Since there’s only five screens and you had to see three of them you actually played more than 25% of the game.
For real! It was so boring…
Black and White and GTA4 are both games I played for under an hour. Both of those are mentioned and that’s the only reason why I remembered them.
Alone in the Dark (the recent remake).
Fucking fire mechanic!
Most recently, Sins of a Solar Empire. I bought it two months ago for $20 at Target, got home, read the back story in the manual, which was very, very well set up, and installed the game. Once it was installed, I loaded it up and noticed that there was no story mode. I ended up playing 4 “small” games (about 8 hours total) and then giving up on it. It’s pretty boring, really. A story mode could have made it great, given the setup that the booklet gave it.
I played GTA San Andreas for hours and hours. I bet I never got farther than 25% of the storyline. I spent hours just dicking around, doing non-storyline missions, exploring, causing freeway pileups, just tons of fun stuff. What a great game!
Joe
Spore. Oh God, Spore.
Hyped to hell. And why shouldn’t I believe the hype? It’s Will-freaking-Wright.
I played it for about one Sunday afternoon. That’s all it took to realize it was a bunch of half-baked minigames. What shit that game was.
Uninstall forever. I’m still bitter.
This one I’d beg you to give another try. Yeah, it sucks there’s no proper story mode.
But the compy AI is so good that months and months later I still have a good time skirmishing against “Hard” AI computer players. “Insane” rolls me within the first 20 minutes, months later and I’m still learning.
It’s a very very good RTS game, if you can forgive the lack of a story mode.
Try a game on “Tempest”, no alliances set, “normal” ai.
Also, Entrenchment added a lot to the game - made defense possible, though many argue it made turtling just a bit too easy.
/loves me some SoaSE
Black & White. What a complete waste of money.
Yeah, I hated that one too. After months of thinking it’d be the next second coming.
If they had played up the RTS aspect, I’d probably have enjoyed it more.
Recently, Borderland and Dragon Age. The first I tried REALLY hard to like…and just couldn’t do it. The second one I just haven’t been able to get into (yet). It seems clunky to me, movement wise, and at least the first part was kind of a yawner. Been there and done that with a bunch of other games. Maybe it will grow on me…
Also, WAR…I REALLY wanted to get into a new MMORPG, but I just couldn’t get into the game.
-XT
If you’re talking about just bad games in general, the numbers are legion.
However, I’d like to share my experience with Warlords 1. When I first tried it, I thought it was incredibly slow and boring. After about an hour or two, I gave up and never touched it again for months. Then, my friend told me that the game really picked up in the middle after all the neutral cities were taken, and the real game starts. Then, I went crazy over that game. It was the only game I purchased twice (although years later I did the same thing with diablo 2.) I also purchased warlords 2 and 3.
I loved those old Warlords game…and I bought the 2 follow up games as well. Miss those old games sometimes…
-XT
control-z - I’ll respond to your query by private message.
As for that list, I really don’t know what to say. You play as many games as I do, you’re going to run into some stinkers. In the old days, I was really handicapped by the fact that there wasn’t anyone else I knew who was into the type of video games I was who I could have a discussion with, but even now I’m not immune to bad judgments.
Probably the biggest factor is cost. I’ve often gladly shelled out $10 on a questionable title that I never dreamed of buying at the original $35 or $50 or $60, and I’ve rented a lot of games I wouldn’t buy in a million years. (Those PS3 games I cited? Yeah, those.) You know what they say…low risk, low reward. 
Patrician III, Korsun Pocket, Dominion 3: The Awakening and Monkey Island I purchased because they were all highly recommended. They’re all really good games, but none of them really grabbed me and after half an hour each all they’ve done since is collect dust.
Tropico 3 is better than the first two, but my unmicromanaged economy still mysteriously goes to shit and I’m left annoyed every time I play.
Of course the shitty games I didn’t play for long are legion.
You missed out, then. WCW vs. NWO World Tour on the N64 was an absolutely brilliant game, and its “sequels” (one actual sequel using WCW characters and a half-dozen sort-of-sequels which used the same basic combat system but were WWE-branded) were also very good.
I bought The Movies about one week before I bought, on a whim, a bargain-bin copy of Civilization 3.
Never played The Movies since.
Joe
Based on the 25%-of-content rule, I’m close to dropping MafiaWars. It’s a pure click-fest with a thin veneer of “drag your friends and people you don’t even know into this game” that Amway would positively salivate over.
Mafia Wars has about as much depth as a kiddie pool and yet I can’t stop playing it.
Nah - the kiddie pool has far more depth.
I decided (in the last half hour) that I’ll finish all the New York stages, then buy all sorts of game gizmos and hand them out willy-nilly. Anybody want a Cuban tour guide, slightly used? How about several town cars?