The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

[Queen Uma]

I've bought some duff games recently, bought being used in the loosest of terms since I didn't actually pay for them. Anyway, whilst the baby has been sleeping I've forced my way through a couple of them. They weren't the worst games I've stubbornly forced myself to play through but they were far from the best. So I've had a look through my old collection and found a few gems that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. I also have several that I really enjoyed, which spawned great sequels that I never got round to owning/playing.

With that in mind, what's the best game(s) you never played or what did you endure at the expense of a much better (or even mediocre) title?

I'm not looking for game suggestions here, I have enough stuff to get through in my limited spare time as it is and I don't want this to turn into an argument that x's choice for best game is y's choice for worst, remember personal opinions differ.

For my sins, the aforementioned titles in my collection are the Shadow Hearts sequels. I really enjoyed the first one but for some reason the other two just hit my shelves and didn't get touched. Maybe I should check what was released around the same time to see what distracted me.

Oh and BBQ, this is not a reason to go on and on and on and on and on about the Persona series being the greatest thing most people won't have played. A lot of people have been well aware of it for a long time but they just don't care.

[cidbahamut]

Best games I've never played? I can't wrap my head around that one. How would I know if a game I've never played is great without having played it myself?

Worst games I've forced myself through seems equally fruitless since I tend to stop playing games when they're no longer fun.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Just out of curiosity, why would you feel the need to take a pre-emptive strike on what you assume my opinion would be? Persona is easily the most mainstream RPG series made by Atlus. Even the actual franchise that it spun off from is considered more obscure now. At any rate - needless hostility is needlessly hostile.

You NEVER start a topic with pre-emptive strikes on what opinions can be. Its just not friendly.

I have all three western releases of Etrian Odyssey and only they would qualify as the best games I've never played/finished. I've kept them, but actually playing them would require me to be in a very particular state of mind. Since they skew to Wizardry - meaning very old school, very sadistic classic western RPG design - and are huge grinds, I've never personally managed to get more than five or eight levels down before getting tired and shelving them. I like the music, the minimalist story, the manual mapping but it all gets rather tiresome after a bit.

As for games I've forced myself to play:

The closest I've ever come to "enduring" a game were Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II because I have a fascination with crossovers. The gameplay, however, was pure sewage. Great story, terrible game. Kingdom Hearts has gotten a lot better since then, though returning the focus to terrible characters like Riku and Sora kind of killed my interest in it again.

Also Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 - which I endured in hopes that it would get better as I played more of it. It never did and I had lost all faith in humanity by the time I finished the episode. It was the biggest pile of shit I've ever played - and I'm saying this as someone that previously had loved Sonic Colors to death.

After that, I didn't care if Sonic 4 Ep. 2 was better or not and stopped caring about Sonic the Hedgehog completely. I want Sonic to just die now.

In general, I don't torment myself with playing games I don't like, no matter how much other people like it. I have no need to feel included in a conversation about a game I don't have a genuine interest in.

Unless J9 has the audacity to compare her latest piece of pedophile crap game to a retro classic, then its on. I still won't play it, though.

[Queen Uma]

Best games I've never played? I can't wrap my head around that one. How would I know if a game I've never played is great without having played it myself?

Worst games I've forced myself through seems equally fruitless since I tend to stop playing games when they're no longer fun.

Surely there must be something that you've been told was "utterly fantastic" or one you waited to play for ages only to get completely distracted by something else and then never went back to it.

The same goes for crap games, you might have heard it gets better and you kept playing waiting for a sudden change in the story that'd have you gripped but it never materialises. You reach the end of the game feeling entirely disappointed.

[cidbahamut]

Ah, things that were supposed to be good that I just never got around to. Makes more sense when worded differently. I've probably got a few of those.

- pretty much any game by Troika games
- Fallout series
- System Shock 2
- Half-Life

I've never made it all the way through a game I found disappointing.

[Icemage]

I've yet to complete Fallout 3, despite adoring the earlier games in the series and especially considering that Wasteland is #1 on my personal list of favorite games.

As far as games I've finished that I detested, I think the winner there for me is Enchanted Arms. Not really sure what possessed me to continue playing that horrible train wreck of an SRPG, but I actually took an extra couple of days of spare time to finish it because I knew I'd never ever want to touch the disc again if I stopped.


Icemage

[Nandito]

The same goes for crap games, you might have heard it gets better and you kept playing waiting for a sudden change in the story that'd have you gripped but it never materialises. You reach the end of the game feeling entirely disappointed.

Brink.

Fucking. Brink.

Never again.

Ah, and I guess Demon/Dark Souls for a popular game I never got around to.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I've yet to complete Fallout 3, despite adoring the earlier games in the series and especially considering that Wasteland is #1 on my personal list of favorite games.

New vegas felt more like what Fallout 3 was advertising itself to be. I'm just saying this with no frame or reference for the rest of the series or Wasteland. Probably doesn't hurt that Obsidian is comprised of guys formerly of Black Isle, who made the prior games.

[Firewind]

Highly Praised Games Firewind Has Never Played

Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker
Trine/Trine 2
Soul Nomad
SMT Strange Journey (Never got an EU release and my import got seized by the United Kingdom Border Agency because someone for videogamesplus.ca doesn't know how to fill out a customs declaration properly. I refused to pay the Customs fees and taxes because it would have doubled the price of the game)
Devil Survivor 2 (Has has a "2012" release date since April 2011, it's release pretty much considered vapourware here)
Braid
The Witcher 2
Whatever Kingdom Hearts rehash just came out on the 3DS which will inevitably cost me the same as the top range for the cost of a console game (Equivalent of $60-70 in the UK).
Fable 3
Napoleon: Total War (Didn't want to pay full price for something that was already a mod at the time)
Pretty much the entire Command and Conquer Red Alert series
Rune Factory 1 and 3

Horrible Games I Played to the End (for reasons I really don't know)

Modern Warfare 2
Lost Planet 2
Halo Wars
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights 2's Original Campaign (the expansions were awesome though and more than made up for it)
Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale (I got through a lot of alcohol with this one)
Agarest Senki (sadly there is no porn in this. The UK packaging lied to me)
Agarest Senki 2 (More out of a sense of morbid curiosity)
Final Fantasy Four Warriors of Light (It was cheap)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Aion (I played to 50 and finished the storyline quests if that counts)
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Soulstorm (Shame really because everything else about Dawn of War was fucking awesome)
Sonic The Hedgehog 2006
Pretty much every Harvest Moon game post Back to Nature/Friends of Mineral Town
Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness

[cidbahamut]

Final Fantasy Four Warriors of Light (It was cheap)

I take exception to this being on the list. It wasn't very deep, but I found it to be a pretty excellent game.

[Armando]

I think Skyrim is right at the top of the list of games everyone gushes about but I've never played. Also, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Bioshock, Mass Effect. EDIT: And Persona.

[Malacite]

Well, FFXI can actually count for both categories at one time or another for me lol, but it's generally my favorite game ever so far - if nothing else for the memories.

But, if I had to pick a best game I ever played (discounting MMOs) I would seriously have to say Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for PS1. Love that game to tears.

As for worst? While TLR was pretty horrible at points, that was really just achievement hunting that made it unbearable - the main game's not so bad to storm through. No, worst game ever that I for whatever fucking reason forced myself to finish is still sadly Infinite Undiscovery. I am normally a *huge* supporter of Tri-Ace, as I generally love their RPGs but that game was AN ABOMINATION! It starts off well enough and sucks you in for like, the first 30 minutes or so then just rapidly falls apart after you escape the dungeon & forest thereafter. The end boss was so cliche and retarded too I mean... what the hell. I could go on literally for hours about how god awful that game was. I guess I just finished it for completion sake, to see how the story finally ended but even then it was painful.

Seriously, avoid that game at all costs.

EDIT: Really, Halo Wars? I still think that game was the best console RTS ever made. The MP was always pretty unbalanced and the campaign was just OK (not even sure if it's cannon to be honest) but as far as the mechanics and UI went, it was superbly made. Too bad it had to be Ensemble's last game.

[Raydeus]

I've yet to complete Fallout 3, despite adoring the earlier games in the series and especially considering that Wasteland is #1 on my personal list of favorite games.

Icemage

New vegas felt more like what Fallout 3 was advertising itself to be. I'm just saying this with no frame or reference for the rest of the series or Wasteland. Probably doesn't hurt that Obsidian is comprised of guys formerly of Black Isle, who made the prior games.

Both of you Communists deserve this

spoiler

Everyone else should just play the game.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

FNV had a lot more of the kookiness and I could actually choose which side I was on (mine). Fallout 3 only had that moment and if you killed a key Brotherhood of Steel NPC that whole sequence you posted gets bugged and won't complete. That's not fun.

FNV also had better world design and used color. Fallout 3 was TES Oblvion Lite with a drab, empty overworld.

[Raydeus]

Yeah, the Obsidian guys were able to focus more on the story because they were using F3 assets. And considering how good it was in the first 2 games New Vegas was actually relatively limited.

But I still like F3's world and story much more because it really felt like the wasteland. New Vegas was spared most of the devastation so it had a way more lively setting. And the original games had too many people in them as well, so you never really felt like the war had been that bad.

But the Capital Wasteland actually felt like a wasteland. I remember the first time I got out of the Vault and started just walking around this empty vastness, getting to Megaton was pretty awe inspiring and I actually felt melancholic about life in the vault from time to time (specially when Way back Home played) which was the whole point of the game for me. Gameplay wise NV expanded upon F3 and got some of the good elements from the first two, but F3 really made a lasting impression on me.

Click

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PS > Roaming the Wasteland with Three Dog as your only companion were some of the best moments I've had in gaming.