How many of your games do you finish?

[frogbeastegg]

Obviously MP only/primarily games don't count, nor do those which don't have an ending, such as Civilisation.

Second half of the question: Do you complete them to 100%, finding and doing everything possible, or do you count them as done when you've seen the main route through and the ending only?

Just curious to see how many others are in the same situation as me.

I'm terrible for not finishing my games. If they get too hard, or too fiddly, or too annoying, or too repetitive I tend to stop. I have a habit of ceasing play for days, sometimes weeks at a time, then either not bothering to go back, or going back and finding my skills and/or memory of what was going on have rusted and I need to restart but can't be bothered to. Though to be fair stopping playing isn't usually my choice; it's more a lack of time and a refusal to slow down my reading and writing to keep on playing.

I prefer to finish them to 100% on my first run through. When dealing with 60+ hour RPGs which take me months to complete replaying is not helpful. If I don't manage 100% on that first go I usually leave it at whatever I got.

[Keba]

Depends on the game, really, but I have finished nearly all games I have, but not seen/explored 100% of the content.

I have been known to play through a game over and over (reaching about 8-10 times for the Fallouts ... that's each, not together, and I only count 1 and 2 here) until I was satisfied that I had seen and done everything there was to do in the game (sometimes playing through a few more times for good measure) ... while at other times, I would throw the game away without playing it through once (Black and White being a prime example in this category, I simply grew tired of the game).

Though I generally prefer to discover everything in a game, most of the time I simply can't be bothered for a variety of reasons, from lack of time, to a dislike of some choices presented in games that simply prevent me from continuing down a certain path.

Personally, I blame my peers for this behaviour.

[econ21]

I very rarely finish them. I find that once I get past a "tipping point" where the game is not challenging, I give up and restart. This is very common in strategy games, like MTW and RTW mods. Alternatively, when the end is insight and there is not much discovery left, just hard slog, I sometimes quit. Best example: Jagged Alliance 2 - one of the greatest games of all time; I keep coming back to it but have never got to Meduna. Most RPGs also tended to fall into the latter camp - especially the old school RPGs like Might and Magic VI where you had to kill 100 Greater Werewolves and 100 Dragons to get onto the next map (where you have to kill 100 Titans).

I do seem to be getting better at finishing games - most of the games I've finished are ones I've played in the few years. Or perhaps game designers are getting better at introducing some closure or at least choosing a sensible game length (100 hours of great graphics is probably expensive to design).


The few games I've finished include the following CRPGs:

Fallout 2 - probably the first RPG I ever finished and almost the last. Fantastic ending.

Baldur's Gate 1 - man, did I have to sweat to finish that. Probably 300+ hours including restarts.

KOTOR1 and KOTOR2 - now that is how to write RPGs with a story and with closure (I won't listen to the legion of critics of KOTOR2s ending); shame replayability is low.

System Shock 2 - hard work getting through the Rickenbacker, but the Von Braun was so good, you feel obliged to do it.

Vampire Bloodlines - sadly, it gets progressively worse as you move through the game. But then again, it is falling from a very, very great height.


I don't play many action/shooter games, but the few I've tried tend to have sensible lengths and rather nice payoffs as their endings:

Vietcong - "don't mean nuthin', man"

Max Payne 2 - "dearest of all my friends"

Shadows of Udrentide - not listing NWN or HoTU is significant here

Mafia - has such a nice, sweet, happy ending.

Ghost Recon - no, I lie, they did not bother to make an ending for that otherwise superb game.


Some strategy games I've actually finished:

Civ2 and Civ4 - yes, froggie, they do have ends. And the only Civ4 game I finished, I lost (the Russians built the space craft) - the indignity!

RTW - finished my first campaign (Julii), then the game blew up my computer and the scales fell from my eyes. Don't believe I have finished any other TW game, outside of PBMs.


I'm not listing the scores of other games I've played and not finished, but the above is much less than a quarter of the total.

[Husar]

Depends a lot on the game, I would say about half of them 100%.
I finished for example Mafia but not all the bonus missions.
I don't remember about most strategy games but I tend to prefer skirmish, except for TW games where I often stop before the end date but the campaign goal might be reached by then.
Now that I think more, 100% for a quarter might be more accurate.
I also finished H&D2, Act of War(not the addon, the last mission there put me off, looked way too hard) and maybe other games.
Gothic 1 and 2 are the only ones I remember to have finished more than once, Gothic 3 not yet, restarted before that until now, the story is not that great anyway.
In some RTS games I tried but got bored before or something else kept me from finishing them.
Another one I finished was POTC.
And then both Mech Commanders and MW 4(plus the addon IIRC)
And StarSiege2 or what that was called, with those big robots that are not called mechs.
That should suffice for now, maybe 100% for half of them was right.
JA2 I usually stopped before the end, ended it only with cheats IIRC, but I don't really remember.

[professorspatula]

I don't tend to finish that many games now, but in the past I used to. When it comes to PS2 games I must have completed nearly all the ones I played, but then they tend to last for a very short length of time anyway. Back on the PC, I don't really have an urge to complete games. A lot of the ones I have go on for ages or have loads of depth which means I enjoy starting over again with different characters, factions or whatever to see how different things will be from the start again.

Many games I tend to play bit by bit every now again. Such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 - games I've had for 2 years but have no real desire to complete.

The games I most recently completed are mostly old ones - Baldurs Gate 2 (I got to 99% completion a few years ago on my old PC, but it wasn't until earlier in the year I finally completed it, ending my 7 year stint with the series); Jagged Alliance 2 - I only got it a few months back, but loved it enough to complete it, and I've since installed some mods and playing it over again - though I typically keep restarting with different teams; Call of Duty 2 - with the checkpoint system and healing health system, it's a game that is incredibly easy to play from start to finish. But in some ways that makes it more enjoyable; System Shock 2 - another oldie I bought 2 years ago but only completed a couple of months back after finally getting over my jitters when it came to dealing with all those zombies and cyber midwives! Oh and I also completed UFO: Aftermath after discovering the game isn't actually impossible when you start bringing disposable machine gun turrets along. Then it's easy as pie.

I've got another dozen or so games I'm currently 'playing'. I say playing, but I mean loading, having a bit of a go, then forgetting about them again for 6 months. Games like Painkiller, X-Com, Total Annihilation, Evil Genius and loads of other ones I probably should just delete from the harddisk to make room for the stack of other games I've bought but don't have room/time to play.

[Geoffrey S]

I finish most all the way through, attempting to find as much as possible. Exceptions are Doom 3 and Morrowind. Don't have the oppurtunity to even start many games recently, though.

Mafia - has such a nice, sweet, happy ending.

I loved the ending of that one. Sad endings are a rarity in games, and it was great to see this one executed so well.

[naut]

Finished most of the GTAs 100% and any FPS I play 100%. Otherwise I couldn't be bothered.

[Xiahou]

This is definitely a big "problem" for me. I think I'm a chronic non-finisher when it comes to games and it's not always because I lose interest either... Alot of times, when I actually like a game I'll put off playing it because I don't want the adventure to end yet. Unfortunately, what happens is that I take so long to get back to them I forget where I was or what I was doing so I either have to start all over, or just don't bother.

This happened, at first, with Eternal Darkness- which is an awesome game. Eventually, I started over, got hooked again and played it to conclusion- twice. I trailed off again about halfway thru the 3rd time, so I guess I havent truly finished it either(those that have beat it 3x know what I mean).

Other games, like Vampire: Bloodlines, I just couldn't put down. I think I won it twice in a row (different clans/endings) while barely even playing other games. Tales of Symphonia on the GC was another game that I played almost relentlessly until I won it.

[sapi]

It often takes me ages, but i do finish my games :P

KOTOR1+2 obviously have to be finished (i'm still one of those critics of #2's ending though ;) )

Oblivion - mostly, but the thieves guild failed to grab my interst

GTA3 - got far too boring half way through

Deus Ex - I played this too late and couldn't stand the graphics

Morrowind - Mostly

DoW - The campaign, but i couldn't stand the mp

MTW/RTW/M2 - played to death, and i'm probably finished with them

HL2/ep1 - Of course

AOE2/EE - sorta

FEAR - very boring, very repetitive, so no

bf1942/2 - finished in the sense that i can't stand to play the damn thing any more (but it was good while it lasted)

Diablo 2 - yes!

Homeworld 2 - yes

X3 - didn't know you could ;)

Defcon/CSS/DODS/Other online games - played to death (but i still play DODS a bit)

---
And that's pretty much my gaming history.

What that doesn't show is that i'll often play half way through, leave it, come back a month later and finish it in 2 days :P

[frogbeastegg]

Nice to know I am not alone in my affliction.

I find that once I get past a "tipping point" where the game is not challenging, I give up and restart.

Hmm, there's a good point. Most games types I can tolerate if they get easy; I'll speed my way through them and be done quickly. Strategy games, on the other hand, I lose interest in very quickly if they aren't challenging me. Then I hop off to a new campaign, or to a different game entirely.

To keep things fair I'll also have to admit that I hop off to a new campaign if any of the following happen:
-It becomes obvious I've lost and haven't got a snowball in hell's chance of recovering. With limited playtime I have better things to do than watch myself die.
-I've made a big fat huge colossal mistake and now know how to play the game to a better standard, avoiding it. Most commonly seen while learning to play a game like Civ 4.
-I'm bored with my faction and have seen something in another faction I want to play with. The old "But their infantry is shinier than mine!" envy. In M2TW I started as England, decided I liked Venice's militia infantry much better than my bugged billmen and crappy spears, then as Venice developed a bad case of mounted/dismounted Norman knight envy which saw me start a third game as the Sicilians. NB: I didn’t encounter either of these factions on the field. I simply decided their units sounded more interesting than mine.
-Preferring the strategic position of another faction. In my aforementioned Sicilian game I'm wishing I had Milan's starting position. All this island hopping and being sprawled out is not as much to my tastes as a set of closely concentrated settlements.
-The campaign itself is boring me, for reasons other than difficulty. For example playing a faction which has spears, spears, some more spears, and not much else.
-The AI is cheating obviously and greatly in ways I can't tolerate, for example spawning hordes of free units at a rate faster than it could build them if it owned half the world. This tends to get the game dropped for good.

Civ2 and Civ4 - yes, froggie, they do have ends. And the only Civ4 game I finished, I lost (the Russians built the space craft) - the indignity!

It's possible to argue that you have finished a TW game when you have won a full campaign with each and every faction, because then you have seen it all. However if you start a new campaign things usually play out differently, meaning you can play over and over and not have the same game twice. This is the beauty of civ 4 and its like: you can play over and over and it's still different each time. Unlike, say, the average shooter or platformer, where you go through the set levels in the same order and it's a nearly identical experience each time, or a RPG where the storyline and places are the same, even if your character is a different. That’s why I say you can’t finish the game itself; game, of course, referring to the entire title, not a campaign or specific random world map.

I've managed to finish (and win!) a few civ 4 games. :proud grin: Small continent maps and a handful of civs which are strong in the early age. It speeds things up, and means I'm unlikely to run out of time to play, or get to the parts which don't interest me as much as the early expanding/exploring/skirmishing of the game. Also means I'm less likely to decide I want to start over to take into account all the things I've learned during the game.

Alot of times, when I actually like a game I'll put off playing it because I don't want the adventure to end yet. Unfortunately, what happens is that I take so long to get back to them I forget where I was or what I was doing so I either have to start all over, or just don't bother.

Oh yes, I know that one too.


I have a whole stack of reasons for not finishing games. I’ve inadvertently ended up as something of an expert in avoiding credits sequences:

-Too many games to play. There’s so many I want to play that I can’t choose which one to stick with, so I swing from game to game and never get anywhere in any of them. :sigh: I buy the majority of them when they have gone cheap and are verging on becoming hard to find, so it’s a case of then or possibly never; at the rate I play if I limit myself to buying new games only when I’m finished with older ones I’ll miss out on a lot of titles or end up having to pay extortionate sums for them.

-I start up the game, play for an hour or so to see what it's like and like it. It's usually a big name game, or one I've been looking forward to, one I'm positive I know I will like. And then that's it, I don't go back though I always intend to. Because the game in question is a very big one which will take many, many hours to complete and it's going to suck up time I could spend writing, or reading, or playing something else instead. Hello Final Fantasy IX, X, and, one day soon, XII. Hello Dragon Quest VIII, Kingdom Hearts II and its obligatory KH I replay, Dark Chronicle, Skies of Arcadia - damn it, hello most of my RPG collection.

A lesser subcategory of this is never starting up a game I do want to play because I know I’ll lose an entire evening to it. Give M2TW a wave, everybody, for this is the category it resides in. It has some good company in there, though, so maybe it isn’t too lonely.

-Fear of the game's difficulty. I can be playing a game and doing fine, no real trouble with it. Then when I'm not playing I'll find myself wondering how long it will be until I start losing, or dying repeatedly, or whatever. Then I stop playing because I might become crap at it. No, it doesn’t make sense to me either. Ninja Gaiden, the original Devil May Cry, Metroid Prime II - nearly all of the games I have which are supposed to be very hard fall into this category. I start playing, I'm doing better than the average gamer is meant to be doing (I got to level 4 of Ninja Gaiden without dying! 'Most' people reputedly struggle to get past the first boss) and that can't last, no way.

-Fear the game won’t continue to be good, and will end up becoming something which tarnishes my memories of it. This is a justified fear; there are a good number of games out there which fall to bits after further play. Games where the AI is revealed to be considerably less cunning than it first appeared, or where the later levels aren’t very good, or where the story goes whacko, or where the end parts of the game didn’t receive much work and was rushed, or some incredibly stupid idea was incorporated which spoils everything, or where a niggle grows and grows until you can’t take it any more. Better to not play the whole thing and have memories of a great game. The sad thing about this one is that it’s a trained response, brought about by things like the end game fetch quest in Zelda: The Wind Waker, or by KOTOR II’s or Vampire: Bloodline’s rushed releases.

Zelda: Twilight Princess is steadily falling victim to this. I can’t bear the thought of it being another Wind Waker; I loved Wind Waker, with the exception of the sailing, until that fetch quest. The game died for me then, abruptly and in such a foolish way I have to wonder what the game’s designers thought they were doing. I’m terrified Twilight Princess will do the same.

This is entirely discounting the games I don’t finish because they get boring, or whatever. Those I don’t mind abandoning; no point in slogging on through something which is not fun. Games are meant to be fun. It’s the fact I’m doing this with games I do want to play which is the problem. I've been doing it to greater and lesser extents for years.



I suppose I might be getting better. I’m finishing a few more games of late, and not starting up new purchases to try them out until I intend to play them through. Tiny little improvement. Maybe?

[Beirut]

Flightsims never end.

[Tony Furze]

I dont usually complete them-they complete me (sounds very Zenlike)

That is: I lose. Im used to seeing the losing end credits

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

I played the popluar RPG Series, Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior for you old gamers) and Me and my older Brother played Dragon Quest VIII (he still playing it) and I got over 125,mabye 130+ hours before I finished it, and took me from Octorober-November 2005-Augest 2006. I played it for awhile, then got sick of it and quit, then came back and finish it in 6 days..

[Motep]

I finish most of them unless thay get to repetitive, then I either quit or stop playing for a while. I have been trying to get everything for Final fantasy ten, and have over 300 hours of gameplay racked up. Everybody has the entire spere grid finished, blitz ball teams all a lvl 99 and every tech, (I usually beat my opponents 20 something to zero) I have every aeon, item, weapon, Ive beaten all of the challenges, every monster for the monster arena, every aeon maxxed out, and the list contunues. 100% completion. Did the same thing with Final Fantasy 7, and a couple other games.

[Vuk]

To this day, of the many games I play, M2TW is the ONLY game I have ever fully conquered. I used to make fan missions for a game called Thief II, and I had never even conquered the game :D. I just finishe M2TW today! As France in 42 turns with 12 more provences than I needed!! Huhwa!

[Tony Furze]

Pardon!!!!!??????? What sort of game is this?Sounds like even i d be able to win at it.

[Geoffrey S]

Flightsims never end.

They did for me, rather frequently and abruptly.

[Beirut]

They did for me, rather frequently and abruptly.

You lawn darted, didn't you?

Happens to the best of us.

[Caius]

Few games I finished:

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine:What?I played it to the death!

RTW:My first PBEM, my first full campaign with some orgah's

NFSU:Finished 5 times:3 in easy and 2 in medium.Not finished hard.

Max Payne 2:One time.I like it very much

C&C Tiberian Sun:Older game, but good.It becomes bored sometimes

C&C Renegade:Other game i finished one time.

[Husar]

C&C Renegade:Other game i finished one time.

One can finish this?
I wanted to but got stuck in some submarine station where I needed to collect keycards for doors and after searching the whole accessible area again and agin and finding no way to go on I gave up the campaign.

[Spino]

Just off the top of my head. FYI, this list is comprised of games I cleared with little to no cheating or use of exploits.

Baldur's Gate
Icewind Dale
Ultima VII: The Black Gate & Serpent Isle (exp. pack)
Thief 1 & 2
Deux Ex 1 & 2
System Shock 2
Freedom Force
Civilization I (lots of times)
Master of Orion I (ditto)
Warcraft
Warcraft II
Codename Panzers: Phase One
Dawn of War
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (just finished an Imperial Guard campaign)
Rune
Severance: Blade of Darkness - Damn, I loved these games (Ok, I prefer not to classify Rune or Severance as 1st/3rd person shooters because well... they're really more like deliciously violent 3rd person h&L (hack & slash).

I won't bother listing all the first person shooters I've finished because regardless of their quality I find the average shooter much easier to finish than more 'intellectually intensive' games such as rpgs, 4X empire games, wargames, etc.

I believe I have only finished one Total War campaign and a short one at that. As others have already stated; once you've established yourself as the defacto superpower the campaign quickly loses its attraction.

[Martok]

I'm terrible at finishing games, particularly strategy titles. To date, I think the only ones I've completed are C&C Red Alert 1, Lords of the Realm 2, and ST: TNG Birth of the Federation. If you include games where I've won the "partial victory" conditions, then I can add both Shogun & Medieval Total War to the list.

That's about it, though. As others here have said, I usually reach a "tipping point" where I know I'm essentially guaranteed to win from here on out. After that, I generally lose interest and either start another campaign or switch to a different game.

This is definitely a big "problem" for me. I think I'm a chronic non-finisher when it comes to games and it's not always because I lose interest either... Alot of times, when I actually like a game I'll put off playing it because I don't want the adventure to end yet. Unfortunately, what happens is that I take so long to get back to them I forget where I was or what I was doing so I either have to start all over, or just don't bother.

I'm guilty of this as well, especially with the few RPG's I own.

[sapi]

The lack of half life/half life 2 on this list is disturbing me ;)

[Fragony]

Depends on the quality, but usually I finish them. It can happen that I get frustrated by a game and don't play for a while, but I come back most of the time.

[Arciel]

Meh....I finish all my games, though not up to 100%. The only thing preventing me from completing them thoroughly, especially with RPGs, is the fact that I don't want to actually see the ending. It's usually enough for me to reach the final boss, knowing that I can beat it easily.

[Sensei Warrior]

I've got problems in this area. When I was young I habitually didn't finish games. Then when I got a little older I started completing every game I had. Then I got married and had spawnlings. Well I stopped completing games again.

There is a 1/2 life a game has. I can't afford to play for 500+ hours anymore, so any game that I do play better be better than life itself. I used to buy an RPG like FF12 and play it 8hrs a day 16hrs on the weekend until I won. For some reason (job, wife, kids, friends, family, lawyers, etc) I don't have the time anymore. Which whacks any RPG, and most strategy.

MTW seems to be the one exception. Sometimes it takes me 3 days or more to resolve 1 year. Faction games can take me months to play, which typically means I opt out at the minor victory. Last year I played all the factions a little, but managed a full completion of just 2 factions, the Turks (VI, GA, Hard), and the English (VI, Total Domination, Norm).

[marcusbrutus]

I don't complete games at all anymore (except Katamari Dami San).

When I was younger I used to complete games all the time. Must've completed Sword of Aragon about 15 times - but if I played it now I reakon I'd stop after about 70% complete - I just don't have the time to put in so I can complete a game in a reasonable amount of time (before it gets dull).

Saying that I NEVER completed Ultima V and I must have put at least 8000 hours into that game. And that's a conservative estimate.

[Caius]

One can finish this?
I wanted to but got stuck in some submarine station where I needed to collect keycards for doors and after searching the whole accessible area again and agin and finding no way to go on I gave up the campaign.

Well, it is hard.

I dont remember exactly how, but i started to run like a crazy man and i find the way.

In RTW.Winned one campaign with the Brutii (a short one) and the same campaign as econ21.

[screwtype]

I long ago gave up trying to finish games. I mostly just sample a game these days, get the flavour of it, enjoy it for a few days or maybe weeks if I like it. I've got better things to do than waste time trying to complete stupid games, especially if they're not all that compelling.

It does also depend on the game to a degree though. If it's a good strategy game, like say a TW game, I'm far more likely to try to close out a campaign than if it's, say, a shooter.

At the moment though about the only game I play is Imperialism II, I always have a game going and I generally complete a campaign either to the point where I've lost it or got to the stage where I've obviously won and there's no real point in continuing. I have actually finished quite a few Imp II games though, these days I probably 100% complete about 1 in every 10 or 12 campaigns I play.

But then, Imp II is a very special game, it's one of the very few games I've gone back to again and again, even after years of playing it I'm still finding out things I didn't know, encountering things I didn't expect, and working out new strategies I hadn't thought of before.

[KukriKhan]

I have a stubborn streak - even when I've lost interest in a game, I wanna get my money's worth, so play to completion. Plus, then when someone else wants to discuss a game I've played, I can talk semi-intelligently about it.

However, I can see the wisdom in not wasting time on a doomed effort.