Self imposed challenges

[CyanideSandwich]

- "The Floor is Lava" mode in Assassin's Creed 2. If you touch the ground for any non-necessary reason, you need to aggro a guard into killing you.

- Going through GTA IV without cheats or autosaves, with permadeath. If you die, delete your save and start over.

- Not buying anything with cash in Far Cry 3. All weapons, medicine, and kevlar must be found in your travels. Makes you feel like a real survivalist, especially at the harder difficulties.

There's more that I've picked up, but none come to my head right now.

 

[windlenot]

This summer I got into Te Break the Targets minigame from Super Smash Brothers Melee. I've mostly been focusing on link and have it within .1 of world record time at 3.65 seconds.

Edit: not really a self imposed handicap, but a different way to keep myself entertained with the game than probably intended.

 

[JustOrdinary]

Oh, plenty of them.

Deus ex: hr - pacifist ninja, was actually pleasantly surprised there was an actual trophy for it

Batman: AA - maximum efficiency, must do all stealth sections by taking down each consecutive opponent without letting them discover a single collared body, in minimum possible time.

Pokemon emerald: nuzlocke, you are only allowed to capture the first random encounter in an area, and may release any Pokemon that faints.


And if we're counting multiplayer, plenty of ridiculous stuff in dota. "Naked" heroes, my signature dagger and butter sniper, kills only allowed with Dagon couriers, etc etc.


Currently doing one on a Pokemon black umm, "virtual machine", where the game is altered so that none of your pokes gain any do. Quite fun already, but I make it a little bit more interesting by sticking to multiplayer rules (no free switches after fainting opponent poke, and no trainer items allowed in battle like potions)

 

[The Wykydtron]

I'm in the middle of doing something like this right now.

I've already beaten Persona 3 Portable on easy mode with the male protagonist, so for my second playthrough, I'm played on medium, as the female.

But the self-imposed challenge is that I CANNOT issue direct commands to my teammates. Since the original P3 only let you give vague commands to your team, I'm playing using those rules. Definitely amps up the challenge a bit.

Why would you DO that to yourself?! There's a line between fun handicaps and ridiculous masochism... Guess which one the abysmal Persona 3 AI falls under?

"Mitsuru, help me!"

"MARIN KARIN LOL!"

T_T

OT: Playing XCOM without losing a man... Ever. EVEN YOU DAVE! Once he was perfectly safe in cover, he has two firing turns so I went for two 50% hit shots. He shot through a wall, destroyed his own cover entirely then got killed by the four aliens we were sieging...

Lucky this ain't Ironman.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I remember playing the WW2 Medal of Honor games with a pistol only, going for as many headshots as possible. That was fun.

Also playing Counterstrike with just the knife. That was impossible.

 

[superpandasauras]

I like to only use Kingdom Key in the Kingdom Heart games that have it. I once tried fighting Sephiroth with Sweet Memories, and after about 2 tries, I thought "Fuck it, I'm going back to Decisive Pumpkin".

 

[soren7550]

I remember when I first got Pokemon Silver, for whatever reason, I typically didn't make a Pokemon forget the first move it learned, and I used their moves in order regardless of what I was fighting against (Example: When using Typhlosion against say Lance, I'd use Tackle, Swift, Fire Spin, and then Flamethrower, and I'd keep following that pattern until she fainted. Rinse and repeat with the other Pokes). Also, for the longest time I usually only taught Pokemon moves the same type as them.

And probably like most people, I try to play through the game with only Pokemon that I like how they look.

Another thing I've been working on is making a biju [http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Tailed_Beasts] team that not only resemble them, but also only use moves that each one has displayed use of, and I plan on taking down the Elite Four with them. It's taking a bit to pull it together though.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Absolutely.

Demon's/Dark Souls: Run around naked, stick to the one weapon you liked the least, learn to master it properly.

No-upgrade-run - also, naked, of course.

Start the game as a depraved one, drop everything. Only use the weapon/shield you pick up randomly or next, drop it again after you find something else.

Basically, put the hard into hard core one bad decision at a time. Great fun.

 

[Aeshi]

I once did a "Heroes only" run of Dawn of War II Retribution, though that may not really count as a "Challenge" given how powerful the heroes can get in that game.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I've done a three heart challenge in all Zelda games where you aren't forced to pick up a heart container after defeating a dungeon boss. Also I'm pretty proud of myself for beating the Majora's Mask three day challenge a while back.

 

[SquidVicious]

To make my latest assassin build in Skyrim more challenging I've decided to try and ghost my way through dungeons and only kill the intended target. I've maxed out my sneak, alteration, and illusion and with my muffled shoes, archmage's robes, mages circlet, shrouded handwraps, and Savos' necklace I can pretty much just turn invisible and stealth kill any enemy I come across. My only problem with this is it will take longer for my one-handed skill to raise up and I'm worried I'll level myself into a corner where my stealth attacks won't be enough to take down the harder enemies towards the end of the game.

 

[Bad Jim]

I did a 'feminist' run through Hostile Waters : Antaeus Rising. There are ten AI personalities that you can use to pilot your units, only three of which are female, and one of those, Kenzie, shows up near the end of the game. That's what I get to work with, just the female AIs. Since I am a man, I also avoided controlling units myself except on missions 1,13 and 18 where the AI chips can't be used, and on mission 6 where after about fifty failed attempts I took control of a scarab and helped out with some scavenging.

 

[lithiumvocals]

I had the urge to play CoD 4 again, but this time, I decided that I could only use pistols, excluding scripted sequences. Easier than you'd think, but harder than you'd hope.

 

[loc978]

Currently on a low intelligence, unarmored pure melee/thrown weapons run of Fallout: New Vegas (including explosives, but without using any sort of launcher). As a woman trying to join Caesar's Legion (with Project Nevada on a pretty hard setting. I can die to one well-placed .308 round at level 50, as HP doesn't go up with level... only with endurance, which I maxed from the start).

I do this sort of thing a lot. I tend to treat even my first playthoughs as challenge runs by most people's standards.

 

[sageoftruth]

Any of you seen Vegeta311 on youtube? He does Let's Plays of himself doing insane self-imposed challenges in Dark Souls, like beating the game without leveling up or equipping anything other than a weapon. Search "Dark Souls Naked Run" to see for yourself.

 

[Leemaster777]

I'm in the middle of doing something like this right now.

I've already beaten Persona 3 Portable on easy mode with the male protagonist, so for my second playthrough, I'm played on medium, as the female.

But the self-imposed challenge is that I CANNOT issue direct commands to my teammates. Since the original P3 only let you give vague commands to your team, I'm playing using those rules. Definitely amps up the challenge a bit.

Why would you DO that to yourself?! There's a line between fun handicaps and ridiculous masochism... Guess which one the abysmal Persona 3 AI falls under?

"Mitsuru, help me!"

"MARIN KARIN LOL!"

T_T

Actually, I'm already up to the Hermit, and this is actually kinda fun. Granted, some of the guardian Shadows inside of Tartarus itself have been a bit challenging under these rules, but the full moon Shadows have all been reasonable.

And funnily enough, Mitsuru's Marin Karin addiction actually worked in my favor this way. Fought one of the guardian Shadows who had already viciously kicked my ass twice, and Mitsuru was DETERMINED to use Marin Karin on it... and it worked. The boss healed my team to full health, and proceeded to spend the next half-dozen turns or so letting me unload on him.

...all that being said, however, I'm NOT looking forward to the Hanged Man. He's gonna be a massive pain in this challenge.

 

[Robot Number V]

Recently, in Journey, another player and I successfully climbed the tower without activating any glyphs. It was pretty awesome, considering we did it with no verbal communication.

 

[cerealnmuffin]

In Fallout New Vegas, I only wear a dress, summer bonnet, and glasses while playing hard mode.

Also for DDR, I can beat legend of max on expert without using the bar behind the dance pad for balance.