When do you give up on a game?

I was just wondering, when do you decide a game is just not worth the frustration and/or boredom....I hate to use those words about games! But really, I have, a few times, decided, boy this game is just NOT for me! (schizm comes to mind right away!) I think once I hit the point that I get a walkthru and follow it just to get the game done, then I guess I can say I gave up on the game! Am I crazy now?? haha!

Schizm is definitely a game that I gave up on.....the walkthrough didn't even make it worth finishing. That is my opinion.
If a game just doesn't pique my interest like I thought it would. Especially if other people have bragged about it or recommended it. Have played a few of those.
Luckily I haven't found too many games that I couldn't play.
kid

I have 3 games that I gave up on (so far).

Return to Zork - I couldn't navigate the Spirit Forest Maze, even with a WT. And I like mazes!

Grim Fandango - The keyboard movement was impossible for me.

Monkey Island 2 - I needed a WT for everything. I
gave up when I realized I was just following the WT verbatim.

Oh yes! I gave up on Grim Fandango too Colpet! I just could not get the hang of the keyboard control!
Kid, I know just what you mean, if a game doesn't grab me, and make want to keep playing, I find myself , well, forcing myself to keep going! I think I got spoiled by Syberia and The Longest Journey, where I just HAD to get back to see what would happen! Glad to know I'm not alone in this!

This is a hard one to answer. Some games, I just loose intrest, others have puzzles or game controls that are too frustrating. In some cases, I plug away and follow the walkthrough to the end, others I just give up. (they go in the I'll finish it someday pile, which ususaly means it will never again see the light of day!)

Louis

For me it´s not often I quit on a game.
But a few times it has happened. For instance Santa Fe Mysteries both of them and In Cold Blood as well as Nightlong. I am sorry but those games did not do it for me.
I really try hard to pick "the right" games for me. But one cant be right all the time. And sometimes you have to gamble a bit.

P.S I on the other hand loved getting my brain "smashed" by Schizm. So I am looking forward to the upcoming "Schizm 2".

COLPET and LOONEY, I also gave up on GRIM FANDANGO, and for the same reasons. I think I would have enjoyed the game had it been mouse-controlled. I rarely give up on a game since I select my games after getting input from GameBoomers and a few other cherished sites, but I have given up on games which have more than a very few action or timed puzzle episodes. I gave up on WARD, though I was enjoying the puzzles. Early in my Adventure game playing days I got turned off of PHANTASMAGORIA by some of the sequences. Only a weird sense of duty kept me from just tossing it aside. I did the next thing to that and used a walkthrough to finish it so I could get to a better game, which happened to be CYDONIA (LIGHTBRINGER), which was a game I thoroughly enjoyed. PHANTASMAGORIA has the dubious distinction of being the only game that I have used a walkthrough to get through.

So,you are not alone,LOONEY. As an aside, SCHIZM wound up standing in a 2/52 position in my List of Favorites, second only to BLACK DAHLIA. Although, like all games I have played, there were some negative aspects, I thought that they were completely overwhelmed by the many other positive elements.

I don't usually give up on games, but I do put some on hold to finish later for one reason or another. Games I quit for a while and then got back to and finished are Schizm, Tomb Raider, Outcast, Zelenhgorm, and Simon the Sorceror. Some games I currently have installed but aren't currently playing are Entombed, Tony Tough, Physicus, Riddle of Master Lu, Relentless, The Last Express, Heart of Darkness, and Deus Ex. The reasons vary from not enough time (TT, Entombed, ROML)
to being bored (Deus Ex)
to being too difficult (Relentless and Heart of Darkness)
to frustration with the save system (Relentless and Last Express)
to more interesting games coming along (Deus Ex)
to wanting to play another game along with someone else (Outcast)
to just too many games loaded at once to be actively playing them all (almost all of the aforementioned).

The only game I really could not get myself to finish - not even with a walkthrough and cheats - was Unreal. Not even the fly cheat could make that stinkpot thing worth playing. It's the only game I've ever sold before finishing. My brother hated it too.

I suppose since I never get rid of any of my games, I don't ever really give up on a game. I even kept Night Tracks (which is a hideous game to play).

But I stop playing games all the time. As soon as I am bored to tears or stuck for way too long. If the game just gets on my nerves (voice talent, interface.. who knows) Sometimes I pick it up a good while later and have a totally different reaction and enjoy the game. Others - well I can't really say if I will ever re-start Urban Runner and finish it. All the running and running. That game exhausts me just to think about it.

Laura

I can tell early on if a game is worth continuing, and if it is I'll try to work through the frustrating/boring parts, resorting to a walkthrough if necessary (timed sequences e.g.)

If it looks like the majority of the gameplay is not very appealing the game goes in my "to be traded" pile. I wish I had more patience like some of the other boomers.

I never officially "give up" on a game. I just stop playing and go on to something else, thinking that some day I will return.

I tend to stop playing when a game gets repetitive. Or if the puzzles seem unusally unfair. Or if I'm spending a lot of time either underground in the dark or aboveground in an office. I guess the worst possible location for me would be an underground office.

If the game is ravishingly beautiful I will put up with almost anything though.

I give up on a game if I am having too many technical problems like constant crashes or if it doesn't hold my interest. I used to finish every game I started even if I had to use a walkthrough but now I feel like there is too little free time and too many good games to waste my time. One that comes to mind is Myst III: Exile - I couldn't stand the game - I think it was the engine - I was constantly confused about where I was. I also gave up at the end of Escape from Monkey Island and GK II - I could not kill that wolf ...

Kim

Well, I've heard some funny ways to describe hard games before, but, Lagavulin, you win! "Getting my brain smashed" is the funniest way I've ever heard! That is just stuck in my head now!
It really IS a great way to explain it huh?

I have never totally given up on a game, yet. I'll install it and play for awhile and if I just don't like it or can't get through something in it I'll leave it - sometimes for years It took me four years off and on to finally finish Atlantis: The Lost Tales - I absolutely could not shoot that *&%* boar, and I think it took about four years to finish Sacred Mirror of Kofun - I still haven't finished Nine - that game gives me a headache everytime I try to play it - and at the rate I'm not crazy about Simon 3D, it may take me four years to finish that one also.

I guess I come from the "if I payed good money for this sucker, I'm going to finish it come heck or high water" school of thinking

I'm with Copet & Looney.....I have finished every games I have started, even if I had to do the walkthrough word-by-word, EXCEPT....Grim Fandango....If Manny wasn't already dead, I would have killed him myself by running him into every wall there was as I CAN NOT use KB controlled games <BG>....I love medieval stuff and have the Arthur's Knight games but have yet to load them because the are KB controlled....just give me a mouse and I'll finish <LOL>.....

Schism and Giants are the only games I gave up on. I couldnt even figure out parts of Schism with the walkthrough. Giants was just a downright hard game. Although I would like to give Giants a try again later, like in my retirement. But I probably will buy Schism 2 just to have it. I am a game pack rat! Answer to your question-when the fun factor gives in to frustration.

If there is any aspect of a game I like, but I'm constantly frazzled or discouraged, I'll use a walkthru just for the experience of playing and finishing the game. If I don't finish it then I'll always be wondering what I missed out on. I then also have enough knowledge of the game when it's being discussed later, or if someone wants an opinion on it. If a game is really tough, just following the walkthru to the end is helpful in several ways, one being that it stimulates my mind (I'm trying to get smarter ..lol), and two being that I keep from losing my mind and tearing my hair out. The third is that I like to get my moneys worth. All games will be played eventually....sometimes years later. The only time I totally give up is when a game is so buggy that my computer feels ill.

I give up on a game (at least for awhile) when it feels more like work than enjoyment. I don't mean "fun" work, like a real challenge, I mean the tension headache, tedious kind. I have enough of that in real life.

I try to be selective about games I buy-read reviews and what people at GB'ers say about them. There are so many great older games out there-no need to play stinkers. (am new to AGs, so never run out of possibilities.)

The only game I played that I really didn't like was Blue Ice-read so much about how unique and innovative it was, ect. ect. went right out and BAAGed it, paying the most I've ever paid for a game. Never could have got thru it WO a WT, but just had to see it to the end. Even the writers of the WTs couldn't figure out the last puzzle.

I have to say the I am a compulsive game completer-once I get it working and figure out the controls, have to see it thru to the end, even if I get impatient and go to a WT. Havn't run into one yet that was so bad I didn't want to finish.

Like most of you I never really give up, I put it aside and make plans to finish it at a later date. The only game that I did not finish and have no plans to ever try again is 9 . That game was the most frustrating game I have ever played. I don't mind hard games, even mazes but that one made no sense to me at all. I think I threw it away.

I never completely give up a game, but it was close with Atlantis I. I got a really headache by it.
But, I always play with a walkthrough by my side, I got the game because I wanted to have fun, not to get frusterated.

Caroline.

I gave up on Egypt 1, Messenger, Paris 1313, & pitched Grim Fandddango in the trash, just not worth the aggravation.
I did force my way (with a walkthru) to the end of Pompeii to see the "wonderful cinematics" of the Volcano destroying it.
HAH!! what a FARCE!!! Really an abysmal bit of trash. <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/cry.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/cry.gif" />

I agree with GSD. When its no longer fun I don't feel badly about giving it up. Schizm was off my computer in a matter of about a week. The only good thing I could say about it now is that it looks good on the shelf.

6:05 PM; June 4, 2003
ALICE and I have parted company and I say so long with no sorrow in my heart, maybe some day-
NO

Thank you
Ingie
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No longer playing Alice
Playing Ghost Master -plain fun
Divine Divinity-again, still fun
Morrowind arrived
After reading this Schizm is out without a look