That's odd. I really don't remember the swoop racing. Maybe because it was so bad, I tried to purge it? 
CNN: Why most people don't finish video games
- Thread starter 23skidoo
- Start date
It just occurred to me that "finishing" a game could mean different things to different people. Finishing the story missions is one way to look at it, some people might think of finishing as doing everything and collecting everything.
If it's the former definition, I probably finish the majority of my games these days. There are a few exceptions. One that sticks out in my mind was the last Wolfenstein game. Just couldn't beat the final boss and I finally got tired of it.
If finishing is the latter definition, then I doubt if I've every finished a game in my life.
If it's the former definition, I probably finish the majority of my games these days. There are a few exceptions. One that sticks out in my mind was the last Wolfenstein game. Just couldn't beat the final boss and I finally got tired of it.
If finishing is the latter definition, then I doubt if I've every finished a game in my life.
I think you could reasonably define "finishing" as "making it all the way through to the end of the single-player campaign, if available." You don't have to complete everything to 100%, just beat the final mission/boss/whatever and get to the credits/"THE END." It only counts if you don't cheat, of course. 
I think very few people are actual completionists who don't quit until they get 100% of everything in the game.
I think very few people are actual completionists who don't quit until they get 100% of everything in the game.
Yeah, very true. I think achievements really threw things off when they were introduced. I mean, it's one thing to complete the game to the end to finish the game and story, and it's a completely different distinction to do all that, plus explore every nook and cranny in Fallout 3 to finish every subquest that isn't connected to the main story.
Yeah I'm not a "completist" either. I've long since given up on going out of my way to get achievements or trophies, UNLESS the actual pursuit of the activity is a lot of fun in and of itself. Like in Red Dead Redemption, I had a blast wiht those challenges (like a killing a bear with a knife), but if it's just about collecting this or that, generally I don't mess with it. The exception being that if collecting so many items gives you a tangible in-game reward like hidden packages in GTA3.
Yeah, those challenges in Red Dead Redemption actually quite fun. I like how they're designed and varied, and they aren't terribly hard. And what adds to the fun is that they aren't totally ridiculous like a lot of achievements are.
I think the achievements in Valve games are a little like that. They encourage you to try new things you might not necessarily think of on your own like say using a gravity gun to throw a Combine grunt's grenade right back at him, or adding an extra layer of puzzles in Portal 2 by getting you to damage as many of Wheatley's monitors as possible.
But yeah, the kind that just say "kill X-amount of enemies" don't add anything to a game and should count towards completing it.
Tell you what though, dose anyone else miss the days of secret unlockable extras as reward for certain achievements? Like getting the 007 style tux in Metal Gear Solid? I was rather disappointed that in Mass Effect 2 there wasn't some way to unlock the old onyx armour from the prologue for the rest of the game. That would have been fun.
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