As for Episode 1’s zombie lift sequence (and Episode 1 in general) am I the only one who thought Episode one in its entirety was dreadfully boring? I forced myself to finish it because I had nothing else to play and because “hey, it’s Valve, it’ll surely pick up”. The whole mechanic of shining the light on monsters would be great if Alyx could actually aim at stuff that was attacking you and gave you any idea of what her health levels were like (at one point I turned around for a moment to get some goodies, heard nothing and then was informed “Alyx died”). Plus those Zombines were lame; even an alt-fire double shotty blast wouldn’t take them out. When they had grenades, you were usually getting fondled by other zombies and couldn’t grav gun it away, plus they had too much health to kill before the grenades went off. This left you with the option of “run away”. Run away in pitch black, claustrophobic corridors littered with phys objects? Again, not fun.

Bumbling around in darkened claustrophobic environments while relying on an AI character to save you *really* isn’t my idea of fun. Oh and the infinite waves of ant lions made it oh so tedious, too. Yeah block the hives with your grav gun. Fun the first two times… but after that it just degenerates into “find hidden cars while getting bummed in the gob by a never ending stream of antlions while Alyx runs around and shoots the one that is nowhere near you and screams for help”. Did I mention I hate relying on CPU characters? I did? Good. The moment I had a squad with me in the original HL2, I would order them to their deaths (into rooms containing sentry placements) just so they wouldn’t get in my effing way.

“Good idea, Gordon! AIIIIIEEEEEEERGHGH!”

Granted, the AI in Episode 1 was amongst the best I’ve seen for a game buddy that had to react to various situations and not get in your way, but it still felt like a huge burden and a constraint on my fun. Who here actually had a blast playing through Episode 1? Be honest. Also please bear in mind that I really liked HL2 (the only criticisms I had of HL2 were the hovercraft and, in particular, road sections of the game were way too long and tedious) and the fact that the combine seemed to like dying in single file without offering too much in the way of organised resistance.

God I sound like a grumpy old fucker.

Love the Half-Life series though, they’re not overly difficult but still pretty fun.

Amen brother. Amen!

I worked through a brutal game called Oni a couple years back. I hated the game after the difficulty curve spiked (especially around the time of the boss battle with the cyber-ninja dude) but I obsessively kept at it. I did finally beat it, after entering that zombie-like state of retrying the same level over and over. You’d think that would give me a sense of accomplishment, but looking back I just ask myself, “Why?” I mean, I could have been having a lot more fun playing something else. I don’t even remember the ending or the story – just the pain and frustration.

These long, expensive games are ruining our lives. I miss the early days of video games, where it was all about just having fun. We didn’t need to ‘finish’ Donkey Kong or Pac-Man, we just played them. PLAYED them. Video games aren’t books or movies! Stories enhance the experience the first time you play, but the gameplay keeps you coming back. Why do you think that casual gaming is making such a comeback? When I play Peggle, I don’t feel the need to “beat” it, I just enjoy myself.

I love RPG’s, but I think they were the first to invent “slog-through” gameplay. The best RPG’s in my mind are ones that are so tough, you feel accomplished when your character actually kills a monster. Perhaps toughness in RPG’s doesn’t frustrate me as much as with action games, because they’re really just about decision-making. When I’m saying “Attack, Attack, Attack, Cast Spell” over and over to my party, I’m bored out of my mind. But if I’m biting my nails every attack round, thinking my guys might die, I’m actually having fun. I’ve never beaten Bard’s Tale (the original), but I always come back to it. I doubt I’ll ever “finish” it, but turning your party from losers into contenders is so hard, and satisfying, that I always feel drawn back. Same goes for the roguelikes – no one enters thinking they’re going to actually win, it’s the experience that keeps you coming back. To use a cliche, “It’s the ride, not the destination”

“What, you’re hungry AGAIN? Oh my GOD! Do I have to schedule bathroom breaks for you braindead half-wits too, or should I assume we’re all saving the world when covered in sticky layers of our own human waste?!

I’ll show you! rmdir /r C:\ULTIMA7″

Portal solved both of these problems and so I eagerly finished it. I wasn’t just having fun with the game — the game was having fun with me.

Narrators are hardly ever used, but come to think of it, games could really benefit from them. They personify the game for you, tell you how you’re doing and what it means in context.

Stalker – i felt that the patch may help improve performance around indoor areas but didn’t have the energy to start again (although I’ve completely forgotten where I was in the game now so a restart is looking less like a bad thing)

Company of Heroes – this is a masterpiece, it deserves to be finished. Then, AND ONLY THEN, can I buy the expansion.

Bioshock – I’ve been giving this time when I have it. I’m not going to play it for just 30mins or so at a time, it’s much better to get lost in it for a few hours at a time I reckon.

HL2 Ep2 – I want to do it in one sitting, heh.

FEAR – i was a scaredy-pants.

But I finished Doom 3!!!

As for games I haven’t finished, I’m a bit of a completionist, so I have to think…

Homeworld. I’m not very good at RTSs and this was insanely hard.
Shogun’s campaing. Despite loving the game to bits, I felt the campaign just got repetitive, half way through.
Fallout Tactics. Not having hexes annoyed me.
Lionheart. After Barcelona, things went really down the crapper. And such a good setting too.

Special mention: NOLF2. I’ve only finished it once, unlike the first game, which I conservatively estimate to have finished a thousand times. I feel guilty for only having finished once a game that I love. And I so loved the mimes!

It took me two and a half years of casual play to get to 70 in WoW, though that’s now turned into a semi addiction which has forced me to make use of my wife in order to see the endings of certain games in my collection. She loved Bioshock.

Halo had far too much padding in the middle.

The GTA games are so long and open-ended and difficult that I’ll probably never finish them. Likewise I no longer have patience to play Zelda or FF games, but I can see why people love them as timesinks.

On this topic I would be interested in finding out which games people finished more than once.

I think the only games I have completely finished more than once are Half Life 1, Diablo 1 (many times with the same character and different ones), KOTOR 1 and Monkey Island 2. I have also come close to a full second play through with BG2, System Shock 2 and Jagged Alliance 1/2.

Memorable games I did not finish include Doom 3, Quake 4, Warcraft 3 and NFSU but generally I try to complete my games before I move onto the next one.