Unfinished Business
By Bill Stepec - May 2nd, 2008
Game: The Orange Box (Episode 2)
Last known whereabouts: Hucking Magnusson devices at Striders.
Sure, it may be something of a crime to miss the latest installment of what is arguably the most influential game of the past few years. However, anyone who’s played the game knows exactly where I am, and can probably guess why I stopped playing.
Imagine you’re a pizza delivery guy or gal. You have to drive around and deliver pizzas as required. Now, in order to get a pizza delivered, you have to throw the box thirty feet in the air, hitting something the size of a compact car. While you are delivering the goods, you are constantly harassed by homeless people who try to mug you and steal said pizzas. Every time you deliver, or fail to deliver a pie, you have to go to the nearest franchise location and get a new one. Your car holds but one pizza.
Before long, you have to deliver pizzas all across town. You’re driving anywhere and everywhere, aiming to satisfy some near-impossible “25 seconds or free” quota. Frustration sets in quickly, and controllers are thrown nearly as far as that pizza, or Magnusson device, to get back to Half-Life.
It all boils down to the dude spinning plates – by the time he gets the last one going okay, the first one is in desperate need of attention. This is what that last bit of Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is like, and it is why I stopped playing. It wasn’t an interesting activity, it didn’t really drive the story and it wasn’t any fun. I refuse to waste my time on it.
Plus, someone also blew the ending for me, giving me zero motivation to suck it up and whether the storm.
So why do we one day stop? What reasons do we have to throw our hands in the air and exclaim I give up!? Is everything worth starting also worth finishing?
I play games to have fun, and as soon as the fun stops coming – I stop playing. I’m sure I’m not alone. One day we will start our own club, but likely give up before it gets off the ground. Figures.
But until that day, I must assume I am the vocal minority. Games don’t need to be finished to be enjoyed, ‘cause as soon as the enjoyment stops I’m finished. Tell the world.
Wow - nice article! I’m so awesome!
If you’re so awesome, why can’t you beat Dead Rising? Bwakajakajaka! Just kidding. That’s one of my 360 games that I’ve barely gotten into. If I did an article like this on, say, GameCube games, I would have to talk about something in the area of 70 games.
I blame the fact that I played through Resident Evil 4 multiple times.
You don’t like Guitar Hero, have you no Soul? Shaun, are you sure you checked that Bill was a live Human being, and not a fiendishly convincing version of a Spambot? ;)
Seriously though, I think it depends on how you term the word “finish”. If I play a game, not to competition, but feel that I have gotten “everything” out of it of interest (especially true in repetitive games that make you do the same thing over and over: GoW PC I choose you) I feel like I have “finished” it. I don’t feel guilty about not seeing the almost arbitrary ending to a typically “phoned in” storyline. Games that I “complete” are usually the ones I am having such a good time playing, that I *don’t* want to end.
With respect to Episode 2: The PC would probably give you the accuracy required to complete the mission. (It’s actually the last mission of the episode too). I enjoyed that one so much, I played it twice in a row (as soon as I finished it, I restarted, because it was just fricken awesome. And I wanted to try another technique). Try using logs, or running over the mini-striders with your car.
Dead Rising is a strange case: With the way the save/continue/death system is, I think it actually encourages/requires you to play through multiple times, failing. Until you get your character up to a high enough level that it gets easier. Zombie killing is Shaun and I’s favourite past time, so we could likely do it forever, which means that game never gets old. (”Only 65,000 zombies in the game? Why so low!”)
Agreed on Viva Pinata. I gave up 5-6hrs in. I wanted to “Catch ‘em all”, however they game gives you no real way to keep track of your goals, and always distracts you with new Pinatas. I was quickly overwhelmed, realized that it was just a virtual garden anyhow, and quickly went back to playing TF2.
Good to have you aboard Bill. PS. Could you not be so damn funny next time, you make the less comically gifted of us (me) look bad by comparison :p
Hey folks - thanks for the comments.
For the record - I have RE4 for Wii. Played through to the sewer, to find that I will have to buy the uzi-lookin’ gun to kill the invisible monsters effectively (I’ve been doing the pistol/shotgun thing). What kills me is I know for sure that a new Uzi sort of weapon will be available soon, making my purchase something of a waste. Plus, since I never planned on using that gun, I sold all my ammo. Suffice to say I’m done RE4 for now, but that’s another article.
I’m not really sure exactly what it was about the HL:EP2 thing that made me want to stop playing. I assumed it was the combination of factors, hence my pizza analogy. Still, I’ve put up with more from worse games. Maybe it was babysitting the buildings. It’s too much like an escort mission.
Interesting point on the difference between “completing” and “finishing” a game. I’m sure a ton of people have reached endgame in WOW, but continue to eat intravenously for 12 hour sessions none-the-less. On the other hand, I know a guy who bought GTA Vice City and played for months without ever touching the plot.
It’s facinating the way people play games.
What about games that you can’t finish because they have no ending? How would you go about determining when it is you’re done with them? Something like Pac-Man CE comes to mind. I take 20 minute stabs at it every now and then but am so, so bad at it that after that 20 minutes I am crushed.