I try, once I've started playing a game, to play it through to at least a basic conclusion. Occasionally I dabble in different games when I'm in a mood for a 4X strategy game and an FPS and an adventure game, but usually I hammer away at one until I can call it a wrap. I'm embarrassed to forget the intricacies of controls and mechanics from a long absence, and I tend to dislike feeling like I've wasted time having to re-learn or re-do things I've done before.
Partly as a result, I've played some fairly mediocre-to-wretched games to conclusion, including Duke Nukem Forever, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Blue Harvest. (Your mileage may vary, and while I understand if you love one of those games with a passion, that's not really what I'm here to talk about.)
Occasionally, I just plain get fed up with a game.
I was making pretty good headway in Hotline Miami 2. Sure, I was dying a lot, but that was the nature of the beast. Yes, my more successful stages were in the C to C+ range; still, I was making progress.
Then I got to a level (some of you may be familiar) in which you're forced to play as a character who can only punch. And while his punch is lethal to most enemies, there are tougher characters who you can only temporarily knock out. And as always, one hit from anyone is pretty much enough to take you down, so those bad boys are going to keep getting up and coming after you over and over again until you miscue your timing slightly and start the whole level over one... more... time.
I just stopped. I said, "You know what? There's nothing fun about this in any way, shape, or form. This isn't 'challenging'; this is the developer trying my patience, seeing how much abuse I'll accept in the hope that something fun is around the corner. Congratulations, dev: I've reached my limit."
It isn't always a matter of difficulty. Sometimes it's being railroaded into repeatedly using a bad mechanic (a problem that plagued GTA IV, for all its other virtues.) Sometimes it's another annoyance- a character whose voice you can't stand, or "friendly" AI that wrenches defeat from the jaws of victory, or a trigger at the end of a long sequence that fails to trip the way it's supposed to one time in three.
Sometimes it isn't a "bad" game. I think there's a lot to be said for "Hotline Miami", even the second one. I'm a tiny bit bummed out that if I want to see it played through, I'll probably have to go to Youtube.
Anyway. TLDR: what are the games that you've played for a while and put some effort into, but decided you just had to stop playing? And why?
Partly as a result, I've played some fairly mediocre-to-wretched games to conclusion, including Duke Nukem Forever, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Blue Harvest. (Your mileage may vary, and while I understand if you love one of those games with a passion, that's not really what I'm here to talk about.)
Occasionally, I just plain get fed up with a game.
I was making pretty good headway in Hotline Miami 2. Sure, I was dying a lot, but that was the nature of the beast. Yes, my more successful stages were in the C to C+ range; still, I was making progress.
Then I got to a level (some of you may be familiar) in which you're forced to play as a character who can only punch. And while his punch is lethal to most enemies, there are tougher characters who you can only temporarily knock out. And as always, one hit from anyone is pretty much enough to take you down, so those bad boys are going to keep getting up and coming after you over and over again until you miscue your timing slightly and start the whole level over one... more... time.
I just stopped. I said, "You know what? There's nothing fun about this in any way, shape, or form. This isn't 'challenging'; this is the developer trying my patience, seeing how much abuse I'll accept in the hope that something fun is around the corner. Congratulations, dev: I've reached my limit."
It isn't always a matter of difficulty. Sometimes it's being railroaded into repeatedly using a bad mechanic (a problem that plagued GTA IV, for all its other virtues.) Sometimes it's another annoyance- a character whose voice you can't stand, or "friendly" AI that wrenches defeat from the jaws of victory, or a trigger at the end of a long sequence that fails to trip the way it's supposed to one time in three.
Sometimes it isn't a "bad" game. I think there's a lot to be said for "Hotline Miami", even the second one. I'm a tiny bit bummed out that if I want to see it played through, I'll probably have to go to Youtube.
Anyway. TLDR: what are the games that you've played for a while and put some effort into, but decided you just had to stop playing? And why?