I was reading the latest feature from Scott Jones on Crispy Gamer where he talks about never finishing Shadow of the Colossus. That made me start thinking about all the games I never finished. Shadow of the Colossus is one of those games, but there are many in my sordid past that I wish I could go back and finish but either lack the time or, in some cases, the actual game.
What about you guys?
I finished Shadow of the Colossus, but man I had to push myself to do it. I’m not a person who generally appreciates boss battles, so I probably wasn’t the best audience for this one though I did love Ico and I must admit that Shadow was a gorgeous game.
As for what I never finished, in fact barely started, I kind of wish I had finished RE 4 since the fifth iteration will be out soon. Though it’s probably not all that plot heavy, I guess I’d like to know what I’m potentially getting into.
Plus I’ve run out of steam in the second chapter of The Witcher. I’m no good at rpgs, I just can’t follow through for some reason.
Someday I WILL finish the original Company of Heroes single-player campaign. yeah, everyone seems to hate it but I’m a compulsive pausebaby turtler and I enjoy it. Of course, Dawn of War 2 will hit soon which could fuck up everything…
Fallout 3, will that ever get finished? Gulp!
I still haven’t even reached the twist in Bioshock, yet. I’ve managed to avoid spoilers, though, which is good. One of these days I’ll get there and find out what all the fuss is about.
Never got to the end of Dead Rising.
I rarely finish games. The only games I ever play to completion are FPS games.
I watched a friend of mine finish Shadow of the Colossus, so that counts in my book. I absolutely loved playing through Ico, but the controls in Shadow were not comfortable for me, so I choose to watch most of the game from the couch while a friend played through it.
The main game I constantly want to get back to and finish is Planescape: Torment, which I’ve only played halfway through.
The other one that I’ve never played past the prologue is Independence War 2, which I know I’ll go back to and finish one day just because the first game is one of my all time favorites. I just keep promising myself that I’ll clear enough desk space to bring my joystick back out, but never get around to it.
I can’t think of any others right now. There’s plenty of games I’ve never finished, like Morrowind. But even though I enjoyed my time with games like Morrowind, I never had a desire to finish it. But Planescape and IW2: I’m definitely going back for those.
Ultimas 3 and 6, Bards Tale 2, Morrowind, Oblivion (but I still hope to fix that), Deus Ex 2, X Wing Alliance.
I tend to finish everything I buy. I need to see credits to get closure.
That said, I only made it halfway into both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and for some reason never bothered to finish them. It gnaws at me from time to time. Also, I’m only a few missions away from end of the single-player campaign in Culdcept Saga. I’m determined to finish that this week.
None. If I’m enjoying a game, I finish it. Heck, if it’s a short game I’ll finish it even if I’m not enjoying it.
Although… I never did finish Alternate Reality: The City. That game was fun, but brutal.
I saw a movie where you were played by Don Cheadle.
Dead Rising for me, too. I got to the 48-hour Overtime mode a couple times, and then just petered out. It was the special forces guys, mainly. I didn’t dress up in only wrestling shorts and a helmet to shoot soldiers with my MegaBuster (except on rare occasion), I came there for zombies dammit.
I still wish I would, though. I just don’t wish strongly enough to make that push.
I keep thinking that hey, I’ll get around to finishing them eventually, though in most cases I’m almost certainly deluding myself…
But of the more significant ones, I never got around to finishing Ultima 5. I had and loved 3 and 4, but 5 never came out for my Atari, and they were up to 7 by the time I got my own PC (I played 6 alongside a friend on his PC). I eventually got a copy of 5 through the Ultima Collection disc and started playing it, but I’d already gotten into the too-many-games-too-little-time trap by then and it fell by the wayside.
I’ve also never finished Starcraft, stopping at some point in the middle of the Zerg campaign. I can’t even remember why, but it’s always felt in hindsight like doing so stalled my interest in RTS games, and I never really got back to the genre in general.
When I first started gaming, I finished everything. A game was a challenge to be beaten, and I was determined to win. But then I ran into Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited. I finished Deja Vu, but got stuck hard in both Shadowgate and Uninvited. This was before the Internets, so I blew several hours over a few days just banging my head against the parts I couldn’t get past. I finally gave up. But it bothered the hell out of me.
From that day on, I rarely finish games, and I blame it all on Shadowgate and Univited. I’ve always felt my life would be better if I could go back and finish those two games. To this day, they occasionally pop out of the dark recesses of my mind to taunt me. Like I’ll be driving somewhere, and suddenly I’ll think, “Damn. I never got past that damn dragon in Shadowgate. And how the hell do you get through the maze in Univited?” And I’ll struggle to keep the car on the road.
So yeah, Shadowgate and Uninvited.
The concept is not as ridiculous or as unfulfilling as it sounds. As long as your friend is not annoyed by it, ‘back-seat’ driving a game (Climb to his neck now. Don’t let go yet. etc) can be pretty satisfying.
Well, to be completely honest, that game didn’t really have an ending. It was designed to be a character builder for the rest of the games in the series, which ended up being one sequel (The Dungeon).
Kid Chameleon…I have to beat 99 levels? I am aware there is a cheat to get to the end, but I want to play the game through all levels, and doing that on Sega was impossible for me. I have the Sega classics on my PS2 and started into it, but haven’t finished yet.
Ultima 8, I got stuck and then forgot about the game. Once I remembered I hadn’t finished it I couldn’t find the disk for it.
Legend of Kyrandia: Malcom’s Revenge…The LC2 my family had it installed on died and took one of the 8 install diskettes with it.
Since Ultima 8, I try to beat any game I start playing. I still have a few I got as gifts I haven’t touched though.
Funnily enough, Ultima 8 was one of the two games that led me to stop finishing games purely for the sake of finishing them. I did that in its release-state version, before they patched in jumping that would stand less chance of a fully informed jury nullilfying any assault and battery charges players might accrue. Grudge finishers, basically.
The other was Outpost.
I was much happier when I had the personal revelation that if I don’t enjoy a game past a certain point, I really have better things to do.
I managed to terraform the atmosphere in Outpost. I did this by starting the terraform, setting the game to its highest speed, then leaving it for a long time. Maybe an hour or two? When I came back and it was done, the only effect I could see was that I was able to get rid of the atmospheric processing plant. That was disappointing.
There are plenty of games in my library that I haven’t finished. A few I can think of off the top of my head include games such as Burnout 2(although I do own games from later in the series and enjoy them thoroughly) and Ecco the Dolphin. I became bored with them and have no regret about not finishing them.
Edit: I had to Google Outpost. I never finished that game…I just couldn’t get into outer space Sim City.