GRcade

Some games grab you immediately, others take a while to get going.

Most deserve a chance to impress you. After all, untold man hours have gone into making them and some families have been destroyed in the process. And if you've ploughed your hard earned dough into a game, you want to get your money's worth, right?

But there are some games that... you just can't bring yourself to continue with, no matter how hard you try. I made this topic because I spent literally 6 minutes playing Call of Juarez: The Cartel. It destroyed my soul. I just couldn't bring myself to waste any more of my precious life playing it. It is without doubt the worst thing I have played all year, and such a huge disappointment after it's prequels, which are what made me interested in playing the latest instalment, despite the fact that it was no longer set in the Wild West. I was in the middle of the very first level (after the appalling driving section) where you're running through that forest, being mocked continuously by my unhelpful partners for missing the enemies with my wayward shots, and I snapped and immediately rage ejected the disc. And I do not feel compelled to put it back in. I should say that I rented it rather than bought it so that makes the decision easier. I had avoided all reviews but having read some since the event, I feel validated that those 6 minutes were more than plenty.

What's the shortest amount of time you have given a game to impress you, and do you regret not sticking with it in retrospect?

Vampire rain. Cals hyperbole on here convinced me to give it a shot, turned it on, saw how bland it looked, got murdered before I even binked. Never touched it again

I started Oblivion a while back, got out of the sewers and was promptly attacked by a gang of invisible wolves. I couldn't see them or hit them, but they could hurt me. I died and then never went back to it, as I was so furious that such a bug had made it past QA on a game that was meant to be incredible. I probably should give it another go, as everyone says it's a brilliant game, but I haven't had the time.

I played Space Giraffe for approximately 17 seconds before I decided that Jeff Minter could get strawberry floated.

Sonic Unleashed.

A couple of hours of play, that's all I gave it.

About 10 to 20 minutes is the shortest I would give a game to either impress or even show some promise.

Latest one to do nothing for me and delete was Brink.

melatonin wrote:I played Space Giraffe for approximately 17 seconds before I decided that Jeff Minter could get strawberry floated.

I still think it was just a practical joke.

20 minutes to Supreme Commander on the 360. Worst port I've ever played.

Killzone 2 &3 single player campaigns.

God they were so dull.

pyxl-8 wrote:

melatonin wrote:I played Space Giraffe for approximately 17 seconds before I decided that Jeff Minter could get strawberry floated.

I still think it was just a practical joke.

I liked it.

Good idea for a topic although I play through most of my game until the end sooner or later

I think the only game i got rid of was Devil May Cry 4. I got halfway

Recently Brink got 10 minutes. I could have continued for free but it was too bad.

Lost Planet 2 - Maybe 10 minutes in and I switched it off and never went back to it ever again

Demon Souls got about an hour out of me, got shut of it.

Stalker.. Played as much as I could bear but it was futile.

Probably Infamous. Load of poo.

Recently, Brink. Yarred it so couldn't go online but thought I'd give the bots a go. 15 minutes in I got bored and deleted it. Also, I was part of the initial APB beta. Played about 10 minutes (minus the excellent character creator) and was so horrified I turned it off and never went near it again.

EDIT: Wow, Brink seems to be the winner/loser here.

An hour or two for Fallout New Vegas. Not an hour or two of progress mind you, an hour or two of replaying various sections of the opening because it's a buggy piece of gooseberry fool that kept crashing on me.

15 minutes on Dead Space before it scared me so much I had to delete it. Never gone back to it.

Yeah. I'm a wuss.

Don't the first 15 minutes consist of the non-interactive intro, a la Half Life?

Arma II, it looked terrible and I instantly got stuck trying to get over a small wall on the ship, enough was enough and turned it off, never to return. So about 3-5 minutes.