The 2nd with Night of the Raven is pretty hard
3 is piss easy cause glitches though and Gothic 1 is mostly hard with controls so I do agree with you

Impossible Creatures campaign.

Based on the very little I've played of it ARMA CWA is a very challenging and realistic shooter (or "combat sim" as it is sometimes described as) : one shot from an enemy soldier (often completely hidden) and you're either outright dead or crippled beyond hope of recovery.

Then I will give you an additional advice: start fighting with the AI as soon as possible. Most probably you are too passive, waiting in your territory until you fully develop your city/cities. But each passing week makes it more difficult for you because in most cases AI begins the game with more cities than you do. So if you can hire four 7th level creatures per week he can hire eight. If you challenge him with six 7th level creatures against twelve you can still win because your hero is supposed to be more experienced. But if you let the difference to grow to 20 against 40 you are doomed no matter how strong your hero is. (of course the rest of your respective armies scales similarly)

And more thing: creatures dwellings scattered on the map. Use them because AI does. Troops do not accumulate within them so if you forget to hire them one week they are lost forever. For many people it's a nuisance but as I said: AI is taking best advantage of those dwellings so you will fail if you don't.

Been playing retro city rampage lately :X in their quest to copy over every game mechanic possible THEY copied the stupid ninja turtles (nes)underwater level and horrible super meat boy slaughter level edges. its insanely hard and frustrating hit a block in the last mission :X :X

I beat Contra 3 or 4 months ago. Not so hard once you know the levels. It was waaaaay harder for me to beat Battletoads. Took me months of training.

Wasn't that what a lot of early RTS games did? I think C&C Tiberian Dawn (maybe Red Alert?) and WC2 pulled off tricks like that.

The most sadistic game I've ever played was Hellfire on the Genesis. Even with my friend's Game Genie we still couldn't get past the second level.

So, as far as platformers go, my definition of tough is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsHJRRpSfrw

Try it on "I don't even" mode. Fucking, I don't even.

I've beaten Jet Force Gemini. Once. Fucking hell I hated looking for those care bear things.

Cannon Fodder would be easier if you could see further than the effective range of a rocket launcher, though, so I consider it a somewhat bullshitty kind of difficulty.

Fuck it up five times and you're given a free pass, though. I replayed Crimson Skies about a year ago, and it honestly wasn't very difficult save for three missions: the prolonged, death-trap Fury air race, the Hoplite bullshit and the one where you duel the Hollywood Knights and easily end up running out of ammunition (I had to ram the last enemy off the sky).

EDIT: I just remembered Operation Flashpoint and getting shot through foliage from two miles away by soldiers wielding RPK machine guns. Bullshit and beyond.

Rayman 1, I felt like a king after I've beaten it.

That's true. But missions which bother me even more are those when you get hit by a rocket immediately, right in your starting position. It's just ridiculous because you have to know that you must run for a cover even before you start the mission. Now, that's a bullshit!

I know that from HoMM 1 - 3, the AI had more resources from the beginning. Can't say about the rest since I've never played them.

Sweet, that's good advice. Thanks!

I didn't think OFP/the Arma games were bad - that the AI was doing anything it shouldn't do; I just thought the AI in it was sadistic. It would wait for you to slip up, then, if you survived the immediate aftermath, call in all its armored friends.