So you should get to level 4 by 2013?

#@$@#$@# Starlancer and its @#$#@%$$ last mission and @$#@%$^ one shot kill tracking beam weapons.
i gave up after like 10 tries.

With any luck - yes.

Stuntman came to mind when you brought up driver. It could be because I suck at car games but you had little room for error and had to literally learn the game by failing each bit first. I think I got to level 3-4 before I shelved the game and never looked at it again.
Dark Omen is another game that is very hard to finish. Basically you get extra troops as you progress through the story at certain points and if you lose the group in battle they are gone forever. You then have to get enough of your army through the game alive to face down a rediculous final battle. Even if you have managed to get everything through by playing each mission over and over again until you did it well enough that you lost few enough troops to progress, the battle is still very hard. Even with the hard difficulty and the fact I have only completed the game once with many retrys at it, I still very much enjoy it, its hard but a fun hard.

Dugog, the cheapest madafaka in Puzzle Quest.

Yeah Puzzle Quest can be cheap. The computer knows what pieces are off the screen, the player can never know. As evident when the computer matches 3 gold and then the off screen pieces fall and end up doing tons of combos and damage to you. It is really ridiculous sometimes :P

It's even worse in PQ Galactrix - one good accidental combo from the enemy can kill you outright, even if the enemy isn't equipped with any special bonuses.
It's been driving me nuts - I mean, there's no penalty for dying (in fact, you still get the experience, so you actually benefit), but it's annoying to feel like so much luck is involved.

Anyone play the first Hitman game that had no checkpoints or quicksave functionality? It was both awesome and frustrating at the same time. Personally I loved because it really forced you to play methodically as a real assassin might carry out his hits. Oftentimes though, that game was just outright unfair.
It's been years since I played it, but I seem to remember the jungle levels being particularly reliant on trial and error.

I've finished all Hitman games and yes, they are difficult, but not cheap. In Puzzle Quest they can be so cheap is frustrating (I haven't played Galactrix yet, but I read is also very cheap).
PS: Another difficult-cheap game is Commandos: Behind enemy lines (also, is great).

It's funny that you mention it.
Yesterday I saw a spoony review of it here

Yeah, Spoony's awesome. His continuation of Final Fantasy 8 was hilarious.
On topic; Shadowgate for NES. One wrong turn and.. BAM! Game over.