Popular Games you left unfinished and why

Youn

Youn

Supreme [H]ardness
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I HATE not being able to finish a game, so I thought this thread would be useful for folks like me to try and avoid popular old or recent games that somehow managed to fall flat at a certain point. If the game is worth playing through to the end (like, maybe it gets much better at some point) then hearing about that would be useful too.

Here are mine, off the top of my head:

Kingdom Hearts - got maybe 30 hours in, but had to put it down, super annoying camera/gameplay and characters, mediocre story

Xenogears - 30 hours in, boring predictable/repetitive story and gameplay, horrid graphics

Anachronox - 10 hours in, story is just not grabbing me, battles are annoyingly slow/clunky

GTA: Vice City (PC) - 30 hours in, story is just lame, no interest in main character, some gameplay missions frustrating (maybe due to using keyboard/mouse - but I really enjoyed GTAIII PC)

Assassin's Creed 3 - 10 hours in, no interest whatsoever in story or characters

HL2 episodes - HL2 was ok, but I wanted to wait for all episodes to come out before playing through them, to avoid a long-delayed cliff-hanger... no regrets yet :p
 
Dead space 2. I've tried to start that fucking game like 5 times and just keep getting bored and walk away.
 
Youn said:
Assassin's Creed 3 - 10 hours in, no interest whatsoever in story or characters
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Just finished it. Not worth it. The ending is really goddamned stupid.

I never finished Bulletstorm or RAGE. Both I gave a couple of hours before I was bored stiff.

Never finished the original Bioshock, either. Horrible PC port when it first came out, and even after it was polished, I never liked the combat. Felt clunky and inaccurate.
 
I think I am just getting old and have lost interest. Console-itis is also part of it. Last game I bought and enjoyed was SC2:Zerg.
 
Fable 3. Everyone told me that you're on a giant timer with "preparations" for a battle, and that was an immediate turn-off. The motion blue in the game hurt my eyes a little, too.

Deus Ex: Human Revolutions. I just didn't "get" it I guess. I still have it installed, so maybe I'll pick it back up in the Summer doldrums.

Mass Effect 3. You meant to tell me that I get to tediously scan planets and prepare for a battle (like Fable 3) all while being forced to play MP or use some silly iPhone app? Awesome. That said, I'm finally playing through it now, and I went through the first two several times each. The game isn't awful, but man is it ever tedious.
 
Crysis 3 (PC) - totally uninteresting boss fights at the very end. Quit due to boredom with game mechanics.
Dead Space (PC) - couldn't start due to crappy control scheme & lack of rebindable keys.
Fable 3 (PC) - horrible gameplay... quit at the beginning.
F3AR (PC) - boring gameplay

I'm sure there are a ton I've quit. These games are the reason I keep getting more & more picky about what I buy.
 
The Witcher 2. Think I've tried it about 3-4 times, never have gotten past the first kraken style boss.
Bioshock as well, tried it 2-3 times, didn't really enjoy the feel of it.
Metro 2033 finally beat a few months ago after trying 3-4 times; really wasn't worth it, IMO.
 
Mass Effect - Could not spam conversation buttons fast enough.

Sacred Gold / 2 - Buggy POS

The Ball - Terrible

EDIT:

Almost forgot Oblivion - Trash leveling system, i shouldn't have to patch my own game.
 
Not a game that you can "finish", but World of Warcraft was not a game I found compelling for more than 20 hours or so.
 
Bioshock infinite - terribly boring game. Graphics looked good until you looked closer and realized it looks like shit. Didn't care about any of the characters even elizabeth.

Dishonored - game was lame and boring. no incentive for sneaking.

Any Dirt game - love them at first, get bored after awhile.

Assassin's Creed 3 - just bored with the whole story and hated that they changed controls after a few games.
 
dnottis said:
Any Dirt game - love them at first, get bored after awhile.
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I get this was with most racing games. After a point, you're rehashing the same thing unless there is just tons of content (or ridiculousness in arcade racers).
 
vampire the masquerade got to a boss that was invulnerable, patched it and lost my save...

can't imagine playing 20 hrs+ in skyrim and losing saves to a patch...
 
I have too many to list... i rarely finish games.

But the ones which really confuse me are:

Divinity 2 -- I loved the hell out of that game. Most shit was awesome and combat was fun. I got burnt out on two different playthroughs about 20 hours in when i get to the big tower. No idea why :(

SC2 -- Another game i loved and really enjoyed (campaign). With SC, i beat all 3 campaigns. Got burnt out before even beating the one.

M&B -- is it even possible to beat this game? (included for the lols)
 
Witcher 2: Loved the voice acting and story but the gameplay and combat is a chore. Could not put in more then six hours.

Skyrim: The game engine blows ass. I absolutely hate it.
 
There's a lot of people that use 'bored' as an excuse to stop playing many of these games. That's not really a good reason, as there must be an underlying cause. I am interested in what this cause may be!

RAGE - Picked it up for 2.50 and only played about 2 hours. Many of the quests would have NPC's blocking you off from areas, leaving you very little areas (or reasons) to explore. Graphically, it felt geared to consoles, which was unfortunate, seeing it's dev's roots were very PC. 4/10

Assassin's Creed 3 - I preface the following with the fact that I like the story of the franchise. The intro play-in of 3 really took far too long. Getting to the point where you actually have a character that you can upgrade and control seemed like nearly 6 hours of gameplay. The mechanics have been refined further than the previous entries, but this does not stop the game from feeling repetative. With this becomming an annual series, I may pick up every third one like I do with COD series. Then it will at least play someone fresher. 5.5/10

Bulletstorm - The voice acting and dialogue drove me so far from this game, so fast, it's mind blowing. Really. I have been PC gaming a very long time and this was just... 4/10

Super Meat Boy - Enjoyed it initially, but much like the hardest difficulty mode in any game; it becomes a passion of obssession, rather than an enjoyable experience. 7/10

Battlefield 3 - Single player was above average. MP was fun with friends but the hit detection drove me away, though it may be fine for some. 8/10

Neverwinter (MMO) - I tried and tried to get into this game but it just didn't do it for me (you guys can still use my vent! :p) The environments, the combat and the character skills were just average. 6.5/10

The Witcher - The second game was a surprise for me, since I got it as a graphical experience but it proved to be more. The first, however, could not satisfy me on the combat front. 6.5/10

Path of Exile - Another game that started out well enough. Tight controls, pleasant art style, though the camera was a tad too zoomed in. The game, at the highest difficulty level, was more about the accepted build or skill choice than the freedom to do what you chose. For example, I wished to be a tank. Well, damage reduction happens to be capped at a fairly low level. That should be okay though, right? The game will allow for a tank type class to do lower damage but be able to hold their own? Unfortunately, no. Common enemies will one-shot you, with no capability of gaining any additonal damage resistance. So then you must play more offensive and with that you are limited to a certain play style. I wish for more freedom, that is all. 8/10

World of Tanks - Tanks can go invisible? Like actually invisible, not like camo nets? Uninstalled. 2/10

If I think of others, I will add them. :p
 
I'll only mention games that I enjoyed to some degree, and are relatively recent, but left unfinished. There's lots of popular games (*cough*, COD *cough*) that I have left unfinished (played at friends, or what have you) as I dislike them.

GTA 4 - Got near the end, lost interest as the missions become tedious.
Red Dead Redemption - See above. Rockstar games are great, but they lose their shine after 20+ hours.
HL2 - The camera made me feel sick
Mirror's Edge - The camera made me feel sick
Metro 2033 - Too intense. Not scary, I was just stressed and tensed most of the time. Eventually I just stopped wanting to experience that. I figure I made it about half way.
Assassin's Creed 2 - I think I stopped mostly cause my hardware at the time was underpowered, and it ran like crap. I played the heck out of that game, just didn't finish.
DiRT 3 - Got tired of the short rally stages and forced Gymkhana stuff.

That's all I can remember right now.
 
Bioshock - Just got tired of gaining 2x the power then face 2x harder bad guys. I never felt like I was getting stronger. Plus the story and character development could of been a lot better. Couple this with typical shooter repetitiveness and you have a recipe for monotony.

The Witcher - I've tried to play this about 5 or 6 times and can't make it past the first village. I don't know if it's too scripted for me or if it's the weird combat, or what.
 
The Witcher. I finally got passed a lot of the first investigation parts, then I was unleashed into the world where there was like these 3 or 4 stone statues in an open swamp field area. Then was zapped down with lightning and immediately disheartened. Put it down for like 3 months, and tried to play it again and forgot how to do combat again. Couldn't get myself to go through the first part of that game. Takes forever.
 
I remember, several years ago when i first got my PS2, I couldnt finish Kingdom Hearts - such a nice game btw :D

Other games I left unfinished:
NFS Most Wanted (the original one)
Far Cry 2 (got bored quickly tbh)
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (stuck in one of the ending missions)
 
Max Payne 2 - Boring gameplay, however, I liked the Lords and Ladies tv show
Alice: Madness Returns - Boring gameplay, cool dresses though
Crysis - Boring gameplay
Dirt 2 - Poor control of the car with a gamepad (maybe will try again with a wheel)
Flatout Ultimate Carnage - Was in first place, hit small piece of debris, car flew of the track, uninstalled.
 
Shantarr.Dalrae said:
there must be an underlying cause. I am interested in what this cause may be!
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For me, when I'm bored/unhappy in life then games tend to feel boring/frustrating as well. Apart from the obvious (I'm just grumpy) there's also an element of naughtiness associated with playing games when there are more pressing matters to attend to. I guess this goes back to being in school, and having limited, and therefor "precious", amount of time to play video games. Nowadays, with less responsibility, there's less incentive.

Something like that... anyways, that's just me :p
 
A lot of these are because of formatting and forgetting about the game save.


S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - Kept dying in the beginning, eventually gave up

Just Cause 2 - Lost my save, didn't want to play from the beginning

BioShock™ - Misplaced save, may play it if I can find it.

Grand Theft Auto IV - Lost my save, didn't want to play from the beginning

Far Cry® 2 - Boring and tedious

Fallout 3 - Lost my save, didn't want to play from the beginning

Fallout: New Vegas - Lost my save, didn't want to play from the beginning

Assassin's Creed - Got bored, lost save, didn't want to start over

Metro 2033 - Lost my save, didn't want to play from the beginning

Darksiders II - Learned there will be no DS3 after THQ died, kinda lost the ambition

Saints Row: The Third - Awesome game, no ambition to finish the actual missions, much rather blow shit up

Dead Island - Wife and I deemed it horrible

Fable - Lost save, didn't want to play from the beginning

Torchlight II - No one to play with. Already played and beat Diablo2

Skyrim - Horrible combat system
 
I'm not surprised to see so many people bailing on the Witcher games. CDProjekt just doesn't seem to have the whole "compelling introduction" concept down at all.
The first game stagnated in my drawer for years after I repeatedly gave up on it after an hour. The tutorial is bad, the plot doesn't make much sense, and it just doesn't feel right. When I finally did commit myself to it, I then realized how poorly they set-up the sword/stance toggle (you can fix this with literally one key if you want), and how borderline worthless the dodge commands are. It's a much less complicated game than they lead you to believe in the first few hours.
Once you finally "get" the Witcher, I think it might actually be one of the best western RPG's of all time.

The second one suffers from early sections that are unforgiving and drag while you're still learning the game. If anything, the Witcher 2 gets easier as you go. You not only learn the gameplay better, but you get numerous powers and items that make the whole game friendlier to play.

Hopefully the 3rd Witcher game starts off better than the first two.
 
Bioshock infintie

Rage (might finish sometime)

Dead Space 1 and 2

Metro 2033

Fear 3

Mass Effect 3

The Witcher 2
 
Dark Souls (rage quit)
super meat boy (couldnt beat 3rd to last level)
hydrophobia (lost interest)
 
Youn said:
For me, when I'm bored/unhappy in life then games tend to feel boring/frustrating as well. Apart from the obvious (I'm just grumpy) there's also an element of naughtiness associated with playing games when there are more pressing matters to attend to. I guess this goes back to being in school, and having limited, and therefor "precious", amount of time to play video games. Nowadays, with less responsibility, there's less incentive.

Something like that... anyways, that's just me :p
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Haha, thanks for taking the time to explain your rationale behind it! :)
 
maboblivion said:
vampire the masquerade got to a boss that was invulnerable, patched it and lost my save...

can't imagine playing 20 hrs+ in skyrim and losing saves to a patch...
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God damn this!!! LOVE Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, but the god damn patch they released screwed everything up. The reason they released it, because there was a HUGE glitch in the game to where you got up to a certain point, and the next quest would not start. I don't remember the specifics but you basically had to apply the patch to fix the quest glitch, but the downside is you lose your save game. After that I could not get myself to play through it again to that point even though I love that game.

Similar story with Oblivion. Bought 20gb PS3 at launch. Buy Oblivion at launch. Play for hours and hours... LOVING this game which is huge for me because I don't play RPGs. Get up to a certain point where shit is getting interested and have decent armor, weapons, and skills... and the disc drive on the PS3 seizes. I want to send the PS3 back to Sony without the hard drive but they said they will not fix the console if the console does not return to them the way I received it from the factory. I ask the Sony rep lady over the phone," Since I have a 180gb hard drive in it and I return the console with it in there, will I receive it back with the 180gb drive?" She says no. So i asked her if I sent it without the hard drive in it since it's the disc drive that needs work anyway will they fix it? She says," No sir, it must be returned in original factory condition." I then ask her," So if I pop in my 180gb hard drive when I get it back, will it just work like it left me?" She said yes. Since I upgraded my PS3 with a 180gb hard drive, I am forced to put the old 20gb drive back in there. Don't have external hard drive to create backup, so I send it back with original hard drive. I get my PS3 back 2 weeks later with working disc drive. I take out 20gb hard drive and pop in my 180gb hard drive and it keeps asking me to reformat. Have no choice... lose all my saves. Fuck this shit!!! Never play Oblivion again.

Other games I never finished:

Prey: Last boss annoyed me
Bioshock: Lost interest with stupid RPG-like gimicks although I love story and setting
Mass Effect 3: ...played for 20 minutes. Felt like "Future Warfare 4"
Dawn of Discovery: great game... lost interest in micromanaging games
Rome: Total War: tired of micromanaging
Aliens Vs Predator: was just... meh
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Loved the game but lost my save game. Might start again soon.
ARMA 2: TOO realistic and clumsy to control. Like using a flight simulator but for people.
RAGE: ...meh...
FEAR 3: ...meh...
Metro 2033: I still don't know why I haven't finished this game. It's good though.
Far Cry 3: Another game I don't know why I haven't finished. Great game. Great story
Medal of Honor: Warfighter: this game right here <----- is the definition of bullshit generic shooter
Batman: Arkham City. Okay, I got this game for like $5 on Steam or GMG and is awesome. But... haven't touched in months. No explanation.
Red Faction: Guerrilla: I loved the physics and how you can blow up the buildings bit by bit. Maybe i'll get into it again
Bioshock Infinite: Love the game... need to find the time to play
Crysis 2: felt way too consolized. felt nothing like Crysis.

LOTS more.... spanning multiple consoles and PC too. Just thinking of my backlog of games makes me not want to play anything. Weird... huh?
 
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My biggest one in terms of popularity is probably War Craft 3's campaign....I just didn't really like the campaign in WC3. Don't remember how far I got I just know I didn't finish. Also I put many days into multiplayer battles and Tower Defense mods.

Next would be Zelda Ocarina of time and Zelda Twilight Princes (Got to the water levels and the game ceased to be fun so I stopped playing)
 
Metro2033. Got 1hr in to it...never had any desire to do more. Got it on an ultra-sale, so no loss.

DragonAge 2. Maybe not "popular", but still...was so excited and after the 1st or 2nd boss, didn't bother...annoying characters, shitty maps that kept repeating, no real choices, and the same shitty graphics everywhere.

Fallout New Vegas DLC...Beat the main game twice...have started lots of new characters, got all the DLC cheap...I just hate staring at high resolution desert sand for hours on end. And TBH, the main quest bad guys are really awful at characterizing casino/mob bosses.

Crysis 2. 1st one was fun for being sandbox-ish....2nd one was anything but fun for precisely the opposite. Stopped 90 minutes in.

TES4: Oblivion. Just got tired of running around the same maps in Oblivion over and over again.
 
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Bioshock- I couldn't get into it.
Duke Nukem Forever- I got it for free and really just wanted to see how bad it was.
Racing games- I get bored with them after a while.


Domingo said:
Fable 3. Everyone told me that you're on a giant timer with "preparations" for a battle, and that was an immediate turn-off. The motion blue in the game hurt my eyes a little, too.
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The only timer is that you need to have some money before you start a main quest towards the end, you can take as much time as you want before starting that quest. The motion blur is truly awful in that game but it can be turned off with an ini tweak. All that being said you're not missing much.


maboblivion said:
vampire the masquerade got to a boss that was invulnerable, patched it and lost my save...

can't imagine playing 20 hrs+ in skyrim and losing saves to a patch...
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That's a great game to play through multiple times with different bloodlines since each bloodline has a unique blend of special abilities that can completely change your approach to quests. You want to install the official patch as well as one of the unofficial patches before playing because the game is broken without them and the patches break save games.
 
Alpha Protocol - Got it on a steam sale... just too old and clunky for me now.

Red Alert 3: I think I was C&C'd out....

Just Cause 2: Sandbox for the sake of sandbox? No thanks.

King Arthur - I will eventually get back to this... I think.

Neverwinter Nights 2: I got far, took a break, never went back. Clunky.

STALKER (any) - really, really tried to like these, even patched them with mods... nothing and no reason to play. Possibly my biggest dissapointment. With all the hoopla these should have been right up my street..... wasn't meant to be.

Diablo 3 - It took them 15 years, but Blizzard finally released a crap product.

Civilization 5 - I must be dumb or this must be a game where you need the manual. Started it 10 times, I've no idea how to play.
 
I almost forgot about Neverwinter Nights 2. I'm a huge D&D fan, but I never finished that one either.
The controls and UI were just way too wonky, and performance was awful even on godlike hardware. In some ways it was like playing a beta of the first Dragon Age game.

The plot was actually kind of cool, though.
 
Domingo said:
I almost forgot about Neverwinter Nights 2. I'm a huge D&D fan, but I never finished that one either.
The controls and UI were just way too wonky, and performance was awful even on godlike hardware. In some ways it was like playing a beta of the first Dragon Age game.

The plot was actually kind of cool, though.
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It's better now, but I don't see a lot of people going back to it. Mask of the Betrayer, however, is solid gold.
 
There's so many i don't even know where to begin. I guess it's because i'm getting older and the storylines on most of these games are so ridiculously predictable with the exception of ME3. Crysis 3, Mass Effect 2 and 3, Rage, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Far Cry 3 (although i'm still going to try to finish it), The Witcher 2, and Borderlands 2 are all i can think of right now. I particularly like games that have upgrade systems but once i find out i pretty much have the best "gun" or best "magic powers" i get bored and quit.
 
toddw said:
STALKER (any) - really, really tried to like these, even patched them with mods... nothing and no reason to play. Possibly my biggest dissapointment. With all the hoopla these should have been right up my street..... wasn't meant to be.
.
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Totally agree with Todd. Everyone talked up the Stalker (I had the Chernobyl one) games but i just wasn't interested from the get-go. I downloaded some mods as well. Same goes for Arma II. I get that it's supposed to be super realistic but in the end by the time i got the hang of the learning curve i found it to be just...boring.
 
Youn said:
I guess this goes back to being in school, and having limited, and therefor "precious", amount of time to play video games. Nowadays, with less responsibility
Click to expand...

Did you win the lottery? I had way more free time in school.
 
Witcher 2 - said I would come back when I bought a better GPU to run it on. Never came back to it lol
Skyrim - Thought it was going to be good never ever got past the first 3 hrs
GTA 4 - Keep finding huge mission bugs where I cant advance so I stopped trying.
Metro 2033 - Just didnt find it interesting.
Dead Island - too many bugs
STALKER - just not interesting to me.
Bioshock (ALL) - something with the movement causes me to get motion sickness, can never play more than 2 hrs at a time. One of the few games that make me feel this way.
Diablo 3 - never finished nightmare ever, too AH based and I played 100 hrs never found a single Legendary no matter how crappy, friend played 20 hrs found 5. Also game was a huge disappointment.
COD Black OPS 1&2, MW3 - single player just sucks only buy for 4 player local play with cousins.

I have a back log of over 50 games lol. Need to stop buying games I will never get to play.
 
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