Ever wanted to love a game you absolutely hate?

[TheMissingLink]

It's sickening, I tell you.

The praise that Resident Evil 4 amazes me.  I've owned the game twice, have tried sooo hard to get into it and I just can't.  And sometimes, I get this urge to play it again.

I just rented it today (phew, no more buying for me!), but I guess the deal is, I sort of hate the game.  It's a little bit scary, quite intense and I really don't like how the game controls or plays.  BUT I WANT TO LOVE IT SO BAD!!!

You guys got any games like that?

[Devil]

Nintendo DS

I don't hate it, I just wish I loved it more...
 :cry:

Prince of Persia (XBox) kept me coming back to try and love it, but around 60% finished I broke down and gave up. Stupid fighting!!!

[Roguetad]

Ninja Gaiden and DOA4.  Team Ninja bastards!!

[Farscry]

Oh, I definitely have a list for this:

Top of the list:

Guild Wars  
I really wanted to get into this; a friend and I each bought a copy and were planning on making it our "party up and kill stuff tonight in missions" game without needing a full-bore mmo.  For reasons I just can't even explain to myself, I just couldn't get into the game even though I tried repeatedly.  Great game design, I love how huge the gameworld is and how many different skills and build combinations there are, but it just didn't gel for me.

Other Notables off the top of my head:

Xenosaga - I tried this twice, just can't get into it despite loving huge, twisting console JRPG's.  The combat system is probably a large part of this, since it just never worked for me, and the story scenes are so insufferably long!

Dungeon Siege - I loved the atmosphere, the variety of scenery and music, and even liked the spells/gear.  But the game just drudges on and on with far too repetitive and uninteractive gameplay.  For reasons unknown, the sequel fixed this for me.  

Silent Hill - This goes for the whole series.  I've tried multiple times.  It's intensely eerie and with intriguing stories, but the gameplay just doesn't work.  The puzzles in particular are just too abstract for me.  I guess I just didn't have the patience to fight the controls and wrap my head around the Myst-esque puzzles.  

I'll think of more later I'm sure.  

[Knightshade Dragon]

Call of Cthuhlu   :cry:

[TheMissingLink]

Any scary game, as well.  I seriously go in telling myself, "I need to love this genre." and I return the game or whatever EVERY TIME.

[Dimmona]

I'd have to say that Perfect Dark for the N64 was a perfect example for me.  I finished the single player game on the highest difficult level, put in a ton of multiplayer time, and kept trying to convince myself that I liked the game.  

In the end, I finally realized that while it was superior to Goldeneye featurewise, it simply had no soul.

Strangely, for all the negative press Perfect Dark Zero has gotten I've actually enjoyed it so far.  Not aweinspiring, but a fun little game nonetheless.

Edit: ooh, Gratch reminded me of my supressed hatred for Kingdom Hearts.  Horrible camera, dumb game.

[Gratch]

I've got quite a few games that I have purchased more than once, hoping that I could see what everyone was raving about:

Kingdom Hearts
The GTA games
Zelda:  Windwaker
Advance Wars
Any MMORPG (tried DAoC, FFXI, & City of Heroes.  Couldn't get into any of them)
Halflife (1 or 2)

[warning]

Has to be the Zelda games.  I've played every one and I've never finished any of them.  I don't hate the games but I just don't love them.  But I want to love them!

[Knightshade Dragon]

I never finished Windwaker.  I got to the "Collect all 487 parts of the Triforce?  Only Tingle has the maps and he will extort you to death!" part and couldn't go on.

[semiconscious]

it simply had no soul.

can't say i hated it, but that was my main problem with god of war, which i finished (& i get the same 'no soul' feeling playing re4, which i really, really want to like, & haven't finished)...


&, okay, i'll say it - i also continue failing to like dqviii, even tho i wish i did...

[Laner]

Most Nintendo franchises... Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.  I'll have a stretch where I'll play one of them for several hours one day, but I never get the urge to go back to them.

Japanese RPGs in general... I've bought almost all of the big name JRPGs at some point.  They've never managed to hold my interest for more than a few hours at best.

GTA series.  I did get pretty far in GTA3, but after a while it just felt like the same old, same old.

Metal Gear Solid.  I like "sneakers" for the most part.  But for whatever reason the MGS series don't click for me.

--

I *want* to like these games.  Plenty of people obviously do.  I'm just not one of them, despite many tries.

[Darren8r]

GTA series.  I did get pretty far in GTA3, but after a while it just felt like the same old, same old.

Yea, but I still love the game, I've completed 3, Vice City, San Andreas all to 100%, just for that sense of accomplishment. And to say to people, yeah I beat thoughs games 100%, I could help you out. But your right they do get, same old, same old once you hit 60% lol.

Games I feel this way about it the Final Fantasy series, but not really, maybe alittle. I love all of them, but I hate them at the same time, because they take so fricken long. I'm one of those people that have to get everything 100%, all the weapons upgraded to the max and everything maxed out, so then when I get to the boss I can kill him in 1 hit.

I did that with FFX and FF1 and 2 and I started on 8, and just havent found the drive to do it. I bought FFXI recently and that costs money and I still dont have drive to level my guy all the way to 75.

Dont get me wrong, I love Final Fantasy.

[mikeg]

Any RPG.

Sports games.

I think Fight Night Round 3 will fix that though.   Can't get enough of that baby.

[Nth Power]

The Metal Gear games for me.  I don't hate them, but I just can never get that far into them before I start getting bored or something else pulls me away.

[Roguetad]

Any scary game, as well.  I seriously go in telling myself, "I need to love this genre." and I return the game or whatever EVERY TIME.

I feel your pain.  First person horror games are not fun for me, no matter how great the game is.  I can think of several that I attempted but could never finish.  My ideal fun gaming experience doesn't seem to include diving into an alternate reality of terror.  Great games on this list that I really wanted to play and enjoy:

System Shock2
The Undying
Fear

I know I'm missing some...

What's funny is that I'm ok if the game is in 3rd person, but not 1st person.  Even Vampire:Bloodlines was tough for me to complete (twice), and my character was a monster!

[denoginizer]

KOTOR.

I keep hearing what a great game it is.  I love the Star Wars universe.  I've owned it on the PC and Xbox (twice).  But I just can't seem to get past the 6 hour mark without getting bored to tears.

Also WoW.  Again everybody tells me how great and addicting it is.  But I have never gottan past level 26.  It just seems boring and repetitive to me.  Even when playing with a group of people who love the game, it bores me to tears.

I guess I'm just not a RPG guy.  The only one that ever held my interest was Guild Wars.  I think that was more do to the PVP than the PVE though.

[Ragnarok]

DQ8.  I  will give it more of a chance, and I don't hate it, but I do wish I loved it and couldn't stop playing.  The same goes for Shadow Hearts:Covenant.  I played about 40% of the way through but could not love it for all I tried. [/i]

[Calvin]

All of the modern Zelda games.
Final Fantasy 7.

Many more I can't think of right now.

[unbreakable]

Never liked anything about Guild Wars.  I was in their open beta, and I played it a bit.  It just FELT uninteresting, like waves of ennui were crashing across my screen.

I tried it.  Then tried it some more.  And a bit more.  And... just gave up and logged into WoW.

GW seemed like playing WoW if the servers were empty unless you went to town.  And once you went to town, everything was so busy and hectic that everyone ignored you.

[depward]

I hate to say it, because I was so into it before release - Magna Carta.  I spent about eight hours really trying to like it.  And I liked some of it.  But that battle system . . . and those load times . . . and everything else . . . just hit me all of a sudden a couple of days ago.  So I sold it for $55 on Ebay and started playing Dragon Quest VIII  

[TheMissingLink]

So I sold it for $55 on Ebay and started playing Dragon Quest VIII  

About time, Christian, sheesh.

In other news - I rented Resident Evil 4.  I'd be playing it now instead of Fire Emblem, but it's dark outside.  And RE4 freaks me out big time.  And I'm sort of afraid of the dark.  And those spanish-shrieking woman seriously frighten me.

Oh, I got another one - Disgaea.  Yeah, I've owned it twice.  And both times, it has annoyed the hell out of me.  I guess La Pucelle is all I can take from Nippon Ichi.

[Purge]

Fable.

Black and White 1.

The Sims.

Metroid Prime.

KOTOR2.

DOA Ultimate, & 4.

PGR3. I just don't love it. PGR2 to some extent as well.

[HankRaptor]

This is easy.

Windwaker- All that boating. I really loved the idea of that game, but I couldnt finish it.. I cant even get myself to load it up again.

Project Gotham-  I almost bought the new one. But the truth is I love the look of the game, I want to love it.. Too serious for me. I dodged a bullet there.

GT series- Again too serious.

Animal Crossing-HATE HATE HATE- I wanted to see what everyone else loves.. Played it WAY longer than I cared to.

Nintendo DS- I dont HATE the DS, I just dont like it like everyone else does.

Resident Evil Series- Bought various versions- never warmed up to any of em.

Nintendogs- Wanted to like it alot.. My kids love it.

DOA- I bought the new one. Im not a fan of the reversal system. Im more of a tekken fan.

KOTOR- The single worst game I played that everyone loved... I played this game a total of 45 minutes. I want my 45 minutes back please.

[Starshifter]

Games
Dragon Quest VIII - Struggling big time with this one.  Just not grabbing me.  Characters are boring and unmemorable and the silent hero stuff just rots.  A few more tries and then it's getting traded in.

Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow - Like Dragon Quest it's not grabbing me at all.  It too is on life support.

Systems
Sony PSP - Ugh.  A miniature PS2 in the palm of my hands with lousy load times.  Strongly considering trading it in.

PS2 - Other than Eye Toy and DQVIII, that's it for my PS2 library.  Been like that for a long time.  The system that has collected the most dust.  I won't be preordering the PS3.  I will get it eventually (because I have to have them all) it's just not a must have launch unit for me like the X360 was & the Revolution will be.

[adamsappel]

The Splinter Cell games, especially the multiplayer. My Friends always want to play these, and I just get so frustrated.

Survival horror games. I still buy them when they're cheap, but I rarely even unwrap them. I finished Condemned (despite a game bug that left me with no weapons against the final boss - I had to kick him into submission), but I didn't have much fun playing the game, ya know?

RPGs, particularly text-heavy ones. I feel like I'm back in grade school in West Virginia, having to read at the same pace as a mouth-breathing inbred.

[jimmyorr99]

FF series. I like the newer ones ok, but the old ones I just can't stand at all. I've never been a huge rpg fan to begin with, but these games seemed to be too much reading and not enough other stuff.

[jament]

DOA4 - I wanted to learn it.  I wanted to get good at it.  I wanted to love it.

But playing it is like going to work - it's like a job.  My gaming time it too limited to spend my time working at a game.  Even on line, there's just nothing fun about it.  I worked hard at learning a character, all the moves, just to get uber-countered by the AI in SP and get beat by the one-move button mashers on line.  There's no reward and no reason to continue.

I still love the idea of the damn game.  I just hate the game.

[HankRaptor]

THis is why I rarely read reviews anymore. What some people love I hate and vice versa.

I listen to people who's opinion I trust.

When Rob Morton calls me with the obligatory call... once or twice or year there is that MUST HAVE game. I run and get it. His record has been flawless. Mafia comes to mind on the PC that I listened to and bought with his recomendation that game is one of my favorites games EVER (PC)

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

Soul Caliber 3

[Calvin]

So I sold it for $55 on Ebay and started playing Dragon Quest VIII  

About time, Christian, sheesh.

In other news - I rented Resident Evil 4.  I'd be playing it now instead of Fire Emblem, but it's dark outside.  And RE4 freaks me out big time.  And I'm sort of afraid of the dark.  And those spanish-shrieking woman seriously frighten me.

Oh, I got another one - Disgaea.  Yeah, I've owned it twice.  And both times, it has annoyed the hell out of me.  I guess La Pucelle is all I can take from Nippon Ichi.

OMFG-big time! Thanks for reminding me-both Disgaea, La Pucelle, and the other one. I just do not like them.

[TheMissingLink]

^ Yeah, but you want to love them, don't you?  Ditto here, I wanted to find Makai Kingdom silly and I wanted to dive into the item world in Disgaea but MY GOD, I don't know what it is, but I think I'm just DONE with Nippon Ichi SRPGs unless they do something radically different.

[Big Jake]

Resurrecting this thread to input something: I've been trying to finish out games I've let fall by the wayside - and Star Ocean 3 is killing me.  I want to like this game, but SOOOOO many bad design decisions (ie, why does my hero have 7000+ hps but he's dead?  What killed him?!?!?!) is just grinding it to a halt.  Nothing spells fun like trying to figure out what the hell just insta-killed me out while I was kicking it's ass.

[semiconscious]

Resurrecting this thread to input something: I've been trying to finish out games I've let fall by the wayside - and Star Ocean 3 is killing me.  I want to like this game, but SOOOOO many bad design decisions (ie, why does my hero have 7000+ hps but he's dead?  What killed him?!?!?!) is just grinding it to a halt.  Nothing spells fun like trying to figure out what the hell just insta-killed me out while I was kicking it's ass.

it's been awhile, but, other than getting a bit nasty toward the end (especially the final boss!), i don't remember having that bad a time (what kinda got to me, if anything, was the item creation system - figured out how to create a bunch of orichalcum & pretty much left it at that)...

[Kevin Grey]

it's been awhile, but, other than getting a bit nasty toward the end (especially the final boss!), i don't remember having that bad a time .

Yeah, if anything I thought that SO3 got easier as it progressed.

[Canuck]

^ Yeah, but you want to love them, don't you?  Ditto here, I wanted to find Makai Kingdom silly and I wanted to dive into the item world in Disgaea but MY GOD, I don't know what it is, but I think I'm just DONE with Nippon Ichi SRPGs unless they do something radically different.

Did you enjoy Final Fantasy Tactics?  Because I loved it and I like the look of these other games but I'm worried that it's more of a game for leveling whores than something with a fantastic story like FFT had.

[jblank]

NBA Live 2006
All Splinter Cell games
Nintendogs - Really trying my best to love this game.
Starfox Adventures for the GC
Advance Wars
The Grand Theft Auto Series
Mortal Kombat series

[tcweidner]

world or warcraft- I mean the world, the art direction, the atomsphere is all AWESOME, I just wish there was a game there to play at the end. Its all raid or farm in the end

[Calvin]

NBA Live 2006
All Splinter Cell games
Nintendogs - Really trying my best to love this game.
Starfox Adventures for the GC
Advance Wars
The Grand Theft Auto Series
Mortal Kombat series

Grand Theft Auto Series +1

[aledromo]

Let me add my voice to those who tried like hell to see the peaches and honey supposedly falling out of every nook of RE:4.

Also, I bought Prince of Persia twice and couldn't find the creamy center.  Curse the hype machine!