XBox or PC version? 'Cause there’s a cheat for the XBox version which gets you past the final boss fight, if you just want to see the last little bit of the story that comes after that:
[spoiler]You need a second controller and a friend. Before you open the final door that leads to the room where you face Malak, press the Y button and both triggers on both controllers, all at the same time. (That’s why you need a friend.) Then open the door and proceed to face Malak as usual.
The conversation at the start of the fight will still take place. But when Malak takes out his lightsaber, your character will wave his hand, there’ll be a flash of light, and Malak will turn into a Twi’lek dancing girl. No, really. Then you and the Twi’lek dance for a bit, and then you leave and go back to the Ebon Hawk and everyone acts like you beat Malak in combat and you get to see the final movies and cutscenes.[/spoiler]
Wipeout (PS1): never did win the last course. Someone stole the game from our shared PS1 box at work, so I never got the chance to finish. Excellent racing game.
Techu, Return from Darkness (XBOX): loved the game, but I got to the level where there’s undead wandering around who you can’t kill and can’t hide from. Darned if I know how to beat that level.
PacMan World 2 (PS2): can’t get past the third (?) boss in the volcano section. I like the game, but it’s pretty unforgiving for a supposed kid’s title.
Current frustrations, but I haven’t given up:
Ninja Gaiden (XBOX): GodDAMN this is a hard game. I was probably halfway through, the last thing I was at was some floating pink goddess in a cathedral boss-battle, where you die after about 3-4 hits. I tried to win this a couple of dozen times. Die, die die. I put it on the shelf “for a while” when Halo 2 came out, but Ninja Gaiden is one of those fighting games where you need to practice, practice, practice all the combos or you’re lost. I’ve lost the touch now, and haven’t invested time to get it back.
God of War (PS2): I’m currently stuck in a part where you have to quickly drag a box accross a floor, and jump on the box to get to a high door. If you don’t do this in about 20 seconds, a zillion punji sticks poke through the floor and kill you. I’m on my (about) 50th try. GAH!
Oddworld, Stranger’s Wrath (XBOX): darned fun game, but there’s a battle with two spider-bots right before the end that I never nailed. I’d die, die, die. Which grows old pretty quickly. I’ve probably given up on this one, but I may give it a go again.
To make this list manageable I’ll just list the ones that I actually feel a little guilty about.
Half-Life: Like so many others, I got to Xen (weirdo landscape, jumping puzzles while on ice skates) and said “screw it”. A real shame because the whole Black Mesa portion was some of the best gaming I’ve ever experienced.
Star Wars Starfighter: PS2 version. Got to the last mission, died many times over, came VERY close many times to surviving and finally figured my time could be better spent elsewhere.
Lots of RPGs: Diablo (I and II), Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, etc. I’m noticing a trend here. While I enjoy RPGs, I tend to give up on them when I get too bogged down. I finished many of the early Final Fantasy games, but I haven’t finished an RPG in years. I’ve got KOTOR installed on the hard drive and ready to go, and I’m optomistic that it’s a recent RPG that I CAN finish.
Games that I currently have installed, have played and have every intention of finishing: Doom III, MOH: Pacific Assault, Brothers In Arms (PC), Railroad Tycoon 3.
I won’t even mention the games that are installed but have yet to be played for the first time!
Also, a big AMEN to everyone who said “the hell with it” on trying to get 100% on either Grand Theft Auto III/VC or any Gran Turismo game. I’m currently at 27% on Gran Turismo 4 and I don’t see myself getting much past 35%.
I had the same issue with the first Knights of the Old Republic; the boss at the end just about couldn’t be taken out without certain force powers that I had not developed. I did manage to finish the sequel, though I almost wish I hadn’t. (Great game, crappy ending.)
Morrowind: it bogged down at one point, when I was supposed to go around and get approval from like seven different people, and I lost interest. Great game, though.
I think I’ve played 3/4 of Half-Life about three times, but I’ve never finished it.
Septerra Core. Got this, got to the 2nd shell you can reach, and when I was about to enter the tomb to fight the undead, stopped. I can’t rememebr why. I keep telling myself I’m going to finish it someday.
Super Mario RPG. I rather liked what I’ve played of this, but I’m waiting till I have more time.
The only computer game that comes to mind right now is The Incredible Machine 2. Absolute blast playing with the myriads of tools and items and watching all kinds of stuff happen. And then I ran into about 11 levels that I just couldn’t figure out at all. (And then the game got lost with all the other old computer stuff.)
Oh, and for the NES the first Final Fantasy. Rented it, loved developing my heroes and opening up nes lands. Got about halfway, hit an area with a ton of enemies where I couldn’t rest at all, and said the hell with it. Never tempted to buy.
I’d nominate Lemmings as well, but it just had too many tedious and frustrating moments for me to really love it. I finally found the code for the final level somewhere, but the game was long gone by then.
HPL - No, no ending to Asteroids (the original, anyway…dunno about the new versiou). I think the first Atari game with an ending was 720.
Chance the Gardener - “RAMPAGE HAS 768 DAYS OF DESTRUCTION. NO TWO ARE ALIKE!” Actually, there are a total of 128 cities, but each has 6 different configurations (you get a full health restore every 128th level, BTW…whoop-de-do). There’s no end; after completing the 768th level, it just starts over at 1.
No, I did not find all this out during the game’s initial arcade run, thank you very much.
Mr. Blue Sky - It’s Activision (have the anthology for PS2…good stuff). There’s no ending, per se, but there is a maximum possible score, which you get if you manage to collect all the treasures within the time limit without incurring a single point penalty.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Metroid Prime & Metroid Prime Echoes. I love both those games. Metroid Prime I made it all the way to the end boss fight, then didn’t finish it. It was just too long, I knew it was going to take forever.
Metroid Prime Echoes is great, but I’m stuck on a boss fight. Man, that game has got some tough boss fights. I put that game down over a month ago and haven’t been able to work up the motivation to finish, although I probably will eventually.
An interesting little German(though you’d never know it because the translation is excellant) RPG called Albion. Fun little game, and the locations are well developed. The combat system is a bit annoying and it’s extremely easy to carry so much stuff that you can’t move.
I got to the Forth city/village and stopped. I do plan to finish it someday, though.
Dungeon Master. Man, what a game. I played it religiously when I was a kid until my Atari ST finally gave up the ghost. Several years later I managed to get it running on my PC and made it to level 11 or something (out of 14 if I recall correctly; further than I ever got as a kid), but for some reason I stopped playing. I’ll get back some day, mark my words.
Unreal Tournament. I’m still working on it, though.
Starcraft. Made it to the last mission in the Zerg part of the campaign, but never managed to complete that one and then I accidentally wiped out the save games during a reinstall of Windows. I haven’t worked up the geist to start from the beginning yet.
Starcraft. Prelast zerg level. The Terran campaign is probably the only real RTS campaign I’ve ever completed.
Heroes 4. The huge maps of the pirate campaign took forever to process the AI on the old comp; never bothered with them after that. (In Heroes 1, Archipelago scenario, the AI would take up to half an hour on the old 486, but it was far more fun anyway).
Every shooter I ever tried.
Final Fantasy III (VI by Japanese count)
Betrayal in Antara
Morrowind
Baldur’s Gate 1
Many, many others that don’t come to mind.
Beating Everquest means bringing yourself to quit, by the way
Lemme guess: The Ice Cave, right? Way too many enemies in there with instant-kill abilities, including one you absolutely have to beat, and you can’t get any sort of anti-death protection yet.
For me, there’s two notables: First, a LucasArts game called Loom. I was borrowing it from a friend, and never figured out how to get out of the dragon’s cave before I had to return it.
And second, Zork II. I have a walkthrough, but I’ve so far managed to avoid looking at it, and I hope to keep it that way. Every year or so, I take another stab at it, and get a little bit further.
Honorable mention goes to Blaster Master, for the NES. I eventually beat it, but only on an emulator, where I was able to save and load games. Even without that, it’d take about 20 hours to play it through, and the game didn’t have a built-in save or password system. A shame: It’s really fun to drive around with all of the tank upgrades.
Halflife, Fallout, Fallout 2, Brotherhood of Steel (or whatever that Fallout-followon was) and Rainbow Six (the original).
**Halflife **I just ran out of time on- work got too hectic and I lost track of it, then had a hard drive crash.
The **Fallout **games were much the same- something’d come up, I’d temporarily lose interest and quit. Fortunately, I’ve hung onto my save game files since the get-go, so I can always continue from where I left off.
Rainbow Six… that one irritated me. I got to the last mission and just coudln’t figure it out. My teammates were too retarded to actually give meaningful orders to, so it came down to trying to be some kind of Rambo-character and kill all the security guys at the end, AND defuse the bomb (I think it was a bomb).
The only ones coming to mind are Wing Commander 1, 2, and 3 (i actually beat 4 ) and a game for the original NES called A Boy and his Blob. I play ABAHB on emulator with save ability and i still can’t beat it!!
<Snicker.> What’s the matter. Team Rocket too tough for you? This coming from the guy who owns at least one of each game in each set (ie Red instead of Blue, Silver instead of Gold) and the Gaiden game for each (ie Crystal).
Mario I, III. No problem with II what so ever though. Link’s Awakening Final Fantasy I Rad Racer. Even with the level skip cheat. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. I got stuck somewhere. Metroid II. Ditto.
It took me 7 years to beat Zelda II. All that time for a stupid peck on the cheek. What a rip.
I’d like to opine that Grim Fandango is one of the most fantastic, incredible, radically awesome games ever made, and those of you who haven’t finished it owe it to yourselves to do so.
I think I might go play through it again when I have the chance. Hopefully I’ll have forgotten how to solve the puzzles (fat chance )
One game I have never beaten, but sooner or later will, is Zak Mckraken and the Alien Mindbenders . It is a old game from LucasFilm Games (Before they became LucasArts). I have gotten really close to the end, when they are on the planet surface (Mars if I remember correctly) but for some reason never finished it.
I have the disks around somewhere, I should find it and play it again.
Half-Life (original). It was interesting in the beginning, but it gradually regressed to solving dozens and dozens of inane yet difficult jumping problems in order to see some sort-of-cool-but-not-that-cool visuals.
[QUOTE=Wolfian]
<Snicker.> What’s the matter. Team Rocket too tough for you? This coming from the guy who owns at least one of each game in each set (ie Red instead of Blue, Silver instead of Gold) and the Gaiden game for each (ie Crystal).
Snicker all you want. I can’t stop ya. I also have Silver (which I have finished), and held off on the Ruby/Sapphire set because I figured a third would come out sometime. Thought I’d lost interest, but was home for Easter and saw an ad for Emerald…I want it :smack: I’ve even got the card game–both IRL and on the GBC.
I also suck at Mario and Zelda games. I’ve been working on the former lately, and I’ve gotten farther on most of the games than I ever have solo (Though since I never owned any of them, that’s not hard). I just may beat one of them some day, though not with one set of lives.
) and a game for the original NES called A Boy and his Blob. I play ABAHB on emulator with save ability and i still can’t beat it!!
)