Cheapest thing a Game has done to Cheat you out of a Win

[Quaxar]

Eh have none of you played the computer version of Chess that is included with windows?

Seriously that is CHEATING in every sense of the word.

Once you beef up the difficulty you'll see the computer move pawns like they're queens to stop your strategy. I've also seen the computer move a pawn diagonally behind a pawn I had right beside it... And somehow capture it.



All other cheating is just lol-worthy when next to the madness that is Windows Chess.

I remember once that after I finally had it in checkmate it insisted there was a wrong move. I spoke both to my father and grandfather who are both avid chess players and all three of us couldn't figure out that argument.
If I recall correctly it was moving the queen a few steps diagonally but it just wouldn't let me do it.

 

[Starik20X6]

There have been a handful of times where I'll be trying to ace (beat without dying once) a particularly vicious level on LittleBigPlanet 2 where I've been killed in a cutscene, which counts as a death even though it was completely out of my control.

 

[Dahdutcher]

Pokémon: Status effects and all that stuff always seems to happen when the game does it, but almost never happens when you do the same.

Fifa: Sometimes (usually in the 45th or/and 90th minute) the AI just goes on a run and can't be stopped. They dodge every tackle/sliding and they're passing is suddenly perfect. They continue this down the field until they can sweat it out.

Also, for some reason (Even with speed & acceleration sliders for the AI slightly turned down) players with a pace and acceleration of around 70 can always keep up with my players that have around 90 for both stats.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

It hurt itself in confusion.
It hurt itself in confusion.
It- *Throws DS*.

I was already in a bad mood and then the last guy on my team had to get killed by a wild zubat. Grrr.

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

Eh have none of you played the computer version of Chess that is included with windows?

Seriously that is CHEATING in every sense of the word.

Once you beef up the difficulty you'll see the computer move pawns like they're queens to stop your strategy. I've also seen the computer move a pawn diagonally behind a pawn I had right beside it... And somehow capture it.



All other cheating is just lol-worthy when next to the madness that is Windows Chess.

The thing with the pawns moving diagonally behind another pawn is actually a rule called "En Passant" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant), and is completely legit. No idea about the whole moving like queens thing, however...

It's been a long time since I played it, but I seem to recall it does allow the AI to castle ANY time the King and Rook are in the right relative positions. IIRC it also will allow the queen to castle. I'm not sure about pawns getting weird moves, but there you go.

If you get a pawn to the other side of the board (the other player's back row), then you can promote it to a more effective piece - typically a queen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(chess) .

 

[SpaceBat]

The Mudo or Instant Death Spells in the Persona games. To be precise, in P3... fuck that spell.

While Mahamaon and Mamudoon could really screw you over, they weren't too much of a problem with the right personae and you had quite a few items that would negate these one-hit K.O's. Charm status however...that fucking status ailment screwed me over too many times.

 

[370999]

A few of these aren't really cheating out of a win so much as cheating in general. I think to cheat out of a win means to do something that will guarantee your defeat every time no matter how good you're doing, and they suffer no penalty for using it. For example, Seth's overpowered combo isn't a guaranteed finishing move, and I believe it costs him some of his super meter to use. Never mind. I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

No I get you, that to cheat someone out of a win, the player needs to be fulfilling all the criteria needed to win when the computer ignores some in game rule and thus makes the player's work unimportant.

An example being a game which lets you choose to be stealthy or combat oriented suddenly introducing in the last level an ability that means your stealth doesn't work at all and no matter how skilled you are it, the game becomes impossible to win using that path.

 

[Quakester]

For me it was an years ago in one of the earlier digital versions of Risk. I was playing with 2 friends and 1 AI opponent. While my friends threw everything they had at each other, I kept to myself and defended my land while slowly expanding. One friend cashed in all his cards, wiped out the other friend and pushed the AI into Australia. The AI cashed in and pushed back out almost clearing out my remaining buddy. At this point, both had virtually no troops remaining to defend and I controlled the western hemisphere. I cashed in all my cards and pushed the AI down to 1 territory. I should have won the next round. Then the AI somehow got over 240 armies the next round and obliterated any hope of defense I had.

 

[hermes]

The worst offender I can think of are fighting games. Many times, AI characters will pull moves that they couldn't do ordinarily, like charge moves without any charge; doing extraordinary amounts of damage; or having priority over regular attacks. In harder difficulties, it even looks like the AI is watching your inputs to react to them at CPU speed.

Some of those examples are so awful, it even got a name: SNK Boss Syndrome: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SNKBoss

 

[wooty]

Was playing FIFA12 last night and got into a pentaly shootout for the FA Cup. Only problem was that the accuracy bar at the bottom of the screen didnt appear for any of my takers and all my shots were flying well wide/over the target, so naturally I was fuming at the fact I got fucked by the game.

I also do wonder about the Total War series' AI when set on very hard difficulty, particularly Shogun 2 and Napoleon. Some of the shit that their units can/withstand is mindboggling sometimes. Yeah sure, one base unit of Yari samurai can beat off a solid attack by 4 veteran units of katana samurai. I call cheating and I swear at you.

 

[Cranky]

The goddamned Mako combat scenarios in ME1. Shit, if you just spent a chunk of time clearing and outpost and did not save, a random Armature can kill you and you have to start again.

 

[Rylot]

Soul Calibur 3 cheated pretty consistently with characters doing moves from completely different skill sets. You'd lose a match and win one and then get completely raped in the third match. Turned me off of fighting games pretty much forever.

Actually, Soul Calibur 3 litterally cheated. They had difficulty boosting the difficulty settings of the game. So they took a shortcut and over-compensated. The game reads the input from your controller and the game reacts to it, so..essentially...it's cheating. It knows what you do immediately and won't fall for fake-outs, false attacks, and many other normal moves that a person would fall for, because it knows they're not real attacks, or where you're attacks are aimed for.

...Wow... It was pulling a Psycho Mantis the whole time? Jesus... No wonder I'd rage quit so often.

 

[Timberwolf0924]

I play the hell outta League of Legends, and the bots can calculate if they'll make it past one of your turrets to kill you and make it back out before you can kill them. (If you're low on mana, the cool down on your summoner spells such as health and flash, and the damage the tower will do to them) I've had half life at one turret and the bot tower rushed me, killed me, then popped it's own health and flash to escape dying the turret.

 

[thelonewolf266]

Fucking star child in the mass effect 3 ending.Chose three ways to destroy the Galaxy sure you little shit I'll just do that they literally didn't give you any option to win.I'm not actually that bitter but it was annoying.

 

[Aircross]

Auto-balance in Team Fortress 2.

Think you just won the game because you managed to ubercharge your team through to victory?

lol nope.

The split second you die right before the game ends you die to a facestab and get autobalanced to the other team.