I've always suspected that this console generation's complete lack of wired controllers was going to come back around and bite me at some point--and while I was trying to get Prototype reviewed on a deadline last week, it did. As I wrote in the review, the game can get pretty darn frustrating from time to time. You'll occasionally have so many tanks, helicopters, and burly mutants bearing down on you that the only viable way to survive is to peel off, go heal in a hidden place, then come back and return to your objective.
When you're trying to get a game finished expeditiously in this line of work, though, you sometimes don't have the option of slowing down and withdrawing for a bit (and forget about turning the game off to take a break outright). I foolishly kept banging my head against the same tough mission over and over, until... it is with some shame that I admit I let the frustration get to me and hurled my controller at the (thankfully carpeted) floor, resulting in this:
OK, maybe the picture is anti-climactic since there's not a lot of damage to the controller itself; you can see a bit of the red plastic chipped off on the left , and there's some separation between the red and black parts that some work with a Torx screwdriver may or may not fix. The controller still works fine.
It's my pride that took the real beating, the embarrassment of having lost my temper and expressing it in such a childish way. This is the most damage I've ever caused to a piece of hardware due to video game rage in nearly 25 years of playing them. (Seems like there should be a clever word to describe "anger at difficult video games." Any ideas?)
Anyway, I can't help wondering if I'm not the only one. How angry do difficult games make you? Are you in the habit of taking it out on your stuff? What do you do to cool off? If you have photos of any broken controllers or other casualties, I'd love to see them.
427 Comments