Your favorite self-imposed restriction in a game?

I don't think I've ever done that...

Except for like, going easy on someone in a fighting game.

@viciousanchovy: Yeah my SMB3 game is pretty strong to this day

I think I remember having some sort of self imposed rule in Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition.

The game had multiple vehicle types, and I loved that each one had its own league. However, much of the game lets you use any vehicle you want. In order to remedy this I would often try to match the vehicle type of my opponent.

I played all of cod modern warfare 2 on the hardest difficulty using only pistols, there are a couple levels like no russian where you have to use rifles but i would usually try and find a pistol as fast as possible.

Do not Fail/Die/Save while playing Vice City to 100% completion.

Not a rule i always go on but the nuzlocke-challenge has really breathed new life into pokemon for me. It feels way more tense when you have those rules stopping you to just take your pokemon for granted.

My second Dark Souls run features the No Havel stipulation. None of his gear. And no Master Key.

On modern Pro Evolution Soccer games I restrict the number of international players I sign in Master League mode. This is solely for practical reasons as it means it prolongs their fitness and makes them available for more matches.

There's the classic "Dark/Demon Souls with no summoning", but aside from that it was probably playing Metal Gear Revengeance without killing any human opponents, just taking off arms/legs and leaving them to flee the battlefield via optic camouflage. The non-lethal bonus at the end of each battle is pretty substantial.

Lego Star Wars: 3 Lives per level. I really only imposed this rule when I realised death had no consequences in those games.

Nothing crazy. I never use health consumables in Platinum games. That's usually because I find the game so fun that I don't want to cheapen the experience by using them. Other than that, I always play arcade shooters by not using continues though that's arguably the way those games are meant to be played.

Not sure...sometimes I like forcing myself to only use a pistol in Battlefield games...that can be fun. Even though it was for a trophy, I really liked playing Dead Space with only the plasma cutter.

Ghosting games. No knock outs, never spotted, hardest setting.

I did this with Dishonored and also never used the wall vision. Was a really good time.

That and disabling a lot of overly helpful UI. like the Skyrim on screen quest pointer.

I cleared almost half of the Last Of Us on grounded without ever firing a shot. (Except during the bits you're forced to, obviously)

Don't know if this counts but my brother and I would do franchises in NBA 2K15 and set arbitrary rules like no drafting or no players under 30, just to keep it interesting.

The no fast travel rule was fun for awhile but after travelling for something like 10 minutes to discover that I had not initiated the quest properly got to me at some point so I broke it.

I had a no projectiles rule for DS for awhile. After beating the game a couple of times I did give magic a try though.

Generally, I often start games on hard mode, Bioshock infinite was one of them though it wasn't very rewarding, I think in the batman games its fairly rewarding because you get to stack combos more.

I like to try for no-death runs. I don't usually succeed, but it's fun to try.

Also, I'm in the middle of trying to work out a no-coin run of SMB1... it's harder than it looks.

I've done multiple playthroughs of Deus Ex: HR, including Pacifist etc. which doesn't really count as "self-imposed". But I did do one playthrough, where I decided I had to kill all the hostiles and get no alarms. So I wouldn't finish a level until every enemy was dead. And when I had to choke out some guys (or sleep-dart them) to keep things quiet, I would drag them off and shoot them in the head while they were unconscious.

What? Don't look at me like that.

I played Skyrim with a few hardcore mods. Rest requirement, hunger and thirst meters. Your character could freeze to death in cold weather so you had to put up tents, set up fires, wear warm clothes. You could hunt for food. Enemies were tougher. Also - no fast travel!

It was pretty cool, played for a dozen or so hours but never returned to it because mod management was just such a hassle.

Although most if not all of my self-imposed restrictions get broken at some point (no fast travel rule was broken in Dragon Age: Inquisition because travelling across the map is not very fun compared to say, Skyrim), my favourite one is just role-playing as the character I'm controlling as much as possible. That can range from choosing dialogue conversations that fit my character's personality/beliefs to acting out the day-to-day life and following the traffic laws whenever possible.

If it is an option to get through a game with zero kills, I will always do pacifist runs. But if I am required to kill even one person, I don't even bother trying to do a pacifist run.

Aside from that, I tend to force myself to make decisions as my character would and not take the way the game will reward decisions into account. Case in point, when playing Mass Effect 2 and doing a paragon run, I wouldn't take renegade actions.