I was just looking at the various games I have that I've never finished or even started. I tend to get stuck in a rut playing something like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 or WoW for months/years and let these other games gather dust. I'll install them, try the tutorial and then go back to my old standbys. Some of them I get through the first 10-15 hours and then just stop (fully intending to go back to them, but never do). Do any of you guys have that problem? I'm always impressed by threads here asking what games people currently play and they read off a list of a half dozen. Here's my wall of shame:

Morrowind GOTY (I know, pathetic - made it about 15 hours and stopped).
Lord of the Rings Online - have a lifetime subscription and never made it past level 32.
Gothic 3 - Never made it out of the area immediately around the starting village
Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga - have never downloaded it after buying it. Supposed to be greatly improved over Ego Draconis (which I only played for about 20 hours)
The Witcher Enhanced Edition - I hear its great put I never got beyond the first little village
Sacred and Sacred 2 - Made it about ten levels or so with each.
Titan Quest and its expansion - I hear this is great, but only played a few hours.
Two Worlds II - played about 40 hours, but then Skyrim came out and now I'm scratching my head trying to remember the story.

I'm always looking at new PC hardware upgrades, but I could keep myself busy for a couple of years with these old games that run easily on my current system. /sigh. How the heck can I get motivated to get my money's worth out of them?

I sadly am the same way with some of my games.

Two Worlds II is much like Skyrim; crap story but fun gameplay. But that you buy so many games and don't play them that much, is kind of insane. Seems like a waste.

Same here---I still haven't beaten EndWar yet and I was doing quite well in that game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Bought it nearly full price, enjoyed what I did play but then just kept getting killed over and over again and gave up.
Mass Effect 2 - Got it for ￡5, so I don't feel as guilty as with Deus Ex, but just stopped playing one day and never picked it back up.
LA Noire - Another full price one, I don't know why I can't finish this game, I should love it - I like the 50's and Rockstar sandboxes - but for some reason I just find it incredibly boring. By comparison I went through Mafia II in days.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - this is another game I should love but don't - ACII is one of my favourite games ever, but I just can't get into Brotherhood at all.
Skyrim - it's gorgeous but the dullest game I've ever played. Dungeon dungeon dungeon dungeon forest dungeon dungeon dungeon.

I've finished it now, and I'm glad I did because it was awesome, but for ages I gave up on BioShock 2. It's not as good as the first but still a great game.

I know that feel.

I forgot - got a free download of Batman Arkham City waiting for me. Yeah, its kind of stupid - don't know why I do this. With most Bethesda games I play them for hundreds of hours (think I'm at about 550 hours on Skyrim now). Don't know why I can't concentrate on these others.

I have a lot of unplayed and unfinished games but I rarely pay full price for games, I can think of 4 in the last 5 years, so I don't feel that guilty.

I started playing PC games late, so I was way behind everyone else which let me buy old games for cheap and wait a year or two for the new releases to go on a 75% off sale before buying them. I have a lot of stuff in my Steam/GamersGate/Impulse/Direct2Drive libraries that I paid $5 for. If I get around to playing them great, if not oh well.

Oh the beauty of renting games.

I've had that same problem for a couple of years now; I think it just means I have "outgrown" games, in a way (not that I think games are just for teenagers and young advlts; just that I'm past that moment in my life when I enjoyed games a lot). My solution: I just found other things to do (I draw and read a lot more now)

Join the club.
In my early days of PC gaming I mostly finished what I bought - even if I didn't quite finish the main plot arc or the last couple maps, I played each one for many hours/at least got very close. But the past few years, not so much.

Metro2033, Stalker, Rage, Deathspank, 2Worlds2 I barely got even 1/3 t through before stopping. Saints Row2 I made a character and haven't turned it on since. I think for me it's a combo of game burnout + the way games are changing. The aspects that really hooked me into gaming in the first place just aren't as much a part of a lot of current games....or something.

Yet, while I don't build a new rig every year or try to be top of the line PC tech all the time or anything, I still upgrade my gaming rig now and then. I can't help it. Must have the shinies.

Same, but I'm pretty sure it's due to a relatively short attention span.

If a game doesn't really grab me, I might not finish it. That happens a LOT. I am happy though, if I didn't pay full price for it, to get 20-30 hours out of a bargain game. Two Worlds (original) which was hilariously bad in some ways, was also fun, when I paid 14$ for it in a bargain bin and got 30 hours of gameplay out of it. To be honest, most of the time, that's what games are. It's a rarer game that svcks me in exclusively.

I enjoyed Dragon Knight Saga and both Witchers are immensely satisfying games - I have yet to complete Witcher 2, got distracted by Skyrim and have no been holding off on it because of some other conflicts, and I want to be able to concentrate on it - and I want to re-run Witcher 1 first, since it could not find my save games. Something I am looking forward too.

Sometimes a game doesn't grab me... I try it, abandon it. Try it a few months later, abandon it... then one day, try it, get into it and end up loving it - Mass Effect 1 I had for a full year, tried the prologue twice and was bored... and then one day, got through it and LOVED the game. Fable TLC was another game I had for a year before suddenly getting entertained by it. That one I finished because I new I only had like 4 hours left to close it out, even though I was bored near the end.

Did this with Oblivion a dozen times (not exaggerating), never reached the "loving it" stage. Oh well.

That happens to me now and then too. Not often, but it's why I keep all the games I buy. I rarely do go back, but you never know, some rainy day I just might install/get into one.

I should point out that in my personal opinion, finishing a game is not strictly necessary - for me. Enjoying the game is what I want. Some games are special... most I enjoy in much the same way I might enjoy a movie... only I expect a bit more from games in terms of time. But not all games are endlessly fun. Some games entertain me thoroughly for 15 - 20 hours over the course of a week or two - like, say, Torchlight. It was just flat out fun. I put it aside (I did finish that one, as it happens.) A year later, I played through it again with a different class, had the same amount of time and equal enjoyment.

I wonder if people have different expectations about what games should deliver. Not all of them are going to be special and engrossing and absorbing. That does not, in my book, make it a bad game.

I have really bizarre experiences. I loved Two Worlds. Played it about 90 hours and felt I got more than my $10 out of it. Can seem to get into the sequel (which is reviewed much, much better). Late last summer/early fall I bought Fable III which really wasn't reviewed well (never played any other Fable so no point of comparison). I loved it! Played it through twice.

Edit: Argh! I have Torchlight too (and barely started it a couple years ago).

Skyrim is the most recent game that I have not properly played. I could find joy for about 20 hours, then rushed through the main quest and stopped after beating it. Character only about level 35. Now I feel absolutely zero feel for the game and probably never will.

Same goes for Deus Ex. I bought all three in Steam sales a while back and haven't got around to them.

Most games that I can't get into it's not because I actually think they're "bad." They just don't entertain me. I like task-obsessive goal stuff in games...alchemy/potions in Might and Magics or a game that can be replayed in order to try to achieve solution perfection, for example. Or mining/trading in WoW. Boy did I do a lot of mining. Probably why I liked city-builders like Casear3/RTC, or even Diablo's (the obsessive hunt for that one elusive piece of loot). Or if the game has a lot of humor/cuteness that I like (Overlord's, Dungeon Keeper). Once in a while I get into a specific character/s (FNV/Boone and Arcade, Kotor2/Atton) and that becomes a main driving motivation to goof around in the game, but since main plot doesn't motivate me....

A lot of games these days the top titles at least have those things (for me) less and less. They're becoming so streamlined, with less and less for my task-obsessive nature to grab onto.

I did the same thing with Mass Effect.

I've got 64 games/expansions that I've never played sittin in my Steam account right now.

I've picked up the habit of playing only one game at a time, finishing it before I start something new. It works out pretty well since I'm picky about what I play, though it sometimes means playing the same game for weeks, taking breaks every now and then. It's not often that I buy a game that I end up disliking outright. I still have a massive backlog, but I'm making my way through it slowly.

To be fair, The Witcher's first village is a drag. Endless backtracking across large but linear fields for mediocre quests...

See I paid full price for that game, I had to force myself to finish it.

Also according to steam I have 85 games in my library. I have played 30 something and perhaps finished less than half of them. I'm just terrible when it comes to steam, so many sales...

I have this problem. Most of it is due to the fact I like being able to go to them any time I want. I usually don't replay games unless I get a new GFX card or something.....just to see how it looks. The initial experience is what it is about for me.

So I wait and wait and wait to play these games.

If I finish a game then I know I don't have that game to go to for a quick fix. That bums me out. I have like 20 games I haven't even started yet, 10 I've only barely begun, and around 10 that I've finished.