I bought MOO3 on release day many years ago. I'd lost many, many hours to the first two games - they are among my favorite games of all time. I finished one tortuous game of MOO 3, and somehow managed to convince myself that I just must not have understood the game well enough - surely, I thought, now that I understand the game my next play-through will be far better, and it will start getting fun.
Somehow, I managed to stick it through a second, painful full game. It was a combination of disbelief and doggedness. I remember MOO 2 had been kinda hard to get into ... but this? I put something like sixteen hours into this game.
And I want those hours back. It's just... bad. Really bad.