What's the longest you played a game you didn't like? And why?

[Pete for President]

Too many hours in Oblivion, it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be.

I think about 14 hours into Red Dead Redemption to the point where I got really, really tired of the handholding.

The hours spent in GTA San Andreas storyline could count too I guess. The roaming was fun but the missions were rarely fun in my opinion. Same goes for GTA IV.

[Bolivar]

People give Xenogear's disc 2 trout for being nothing but story and boss fights. Plot development and fighting, when they want to play a game. Well Tactics is nothing, absolutely NOTHING but plot and battle. And people love that game for it?

Not gonna lie (I'm drinking, too (Mirage wins this thread)) I nearly got down on my knees in reverent adulation when Xenogears Disc 2 came around. Finally, I could do away with these terrible dungeons and random encounters and just enjoy the story they wanted to tell. I like to think that the team blew past their budget, and Sakaguchi sat Fei down in his "time out chair" to tell his little BS story and get it over with.

I don't know, I just feel like the artistic elements in FFT are so good, I don't need town wandering and open world traveling to keep me occupied. Something about that Yoshida artwork, Sakimoto music, and Matsuno political intrigue is just intoxicating. I'll admit, as a strategy RPG, Final Fantasy Tactics isn't even that great of a game. But the job system and grid combat are enough to obfuscate its shortcomings.

I think why Shining Force stands out from the genre is because the team actually wasn't trying to emulate the sub-genre. An interviewer once asked if Fire Emblem was an influence because it predates Shining Force and the developer responded that they weren't trying to make an SRPG at the time - they were trying to make a Dragon Quest with more interesting combat.

[Slothy]

FFXIII because I knew no one would take my hatred of it seriously if I didn't play through at least the story. There was also some slim hope in the beginning that it might get better. Luckily my PS3 died so I lost my save file and would never have to play it again.

There's also RE4. I played about half way through and got tired of it. A couple of months later I thought maybe I'd been too harsh on it and decided to try and finish it figuring I couldn't possibly have much left. Which is how I found out I was only halfway through and that I hadn't judged it harshly enough.

And lastly Chrono Cross I guess. I didn't put a ton of time into it but there were some aborted play through attempts before giving up on it for good. It's just a really bad game.

[Wolf Kanno]

I will give another vote for FFXIII, I came into it with low expectations but hoping to be surprised and I was surprised by how bad it was. It was basically the video game version of watching a movie that sounds promising and you keep watching despite not liking it because you hope that at some point it will pick up and then you reach the credits and realize it didn't. I still can't bring myself to play through it again and to this day it's the only non MMO FF I have yet to play a second time.

Fallout 3 was another game like that where I kept waiting for it to get better and instead got lost. While some stories were interesting, the game got too easy rather quickly and the main plot just feels pointless. Due to getting lost a lot, never using a guide, and long bout of not playing it took me years to actually finish this game.

Star Ocean First Departure, I've been chipping away at this game for awhile. I think I'm only still going because I feel I am towards the end of the game but good lord has this game not aged well and even updating to SO2 gameplay/graphics can't really save it from it's silly plot and boring cast of characters.

I will also mention Assassin's Creed 1 which is way too repetitive, restrictive, and surprisingly easy. I think the story was the only thing that kept me going through that one. Brotherhood was the other that gave me issues as the story felt forced and the gameplay was pretty buggy.

Suikoden Tactics, good lord I tried to like that game but I just can't. It has some good ideas but it's also filled with some really bad ones as well and like it's companion game Suikoden IV, the title just felt half finished. It feels almost if sometime after they finished the game someone just went in and edited out a bunch of plot and story elements in order to make the game in the 40 hour range with no real thought about how it would affect the pacing and characterization. The hit-or-miss VA work certainly didn't help either.

Crisis Core was another I played through partly because I liked Zack and partly because all my gamer friends insisted it was really good and emotional and just... ugh... it's so damn repetitive and easy and it's just like FFX where all the challenge is just mindless stat min/max with no real benefit. The plot is pure fan-fiction with Genesis and just...ugh...

The ultimate winner goes to Final Fantasy X for me, the first time I played it, I was just happy to have a bright new FF for my new PS2 and I tore through it to gobble up the plot and characters. When I finished it, I was left a bit underwhelmed, but whatever I had MGS2 to playthrough a dozen more times. My second playthrough, I really focused on the gameplay side of things, and that was when I really discovered that part of my nagging issue with the game was how utterly boring all of it is. Once you know how the story goes, you start noticing how mediocre the rest of game design was; and even though I spent time doing the Coliseum and completing the Sphere Grid, I realized it was all meaningless because you can't really focus on either until you're near the end of the game and even without grinding or ultimate weapons the final boss is easy. My third playthrough was against my will and largely forced onto me by my current girlfriend who wanted to see the game ending but lost interest in playing the game for largely the above reasons. She loves X-2 and so she felt obliged to see the ending and forced me to make it happen. It was this playthrough that made me realize how utterly pointless the equipment system is and I noticed more holes in the battle mechanics as I quickly decimated my way through the game with largely starting gear, minimal grinding, and abusing the hell out of the Overdrives. I've probably put over 150 hours into this game over three playthroughs and I swear I'll never play it again, I don't give a smurf about Penance or your Dark Aeons, go kick a landmine shaped like a blitzball.

[Rocket Edge]

And another vote for FFXIII. Still to date the worst game i've ever played. I can't remember how much time I spent with it but it was up until chapter 7 that I couldn't bring myself to play anymore. I heard before it was released about it being linear, but I was baffled by how completely devoid of life and energy it was. I remember one time I had got to a forest and thought 'maybe I'll get to discover more around here, you know it's a forest?!'. Nope, just another hallway in the trees. Run, fight, cutscene, repeat until credits.

Don't even get me started on the gameplay or story.

[Skyblade]

Final Fantasy Tactics

I hate the story (it's not bad, I just hate it). I hate the hideously over complicated mechanics. I hate the terrible balance. I hate the ruinous progression. I hate the shallow side quests. I hate the hero.

But Ivalice is a fantastic game world, even in its worst incarnation, and there are not enough tactical RPGs.

[Vyk]

Wow. Thought I was the only one who felt that way lol

[Mirage]

And another vote for FFXIII. Still to date the worst game i've ever played. I can't remember how much time I spent with it but it was up until chapter 7 that I couldn't bring myself to play anymore. I heard before it was released about it being linear, but I was baffled by how completely devoid of life and energy it was. I remember one time I had got to a forest and thought 'maybe I'll get to discover more around here, you know it's a forest?!'. Nope, just another hallway in the trees. Run, fight, cutscene, repeat until credits.

Don't even get me started on the gameplay or story.

The lack of life and energy is seriously the worst part of it. The gameplay was ok to me

[Rocket Edge]

It consisted of pressing x continually. Even the Crystarium was Sphere Grid for kids - again just press x. That's about as much I remember from the gameplay.

[Necronopticous]

It took me roughly 45 painstaking hours to get through Dark Souls II. As an avid fan of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls I was determined to complete the entire trilogy, even though I found Dark Souls II to be an almost completely insufferable mess. I really hope Miyazaki can bring back the magic with Bloodborne.

[Tigmafuzz]

Oblivion

Dark Souls II

And Shadowrun Returns.

[Pete for President]

It took me roughly 45 painstaking hours to get through Dark Souls II. As an avid fan of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls I was determined to complete the entire trilogy, even though I found Dark Souls II to be an almost completely insufferable mess. I really hope Miyazaki can bring back the magic with Bloodborne.

I too pray for some Miyazaki magic, even if I won't be getting a PS4 anytime soon.

[krissy]

demons souls : dark souls 1 : dark souls 2 :: a new hope : empire strikes back : return of the jedi

[black orb]

>>> FF13, and why? because I paid for it..

[Ayen]

I never keep track of how many hours I spend on a game. WCW Nitro is my least favorite game of all time and I think I played that for a good couple of hours before I stopped playing. Same for Superman 64. Fighter Maker even less than that.