Pointlessly difficult achievement achieved!

Post by **Martin Blank** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:43 am

I've completed one of the most difficult achievements in any game. Specifically, I have achieved Little Rocket Man in Half-Life 2 Episode 2, which involved carrying a little plastic gnome from basically the beginning of the game to the end, placing it in a rocket, and seeing it launched into space. (Well, technically, you just have to close the door, but the rocket later launches if you finish the game.)

I've heard of some people who have achieved this by downloading someone else's game and completing the last couple of steps, but that's cheating. It took about three nights to do, but I carried that damned thing through myself. I did discover a neat trick to keep the gnome in the car, and it saved a lot of sanity. Place it on the back deck, move forward until it topples over, and then back up. It may take a few tries, but it eventually can get wedged between the roof and the deck, allowing more maneuvering and acceleration. Don't get too crazy as it can still fall out, but it's a lot less frustration if you can pull it off.

Maybe now I can actually finish my Python lessons.

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:24 am

Heh heh heh. Married life.

Yeah. You can also escape the boundaries of Arkham City if you're willing to dedicate some time to it. I was.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:22 pm

That sounds interesting. I loved Arkham City.

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:27 pm

Yeah, both games were brilliant. And made me feel funny ways about the ladies in them.

It's not worth the effort, to be honest. I spent ages hitting the same button to go up and up and up and up and up until I could rise above the blockades and glide over them. There's not a fully-functioning, populated and independant world on the other side as I hopefully thought. Just some crude frames of buildings you can glide around.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:23 pm

That sounds less interesting.

Post by **Martin Blank** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:28 pm

At least Little Rocket Guy had the advantage of being challenging. Getting out of the car, picking up the gnome with the gravity gun, and punting it further down while an attack copter is shooting at you (this was before I discovered the deck trick I mentioned) required a lot of situational awareness and planning. It took me close to two hours to complete what would normally have been a 10-minute segment.

FireAza · Post by **FireAza** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:18 pm

Martin Blank wrote:which involved carrying a little plastic gnome

I'd always assumed he was made of concrete.

BtEO · Post by **BtEO** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:43 pm

Am now looking through my achievements list to see what might be the more difficult ones (that I got 100% fairly)…

…I had a hell of a time with completing the final boss on Sonic 4 Episode 1 without taking a hit.

And piecing together my own routes for the Mirror's Edge speedruns took a lot of effort too. Picking and choosing what strategies from the videos posted on YouTube (which were far faster and more technical than I needed for the target time) I thought I could reliably achieve (as well as finding a few tricks of my own) was good fun, and executing them was still a challenge — especially chapter 2 (I think). I was exceptionally proud of myself when my time for chapter 7 placed me 18th overall at the time on the Xbox leaderboards.

Neither of those match the patience of Little Rocket Man though — I never have done that one.

Post by **Martin Blank** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 5:28 am

I'm sure there are more difficult ones. I salute those who have achieved them. Cat certainly has achieved some spectacularly difficult WoW achievements (she's up over 10K achievement points, IIRC). But few of them required this level of patience.

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