flying invisible ninjas whose only purpose in life stems from those bases and resourcing operations.

[AK_Jedi]

RTS games. I love to play them, but whenever I play against an actual person, or even a harder AI, I get my ass handed to me. Its difficult for me to multitask, so I can handle one front fairly well, but multiple fronts + building and researching etc... too much for me.

[Darth Raptor]

Who said RPGs are hard? How? How!?

Harder than everything else on that list? The only way that could be true is if I were illiterate. Yeah, that must be it. I can see how RPGs would be the hardest kind of game if you couldn't read and navigate the menus. Playing DOOM Clone on Fuck Crazy would still be easier than learning a second language, I guess.

[TheFeniX]

Adventure Games. Yes, you fucking heard me right. Most of them were Shovelware to begin with, but nothing drove me up the wall more than digging through each item to find the magic one to do the job. God forbid if you could die in one because I was then doubly-fucked.

Even in possibly the best Adventure game of all time, The Dig, it took me hours to figure out to use the jaw-bone to saw off whats-his-names hand to get his arm unstuck. I would figure it had more to do with me wanting to use the other bone to pry the rock loose. Maybe my young mind couldn't comprehend cutting some guys arm off at the time.

There's no other genre I really suck at provided the game wasn't coded by idiots. I'm not about to blame myself sucking at a stealth game when it uses fixed camera and enemies can see from behind. But there's just something about Adventure games I could never get down and would just end up walking away or playing Duke Nukem.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

I can understand being disinterested in RPGs, but finding them difficult?

Sports, puzzles, rhythm. I don't play them. Of those that I do enjoy and do play, I fail hardest at fighting games.

Pretty much just like me. I'm a buttonmasher at fighting games, rhythm games usually just suck to me, and sports I highly resolve to never play any way but IRL.

RPG, meh, I prefer watching Dave play his and oftentimes suggest moves, tactics, and strategies when he catches the wrong side of trial and error. Now an FPSRPG, I might be able to do

RTS. Any game where resource managment is a significant factor of playstyle punches me in the cut, puts a knee into my teeth, then bends me over a table and grabs the nearby stick of butter. I have absolutely no head for construction priorities, resource or unit management. I'm either richer than God, with an enormous city and all the tech and industry in the world, and yet a crew of enemy peasants will steamroll over me without even thinking, or I've got a huge, massive army that would make China think twice about getting involved with, yet their so undeveloped and poorly equiped that one enemy mid-range unit will cut a swath through my forces like they were playing Dynasty Warriors on easy mode.

I had a similar thing with RTSs, but you can skill up enough to get by. Avoiding the shit RTSs helps too.

It's annoying there isn't more 'shared command' games, because I'm interested in raiding, resource capturing, battles, etc. I'm pretty flash at WiC for instance. But I fucking hate base building, and constantly refilling build queues and shit. I know plenty of people who love it, though, so sharing woudl be nice.

Shared Command = WIN. I'd love to be able to either watch the base with my own force (maybe even with its own command of the team's R&D/production/logistics train) or range afield with it while someone else is Basekeeper; attacking, resource gathering, ordering new units, maybe build a coupla outposts and eventually suburbs.

Warzone 2100 is pretty good, but having shared command on MP would be epic win.

I suck at econ games, like Capitalism etc, and I usually suck at the econ side of strategy games like HoI2 and Galciv2 etc. I'm not awful at it, but my focus is very much on research and military rather than economy. My old mate Flash is Lord of Econ, so after a turn he'll be all 'lol how much you makin per turn now lol'. And then I'll try to blow him up and he'll bribe/fastbuild his way out of it.

Same here, pretty much. I love my miltech and R&D. Get the nastiest army/navy/etc. as fast as possible. Stars! was not my cuppa joe at all for that reason.

Like Feil I sucked at bad adventure games, the ones with the stupid chains of dumb illogical shit you're supposed to do. Good ones I enjoyed, even if I wasn't very good at them.

Tried one in GT class; it was an enviroweenie game about oil spills. It blew chunks.

[Havok]

I assume by fighting, you mean Mortal Kombat type games and their newer versions. Yeah those. I can never get the button combos down.

[Ohma]

Who said RPGs are hard? How? How!?

Harder than everything else on that list? The only way that could be true is if I were illiterate. Yeah, that must be it. I can see how RPGs would be the hardest kind of game if you couldn't read and navigate the menus. Playing DOOM Clone on Fuck Crazy would still be easier than learning a second language, I guess.

Well JRPGs can get stupidly difficult if you don't feel like spending 40+ hours leveling up against Rockadillos or something else. Granted, all RPGs have you level up somehow, but JRPGs generally seem to be designed around the expectation that the player is going to spend an inordinate amount of time fighting random encounters between plot points. So, you could potentially have a very asstastic time with RPGs if your experience with them is mostly from Japanese style RPGs (and poorly designed western ones)

I'll also add that I seem to suck majorly at flight sims (space or otherwise). I will invariably run into the "singlehandedly fight off six waves of escorted bombers" mission and (after much frustration) give up.

Also my spellcheck says asstastic is a word.

EDIT: forgot the word mission.

[Thunderfire]

I feel nauseous pretty quick when I play some FPS.

[Resinence]

I feel nauseous pretty quick when I play some FPS.

It's motion sickness, fairly common or so I hear.

I suck at APM based RTS's, really really fucking bad. I just can't enjoy a game where the whole "game" is just to CLIK TEH THINGAR REAL FAST and throw a bajillion units at someone until they make a mistake. I thought it was real time "strategy" not "if it doesn't work, throw more men at it". I'm one of the people Covenant hates, sneaky bullshit is what RTS's are all about

Worst though is sports games, simply because I'm not interested. I love to watch sports, I used to play sports, but I just suck at sports videogames.

[PREDATOR490]

The only game I can recall that has had some sort of 'joint command' in an RTS is Battlezone 2. The game wasnt very good but I did like the concept. It is sort of FPS / RTS in that your a guy on the battlefield that is the commander of an RTS force. You have to build a certain building and 'jack in' to a console to get into the RTS view.

Some of the buildings have other consoles that allow you to customise unit araments and you can even drive some of the units yourself. Getting your commander killed will lose the game but the MP aspect allowed for a designated commander who supplied the other players on his 'faction' with vehicles for them to attack with.

I find myself being a rabid turtle-style player in RTS games. I usually just build up massive defenses while I tech up to the best units / superweapons then build a force to steamroller the enemy later. I havent played online matches for RTS games anymore due to the fact I find it uninspiring. It isnt much fun to have some guy overwhelm you with the cheapest units within ten minutes of the game starting.

[Sarevok]

I used to be good at RTSes like starcraft and CnC but gave them up. Specificaly I gave up any RTS that feature soldiers and tanks popping out of buildings every minute. It streches suspension of disbelief too far. Now the only RTS I play are x-com, mech commander and the rome total war games. Multiplayer a different thing, I still play and lose regularly in LAN games. But I can't complete another RTS single player campaign with the enthusiasm of finishing Starcraft.

[Ford Prefect]

I have determined that I have no real head (EDIT: I actually mean turn based here) for real-time strategy as such. I'm pretty awful at Final Fantasy Tactics and really awful at Fire Emblem, though am somewhat better at Advance Wars. I currently have Disgaea, and I have determined that I will master it, and thus the genre. Currently, it is one genre which defeats me, but which I really want to be good at.

[Shroom Man 777]

I blow ass at RTS. Seriously. I can't fathom it.

But I can kill most people I know in FPS. Particularly Quake. *grunts* *explodes*

[PREDATOR490]

I dont find RTS games that hard in concept but naturally the style of the game can wildly affect the difficulty. Sadly, RTS games as a genre tend to be uninspiring in their variety. The single player storylines usually end up being the main appeal for me in RTS so i am best put playing against the AI rather than going online for players. After a few RTS games the general trend gets noticable in the way missions pan out.

In most cases the best thing to do in an RTS is to save your progress often and figure out what the AI is doing. More often than not you can notice if certain triggers or are being followed and either plot an ambush or work around it. It can get harder in single player campaigns due to scripted events but personnally I find that more interesting because it actually forces the player to plan strategy on the fly rather than follow the classic routine in a skirmish.

[ray245]

RPG games and any games that has the hero system.

Take DOTA for example, I'm sooo bad at it...at my friends create a new rule when I am playing with them.

NO one on the opposing team can kill me because I feed too much....

[General Zod]

I have determined that I have no real head for real-time strategy as such. I'm pretty awful at Final Fantasy Tactics and really awful at Fire Emblem, though am somewhat better at Advance Wars. I currently have Disgaea, and I have determined that I will master it, and thus the genre. Currently, it is one genre which defeats me, but which I really want to be good at.

Games like Final Fantasy Tactics are actually pretty easy as far as RTS goes. If you want something that's a royal pain in the ass, check out the Battle for Middle Earth. Some of the sieges may as well just be ways to see how long it takes the player to die.

[Ford Prefect]

I have determined that I have no real head for real-time strategy as such. I'm pretty awful at Final Fantasy Tactics and really awful at Fire Emblem, though am somewhat better at Advance Wars. I currently have Disgaea, and I have determined that I will master it, and thus the genre. Currently, it is one genre which defeats me, but which I really want to be good at.

Games like Final Fantasy Tactics are actually pretty easy as far as RTS goes. If you want something that's a royal pain in the ass, check out the Battle for Middle Earth. Some of the sieges may as well just be ways to see how long it takes the player to die.

Looking back at my post, I realised that it doesn't make much sense. While it is true that I have no real head for RTS games, I was actually mean't to be talking about turn-based strategy. I don't really like RTS, whereas I can't stop myself from playing turn-based strategy games, because even if I am only very much average, I really, really like them.

[Uraniun235]

But I can kill most people I know in FPS. Particularly Quake. *grunts* *explodes*

I miss Quake 3. I wish my friends would play it at LAN parties.

(I don't like the way it feels over the internet)

[Ford Prefect]

But I can kill most people I know in FPS. Particularly Quake. *grunts* *explodes*

I miss Quake 3. I wish my friends would play it at LAN parties.

I felt so cut over Quake 3 once. I had learnt a whole bunch of these totally crazy tricks to give me an edge on my hyper-fast, inhumanly accurate friends. I devoted myself to mastering them (admittedly I spent most of my time rocket jumping but that was just so cool), and then I realised that none of my friends played it.

And now just recently we had a LAN where they did play Quake 3, and I had totally forgotten everything (except how to rocket jump) so I spent most my time getting gibbed.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

But I can kill most people I know in FPS. Particularly Quake. *grunts* *explodes*

I miss Quake 3. I wish my friends would play it at LAN parties.

(I don't like the way it feels over the internet)

I miss Q3 as well, and am still furious at how bad Q4 bombed. Where are all the good servers!?

[Shroom Man 777]

Q4 fucking blows. It's such a LAEM... well, it's not as cool as Q3 either. Feels and handles different. I kill folks in Q4 lots, but Q3 feels better.

[SylasGaunt]

I have determined that I have no real head (EDIT: I actually mean turn based here) for real-time strategy as such. I'm pretty awful at Final Fantasy Tactics and really awful at Fire Emblem, though am somewhat better at Advance Wars. I currently have Disgaea, and I have determined that I will master it, and thus the genre. Currently, it is one genre which defeats me, but which I really want to be good at.

Heh for a good laugh you should check out the published strategy guides for Disgaea and it's sequel. These are not the usual bullshit 'do this, then this, then this to win' kind of strategy guides. Oh no...

These are the ones who teach you all the nasty tricks you can use to utterly abuse every aspect of the game to create characters with stat-lines that would make the most hardcore munchkin cream his jeans.