[buddi]

I usually finish what I start, I don't know why it's so hard for me to walk away from a bad game, I'll sit there with a walkthrough just to get it over with faster and verbally abuse the characters and the developers mothers as I put them through their paces.

Some games I finished with a walkthrough, merely out of perversity:

Paradise Nothing about this game appealed to me. The graphic style was so muddy, I had no idea what things were, the puzzles were idiotic and poorly clued, the characters annoying and the story lame.

Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express A lot of to-ing and fro-ing, some poorly designed puzzles and hot spot hunting.

Runaway 2: the Dream of the Turtle The puzzles were nonsensical and farfetched, but mostly I found the story stupid and the main character really, really annoying.

Secret Files: Tunguska Same as above. The male character in particular was smarmy and rude to everyone.

Gabriel Knight: the Beast Within I really didn't like the FMV sequences in this game and I thought they made Grace too whiney and matronly. Despite this I enjoyed it pretty much until the end but the maze puzzle with the wolf was one of the worst puzzles I have ever encountered. I printed out a detailed walkthrough and followed it step by step, R, L, L, R etc etc. I never would have gotten through without it, and it seems mean to cut people down so close to the end of the game.

Overclocked Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive... oh yeah, did I mention repetitive?

Games I couldn't finish without downloading saves:

Dreamfall I hated the stealth and action sequences. I have a video game phobia about being chased through underground passages by diseased or deformed creatures, as well, it was my first 3d adventure so I had trouble with the controls. I'd pretty much figured out the solution, but I couldn't get past the nasties so I downloaded a save. Ditto for the evil twins, I just couldn't run fast enough. I tried to replay the game recently with a game pad, to see if I could get through those sequences, but I don't have the patience to replay games and I never got that far.

Next Life I managed the first mini game by turning the sound all the way off, but the others were impossible for me, in an otherwise fairly easy game.

The Experiment I just couldn't get the tribunal puzzle, I would be sure I was doing everything right and then he would say I had to go back to the beginning. I tried for days and finally had to download a save. Unfortunately, it's part of a long no save sequence, so I missed the following puzzle.

Grim Fandango I kept getting stuck on the conveyor belt, apparently a processor issue. I tried running CPU killer but still couldn't play it through. I used a save to get past that part and the rest of the game played fine.

Some games I started but never finished:

80 Days, Dead reefs, Bad Mojo Redux These games were intriguing, but the controls bothered me too much to play. I bought 80 Days online, not realizing it came with Starforce protection, so that was just one more reason I was happy to have it off my computer. I can see myself returning to Bad Mojo Redux one day, I liked the graphics and the idea of it, I just died a bunch of times in a row and put it aside for a bit and I just haven't gotten back to it.

Amerzone, Aura: Sacred Rings, Faust - 7 Games of the soul, Last Express, NiBiRu, Sherlock Holmes: the Awakening, Ankh, Undercover: Operation Wintersun, Missing: Since January, GK 3 These are all games I started, but they just couldn't hold my interest. I was happen to abandon them when something better came along.. like dirty dishes, or watching paint dry. Missing was a real let down, as I loved Evidence: the Last Ritual, but the arcade games were too twitchy for me.

Finally, my heart break category: games I got into but what unable to finish for whatever reason:

Broken Sword: Angel of Death. I've played the first few scenes of this one a bunch of times. I originally tried to play it on my lap top but the graphics card wasn't up to snuff and it would crash after about 20 mins of play. I then tried to install it on my desk top, but my old CRT monitor was in such crappy condition, I couldn't see into dark corners well enough to play. I put it aside until I upgraded, only to find out that it is unplayable with a quad core processor. One of these days my roomates will go on vacation and I can hook up their CPU to my monitor and find out what I have been missing all this time.

Riven A similar story. The graphic didn't look good on my old monitor, so I upgraded, only to find it wasn't Vista compliant. It starts off okay, but then crashes when I try to click on a particular object, making it impossible to continue.

Myst IV: Revelations Started out great with this one but then I got stuck. I refuse to look at a walkthrough since I had so much fun figuring things out until I got stuck, eventually I will get back to it.

Penumbra: Black Plague I'm stuck in a control room with an infected zombie trying to gnaw my brain out. I know what I am supposed to do, I have the graphics turned all the way down and difficulty set to lame n00b but when I try to slam the door in his face, my mouse goes all stuttery and I can't respond in time. I'm the first to admit I am not an action gamer, but I really like the aesthetic of this game and the physics based game play, so I'm still holding out hope that someone will post me a save game.

**EDIT** Oh yeah, Psychonauts I played the demo on my PC but I found the gamepad/keyboard combination a little distracting so I ordered it for PS2. It doesn't look as good, but the game is freaking brilliant. The only platformer I've ever played before is LEGO Starwars, so maybe its a lousy platformer, but in terms of story and characters and just plain fun, I love it. My only problem with it is that my roommate is WAY ahead of me so I've had to banish myself from the TV room to avoid spoilers.