What games have you abandoned midway through playing?

[Jophiel]

@amanset

Also I played Final Fantasy 8 for about 80 hours. I got to the beginning of the fourth disc but found I was just getting slapped around. I had to then travel the map finding powerful magic in random situations to boost my powers. I just got bored. Really, really bored.

Ha, speaking of grinding, I played that back in the day and mainly stayed with the first couple of characters they gave you. Then, about 75% of the way through, you needed to split up into two separate groups and I had one group that was almost maxed out and another group loitering in their 20’s (out of 100).

So I wound up spending however long making groups of two high, one low level characters and fighting umpteen jillion fights on the Island Closest To Hell (or whatever its called), grinding out against level 100 beasties and getting everyone up to face the end game. Plus grinding out all the magic for them to fix their skills. This was back in the days when I only owned a few games at a time – these days I would have just dumped it and started something new.

[Scumpup]

@Scumpup

Have you tried using a stealthboy and stealing your stuff back from the casino? Also, unless you lost some of the really, really cool unique stuff, I wouldn’t consider that any real loss. Guns, armor, chems and stuff can all be readily replaced. You still have all your experience and perks, you know. Go beat down some raiders, take their stuff and through shoot n’ loot you should be able to replace everything you lost in short order.

Now that I think about it, you can just shoot n’ loot a decent weapon, go back to that casino and kill everybody in sight. Open the locker or safe, usually at the cashier’s station, and retrieve all your stuff. Been a while since I did something like that in a New Vegas casino, but IIRC after enough time passes they will even stop hating you and you can go back to gamble if you haven’t already won enough to get banned.

[MOIDALIZE]

I got to the point in New Vegas where you have to decide whether to go it alone or side with a faction, and I couldn’t just make a decision and play it out, because then I’d have to start another character to to try the other choices, and it was just too much hassle, so I quit. Now that it’s been awhile since I’ve played, it might seem new enough to me to go through it all again with a new character.

[Scumpup]

If you still have that save, you can choose a faction and play things out and then just reload from that save and choose another faction. Repeat as necessary 'til you’ve tried them all or just don’t care any more.

[MOIDALIZE]

My character was a Walter White-type explosives expert, so obviously he was going to screw all sides and go it alone. I couldn’t have him helping the NCR.

That’s my “problem” with these games. I do actually take the role playing aspects seriously.

[clairobscur]

@MOIDALIZE

My character was a Walter White-type explosives expert, so obviously he was going to screw all sides and go it alone. I couldn’t have him helping the NCR.

That’s my “problem” with these games. I do actually take the role playing aspects seriously.

That’s not really a problem, what’s wrong with going alone?

I played two F:NW games roughly to the point where you’re supposed to choose a side. I quit the first time because after having played for long I found tedious the exploration of the dam, and the second time because after having played for long I found tedious abig fight in Caesar’s camp.

[MOIDALIZE]

@clairobscur

That’s not really a problem

I know, that’s why I put it in quotes.

what’s wrong with going alone?

Nothing! I just knew I’d want to play through the other choices, but my unwillingness to reload the earlier save and play through them all with one character dissuaded me from continuing.

[AndrewL]

Games I quit halfway through:

1. Bioshock. When I realized that I had been around the same circular level several times without realizing it because I didn’t realize that enemies would respawn if I left an area alone and all the scenery looked the same, so all my effort for the last half hour or so was a total waste. And then as I finally started to make forward progress, some random NPC (in this disintegrating, slowly-flooding underwater city full of crazy people) gave me a side-quest to take pictures of the things I was fighting. Quit in disgust.

2. Crysis. I was playing a sequence where I had to drive a tank that appeared to be made of gasoline-soaked cardboard for all the ability it had to absorb fire, through a valley full of people shooting at me, and I was suddenly struck by a crippling bout of motion sickness. Shut the game off to lie down for a bit, and then never felt the desire to ever resume playing it.

[VinylTurnip]

@AndrewL

2. Crysis. I was playing a sequence where I had to drive a tank that appeared to be made of gasoline-soaked cardboard for all the ability it had to absorb fire, through a valley full of people shooting at me, and I was suddenly struck by a crippling bout of motion sickness.

Crysis gave me motion sickness too, which generally doesn’t happen with me and FPS games. Woozy, prickly cold sweat on forehead… I wonder what’s different about it.

[Sleel]

@AndrewL

1. Bioshock. When I realized that I had been around the same circular level several times without realizing it because I didn’t realize that enemies would respawn if I left an area alone and all the scenery looked the same, so all my effort for the last half hour or so was a total waste. And then as I finally started to make forward progress, some random NPC (in this disintegrating, slowly-flooding underwater city full of crazy people) gave me a side-quest to take pictures of the things I was fighting. Quit in disgust.

You got bonuses, skills, etc. from taking pictures. IMO, shooting them with a camera was sometimes more interesting and challenging than killing them.

It potentially could be a very interesting game if someone made something where you are a war correspondent or something, and you go through the whole game with no weapons. Players complain about the non-lethal levels in some stealth games; imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if you were only “armed” with a camera and a satellite phone to call in a temporary emergency escort.

[Jophiel]

@Sleel

Players complain about the non-lethal levels in some stealth games; imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if you were only “armed” with a camera and a satellite phone to call in a temporary emergency escort.

A war-time Pokemon Snap? Can you throw apples at sleeping soldiers until they do something interesting and photo-worthy?

[Hoopy_Frood]

@Sleel

You got bonuses, skills, etc. from taking pictures. IMO, shooting them with a camera was sometimes more interesting and challenging than killing them.

It potentially could be a very interesting game if someone made something where you are a war correspondent or something, and you go through the whole game with no weapons. Players complain about the non-lethal levels in some stealth games; imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if you were only “armed” with a camera and a satellite phone to call in a temporary emergency escort.

In the Fatal Frame series you are armed only with a camera. To defeat the ghosts, you have to take pictures of them with a special camera that traps their spiritual energy each time a picture is taken. The better the picture, the more damage done to the ghosts. A really good picture can take one out in one shot.

Granted, the camera is a “weapon”, but it’s a very unique take on one. And firing blindly isn’t going to accomplish much.

[DKW]

PS3:
Beijing 2008: Get this…you have to do better than a certain level in a certain number of events each day, or the game just flat-out ends. For me the second time it ended, I decided it should stay ended.
Virtua Tennis 2009: Rental. Just way, way, way too hard. Opponents with a ton of power who place the shot in the worst possible spot for you, over and over and over, and they get even stronger over time, and do not get me started on the training assignments. Sega blows hot and cold with most of their franchises, and they were subarctic here.
Facebreaker: Rental. Just plain frustrating. CPU way too good, couldn’t even beat the first damn opponent.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2: Rental. Could never pull of that goddam “weak point targeting”. Completed maybe 4% of the game; to date one of just two games (the other being Razing Storm) I have no trophies for.
Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires: Rental. Played it for about 15 minutes, got mostly confused, got killed all the time, returned it, never thought about it again.
BlazBlue: Rental. Mashed my way to the Litchi-Faye-Ling Story ending, the utterly lost all interest in this franchise forever and ever.
Brutal Legend: Rental. Got about halfway through before it got frustrating, could never find a damn thing, absolutely loathed every single thing about RTS missions, not going to pick this up again.
Time Crisis 4 (the free-roaming FPS game): Wasn’t excited about this to begin with, but completely having no idea where to go on THE FIRST MISSION was the final straw.
Assassin’s Creed Revelations (the first-person puzzle/platformer game): Confusing as hell, gave me motion sickness, and HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD TORTUROUS PAINFUL HORRIBLE from the second level onward. Despise having to redo seconds over and over and over. One of just two AC games I threw in the trash.
Tekken 6, Tekken Tag Tournament: Never all that good at this franchise, but these are impressive games on several levels and I was hoping Namco would show some mercy. Nope. Trash.
Little Big Planet: Gah. Incredibly sluggish control and erratic physics make it impossible to move with any level of precision; you may as well wear oven mitts when playing this. I’m merciless when free online games pull this crap. Barely made it out of the garden before I just got completely ticked off and tossed it in the trash. Possibly the most overrated PS3 game ever.

XBox 360
Virtua Tennis 3: See note on Virtua Tennis 2009
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2: Did one run with Hitomi and never touched this one again. Just way too much work to get anything done, and WAAAAAAY too much depends on dumb luck.
DDR Universe 3: Got maybe 40% through all the tasks before the battles started throwing in 15 BS modifiers which made it impossible to read the arrows. Realized that this was pretty much the basic XBox 360 model, be fairly reasonable for the first 20% of the game and then ramp it up 6,000 levels.
DanceDanceRevolution: See DDR Universe 3. (Good lord, how the hell do you mess up Dance Dance Revolution??)
Saints Row: Played through the first two missions and then just plain lost interest.
Minecraft: One horrible, horrible night in a village and that was it. Never got the pig saddle or made the Nether Gate. Oddly enough, I got the PS3 version later and didn’t have much trouble with anything. I’ll admit that being able to just buy a diamond pickaxe makes a big difference.
Everything on both Popcap Arcade disks: Damn, I was never that good!

Wii
Pac-Man Party: Way too fluky and chancy, and trying to perform tasks with the Wiimote is a nightmare. Made it past the first level; not going back.
Punch-Out!!: I’m too old for this. Could never make it past Title Defense Great Tiger without the headgear. I probably could best Donkey Kong if I’m willing to settle for a boring decision, but this game’s just too aggravating and I’m never touching it again.

Wow, the Codebreaker really made all the difference in the world, didn’t it?

[Sir_T-Cups]

@Sleel

You got bonuses, skills, etc. from taking pictures. IMO, shooting them with a camera was sometimes more interesting and challenging than killing them.

It potentially could be a very interesting game if someone made something where you are a war correspondent or something, and you go through the whole game with no weapons. Players complain about the non-lethal levels in some stealth games; imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if you were only “armed” with a camera and a satellite phone to call in a temporary emergency escort.

Taking pictures is how you get the best powerup in the whole game: The cloaking ability for when you stop moving

Walk into an area where an enemy is pacing back and forth, stop and turn invisible, wait for them to wlk in front of you…BOOM ARROW TO THE FACE

[BigT]

@buddha_david

I’ll never quit a game because it’s too hard – only if it becomes […] frustrating.

But those two go together. A too hard game gets very frustrating if you keep on trying and failing.

It’s why I gave up on pretty much every NES game.

[Calatin]

@BigT

But those two go together. A too hard game gets very frustrating if you keep on trying and failing.

It’s why I gave up on pretty much every NES game.

Except Battletoads, right?

[control-z]

Plenty. Dozens, maybe more. The most recent examples that come to mind are GTA V and Dishonored.

I enjoyed both very much. GTA V I haven’t finished mostly because I don’t play my PS3 that much, and when I play I like to just roam around, and I don’t really want the single-player story to be over so I’m sort of putting it off to savor it.

Dishonored I was very impressed with, I learned the stealth mechanics well but didn’t necessarily have the patience to go through the levels in a completely stealthy manner. But (trying not to spoiler) after going through many missions I accomplished a big goal, but then the game plot took a big turn in another direction and I basically started with nothing again, for seemingly arbitrary reasons. I just lost interest after that. I want to get back to it, but just haven’t felt the need.

[Jophiel]

I haven’t played Dishonored to know the context of it but I hate games where they throw a “Now you have nothing again!” curve ball at you.

Dishonored, for me, probably belongs in the “will never play” thread. I own it but I played Hitman: Absolution and Far Cry 3 before trying Dishonored. Both of those games involved a lot of stealth. So I started Dishonored, played for maybe an hour and then realized that I was tired of crouch-walking through my games and played something else instead. Now my brain feels like it’s been “played” and I haven’t had any real drive to start it again.

[clairobscur]

Not finishing a game is very typical for me. Most of the time I don’t, for long games (like CRPG and some strategy games). I tend to want to start anew a some point, and again later on, and again…And at some point, I’m tired of the game itself and forget about it completely (at least for a while).

There are also some games that I abandon, despite liking them, because they’re too difficult for me. For instance X3 or Mount and blade (My problem in both case being that I have zero coordination with a keyboard. I can’t steer a ship and fight in X3, I can’t hit anybody on the battlefield in Mount and Blade. I’ve absolutely no clue how people manage to, say, move a mouse and hit a key at the same time at an appropriate moment).

And of course I’m not mentioning games I abandoned simply because I didn’t like them.

[HMS_Irruncible]

There are a few games that I felt were awesome and revolutionary games, but halfway in I felt they were dragging too long and devolving into a gratuitous amount of stupid jump-puzzles and human-wave attacks. I cared enough to stay in and figure out the end, but had to switch to god-mode to do so. In this category are Half-Life 1, Doom 2, and Duke Nukem 3D. Great games but I just got tired of the same shit 30 levels in.