If you don't like a game-do you leave it unfinished?

DeadlyByDesign

So far this year I have bought 2 games that I have put serious time into but can't see myself finishing them as I just flat out dislike them at this stage. Games in questions are FF15 and Mass Effect Andromeda.

At what point (if any do you put down your controller and say"enough is enough"? In a time where 70 quid is a considerable amount of wages to be parting with is it worth grinning and bearing to get through some of the duds you might pick up?

MrSzyslak

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

So far this year I have bought 2 games that I have put serious time into but can't see myself finishing them as I just flat out dislike them at this stage. Games in questions are FF15 and Mass Effect Andromeda.

At what point (if any do you put down your controller and say"enough is enough"? In a time where 70 quid is a considerable amount of wages to be parting with is it worth grinning and bearing to get through some of the duds you might pick up?

Cut your losses and trade it in. Life's too short :-)

Sephiroth_dude

How far into them are you?

DeadlyByDesign

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

How far into them are you?

Final Fantasy I couldn't stomach anymore of Chapter 13. ME:A I just found out about some sort of Ghost technology and about to go to Meridian (settled 2 planets, altogether 23 hours played I think)

pm1977x

I can't find the time to finish the games I like nevermind wasting hours on a game I don't enjoy, trade them in and cut your losses!

froggy1985

I wouldn't say I don't like the games I don't revisit but with less and less time for gaming (young daughter and busy job) I find myself paying full price for games on launch, playing a few hours here and there, and then leaving it long enough that I have forgotten the story, maps, objectives controls etc. and trying to relearn it without early game tutorials just seems like effort.

Bought Dark Souls 3, and Horizon ZD and played a few hours of both and then left them a few weeks without playing. Picking up where I left off is daunting and I feel like I'd have a bad experience of the games so will probably just start over again when I have time.

That said, I MADE time to complete both Bloodborne and Uncharted 4 so maybe I just didn't like the other games enough!

DeadlyByDesign

Trading in isn't applicable to me most times as I have pretty much gone totally digital

DeadlyByDesign

froggy1985 wrote: »

I wouldn't say I don't like the games I don't revisit but with less and less time for gaming (young daughter and busy job) I find myself paying full price for games on launch, playing a few hours here and there, and then leaving it long enough that I have forgotten the story, maps, objectives controls etc. and trying to relearn it without early game tutorials just seems like effort.

Bought Dark Souls 3, and Horizon ZD and played a few hours of both and then left them a few weeks without playing. Picking up where I left off is daunting and I feel like I'd have a bad experience of the games so will probably just start over again when I have time.

That said, I MADE time to complete both Bloodborne and Uncharted 4 so maybe I just didn't like the other games enough!

Bloodborne is in my uncompleted pile. Not because I don'tlike it, because it kicks my ass. Bloodborne is the video game equivalent of an abusive relationship-no matter how many times its abuses you, you keep coming back because you love him so much.

froggy1985

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Bloodborne is in my uncompleted pile. Not because I don'tlike it, because it kicks my ass. Bloodborne is the video game equivalent of an abusive relationship-no matter how many times its abuses you, you keep coming back because you love him so much.

I think that's the reason I couldn't leave it uncompleted!

kunst nugget

I don't buy at launch so I usually wait until the game has come down to a price where if I don't enjoy it, I'm not too badly out of pocket. There are a few games I never finished - distracted by other things was usually the cause - but one of the few ones where I actively said 'f?ck this ****' was MGS4 - what a chronic load of poo. Mind you, I hadn't spent much money on it so it wasn't too big a hit. The way I look at it, if you're not having fun why bother trying to grind through it - it'll suck the life out of gaming for you.

SeantheMan

In answer to OP's question.

Yes, of course. There are too many good games out there to be wasting my time playing something I don't like.

I don't really understand the question or how it could be otherwise.

To OP, would you sit through a film if the first 10 or 20 mins bored the hell out of you or it wasn't your cup of tea or was just plain sh1t ?


These days before you drop full price on games the onus should be on you to do some sort of research.
There have never been as many resources available to gamers so as to make informed decisions.
Boards.ie, review sites, youtube reviews, people streaming the actual gameplay, demos !!

Skerries

films are a different matter as they are only going to take roughly 2 hours of your time whereas as some game can literally take 100's

the demise of the demo for games is sorely missed as you could usually get a feel of the game before committing to a purchase and trying to get into a beta is literally a lottery

SeantheMan

SeantheMan wrote: »

In answer to OP's question.

Yes, of course. There are too many good games out there to be wasting my time playing something I don't like.

I don't really understand the question or how it could be otherwise.

To OP, would you sit through a film if the first 10 or 20 mins bored the hell out of you or it wasn't your cup of tea or was just plain sh1t ?


These days before you drop full price on games the onus should be on you to do some sort of research.
There have never been as many resources available to gamers so as to make informed decisions.
Boards.ie, review sites, youtube reviews, people streaming the actual gameplay, demos !!

I don't think this is a fair comparison. The time it takes to watch a whole film is the time it takes to get the feel for a game. Comparing to a full 20 hour TV season would make more sense.

I tend to rush through single player games these days as I'm too acutely aware of how bored I get. I want to get the fullest experience before the mechanics get stale. I definitely drop games if it stops being fun. I think The Witcher 3 is the only game in a long, long time where I didn't feel it became a slog at some stage. Even the newest Doom, I forced myself through those final few missions. Usually I'd just drop a game at that point.

Gunmonkey

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

So far this year I have bought 2 games that I have put serious time into but can't see myself finishing them as I just flat out dislike them at this stage. Games in questions are FF15 and Mass Effect Andromeda.

Actually the same two games I gave up on too.

FFXV just irritated me as every time I jump out of the car...."Enemies above us!!" and cue 5 minutes fighting 20+ soldiers...only to run 20 meters away and....."Enemies above us!". That and the sheer cluster***k that was the map and UI in general.

Andromeda just bored me, so many tiny snippets of interesting gameplay or story wrapped around by hours of driving around a bland barren plain of a planet, shooting up small camps to...do...stuff..or something!

I have so many unplayed games on Steam or on console I have come to the point I either play something I want to play or dont bother: too many games and not enough time to spend finishing something "just because...."

DeadlyByDesign

Skerries wrote: »

films are a different matter as they are only going to take roughly 2 hours of your time whereas as some game can literally take 100's

the demise of the demo for games is sorely missed as you could usually get a feel of the game before committing to a purchase and trying to get into a beta is literally a lottery

Plus the price point of a film vs a AAA game

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

After parting with my hard earned wages for some full priced games (€60+) and being completely dissatisfied with them, I now only purchase games from cdkeys or wait for a steam sale which offers a huge discount. This way if I pay €10 or €20 on a game and it's crap, it's not such a huge loss.

If a game is no good, I don't finish it. If a game is fantastic, I may also not finish it due to a new release or the likes.

My backlog is pretty much my entire steam library :P

Corvo

A few years back, before I grew a bit wiser, I would have been a sucker for buying a game on launch and losing a wedge trading it in. Never happens anymore really, I pick it up cheap now and would have done a fair bit of extensive research on it. Prey is one I have my eyes on it, so I'll be keeping a close eye on reviews and a lot of Youtube videos.

Maximus Alexander

I don't finish the majority of games I buy to be honest. My time is too precious and limited to be spending it on things I'm not enjoying. The majority of games just aren't that good and might put on a decent show for the first couple of hours before losing their lustre or becoming repetitive.

There's some threshold where I'm not having enough fun to be bothered booting it up again, so I just let it go and move on to something else. I'd say I finish maybe half a dozen games a year, and probably start and then abandon at least double that amount. No regrets.

That said, I deliberately don't buy games on launch unless I'm especially excited about them or confident that I'll get my money's worth. I think the only launch titles I bought in the last 12 months were Battlefield 1 and Mass Effect Andromeda, and I regretted neither. Usually things that pique my interest go on a wishlist and get picked up in a sale later so I've less to lose if I don't really care for them.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Corvo wrote: »

A few years back, before I grew a bit wiser, I would have been a sucker for buying a game on launch and losing a wedge trading it in. Never happens anymore really, I pick it up cheap now and would have done a fair bit of extensive research on it. Prey is one I have my eyes on it, so I'll be keeping a close eye on reviews and a lot of Youtube videos.

Elite Dangerous is one I think of. €60 on release, spent most of my time trying to stop the damn space craft within reach of my destination, the rest of the time was spent on docking/undocking. My god what an awful experience (I understand that people love this game, I just sucked at it).

The_Valeyard

Augustus Strong Litterbug wrote: »

Elite Dangerous is one I think of. €60 on release, spent most of my time trying to stop the damn space craft within reach of my destination, the rest of the time was spent on docking/undocking. My god what an awful experience (I understand that people love this game, I just sucked at it).

This really annoyed me until I eventually got the hang of it. But yeah stopping where you want to is a pain.

This is what got me back into Nintendo games. I found I was forgetting why I was enjoyed games in the first place.

This industry trend of games pretty much Ubisoft are just time wasters and are dreadful to play. Ghost Recon being the latest of it.

I try to play games that are actually fun and grab your attention and feel accomplishment in finishing them. No stupid, collect 90 medals for 10 gamerscore.

kunst nugget

M!Ck^ wrote: »

This is what got me back into Nintendo games. I found I was forgetting why I was enjoyed games in the first place.

This industry trend of games pretty much Ubisoft are just time wasters and are dreadful to play. Ghost Recon being the latest of it.

I try to play games that are actually fun and grab your attention and feel accomplishment in finishing them. No stupid, collect 90 medals for 10 gamerscore.

I've never played games like that and I have zero interest in trophies or collectibles so it's never been an issue for me. I'll play the story and when I finish it usually that's me done with the game.

Sephiroth_dude

Last game I didn't like was that new sniper game that came out a week or two ago, it was a real chore too play it, unlikable main character, so I traded it in for titan fall 2 , much better game.

CiDeRmAn

This is one of the reasons I seldom pay full price for a title anymore.
The last full price, non Nintendo game I bought was The Last Guardian!
I just can't make time unless it's exceptional, at least for my jaded eyes and I find making time around work and family time very difficult.
I now have a vast collection of consoles (50+) and games but no chance of playing through even the best of them.
That said, there's a lot for taking one game and devoting your available time to it, particularly if you enjoyed your brief initial time.
The Dark Souls games are great for this, as the rewards for dedicated play are manifold.

Retr0gamer

I usually end up in the sunken time fallacy. 'I don't like this game but sunk 20 hours into it but if I give up that's 20 hours wasted'.

TerrorFirmer

I used to grin and just perservere, but now I just don't have time for it when there are so many other good games to play. Last game I gave up on was Homefront: Revolution, played about 90 minutes and realised it was invoking the same entertainment value within me as hoovering the apartment.

Sometimes I'm also content to just wait it out if there are issues with the game - bought Space Hulk: Deathwing at launch last year but heard it was buggy so made the decision to wait, still haven't played it but waiting will hopefully mean a good to possibly great experience verious a mediocre one when I finally get around to it.

I very rarely buy full price titles anymore save for choices that are bullet-proof in terms of what I'll get out of them, eg Fallout 4, Battlefield 1, etc. It's easier to just allow them to just drop in price and allow any potential associated bugs be ironed out.

ShiverinEskimo

Two games recently got a lot of my time and I didn't finish them - both for different reasons.

Planetscape: Torment got about 25 hours out of my but I just lost the will to continue with all the reading you have to do. Storyline didn't keep me interested enough to continue the slog.

MGS:V - Phantom Pain: Played 110 hours and thoroughly enjoyed the first 70 or 80 hours but then found when I had more or less gotten all the weapons I needed and the missions started repeating ad nauseum in the same locations over and over I just let myself drift into another game and haven't gone back. When the main missions you had to complete were old missions but with difficulty modifiers (no guns, no alerts, etc.) that was the final straw for me. That's pure padding no matter how you look at it. And I hate padding.

I finished ME:Andromeda recently despite not enjoying it much. I don't know why I stuck at it. Maybe there was just about enough in the combat to make it worth playing but I definitely got bored of the story and quests 15 hours in. Ended up finishing it just because I knew I was nearly finished the main storyline. I rushed through the last few missions. Extremely disappointing stuff for reasons well documented.

Moist Bread

yes

DeadlyByDesign

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

Two games recently got a lot of my time and I didn't finish them - both for different reasons.

Planetscape: Torment got about 25 hours out of my but I just lost the will to continue with all the reading you have to do. Storyline didn't keep me interested enough to continue the slog.

MGS:V - Phantom Pain: Played 110 hours and thoroughly enjoyed the first 70 or 80 hours but then found when I had more or less gotten all the weapons I needed and the missions started repeating ad nauseum in the same locations over and over I just let myself drift into another game and haven't gone back. When the main missions you had to complete were old missions but with difficulty modifiers (no guns, no alerts, etc.) that was the final straw for me. That's pure padding no matter how you look at it. And I hate padding.

I finished ME:Andromeda recently despite not enjoying it much. I don't know why I stuck at it. Maybe there was just about enough in the combat to make it worth playing but I definitely got bored of the story and quests 15 hours in. Ended up finishing it just because I knew I was nearly finished the main storyline. I rushed through the last few missions. Extremely disappointing stuff for reasons well documented.

Without spoilers can you tell me if I NEED to colonize and settle the planets it gives us? As far as I can discern this is something I can com back to after the main quest line?

Kiith

I never used to leave games unfinished, but with less time for gaming nowadays, i tend to be more ruthless with games. If they really don't hold my attention for whatever reason, i drop them. There are so many on my list at the moment, that it's not worth playing a game you don't enjoy just to finish it.

ShiverinEskimo

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Without spoilers can you tell me if I NEED to colonize and settle the planets it gives us? As far as I can discern this is something I can com back to after the main quest line?

I don't think so but I'm not sure. I colonised the lot before moving on to deal with the baddie so I don't know if colonisation triggers missions further down the line.

murphyebass

The key for me with this is only buy games when you feel you'll get value for your money.

I spend €20 on a game I want 20 hours of play.

I used to buy games galore and they sat on shelves.

Not anymore, wait for price drops for single player games...

That way if I don't finish them so what.

or like with Destiny or COD or enter online shooter/game here, play them to death.

Digital Solitude

murphyebass wrote: »

The key for me with this is only buy games when you feel you'll get value for your money.

I spend €20 on a game I want 20 hours of play.

I used to buy games galore and they sat on shelves.

Not anymore, wait for price drops for single player games...

That way if I don't finish them so what.

or like with Destiny or COD or enter online shooter/game here, play them to death.

I use the €1 = 1hr gameplay too. If I get more hours from it, great stuff, if I get less, it could be worth it depending on the game.

Generally, if its not fun, what's the point? Through Humble Bundle and PS+, I've a very large backlog. Coupled with a small WiiU and 3DS collection I haven't played, there's too many good games I already own but haven't played to bother with anything that isn't fun.

I'll give a game 20 minutes, if its crap, its forgotten about forever. If its anyway decent, it gets another hour of play before I decide if its worth playing or not.

Nerdlingr

I have so many games unfinished... never finished bioshock 1 but bought the next two to give the impetus to go back and finish it (which i never did). Bioshock 2 is still in its box.
Did the same with mass effect, finished 1 bought the next two...decided to finish them so i could play andromeda and ended up playing wasteland 2 instead !!
Think the only games I've ever finished are the GTA ones, Fallout 3, Red Dead redemption, Witcher 3, Skyrim and Borderlands 1. :o

Would you kindly finish Bioshock 1!

Digital Solitude

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Would you kindly finish Bioshock 1!

Would you believe I dropped it not long after the story climax

Nerdlingr

Deleted User wrote: »

Would you kindly finish Bioshock 1!

its on the list ! :P

Retr0gamer

Digital Solitude wrote: »

murphyebass wrote: »

The key for me with this is only buy games when you feel you'll get value for your money.

I spend €20 on a game I want 20 hours of play.

I used to buy games galore and they sat on shelves.

Not anymore, wait for price drops for single player games...

That way if I don't finish them so what.

or like with Destiny or COD or enter online shooter/game here, play them to death.

I use the €1 = 1hr gameplay too. If I get more hours from it, great stuff, if I get less, it could be worth it depending on the game.

Generally, if its not fun, what's the point? Through Humble Bundle and PS+, I've a very large backlog. Coupled with a small WiiU and 3DS collection I haven't played, there's too many good games I already own but haven't played to bother with anything that isn't fun.

I'll give a game 20 minutes, if its crap, its forgotten about forever. If its anyway decent, it gets another hour of play before I decide if its worth playing or not.

Can't think of a worse way to judge a game. Mist of the best games ever made pack all their goodness in a concise 6 to 8 hour game time. That's all they need. The story come to its conclusion and the game play systems have been explored as much as they can be. No need to drag it out to 40 to 200 hours since the game play isn't going to change.

Of course there are exceptions. The witcher 3 and breath of the wild remain as fresh and compelling long after that 8 hour period but the vast majority of games these days stretch the game out thin over too long a play time we'll after all the game play scenarios and mechanics have worn thin.

Digital Solitude

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Can't think of a worse way to judge a game. Mist of the best games ever made pack all their goodness in a concise 6 to 8 hour game time. That's all they need. The story come to its conclusion and the game play systems have been explored as much as they can be. No need to drag it out to 40 to 200 hours since the game play isn't going to change.

Of course there are exceptions. The witcher 3 and breath of the wild remain as fresh and compelling long after that 8 hour period but the vast majority of games these days stretch the game out thin over too long a play time we'll after all the game play scenarios and mechanics have worn thin.

As I said, depends on the game. A short indie for €20 goes past this system, but any AAA I buy is subject to it. Its more a way of judging my moneys worth over actually rating the game itself.

johnny_ultimate

'Content' and somewhat distorted concepts of 'value for money' are major factors holding games back. I would say it is close to the rule that most video games are more than happy to waste your time - whether that's through repetition, grinding, filler, whatever. Time wasting is baked into the very DNA of many schools of game design. While endless variants on a theme can work if it's an exceptionally well-judged loop in the first place, in many cases it's just looking to give you that irregular dopamine hit of a new piece of loot or achievement ping as a reward for minutes or hours of grinding. Frankly: **** that.

With that in mind, yes often it is just worth turning off a game - if it doesn't respect your time, then you don't owe it much respect either. The frustrating Nier Automata and the even worse Rise of the Tomb Raider are two recent games I suffered through and regretted after, both of which had nowhere near enough to say to justify the 20-30 hour ask. Other games I'm just increasingly happy to leave unfinished. As ever: give me two great hours over 30 mediocre hours any day of the week, even at the same price (not to mention that short form is often infinitely better for telling stories).

Developers should strive to avoid repeating ideas (allowances made for games that reward practice / skill - mostly taking about single player here). You can change situations, but do it substantially enough so the player re-evaluates or learns something extra about the core mechanics. Nintendo are the kings of constantly hurling out new ideas, but the likes of Titanfall 2 show it can be done within strict genre and commercial confines too.

Basically: most games are too damn long. Even Breath of the Wild - which is the most ideas-rich open world game I've ever played by a very wide margin - manages to unnecessarily recycle ideas from time to time (another test of strength?!). I don't think long-form gaming is always a bad thing - something like the Persona series embraces it to do something unique, while BotW (95% of the time), The Witness or Stephen's Sausage Roll prove that fresh mechanical ideas can still be offered up after 30, 40, 50 hours. Developers should strive for that, but many - whether through lack of imagination or limited resources - don't. And when that's the case, it's often not worth pushing through to achieve some arbitrary achievement or sense of closure.

Few if any mediums demand as much time as gaming, and yet so few games offer up something worthwhile in return for that investment.

Robert ninja

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Few if any mediums demand as much time as gaming, and yet so few games offer up something worthwhile in return for that investment.

The return is fun. Not everyone likes the same kind of games, that's all. I'll be investing 100s of hours into Tekken 7 and I expect I'll love every bloody second of it.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

give me two great hours over 30 mediocre hours any day of the week, even at the same price

Quality > Quantity sure but I've yet to find a game that can be fully enjoyed and is that good in 2 hours making me want to pay for full price for it. There's better ways to make that €60 entertain me. Well... each to their own. I'll probably never buy walking simulators for €1 let alone €60. If i wanted to navigate a game looking at 3D models and being told a story I'd play an audio book while fecking around gmod RP maps.

CiDeRmAn

It's simply about value for money.
And it's entirely subjective.
So the are those who bought No Man's Sky at full price for their PS4 and felt it was a fantastic buy, the were those who didn't hesitate but bring it back in disgust.
Even with widely lauded titles like Breath of the Wild, I'm sure there are those that are disappointed, preferring the tighter, more linear experience that Ocarina of Time delivered.
Proteus, Everyone's gone to the Rapture, Gunstar Heroes...
There are games that go on for 60 hours plus and you wished for more at the end, there are those that lasted 4 and if was 3 too many.

johnny_ultimate

Robert ninja wrote: »

I'll probably never buy walking simulators for €1 let alone €60.

I don't know if I've ever seen a new 'walking simulator' pass the €20 mark on release - so you'd be ****ing right to not pay €60 :pac:

pablomakaveli

I stopped playing Beholder this week because after 3 hours I found it too boring. I like the ideas and atmosphere it has but it just wasnt pulling me in.

Im more inclined to just stop playing a game now if I'm not enjoying it as gaming becomes a chore instead of an enjoyable pasttime. I never rule out returning to some of these games in the future. Sometimes, like in this case with Beholder, I'm just not in the mood for a certain game. Of course there are some games that are just terrible and I wont ever see myself coming back to.

CiDeRmAn

Breath of the Wild was started to become a chore for me, as I couldn't set aside a slice of time to play it.
Picked it back up yesterday after a fortnight of little or no play and I'm loving it.

awec

If a game doesn't grab me in the first 3 or 4 hours I probably won't bother with it. I don't have the attention span to have to work on getting into a game and anything grindy just bores me to tears.