8 Video Games That Don't Play By Your Rules!

At its core, a video game is simply just that, a game. A contest between player and computer in which, assuming things have been programmed correctly, there must be a fair chance of the human beating that cold and calculating mass of wires and code.

However, as Macready famously put it when realizing that his chess computer had illegally snuck a win in against him in John Carpenters The Thing, computers can be a "cheating bitch" sometimes and actively break the rules of the game itself in order to give itself one up over the player.

Sometimes this is to compensate for our ability to outsmart the title in question, sometimes its to prevent progress in a game too quickly, but at the end of the day it's still cheating all the same. Now we're no grass here so it's not like we're telling tales on other kids in the class, but when games snatch victory from you so smugly, it's hard not to think of this hit list like a little bit of payback.

Plus to be honest, some of these tricks are actually quite fascinating!

When it comes to real-time strategy games like the almighty Command and Conquer series, planning, preparation, and knowing exactly when to strike are skills you need to master if you're to ever to come out on top. If you're not thinking ten steps ahead of your opponent then you might have lost the battle before it's even started, then again you might also simply lose because the computer is a cheating little wretch.

When playing Tiberian Wars, you might notice that your opponent always seems to be able to build their bases up far quicker than you're ever able to, which lead to some fans looking into the behind the scenes numbers of the title, and what they found was as comical as it was devious.

It turned out that a full harvester is worth TWICE as much to the computer as it is to you, and that their build speed is far higher than you, plus if you manage to eliminate their resources, the computer will randomly give itself some cash to keep it going every now and then.

On harder difficulties, this totally changes the tone of the game, as it becomes a desperate hunt to take down their harvesters before they can return to base, as otherwise you'll be overwhelmed before you can even build a portable toilet for your soldiers to hide in.