Completing Video Games

[theseworlds]

Whenever I start a new Final Fantasy save, I always get the best weapons, turn my characters into bosses, and then reach the last boss, only to save it beforehand and turn it off. I'm not sure why. I'll come back to it at some point later, usually a few months later, and finish that last bit. I'm not sure why I do this.

I've never finished San Andreas. Always get to the last city and lose interest. I've finished every other (3D) GTA though.
Skyrim is another. I get sidetracked, beef up my character without noticing, and then walk the main story before losing interest at some point.
New Vegas is the same story.
Deus EX, Mass Effect (any), LA Noire, Uncharted 2 or 3, Eternal Sonata, Resonance of Fate. All of these I just haven't had time to really get into. Whenever I tell myself I'll sit down and play through one, I get a shitload of work, or a shitload of uni assignments, or a shitload of other commitments.

One day...

 

[Dandark]

I finish most of the games I start but not all. Even though I enjoyed them and called them decent or good games I still have yet to finish Dark souls, Kingdoms of Amular or FEAR 2.

 

[The_Waspman]

The amount of torture I will put myself through to not only complete a game, but do my best to 100% it is far too unhealthy.

There are only two games I currently own that I have yet to finish the main story campaign of, and they are Dark Souls and Final Fantasy XIII-2. The former because its damn hard (though I do only have two bosses to go) and depressing - I'm at the point now where...

Spoiler: Dark Souls character details

Pretty much all of the NPCs are dead or hollow. The amount of effort I put into trying to ensure that Seigmeyer made it out safe, only to find his daughter weeping over his body on the beach at the end of the world was too much for me to handle. Ditto saving the Maiden, making sure Petrus didn't have his way with her only to discover she died anyway.

and the latter because, well, I've been grinding out as many of the fragments as I can, just got the last boss to go.

Like I say, I have an almost obsessive compulsive need to finish games. It still rankles me that I failed to complete either Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Canyon Warrior on NES (the ONLY two games I owned that I didn't complete) and yet I will push through to the end of shit like the worst game in the universe (I'm looking at YOU, [Prototype]!).

Saying that, I never got far in GTA4 (Controls were far too wank for me), Need for Speed Carbon (I sucked majorly at the drift events which you needed to complete to get to the final boss) and Need for Speed Pro Street (because the game had no fucking point) but I think thats all of them.

But yeah, I don't really get this whole 'not completing games' thing, if it applys to most of the games you might buy, instead of just the odd one or two.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

I'd say I complete about 60% of the games I play, already what I'd consider a low portion, and even then I do quite a lot of research about whether the game will be in line with my interests; it's extremely rare that I make impulse buys or anything of the sort.

The most common thing to make me stop is just boredom, though, or frustration. I like the occasional niche title, and that niche is often "piss off the player with our stupid and convoluted design decisions", unfortunately.

 

[purplecactus]

I hate leaving games unfinished, no matter how bad. The only difference it makes is if they're good I'll actually enjoy finishing them. As for those kicking around as yet unfinished... Final Fantasy XIII-2 (my access to the PS3 is somewhat limited by it belonging to my brother) and Manhunt, which I'm struggling to get into. Sure, I like me some mindless violence, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

 

[DanielBrown]

Out the 120+ games I own for 360 and PS3 the only ones I recall not completing are Yakuza 3, Brütal Legend, MGS: Peace Walker, Jak II and Jak III. Intend to try them again eventually, but most probably I won't.
Trophies and achievements are enough to push me through a game, even if I despise it.

 

[AndrewF022]

I always attempt to finish all games I start when possible, unless I don't like it or just get bored playing it.

I can understand why some people don't finish all the games they start though, not everyone has a lot of free time, and the real world often gets in the way (work, school, family etc). Not playing a game for over a month and trying to come back and jump straight into the middle of it again is hard, and sometimes it's not worth trying to start again, especially if theres newer games out that take your fancy more than that one did, especially when you're not sure how much time you will have to play it in the near distant future.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I aim for 100% in most games. This can be a chore with, say, LEGO games (I am banging on about them a lot recently aren't I?) but with other games it's almost trivially easy.

The exception is role playing games with a moral choice system, because I cannot play bad guys. I even find it difficult to play neutral guys. I go through these games helping everyone as well as I can, which often leads to me nearly killing my character and stumbling around with no health because I just had to rescue someone from supermutants (goddamn Fallout 3) In those games I'll only ever play through as a good guy, even to the point of not getting all achievements for playing a bad guy.

 

[Xerosch]

Only 23% managed to save Malick, you monsters

Seriously? For once I am in the elite group? Yay!

I sadly can only finish, or even complete, a lot of games I own. It's simply because I'm in the last year of university and I'm a freelance reviewer. That unfortunately leads to little time, fast building backlog.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Quite a few actually...Lets see if I can make a list but keep the list small enough to not put it in a spoiler-box...could not do it

Spoiler

-Gamecube-
Eternal Darkness (other games took my interest)
Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess (wanted to finish Wind Waker first)
Luigi's Mansion (Lost interest)
Megaman X collection (beat MMX1 not yet back for other MMX games)

-N64-
Castlevania (horrible game)
Harvest Moon (...does this game end?)
Mystic Ninja staring Goemon (no memory card)
Perfect Dark (other games got in my way)
Snowboard Kids 2 (...I could have beaten this as a kid)

-NES-
Adventure Island
Battletoads
Double Dragon
Megaman 2
Mike Tyson's Punchout!! (Iron Mike Tyson)
Monster Party
Ninja Gaiden (Level 6-2)
Punisher
TMNT 2 - Arcade
Wizards and Warriors
(Blanket statement for my NES games: my console died and my retro-console is 600 miles away)

-PSX-
Chrono Trigger (I don't have it on the SNES...other games took my attention)
Gex (the disc may not work anymore...)
Legend of Dragoon (memory card fails)
Wild Arms (memory card fails)

-PS2-
Ace Combat 4 (other games got in the way)
Dirge of Cerberus - Final Fantasy VII (other games got in the way. I like this game)
Dragon Quest VIII (other games got in the way. I like this game)
Final Fantasy XII (difficulty spike)
Okami (other games came up)
Red Faction (lost interest)
Shadow of the Colossus (game disc started screwing up)
Timesplitters - Future Perfect (other games came up. Love the bot matches)

-SNES-
Quest of the Mystic Ninja (...I don't know why I'm not playing this honestly)

-Xbox 360-
Final Fantasy XIII (fucking horrible game)
Fist of the North Star - Ken's Rage (l know how it ends because of the anime. I like the game though)

 

[Razentsu]

According to my Backloggery [http://www.backloggery.com/razentsu], 71% of my library consists of unfinished games. ):

Some recent games I've dropped are:

• 
  Final Fantasy XIII
  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

I've just become less patient with my games. ):

 

[WaysideMaze]

Only 23% managed to save Malick, you monsters.

I failed. But I specialized in sneaking around everything. I wasn't prepared to be thrown into the middle of a giant gun battle.

I imagine it is possible as a stealth character to save her, but I failed.

I did sneak around afterwards and kill everyone there though

 

[keiji_Maeda]

scratch me up as belonging to the group of people who sued to finish game more often when i had a higher gradient of time allocated to gaming. Now that my income has increased to the degree where i have more income at my disposal than i have readily accesable time, i find myself finishing games to a lower degree.

However, it has got me better att prioritizing games that ihave a high interest in, like Deus EX HR and ME3& Lone survivor.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

Only 23% managed to save Malick, you monsters.

I failed. But I specialized in sneaking around everything. I wasn't prepared to be thrown into the middle of a giant gun battle.

I imagine it is possible as a stealth character to save her, but I failed.

I did sneak around afterwards and kill everyone there though

i had the same problem, and tried to solve it by opening fire with the noisiest weapon i could find and subsequently jumping in the smack dab middle of a gunfight with a platoon of angry riflemen. IT worked the third time through.

 

[Mister K]

Only Twisted Metal for PS3, because of the Dollface mission with 2 juggernauts.

 

[WhyBotherToTry]

Usually I finish everything I buy. I'm currently taking a break from Dark Souls because the game I was on before that was Skyrim and I was getting a bit sick of the whole swords and magic thing. I'll go back to it when I'm finished ME3.
For anyone out there who played ICO, is it worth going through the whole thing? I bought the bundle thing that had Shadow of the Colossus in it and played ICO up until the first room after you free Yorda, but she got dragged into the floor while I was looking around and I've been in two minds about it since because if the whole game is like that then I have a feeling I'll just end up getting pissed off at it.

 

[teqrevisited]

It's rare that I don't finish a game. 100% is an entirely different animal though. I've completed the story of countless games but some of their secrets and challenges remain unbeaten by me to this day.

 

[Jhooud]

Looking at my game library (aka backlog) I find that the games I'm most likely to have not completed are the ones I've picked up on a Steam sale. Some I grabbed that I might not have just because the price was right to go ahead and give it a try. King's Bounty comes to mind as one I haven't finished.

Others I really think I'll get done (Arkham City and ME2 are high on my list), but with work/kids/etc. I haven't taken the time yet.

It is sort of shocking to see on a site like raptr (they track achievements by game) how few people get beyond the opening let alone the finale. Some of that I suppose you could write off to rentals and what not, but still, one in five finishing seems really low.