do you really completed your games?

[Gamerforlife]

I have quite a few games in my collection I haven't finished, when I do get sucked into a game though I am very completist about it. I just kind of feel like beating a game now and days doesn't mean as much as it did when I was younger. The real challenge now is going for that 100% or getting the best rankings in each stage. That's kind of what the achievements in Xbox 360 games are all about really. A lot of people refer to doing anything beyond the main game as a chore, but I often find that I gain a deeper level of appreciation for a game after doing the optional stuff because it reveals many more layers and facets to the gameplay.

With games like Resident Evil 4, Panzer Dragoon Orta, the Ratchet & Clank series, Shinobi, or the Final Fantasy games, you're missing out on half of the game if you just beat them and put them on the shelf. You need to go for S ranks in Shinobi and Panzer Dragoon Orta to really understand the depth of the gameplay in those games. You have to get and upgrade all the weapons in the Ratchet & Clank games to really see and appreciate how much thought and humor went into each one, not to mention the sheer amount of chaos and destruction some of them offer.

And Final Fantasy games, my god. 70% of the games are usually found in the optional quests and activities. All of the most fun weapons, abilities, summons etc. come from going off the beaten path, often requiring a FAQ or strategy guide. There was a whole group of players devoted to getting the highest scores in Resident Evil's 4 Mercenaries and having tons of fun doing it, and yet many players never even tried this mode. Completely missing out on the awesomeness of unlocking and playing as Hunk(with his one hit kill neck snap move) and Krauser(with his mutated arm special move that destroys everyone)

But I do agree that when a game ceases to be fun, a person might as well stop playing. I just think a lot of players don't realize how fun and satisfying the optional stuff in some games really are so they don't bother trying to really and truly complete everything in their games, or getting those high stage rankings.

[Inene]

It's kind of sad, besides fighting games I think I've only beaten a handful of gameboy games. Heh and that's not even completing them. Oh well, I've beaten chrono trigger and link's awakening on emu but yea that's just about it

[roushimsx]

I own hundreds of games I haven't beaten and I have hundreds of games I have beaten. In the past few years I've knocked out >50/yr complete and I've got a few hundred under my belt total (without resorting to save state hacking, game genie usage, hex editing, etc).

Many games do wind up unfinished for whatever reason (some just aren't worth beating, some are too hard, sometimes I just get distracted). I try to give every game a fair shot for at least a little bit; for instance, I try to give an RPG 10 hours before I make a firm judgment on its relative worth, but sometimes I let a game fall by the wayside for whatever reason and I just never get around to picking it back up again.

Limited time is a major factor for me. I tend to only get an hour of game time a night except for on weekends (and even then it's not a whole lot), so if a gameplay session can't be completed within that span then there's a chance the game won't get beaten. MGS3 took me about 3 months to get into and even then it took me another 2 months after that before I was able to find enough time to play past the first quarter of it. I loved the game to bits but I just didn't have a lot of time. As a result, I rarely beat games 100%.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I can only finish fast paced action-adventure games w/ story, like CoD4, Lost Planet, or Halo =P. I need a story and I really have to focus to beat it. I have an odly short attention span for single player games. I love them but multiplayer is where its at

[itsamemario]

this is why i often prefer short games...great chance that i'll actually finish it...i prefer games that I can beat in 10 hours or less...

[Ack]

I do attempt to do everything, though I admit that many of my games I've never gotten 100%. Frankly sometimes I feel certain parts piss me off so much that I never will do it. Sometimes I just get bored. But I still shoot for it from the get go. I like knowing what the total experience is like

[aaron]

i just like to experience the story. very few games really make me challenge myself to go forth. i just cheat or use a guide to just experience the game. might make me a bad gamer but i just like the medium really. i'm more of a gaming enthusiast than a gamer anyway, hah.

[Randy_Marsh]

I dont know about you but when i buy a game i like to beat it utterly and completely as in: find all of the secret rooms, hidden items/unlockable rooms and items ECT... The other day i was talking to someone about Resident evil 4, i told him i had beat it 7 times. He asked if it was my favorite resident evil, and no it isnt, actually it's my least favorite. well why did i beat it 7 times you ask? i allways try to get all the neat extra features. you've got to beat once to unlock the extras, twice to get the P.R.L. 412 Plaga Removal Laser, beat the mercenaries with 5 stars with every character. I even Had to beat it once to get enough money to get the fully upgraded hand cannon. I think i actually had to beat it 6 times to get everything. I also played re2 with tofu, and got the gatling gun with gill in re3 and its also cool playing regina in re3, and finding secret rooms in return to castle wolfenstein was awesome, it was like shoot a picture of hitler and you get gold bars. the last game ive been doing this with is lost planet extreme conditions, if you wander around in the levels you find letters and compleat a word that shows at level selection page. And i dont know why. Anybody else feel this way?

lol @ RE4 being your least favorite RE game.

[Kasreyn]

I understand the desire to unlock everything, see everything there is to see. For me to do that though I would have to be completely in love with the game. I started playing Metroid Fusion yesterday and Metroid games can have that effect. But most of my games I can appreciate just playing through them once.

And yes, ofcourse I have games in my collection I've never completed. I'm looking at you F-Zero GX !

[Crabmaster2000]

I always finish any games that I start playing. I feel I cannot properly judge a game until I have seen it all the way through. Sometimes this does feel like it becomes a chore (Okami comes to mind as a recent game that started excellent and became a chore halfway through). A game has to be absolutely amazing for me to go for the 100%. A few games I remember going for perfect saves/100% are Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy IX, Shadow of the Colossus, and Megaman X-X3. There has been no games this currect generation that have given me the desire to 100% them.

One game that I have tried several times to 100% is Hydlide for the NES and I have failed at the final boss about 50 times. It makes me so angry that I cant do it even when im totally maxed out and have all the equipment. Ill probably try again in a few weeks.