Finishing Games

CiDeRmAn

Just got to finishing a few of the games I have accrued over the last few months.
Aside from Halo2, Eternal Darkness and Metal Arms I hadn't completed very much of late but continued to flit from new purchase to new purchase never taking the time to play a game past the first few stages.
But I decided to apply myself and in the last 4 weeks have cleared Silent Hill 2, Brothers In Arms Road to Hill 30 and Beyond Good & Evil.
It was incredibly satisfying to clear them and this has spurred me on to finish a few more, now playing Freedom Fighters, Manhunt, God of War and a little bit of Flipnic to brighten things up!
I just got a copy of Castlevania Symphony of the Night so may put the others on hold til I finish that magnificent beast of a game!

Best way to get a collection of classics, buy the titles that Edge covers in its Time Extend article, you simply buy one game every 4 weeks and soon ahve a selection of the best games ever created, it also pays to invest in the various pieces of sometimes archaic silicon that the game run on. I would never have bought Silent Hill2 if not for the article on its sequel, I bought them both and played Silent Hill2 to the bitter end, awesome stuff.

BLITZ_Molloy

I finished two entire games in 3 hours one evening recently: Parappa The Rapper and Mad Maestro 2.

I used to rent games for the Mega Drive and finish them 2 or 3 times. Even if I didn't really like them. When they were only an hour long you could just finish them over and over.

Can't get through most games nowadays. They're all 10+ hours long. I don't get the whole percieved value in long games. I never replay long games, they're usually full of dull filler that I don't want to trawl through again. With short games they throw out all the bloat and just leave in the good bits, so I end up playing them over and over again. Like a good music CD.

Finishing games is satisfying. Developers should stop wasting millions of man hours making content for games, and just make a small amount of good stuff. Counter Strike only has maybe 10 maps but you can play them over and over. It's a different experiece every time. Treasure make a game like Gunstar Heroes and it plays like a completely different game in hardmode to normal. They reuse the content intelligently, rather than trying to drown you in it.

/rant

Retr0gamer

Recently I haven't been able to play an RPG for any decent amount of time due to a bastard increase in workload for my PhD. Not being able to play my favourite genre I've had to make do with my collection of japanese action games and am getting through them at a far old pace. I finished DMC 3 recently in 3 weeks after applying myself to it. I always finish any game I like and most of the ones that don't really grab my attention. Used to have to finish every game I got my hands on in ever difficulty mode with one credit on the Mega Drive. Used to be great at Gunstar Heroes. Unfortunately now I only have time for one playthrough due to a huge backlog of games at less time to play them. It's always very satisfying to beat a game. If you like it you can think 'that was a great game' and if you didn't, then 'thank god that is out of the way'. The best part though is choosing the next game to play

Q_Ball

I still have ninja gaiden gathering dust on a shelf unfinished along with viewtiful joe, metroid prime 2 and burnout 3.

Hitman contracts too but i dont really care cos its crap

mickydoomsux

Unfortunately now I only have time for one playthrough due to a huge backlog of games at less time to play them. It's always very satisfying to beat a game. If you like it you can think 'that was a great game' and if you didn't, then 'thank god that is out of the way'. The best part though is choosing the next game to play

Find it to be the exact same situation with me. I have a backlog of 20-30 games on various platforms, all of which i really want to play, but it takes so long to 'properly' finish most modern games because of their structure.

For instance, i'm a huge JRPG fan, and this idea of having to play through a game 2+ times to get/see everthing because i turned left instead of right at a certain point is a pain in the a** and a bit of a waste of time really.

rainbow kirby

I've a huge backlog at the moment too...I've so many unfinished games it's crazy. Though some of them I'll probably never finish... Ikaruga anyone? (got a loan of it, it's FABULOUS!)

Gummy Panda

Yeah, i know how you feel. I've loads of games to go through and what do i do, I start LOZ: minish cap today.

Though the game is great fun and i'm flying through it.

Stalfos

I also once finished every game including every crapy bonus thing (got all the trophies in SSBM)there was but now i can barely clear a game or even make it halfway though. I still have to finish Baten Kaitos, Dungeon Siege 2, and Disciples 2 Gold edition to name a few.

evad_lhorg

im ashamed to say this but i willl

I own all three current gen consoles. out of all my games around 51 are actually finishable(ie not a sports game or somethin like it) and I have only pathetically finished 6 of them


20 of them have only been in the console once or less. :rolleyes:

i also have a few n64 games i havnt finished and then final fantasy VI - IX on ps1 and syndicate wars/

steviec

I've gotta complete Grandia 2, Psychonauts, Metal Gear Acid off the top of my head. Aswell as other games I haven't bought yet like Suikoden 4 and Resi 4 among others. 600+ hours played on World of Warcraft without actually completeing anything doesn't help.

CiDeRmAn

Just reading realising the great embarrassment of owning nearly every Zelda game ever and finishing none of them, not to mention Metroid Prime 2, got to a boss about a quarter of the way through, not long after you get the dark armour and got stuck, have another go now and again, just get fustrated and swith it off, reckon that game guides are an underused resource though, get a lot of bad press, at least they permit one to actually finish a title instead of you trading it in in disgust and annoyance at being stumped.

Kristok

Last game i finished was halo, got a good way through san andreas only for my memory card to die and loose everything. Ive too many games started that i want to finish but i know ill never get around to it. Ive even got to the point where im not even opening games i buy sometimes just so i can keep at the ones ive already started. I would love to finish something again it really is great when you can put it back on the shelf like a trophy.

-oRnein9-

I've got a stack of games that I have yet to finish also, /me glances to left:

hmmm..

Max Payne 2
Doom3
HL2
KOTOR 2
Mario Sunshine
Rome Total War

...just to name a few , betta get crackin.

johnny_ultimate

As much as I say I like a game, if I look at it from a psychological viewpoint the games I comple generally show how much I REALLY like the game. Recently ive completed Ico, Astro Boy, and am a few hours of play away from the end of Resi remake. But other games Ive bought recently - like Max Payne and Red Faction 2 - are gathering dust. I think that says it all really.

Makaveli

I have this problem where I start a game, get into a good bit then stop for some reason, usually lack of time. Then I'm left in the situation where I leave it for too long and either can't remember what was going on in the game or in some cases I can't remember how to even play the game, so I'm faced with starting all over again and I just can't be arsed doing that. So, I have a big back log to get through.

CiDeRmAn

Well, I guess it will serve one well to just leave a game before you get embittered and come back to it in a couple of weeks, maybe months, then with a fresher perpective, less likely to follow previous paths through levels that causes one to get stuck, re-visit it without the shackles of painful "Continue from last checkpoint?" screens to draw you into a malaise.

Playing God of War and will complete it, seems to be one of a new breed of game that wants you to finish it and see every spectacular scene it has, Ico was the last title to be this pretty on the PS2.

And regarding backlogs, just eat some bran, that'll shift it!

No seriously I have been in the same spot and the only way to tackle it is 2 or 3 games at a time, playing a different one after a while if frustrated by a level, play the other two and then go back to the offending one. Slow and steady get through the ones that gave you the most pleasure before you got stuck, if an unfinshed game was lousy before you put it down, it will be lousy if you pick it back up too, just move on to something you really liked but got a little jammed.

Also don't be too proud to use a game guide, gamefaqs.com is the natural destination for al weary travellers who need a little assistance.

Jimi-Spandex

I'm so horrible with this. I just don't have enough to time to stick to most games till I get hooked. It's gnawing at me now though, most of those games are now 3000 miles away from me, but here with me now I'm working on Silent Hill 3 and Vice City. Not much chance though. Haven't played either in a few weeks.

Bleh!

lardboy

In the last couple of months I've finished Resi 4, GTA 3, Vice City (both replayed to 100% using gamefaqs.com), God of War and I'm about 80% through GTA:SA. However, there's plenty of games that I play a good lump of and then get bored.

Halo 2, Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, Mario Kart DD and SuperMonkey Ball 2 all fell foul of the boredom/annoying boss problem and so remain incomplete. I'm sure I'll give Halo 2 another pop, but when I really don't know as I still have Killer 7 to go at and I quite fancy another go at LOZ: Wind Waker before the next Zelda game comes out. There's also Fable and Doom 3 that I've played no more than the first levels of.

Oh, that's not including Mario 64 on the DS and whatever I'm going to get for the PSP when I order it this weekend.

Thank god the flatmate is away!

CiDeRmAn

Metroid Prime does drag a bit and the last boss is a serious pain, Eternal Darkness gets quite good and disturbing towards the end, very satisfying to complete but the I like Lovecraft, Halo2 though, the problem there is making it last longer not failure to complete! MarioKart DD i am with you, just got boring and the opposition very cheap in their tactics, I just put it away and played something less boring instead. Fable was another one touted as being epic but turning out to be litle more than a short story, just when you have a good bit of development done with your character, the blasted plot ends, yes you can tool around doing the side quests and getting married but bugger that, at least PC owners got some extra stuff.
As for not enough time if the game is good enough you will make the time, I stayed up til 2.30 in the morning to finish Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox, and worth every second it was too, including the imminent risk of divorce from my lovely wife if i didn't turn that bloody thing off and come to bed.

fade2black

First game I ever cleared was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but I think since then i've only completed a horse racing game and silent hill after downloading the whole walkthrough. I go through phases with games and generally when I get stuck at a point, the game begins to gather dust.

eyerer

horse racing game? lol
i used to be really bad at finishing games, but other the past few years i've completed all the games i've enjoyed

my list of excellent games played and completed in the past few years:
mario 64
zelda OoT
GTA III & VC
Prince of Persia SoT
Beyond Good & Evil
Thief 3
Mario Sunshine


obscure games completed:
probotector
r-type lll (yey me)

thelordofcheese

I've actually have a self imposed ban on buying any new games [no matter how stupidly cheap i manage to find them for] untill i've cleared out the backlog of games i currently have.

Amongst them are

• Tales of Symphonia [finally onto the second disc, and i appear to be near the end of the game]
• Morrowind
• Civ 3 [though i'm thinking of giving this away, and plumping for Civ 4 instead]
• FEAR
• Shogun Total War
• Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
• Advance Wars DS
• Fable

That said in the year gone by i cleared plenty of games [in the first half, when i was unemployed, damn i miss being unemployed]

like
Homeworld 2
Doom3
HL2
Vampire: the masquerade
Metroid Fusion
Shining force: legend of the dark dragon.
PainKiller
Splinter Cell 1

Jazzy

my problem is also the huge backlog of games i have to play

on the gamecube alone ive still to finish Viewtiful Joe 2, Starfox Adventures (dont ask me why), Pikmin and also haver to play through harvest moon & animal crossing way more then i have.
On the PC then I have FEAR to get through & have still to buy civ 4.

the blame for this?
why unreal tournament of course!
far far far too much online play. when ur in a clan though and u have matches and stuff and then entering private cups it gets that way and time for other games just goes down the funnel. then Unreal Tournament 2007 will come out and i wont be able to afford to upgrade my PC so ill get time for the list above

RE*AC*TOR

I most recently cleared Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! on normal difficulty. Going back to it now on hard. First time I've ever done that - I think it speaks volumes for the quality of the game. Towards the latter stages on normal it was becoming physically tiring - with the end stage in paticular just being completely nuts - took about 3 weeks to actually get passed it - enjoyed every moment though.

IceHawk

Recently enough, I decided I wasn't buying any new games until I finished at least 5 of the ones I currently own. Since then I've finished:
Final Fantasy VII
Far Cry
Beyond Good and Evil
Star Wars KOTOR II
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

I still have to finish:
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X-2
Black and White 2
X2: The Threat

I'm working on X2 at the moment, but it looks like it's going to take months. The problem is I now have to buy F.E.A.R., Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and We Love Katamari, So I'm in a worse position now than I was before I started.

Rhyme

IceHawk wrote:

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Im running through it at the moment, not as bad as people say.

I dont buy a whole load of games so my backlog consists of only Metroid Prime 1 and Prince of Persia... getting a loan of XIII in a few days so that should get me through

Mad Mike

I generally manage to complete about 7 or 8 games a year but here are some games that stand out because I am proud to have finished them:

Doom (I and II)
Descent
Duke Nukem 3D
Earthsiege (I and II)
Half Life (I and II)
System Shock
Deus Ex
Call of Duty (I and II)
Morrowind
Arx Fatalis
Mafia
Sacrifice
Halo


Here are some game I never quite got around to finishing but still intend to:
Fallout
Urban Assault
Serious Sam
Homeworld
Ground Control
Hostile Waters
Rome Total War
Gothic 2
Beyond Good and Evil

In hindsight - I almost always finish a shooter once I start it while I almost never finish an RTS.

Retr0gamer

IceHawk wrote:

I still have to finish:
Final Fantasy X-2

Don't bother. Better off burning it. It's dire.

mcgovern

I usually finish most games I enjoy, that is, finish to the ending ant not 100% finished with all secrets etc.
I prefer a game that has a few hours in it, recently got King Kong for the DS, horrible controls, but sat down for about 2-3hrs and finished it in 1 sitting. No way I'm ever playing that again.
Kameo took a few days, then spent about 2 weeks going back through it to get more gamer points.
Quake 4 took about 2 weeks, but 10 days of that was me playing it solely online when I got stuck at a boss (which turned out to be final boss) until my Gold Trial ran out
DoA4 took about a day to complete story mode with all charachters, going through it now to get some extra gamer points but struggling for motivation.

Was out of work with a broken elbow about a year or so ago for 5 weeks, managed to finish Half Life 2, Doom 3, Morrowind, San Andreas and a few more in that time, despite now being able to move 1 arm!

"Got" ~30 games for my Xbox a few months ago, finished 3 or 4, ~15 I will never play, and got bored of the rest after 1 or 2 sittings.
Did finish both the Halos though.

eyerer

mcgovern wrote:

to get more gamer points.

what are they?

GrumPy

have about 60+ games over many formats (ps2, pc,xbox, xbox360, gamecube, and now DS)

and i must have about 30+ on just the xbox that have yet to be played more then 10mins. :rolleyes:

Fidelis

Just finished Area51 last night, good console port, the story made no sense to me but I enjoyed playing through it. Games that I've bought in the last couple of months that I need to finish:

Fahrenheit
Quake IV
BiA: Earned In Blood
Vietcong 2
Max Payne 2

Mad Mike wrote:

Mafia

Such a good game!

Stephen

I rarely play games right through to the end, but if they have good multiplayer i can get hooked for years.
Last single player game i finished was CoD 2. Before that, probably HL 2 and Max Payne 2 - notice a common trend: Short but good. (Some would debate that about MP2, but I digress)

mcgovern

eyerer wrote:

what are they?

Each game for the Xbox 360 has a max of 1000 gamer points. You get these by completing quests, winning a certain amount of games online, finishing the game, etc. Basically whatever the developer wants, DoA4 even has ones for the amount of time you've played the game.
These points are shown on your profile, and people can then see what achievements you've gotten on what games.
I think its a great addition, really added a lot of gameplay hours to the 360 for me.
Unfortunately, alot of them need online play, and I dont fancy shelling out for Live Gold atm, so I've only got 930 gamer points atm, despite finishing the 3 games I have.

eyerer

do you get prizes/bonuses or is it just for bragging rights?


unfortunately i never played mafia during the period in which i would have liked it

koneko

Fahrenheit rocked. I felt sad when I finished that because I was enjoying it so much. Mafia was brilliant.

Gamer points are completely meaningless, I don't know why anyone actually takes any notice of those. You could play any random EA sports-garbage game and rack up points in several minutes doing stupid things like creating a profile or scoring one touchdown. Yawn.

Stephen

I really must pick up a copy of fahrenheit. I played the demo and liked it a lot, and i have a soft spot for anything that reminds me of the graphical adventures of about 12-15 years ago.

koneko

Stephen wrote:

I really must pick up a copy of fahrenheit. I played the demo and liked it a lot, and i have a soft spot for anything that reminds me of the graphical adventures of about 12-15 years ago.

Do
It really reminds me of the older style of games, and you really get immersed in it, it's part movie and part game almost. There are a few annoying parts, but you quickly forget about them or forgive it, because some parts just kick so much ass it's hard not to love it.

GrumPy

koneko wrote:

Fahrenheit rocked. I felt sad when I finished that because I was enjoying it so much. Mafia was brilliant.

Gamer points are completely meaningless, I don't know why anyone actually takes any notice of those. You could play any random EA sports-garbage game and rack up points in several minutes doing stupid things like creating a profile or scoring one touchdown. Yawn.

Thats EA man, and we all know EA are retarded money grabbing evils, achievments are entirely different with all games, although the achievments are only for show, it still add a little more to a game, so you can enjoy collecting/doing extra missions etc... that little bit more

koneko

Yeah, I just personally don't see the point. They can't be used for anything, they serve no actual purpose but, as someone else said, for bragging rights (which I don't like). And I ain't no man, man

CiDeRmAn

On the 360 cleared COD2 pretty fast, very enjoyable, not as good an experience as Brothers In Arms on my humble PS2, but there you gom I am a sucker for realism. Cleared King Kong the other night too, very good as well, not a replay junkie so unlikely to revisit either title.
Just got Everyone Loves Katamari and Sega Classics for the PS2 not to mention a raft of stuff since Christmas so I don't think I will ever clear all the games I have half finished, only the important ones.
Its important not to waste your precious time on rubbish!

the_syco

Meh. When I finished Castle Wolfenstein, I replayed it, as some of the levels were that good. When I finished Return to Castle Wolfenstein, never really replayed it. Likewise with the original Doom's, and the new Doom, except I never finished the new Doom, as I got bored with it. As the OP said; there would be less filler in the old one's, compared with the new ones.

CyberGhost

I have Doom3 rise of evil to finish, but I think like 95% of the other games, I'll lose patience and use god mode to finish it, I finished doom3 without cheats though.

BopNiblets

I couldn't do all the missions on San Andreas because you have to do a 360 flip over the ramp in the driving school to unlock the car dealership missions!

Couldn't finish Fahrenheit because I got stuck in the bit where you sneak about the army base as a kid.

And I never finished Doom 3 out of boredom, HL2 was much more interesting to me.

Finished FEAR recently, very dramatic ending!
Lots of other stuff I never finished, as far back as the Allies missions on Red Alert!

eyerer

CiDeRmAn wrote:

On the 360 cleared COD2 pretty fast, very enjoyable, not as good an experience as Brothers In Arms on my humble PS2, but there you gom I am a sucker for realism. Cleared King Kong the other night too, very good as well, not a replay junkie so unlikely to revisit either title.
Just got Everyone Loves Katamari and Sega Classics for the PS2 not to mention a raft of stuff since Christmas so I don't think I will ever clear all the games I have half finished, only the important ones.
Its important not to waste your precious time on rubbish!

are you a dentist?

anyway, today i confirmed that i must complete one story driven game before moving onto the next. i started a second game today and it just didn't feel right

thelordofcheese

Finally finished tales of Symphonia over the weekend.

After 60 hours, the ending was rubbish! i almost feel cheated [made up for the fact i schooled the final boss, and i thought i was underpowered ]

Lemlin

Am I the only person who thought the end of Resi 4 was muck? God Of War has a very good ending IMO.

honru

I've also stopped buying any games (except DS games, which I can usually enjoy in short bursts and generally don't take 40 hours to complete) until I finish the ones I already own first.

I see 2006 as a catch up year on the last generation while we're gearing up for the PS3/Revolution (of course, I still have Legend of Zelda: TP and Odama to look forward to.)

sweetie

The last game I played straight thru was God of War and before that
Chaos Theory. Finished the first two Prince of Persias but stuck on
the first boss on the new one. IF a game is good enough I'll stick
with it but sometimes a few months will go by and will be inspired
to retry it.

Retr0gamer

Lemlin wrote:

Am I the only person who thought the end of Resi 4 was muck?

Yes, or at least I hope so.

eyerer

i'm am on my way to completing eternal darkness, i have no idea how long is left, but judging by the last item i picked up i would guess a handful of levels left
i've been enjoying it, was never big into horror types but i'm liking the story here and the gameplay is varied enough to keep it interesting
i'm also appreciating some of the things that are happening, really like that kind of unusual thinking
as for the cube, once again must marvel at the graphics, if you saw the state of trackmania running on my pc.. :rolleyes: (you can hardly read the text on the starting arc)


and lastly, ED is kinda how i pictured the old fixed camera resident evil games being, but i'm liking it...would the older resis be worth a punt for the cube?
(im getting RE4 btw so dont go there;))