RPGs that are unanimously praised by people of refined taste that you never could finish.

[SarcasticUndertones]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to corrupted saves. I'll have to start it up yet again.

 

[cvv]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to corrupted saves. I'll have to start it up yet again.

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to general boredom. Bugs me as I love to finish my games. This game tho, I don't know. Troika man, just not my cup of shit.

Anyway it's a favourite son here in Codex, always in the short list of best games evah. Whatever.

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to corrupted saves. I'll have to start it up yet again.

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to general boredom. Bugs me as I love to finish my games. This game tho, I don't know. Troika man, just not my cup of shit.

Anyway it's a favourite son here in Codex, always in the short list of best games evah. Whatever.

General boredom with this was never an issue for me, I love the game, I just can't sit through the first couple of hours any more, the furtherest I ever got I think was the dwarf mine/city thing (it's been a while) then my game just shat itself and died.

 

[Slow James]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to general boredom. Bugs me as I love to finish my games. This game tho, I don't know. Troika man, just not my cup of shit.

Anyway it's a favourite son here in Codex, always in the short list of best games evah. Whatever.

I feel like Arcanum is one of those games you need to restart your character on at least four or five times, each one getting progressively further into the game with each succession, to get a good footing on. I remember buying the game at release and not feeling like things "clicked" until meeting up with P Schuler and Sons in the underground of Tarrant. At that point, I had gotten a good whiff of the world, a build that wouldn't get me killed by a random wolf and the story was gaining momentum sufficiently that I actually felt the desire to pursue it, even if I wound up doing a million and one side quests like dealing with Orcish labor disputes.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I know this sounds like a copout answer, and not one that you'd be ashamed of, but for a blobber fan who likes to talk about how he started playing crpgs with Wiz1....

- Wiz 6
- Wiz 7

Now factor in that I've completed all the other Wizardry games. Yes, even Wiz4 (not until a much later replay when I could partially spoil myself via the internet when completely fucking stuck, though I still went pretty well in my pre-internet attempts). That makes not finishing either 6 or 7 (after repeated attempts) some shameful shit.

It also means I've never seen that item in Wiz8 you get from crafting shit carried over from 6 and 7.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to general boredom. Bugs me as I love to finish my games. This game tho, I don't know. Troika man, just not my cup of shit.

Anyway it's a favourite son here in Codex, always in the short list of best games evah. Whatever.

I feel like Arcanum is one of those games you need to restart your character on at least four or five times, each one getting progressively further into the game with each succession, to get a good footing on. I remember buying the game at release and not feeling like things "clicked" until meeting up with P Schuler and Sons in the underground of Tarrant. At that point, I had gotten a good whiff of the world, a build that wouldn't get me killed by a random wolf and the story was gaining momentum sufficiently that I actually felt the desire to pursue it, even if I wound up doing a million and one side quests like dealing with Orcish labor disputes.

I finished Arcanum once, but that's still pretty woeful given that I've made at least 15 attempts with intention to finish. The annoying thing was that I 'had a handle' on the game from the very first play, but the setting tweaked my PS:T senses and made me determined to play a high int/cha inventor-gunslinger crafting firearms and electricity while recuiting followers to do his dirty work (for that sense of 'weak and reliant on your followers at the start, slowly overtake them all to become the all-powerful hero as the game goes on' you get with PS:T).

It's close to being a strong build in Arcanum, but it takes a lot more game experience to work out what off-spec areas you need to invest some points in to make it viable (like 1pt in demolitions to make bullets, a small amount in thief skills to get mats and specs early without going broke, etc). Before then, I kept on hitting the dwarf mines without the ability to craft bullets, a cha too tech-oriented for Virgil to heal but without having loaded up the tech-healer with enough salves for her to be main healer, a party that had done Tarrant and surrounding towns but hadn't utterly scoured the world for pre-BMC exp and so couldn't just blitz through on Sogg and Dog without the former going through a fuckton of weapons (at higher lvls he can go through unarmed, and so Sogg+Dog+gunner with everyone else back is a solid strategy for the mines). The main thing was just not having the ability to craft bullets though - going into those mines with a shitload of bullets and STILL running out just sucks away your will to continue.

 

[cvv]

I know this sounds like a copout answer, and not one that you'd be ashamed of, but for a blobber fan who likes to talk about how he started playing crpgs with Wiz1....

- Wiz 6
- Wiz 7

 

[Ludo Lense]

Ultima IV

Probably the only game which I consider good but I never finished. I respect it's impact on scope and vision regarding video games (and rpgs specifically) but after 20 hours of trying to make my own way and having to resort to a guide to figure some insanely obscure stuff out I gave up. I processed the experience and I understood the game's accomplishments but I had no will left to actually see it through to the end (and if you think about it...it's more of a journey rather than a destination game).

I've heard that Richard Garriott was the only person out of the entire dev team to have actually reached the end of the game when it initially shipped and I can believe that.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

The only way to play Arcanum is to be a gunslinging Technodwarf hobo with turn-based on. Once you're past elftown you can safely uninstall and play a different game.

 

[DalekFlay]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to corrupted saves. I'll have to start it up yet again.

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to general boredom. Bugs me as I love to finish my games. This game tho, I don't know. Troika man, just not my cup of shit.

Anyway it's a favourite son here in Codex, always in the short list of best games evah. Whatever.

I think most people struggle through the annoying/boring parts because very few games of that type exist. The Fallout-esque type, not the Baldur's Gate-esque type.

 

[octavius]

The difference between IWD's character development and BG2's character development is an entirely personal thing. It's your own imagination's emotions versus spoon-fed forced emotions.

I must admit I don't really relate that much to characters I create in party based games; to mee they are mostly stats in IWD, just like they were in the Wizardry and Gold Box games.
I find it's easier to relate to the characters in the BG games, for better or worse, because they have an in-game reason to be in the party. Fortunately I like most of the BG characters. But I sometimes wonder if the 2014 me would have liked the characters if I only played the games for the first time now...

 

[octavius]

I'm not actualy a "hardcore RPG Player". My First RPG was BG2, and i played Fallout for the first time about 3 years ago. I tried some of the older RPGs based on Codex sugestions mostly, and while i found them ok, only BaK would be in my personal Top 10.
keep in mind that i'm a storyfag, so combat centric games aren't my cup of tea. I can play them, but i won't love them.

The great thing about Betrayal at Krondor is that is caters for all kinds of fags, from combat fags, to explorationfags, to storyfags. In that regard it's a very unusual game.

 

[Jaesun]

I must admit I don't really relate that much to characters I create in party based games; to mee they are mostly stats in IWD, just like they were in the Wizardry and Gold Box games.

Same here. However I started to grow quite attached to the characters I made when importing them from Wizardry 6 > Wizardry 7 > Wizardry 8.

You were with those guys a long long long time. :D

 

[Spectacle]

I couldn't get into Ultima 7. I can never even get past the stables/starting area. Which makes me sad because it feels like there is a huge and rewarding game underneath...

You should be sad because you suck. Either play the game or use a drill on your balls.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I must admit I don't really relate that much to characters I create in party based games; to mee they are mostly stats in IWD, just like they were in the Wizardry and Gold Box games.I find it's easier to relate to the characters in the BG games, for better or worse, because they have an in-game reason to be in the party. Fortunately I like most of the BG characters. But I sometimes wonder if the 2014 me would have liked the characters if I only played the games for the first time now...

I was like that on my first play of IWD. In fact my first run was embarrassingly lack-lustre as I didn't even re-roll my character sheets and played with the first set of stats it rolled for me. However, IWD has great replay value and my second run was min/max. Playing the game beyond this is where the imaginary character creation comes to the fore, as I ignore ideal party formations in favour of persoanlly invented story faggotry, like having a Bow-exclusive-Ranger dressed all in green pretending to be Robin Hood and his merry men, or having the lead party member be a huge male and selecting a really posh female voice so I can have a drag queen in my RPG.

The most extreme version of this kind of play was when I chose an all-Cleric party for IWD2, utilising 3rd ed rules to make each Cleric be from a different sect. My self imposed role-play rule was that they weren't allowed to buy anything and had to sell anything they weren't going to use, the idea being that the team was running a charity drive, collecting cash from all the regions. The imagined role-play was fantastic but the gameplay was pretty awful and I had to stop playing around the Orc Castle somewhere.

Same here. However I started to grow quite attached to the characters I made when importing them from Wizardry 6 > Wizardry 7 > Wizardry 8. You were with those guys a long long long time. :D

So, yeah, by playing the game a number of times I got to the point where I'd been with the characters for so long that I was able to apply imagined emotion as an added incentive to gameplay. This type of approach to an RPG can only really be effective if you start with a blank-slate party choice.

 

[himmy]

I am the master of not finishing games. I'm so into procrastinating that I even do it with my own hobbies. Right now I should be playing Lord of Xulima but I keep postponing it to read the Grimoire thread.

A list of games that I have played extensively (more than, let's say 30%) and yet never finished. Some of these games I have played for hundreds of hours.


Fallout (stopped right before the military base cause I was out of ammo for my minigun and was too lazy to look for more)
Fallout 2
Fallout 3 (stopped right before the last quest)
Fallout: New Vegas (twice I played it all the way before making the final decision of alliance, but have postponed it to finish the last sidequests and the DLCs and have stopped playing halfway through a DLC or other)
Skyrim (played for 150+ hours, barely touched the main quest)
Baldur's Gate (some bug had me quit after getting into the city)
Arcanum (quit after getting back from the island, I think)
Bloodlines
NWN2, MoTB and the other one, all abandoned mid-way.
SW: Kotor (tried it several times. The moment I get on that Wookiee planet I quit)
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale 2
Might and Magic VI
Divinity Original Sin (absolutely loved the first half or so, then burned out before entering the Dark Forest)
Avernum VI (stopped before the last quest)
Avernum: Escape from the Pit (stopped before the last quest)
Divinity II (quit about the time you could be a dragon)


Every time, like a maniac, I archive, store and keep the saves in perfect order. I have been doing this since I was 14. I never go back to any old saves, but rather start a new game when I want to revisit a game.

Edit: Obviously, there were two Avernums and one Arcanum, not three Arcanums, as previously stated.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Arcanum: Escape from the Pit (stopped before the last quest)

 

[Ninjerk]

Arcanum: Escape from the Pit (stopped before the last quest)

TWICE

 

[Morality Games]

I've tried to play Arcanum umpteen times, but I always end up not being able to continue at some point due to general boredom. Bugs me as I love to finish my games. This game tho, I don't know. Troika man, just not my cup of shit.

Anyway it's a favourite son here in Codex, always in the short list of best games evah. Whatever.

Its the only game I can think of that left me consistently angry and disappointed while I was playing it but has me grinning fondly when I think back on the content. Not just from the satisfaction of having beaten it.

Every time, like a maniac, I archive, store and keep the saves in perfect order. I have been doing this since I was 14. I never go back to any old saves, but rather start a new game when I want to revisit a game.

Well that's a nearly irresistible habit but if you ever manage to overcome it you'll shred the games like pounds.

 

[Lilura]

So you haven't finished Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum, Bloodlines or MotB, but you've wasted away 150 hours in Skyrim? Congrats, I guess...

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I'm now intrigued as to which games you have completed...? (though if it's a long list stretching back to 1979, then maybe not...)

 

[himmy]

So you haven't finished Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum, Bloodlines or MotB, but you've wasted away 150 hours in Skyrim? Congrats, I guess...

Right? The difference is that I played (significantly) Fallout and Fallout 2 at least three times each, Arcanum twice, Bloodlines once and MoTB three times, while I am unlikely to replay Skyrim very soon, unless I get really into modding it or something. Each of the two playthroughs of Fallout New Vegas was, I think, around the 100 - 150 hours area as well, for example.

As for the games I did finish, hmmm, I guess Planescape: Troment (third attempt), Baldur's Gate II (second attempt), Morrowind (second attempt), Gothic 1 (third attempt), Gothic 2 (second attempt), Gothic 3 (first attempt), Deus Ex (first attempt), Neverwinter Night + both expansions (2nd attempt for OC, 1st for addons), KOTOR 2 (I FINISHED TWICE!!), Dragon Age: Origins (1st attempt, which makes it fucking weird, since I don't remember actually enjoying it too much), Risen (second attempt), Divine Divinity (fourth attempt), Mass Effect (2nd attempt), Mass Effect 2 (2nd attempt) and that's pretty much it, I think.


I used the Codex top 70 to remember games, so there might be a few which I forgot. Games that I am playing right now (read: I still have them installed) are Heroine's Quest, Lord of Xulima, Wasteland 2, The Witcher, Driftmoon,

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I think that's a great compliment to the NWN original expansions, DA:O, KOTOR 2, Dues Ex and Gothic 3...

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

So you haven't finished Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum, Bloodlines or MotB, but you've wasted away 150 hours in Skyrim? Congrats, I guess...

And where is the problem exactly? If he enjoyed these hours in Skyrim is a better wasted time than in games that not hooked you the first time.
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In my case, it was Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines. I liked a lot the game, i love anything relationated with vampires and werewolves but some setbacks happened then and i not completed that shit. Some day i will try it again.

 

[mindx2]

As for the games I did finish, hmmm, I guess Planescape: Troment (third attempt), Baldur's Gate II (second attempt), Morrowind (second attempt), Gothic 1 (third attempt), Gothic 2 (second attempt), Gothic 3 (first attempt), Deus Ex (first attempt), Neverwinter Night + both expansions (2nd attempt for OC, 1st for addons), KOTOR 2 (I FINISHED TWICE!!), Dragon Age: Origins (1st attempt, which makes it fucking weird, since I don't remember actually enjoying it too much), Risen (second attempt), Divine Divinity (fourth attempt), Mass Effect (2nd attempt), Mass Effect 2 (2nd attempt) and that's pretty much it, I think.

It's different for me. On most occasions if I start a game and like it, I'll finish it. I don't start games multiple times without having finished it the 1st time. I've played, and finished, some games multiple times (System Shock I & II, many M&Ms, Ultimas, etc.) but always finished them on the 1st play-through.


edit: let me clarify that I may start a game several times say within a week or so, almost exclusively cRPGs, because my party/character build might have been problematic but I don't consider that not part of my initial play through.