Games You've Never Finished

It happens to all of us, we buy a game and play it for a while but for some reason never end up completing the thing. So, what final boss battles or dramatic twist endings have you never seen? Here are a few of mine that stand out:

Witcher 1 & 2: These ones puzzle me. I enjoyed the games, found the different universe somewhat refreshing, and thought they were well made. Yet about 2/3 of the way through both, I just got bored and stopped playing. I can't really figure out why, but it's the truth. Witcher 2 is still installed on my computer right now and I keep thinking I'll finish it... but I doubt I ever will.

FarCry 2: The endlessly repetitive gameplay on this one bored me to tears. I intentionally stopped playing this one and was very pleased to not have to finish it.

Black & White: I loved the concept of this game, but the control system was so screwy that I simply couldn't do what needed to be done to complete the second to last map.

Temple of Elemental Evil: A gorgeous Infinity-engine clone with huge promise for implementing many great D&D adventures. Unfortunately, it was so buggy I couldn't finish it due to crashing and save game corruption.

GRAW: I got to mission 8 of 11, but then my hard drive got wiped and the game was really difficult so I didnt try again.

M2TW: Never completed a campaign.

Brothers in Arms Earned in Blood: the aiming was very frustrating, so I never even finished the first mission.

Sniper Elite: just couldnt get into it.

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory: got pretty far into it, but just lost interest.

Final Fantasy 7. I couldn't find my way down into the final dungeon.

Operation Flashpoint, ARMA II (C'mon Multiplayer was WAAAY more fun than Single Player + Too many Excellent Mods), Any Paradox game (Once I establish dominance, it's like What's the Point of going any further?), Rome: Total War + Medieval 2 + Empire + Napoleon + Shogun 2... Actually now that I think of it, I've finished less games than I've completed... it would be easier to list which games I've completed-- Every Fallout, Every Baldurs Gate, Every Neverwinter Nights, both Kotors, both Mass Effects... ummm... The Witcher 2, Morrowind, Shogun I, Medieval I... Civ 4... well, I've played a lot of games...

... that would be a really, really big list.

Resident Evil 4
Metroid Prime 1 & 2
Zelda: Twilight Princess
No Total war game (if I got to the point of feudal knights in M2TW, the fun was somewhat over, as you could steamroll everything without thinking)
Oblivion (did the guilds, not the main quest)
Fallout 3 (no time)
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Half-Life (everything, do not like + motion sickness)
Titan Quest
Black & White 2 (gawd the repetitiveness),
Morrowind (started too late and now it's ugly and annoying)
San Andreas (dunno why was at big smoke)
GTA IV (due to helicopter bug in final mission(s))
Harvest Moon: A wonderful life (boring after you have everything)
Warcraft 3 (was young then)
SSX on Tour (repetitive)
Starfox Adventures (and don't want to)
Paper Mario: The thousand year door (dunno stopped before last boss)
Not a single Fire Emblem (got 5, and I find this most sad but every time I'm at the end of the game something new comes up, subsequently I want to start over again; a never ending cycle)
Super Mario Sunshine (When I was young I found it difficult, now I've not been that enthousiastic)
Tales of Symphonia (really sad, one of the best games ever)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (you need gameboys as controllers to play MP, which it's created for)
Baten Kaitos (them voices! the horror!)
Prince of Persia (Two Thrones + Warrior Within)
Advanced Wars: Blackhole Rising (shame)
Tenshu: Shadow assassins (wii sucks in this game)
Beyond Good and Evil (did not like,)
Final Fantasy IV (I'm at the last boss)

Hmmm can't think of more.

Strange is that I fully played Pokemon Channel twice, just to get Jirachi. And for those who don't know, Pokemon Channel is one of the most retarded and mindnumbing game there is.
Also I did manage to complete Assassin's Creed which is repetitive to the max and just a complete chore to play.

Oh boy, list time!


Final Fantasy 6: I've come very, very, very close in some specialized low level playthroughs, but never actually finished it off. No idea why, I love this game, and I finished FF4 and FF5.

Final Fantasy 7: Same as above, actually started the battle with Sephi a few times but ... just never finished it. :dizzy2:

Doom 2: Time for some heresy. I liked Doom 1 far better than Doom 2. Levels, originality, everything. Never got too far past level 20 or so, it bored me to tears.

Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion: Zero incentive. Boring game, boring/ridiculously shallow story, unimaginative characters, slow(er) computer at the time. Mods can salvage some of this game but it can't magically weld a lot of depth onto this horribly shallow game. I completed the Thieves' Guild and Mages' Guild quest lines, but that was it. I'll begrudgingly admit that the final bits of the Thieves' Guild quest line was actually kinda fun, but the Mages' Guild definitely wasn't.

Fallout 2: I came late to the Fallout series, about 2005. Fallout 1 is basically the top game on my personal list of "Games I Deeply Regret Ignoring When They Were Released", and it's easily one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Fallout 2 was fun at first, but then the bugs crept up, and I started to get real frustrated and real sick of it fast. This was long before the wonderful fan patch was finally compiled, and it soured my experience. Eventually came back to it when the fan patch was done, but it just never had the same enjoyment factor that 1 had. Got pretty far into it, but again just never completed it.

Neverwinter Nights: Got way far into the first campaign, but never finished it off. Dunno why, it's by far my favorite of the entire Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/NWN series and probably one of the best constructed CRPG's ever, along with KOTOR1.

Vampire the Masquerade - Redemption: Don't care what the haters say, I liked this game a lot. Did NOT like the modern era though, so that's as far as I got in about 4-5 playthroughs.


Honorable mentions:

Quake 2: Had it since it was out, until 2006 I'd never bothered much at all with the base game, just played Action Quake 2. Finally finished it off that year after finding a "modernized" engine based on the released source code.

Heretic: Same as above, got into an "old id Software games" playing fit in '06 and this was another one. jDoom/Doomsday engine + md3 models + textures = great fun, glad to finally have finished that game.


Closet of Shame:

Mechcommander and Starcraft. I never beat these games without cheating heavily. Mechcommander probably could've done without cheating, but not Starcraft.

They actually have a whole website dedicated to this sort of thing- useful for long lists like Drunk Clown's and Whacker's:

The Backloggery

XCOM 2: The siege maps and ship maps were entirely too long. The game was not challenging on normal levels, and on hard levels it was so time consuming it was unplayable.

Black And White: Loved it and even made a trainer to grow my animal and make her uber (I had a sheep) for use in the campaign. Bought the expansion, computer crashed, lost the CDs in a move and never got the chance to finish. It was a shame because the multiplayer was REALLT FUN

King Aurthurs Role Playing Game: I cannot in words indicate how suck this game was. Total War with magic. Yay. It just sucked. Spells that decimate an army from the other side of the map? No thanks.

Titan Quest: ran out of time, lost my coop players

Freedom Force: ran out of time, very cute and entertaining game, especially the hero builder, may DL it again I have it on steam


Theres so many others, but those are the ones that bothered me, except king aurthur, that one was just terrible and I mentioned it because I am still angrly that I bought it new

Pretty much every game I've ever played....

I went through a phase a couple years ago where I went back and tried to finish games I had on the shelves. Not as enjoyable as it should have been...

Big ones still unfinished:
Doom 3 - When I got it, it barely ran on my PC, so I shelved it (wasn't that impressed with the game anyway). Might want to give it a go on my newer box, just to get it out of the way.
NWN I (and HotU/SoU) - I've probably created dozens of characters, but I always stop playing after a certain point and just can't get back in. Probably because it's an RPG, I think I lose my personal connection with the character.
MoO3 - waaaay too much like work.
RTW/MTW2

It's a rare occurance that I actually finish a game, the difficulty spikes that are boss battles usually aren't worth the trouble, too many good games there. If games are really good like Metroid Prime 2 I can forgive insanely difficult bosses (boost guardian gawd) but I usually give up

My God. :shame:

I'll try to do this from the beginning.

1998-2002

N64: Toy Story 2
Goin' Quackers
Super Mario 64
Donkey Kong 64
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
Pokemon Stadium 2

Gameboy Color: Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

PC: Beyond Time
Zeus: Master of Olympus
Pharaoh
Caesar III
Croc 2
Clive Barker's Undying
Alien vs Predator 2


2002-2007

Xbox: Jet Set Radio Future
The Thing
Azurik: Rise of Perathia
TimeSplitters 2

PC: Command & Conquer
Red Alert
Tiberian Sun
Red Alert 2
Half-Life
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Battle for Middle Earth
Mythical Warriors: Battle for Eastland
Gromada
Tron 2.0
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault


Xbox: Otogi: Myth of Demons
Rogue Ops
kill.switch
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Hitman: Contracts
I-Ninja
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Phantom Dust
Ghost Recon 2
Destroy All Humans
Hulk Ultimate Destruction

PC:Comand & Conquer: Generals
Half-Life 2
Age of Empires 2
Rise of Nations
Grim Fandango
Freelancer
Freespace 2
Starcraft

2006-Present

Xbox 360: Need for Speed: Underground
Battlefield 2
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

PC:
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
Stubbs the Zombie
Flashpoint Germany
Eschalon: Book 1
Geneforge 2
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Xbox: PsiOps: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers

Emulator: Pokemon Yellow
Final Fantasy I

Soldier of Fortune 2
Aliens versus Predator Gold (the alien campaign)
Sim City and some awful rallying game I cant remember (we got them from work as a prezzie I threw em in the fire a few years back)
Sacred
Shinobi

Burning Rubber on the Amstrad
IK Karate(at least I think thats what it was called) on the Amstrad

I never finished Final Fantasy 3 (aka 6)

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Originally Posted by johnhughthom

Final Fantasy 7. I couldn't find my way down into the final dungeon.

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I never finished that one either despite sinking about a hundred hours into it. turned out I'd missed some materia that sunk into the sea when an island collapsed and I couldn't beat leviathan without it. From my murky memory, it's been at least ten years...

I'm playing FF3 on my iPhone right now!

I'm sure there were a fair amount of games I played as a kid I didn't finish, especially since I rented a lot of games. The only one I remember is some version of Shadow of the Horned Rat.

I never finished Final Fantasy IX. I bought The Witcher a while back but never got around to starting it. I think I might have beaten ETW once (If nothing else I did finish the campaign for the U.S.). Never finished Torchlight. I've tried a couple MMORPGS over the years but never found myself getting further than level 20 or so in any of them.

That's really about it for the last ten years. I don't really buy a lot of games and tend to finish those I do (even made it from the earliest start date to the end in EU3).

Duke Nukem Forever: And why should I? It's like watching a porno of your favourite cartoon series from when you were a kid - a twisted horrid nightmare.
Z: Steel Soldiers: If it didnt constantly glitch out on my PC, I would of finished this long ago!
Supreme Commander: Heavily distracted by playing online with buddies.

So, I finally finished GTA IV on the PC. I wasn't able to finish it before due to the helicopter bug, in which you have to tab repeatedly the space button to climb in.

Now, to solve this you need to lower your framerate. The more FPS you have the more you need to tab to get in, so less FPS less tabs to get in. My framerate was too high to play the game (how silly that may sound). So I ran 5 youtube videos in the background and turned everything up to have the lowest possible framerate withou it becoming unplayable. And it worked, and now I can cross another game from my list to finish.

On to Dragon Age: Origins

I also never finished:

East India Company (yawn)
Empire TW (yaaawn)
Assassin's Creed (great but started to yawn towards the end)

The most shameful one is Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was hard but I'll try again soon.

Off the top of my head...

Super Smash TV (difficulty too hard)
Final Fantasy VIII (quit somewhere in Disk 1, didn't like it)
Xenogears (set aside due to a new game I started playing; still have save file; plan to finish eventually)
Final Fantasy XII (same as above)
Final Fantasy XIII (borrowed the game, returned, plan to reborrow)
LaPucelle Tactics (lost track of game mechanics, have to replay from beginning)
Persona 3:FES (took a brake but invested too much in it not to finish; 100+ hrs already)
Valkyria Chronicles (plan to finish, just busy at the moment)
Okami (same as above)
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? (took a break)
Diablo II
Age of Empires II campaign
Call of Duty: Black Ops (didn't like it in general compared to CoD:MW 2 so returned it before I could finish the campaign)

Shogun 2 that usugi will die
the rest i forgot

Grand Theft Auto, too long for me, and Oblivion. Started them but couldn't finish them.

I finished at least a campaign in each TW game.

Assassin's creed I and III - I liked them all, but loved the second one.
Arcania - Gothic 4 - I've played Ultima, and this is a cheap knock off. I can say that after playing 19 hours of it and having no interest in finishing it.
Napoleon TW- That game was a piece of over-priced crap.

I never really finish Games, I play them in open ended/ sandbox ways. I've always been unsatisfied with game endings, so I'd rather not see them.

Play Stations:
- Crash Twin Sanity (forget it for a long time after buy that)
- Shadow the Hedgehog (stuck in a loop, dunno how to say)

PC:
- Splinter Cell Double Agent (stuck in the middle of hostage situation)

and did the Sims count?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phonicsmonkey

I also never finished:

East India Company (yawn)
Empire TW (yaaawn)
Assassin's Creed (great but started to yawn towards the end)

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I never finished Assassin's Creed either, it got old quick. They make these intricately detailed, alive-feeling cities...and then give you nothing to do in them but the same 4 or 5 mini-games.

They nailed Assassin's Creed II, though. It was freaking great.

The Assasin's Creed games completely fall apart when you get caught, instead of being forced into a game of cat and mouse you can take out anything with ease

I am incredibly dissapointed in you guys! Not finishing a campaign in M2TW, not beating the masterpiece of Far Cry 2, not finishing AC1, Battle for Middle-Earth, Rise of Nations, Bad Company 2, OBLIVION, Fallouts 2 and 3, Black and White 2, MORROWIND (Seriously, how can you not beat this game? It's amazing).

I mean come on guys. You're robbing yourself of some seriously awesome games here. I'll admit I don't play most of them anymore, but that's because I beat them (some of them multiple times) and don't want to do the same stuff again, or just wanna move on to a new game.


As for me, the only games I never completed were on PS2, way back years ago. From my best memory, these are the ones I haven't completed. But don't think bad of me for it, because I think at the time Spyro the Dragon came out, I was about 3. And I'm sure we all know how very dedicated to completion of games 3 year olds are.

Incomplete games:

Kingdom Hearts 1 (I just could not beat one of the last bosses on the island. The big giant black one that wont let you fight with your team)
Spyro the Dragon (3 years old)
Spyro 2 (I think so at least. A bit fuzzy really)
The Mummy
Donald Duck Goin Quackers (I actually might finish this soon, since I just found it again)
Never beat the New Vegas campaign if you side with Mr. House. Beat the other two though.
Haven't yet beat Dead Space, though I'm getting close
Imperium Romanum and
Grand Ages: Rome (these two games were basically clones, though I didn't realize it until I bought the second one. They are horribly slow, boring, and over-complicated games)
The Guild 2 (I think I always got to a point where I had so much money and businesses that I was robbing caravans, taking their supplies, giving them to my businesses, and selling what the business made for a much greater profit)
Settlers: Rise of an Empire (Just too slow for me, always ended up same result anyway; turtle til I get a few units, then kill everything else)
Stronghold Crusader (Was too young, didn't really make sense)
Resistance: Fall of Man (waaaaaaaaaay too hard)
Viking: Battle for Asgard (I think I got frustrated and quit)

Civ V. (I didn't like it at all)
Crysis 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Heroes of Might and Magic V

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Originally Posted by Scienter

Crysis 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

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Ok come on now, what reason could you possibly have for not finishing 2 of the most amazing games I've played in the past year?

Like others, there are so many more I haven't finished than have.

The first game I ever finished was was Ultima IV. I was so thrilled, I left the ending screen up all day. Periodically, I'd go back into the den, re-read the screen, thrust my fisted hands into the air, make large-crowd-cheering noise and then run down the hall, arms up and "cheering" in a sort of victory jog. I was about 27 years old at the time. I don't remember what my wife's reaction was, but I'm sure she was glad the neighbors couldn't see in our apartment.

Those that I remember finishing:

Ultima IV
Doom 3
Mercenaries
Temple of Elemental Evil
Starcraft & Brood Wars

I prefer games that cannot be 'finished'. Although Portal 2 probably has one of the best endings I've so far encountered.

Most of the games I've played I've never finished. Here's my list:

Oblivion. I love the concept of the game and I don't understand why people hate it so much, but it does get pretty boring after a while. The main story could definitely use some more immersion and a better plot. A lot of the quests are pretty generic. I really like the idea behind the leveling system, but the way it was implemented was awful. It makes it so you don't feel like you've accomplished anything once you get to a higher level and get high tier equipment. Plus if you're not careful in the way you build your character some enemies become impossible to defeat and you have to turn the difficulty down which is lame and feels like cheating.

Rome: Total War. I didn't even get to halfway through my Julii campaign when the game started to bug me for unknown reasons, and then I discovered EB. I love the mod, but I've never finished a campaign in EB either. I guess that's ok though since EB is kinda sandbox in nature.

M2TW. I didn't get very far and then I forgot about it. I mostly bought is so I could play EB 2 when it comes out.

Tropico 3. I started a sandbox campaign and I just a few game years away from finishing it but I never did.

Call of Duty. I could never get past the first American mission.

Fallout: NV. I consider this one to still be a work in progress so maybe it shouldn't be on the list, but I haven't picked it up in a while.

Pokemon Heart Gold. I was about halfway through the game when my brother sold his DS so he could get an Ipod touch and I wasn't about to fork over 200$ just so I could play one game. I would love to finish it though, it was a great game and it brought back memories.

Now here's the list of games I've finished in the last couple of years. I'm not counting games I played when I was younger like Zelda, because that was a different time.

Fallout 3. Yes, I know, Fallout 3, the game everyone hates so much. But for me, Fallout 3 was great. In the beginning of the game I was always short on ammo and caps, so I always had to scrounge around for supplies. I barely survived large fights against raiders and super mutants. It really felt like I was in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I also got sucked in to the main story, because I really wanted to find out what happened to the dad.

I agree that Fallout New Vegas is a superior game, but it lacks the amount of challenge that Fallout 3 had. Maybe I ought to start playing on hard instead of normal.

Mostly (old) console games. I generally am able to finish all the PC games I play because I don't play many. However, I still haven't finished GTA IV, not because of the bug but because the damn final mission is so hard. I can't navigate the helicopter well enough through the city while keeping up with Pegorino/Dmitri.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reenk Roink

Mostly (old) console games. I generally am able to finish all the PC games I play because I don't play many. However, I still haven't finished GTA IV, not because of the bug but because the damn final mission is so hard. I can't navigate the helicopter well enough through the city while keeping up with Pegorino/Dmitri.

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.... for real?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reenk Roink

However, I still haven't finished GTA IV, not because of the bug but because the damn final mission is so hard. I can't navigate the helicopter well enough through the city while keeping up with Pegorino/Dmitri.

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I had a similar problem myself; I'm fine with keeping up with their 'copter, or with avoiding their missile attacks/retaliating with my own, but I struggle to do both at once. After several attempts, I gave up and haven't touched the game since. :3

That's the only game I can recall not having completed.

Just a tip.

Fly up high, don't bother shooting. Just follow.

Napoleon total war,-playing as the french.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drunk Clown

Just a tip.

Fly up high, don't bother shooting. Just follow.

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Will try, thanks. :yes:

The Witcher
Half Life 1

The game of life.

It would be easier to list the games I have finished!

Mafia- I honestly want to know why people liked this game. Sure the story and music were great, but the gameplay was awful. Friendly AI was idiotic and often died, resulting in an automatic game-over, the pointless car stealing quests were just pointless padding, and the terrible driving, which took up about 85% of the gameplay, was BORING. Nothing happens during the driving sections. You drive in silence except for the repetitive music.

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Originally Posted by CrossLOPER

Mafia- I honestly want to know why people liked this game. Sure the story and music were great, but the gameplay was awful. Friendly AI was idiotic and often died, resulting in an automatic game-over, the pointless car stealing quests were just pointless padding, and the terrible driving, which took up about 85% of the gameplay, was BORING. Nothing happens during the driving sections. You drive in silence except for the repetitive music.

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I can't speak for the first one, but Mafia 2 is really really good.