Games You've given a "2nd Chance" To

[Parvini]

I don't know aobut you, but I've always been a very idealistic gamer. You don't need to trawl through the hundreds of threads I've been involved in to see that I've always kind of wanted games that don't really exist - and when games do come along that are conceptually interesting I invariably get over-excited and disappointed.

Every once in a while a game will come out that I really really like the sound of but get SO disappointed upon playing it that I actually give it back to the shop in sheer disgust. Games like this include Gangland, The Guild 2, Evil Genius and Stronghold.

However, once in a blue moon, some obscure regaion of my heart again pangs for the conceptual ideas that interested me about some of these games in the first place and I (perhaps foolishly) convince myself that giving these games a "second chance" might discover some magic I might have missed on my first impression. I recently did this with Republic: The Revolution, reasoning to myself that maybe I found it bad before due to my low system specs, that my PC is alot better now so maybe it will be more enjoyable - what an idiot I can be - and what a waste of £5!

I also did this with Morrowind - I actually bought it gave it back to the shop and then a few years later bought it again. Of course, (remember being a staunch Baldur's Gate fan) all the things I hated about it before still applied and it now sits gathering dust on my shelf like about 90% of the other games I have.

ANOTHER game I did this with was Sim City 4. My reasoning this time was that perhaps I was a bit too young to appreciate its complexity and depth before and now it might be a bit more engrossing. Again wrong.

All this goes to show that my first impressions are seldom wrong but I have a hard time accepting the flaws of games that could have been great.

Interested to hear if I'm the only person who has bought a game only to give it back to the shop only to buy it back again at a later date.

[Chroelle]

Well I never gave a game back to the shop, but I did place it angrily on the shelf with the rest of my games after an hour or less play... And then picked it up after months and thought it would have gotten better by taking a nap...
Cycling Manager II (Simply thought that I would have gotten over how much they changed it from the first installment...I didn't)
Hitman (Simply lost interest as I thought there would be much more freedom)
Battle Realms (Simply thought it would include more freedom)
These are the ones in newer times....

[Scythe]

I often find, particularly with console games, that I play them at first, realize they'll take too much time, then put them away for several months/a year. Eventually I'll look for something to play and find that game I put off, and that's when it gets second chances.

Some specific examples are Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts... (see the RPG love?) Next second chance game I'm looking at is probably Vagrant Story, an old end-of-PS-era Square RPG that I've had lying about for half a year without giving it a second glance.

Your specific problem with too high expectations rarely overcome me - I know better than to expect anything good ahead of time.