Subjectively "good" games you could not get into.

[The Enquirer]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I got done with the first mission, got out into the city to explore for the first time and after that, I just kinda dropped it. Felt too... restricted I guess.

Also, 2D games. A whole lot of them can't keep my attention for more than 10 mins. Only one so far that's been able to do this has been Super Smash Bros.

That's what I found amazing about that game. As you get deeper and deeper into the game your experience becomes deeper as well. You chose how you want to play. I played mostly a lethal stealthy hacker type who relied mainly on traps to get the job done. My friend played more of the ambush type because he had so many of the movement options available. I found it actually quite liberating. Though if you don't get sucked in early on it can be a real grind sadly. Looking back on it's easily on of my favorite games of all time. Understandable why others may not like it though

Also I could not agree more with you on the 2D gaming. Super Smash Brothers was the only one that ever sucked me in. Probably because it wasn't just killing massive swarms of enemies followed by one big guy. You could just have regular one on one fights. And they were simple too.

The whole Assassin's Creed series. It just feels like a parkour simulator where you occasionally kill someone. With all the extra crap to collect for no good reasons, I could just go play Mirror's Edge and actually enjoy myself.

See I heard that if you play Assassins Creed 2 you get sucked in. Sadly I'm one of those stubborn people who really tries to avoid playing the 2nd installment without playing the first (Plus in my case the first game was much cheaper than the second). Sadly I made my stupid stupid choice and played (according to Yahtzee) "Faffing About-Creed". Didn't make the series for me.

Borderlands was bored me to the point that I didn't even give its sequel a chance. Apparently the second one improves upon the first in every way but I just couldn't stick with Borderlands while I had rented it.

Modern-War shooters in general for their lack of dinosaurs and, levity...and bosses.

I wasn't much of a fan of Borderlands either. It just didn't grab me at the start. It just seemed like a slow grind to me. Maybe it was because I was playing in single player and you really need other people for it to be a special experience. I was looking forward to the game too. Heck, I even made a thread here about what class I should be. Turned out it just didn't suck me in. It was just shooting things for a long while and getting stuff and bringing it back. After about half an hour I lost interest.

If you're looking for shooters with Dinosaurs in it may I suggest the timesplitters series (Predominantly 2 and Future Perfect)? They have a lovely dinosaur in it. Who may I add is a playable character and dances while not moving.

As for my own choices, Grand Theft Auto IV never sucked me in. I recently re-installed it and am going to give it another go. I never got too into Serious Sam, though its something I really want to so I suppose I can give that one another go. My first experience with BFE was somewhat annoying as it was co-op with a friend and he killed the first enemy before it could spawn in all the way so the remainder of the enemies for that level were invisible. As you could imagine I really was not fond of the whole suicide bomber sections where I had to navigate away from enemies based on very loud screams and the occasional explosion. Now looking back I actually think that's pretty darned funny so what the heck, give it another try.

But the one game I absolutely for the life of me could not get into was Borderlands. I normally just am able to plow through a game (I forced my way through Killzone 3 despite hating it) but there was just something about it that caused me to develop a glitch and uninstall it after half an hour. I don't know what it was about it. Maybe the seemingly lack of strong characters early on? The empty feeling I got? I don't know.

 

[VoidOfOne]

Final Fantasy 7.

I think I made it to the casino, and just stopped. Was not interested in playing any further, even though it is considered by the vast majority of JRPG fans as great, maybe one of the best of its time or any time. But not for me. I was just not interested, and I think it was due to the characters. They didn't strike much impact on me as I thought they would. And the storyline was also not very grabbing.

 

[Fireaxe]

I just can't get into the latest WoW expansions.

The game is improved from Classic in some senses. More than 1 tank class (and that classes tanking tree actually being worth a fuck) for example is a solid improvement, the random dungeon finder is fine with me -- though I always thought there should've been a "my realm only" option so you might be able to play with some people you'll actually see again.

Unfortunately at that same time Blizzard seemed to turn all the dungeons into franchises: linear paths of AOE spam fights broken up by the occasional boss with some combination of "click on the object", "turn the boss away from the group", "don't stand in the fire", "pick up those adds", "kite the things chasing you", and "kill it quickly" as the strategies. The early dungeons had their faults (keys, for example), but small group content with some level of complexity and challenge was a lot more fun than ez-moding it until raid time.

 

[Amakusa]

For me it was Witcher 1. I played the intro then stopped always wanting to get back into it which i might some day....maybe.

There might be others which i can't think of which i will edit and add later.

 

[Fox12]

Well, I know Half Life 2 is supposed to be the greatest thing ever, but... man, it's just so BORING. Even COD had more color than Half Life. I heard it had a great interactive story, but there really wasn't a story at all. I still don't understand the appeal. To each his own.

 

[Harleykin]

gta IV
thanks for taking all the fun out of my gta...
i still think san andreas is one of the best games i ever played.
got my hopes high for IV and got kicked in the shin.
still a nice storyline and i did finish the game...tbh that made it worse. i was like "that was the final story mission? srsly?!"
friend of mine told me to mod it and get the add on's but as you might understand i never saw the point in it.

I tried playing GTA IV but it made sad.
I was interested in the story, but every time I needed to drive anywhere I ended up killing a number of pedestrians by accident and feeling bad about it. (Especially since the game keeps score on how many people you murdered with your car.)

wait wait you actually drove anywhere?...
"hey roman send me a cab"

i think giving me the option to be lazy and "taxi skip" to everyplace made it a tad more boring to me. then again you only drove around in a stupid city so yeah i still used the cab while hating it.

 

[mirage202]

Skyrim was the major one I can think of.

To me it felt like Fallout with swords. What did that do? Made me want to play more Fallout, which I did.

To this day I have not made it beyond an hour of play time for any single character in Skyrim.

 

[Caiphus]

Although slightly confused by the title, the OP itself actually makes perfect sense, so:

Most zombie games. DayZ, Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, that sort of stuff. Just totally uninterested in the subject, and they're all shooters anyway. I just ended up playing shooters that I actually enjoyed.

Demon's Souls - The atmosphere didn't entice me as much as it did other people, and thus I got bored of having to take things slowly to avoid dying for what seemed like arbitrary reasons.

Uuuuuuuuh.

Borderlands - Don't really know why. I mean, it was solid, but I couldn't force myself to keep playing after around level 20 or so. I think a lot of it had to do with the story/setting being really rather vague, and not interesting enough to try and figure out. And then I ended up not knowing what I was doing and getting lost.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Oblivion & Skyrim

I've put a respectable 47 hours into Oblivion and 193 hours into Skyrim. I don't understand their appeal. I found both of them to be mostly boring. The only reason I have so many hours in Skyrim is because every couple months I get this random streak of motivation to finally beat the game, roll a character, then abandon the game out of boredom again about half-way in. I've tried playing different specializations each time, I've tried roleplaying different personality types, I've tried doing -nothing- but story quests so as to not get sidetracked by a shit-ton of samey-looking dungeons, etc. All of it to no avail. Still bores me to tears.

Bioshock

I'm a huge fan of System Shock 2, and that's what kills this game for me. The entire time I was playing Bioshock I felt like I was playing an incredibly watered-down (PUN!) version of SS2. The story and characters really didn't engage me whatsoever, the combat felt boring and insanely unbalanced (I went through my first game on the hardest difficulty using nothing but the Wrench, and had no trouble whatsoever at any point)... the only things I felt the game did reasonably well were graphics and general atmosphere. Really, the absolute best thing about Bioshock to me is that it made me want to play System Shock 2 again.

Guild Wars 2

The leveling up process was fun at times, but a completionist like me will rapidly out-level content. Yeah, your character scales and all that, but you definitely do get a boatload of combat bonuses when fighting stuff that's below your actual level. Certain classes and builds are ludicrously overpowered compared to others. A two-hand sword wielding Warrior with a focus on health regeneration is next to unstoppable, a Sword/Pistol Thief can make themselves practically impossible to hit by spamming the hell out of AoE blinds, etc. The end-game was virtually non-existent last time I played. And one thing that annoyed the goddamn hell out of me was that you couldn't solo the last quest in your character's personal story. What the hell kind of sense does that make? It's your story, and now all of a sudden you have to drag other players along with you for the last piece of it? That just really didn't sit well with me.

Team Fortress 2

I just have zero interest in this thing. I loved the hell out of Team Fortress Classic for the original Half-Life. I put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into it back in the day. So when TF2 came along I tried really goddamn hard to like it, but just couldn't. Makes me sad.

Half-Life 2

Yeah... sorry. I liked the original Half-Life better; crappy platforming sections and all. Half-Life 2 just failed to engage me in its world like the original game did. It's not a bad game by any means... I just don't think it's the end-all-be-all of FPS games like some people seem to think. It's okay... at best.

 

[Darth Marsden]

Halo

Never really got into it. I played the PC version and was slogging away through the campaign until the Library came along... and I just gave up. Haven't touched the series since, and am entirely comfortable never doing so.


The Last of Us

I've never been a big fan of stealth, but when done well enough, I'll just about tolerate it. This? No. If I cock up even once, it's pretty much a game over, especially once they start bringing in the insta-kill enemies. I had to force myself to even get to that point though, so yeah... not for me.

And to a lesser extent...

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I'm still going through this one and enjoying it to a degree, but I mention it anyway because I'm REALLY having trouble getting to grips with the combat mechanics. I want to build up high combos but can never do so because of enemies that block or not pressing the counter-attack button quick enough or guys with guns appear and... it's just frustrating, not fun.

I AM slowly getting the hang of it, but even then it's a pain in the arse to deal with. Combat's the worst part of the game for me ATM.

 

[Flames66]

GTA4: It had a story that I found mildly interesting, if a little too dark for my taste. The lack of customisable cars made me mildly annoyed, and the control system made me froth at the mouth and throw things, especially during combat. I eventually got stuck trying to sort out some chaps who had kidnapped the annoying phone guy, who I had no interest in saving, and gave up.

Mass Effect: I was enjoying certain aspects of it. All the guns looked the same and the armour didn't appeal to me, but I was enjoying the interaction with my crew and driving round in the buggy. Then I went down to the planet with the blue woman. I was probably supposed to do more side quests first to increase my abilities but the main quest seemed more urgent. I landed, found watserface, got to a lift that went to the surface and hit a brick wall. I could not get past the chaps at the top, even using console commands. I eventually got so frustrated I have never gone back to the series.

God of War: by Zeus this series is awful. Featuring an unlikable protagonist, massive overuse of gore and violence and boring combat (most of the enemies pose as much threat as flies after the flame thrower treatment). I have never found a game thats over muscled, over designed aesthetic I disliked more. The camera is so keen on showing off the overdone environments that I can't see what I'm doing most of the time. Overall, a poorly designed, over-masculine mess that's stuck so far up it's own arse that it's in danger of choking on it's own head.

 

[Racecarlock]

Mafia II

Good god, could they possibly have made a "sandbox" game more boring to play? Not only are there traffic laws and fuel rules in the "open" world, but the game also makes you slowly carry a crate to a truck, clean toilets in prison, chaperon two drunk guys around with your radio stuck on because one of the employees had to take the kids to karate in the minivan once and was taking it out on the players, and fucking sell cigarettes out of the back of a van. Although, sell is a strong word because the customers just walk up to your far friend, tell him what color they want, your fat friend repeats it to you in case you momentarily went deaf from boredom which considering this game could well be the case, and then you walk to the correct color and press a button.

I don't give a shit how it is in real life or even how "good" the story they didn't just rip off from GTA III and GTA IV simultaneously is. When it's this outright boring and sometimes painful to play, I care not for thy narrative, thy characters, and especially not thy realism! I'm just going to go play something else that doesn't consider fun to be below it's oh so high standards.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

Mass Effect.
What I was expecting was a fantastic space opera filled with interesting aliens and characters, crazy technology and a massive galaxy to explore.
What I got was a talk-em-up, filled with politics, the most boring human character ever I.e. "Tabula Shepard", and an accurate depiction of the galaxy... mainly comprised of nothing.

The only part I enjoyed was landing on a barren planet in the Mako and having giant space worms attack.
All that stuff with Seren and the Geth bored the ever loving shit out of me.

People kept telling me:
"Shepard, your the only human Spectre (SPOILERS) that means you're the only one who can stop Seran! NEEERRRRR"
My response was:
"Don't care, not my problem, let me explore the galaxy god damn it."

Don't get me wrong though, I can understand the appeal, I did play it about 80% through but the story just never grabbed me like it did with so many others.

The case makes a nice mouse pad though (true story)

 

[aozgolo]

Uncharted... I tried, I really did, but I went about 60% through the first game and everything was exactly the same... go to new map section, kill 15 guys... there was no real sense of exploration, I was railroaded down one very linear path killing the same 3-4 types of enemies with the weapon upgrades I couldn't even tell the different between, one handgun felt the same as any other. It was pretty, but even the narrative kind of reeked of generic treasure hunter.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

All of the games that I did not like at first, and were critically praised, I forced myself through them, and I actually had a lot of fun!

For eg:

KoTOR II: I played this when I was like, 10, so I did not understand english as well as I could have and I was also scared off by the Pegasus level because of the atmosphere it oozes out(that level still intimidates me at times). Later, I picked it up again, saw where I fucked up, kept playing, and I never stopped, it was a huge amount of fun.

The Witcher 2: For the usual reasons; beginning sucks ass, combat is unintuitive, too much information being thrown at you and confusing questing. Then I spent time reading about the game's history so I understood what is what and who is who, I played the Arena game mode so that I adjusted to the combat(and paid a lot of attention throughout the tutorial) and I stopped playing it at the last hub area because I was just fatigued by the game. Still had a lot of fun.

Shogun 2: Similar to what happened with The Witcher 2, but this time I paod a lot of attention to everything the tutorial was telling me, and I played the campaign tutorial instead, as it gels together better and eases you in better too. Also had a ton of fun.

As for the games I still haven't:

Deus Ex: level design is a bit confusing, and the lack of autosave did not help me swearing loudly at poorly rendered characters. Also the lack of specilisation early on made me a bit confused as to which approach I should favour.(Made it all the way to Hell's Kitchen, then stopped)

Beyond Good and Evil: I played all the way past the first factory level, but I could not carry on because that sequence was long as fuck and incredibly jarring.

I hope to return to both of these games at some point in the future, as there are things in them that I could see myself liking.

"Honorable" mentions go to:

Warhammer 40K Space Marine: incredibly repetitive combat and gunplay, the lack of oomph behind shooting and chainsawing enemies made it feel like I was cutting my way through legions of paper figurines.

Transformers War for/Fall of Cybertron: similar reasons to Space Marine.

It is because of these games that I don't trust TotalBiscuit when he gushes about games.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Fire Emblem: Awakening
I'm baffled that people think this is the best Fire Emblem game. The AI is piss poor (just send Frederick forward and let all the enemies jump onto his spear because they LOVE to attack him even though they do 0 damage) or it just plain cheats (fuck those "ambush spawn" things...seriously; the only time anyone really got killed was because of those). I did finish it so I suppose it did enough things right but I just don't get the 5/5 praise so many gave this game.

^This. So much this.
If it weren't so well polished (voice acting, characters, the support dialog), it would have gone completely unnoticed as just a bad strategy game, and rightly so.

There is absolutely no depth to the game because the AI possesses the intellect of an attack dog:
"Rush", "Stay", "Attack nearest enemy"

That's it. That is literally all the AI does. It doesn't double back or establish chokepoints. It doesn't retreat when injured. It doesn't even range-check and feint like the AI in Advance Wars can.

You can put it into a simple flowchart:

START AI TYPE 1) Bumrush player's units. GO-TO AI 3
START AI TYPE 2) Sit on hands waiting for the player's approach. GO-TO AI 3
AI 3] Check for units that are in range to attack. If Yes, GO-TO AI 4. If No, Repeat START AI TYPE.
AI 4] If there's more than one unit to attack, attack the unit with the least favorable defenses. Otherwise, Attack.

It's trivially simple to cheese the AI. Because of this limited design, the only challenge arises from artificial means (stat fights and raw numbers).

As a story, FE: Awakening is well presented and polished.
As a game, it's terrible.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Skyrim.

It's a dumbed down, shallow piece of crap that floats miserably yet cockily in Oblivion's shit water.

On the other hand, the voice acting didn't didn't make me want to put sharp things in my ears.

 

[Tohru_Readman]

Right now Grand Theft Auto V, I'm really trying but it's just not pulling me and it is a good game. My favourite part so far has been driving around the city and doing the random side quests, I just have no desire to do the main story. Will give it another try this week but have a feeling it will get traded in.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Skyrim was the major one I can think of.

To me it felt like Fallout with swords. What did that do? Made me want to play more Fallout, which I did.

To this day I have not made it beyond an hour of play time for any single character in Skyrim.

Actually, it would be more accurate to call Fallout "Oblivion with guns". If you play around with the modding tools, for example, you'll see that Fallout is little more than a skin. Fallout handles guns like bows (with much faster projectiles not affected by gravity), drugs as potions, and all effects (positive and negative) as spells. If you play a melee character in Fallout, the game plays almost identically to Oblivion!

But, for the record, I enjoyed both. New Vegas is the better of the two modern Fallout games in my estimation and Skyrim is the best game in the Elder Scrolls franchise to date. That last point, being contentious, deserves some support. When I say "game", I'm speaking to mechanics and art direction alone. Morrowind had far more to do and the more engaging story for example but it doesn't exactly have a lot of mechanical enjoyment built in.