Games you stopped playing

[Ten Foot Bunny]

As much as I love open-world sandbox games (particularly RPGs) I've never got through Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, or any of the Dragon Age titles. What makes the latter even more strange is that I have DA:O, Awakenings, DA2, and even DA:I on both the 360 and the One. I've never completed a single playthrough of Origins, never touched DA2, and have played about 10 hours of the 360 Inquisition.

The Dragon Age games have too many variables to manage, and as someone with ADHD, it becomes a tad overwhelming. The only reason I blame my ADHD is because I spend so long trying to figure out builds that I eventually find a low-thought game that sucks me in and I infrequently return to Dragon Age. When I finally DO return, I've forgotten everything I was trying to do and quickly lose interest.

Skyrim is a game that I love, but again, I walk around aimlessly and drop quests for other quests, then drop THOSE quests for other quests, and then I'm in too deep and don't remember what I was doing on any of the quests at all.

Fallout New Vegas? No. Just, no. As much as I loved (and completed) Fallout 3, I can't get into New Vegas. The story and the atmosphere are uninteresting and depressing. At least Fallout 3 has characters that want to help humanity - everyone in New Vegas would rather see the world burn if they can't have all of the power and glory. There isn't a single person or faction that I WANT to support. Without motivation, the game is nothing more than a pointless slog through a bland world. Add to that the "game over" endings (think pre-Broken-Steel Fallout 3) and it's just a game I don't like.

GTA IV is boring as hell. I got through the story once and never did anything else.

Finally, I thought L.A. Noire was a non-starter. It was nothing but a mess. You think you're selecting a strategic interaction, but instead, Cole flies off his rocker and is threatening to waterboard an 80-year-old woman because she confessed to tatting a doily for her Bible-study friend. What a clusterfuck.

 

[Auron225]

It's very rare that I stop playing stuff before I finish it. The only game that comes to mind at the moment is Silent Hill Origins.

I enjoyed Silent Hill 1 - 3, along with Shattered Memories, but they freaked me out. I was tempted to stop several times during 1 & 2 but the plot compelled me to go on. If not for the protagonists (usually) good reasons for being in Silent Hill, I would wonder why they don't just leave (especially after their first visit to the Other world). Origins gave me absolutely no feasible reason why the protagonist would hang around, and it bugged the hell out of me.

Also, for some reason, saving the game was an ordeal. Everything else in game worked fine but the save function. The save menu lagged to a painful degree and for some reason took a solid 10 minutes. I can't deal with that all the way through a game, especially since I like to save often.

 

[MarsProbe]

It's actually quite rare that I don't stop a game before finishing (not counting all the Games with Gold games that I may download to try out and not necessarily finish) but the most recent example is Far Cry 4. I really, really wanted to like this game, having enjoyed Far Cry 3 so much. I got maybe so much as three 3 story missions (and a fair amount of free roaming) into the game and while I was sort of enjoying myself, I just couldn't shake the feeling I was playing not much more than a glorified palette swap of Far Cry 3. Granted, that's a given with the majority of Ubisoft's franchises these days but I did expect more from Far Cry 4...

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

The Witcher 2 is the most recent example. I'm on the last chapter and have completely lost interest in the general goings-on. Add to that the fact it runs like frozen dog shit on my computer, making the cumbersome controls all the more ballbreaking, and I just can't be bollocked any more.

I also stopped playing Skyrim after a measly 280 hours after seeing and doing pretty much everything, and not being able to inject any more fun into the experience through mods. I think my then new found love for Dark Souls also ruined the gameplay for me as well.

Planetside 2 was weird since I stopped playing it one day and never started again. I had a good amount of fun with it, but I think I just lost interest and couldn't get past the whole 'killing my computer every time I played it' thing.

 

[AgedGrunt]

Final Fantasy (the original): Very grindy, one of those "where-do-I-go/what-do-I-do-now?" games. Tried a few times; last time I fell into a trap where you need to use magic to kill a boss and I didn't have a black mage. Pretty sure it can still be beaten, somehow, but I called it quits.

Skyrim: After Fallout 3 and NV, it felt more like a full-scale mod than a standalone game. Playing the console version pretty much doomed my experience, and after enough exploring and quest bugs my interest was killed.

And most recently: War Thunder. Too many reasons to list.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Lets see, I watched a friend play FF13 & was kinda iffy on it to begin with, but I picked it up used for $8. I still regret spending those $8. Played it for a solid weekend because my friend said it got better, but I eventually got so pissed off at the stupid battle system that I just put the game away & have no intention of ever playing it again. I'd give it away if anyone wanted it.

I picked up Deus Ex: HR after hearing so many people go crazy about it & I honestly don't get why it's so loved. The constant switching from first to third person view is annoying & with all that tech you'd think someone could get all that gravel out of his throat. The less I say about the boss battles the better.

Another one I picked up way to late was Gears of War, it was $1 & I like third person shooters so what the hell. So Marcus Fenix looks like a tank & moves like a tank, but can't take damage like a tank, sure that makes sense. And so much gray... just everything is so gray, made my eyes hurt.

I tried Dark Souls for a couple hours, but I decided I play games to have fun, not get frustrated. I have enough frustration in my life.

 

[NeutralStasis]

Boarderlands - for whatever reasons, I simply cannot get into that game. I have played online co-op with friends, and that did not even help. I think the whole loot porn, MMO style gameplay just really was not my thing. Too many years on Everquest maybe.

 

[happyninja42]

Witcher 1. Put about 2 hours into that swill, and realized I just didn't care about what I was doing at all. The game had zero engagement and interest. Uninstalled and never looked back.

One that I actually did enjoy, and just never finished (but probably will eventually) was Enslaved: Journey to the West. Really fun game, good story, and good voice/motion cap acting too. Got about 2/3's into it, and just stopped playing one day. Can't really say why.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Got as far as the first big fight in the tutorial, where they introduce the villainess of the game, by giving us a full screen, slow motion close-up of her metal thonged (yes, a metal thong) ass. I realized that this was not the PoP that I had fallen in love with, and someone had spilled death metal and angst all over it. Turned it off and never touched that specific game again. (Two Thrones was a much better return to the fun of the first one)

 

[Falcus]

Any "rolling simulator" game, i.e. Dark Souls series, Witcher series. I prefer combat like Mount & Blade.
Simulators in general like Sims or Simcity, at some point there is just nothing to do; these games would do much better if they had a bunch of random events popping in to spice the in-game days, otherwise it just feels like a chore.

 

[OhNoYouDidnt]

Shadow of the Colossus. I know, heresy. Even though there are so many people who absolutely gush over this game, I just didn't get it. The controls were not particularly intuitive to me (I kept falling off monsters before I could stabbity-stab them, and I still don't know why) and the story was so super minimalist that I just didn't feel invested at all. Oh, look, a dead girl. How sad. Let's ride off and kill some monsters for reasons, I guess.

Grand Theft Auto IV also failed to hold my interest. Not necessarily because of the gameplay or the story, but because it has no checkpoints. I mean, seriously, it was so awfully frustrating to die at the last part of a lengthy mission, only to be forced to do it all over again. Thank gosh Rockstar learned how to program checkpoints with GTAV.

 

[Broderick]

I understand some people cannot get into the game, or feel some elements are cheap, but I disagree that "everything" is cheap and counter intuitive in design. Could you tell me what you thought didn't work for you? I am curious. I do have some criticisms of the game, like how there is no "proper" tutorial(the asylum doesn't count people! Telling you the controls is the tip of the iceburg of the things they should have explained!) and how important things like humanity and poise is not explained in detail(or at all). It still is one of my favorite video games of all time(thus far I suppose).

-My first class was a sorcerer. I was wondering why I couldn't use spells at first and I realized they don't work if you're hollowed. This game knows you're gonna die alot and hollow is a default state so why cripple a class's main weapon like that?

-Attunment is defined in the level up menu as number of attument slots. Why couldn't you just say spells?

-Dodge, block, and attack are all using the same stamia bar? The fuck? Like, If I can't attack or block can I at least get away from the guy at a speed faster than a stroll? It turns combat into a waiting game where I need to get an opening plus wait for the bar to fill up.

-In the Asylum they tell you how to dodge roll and proceed to throw a boulder at you. All times before this when they taught me a control I saw where it was going to be applicable ahead of time. But there was absolutely no way for me to see the boulder coming. This represents the trial and error style of the game and how they expect you to fuck up then come back with forknowledge rather than use skill, cause this isn't the last time something like that happened.

-Why is it harder ti parry in this game than any action game I've play. The window is only 28 frames long. Thats rediculous to get down with the different animation speeds for different weapons.

Thats just the things I can think of from the last time I tried it.

Alrighty, let me address your concerns point by point.

You can still use spells if you are hollowed. I have no idea why you think you cannot. You have a limited number of charges on a spell before you cannot use it anymore. There are ways to increase these, such as items. You can replenish them by resting at a bonfire.

I do not know why they did not say spells, the game uses some pretty vague wording sometimes.

I did not mind how they set up the stamina bar. In fact, it creates an interesting balance. Do you use more stamina to get in one more attack, or do you wait to regain some, in case of an oncoming attack? Learning to balance your stamina is the key to mastering the combat. Can it be a "waiting game" as you put it? Well, kind of. You cannot play the game like hack and slash, as using too much stamina too quickly can be dangerous.

You can actually see the boulder if you pan the camera up before you go up the stairs. This less represents "trial and error" to me, and to me, tells you that you should pay attention to your surroundings. The infamous dragon bridge is a bit less fair in this regard. However, you can clearly see burned corpses and burn marks on the bridge, so that should tell someone to be careful at the very least.

The parry window seems quite small compared to other games. To me, the parry windows in most games are way too large, too easy to parry. That is kind of the point in Dark Souls though, parries should not be easy to pull off at first. They help you with this though by having the earlier enemies move quite predictably and have very easy to see attack animations. By practicing on these enemies, you can get a feel on when to parry.

 

[Kingjackl]

I gave up on the Witcher 2, mainly because of some technical issues that had come up as a result of me trying to muck with the game files. It was so bad it literally couldn't uninstall itself.

However, I decided not to bother because I was frustrated with the overall obtuseness of the game. Niggles, like not giving me the vaguest hint of direction as to where to go with sidequests (to solve the mystery of the murdered troll, Geralt asked around town - really? want to be more specific, game?) and the combat system, which has that typical action RPG problem of half-arsed action with vestigial RPG elements.

 

[Sam Billin]

I've stopped playing a quite a few games that just didn't interest me, but the weird ones are games that I otherwise really enjoyed.

I never made it through the DLC of Dishonored even though I was still enjoying it.

I stopped playing Valkyria Chronicles on the very last level. Up to that point I had played it every day and was excited to finish. My work schedule got flipped a around so I missed playing for a few days, and just never picked it back up.

Bastion was probably the worst, because I loved it, and frequently talked about how much I loved it. But even that took me well over a year and starting fresh 3 separate times before I finally forced myself to complete it.

The same thing goes for games I really enjoyed enough to buy the sequel, and then never play. Dark Souls 2, Borderlands 2 and Rayman Legends all have exactly 0 hours on my steam account, even though their predecessors are some of my favorite games ever. I have no idea why, but I have zero interest in playing them.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Hmmm....

Its funny because I've extra completed most of the games many people abandon due to their size - Fallout 3 ( Loved it!), Fallout NV ( No Gods, No Masters!), Skyrim - 2 playthroughs but never really strayed away from the same damn character I usually played, a double wielding imperial).

But then there's the Witcher series. I had stopped playing Witcher 1 in its 2nd chapter, was really into it until another game took me off focus and then when I came back to it, it felt slow to me. Running around the same city, talking to the same characters that share the same voice actor, plus all of the stuff dealing with apothecary and concoctions. I loathe apothecary. I can't some quest in which you are supposed to find 7 speckled magic cactus plants that are placed in some obscure portion of a map where it forces you into a battle with monsters with your underpowered weaponry. I skip such skills --- I never bother to use them in any RPGs what so ever, I'd rather just buy a crap load of potions and be on my way and focus on combat, better weaponry, and group tactics. I don't mind the reading nor the lore --- that's the fun part but I can tell its another game where they stuffed " Go here and get this shit for that shit" just to prolong the game.

Now I'm stuck. I recently went back to it because like some, I'm also a completionist ( Hell I finished the Divinity Dragon Knight Saga)... but now I'm quite lost and have forgotten how the Witcher menus and powers work. Do I really want to finish this game? The only reason I do is because I don't like working on a 3rd installment to a game that I had not played its 1st and 2nd installment yet.

But yeah that game has been lingering in my list for a while now.

 

[the_great_cessation]

Recently? Guacamelee, Strider (2014), Shovel Knight, Teslagrad and Ori and the Blind Forest. I'm always drawn to 2D platformers but always lose interest after a few hours (especially with recent "Metroidvania" styled games).

 

[Artina89]

I usually try and complete games as I want to feel that I have gotten my money's worth and I tend to not buy another game until I have completed the one that I am currently playing as they were the rules that my parents set for me and my brother, as they didn't have much money to spend on games so they wanted to ensure that we completed what we had and I find it is quite difficult to get out of that mindset, especially as I have grown up with it. Having said that though, I remember getting thoroughly bored with the original Halo which I got bundled in with my original Xbox, along with Jet set radio future. Now, JSRF I absolutely adored (and still do) and played it to death, whereas I just got bored with Halo and promptly traded it in for Psychonauts on the PS2, a decision I have never regretted.