Most pointlessly hard achievement there is?

[ChipSandwich]

The pidgeons in GTAIV were pretty annoying, but at least you get a map from the game.

Seriously 2.0 on Gears 2 doesn't really bother me. I only get OCD about achievements if I have nearly all of them done, and Gears of War doesn't interest me nearly enough to get all of them done.

There's ones in Halo Reach for getting a million points in firefight, but it turns out you can do it in custom games with invincibility, infinite ammo + bottomless clip, 300% damage, Rocket Launcher primary with infinite jetpack, legendary difficulty, all skulls on in every round with infinite sets. I think they intended for that achievement to be more about learning custom settings than sheer endurance, because even with that ridiculous point multiplier and damage output, it still takes more than an hour to do. Plus the fact that turning on invincibility in the custom settings doesn't, you know, disable achievements.

 

[ultrachicken]

I doubt this is the hardest, but it's certainly the one I remember as most frustrating. The "If they came to see me beg" achievement from reach.

That one was extremely glitchy when I tried it. I was right on top of the elite when I hit the assassination button, yet it didn't register and I died. Many, many times. When I actually got the achievement, it was when I landed a good meter away from the elite, yet somehow I assassinated him.

 

[PekoponTAS]

Beat Mega Man 9 without getting hit.

yeah, eff that. >_>

 

[NaramSuen]

I think that the Seriously and Seriously 2.0 from Gears of War and Gears of War 2, while not hard, are just pointless. They are grind achievements that require a ridiculous amount of time and effort.

In my opinion, the most frustrating achievements were the individual level achievements in Halo 3 where you had to finish the level on a single play-through. The meta-game ones are also a pain in the ass.

 

[Alex Berry]

Earning the platinum trophy on Demon's Souls. There are some things you dare not dream.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

One Free Bullet? Got it.
Little Rocket Man? Got it.
Guarding Gnome? Got it while playing solo (swatting your way upstream just before getting into the stadium is the hardest part by far).
Mile High Club? Got it.

Some advice for people trying to get Little Rocket Man: there's only one point that's particularly hard, and that's when you're driving the car and being chased by the chopper. You have to drive along a long stretch of railway. The trick is to get used to the rhythm of the chopper attacks; you want to punt the gnome along the tracks with the gravity gun when it's not firing, then get into the car and boost when it starts shooting (fortunately the boost will take you almost the exact distance that you can punt the gnome).

There are also several points where you can leave the gnome behind to pick up later, but you must be careful:
1. When you get into the mineshaft with the two resistance guys, you can leave it there until you come back with the vortigaunt. Pretty simple.
2. When you have to go and get the car off the bridge you can leave the gnome with Alyx and the vortigaunt. WARNING: Make sure you leave the gnome right next to the gate which you open after you get the car, the one which Alyx and the vortigaunt come through. It only opens very briefly when you pull the lever for it, and if you're not careful you may lose it. Especially as the door opens for slightly longer when they come through, and after that you really can't get to it fast enough to pull the gnome through.
3. Obviously you can leave the gnome hanging around in the radio station while you explore, but make sure you remember where you put him and save once you place him there. When the hunters turn up he could end up anywhere.
4. You can leave him in the garage where the resistance fighters fix your car, but make sure you bring him into the actual garage as the outdoor area where you fight the chopper gets sealed off. And don't forget to bring him with you.

Other than that it just requires a lot of patience and a lot of save files. Especially once you've got the car as there's no way to store him in the car without falling out the moment you accelerate, brake, turn, etc.

 

[dstryfe]

Wow, that'd take how many hours?... Also, is there a certain score you have to reach on each one, to add another level of sadism?

Just over 6, and it must be on expert. The no breaks bit includes both pausing and failing. It wasn't so bad. Visions hurt, though.

I say the "Deja Vu" from Halo ODST. 4-player co-op over xbox live, using no vehicles but the mongoose in the last level, with Iron on. 6 straight hours later, nothing. Why pointless? 0G.

"Pointless achievement" is redundant.

Not so. This achievement has no points.

 

[KO4U]

Squad City Glider from Crackdown 2.

4 Agents, Wingsuit-glide through the airspace of all islands in city within 30 secs of leader.

How about hell $#%@ing no!

 

[muckinscavitch]

Everyone seems to find the driving sections of The Little Rocket Man really hard... I just wedged him in the car in such a way that he couldn't fall out unless I had a head on collision that brought me to a stop... It worked out great...

Sadly... when I got to the end and launched him off, it didn't give the achievement! But I know I did it, so I don't mind.

Other than that.. hard ones...

hmmm... Having to kill 6 enemies with the axtinguisher in TF2 in a single life is pretty tough... unless you find a good place to camp and are facing complete idiots.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

Find all 99 or 100 lambdas in the Orange Box. I saw it and I just said "Well, not even gonna try to do that one."

Or beat any level on Veteran in World at War.

 

[BanthaFodder]

Impossible Boy: complete the Cotton Alley Dark World without dying. I honsetly don't think anyone's gotten this one yet on Steam...

 

[imaloony]

Most of the ones from Call of Duty 2 are just "Beat these levels on Veteran", which is always stupidly difficult.

And let's not forget Devil May Cry 4, which introduced such classics as "Beat the entire game on Dante Must Die difficulty", "Beat the entire game on Hell or Hell difficulty", and "Acquire 1,000,000 Proud Souls". WTF.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

One Free Bullet and Rocket man actually spiced up my gameplay experience. Especially since I did Rocket man on my first playthrough, kept me surprised...and a bit scared when I lost track of the gnome.

That said, what about Neighborhood watch from Half Life 2 Episode 2. It requires you to destroy every Hunter and Strider without having them destroy a single building. Why is this so tough? Is because these guys have extreme range and can destroy them in one hit (You actually lose one of the buildings in an introduction to the scene), the buggy handle likes shit and requires constant repairing, you need to get a new bomb every time you want to kill a Strider and you need to spend about 15 seconds on each Strider to get to the next one in time.

 

[CyanideSandwich]

"Chain Smoker" on Saboteur: Smoke 100 cigarettes. Not hard, but incredibly time-consuming (you have to finish the cigarette) and pointless.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

There was a scrapped Achievement for Fallout 3 that was going to be "beat the entire story quest with max level in one sitting"
Fuck that.

Just leave it on when you're not playing it and pray your power doesn't go out

Those "use X companion for the entire game" achievements didn't want to work for me. I visited every single damn planet got every damn crashed probe. Nothing. Screw that

 

[Kakashi on crack]

That Left 4 Dead achievement where you are supposed to survive the hardest difficulty level without taking 1 damage...

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Ally achievements from the first Mass Effect. Complete the entire game with each of 6 squad members with you at all times. You have to complete the WHOLE game, side quests and all, 3 complete times, each time using 2 different allies. It made me hate that game for a while after I did it.

 

[Hader]

Well not all achievements are hard, but all are definitely pointless.

 

[bigredlyms]

Rock band 2 do all the songs in one go without pause.

"Bladder of Steel"

Wow, that'd take how many hours?... Also, is there a certain score you have to reach on each one, to add another level of sadism?

it took me and my friend about 8 hours straight on rock band one. we should've chosen wiser than to do guitar and drums and to do both on expert. It got to the point where we had to switch who had to do drums every song so we could recover. I haven't played drums on RB since because my wrist gets immediately sore

 

[MrGalactus]

There was a scrapped Achievement for Fallout 3 that was going to be "beat the entire story quest with max level in one sitting"
Fuck that.
I'm glad they didn't include that one. Oh wait, it could've been New Vegas. One of the two.
Either way, fuck that.

I just attempted that very feat earlier this month---and failed horribly. There's simply no way to do it short of using cheats (and the "one sitting" and console commands are mutually exclusive since the latter disables achievements for that session) in less than 40-50 hours, and even I can't stay awake that long (around 30 hours it becomes a real risk of me falling asleep in my chair).

I guess you could just leave the PC on and paused, though...

30 hours is way more than I can pull.
I suppose PC's are used to being left on, but I'd never do it again on my 360. When I was a kid, before I got a memory card, I left my PS1 running for literally days on end. It eventually buckled under it, sparked, smoked, and set on fire once while I was playing Theme Park World. Shoulda seen that theme park though. It kicked ass.