Back when I played Ultima Online, I always fears losing connection to my ISP, or just plain being booted from whatever Server I happened to be playing on. Lag death from Player Killers, or waking up to find that a single Orc had whallopped me dead because I was unable to reconnect in time was always a sure way to get me to pound my fist in frustration.
I used to kill all the MIBs with the dragon sword. You can run in quick stab them and run back out before they explode.
The first time ever I got killed by that explosion was when they come through the door after Pauls killswitch had been activated. I killed all the guys, but one of them explodes and I thought that you simply had to die at that part:)
The lamest death I ever heard of was in diablo II hardcore. A person who was about level 60 kicks a barrel on hardcore and dies. Hardcore is where when you die you don’t get another life.
In Sonic the Hedgehog, if you roll under an object and try to stand, but there’s not enough room, you’ll die because the game thinks you’ve been crushed.
In Moon Patrol, if your vehicle even barely touches the edge of a crater, it explodes.
Has anyone else here ever completed Deus Ex and kept Paul alive? It is possible.
In Voyager: Elite Force, during the mission to the Harvester ship (and basically every mission), my “teammates” (all computer controlled) would, without fail, run directly into my line of fire. If I did not immediately stop shooting at the enemy and move, they would start shooting me, until death. They hardly ever managed to kill anything (on the other hand, they were basically unkillable by enemies unless the “plot” dictated it was time for them to die), but did manage to get in the way in every single firefight in the game.
Keeping Paul alive in Deus Ex is just a matter of not abandoning him in his apartment when the MiBs find him. Although it is difficult, you -can- gun them all down.
My lamest video game death has gotta be all the times I got thrown in the brig in Elite Force every time I felt like opening fire on my crewmates while on the ship…
(Even if you’re good enough to kill everyone in sight without getting phaser-stunned, the computer automatically makes you lose, anyway! I wanna take over the ship! Boo!)
In Max Payne I had cleared a level of all bad guys but couldn’t find the way out. I shot out a window and climbed out on the ledge. “Hmm” thought I, “I wonder what would happen if I walked off this five-story high ledge?”
I was treated to disorienting, spinning world view during my fall, which was nice, but I had to start the level all over from the beginning.
I feel your pain about Duriel. Until I bought 256 more megs of RAM, I would ripped in half before the level even loaded.
By far the lamest way to die in a multiplayer FPS is the infamous telefrag.
I do have a close second experience, though. In Q2 I had found an invulnerability powerup and was chasing this poor bastard around with my rocket launcher. I was rather enjoying the chase, so I tried not to hit him dead on.
But he was no fool. I forget which level it was, as I haven’t played in ages, but he led me onto a narrow path over a sea of lava. Right after I lobbed a Stinger at him, he turned around and shot me in the feet with a rocket of his own. My sorry ass flew right back into the lava. Invulnerability and all. I tried to rocketjump out…right when my invul wore off.
Ugh.
It sucked.
In Metroid for NES I remember it took me forever to defeat the final boss, Mother Brain. I done blewed her up real nice and then went to go grab a soda from the kitchen. I hear the klaxon going off as I’m walking out of the room (not realizing that the klaxon siginifies the base blowing up and I have to escape to truly finish the game), so I run back and grab the controller and proceed to FLAIL due to me being flustered and very sweaty hands. I had to fight MB all over again, just so I could go through the level escape. No fun.
and in general, Ice Level + bottomless pit = lame death.
If you escape and kill everyone outside you also keep Paul alive. Alternatively you can just do what I did and die to keep Paul alive:)
I was always moved to tears when Mr. Pacman curled up and died. Not least amongst the reasons for my distress was the fact that I was the one that had led him to his untimely end. His final gasp of misery, followed by some oddly cheerful beeping tones, was so poignant that many was the time when I had to fortify myself for the next round with a stiff shot of hungarian vodka. I once wrote an epic poem (with 362 stanzas) on his fateful quest to rid the world of yellow dots cluttering the pristine landscape. The opus captured the first prize in a nation-wide poetry contest, and the book containing my poem (along with other fine works honouring the Calliopean muse) is still available for the low price of US$ 79.95 (C.O.D. only, e-mail me for more details.)
I had that bug too! I installed it on my new computer and I could not get off the train because the guard who opens the door for you would die when I looked at him. I couldn’t get rid of the bug, ended up reinstalling and I think even then it didn’t work right…
Resident Evil 1, I’d been playing for several hours and had made very good progress in the game. I was coming from the guardhouse back to the mansion to go to save point (I hadn’t been saving because I was low on Ink Ribbons). On the way I killed maybe five Hunters. So I’m just outside the save room door, and I bring my menu up and heal myself with a First Aid spray, because during one of the fights with a Hunter I’d gotter down to Danger level. First aid spray brought me back to full though. So I exit the menu and am a fraction of a second away from opening the save-room door when I hear the clicking of a Hunter’s footsteps. Before I can respond, I see it fly on to the screen, take a swipe at me and take my head clean off. With full health. Game over, right there. Arg.
My friend informed me that he had this bug as well. It happened after he installed the “Blue Force” mod, or whatever it’s called. He forgets how he rid himself of it, though.
“Morning Mr.Freeman, running a little late today?..Aarg!”
I’ve done that.
I’ve also been killed by my horse because I threw food at him (I was experimenting to see if there was anything in my pack he’d eat. There wasn’t.).
I tried to ride my horse down stairs. Horses aren’t that dextrous.
I’ve pissed off my god more often than I can count.
Starving because I dropped my food to make room for new weapons. (Duuuuuuuh.)
Pointing the wrong wand at the wall. (Who knew lightning could riccochet?)
[clarification]
After playing Rogue Leader a bit more I think that the cinematic had nothing to do with my death. On the Strike at the Core mission sometimes a Tie Fighter will hit you from on top of your ship, thus causing you to suddenly jolt towards the surface. I think that what happened was a Tie Fighter hit me right as I gained control of my ship and shot me into the path of an outcropping on the Death Star, and the “sudden stop” is what killed me.
[/clarification]
Another good, lame death: Goldeneye on the N64: multiplayer with proximity mines (you throw one and if anyone comes near it they die); my brother dies and gets restarted on prox mines three times in a row thus causing the classic comment [pathetic voice]I push start and I’m dead[/pathetic voice]. You hadda be there for the full effect.
… in SuperBike World Championship. You can turn on an ‘auto taunt’ so that when another rider bumps you, your rider turns around and gives the international sign of poor driving. So I’m deep in a corner, leaned over dragging a knee when some wanker bumps me. Leaving the corner, as I’m applying full throttle, my rider decides to sit up, turn, and give the sign. The sitting up causes weight to transfer back, causing a wheelie, causing the bike to flip sending the rider skidding down the track on his arse. So who’s a wanker now?
The Half-Life anecdotes remind me of the one time I played. I had lame deaths aplenty there - never could get the hang of edging along the elevator shaft, would gallop off the edge instead and then lie at the bottom, watching my femur spin on the floor five feet away - but the funniest thing I encountered was when the elevator plummeted in front of me with two scientists in it. Apparently I was close enough to the edge to trigger the interaction mode, so what I heard was:
“AAAAA-oh hello, Gordon, how are you today?-AAAAAARRRRGH!”
I nearly busted a gut.
I’ve seen some pretty embarassing suicides in Rogue Spear.
One level is an oil tanker and my team was assaulting from the bow of the ship. I watched a guy try to throw a grenade from the deck up three stories into the bridge of the ship. The grenade didn’t make it and fell back down on top of him.
I killed myself once trying to throw a grenade off the top of a building in the killhouse level. There was a rail around the top and I managed to hit the rail with the grenade so it rebounded right under me.
That one gets my vote, it used to drive me friggin’ nuts. Hordes of aliens? No problem. The freakin’ kitchen cabinet door? A litle too much for our man Duke to handle, apparently.