Ah yes, I just beat that game a couple of weeks ago. That last fight scene in the forest was a real bitch to get through. My advice to you is to save very often…as soon as you take down one of those striders then do a quick save so that you can come back from that point if you screw up down the line.
I’m actually kinda pissed at how it ended. 
I had a big ol dose of fed-up and Youtubed the ending.
God of War should have been billed as a platform jumper and not a combat game since there seemed to be a hell of a lot more of the former then the latter. The worse thing about it though was that if you died three times in rapid succession the game would ask you if you wanted to lower the difficulty level. One time, when I’d been up to late and been playing for hours I died three times to a water puzzle, then answered yes if I wanted to lower the difficulaty on accident. There was no way to reraise the difficutly and the worst part is that it in no way lowered the difficulty of the jumping and water puzzles, it just made all the monsters into complete pushovers.
I finished the game in easy mode and vowed never to play the stupid thing again.
Gametap has IM2, but I haven’t seen IM for years.
X-Wing and Tie Fighter – there were several times when you would fight a 20-minute mission, and then your “mission critical craft” would get destroyed through no fault of your own.
Mega Man 3 – I can’t remember specifically, but this game used to drive me crazy. There were a lot of places where you could fall to an instant death.
Gran Turismo 3/4 - The later license certifications are just brutal, especially if you are doing great for 5 minutes and then barely cross the side line for an instant fail.
NCAA Football 2005
Took my scrub team into Neyland Stadium to take on the #2 Tennessee Volunteers. Only chance was my option offense.
I’m down by a point with about 3 minutes left and the Vols are on my own 25 yard line. Things are looking bleak. INTERCEPTION! So my QB and WRs are hopeless so I have to run my way down the field against the country’s #2 team in a hostile environment (they did a GREAT job designing how you got rattled by the crowd).
So I march down the field. HB option, QB keeper, FB dive. Misdirection. It was a classic drive. I get to 3rd down on the Vol’s 17 yard line with no time outs. Time to look to my solid kicker to win the game with 20 seconds left and upset the #2 ranked team in the country with my unranked Maitland Comets. So I go into Special Teams and select…
…Fake Field Goal.
No TOs. Not enough time to run another play then get my FG team out. I was stuck. I hopelessly try to throw to my TE and it falls short.
I lose 21-20.
PSP: Killzone - There’s a big mech boss at the end of the 2nd or 3rd world. There’s a small platform you fight it on, with a few lockers (well, they look like lockers) to hide behind. Hide behind the lockers more than a few seconds and the mech will destroy them. Ok, the mech has a cannon turret that rips you to shreds in seconds. And two shoulder mounted rocket launchers, apparently with unlimited ammunition. And some side hatches that toss out grenades. And a top hatch that releases tiny spider bombs, and if you aren’t far enough away when you kill these, they’ll take you out in the explosion. And your best weapons (rocket launchers and frag grenades) are very limited (3-4 of each IIRC). I did eventually beat him, but that was one of the most insane bosses.
Genesis/Amiga: Shadow of the Beast I grew up thinking the Brits were either insanely good at video games or incredibly sadistic gluttons for punishment. Psygnosis made some of the most difficult games I’ve ever played, and SotB was a prime example. The first area (down the tree stump) wasn’t too bad once you knew where to go and got the timing down. The next area (outdoors) was much more difficult, but still passable. Then you got to the castle. I never, ever got past the castle. I eventually found a cheat code that gave you unlimited life, and explored the castle. Past the castle is an outdoor area that’s even harder, then the last area is just freaking impossible. Seriously, I haven’t seen a game with cheap hits like this since Ghouls 'N Ghosts. I honestly don’t think it’s possible to get past the final area without cheating, even assuming you made it there with full health and lives.
PC: Lionheart - Lionheart is one of those games that starts off well, then goes downhill, but you’ve invested so much time in it that you feel bound to finish it. At first, it was great. Kind of similar to Baldurs Gate, tons of quests, lots to explore, etc. Once you get through the first 1/3 or 1/4 of the game, the quests just dry up, and the game becomes an endless series of dull, tedious combat. Ok, I said, I made it this far, I might as well go ahead and finish it. Get to the final area, and it’s loaded with deadly archers that are on platforms you can’t easily get to. You basically have to run a gauntlet past them to get up to the platforms where they are. Problem is, I didn’t invest in the skill which would protect me from them, I’d need to level up 3-4 times to do so, and there was basically nothing else left to kill at this point. I couldn’t reload since I’d have to go back too far. Ironically, the game basically increased the monsters level according to yours, so if I was a lower level I probably could’ve got past them. But they were just too powerful, and I wound up tossing my cd in disgust.
PC: Arx Fatalis - Great game, until the end, when you have to fight these insane supercharged cult members that have taken over the town. I tried every strategy I read about or could think of. After some 30 attempts I managed to kill one of them out of sheer luck. But they were just too fast and too powerful. I tried every buff, damage spell, slow, everything I had. In desperation, I even tried the cheat codes. Nada. What sucks is I really liked this game. It had (for the time) decent graphics, an interesting story, a lot of humor (at one point you have to sneak into an orc or goblin chiefs room while he’s on the toilet), and was a lot of fun. These “turbo” enemies made it impossible to finish the game, and I never got past it.
Mario Kart is famous for its AI cheats, but Double Dash pissed me right off today. After the third or fourth instance of a bunch of computer-generated shells whacking me from 1st place to 5th right in front of the finish line, I threw the controller down in disgust and then remembered that this thread is here. Mmm, catharsis.
Arnold should have it somewhere; they have virtually everything.
Actually, although a lot of people had trouble with it, the trick is that there are shortcuts in the stage, and you don’t have to quite complete the “obvious way” In fact, the stage is pretty easy as long as you keep an eye out. Sadly, the game doesn’t have a good free-look mode.
Shadow of the Beast 2 on the Amiga. There is one room, a very small timelimit before a dog comes out and the chain out of the room is raised, a random choice of levels to push that dictates wether you can complete the game or not. Not even cheats helped in that location.
Two competition pro joysticks met their maker that time.
Final Fantasy VIII.
I’d played VII back in the golden days of computer gaming, and loved every minute of it. So when I was in college and one of my buddies offered to go in half and half in order to buy VIII, I said sure. After much dutiful, and boring play, I finally made it to “The white SeeD ship” at which point… pretty much nothing happened, at all.
I was so pissed off at having wasted my time that I just turned the console off, right then and there.
Later, talking to my friend, the conversation went pretty much like:
him: “So, you still playing Final Fantasy?”
me: “No, I was bored by most of the game and I’ve decided it’s not going to get any better.”
him: “Oh, you got to the white SeeD ship, eh?”
me: “Yep.”
Neither of us even wanted to keep that game after that point. I think we threw it out a window.
Civilization 1. I would have been about 12 and I’d just started playing. It was my first real campaign and I’d advanced to the modern era. I built my first battleship (no small feat, as those things required a ton of time to complete) and very happily sent it to wreak havoc on my technologically inferior foe. The ship sails out of port, hugs the coastline until it comes to the first enemy city, then attacks. Up pops a phalanx – oh, but not just any phalanx: a veteran phalanx behind city walls – and my battleship is unceremoniously destroyed.
I didn’t throw anything (not my style), but I did stop playing the game for a while.
You think that’s bad? I once had my last city, on the verge if defeat, defend itself for five full turns with nothing but a caravan. Oh, and it was getting assaulted with an almost endless stream of armors. I did eventually lose, but seriously? One caravan defeated about six or seven tanks?
Well, have you ever seen a camel spit? Those things are mean.
Never underestimate desperation…it’s a variable in the A.I. 
Old School:
Strider. Fun games, not too many problems…until I get to the damn pyramid. You have to do a jump-bounce off the wall to get up, and I could not do it. I tried and tried and tried and cried and finally did it after three days of trying (not in a row). I hated that game. HATED IT.
Awesome. I finally get the chance to say, “I solved that one!” Both of 'em. Loved them. If you have a Wii, they have Impossible Mission. It comes with IM, IM2, and an “updated” version of IM on it.
Wait. What shortcuts? Is there some guide that outlines them?
Good memories. Ultima 3 was almost ridiculously difficult to get a good group started. Your four-man troupe of lvl 1 characters, then you walk out into the world, and are attacked by a group of 8 titans within 3 turns. Party wipe: unavoidable. Wash, rinse, repeat until you get lucky enough for the game to give you an encounter you can actually defeat. But once you do get a party climbing the xp ladder, ooooh baby.
Yep, I remember that kind of stuff killing the enjoyment of Civ1 for me. It’s always enjoyable to watch your armored tanks get pwn’d by a guy dressed in a metal skirt wielding a spear. I stopped playing it after those incidents. Thankfully, Civ 2 was a HUGE improvement.
I damn near stopped playing Ep2 at this point, until a guy on another forum gave me a tip: use their little electrified darts against them. Grab a table, barrel, piece of wood, whatever, and use it as a shield. Their darts will stick to it. Throw it back at them, and it does major damage. It’s tricky at first, because the darts detonate on a timer, and you need to gauge when to throw so it’ll hit them just as it explodes. Time it right, and you can take one down in a single shot.
But yeah, I hate those mini-striders. I’ve re-run through HL2 and Ep1 numerous times, but the idea of doing Ep2 a second time doesn’t thrill me.
My smash-the-controller moments:
Having 4 no-hitters broken up on the last batter in Triple Play '98 (PS1)
Getting all the way through Karateka, killing the end boss, then having the princess 1-hit kill me for not bowing before approaching. Gah!
In X-Wing, there’s one missing where you have to defend a Nebulon frigate (the med ship at the end of ESB) from 2 waves of Imperials coming from opposite ends of the “arena”. I spent a week trying to defeat one wave, then getting to the other before they got in torpedo range and destroyed the frigate and never came close. I think I ended up having to use a cheat program to get credit for that mission so I could advance.