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What is the worst game that has stolen 40+ hours of your life?

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Guild Wars 2 and LotR Online. I look back and I don’t have any fond memories. The group I met in college loved it. I don’t play MMO’s but artistically speaking I prefer FFXI and WoW. I hate the fonts, random battles, weird lore of GW2. LoTR felt like playing in mud. Woody, flat, and the quests were boring. Again, the group I met loved it. I have a big dislike for both games. They wouldn’t play WoW. I just don’t bother with MMO’s.

I don’t get the hate for XII. I love the game’s aesthetics and hunts. The world of Ivalice was fun to explore, but to each their own.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
So you’ve had a perfect record since childhood? I might have enjoyed some games as a child but even I can admit some of them were just average or shitty games back then because I had nothing else to play at the time.
I may have played some duds, but honestly I can't remember them - primarily because I don't spend a significant amount of time on games I'm not enjoying. I tend to move on rather quickly, and I'd rather replay old games I enjoy than playing new games I'm not enjoying. And I've done that so many times, honestly.

Just a couple of months ago, I dropped Judgment and Medium (both new games for me) because I wasn't enjoying them and instead replayed Uncharted Lost Legacy for the 3rd time and had a blast.

In fact, I was having this argument with a couple of folks in another thread about me quickly dropping Sunset Overdrive because I found it very underwhelming.

Some people praised it so much. I thought it'd be the usual Insomniac game (fun and well-made). I bought it but was so thoroughly disappointed. 😞

ip3M9Eo.jpg
Hang on...

0f33404e614ffad772cb4abbaeadc5ef.png


Let me get this straight. You spent a total of thirty six minutes with the game, then came to the ultimate conclusion that it was undisputedly and undeniably not even worth a playthrough?

Forgive me, but that is a really shallow and unthorough assessment. You can't possibly know if a game is completely disappointing for sure within such a short timeframe. That's no better than what average gaming critic is doing whenever they're reviewing a game and squeeze out a random number score while sitting on the can.
I understand your point, but tbh, there are way too many (excellent) games to play nowadays -- especially with the limited time one usually has. Unless a game is able to grab my attention right away, it makes it tough for me to justify spending more time on something I'm not enjoying rather than playing another game that I would enjoy more.

I'd have stuck with it for a few hours if there were at least a couple of things that I liked. Unfortunately (for me), there wasn't even a single thing I liked about that game.

So, in summary, I have fewer regrets and (close to a) "perfect record" because I don't hesitate when it comes to dropping a game. Sometimes, I can be too harsh and too quick, but the positive is that it keeps gaming enjoyable for me.
 
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jufonuk

not tag worthy
Breath of the wild it was really fun to play. I really liked it. …

Oh worst game ? Wtf why would I give all that time up to a turd game ? Nah
 
Embarrassed to admit this one to y’all, but Maplestory. Wayyyyy more than 40 hours though…I will not even attempt to estimate it or the real world money I spent.

Don’t give me too much shit! I was much younger…and dumb.

Cute GIF by maplestory_tw

I spent no money on it, but in exchange I sacrificed a good part of one summer that I'll never get back. It had a good premise, and real-time combat with platforming segments was cool. F2P was new, I was young, and I didn't know any better.
 

skit_data

Member
I am not proud to admit this but...

The Crew 2 is sitting right next to Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls Remastered and XCOM 2 in my top played games on PS4. All of those others I have platinumed (except for XCOM 2, because platinuming that would probably be another 400+ hours at least).

My best excuse is that I played it a lot with friends and those hours started adding up.

Edit: Those are the games that are all 200+ hours according to my profile, I don't know if I really wanna dig deeper.
 
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I may have played some duds, but honestly I can't remember them - primarily because I don't spend a significant amount of time on games I'm not enjoying. I tend to move on rather quickly, and I'd rather replay old games I enjoy than playing new games I'm not enjoying. And I've done that so many times, honestly.

Just a couple of months ago, I dropped Judgment and Medium (both new games for me) because I wasn't enjoying them and instead replayed Uncharted Lost Legacy for the 3rd time and had a blast.

So, in summary, I have fewer regrets and (close to a) "perfect record" because I don't hesitate when it comes to dropping a game. Sometimes, I can be too harsh and too quick, but the positive is that it keeps gaming enjoyable for me.
This is so interesting to me. Even as a kid I had moments where I used my allowance to buy a game like Resident Evil 0. Even though I was annoyed with multiple aspects of the game I still played it for hours because I felt I wanted to get my money’s worth since I used all of my allowance on the game, and on top of that I didn’t have much else to play.

Also when hanging out my friends and I would play different games of different quality for hours. I remember one of the games we used to play was one of the crappy Acclaim WWF (or maybe WCW) games and we would still have play it because we all liked wrestling at the time and that was the only wrestling game we had around at the time, and even though we knew the game was kind of crappy we’d still try different things in it.

If you can’t remember those few duds/regrets that’s fair, but at least they actually happened. I guess up until I reached a certain age to where I was paying more attention to reviews and online forums, gaming was a Wild West situation for me, where I just wasn’t sure what quality of game I would end up with after buying it. It’s interesting that others were way more cautious about which games they played at such an early age.
 
I played League of Legends because I had friends who had gotten deep into it. Also because I wanted to understand why it was so successful.

I played at least 100+ hours and I still don't understand the appeal. This genre is really not for me. Farming creeps to level up each match? What a chore!

I know 100 hours is not a lot of hours for this type of game. But for me it has to be the longest I stuck with a game I did not enjoy playing.

When I think about my time with this game it's not the wins or actual hero battles that come to mind. It is the hours and hours of creep farming. Often with no pay off at the end.
 
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Animal Crossing: A New Leaf.

They were 8 hrs instead of 40 but they are the ones I regret the most.

For actual 40 hrs it would be Final Fantasy 13. Any of new Final Fantasy would be the right choice I guess but I stopped expecting much after 13.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
This is so interesting to me. Even as a kid I had moments where I used my allowance to buy a game like Resident Evil 0. Even though I was annoyed with multiple aspects of the game I still played it for hours because I felt I wanted to get my money’s worth since I used all of my allowance on the game, and on top of that I didn’t have much else to play.

Also when hanging out my friends and I would play different games of different quality for hours. I remember one of the games we used to play was one of the crappy Acclaim WWF (or maybe WCW) games and we would still have play it because we all liked wrestling at the time and that was the only wrestling game we had around at the time, and even though we knew the game was kind of crappy we’d still try different things in it.

If you can’t remember those few duds/regrets that’s fair, but at least they actually happened. I guess up until I reached a certain age to where I was paying more attention to reviews and online forums, gaming was a Wild West situation for me, where I just wasn’t sure what quality of game I would end up with after buying it. It’s interesting that others were way more cautious about which games they played at such an early age.
As I said, I may very well have played duds in the past. I've been gaming since I was 3 years old, and honestly, it's hard to remember the stuff I didn't enjoy at that time.

Also, when you are a kid, you have a very high tolerance bar. Everything seems new and refreshing and enjoyable. My 5-year-old nephew was recently playing Spider-Man 2, and I changed his FPS from 60 to 30, and he couldn't even notice. And he plays A LOT of games. It's just the awe of a new game that is usually enough for kids.

To your other point, I do spend very little on gaming, even today. This year, I bought just 3 games at full price: FF16, Hogwart's Legacy, and SM2. Burning Shores DLC was another one. So infinite money isn't a cheat code I have (or ever had) to circumvent this problem, but I then replay/revisit older games quite often to compensate for that.

Even when I was younger-ish, I'd rather replay older games that I'd enjoy instead of new games I wouldn't enjoy.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Kingdom Hearts 3. It was actually around 30 hours, but surely felt like 50+.

Also Dark Souls 3. Few games I’ve endured that long just so I could say “done, fuck this shit to infinity”.
 
I never allowed a bad game to take so much time from me.

But I regret spending time with basically all mobile games, with eRepublic, with MineCraft and with... Pokemon Pinball 😅
 

Rambone

Member
Final Fantasy VIII (8).

I only completed it because I thought I was going to die (was being deployed for war in Iraq) and wanted to finish the Final Fantasy games that were out at the time before I shipped off. I had gotten half way through the game previously and had enough but had to finish it once I got the bad news that I'd be shipped out. I made it home alive and have been able to grow up into a middle aged man but I'm sure if I tried playing it again, I wonder how I would feel about it. I think I didn't like the romance plot as I thought Rinoa looked like a dog at the time and I'd rather have been banging Quistis. Now that I'm older, Rinoa isn't looking half bad!

WTShFnV.png
 
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Vblad88

Member
Persona 5. Not all experience was a waste of time, but the majority of it. At the end the utter boredom kicked in. Then I realized that FFs turning into boss rush at final chapters is actually a good thing, instead of one-hit waves of mobs.

Also LA Noir, not sure if it was 40 hours but surely felt like it. 40 hours really going nowhere.

Horizon - in my case it was huge story letdown, but the gameplay seems competent enough to compensate for it.
 
Final Fantasy 16. I have no idea why I played so much, maybe it was the dopamine hit from some of the eikon battles. I know after the first play-through I only had two trophies to get the platinum and my OCD compelled me to do FF difficulty. The second time is shame on me.

Otherwise, I generally drop games pretty quickly if they are clearly bad, or not to my taste, or not respectful of my time.
 

StueyDuck

Member
Instead of thinking of a single player game, name a multiplayer game that you've sank 40 hours into and regretted it when it was all said and done.
Fortnite... both save the world and battle Royale.

Was there from day 1 (before BR was even official and had squads) and in all honesty loved it.

But over the months after it's insane surge in popularity the game became this gross splatty poo mess of just marketing, now it's like your average Chinese game but instead the licenses being used aren't knock offs bur instead actual properties. Superman dancing while goku builds some stairs with Rick... its just a mess of a product now and I regret the almost 100s of hours I put into it back in the day
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
Final Fantasy XV

Dont know if it was 40 hours... but felt like it ... worst game I ever finished by far ... I was such a FF fan that felt wrong not to complete the game, completely killed my enjoyment for the the franchise, will never touch a new mainlinr FF again until they decide to go back to classic simple turn based fantasy story , maybe Ill play FF9 remake IF respects the original.. if its like FF7 remake fuck no.

Elden Ring

Big souls fan here, played the other games multiple times for hundreds of hours, the open world bullshit and appealing to the casuals and mainstream media with the easier souls game ever killed this fucking game, just a horrible souls game, but out of respect for Miyazaki I platinued and will never touch this shit again, and if there is a sequel I really hope is B team doing it, let Miyazaki do a properly good souls with normal difficult and NOT an open world game.
 
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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is one of the absolute worst AAAA games I have played in my entire life. While the actual controls of the game are good, the gameplay is horrendous and the world is inexcusably horrid. The entire game just has you running to the same locations ad nauseum completing the same objectives over and over and over again. Every character was completely unlikeable, the story not worth following, and after dumping 60 hours into it and not even finishing Act 1, I told it to fuck right off. It stands proudly as the only game in the franchise I could not be bothered to finish. I can say that I think I may have enjoyed my time with it more than I did Resident Evil 6, but even that feels like a stretch. I actually wish I had every hour of my life I wasted on MGSV back and I'm so, so glad I didn't bother to finish it. I'd much rather play more Metal Gear games not made by Kojima.
 
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cireza

Member
I cant finish a Persona or Xenoblade game. I dont think I made it 20 hrs in Persona though, and I actually really like most of the Xenoblade games. Just needs a couple slight changes. I played Xenoblade X and 2 for over 40 hrs for sure.
Same situation here. I did complete Persona 4 but it was quite painful near the end.

These games need to have a much shorter, condensed game mode. The padding is absolutely insane. It never ends. Persona 5 is the worst. You get an infinite number of small scenes with characters, it gets boring and tedious very fast. You don't need so many scenes to build characters. The gameplay and story simply aren't engaging enough for the time required to reach completion. Honestly, Persona have some of the most brainless dungeons and battles.

The sweet spot for me is 30 to 40 hours for an RPG. Anything more will get tedious/boring.
 
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M0G

Member
I replayed Death Stranding's first 10 hours like 3 separate times across months before I finally stuck it out. Ended up enjoying my experience, but those first few times I just didn't get the fervor for it.

Also nominate Assassin's Creed Odyssey and AC: Valhalla. I put like 40+ hours into Odyssey and felt like it was such a chore but kept doing it until I saw the ending. I know I spent even more time with Valhalla and it really felt like that game was 2 times bigger than it needed to be and I got to conquering the last area and just gave up, didn't even finish the game but I know it's got to be at least 60+hours into Valhalla.
Came here for Valhalla. I had a bizarre relationship with this game. Playing it 60-80 hours, while hating every moment, purely because I've rinsed nearly every game in the series. Everything about the game was wrong and fucking stupid and when you finally get to the end you're told to keep playing to get more endings. So it gets to be the Assassin's Creed game where I learnt to hate the series. Mirage would be an ideal u-turn on the series, but I doubt those changes are gonna stick.
 

Kusarigama

Member
It wasn't 40+hrs but I played Guardians of the Galaxy which took about 18hrs or so. Played for first 6hrs as the banter between g was pretty funny. But realised that gameplay was awful after total of 8hrs in. I thought it was a 10hr or so game but it dragged to be an 18+he bore fest.
 

zapper

Member
the last one I played is lost judgement, an incredible step backwards compared to the first. I hated almost all the secondary missions, in particular the boxing one which didn't unlock a new style, you must pay to have it because it's a dlc..
among the less recent I would say kh3
 

kyussman

Member
Fallout 4.....I enjoyed exploring the enviroment,but after I finished the game I realised I'd just spent 100hrs mostly wandering around picking up rubbish.
 

GymWolf

Member
I’m genuinely curios what was it that made you not enjoy IV.

V can fuck right off, that game is ass (IMO)
Some people dislike weighty gameplay and niko was arguably the worst controlling character of all the rockstar games that use euphoria.

I love that shit, but many people prefer more arcadey gameplay.
 

SimTourist

Member
I have a shocking amount of hours on Halo Infinite, 1780 hours if exophase counter is to be believed. I guess it came at the right time when there was nothing else to play on Xbox, ultimately it feels like a hollow experience that didn't benefit me in any way. Just a waste of time.
 

DonF

Member
Destiny 1 for sure.
Got the edition that costed like 100 bucks with the first 2 dlc. I played until both those dlc were release.
That fucking game...it was a job by itself if you wanted to get everything.
Dailies, weeklies, raids, fucking Xur....I ended up fucking hating it and dropping it to never seeing it again....after playing every day for like 9 months....
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Horizon forbidden west is probably the most memorable for me currently. That game was just boring... but I kept going until eventually I was just done due to Aloy being super annoying.
 
Not really 40 hours but close to it, Yakuza Like a dragon. I love yakuza but I really hate this game I tried to like it, but the Japanese turn base really takes the fun out of it for me.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Overwatch 2. That game is ass. I only played it because people I know play it.

I feel like this was everyone, like your friends played it because you played it, and you played it because they played it, but after the first week really no one wanted to play it but was afraid to say that.
 

Zuzu

Member
This year it’s been Starfield. I played it for around 50 hours. The first 25 hours or so I enjoyed it because I liked the looter shooter gameplay loop and the discovery and newness of the game. Then I started to get a bit bored after 21 hours or so.

I then decided at around the 25 hour mark to complete the main quest and start on some of the larger side quests. The main quest was very poor but I finished it. The larger side quests I began and did for a while weren’t enjoyable either. I spent another 25 hours which on these things and it was boring and not fun. I stopped after that and feel I wasted my time playing for the last 25-30 hours.
 
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Countless MMOs with the worst being some Korean grindfest that I can't even remember the name. Istaria would rank up there as one I remember.
 

Holammer

Member
I played Sonic Frontier for 39h and unlocked 100% achievements.
I noticed early on that the game was actually shite, but continued so I can argue the game is shite from a position of authority when I take a dump on it, like I do now.
 
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