Games I Gave Up On

Not many people would boast of not completing a game... and while I'm not boasting, I certainly think talking about why not to play a game is something worth talking about. There are many discussions about games needing to be "fun", which, to be honest, is not the same thing as entertaining nor enjoyable, which non-fun games should be. But certainly they should have some reason for the person to continue playing the game, or to come back to it.

I didn't like Half-Life, so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise I didn't enjoy Half-Life: Blue Shift, in which you play as the guard Barney. (Oddly, there's a big thing in HL2 about the friendship he and Gordon have, and the time they spent at Black Mesa together, but Gordon never meets him, and they certainly don't have any time at Black Mesa before "shit goes down", so I have no idea where that mythology came from...) Anyway, this game features more of random shooting and extremely annoying jumping/physics puzzles. And no story. Well, a very small story. Mainly just running through corridors shooting things, then running through corridors pressing buttons. It wasn't fun, not enjoyable, nor entertaining. I didn't get far before I gave up on that.

The other one that I just gave up on, and this will probably surprise a few people, is Psychonauts. The combination of controls I didn't like, and endlessly having to do things over again in order to jump in just the right way, just put me over the edge of wanting to continue. (It didn't help that I spent so long between sessions that I forgot the controls.) And the story is interesting. But there's a lot of backtracking and fernickity jumping and dodging in later levels that I am more than glad I didn't partake of. And a complete 100% run would drive me insane. Shame, really, and I haven't deleted the game yet... but let's face it, I'm not likely to get back to it.

But I am interested in the story side of these games, which is why I watch the Let's Plays of them (which is what I know what does happen). And that would be cheaper than pouring the money into buying them that I do. And yet... I do want to play games... I just don't have the patience for playing games.

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