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Games you just gave up on in 2023

calistan

calistan

Member
Not simply stuff you wouldn't have looked at if it wasn't on Game Pass, although obviously things like that may well be included.

I'm talking games you were genuinely looking forward to playing, but then the reality of them proved to be quite disappointing. Things that were hyped to the max, or recommended to you in reviews or on forums. I have fairly low tolerance towards games that waste my time, so here's my 2023 list of the Prematurely Uninstalled, which I have divided into broad categories:

I expected great things but they underdelivered
High on Life (played for 2h 6m)
Ghostwire Tokyo (56m)
Cities Skylines 2 (24m - that's probably less than 5,000 frames rendered)
Jusant (1h 18m)

Wasn't expecting greatness but they still underdelivered
Exoprimal (12m)
A Short Hike (34m)
Maquette (1h 18m)

Just ran out of enthusiasm for this
Cocoon (2h 12m)
Somerville (1h 29m)
Atomic Heart (3h 20m)
Super Mario Wonder (10h)
Street Fighter 6 (4h 6m)

Enemies spawning behind me or unfair bosses = rage uninstall
Dead Space Remake (59m)
Bramble The Mountain King (3h 49m)
Hi-Fi Rush (1h 12m)

The 'WTF is happening?' poorly explained multiplayer confusion award
Payday 3 (1h 34m)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (17m)

Hooray for Steam's refund policy, 2023 edition
Subpar Pool (30m)
Terra Nil (1h)
A Little To The Left (25m)

At least half of this was menus and loading screens
Starfield (26h 22m)
 
SEGAvangelist

SEGAvangelist

Gold Member
Final Fantasy XVI - I can't stop thinking of Games of Thrones when I play it, and it just turns me off.
Baldur's Gate 3 - The opening section is so ugly that every time I play it, I just turn it off. I'll get to it eventually.
Hi-Fi Rush - It looks cool, but in the end it's a third person character action game, and I have a hard time getting into them.
Somerville - This one was really disappointing based on the pedigree of the developers.
 
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BouncyFrag

BouncyFrag

Member
Starfield. I could only take so much of the mediocrity until I stumbled upon a colony ship that has been separated from humanity for centuries only to find identical tech, computer systems, etc on board.

No point continuing as reflecting too much on Starfield makes my face tired.
images
 
LordBlodgett

LordBlodgett

Member
Dang, you got some really exact times there. I started probably 20 games I didn't finish this year, but most I gave up on very quickly. If I'm not having fun then off it goes, and maybe I'll come back to it later or maybe not.
 
Lokaum D+

Lokaum D+

Member
Lords of the Fallen
I wanted so bad to like this game, put almost 40 hours into it and droped for good.

- Horrific combat.
- Bad sound desing.
- Visual mess.
- Poor performance

Starfield
Not the "unparalelled freedom" and "space exploration" i was hoping for, droped after 50 hours.
 
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Damigos

Damigos

Member
I like your categories OP.
I didnt finish Ghostwire Tokyo, played only a couple of hours and didnt like it at all.
In general i liked and finished Dead Space, Res8, Diablo 4, FF16 and lots of indies and racing games
 
AngelMuffin

AngelMuffin

Member
I expected great things but they underdelivered
Starfield
Forza
Star Wars Jedi Survivor

Wasn't expecting greatness but they still underdelivered
Calisto Protocol
Lords of the Fallen

Just ran out of enthusiasm for this
FF16
ToTK
Diablo 4
Octopath Traveler 2
 
Loomy

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
SEGAvangelist said:
Final Fantasy XVI - I can't stop thinking of Games of Thrones when I play it, and it just turns me off.
Click to expand...
I wonder if that's the marketing still swirling around in your brain? I remember it was talked about a lot as an influence prior to the game coming out, but I didn't get too much of that during my playthrough.
 
T

Three

Member
LordBlodgett said:
Dang, you got some really exact times there. I started probably 20 games I didn't finish this year, but most I gave up on very quickly. If I'm not having fun then off it goes, and maybe I'll come back to it later or maybe not.
Click to expand...
Probably using the steam playtime tracker.
 
rofif

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
High on life -3 hours. I just couldn't. It's so boring and humor is so bad.
Atomic Heart - Game start, you go underground for 3 hours doing fetch quests... then on top constant alarm respawning enemies. Terrible melee. terrible game. I lasted 4 hours.
Starfield - 2 hours. I had enough of shitty inventory, nonsense story and how my "pick up loot" is exhausted 5 min into the dungeon because of weight limit.
Lords of the Failen - almost 2 hours. Refunded on steam. F that umbral crap. It's just annoying busywork.
Venineth - 4 hours. I can't roll the ball for more hours.
psvr2 - but I will get it again for sure when re4 remake vr comes out
 
saintjules

saintjules

Member
Lokaum D+ said:
Lords of the Fallen
I wanted so bad to like this game, put almost 40 hours into it and droped for good.

- Horrific combat.
- Bad sound desing.
- Visual mess.
- Poor performance

Starfield
Not the "unparalelled freedom" and "space exploration" i was hoping for, droped after 50 hours.
Click to expand...

40 hours? Sounds like you liked quite a bit of it. Why would you go through all that and not like it?
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Gold Member
I can't really remember most of what I bailed on.

Somerville, I did bail on. Controls just felt very poor.
Atomic Heart wasn't really a bail. I want to buy it, but I got swept up into other games. Pacing takes a big hit in the open world and doesn't add much so that is my biggest complaint.
Wo Long, bailed after about 10 different tries to find the fun. Just didn't feel up to the level of quality I expect from Team Ninja. Was not fun to play for long, to my huge surprise.
 
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calistan

calistan

Member
LordBlodgett said:
Dang, you got some really exact times there. I started probably 20 games I didn't finish this year, but most I gave up on very quickly. If I'm not having fun then off it goes, and maybe I'll come back to it later or maybe not.
Click to expand...
I like to know exactly how much time I've wasted so I can quantify my resentment towards the developers. The Xbox app and Steam are great for this!

6dnig0V.jpg
 
MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
Texas Chain Saw Massacre - I was super excited about it, loved what they did with Friday the 13th, and the outcome was/is.... not what I expected. To some extent it is, but something about it just isn't catching for me. I think it may have to do with the lacking of overall content. Not really sure, but I was REALLY looking forward to it, so it was pretty disappointing.
 
adamosmaki

adamosmaki

Member
Starfield. If bathesda idea of interactivity is a loading screen they succeeded
Control . Not a 2023 game but this was my 2nd playthrough and just like the first one i encountered a game breaking bug ( i think i did something to early i wasnt supposed to do ) and the game is not that good that warrant starting again ( if only remedy implmented a damn working save system instead a sh***y autosave function)
 
Sleepwalker

Sleepwalker

Member
Callisto Protocol

It just had one vent and crawlspace too many for me. Reckon I got to around 60%, ill finish it at some point.

EAFC24

Im too old for this shit

Starfield

Poor performance and too many loading screens. I watched my wife play like 5 hours and that was enough for me. (She also quit despite liking it)


Fire Emblem Engage

It just doesn't hit the way it used to in the GBA/gamecube days.

Payday 3
Took forever to get into a game in coop, it kinda sucked too. Felt very barebones.


Diablo 4

I bought this game 2 times to play with my wife and we quit not halfway through the campaign, it just wasn't fun.

Exoprimal

Just nothing there to mantain my attention, gameplay loop was fine but couldve used an actual campaign.


Zelda TOTK

The game is incredible but there's just too much content, ended up rushing to the end of the game after 70 hours and not being anywhere near to exploring it all lol, I need to get back to it but it feels like an unsurmountable task.

BG3

Much like TOTK I really really enjoyed it but holy shit its insanely big, I'll keep chipping away every now and then.

Atomic Heart

1 hour plus boring intro? I'm out.
 
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T4keD0wN

T4keD0wN

Member
Ghostrunner 2 (4h) - turned into an open world motorbike game
System Shock Remake - got lost
Trepang 2 - shooting was cool, rest was just not good enough
Atomic Heart - how could anyone write this dialogue?
Turbo Overkill (4h) - got lost
Atlas Fallen - tutorial so bad it made me want to play Forspoken instead
Returnal - wanted a long term roguelike, finished in 4 runs
Wild Hearts (17min) - didnt run on windows 10
Dead Island 2 (118min)- just played it to take screenshots of the gyms there
Starfield - wanted to play more, but the ship i have been building for 20h got deleted on new game plus
 
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R6Rider

R6Rider

Gold Member
Nevermind. I totally forgot about Starfield.

I'll never touch that game again unless with lots of mods.
 
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E

Elios83

Member
Only one, the true ending/final boss of Octopath Travelers 2, too much grind required to be at the right level, too many new games to play.

Not sure if this counts as giving up since I still played it for many many hours.
 
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darth.shrimp

darth.shrimp

Member
Baldur's Gate 3.
Great game, definitely a GOTY candidate, and I spent more than 100 hours on it... but if I wanted to roll that many dice I'd just play a TTRPG with some friends around a real table.
 
RoboFu

RoboFu

One of the green rats
A few out of sheer boredom.

Starfield ( near end just do not want to finish)
Diablo 4 ( at last boss .. just do not want to finish)
FF16 ( its shit, got a few bosses past titan and have no want to play anymore, did I mention its total shit? )
Spiderman 2 ( probably not that far ... but just feel no need to play anymore and Mario Wonder just took out all the windout of its sails for me, will come back to it after the holidays for sure)
 
tommib

tommib

Member
Forspoken.
Bought it on sale on PSN. Absolutely atrocious game. The best part was the NYC intro. Everything after in the open world is the worst shit ever. Couldn’t take more than 2 hours. I will never touch it again. Money down the drain. Horrible stealth. Horrible gameplay. Believe it or not, the protagonist is the best thing about it.

Sonic Frontiers.
I family share with my godson and bought it mostly for him but thought that maybe there was a good game there. There isn’t.

Layers of Fear.
I bought this piece of shit on day one thinking the graphics would be amazing because “Unreal 5 much awesome. Wow. Such lighting”. Horrible. It has the psychological horror subtlety of a hammer to the head. Played 2 hours. Graphics are all washed out and the writing made me want to tear my eyes out.

PSVR2.
Never touched again after the first 2 weeks. Never finished Call of the Mountain.
 
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semiconscious

semiconscious

Member
tears of the kingdom (not nearly as good as botw)
starfield (okay, but got tired of it)
&, very likely, bg3 (tho i like them, i just never manage to finish larian games)...

meanwhile, i'm on my third playthrough of re4 remake. go figure...
 
Zathalus

Zathalus

Member
Final Fantasy XVI - just way too tedious. I did finish the game, but gave up with sidequests half way through.
Forspoken - Just mediocrity all around, Square cannot seem to make a decent RPG anymore
Diablo 4 - finished the main quest, found endgame tedious and boring. I am back for Season 2 which is much improved.
Lords of the Fallen - weird difficulty and odd choices made me quit.
 
calistan

calistan

Member
Elios83 said:
Only one, the true ending/final boss of Octopath Travelers 2, too much grind required to be at the right level, too many new games to play.

Not sure if this counts as giving up since I still played it for many many hours.
Click to expand...
I think that would be in a special category of Noped right out at the final boss

Last year Elden Ring was that game for me - 80 hours, so I got value for money in terms of time played, but it's counteracted by the massive disappointment of only being able to see the ending on Youtube.
 
E

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
calistan said:
Not simply stuff you wouldn't have looked at if it wasn't on Game Pass, although obviously things like that may well be included.

I'm talking games you were genuinely looking forward to playing, but then the reality of them proved to be quite disappointing. Things that were hyped to the max, or recommended to you in reviews or on forums. I have fairly low tolerance towards games that waste my time, so here's my 2023 list of the Prematurely Uninstalled, which I have divided into broad categories:

I expected great things but they underdelivered
High on Life (played for 2h 6m)
Ghostwire Tokyo (56m)
Cities Skylines 2 (24m - that's probably less than 5,000 frames rendered)
Jusant (1h 18m)

Wasn't expecting greatness but they still underdelivered
Exoprimal (12m)
A Short Hike (34m)
Maquette (1h 18m)

Just ran out of enthusiasm for this
Cocoon (2h 12m)
Somerville (1h 29m)
Atomic Heart (3h 20m)
Super Mario Wonder (10h)
Street Fighter 6 (4h 6m)

Enemies spawning behind me or unfair bosses = rage uninstall
Dead Space Remake (59m)
Bramble The Mountain King (3h 49m)
Hi-Fi Rush (1h 12m)

The 'WTF is happening?' poorly explained multiplayer confusion award
Payday 3 (1h 34m)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (17m)

Hooray for Steam's refund policy, 2023 edition
Subpar Pool (30m)
Terra Nil (1h)
A Little To The Left (25m)

At least half of this was menus and loading screens
Starfield (26h 22m)
Click to expand...
Any you really liked?
 
Robb

Robb

Gold Member
Starfield, I think I dropped it after 10-12 hours.

RedFall, required a “Bethesda account” or something iirc so that was an instant uninstall. Never really made it into the game.

There are probably others that I can’t recall right now as well.
 
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RobRSG

RobRSG

Member
FFXVI - A borefest which I endured for 35 hours. The combat in this turd is really, really bad. The Eikon battles are nothing but spectacle that manages to be less interesting and less engaging than Asura’s Wrath.
Starfield - I kinda enjoyed the game, but it lost me when it wanted too hard to become Skyrim. 20 hours in.
Forza Motosport - Fails to impress from minute 0. Underwhelming overall. Spent a few hours and went back to GT7.

That’s it for now, guys.

Having fun at the moment with Star Ocean 2R, Super Mario Wonder, GT7 and Alan Wake 2.
 
Spyxos

Spyxos

Gold Member
Diablo 4 - I'm still somewhere in Act 3.
Baldurs Gate 3. Cool game, but I found it too complicated as a D&D beginner, but I will come back one day.
Starfield - Bored after 20-30 hours.
Atomic Heart - Lost interest at some point.
Honkai Star Rail - I could not create an account. And what I had was not accepted for whatever reason.
Redfall - dropped after 2-3 hours.
 
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DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy

DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy

Member
I didn’t buy many games this year, but TotK had me burnt out before I could finish it.

The first third of what I played was really engaging, but putting another chunk of time in it just made me realize I wasn’t enjoying it and I was playing just to get things done. I’ve already explained my thoughts on the game here several times so I’m not gonna be a broken record at this point.

My Switch says I have 150+ hours in the game but I think it also counts time you have a game open in sleep mode so it’s probably embellished a bit.
 
AV

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Starfield. Gave it 24 hours playtime. No thank you.
 
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Roxkis_ii

Roxkis_ii

Member
Man, I'm kinda ashamed of the games I've dropped this year. I was so caught in their hype. Smh.

Gow: Ragnarok
Loved the last one. Was super hype after the Thor fight. I think I got to the fairy location and just lost motivation to play. It just so much talking, everywhere. I understand that when it's a group of people doing stuff, it natural to talk, but man, too much of anything can be bad. I just want to hulk smach stuff.

Games need more anger.

I will likely pick it up again anyhow.

FF16
I really want to like this game, but the side quest are super boring most of the time and the lows between the big events can get really boring. I think I will just b-line the main quest to just to finish the game. Ironicly, my friend bough me the last ff as a kinda of a troll gift. I bought this one for him as a real gift, and he will likely see it as a troll when he gets to play it.

That Bahamut fight was literally jaw dropping though, so I'm hoping the next few big fights bring the heat like that one did. One reason I wanna finish the game.

Death Stranding
I want to finish this game. I have nothing bad to say about it, it just got dropped out the rotation due to me getting a gaming laptop.

Still planing on finishing it.
 
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