There are a lot of games that I buy, finish half, put away and then come back to finish them later or never finish at all. But usually if I start a game I realize right away whether it's going to be my cup o' tea or not.

In other words, I have a list of famous games I put down because I didn't personally like them. And another list of famous games I really liked. But none that I wasn't prepared for at one point only to come back later and love.

This may just be due to my habit of "discovering" great games months or years after they've been released. Although now that I've been hanging around GWJ that doesn't happen as much, since the Goodjer Hype Machine (tm) usually gets it right.

Ninja Gaiden due to the camera. That took like four separate attempts that petered out somewhere around the blimp level.

Still not ready for Tony Hawk's games because I hate the ubiquitous balance minigame.

Still not ready to bash post apocalyptic spiders with a stick.

Baldur's Gate, the First. Took me something like 5 years to actually beat that game, and I seriously enjoyed it. The sequel never really caught me, though.. eventually I just downloaded a FAQ and powered through. *shrug*

Final Fantasy Legend 2, GBA. This game has the longest time between acquisition and completion, something like 8 or 9 years. It felt good to finally win. I hope it hits the virtual console.

Battlefield 2. I felt it didn't do much beyond what Desert Combat was doing, so I didn't get it until last January, when it was a requirement of my new employment. (Only half joking.)

All FPSes through about 2001. It just never clicked... until I started abusing caffeine and playing for 10-hour stretches in college.

I still haven't really ever clicked in with fighters, though, as I was reminded when a friend and I bought Mortal Kombat on XBLA.

Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, probably for a different "not ready for"... meaning "Holy crap! Look at this game!" - not what I expected at all, it was, for its day, amazing, and the first time a game came along and knocked me for a loop.

Civilization I.

I tried it without having the manual. This was before the interweb was ubiquitous, so I had no recourse for instruction. I was into shooters at the time and couldn't get my head around this complicated, unintuitive game. My friend (with a saint's patience) figured out most of the commands via trial and error, then passed them on to me. I ignored him. I only got into it about a month before Civ2 came out.

My friend still hasn't tried Oblivion. Even though I gave him my copy over two months ago. And I threaten bodily harm every time I talk to him on AIM and he still hasn't played it. He's an EQ2 addict. The kind that quits, then falls of the wagon a week later.

EVE Online. I may never be ready for this one. The entire idea of the universe is completely awesome, there's a whole damn lot to DO.. and every time I try to play it I go "Well. This is just like working, and I'm paying money to do it. Wtf am I doing?" Only one MMO ever caught my attention, and that was only because I just treated it like graphical IRC.

Maybe I'm just not ready for any MMOs..

Word up.

RPGs, with their sluggish action, are only now starting to look interesting. When I'm playing most of them, I never feel like there's a whole lot of skill behind what I'm doing, but I'm slowly deciding that maybe that's OK.

I'm ready for Oblivion. My computer, however, is very frightened of its massive ram (requirements) and won't let it anywhere near.

Ikaruga. The only reason I ever played it in the first place is it was only a 20mb download for the Dreamcast right after I got the system (I know, I know, but I own the GC ver now). I loaded it up once or twice and then forgot about it once I raided the used game store. After getting bored of most of what I had, I would load it up once every couple of weeks, working through the levels. I was starting to appreciate the game a bit more, and ended up seeing a post about Ikaruga videos on a forum I was into at the time. I watched the videos, and was stunned. I saw people playing that had mastered the ins and outs of the game, and seemed to bring playing it to the level of a high caliber of dance. My interest piqued, and I started grinding. I was 5 minutes late for work for almost a month because I had to get in just. one. more. round. Ikaruga introduced me to the beauty of the shmup (and I eventually got very good). I started picking up other shmups for the DC (mars matrix was my other favorite) and have been a shmup fan ever since.

Dwarf Fortress. I *want* to like it, but I'm just not ready for the interface

/ducks

I have to say the Tony Hawk games too. I played the older ones for about 20 minutes before realizing that it was just way too freaking complicated. I then went out and bought Project 8 which I'm having a similar experience with. But this time, I have Stylez around to assist me. I still watch him play it for 5 minutes and feel inferior though.

You guys are not alone. I couldn't keep any interest either. My twelve second attention span prevented it.