The C-E staff give their views on gaming's most important issues.

We buy a lot of games. Most gamers do the same, we assume. Yet lots of games lie incomplete on our shelves (four out of every five according to recent statistics). This surely doesn't apply to the C-E staff. Doesn't it?

How often do you actually complete games? And why do/don't you do so?

Franklin:

I finish all the games I play. I just couldn't take leaving something unfinished. The only reason I can think of for people to not finish a game is if they are just not enjoying the game. Having said that though, I myself have struggled through a few "poor" games in my time and forced myself to continue to the end just in hopes that the ending might have some redeeming quality. And like I said before, I just hate leaving things unfinished, incomplete, it's like giving up and quiting something that's not much in my character.

If I'm enjoying a game and get real hooked on the story and/or gameplay(a few examples, Resident Evil games, Zelda games [minus Wind Waker], Metroid, Pokemon [before GBA], 1080) of course I'll finish them, I'm enjoying the games so I'll keep playing and inevitably I'll end up finishing them. But even games that I didn't enjoy as much (Starfox Adventures, Zelda: Wind Waker, Pokemon Sapphire, Mario Kart Double Dash) I still would go on to get to and beat the final boss. Partly cause I'm hoping the ending might redeem the game for me (especailly with Wind Waker, I really wanted to love it, but I just couldn't), but even though ultimately it didn't I still don't regret forcing myself to finish it. I would have regretted not finishing them though because it would eat at my mind "Maybe the ending might have something to it?"

Jayseven:

Back in the day when my funds were low I pretty much HAD to complete all my games -- I couldn't afford to feed my habit with new titles so I was pretty much forced to play the ones I had to death.

Strangely enough, nowadays I've got pretty much the same amount of funding... yet I've somehow managed to aquire more games in this time period than I did with the N64!

I have 25 games, and out of those I have completed ... *counts*... maybe 9 of them, but some games I've 'done the majority of' then given up, i.e. Wind Waker where I gave up looking for the triforce pieces.

So I've got less of a reason to complete games nowadays -- but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them anymore! I find it fun just to play the games, y'know? I've got Resident Evil Zero, i've had it for absolutely yonks, and I've gotten maybe 30 mins into the game and left it. I just lost the urge to play that sort of game, which seems to happen a lot. I won't play a game just for the hell of it, and having lots of games means that I can actually do that! If I only had 10 games I'm sure I'd have played RE0 to death by now. I guess having more games means I'm not getting the full experience from each of them. Makes me wonder about Soag from the forums, he has absolutely loads of games, I'm talking about in excess of 60 games. I'd like to know how many games he has completed!

The only games I have completed are games that have sustained my interest for vast periods of time. Metroid Prime, for instance, took me about 18 hours to complete, the first time through. Think about it -- that's actually a long time that the game has had me hooked for. Many games I can play for maybe 5 hours and get tired of them, but Metroid had me coming back for more; altogether I've put about 40 hours into the game now, and I still have a small urge to play it again! Back in the days of Pokémon Red/Blue.. I got Pokémon Blue for Xmas, and over 48 hours I had put 24 hours into playing the game! By the time I had caught 'em all the total gametime had exceeded 250 hours. Even Pokémon Silver, which I didn't really get into, had me captivated for over 150 hours before I got bored.

In some cases games really do get better the moer you play them -- for me this happened with Rogue Leader and Super Monkey Ball, both games I got on the 'Cube's release and both games I mostly overlooked for a few months because I got annoyed at the earlier stages of them. Once I had played my other games to death I went back to these games and played them enough to thoroughly enjoy them, and having received Rebel Strike a few weeks ago it's happening again: I've played maybe 2 hours worth of the game and moved on to F-Zero/1080/MK;DD but I know I'll go back to it later.

Is this a promotion for short games though? The majority of shorter games actually hold the player's attention for the duration of the game, and thus these games become "oh I wish it was longer" games. Games like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin definately did that for me, but then so did Metroid Prime!

At the end of a day it should be the enjoyment you get out of a game that is important, not the length of time you play it for. I would much rather have a 10 hour game which I enjoyed the whole way through than a 60 hour trek of a game where I only play for the sake of it.

Steve:

Suprisingly, I do complete games quite a lot. If I get a new game I play it to complete (that's what your meant to do, right?), though sometimes it just doesn't work, either it's too hard, you get stuck or just can't be bothered anymore and give up and leave it. I know some games are just for fun like football games etc but even those have things you need to complete and I try to do so.

I hate not completing a bigish well known game like a Mario or Zelda.

Saying that as I keep buying more and more Cube games I haven't had time to complete them all, I currently have 48 games for my cubic joy but I believe I've only completed about 25 of them, if that. Whereas on the N64 I only had 11 games and all of them I completed fully.

Joby:

I've completed nearly every game I have owned since I started playing video games at an early age. The games I've not completed are ones I've genuinely hated or in rare cases I've found too hard.

An example of a game I just found impossible to complete was Gauntlet 2, I did once get to level 210 or something, but then we had a powercut. I've never had the time of patience to do all that again! When I complete a great game I do get a sense of happiness but coupled with that is a sense of withdrawal! This happened mostly for Secret of Mana and Ocarina of Time. Those games were brilliant, but once you completed them you didn't really know what to do with yourself. Without properly finishing a brilliant game, you're missing the best bit.

Iun:

To be honest, unlike most of my colleagues, I rarely bother to finish most games; I lose interest in most of them before the finish, then I put them down and don't bother to pick them up again for a few months. When I do pick them up again, I rarely go further than a few more hours into the game.

But that to me, is the point of games, to do as much as you want and enjoy it as far you can. For me, the journey is far more important than the destination, I'd rather enjoy the game and stop playing when I'm no longer enjoying it. This doesn't always mean getting stuck at a particular point and throwing the control pad down in frustration, no. It usually means that there's a threshold at which I just say "Meh... I want to try something new" so I put the old game down and pick up a new one.

Tim:

I agree with Iun here. It is the journey that counts, and not the desitination. However, if the story is very good I just have to know what happens. This usually applies to the RPGs and Adventure games. Of course, if I am reviewing a game I must complete it... or at least get near to the end. Depends a little on the title, naturally.

In an ideal world I would complete all the games I get.

Javid:

I rarely finnish my games to be honest, unless of course it is for review. If I do complete them it takes me quite a while, not because I'm bad at games I just get so far and play something else for a while. I have to be in the mood for the game, what's the point in playing it just for the sake of it when you could enjoy it so much more had you been craving to play it for a while? Well that's the way I see it, besides if I'm really into a game I'll play it for hours and get pretty far. Obviously it depends on the game, Marios and Zeldas are the ones I play for hours but still come back to after a short time just because I'm so involved in it.

Conor:

Truthfully? I'm a lazy sod when it comes to completing games. Or, well, anything for that matter. Unless I'm really passionate about something I'll usually give up after a short while and move onto something different. I once took up the saxophone and returned it in about two days. Hmm, story of my life I guess. Although I have been able to stand Cube-Europe for over two years now...but I'm going off-topic, aren't I?

Unless it's rather short, it takes a special game to compell me to finish it. Notable titles include Mario 64, Zelda:OoT, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker, Goldeneye, Metroid Prime and Fusion and..well, that's probably about it. Exceptional titles, as you can see. With games like these, even if I'm not enjoying a particular bit (collecting the Triforce pieces in Wind Waker for example) I just have to see it through, because to leave a Zelda unfinished is plain heresy!

In terms of defeating the final boss I complete an alright amount of my games, but I never go and collect every collectible or any of that malarky. As incredible as it may have been, once I had seen off Ganon in Ocarina of Time there was no way I would've tried to track down every heart piece. I don't have the time, or conviction for something like that.

Speaking of time, it's a big reason for my unfinished library. Contrary to what some people think, I don't (and can't) spend every waking hour slogging away on a game. I do my best, but usually I either lack interest or opportunity to see those end credits. Plus I'm actually not very good at games, which may be surprising to some people.

I still haven't completed Eternal Darkness. Pity me.

Do you complete your games? Or are you a lazy sod like myself?