Making an effort to like something

[Zantos]

I really badly want to enjoy Assassin's Creed 3 every time I go back to it, but there's just something missing. Probably assassinations.

Totally true. As much as the giant awesome boat and the whole 'mary-sue insert into american independence politics' thing was fun, it wasn't called Pirate's Creed, or Politician's Creed.

OT: I do this sort of thing all the time. In the past couple of months I've done it with The Witcher, Breaking Bad, Might and Magic 6, Morrowind, and probably a fair few more. Also Fullmetal Alchemist, although I probably wouldn't have given that a second glance if I didn't have a little crush on the person that recommended it.

 

[Vegosiux]

Giving something a second chance? Sure, I do that. But I dont' see it as "making an effort to like it". I either like it or I don't, if I have to make an "effort" then I don't really like it. It's just that my likings are subject to change now and then.

 

[Theminimanx]

Cowboy Bebop. There, I said it. I tried to like it, I really did, but I just found it boring. The lack of background music may have something to do with it.
I might give it another try one day, but I still have a few zillion other anime on my "To watch list", so it'll have to wait for a while.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Not a game but The Lord of the Rings trilogy of books. I loved The Hobbit so logically I should have been able to dive right into the trilogy. I made it through Fellowship then hit the brick wall that is Two Towers. A couple years later, I made it through Fellowship and hit the same brick wall. A few years after that (I think this is...2010) I make it through all three...disappointment. I'm not even going to try the films...like with the books, I've seen Fellowship but Two Towers put me to sleep and all of my interest is gone at this point.

For gaming, I'm probably going to give Final Fantasy XIII another shot once I get my PS3 back. I've tried going back to Skyward Sword recently and...it hasn't gone well at all...Finally there's Minish Cap which I absolutely adore. Temple of Droplets it my current favorite Zelda dungeon.

Over the course of my life I've tried to like Bananas since I like the flavor when applied to things such as juices, smoothies, etc. I will never like a true banana however because of the consistency and, texture. Absolutely terrible.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Most recently, Ni No Kuni.
Now, I must preface what I'm about to say with this: I put over 50 hours into it, and played it to completion, so I feel I have a grasp on the flaws.
I've heard that the combat is what puts off most people, but where I take issue is the story.
Not the actual story, I think it's pretty good all things considered, but in the way it's told. Plot details are not so much told as they are forced down your throat.
Almost every time there is a development, Oliver has to say the obvious, then ask Drippy what he thinks, who says the same thing only with a British accent, then the cutscene ends, you walk to your destination, and half way there ANOTHER cutscene pops up to reiterate what has already been said. It gets annoying really quickly.
The most egregious, intelligence-insulting moment is when you're sent to an obelisk with a message written on it in Nazcaan (the fictional language of the world). You're given the cipher, so I thought you'd have to translate it. Makes sense, right? So, after 10 minutes of translating it, I hit confirm, ONLY TO HAVE DRIPPY TELL ME THE ANSWER INSTANTLY. I put the game away for about half a week after that.
Basically, the game treats players like fucking idiots with non-existent attention spans.

To its credit though, there exists a long side-quest which gives substantial background knowledge, while still treating players like intelligent human beings. If only the main quest line was as well done, the game would be one of my favourites.
Also, it must be said that the soundtrack is one of the best in recent memory, and it looks gorgeous.

 

[FFP2]

Red Dead Redemption and Just Cause 2.

I hated both for a while. For both games it took me like 3 playthroughs to like them and now they're some of my favourite games this gen.

 

[bug_of_war]

I really badly want to enjoy Assassin's Creed 3 every time I go back to it, but there's just something missing. Probably assassinations.

Totally true. As much as the giant awesome boat and the whole 'mary-sue insert into american independence politics' thing was fun, it wasn't called Pirate's Creed, or Politician's Creed.

I think the main problem wasn't just the lack of assassinations, but the fact that when you got to do an assassination it was very much hand holding. For example, Johnston's assassination could really only be accomplished one way, just depends if you turn left or right, same can be said for Pitcairn's. They have said that in the next AC that players are going to be given the assassinations found in 1, where you basically had complete control on how you killed your targets.

OT:

Borderlands 1, took me 3 restarts before I finally finished the damn game, and even then it was more a job then fun.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

League of Legends. At first I was overwhelmed with everything. The closest thing to a MOBA I had played at the time was monday night combat and the 100+ champions and all the items that you have to know both what they do and how to counter; I basically said "fuck this rocket surgery bullshit" and left it there.

Ended up being dragged into it again because my girlfriend liked it, and that gave me the motivation to actually learn how the game worked. Now it's my go-to game when there's nothing new tugging at me to play.

Another one is fallout 3. I didn't hate it the first time, so much as I picked useless skills at the beginning (having never played the game) and I ended up hating my first character. It's still kind of obnoxious game design IMO to force the player to make such important decisions without understanding them, but the game was so much better when i wasn't frustrated that I put so many early points into explosives and barter and used intelligence as my dump stat.

 

[Random Encounter]

Never cared for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion the first few times I tried it. Recently though, out of the blue, I decided to give it another chance and ended up loving it. I completed the Thieves guild, Arena and Dark Brotherhood before getting kind of bored so I'm taking a break for a while before I go back and finish the rest.

 

[Nomadiac]

Mass Effect 1. I hated the gameplay so much I skipped to ME2 and used a save-editor to mark all the ME1 plot flags. I instantly loved ME2 - it had an intuitive cover system, aiming that wasn't ridiculously broken, and skills that were actually useful, and it was shinier to boot.

However, I came back to it after finishing ME3, and for some reason it really caught me this time. The level of customisation is so much greater than in the later games, and it makes up for the terrible cover system and gunplay. If only Bioware had developed on that with their combat instead of turning ME2+3 into Gears of War with magic...

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

Borderlands. It was on sale on steam, and after hearing good things about it, I decided to buy. I started playing, stopped after 30 minutes.
Then, three months later I picked it up again, and BOOM, racked up 16 hours inside of 2 days.

 

[boradam]

The first Deus Ex, my friend bought it for me on Steam and I tried to play it after hearing how great it was from him. I was so bored and couldn't bother playing it for more than an hour - though that was mainly because I didn't know there was a staircase leading up to the NSF leader, so as a result I never left Liberty Island. I think a month later I decided to give it another chance, and I felt so stupid after finding out the staircase was to the left of where I'd been running around in plain view.

Once I got off the island and past the slow start, I was able to play the game and see how great a game it really was. So, I at least try to give games a chance before putting them up and never playing them again, Alpha Protocol, and Planescape Torment were GREAT once you got past the somewhat slow start, much like Knights of the Old Republic and The Sith Lords (I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU, TARIS/PERAGUS).

 

[Dangit2019]

At the moment I'm really trying to like Red Dead Redemption. Everyone says how amazing it is, and I want to like it because we don't really get enough Westerns.

But at the moment, I can only be bothered with it for about 20 minutes before something irritates me and I go off and play something else.

I will persevere though to hopefully find this amazing game everyone was talking about!

If you get bored, just go on a quest to shoot every animal that dares breach your 100-yard radius. That's all I can say on that, since I've only played it for short times at friends' houses.

OT: REALLY tried to like the first half of Doctor Who Season 7. Still not happening, and that's saying something because I'm pretty noncritical when it comes to TV.