Great games you own but don't like or never even installed

**Tratorix** · 08-01-2009, 00:32

This pretty much describes my gaming habits in the last few years: Get game, play for 1 hour, shelf it.

Baldur's Gate 2: I know it's widely loved but it starts slow, the interface is clunky and I suck at making characters.

Devil May Cry: Picked it out of a bargain bin, played for a few minutes, haven't touched it since.

Medieval Total War II: Have barely played it, just doesn't match up to the original.

**Subotan** · 08-01-2009, 11:08

Originally Posted by Tratorix

Baldur's Gate 2: I know it's widely loved but it starts slow, the interface is clunky and I suck at making characters.

Warcraft 3: It feels like a mish-mash between AoE and WoW, and fails at both.

**pevergreen** · 08-01-2009, 12:18

Originally Posted by Subotan

Warcraft 3: It feels like a mish-mash between AoE and WoW, and fails at both.

Now that I take offence to.

It is a typical RTS.

and WoW was after it. Don't get me started on that game. I hate it and everyone who plays it. Everyone associated with it.

If you want a more AoE feeling play Warcraft 2. Races are basically mirrors except for higher tiers.

You can tell me a game in which this happens is bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2AsWctZ_Wc

**Chimpyang** · 08-01-2009, 20:05

Half Life 2 - Got bored of the game pretty quickly. For me this was overhyped in the manner of ETW.

Call of Duty 4 - there's no reason to play either SP or MP after a while - usual frustations of a mass appeal FPS wrapped up in a shinier package.

MTW II - this was the 'wtf' moment when the TW series started to go wrong for me. Most things were less intuitive than you would expect from a dev team who have had 6/7 releases (games + expansions) to polish stuff. Also - hard to care as much for a less superior game for its time after spending countless hours on MTW and STW.

I thought homeworld was excellent - eye bleedingly hard when games were getting easier so everyone could complete them easily on standard settings.

**Beskar** · 08-01-2009, 21:44

Penumba, got it for £3, but never got around to playing it.

**johnhughthom** · 08-01-2009, 22:29

Bioshock was stupidly cheap on Steam, £3.49 or something, and The Orange Box for a great price on a Steam sale. Never actually downloaded either....

**caravel** · 08-01-2009, 22:50

Thief II - Never actually installed. I got burnt out on Thief (which is a good game but some of the later levels get too frustrating) and decided not to take it further.

Morrowind - Walking and walking and walking, then running up to someone and rapping on the keys as fast as possible in what is apparently referred to as "combat". Then talking and clicking through line after line of pointless dialogue wondering if I should be remembering any of it.

System Shock 2 - Wandering about aimlessly with weapons that break after three or four uses etc. (yes I know it's a classic but this game depressed me.)

Medieval 2: Total War - For me this was the worst TW game so far. RTW was bad enough but this thing has so little to redeem it. I've not played ETW and probably won't now. I probably played M2TW two or three times before uninstalling it and throwing it on the shelf.

Unreal Tournament III - For some reason I've never felt inspired to take this out of the box. It seems like it might be UT2K4 with a makeover and I don't play FPS much anymore anyway (I picked this up in the 'bargain bin').

**econ21** · 08-01-2009, 22:51

Good to know I am not alone. I just want to put in a plug for Ghost Recon I - not a great game, but well worth perservering with.

Originally Posted by Whacker

Ghost Recon - Huge stinker. Hated this, it paled next to Operation Flashpoint, which was a bugfest. It was installed for maybe an hour total before being promptly uninstalled, never to see the light of day again.

The first mission is not that great and you probably need more than 1 hour to get acclimatised to the unforgiving stealth based game play. The strengths of the game are:
(1) the tactical aspect - things like carefully setting up your three squads to perform a deadly cross-fire assault on the enemy camp in the first mission are fun.
(2) the variety of missions - it really is extraordinarily good, from night time prison break to urban evac to armoured assault to night time recon etc etc. The first mission is perhaps the most bland and not characteristic of the game.
(3) selecting, upgrading your squad after XP and kitting them out with gear makes a nice SP hook to the campaign.
The more recent Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter sacrifices all these virtues.

Originally Posted by Monk

Ghost Recon (PC)
The original was an interesting game that built on the pretty successful formula from the rainbow six series. The only problem? The AI was a cheating . Instant headshots from over 500 yards with an AK is not my idea of a fun time. The only way you could make it through a mission without casualties would be to get extremely lucky. I heard the later expansions fixed this, but honestly I didn't care by then.

The later expansions made it worse, to be honest. The first game is easier. You have to play it like a stealth game - he who sees first, wins. The AI is no more accurate than you, I think. It's just very accurate and bullets are very lethal. The one shot one skill aspect of the game is the worst feature, IMO, as it just makes it not fun for most mortal players like me. You have to save and reload. And you eventually learn the map, so that you predict the AIs position. These things are particularly egregious in the timed missions and similar where you need quick and near perfect play to progress. Both things are bad and stop the game being great. (As does never being able to see your gun, grrr). Still it is one of the few games on my shelf I would consider replaying in the near future.