Confession Time:Games You Just Can't Get Into

[Stryc9]

anc[is]X3. Bought X3 Terran Conflict on a whim, and did not like it. I think I would have been ok with flying around for hours accomplishing nothing with the complex as hell interface (I couldn't even figure out how to cheat). But it was just so... empty. There was no one to talk to, no life at all. Every single ship captain had the same robotic responses and the stations were literally robots.

There are no built in cheats for any of the X games that I've played, you have to install a cheat script. I used LV's cheat script to help me get used to the nearly impenetrable game mechanics in X3: Reunion you might be able to find a version for Terran Conflict if you're interested. You can use it to give you any ship in the game and tune it to fly as fast as you'd like so you can just explore which is well worth it because there are some truly beautiful systems in that game.

OT: So so many games but the one that really stands out is Morrowind, or any Elder Scrolls game for that matter. I tried Morrowind a couple of times but after all the walking and doing nothing else I just end up giving up on them after an hour or two and putting them away.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I've kept trying to get into Mass Effect. I can't seem to care about the side stuff and I spend that time trying to get the main story to move along. When it does, I find the combat to be dull. I think it may be the cover-based combat. It's my least favorite part of shooters. Basically, I can only make myself use that mechanic in 1 game. I have Gears of War, so I don't need another game to do the same things. I'm perfectly capable of standing behind a wall, thank you.

 

[Mafoobula]

Monkey Island I and II "special editions" available on Steam. I know what I'm playing is a heart-felt and near-flawless recreation of the first two games of a franchise that is part of PC gaming history. I know what I'm playing is witty and involving. I know what I'm playing is, in fact, a part of MY own history, as I can recall having Monkey Island and similar golden age LucasArts games in my life.
And yet... I couldn't play more than maybe 15 minutes of it. I guess it's a matter of being spoiled for choice, for indeed, I've been splurging somewhat obscenely on Steam these past few weeks.

I had SSX Tricky on the Gamecube, and I played that game way too much. It was the only game in my life that made my thumb sore. Naturally, given how much fun and rage I had with Tricky, I decided to pick up SSX Blur for the Wii.
Oh, ye flipping gods, that was horrid. At least I had the crippled controls as a legitimate excuse, this time.

One day, I was looking over the Wii section at a Best Buy, and happened to stumble across a title that I'd never heard of, but at least looked intriguing. Baroque, it was called. The shtick on the back seemed to describe it as a dungeon crawler with a dollop of acid-trip-gone-terribly-wrong. I enjoy the occasional dungeon crawler, so I picked it up for a modest $20.
Not worth it. I'm not really used to having games drop me into the world with zero context or direction. I've often heard grumblings about how some tutorials treat the players like children who have never seen a controller in their life. Baroque is the absolute opposite.
Anyway, I wandered around, died, wandered around some more, died some more, died a third time, and gave up. I returned it the next day.
I think I can equate Baroque to one of those artsy-fartsy films. You know, the ones that make you wonder "dafuq i just see?" every 15 seconds. If Andy Warhol directed a video game, it would look a lot like Baroque.

 

[Nanaki316]

Skyrim. I just cannot get into it. My bloke bought me it for Christmas and when FFXIII-2 came out I put it down for that and have barely picked it back up since. I suck at it, pretty sure there's something huge I'm missing but I struggle on the easiest setting.

 

[esemesas]

Baldur's gate. Of course, I never did give it much of a shot. The thing is, when I got to the first town where I was supposed to meet the two friends of my mentor, I get ambushed and all of my party beside my main character got killed before I even had time to react. Also, it's just too slow of a game. I mean, the only thing that happened in the first thirty minutes was the aforementioned death of my party.

Also, Civilization 4. I love 3 and 5, but I just can't get myself to play Civ 4 for longer than a couple of hours. Don't know why, but I also hate the graphics on that game, despite of the fact that I have no complaints with Civ 3's graphics.

 

[TheCommanders]

Half-life 2 is not a good game. It's not a bad game, and I do give respect to its modding capabilities.

But in all seriousness, it is just shit. It's boring. The characters are not interesting and it has a shit ending as well.

Also, weapon variety sucks, people think it has weapon variety? HA!

Thank you. Finally someone admits that Half-life 2 is not the universe changing game some people claim it to be. I really tried to enjoy the game but what I got was a boring story with characters I didn't give two shits about. I just couldn't finish it fast enough for me to return back to games like TF2 or Oblivion where I found more enjoyable. Seriously though Half-Life 2 was torture.

You think it was torture for you... I'm studying game design, and therefore have been repeatedly told I am defective for not liking this game. For one of my professors, I actually played through Half Life 2 twice (once on PC and once on 360) and wrote up a 12 page document regarding why I considered it objectively not great, and why it would be detrimental to the future of similar games to hold it up as some kind of standard. To whomever said, earlier in this thread, that they were sick of people holding old games up to the standard of modern games, let me explain why we do that. It's because sometimes this happens:

A modern game comes out.
I like modern game.
Pretentious friend says old games are better.
I ask for evidence.
He points out Half Life 2 (or insert nostalgically overrated game here)
I take a look at Half Life 2, and taking him at face value compare it objectively to modern games and find it lacking.
I am now apparently a lesser breed of gamer.
WTF?

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Bioshock.

This seems like the kind of game I should like. I'm not huge on FPS games but I can enjoy them if the setting and story is engaging and unique. I admit a certain predilection for the Steampunk aesthetic and I'm all for criticizing Objectivist Philosophy.

But I just can't get into this game. I've tried installing and playing it no less than 5 times and each time I get to...Professor Bunnyface's museum of atrocity (Can't remember the character's name) and my giveashit reserves just completely run out.

 

[theevilgenius60]

I'm only including games that could have been badass, but didn't click for me. Otherwise, the list would be interminably long.
Borderlands(hated the aiming, couldn't get over it but I'll give part 2 a try)
Dark Souls( I LOVE RPGs, but this one had just the barest story[and I've beaten Dragon's Dogma so that's saying something], also the combat was cheap. Not difficult, just cheap)
Alan Wake( didn't like the ambush system, always behind you, always a cut scene. Also, the ending that wasn't an ending, great one guys.Paradoxically, I loved American Nightmare. Survival mode was awesome and I wish it was bigger)
Bayonetta(don't know why, just didn't like it. If I'm gonna play Devil May Cry, then I'll play that. I did enjoy her toying with Cheshire though, and witch time was a pretty cool mechanic)
Edit: Red Dead Redemption(how is this game so well regarded? I couldn't get past much later than leaving the ranch before it was putting me to sleep. And trying to shoot while mounted? Don't get me started)
Older FPSs( you know the ones, everything's a little off in the movement department and it just ends up making me nauseous[a latter day example of this would be Singularity])

 

[Scarim Coral]

I hated Tales of Symphonia despite knowing some people on here loved it. Yesh some of the reasons why I hate is my typical problems with JRPG (limited save points) but what make Symphonia different is the combat.
Sure I can give credit that the combat is different but it doesn't mean it's a good thing. The thing about Jrpg combat is to think about the fight like when to cast spell or when to heal etc.
Since the combat is far more free flowing most of the time my stratergy is just hacking and slicing at my enemy while I should be more mindful about it. It doesn't help the fact that there is two paths to your fighting skill as I didn't fully utalize the one I choice but I didn't want to choose the other instead as it would had set my skills to the first levels again.

Other than that the game itself was alright I guess well except for those character chatter scene since you cannot skip that and I like the fact it was a long game aswell.

 

[Tallim]

Maybe Persona 3 FES? More so The Answer. God what were they thinking taking the awesome antigrind system out of the game and replacing it with so much grind all over the place! Oh and the difficulty is stuck on Hard. Forgot to mention. I tried I really did... I hope the story I missed wasn't important!

Persona 3 in general was not as good as I was expecting (well I played Persona 4 first so maybe that raised my expectations a tad) the complete dickhole of a main character, lack of a quick travel button (you miss it once it's gone) and the godawful party AI made it only worth going through once.

Every time I think to try it again, I remember how bad the AI is and swiftly put the game down

Plus you need to New Game + to beat or even start in some cases your party member's Social Links. Why are they only unlocked when you have maxed stat X? Party members are damn important.

Really I can list reasons why I don't like P3 as much as P4 all day but only because I say P4 does literally everything so much better.

Though Aigis as a character and the whole love thing with Chidori just past the halfway point were both completely epic.

And your party members being able to get caught by random enemies if you are rushing a floor was hit and miss. Jumping in on my own to save Aigis from a 1v4 was pretty damn awesome. Though getting your party into 3 different fights at the same time gets a bit clusterfucky.

Personal preference obviously as I make much the same arguments the other way around for P3 and P4, P4 wasn't anywhere near as good as P3 and I was kind of disappointed in it. I also think that Nocturne (Lucifer's Call in euro) or pretty much any of the primary MegaTen games are much better than both "modern" Persona games.


I just can't get into any modern Bioware games, the writing just turns me off for some reason and there are so many little things that bug me about their design choices.

 

[Rock-nerd]

Just could never get into Half Life, i'm sure to most people it's really enjoyab;e but not my type of thing.

 

[Launcelot111]

Maybe Persona 3 FES? More so The Answer. God what were they thinking taking the awesome antigrind system out of the game and replacing it with so much grind all over the place! Oh and the difficulty is stuck on Hard. Forgot to mention. I tried I really did... I hope the story I missed wasn't important!

Persona 3 in general was not as good as I was expecting (well I played Persona 4 first so maybe that raised my expectations a tad) the complete dickhole of a main character, lack of a quick travel button (you miss it once it's gone) and the godawful party AI made it only worth going through once.

Every time I think to try it again, I remember how bad the AI is and swiftly put the game down

Plus you need to New Game + to beat or even start in some cases your party member's Social Links. Why are they only unlocked when you have maxed stat X? Party members are damn important.

Really I can list reasons why I don't like P3 as much as P4 all day but only because I say P4 does literally everything so much better.

Though Aigis as a character and the whole love thing with Chidori just past the halfway point were both completely epic.

And your party members being able to get caught by random enemies if you are rushing a floor was hit and miss. Jumping in on my own to save Aigis from a 1v4 was pretty damn awesome. Though getting your party into 3 different fights at the same time gets a bit clusterfucky.

If you ever feel inspired to give it another go and somehow have a PSP lying around, Persona 3 Portable addresses every one of your concerns. The female MC is way more upbeat than the old mopey emo. You get the quick travel and full teammate control of Persona 4. You get to do social links with every team member (even Koromaru) and most of the crappier guy ones are taken out. You don't get the fully animated cutscenes anymore and you don't actually get to run around the town map anymore, but every other facet is improved upon (at least in my book)

OT: Chrono Trigger. I love RPGs, but this one just doesn't do it for me. The music is epic, and the attention to detail is great, but the characters are uninteresting, the combat is dull, and the story is thoroughly uninspiring. I've started five times, and each time I sooner or later just stop caring. Dragon Quest VIII ended up about the same with me.

Any cover based shooter: They always end up as glorified shooting galleries until you find one asshole enemy who despite your best efforts always drives you out of cover and thus breaks the entire game system.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Only one that springs to mind is Bayonetta. I played that for 2 hours before putting down the controller and asking myself.. what the fuck is happening here? There's hair and angelic bird monsters and some woman keeps warbling and belting out horrible music in the background.. also I shoot guns with my feet.

Ok.. lemme see the reviews.. 8, 9, 8, 9, 9, 4/5, 4.5/5 ...etc.. I must be dense. =(

Well, no, reviews are ultimately opinions; I freaking LOVED Bayonetta and m'not about to criticise someone for not liking it.

OT: Dwarf Fortress.
I get that the complexity is supposed to be the appeal of it, but...much of that complexity just seems unnecessary.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Maybe Persona 3 FES? More so The Answer. God what were they thinking taking the awesome antigrind system out of the game and replacing it with so much grind all over the place! Oh and the difficulty is stuck on Hard. Forgot to mention. I tried I really did... I hope the story I missed wasn't important!

Persona 3 in general was not as good as I was expecting (well I played Persona 4 first so maybe that raised my expectations a tad) the complete dickhole of a main character, lack of a quick travel button (you miss it once it's gone) and the godawful party AI made it only worth going through once.

Every time I think to try it again, I remember how bad the AI is and swiftly put the game down

Plus you need to New Game + to beat or even start in some cases your party member's Social Links. Why are they only unlocked when you have maxed stat X? Party members are damn important.

Really I can list reasons why I don't like P3 as much as P4 all day but only because I say P4 does literally everything so much better.

Though Aigis as a character and the whole love thing with Chidori just past the halfway point were both completely epic.

And your party members being able to get caught by random enemies if you are rushing a floor was hit and miss. Jumping in on my own to save Aigis from a 1v4 was pretty damn awesome. Though getting your party into 3 different fights at the same time gets a bit clusterfucky.

If you ever feel inspired to give it another go and somehow have a PSP lying around, Persona 3 Portable addresses every one of your concerns. The female MC is way more upbeat than the old mopey emo. You get the quick travel and full teammate control of Persona 4. You get to do social links with every team member (even Koromaru) and most of the crappier guy ones are taken out. You don't get the fully animated cutscenes anymore and you don't actually get to run around the town map anymore, but every other facet is improved upon (at least in my book)

Thinking about it, the story/characters (besides the MC) in Persona 3 were actually really good. I suppose P3P isn't that expensive anymore, it'd be nice to have another Persona to go through...

To be honest the whole Female MC idea sounds pretty interesting, i've heard some things about Shinjiro not dying if you max his Social Link and other stuff. Personally I never liked the guy and his death served the perfect message that these bad guys ain't fuckin' around no more. So he's gonna stay dead XD

How expensive are the bread and butter PSPs nowadays? I have never picked one up ever before. To Amazon! Then to Game because they probably have gone for another "we're fucking fucked sale" and lol cheap swag ftw.

 

[Guffe]

The Legend of Zelda games. I have played Majora's Mask and I just finished Ocarina of Time yesterday. I can sort of see why people like them but I simply can't really get into them.

But you still finished them?!!
I'd say the OP is looking for games you didn't have the feeling for to even get through.
But yeah I've had similar experiences were the game wasn't that enjoyable but still played through.

For me it was World of Warcraft.
I love Warcraft III (The whole thing) and played WoW for a few months but never really clicked.
I've played a lot of Lotro and GuildWars and enjoyed the hell out of those but WoW never clicked even if it is "the mother of MMOs". No idea why.
And Baroque, never finished it, never understood the game. Really weird and repetetive in my taste. Might give it a shot sometime now that I might understand the game a little since I've aged a bit since I played it.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Portal, I can't be bothered finishing it.

 

[Syzygy23]

Western RPGs in general. For a lot of reasons.

1. Character Creation. I know that a lot of people defend this as the best feature, but it is not. It is the worse detriment imaginable. Never mind the illusion of choice thing. What this does is prevent the writers from writing one specific storyline for the game and waste more energy trying to keep things open as possible. You can't get strong characters when you do something like.

Western RPGs tend to inherit a lot of traits from Tabletop RPGs, probably because the most popular one(s) like Dungeons and Dragons originated in the west. Open worlds and custom player characters are part and parcel of TTRPGs, and it carries over into our videogames as well. You need a healthy imagination and a willingness to at least TRY to immerse yourself in whatever games universe you happen to be inhabiting at the time to have any fun.

2. Your actions don't matter in the universe. When you leave a game, have you really accomplish anything. Most often nothing useful or important.

COUNTEREXAMPLE: Fallout New Vegas. I just invalidated that argument.

3. No emotional attachment. Even the worse made JRPG character has a leg up over the average Western RPG character. In order to get annoyed at someone, there needs to be something there to latch onto. You get annoyed at your FF13 characters because someone made them that way. I never felt anything for my avatar in Western RPGs.

Now awaiting the one person that always want to call me out on this.

Again, roleplaying games usually require YOU to roleplay. If you aren't a very imaginative person or don't have the patience, by all means, let the machine do that for you.

And the worst made JRPG characters DO NOT have a leg up on a standard silent protagonist in a western RPG. I dunno if that was trollbait or what, but you cannot watch the cutscenes from that Star Ocean: The Last Hope game and tell me with a straight face that you didn't pray to all the deities that anyone has ever worshipped to make the characters just SHUT THE FUCK UP.

LOOK UPON IT AND DESPAIR

 

[Crumpster]

This has to be Skyrim for me.
I bet I've been playing it wrong or something since everyone thinks it's God's gift to the RPG world, I just don't. It seems boring and especially the combat, oh the wonders of effortless swings of a mace that doesn't even seem to connect although a health bar decreases on your enemy.
That and they made it so I didn't want to explore conversation options with random NPCs, I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't seem interesting.

Another game I just can't get into is Batman: Arkham Asylum, I completed 2% of the game if I remember correctly, then I uninstalled it and never thought about it again, until now. Movement feels too chunky, simple as that.