Glitches are always unwelcome unless they lead to unintentional hilarity. Game-breaking bugs are especially loathed. At best, they force the player to reboot the console and reload a save file. At worst, they corrupt the save, destroying hours upon hours of progress.
The following ten below are some of the most infamous ones out there. Thanks to the modern age, some of these were patched after release, but the developers can never give gamers their time back. Games can be frustrating enough without an inexplicable occurrence making the world's favorite hobby even more needlessly infuriating.
10 Arkham Asylum
Rocksteady Game's first entry into their now legendary Arkham series proved superhero games could stand toe to toe with the best the medium has to offer, similar to what Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy did for comic book films. Nolan's works cannot abruptly freeze and delete all the progress you made in up that point, however.
This is a reality for some Arkham Asylum fans who mercilessly lost their files due to a random glitch. This can happen at any point during the game, too. Thank goodness for trophies and achievements, otherwise a corrupted save would erase any trace of a one hundred percent completion.
9 Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing
It's not so much one specific game-breaking bug putting Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing on the list, but the entire game. Right from the startup screen, it's clear something is amiss. After entering a race, one finds out it's faster to list all the things not going dramatically astray during game play.
The game is unfinished and broken. Collision detection is non-existent and players can easily drive through the maps' boundaries. It's so unplayable one cannot even stay mad at it for too long. Big Rigs is a truly bizarre oddity to behold.
8 Gran Turismo 2
Gran Turismo is the ultimate driving simulator. Development time is long and intense in order to achieve the correct sensation of driving beautiful cars at high speeds. Gran Turismo 2, however, was rushed to shelves, leaving several bugs within. The Maximum Speed Attack mode has eight leaderboard spots.
If one fills up all eight of them, the ninth record will trigger a glitch where some garage information disappears. Fortunately, one could reload their save, and later editions of the title fixed this glitch.
7 Pokemon Red And Blue
The original Pokemon titles on the Gameboy were revolutionary, establishing a formula which still attracts gamers, old fans and newcomers alike. Being such a new type of game, it wasn't released without its share of bugs.
Numerous glitched Pokemon exist within the world. Many of them are harmless, with the worst damage being some hall of fame data. However, some of them can destroy one's save data. Fortunately, getting most of these requires effort, and won't likely be stumbled upon by chance.
6 Fallout: New Vegas
Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas is hailed as not only one of the best Fallout titles, but also one of the best western RPGs of the past ten years. Like many of its ilk, however, it is is swarming with glitches. The PS3 version, in particular, feels their effects. Things are wonky from the outset, but the further one progresses through the campaign, the more unplayable it becomes.
By the end of the campaign, exploring the world is almost impossible without encountering constant frame rate jutter, frequent crashes, and other random glitches populating the world. The game is so good it almost makes it worth it, but playing on the PC is advised.
5 Star Fox 64 Last Boss
Star Fox 64 stands out as a highlight of the N64's first-party lineup, and that's saying a lot coming from a console that brought us Super Mario 64 and The Ocarina of Time.
Right before reaching the last boss, Andross, one can get stuck in an endless flight if they are at the wrong angle before the encounter. Instead of the fight activating, Fox just keeps on flying straight forever. The only way out is resetting the game.
4 Gears Of War For PC
Gears of War showed up strong for the Xbox 360 generation. It eventually got a PC port as well. Unfortunately, this version came with a serious problem. It could sometimes delete save files with no warning.
Gamers had to contend with this for a whole six months before a patch came through. Should it have really taken so long to fix? Maybe it was the 360's way of saying "not such a PC master race anymore, eh."
3 Ice Cream Factory Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City stands the test of time surprisingly well. Despite its aged graphics, one still feels the '80s aura the game goes for with its choice of music and artistic design. While reliving the crime kingpin fantasy, be wary of saving at the ice cream factory.
It's not a one hundred percent guarantee, but doing so has a chance of demolishing the save file. The property is up for purchase only after raiding Diaz's mansion, relatively far into the game, so we'd hate to see more gamers lose so much progress and have to start over.
2 PlayStation Holiday 2004 Demo Disc
Back when demo discs were still a thing, Sony sent a sample of many of their upcoming titles for the 2004 holiday season and beyond. Viewtiful Joe 2 was included.
Getting far enough into the title would freeze the game, a not seldom occurrence. People soon found out, however, this freeze also corrupted the memory card, destroying every save file on it. Before cloud saves, this meant losing hundreds of hours of gaming all in the blink of an eye.
1 Saint's Row 2
Saint's Row 2's game-breaking glitch is so hard, it not only destroys a save file, but the entire disc. This bug is called The Freezer glitch. While playing Zombie Uprising and exploiting the physics to head out of bounds, this mysterious figure can pop up at any moment.
Once it does, the game freezes and the disc is caput. Thankfully, one isn't likely to accidentally head out of bounds, so this entity will only attack those who are a little more adventurous. Still, no one deserves to lose their disc for going out of bounds.