Giving up on difficult games?

Have you ever given up on certain games because they were just too damn hard to complete.  I think I've done that with Gran Turismo 4 if you count winning every event as a completion.  My starting to feel it again with FE: Sacred Stones.  I always try to find a way to win, but sometimes I just want to move on with something else.

Not really.  I usually just try to take a break from it for a few hours/days and come back to it renewed.  Most of the time the parts that were giving me trouble I can get through in a couple of tries.

Sadly, I absolutely have. Usually not by choice, but by moving on to something else and never going back. Demon's Souls would be the top of the list, since I loved that game but just drifted away from it due to its difficulty. For 2010 releases, I actually haven't been back to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood for weeks due to failing a mission 3 times in a row, and I died cheaply in Mass Effect 2 months ago, went back last week, died in the same place, and just haven't put it back in.

I did completely give up on Dead or Alive 4 thanks to the final boss though. I just didn't want to ever fight that thing again, so I sold the game.

Well, I find difficulty to be one of the most compelling aspect of video games to be honest, there have certainly been some I've struggled to complete, and there are games out there I'm sure I would have no hope of finishing, I've tried completing the likes of Atlantis No Nazo and Ghosts 'n Goblins in the past to no avail, but I really do love the true challenge that some games present, and the joy and indescribable relief you feel when finally getting to the end of a hard level or landing the final blow on a tough-as-nails boss just can't be beat, in my opinion.

Ninja Gaiden 2 for me. That game sucks sometimes.

Do you consider not getting 100% in Super Meat Boy as giving up? Sure, the main levels have been finished, but it seems like there is a crap load more that I just can't be bothered with. 
Other than that, it's been years since I've given up on a game. In the rare case things get tough, there is no shame in turning the difficulty down. Last time that happened for me was probably Red Faction: Guerilla, which was a total pain in the ass on any other setting than easy.

Not really, although I find myself giving up on games if they don't interest me (repetitive, etc) a lot more often.

I Wanna Be The Guy

I find that people that quit games when they get too hard or are quick to lower the difficulty generally have less success in life.

The only game I quit on was Grand Theft Auto 3. I got to the level "Bomb 'Da Base" and I could never keep 8-Ball alive. Of course, that was like a decade ago. Maybe I will go back to it and see if my skills have evolved...

Jet Grind Radio (or was it  jet set radio?) I quit on, i think i was on the final stage. 
 
it had one difficult jump and to get that jump you had to replay like 5 minutes of the stage. 
those 5 minutes became tedious to do over and over so i gave up on it. 
 
most of the time if i end up quitting its a ratio of hardness and boredom. 

I quit on GTA3 as well. The mission that did it for me was the one where you had to go all across town finding and answer various pay-phones.  
  
I also quit on the last boss in the first Ratchet & Clank game. 

I usually avoid extremely hard games... but I managed to S-Rank Super Meat Boy on 360. That game took away part of my humanity and sanity with it. 
 
Edit: 500th post, yay. Merry Christmas, guys.

Yes but I can't think of one off the top of my head. Usually when I stop playing a game it's because I get bored with it or frustrated by the fact that I am not getting enough feedback on what I am doing wrong and what I should be doing instead.

" I find that people that quit games when they get too hard or are quick to lower the difficulty generally have less success in life. "

Sort of; I only quit a game when it is literally impossible to complete, or at least close to impossible. Example: Landstalker. I made it to the end of the game, and a switch was supposed to appear so I could make it to the final boss; it never did.

Not really. I always play games on easy, or if that turns out to be so easy it's boring I crank it up a notch or two. I like games where there is obviously some skill needed to stay alive so that it doesn't feel like you are a god, but I hate games that get so difficult that you are just basically trial and erroring your way through it or throwing yourself against cheap AI until you get lucky. 
 
I'm sure there was a game at some point, but nothing I can think of off the top of my head. Now a days pretty much every game has a way to make it easier during those annoying times in a mission. 
 
OH GTA! 3 had some of the most awful missions in the world that were so annoyingly time based I could never beat a couple of them. Even with cheats! In San Andreas I always got to a mission where you had to chase a train on a dirt bike and I could never get past that one point and I never got to finish the game because of it.

" Sort of; I only quit a game when it is literally impossible to complete, or at least close to impossible. Example: Landstalker. I made it to the end of the game, and a switch was supposed to appear so I could make it to the final boss; it never did. "

Prototype. To this day I don't know if it was a lack of instructions of what to do, or that the game was simply glitching up, but this one particular mission I could not for the life of me complete. I must have restarted this one particular checkpoint about 30 times before I just got sick of the fucking game and sold it.

Usually I tough it out. I like a good challenge. I did wuss out of Darksiders (on Hard) though, because it was kinda poorly balanced. Sparse checkpoints, incredibly rare health drops from enemies and not restarting with full health after dying? Fuck that...

I have given up on a game before: Wolfenstein, for the Xbox 360, on 'Uber' difficulty. The final two or three levels were just ridiculous. I thought I had a problem with the woman in the ball thing spawning zombies everywhere, but when I got to the final fight I could not complete it. TBH, I screwed myself over though by not purchasing ammo for the last fight, meaning I only had a few magazines for the MP40, the Kar 98k, and the Fusion Cannon.
 
I was tempted to give up on GTA 3 as well, but I persevered and passed the mission that gave me the trouble - the one where you drove across the entire city to destroy different retail stands, despite never being told where those stands were.

I do the opposite lol. I'll play a game to like 85 percent completion and stop playing because it got too easy and lost the challenge.

I used to give up games quite easily in the past, but thanks to the almost obligatory "beat the game" achievements I now finish most of my games, even if they're stupid hard.

" @Video_Game_King said:

" Sort of; I only quit a game when it is literally impossible to complete, or at least close to impossible. Example: Landstalker. I made it to the end of the game, and a switch was supposed to appear so I could make it to the final boss; it never did. "

Wait, your telling me the Video game King has quit a game? If this is true I do not believe you should be in possession of this title and should change your profile tag. "

I have only given up on one game..... Battle toads...... screw that.

I gave up on Ninja Gaiden Black, on the first boss. It's not that hard, and I knew how to beat it, still it is a game that requires a mastery I don't want to acquire.  
 
I don't find games interesting based on the challenge they present. 

I couldn't beat Brutal Legend. >_>

I usually don't consciously give up on any game, unless I've beaten it. 
Something like Super Meat Boy I just stopped playing for a bit. I'm still at the 2nd to last level but once I spent a week not playing it I lost the level of skill and precision needed to play that game. So really it's difficulty made it harder for me to reengage myself.

" I couldn't beat Brutal Legend. >_> "

" I find that people that quit games when they get too hard or are quick to lower the difficulty generally have less success in life. "

I have finished all the Devil May Cry games on the hardest settings, all the Ninja Gaiden games on hard, Demon's Souls new game+, I Wanna Be The Guy and now Im working on Super Meat Boy 100% 
 
It takes alot to phase me.

i hate when games get to hard. i played a couple of levels on call of duty 4 on veteran because it was pissing me off. most games when it is on hard there are cheap things to happen to the game.

Yeah, sure I quit some games.  Understand I don't buy games that are intentional hared like say, Super Meatboy which ismade to be failed and tried over and over...a game constructed to be hard is at totally different beast.  But games that are just stupid-broken-hard that are made to be played, but because of poor testing or ppor design are too hard I just stop playing.  There is nothing macho or internet-tough guy about playing games that are supposed to be adventure games or action games that are just stupid hard because the developer has no clue.  Games are meant to be PLAYED not meant to used as an immovable object to bash our heads against. 
 
That why we play basketball and we have pretty much allowed that Mesoamerican Ballcourt game using a human head to fall by the wayside.   

I've actually given up on a whole genre: RTS. I used to be able to handle those games when I was younger. Now I don't have the same reflexes and quick thinking and I have trouble even finishing missions and multiplayer is completely out of question. I can't control a large number of units or micro-manage various abilities in real time anymore. A couple of friends have been trying to get me to play Warhammer 40k: DoW II, maybe I'll give it a try though it looks more like a tactics than a strategy game.

I wonder if Dragon Quest 8 counts as this for me. I did beat the though boss but stopped playing a while after and never got back to it, so maybe it was more boredom than difficulty. 
 
Other than that, IWANNA BE THE GUY I guess.

Yes, although I did it much more when I was younger.

Yup. If a game is too hard or too confusing I usually just set it down for a while and then completely forget about it. I can't stand hard games. Some games are better at this than others at making me feel like I could eventually learn how to win, but as far as games  so confusing that you have to use a walkthrough or something? I have no interest. They may be good  games and considered great in a general sense, but they're just not for me.  
 
One thing I believe is that if a game is so hard that you have to do things over and over again, it becomes boring. This is one reason why I may not be attracted to hard games.

Yeah there are some games I've given up on. Most noteably, Blue Dragon - made it to the final boss and realized I'd have to grind out my party for hours to stand a chance, and that doesn't seem fun at all. Now that I think of it, I should just go watch the ending sequence on youtube. 
 
And then there's those games that I still want to beat - Viewtiful Joe 2 (been stuck on the final boss forever) and Ninja Gaiden 2 (only finished it on Acolythe and that shit doesn't count). Advance Wars (GBA) is another one - the final boss is a bitch. But when it comes down to it, when I'm experiencing more frustration than fun it's not that hard for me to say fuck it, time for something else.
 
By the way, those folk content with beating only the regular levels on Super Meat Boy, is that including Cotton Alley? Because that shit is bat-shit crazy, even on the light world.

In hindsight, sometimes I do give up too easy on games, so it may be that some games have a set difficulty and it's partly my fault for not taking the time to match up. For example, Street Fighter 2 doesn't get really good until you learn how to play, I think.  Then it's a lot better. That and sometimes games tell me stuff that I completely or even somewhat ignore or  that I forget soon  afterward that  it turns out I need to know. So it's not always the game's fault. I do think that games should not be too difficult, and that they should give players many options to be good at the game ( tutorials, practice modes, easy modes, things that tell you what to do in game,  lists that tell you what checkpoints or missions you have to doetc ). 

Nope, I refuse too! I have a hard time not finishing a game I started.I might take a break from the game so I don't go insane (if I keep dying or losing at the same spot multiple times I get pretty angry) but I'll always go back to the game after to finish it off.

I don't usually quit on games (not unless they piss me off or are next to impossible to do). For example, I gave up on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City when I was playing it in 2004 due to some frustrating moments in missions towards the end of the game. I also gave up on BioShock after getting bored of the world of Rapture after 10 hours of running around bashing Splicers and photographing them for that journal.

If the game is too frustrating, then I don't worry about giving up on it.

The first mario bros and dead rising 2. Actually i'm still playing dead rising 2 so I didn't give up on it. Maybe i'm using the wrong tactics that are not effective.

Not so much now, since I tend to play either medium or easy most of the time, but yeah I feel horrible for never beating Arkham Asylum. It's the stupid part with the bomb gargoyles. I became so goddamn reliant on them for those sections, that I was literally useless. But I wanna finish it so bad... I gotta get a friend to beat that part for me.