Man, I got this cool looking game, Dark Salvation, an intriguing little indie game, I had hear dit described as being similar to Painkiller and, what excited me, Blood. They keep on talking about how it's a throwback to old shooters, so I am naturally excited. So I have the disc edition, and I install it, get the patch (1.06) and start playing. The first level has some of the most annoying jumping puzzles I have ever encountered. I have not passed the first level, and in fact, I have rarely gotten past the third room. And the worst part? Whenever you save, it saves the level, and starts you off at the very beginng when you die. All part of the 'old school shooter experience' apparently, but none of the old school shooters I've played do that. Blood, Quake, Shadow Warrior, hell, I even tried Wolfenstein 3D, and it would let me save halfwya through a level. All this work, and I'm left with a game that I really want to love, but I just can't.

Which brings me to my question: what games do you guys want to love, but for whatever reason can't?

The Silver Lining, that fan made sequel to King's Quest series. I played through the first episode and tried to pass the second one, but it just doesn't work for me. It's just an unappealing game, despite all the drumming it went through to get released.

Lord Of The Rings Online. I love the books and I expected to love LOTRO as well, but it just doesn't click with me. Though I have never been a fan of MMORPGS games.

I feel that way about most of the Humble Indie Bundle games. Off the top of my head, both Braid, Lugaru, Aquaria, Machinarium and Revenge Of The Titans gave me that kind of reaction. I really wanted to love them, and tried to play them way past the point where I stopped enjoying them, hoping they'd get better, but they didn't.

It was a pity with Aquaria in particular, because I really enjoyed the core game, but the level design killed it for me. I ended up spending by far the most of my time simply swimming from one place to another, in order to get to where I had to do something next. It was simply far too big, with way too little to do.

I tried it, but the tutorial was woefully inadequate. "Send your ships here". Yes, that's nice, but you haven't told me how to move the camera, and I couldn't find those controls anywhere in the game. All I could do was click in the right direction and watch my ships recede from view until they were gone. So most likely I have to look it up in the manual, which I haven't found the time to do yet.

I wanted to like Mother 3, because Earthbound is a masterwork and one of my all-time favorite games. It turns out that Mother 3 is a crude, obnoxious bore with little to say.

I wanted to like Sam & Max Season 1, because Sam & Max is terrific and everyone gushes over Telltale as if they're the new Lucasarts. Unfortunately, season 1 was lame, and also did nothing to convince me that episodic gaming isn't a terrible idea.

I wanted to like Lufia 3, because Lufia 2 is a great game and Lufia 1 is, although not so great, still a sentimental favorite of mine. Unfortunately, Lufia 3 was a major step backwards from Lufia 2 in game design, and although I never finished the game (it's boring!), from what I gather it seems to retcon the critical events at the end of Lufia 1.

I wanted to love Deus Ex 2, as I loved Deus Ex 1. Unfortunately, it completely let me down.
:(

Every MMO ever made.
The HALO series.
Gears of War series.
Devil May Cry series.
Final Fantasy series.
And so on, and so on...

So many people find so much enjoyment in games that make me either want to throw up or go "meh".

MMO's. Oh, and Super Mario Sunshine - successor to Super Mario 64, my overall-clad rump. I have no idea why people constantly advise me to pick up SMS when I mention I liked SM64, it's not at all the same thing.

Agreed with everything you said, although I've never played Devil May Cry, so that doesn't really apply to me.

Mass Effect too for me. I played a third of it probably before giving up. I REALLY wanted to like it since I love BioWare, but just couldn't get into it; it didn't feel like a shooter and was too linear in my eyes to be a good RPG. I even thought the story that everyone was raving about to be cliched and not really as interesting as it could have been. Then there was the Mako. Hated those parts.

i can't understand it, everywhere i've looked people say that Super Mario Sunshine was a huge failure, but i really enjoyed playing it.

oh and ehm, Citizen Kabuto and Spellforce for me..

Diablo 2. Say what you will about Diablo, but I spent many, many hours playing it. It had just the right balance of addictive left-clicking-for-loot and dreary atmosphere. Diablo 2 pretty much threw out everything that made the first game good and replaced it with absurdly over-the-top self-indulgent loot-whoring.

Mass Effect 2. The first game was severely flawed in many ways, but I really enjoyed it anyway. ME2 is a better game, but the story drags tediously for hours and I eventually lost interest. "You need more unlikeable mercenaries that you will do one quest for and then never speak to or fight with again!" "No I don't." "Well too bad, you're going after them anyway. Come back in six months."

This. This very much.

Which one's Lufia 3?
The GBC one or the GBA one?
Neither were really very good though.

I'm still in the midst of trying to like Final Fantasy XI.
I just don't think I'll be able to get into it.
There aren't many MMORPG's I can get into.

Most recently? Dead Space. I just couldn't get myself to enjoy it and after chapter 7ish I finally admitted to myself I wasn't having fun. The game is made very well, I just don't think its my genre anymore.

I'm on the same boat with Machinarium and Braid. I think I might be over adventure and platformer games, although when I was a kid I used to love those.