Dark souls

Factorio. I tried it years ago and it just never clicked. I just started playing it again and suffice it to say I have gotten very little sleep over the past couple weeks.

Outer Wilds. I went to the hollow planet early and got very frustrated with the platforming and falling rocks.

I returned to it almost a year later and gave it a chance based on everyone's praise. Very glad I did.

Cyberpunk 2077

Got it on console first, and it was ... rough. Got it as a gift on PC and finally got to experience the glorious story and wonderful characters.

Baldur's Gate. I've never played DnD so there was a bit of a learning curve. I rage quit after two hours, almost returned it. Three days later I fired it up again and haven't really stopped playing since.

Monster Hunter. When I was a kid with a PSP I bought Freedom Unite since the box art was cool. Had not a fucking clue what was happening or how to even understand the weapons.

Years later I bought a 3DS, 3 Ultimate, and even a circle pad pro for it. Nope, still just didn't even crack an hour of playtime because everything was just so strange. Finally, in probably 2019 or so I decided that there was too much cool word of mouth about the series for me to not try and figure out how it worked.

I got Generations Ultimate, and decided that if I could figure out how to play Monster Hunter that I wouldnt be a complete failure in life. I just played, found that nothing made sense, but just... kept going anyway. I started researching what the different weapons were for, realized that they're basically just different fighting game character-type movesets, and from there I slowly explored the game until id ended up burning 240 hours or so on MHGU.

I discovered Monster Hunter World after that, and it was all over for me. I never get to g rank, but I've put probably a combined over 1k hours into the series, which is much more than I usually would for other games. Just fucking fantastic games in almost every way, except for tutorialization.

Control.

The beginning of the game is really slow, hard to understand what's happening, and you literally have only minimal throwing ability. The manual navigation with overlay fullscreen map also doesn't do justice to the game. Combining with the fact that I wasn't used to playing these types of games, this was an easy pass for me after like 1 hour of the game.

But boy it's awesome as you actually get more abilities and understand more of the story. Currently it's one of the games I usually come back to.

Subnautica. I didn't really get it at first. Swam around the life pod a bit; didn't see the point.

Was travelling some time (months?) Later and stuck at an airport with my laptop and a Power outlet but super patchy wifi. So I fired it up again and really, really got into it. Kept playing on the plane and all through that trip. By the time I got back, I had a Cyclops and a Prawn suit and was about to find the lost river.

I bounced off Dwarf Fortress a lot over the years, even with the packs to help. Eventually I got the hang of Adventurer Mode and quite enjoyed it! Now I'm just waiting for that mode on the steam version!

Rimworld. Did the standard start (industrial with 3 pawns) on cass. Died of hunger. Uninstalled the game.

Next week I was bored at my intership and redownloaded it and gave it another shot. Now I have close to 4k hours in Rimworld.

Same thing happened with Crusader Kings, funnily enough.

Edit: oh, that happened with M&B: Warband and Kenshi as well.

Terraria. At first I compared it to Minecraft before I started to like it on it's own. Thanks to pre-Fandom wiki I broke through not getting it's gameplay at all to enjoying it.

Diablo III. First time I played it was at the urging of my friend, who told me unironically, "don't worry about the plot, the plot doesn't matter." Unsurprisingly my experience wasn't particularly engaging and I lost interest, not seeing much reason to play it over any number of other games that didn't have an always-online requirement.

Flash forward several years later. My then-girlfriend (now spouse) asked me if I'd ever played a Diablo game, and I related my experience. After she was done sputtering and emitting various noises of extreme outrage she insisted that I set things up so we could play through Diablo 1, 2, and then 3 together. I went in to D1 expecting to be similarly disappointed and instead found an incredibly dark, atmospheric, and compelling story. Oh and we did get The Butcher so I also shat myself. After that I was way hyped for 2, and by the time we hit 3 I was far more interested in playing. Loved the hell out of it, found myself not only enjoying the game but completing through the last stages of a season journey to score extra stash space and all that. Not out of obligation either, I was legitimately enjoying the grind.

Hollow Knight. Bought it and played a few hours, died and got very annoyed that I couldn't find my shade so lost motivation.

Picked it up again 2 years later and it's arguably my favourite game ever now.

I wouldn't really call it a favorite, but I definitely ended up liking Nier: Automata pretty well after bouncing off it really hard when trying it at a friend's house. That's because we were trying from the start, and it starts with a section that's about half an hour long, with only two checkpoints, vastly harder than anything else in the game, and in which the first half isn't even the same genre as the rest of the game. It's seriously one of the worst intros I can think of in a video game. The rest of the game is, y'know, a pretty good third-person action RPG.

Rocket League. 3246 hours.

Unironically The Witcher 3. It just didn't click at first.

BioShock 1. I found the first level to be frustrating. Left it for a year and came back; it was easier, somehow, or I was more patient.

I'm so glad I gave it a second chance. Easily in my top 5 GOAT.

Minecraft / Minetest - I'm used to games with active quests etc. so the openness threw me off but now I host a server for the kiddos and we have all sorts of adventures and random builds

I played Celeste, thought it was kinda easy and the hotel level kinda lame which is where I dropped it. A few years later I broke my leg, being a pc gamer before the steamdeck my switch was the only portable console I had and celeste the only unfinished game i had for it. I played the entire game in a week of 12 hour sessions while high as a mother fucking kite. It was amazingly good fun.

Elden Ring. So glad a friend dragged me back. Stone cold masterpiece.

Fallout 3 took me a couple tries to get going, but it was hard to put down once hooked.

I bounced off the first Deus Ex a few times… the first mission is just kind of dull.

Morrowind. I'd played it when it came out but didn't get very far. Tried it again after watching an 8 hour video about it. Focused on speed in my build so I didn't feel like running at a snail's pace. Finding the dead people that failed to become Nerevar, giving some guy a book of poetry without a quest telling me to, getting used to the layout of Vivec, actually enjoying the fast travel system, and lots more all added up to such a great experience.

Overwatch.

Oroginally I dismissed it as just being a TF2 clone, and being a very loyal TF2 player at the time I didn't want to play it as I consodered it a blatant ripoff. However, I started going to a LAN party group at work in 2017 and Overwatch was the only FPS they played so I got it. It still does feel similar to TF2 but the variety of characters got me hooked and it became my most played game for many years until OW2 came out and ruined everything. Getting back into it now though and they've toned down some of the bad decisions of OW2 since launch. Now I'm dating a girl who plays Overwatch as well and we've been playing constantly so I'm back into it completely now.

Dark souls

The original Rogue Legacy. I just couldn't get the hang of it. Came back a year later and it all clicked.

Dark Souls and Syardew Valley.

Death Stranding. As a Metal Gear fanatic, the disappointment I felt on my first attempt at playing it was immense. Only got a few hours in before writing off as just not for me. Tried again in a different frame of mind, different time in my life, and it clicked. One of my fav games of all time.

Oddly enough, Witcher 3. It took a mate of mine to convince me to give it another go, now I love it.

Civilization VI

With my limited English back then, I struggled to understand how to play Civilization VI. I was expecting something similar to Age of Empires, which made me frustrated until I gave it another try a couple years later. Today, it stands as my most played game ever, with over 900 hours of gameplay.

Fallout 3. I never made it out of the vault on my first play. It's long and slow. I played at a friend's house who was past that point and realized I needed to try again. I'll never regret giving it another try!

Rocket league.

I thought it was just some soccer car game and could not see the complexity and skill required to master the game.

Went back to the game years later and pretty much never dropped it then.

Bloodborne. The learning curve is rediculous and the controls are fucking trash.... until you git good.

Fallout 4. I died easily early on and quit after 20 minutes. A year or so later I picked it back up. 700 hours of gameplay later, I think I've changed my mind.

Stardew Valley. I don't know why I didn't get it the first time. Maybe it was the art style? Now it becomes my daily routine…

STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl.

It didn't click at first, I was used to (less janky) games that treated you nicely. Came back years later, installed a bunch of mods to improve graphics and immersion.. And wow, I remember that first play through so well.

I haven't played many games that do immersion quite so well. Morrowind actually, is the closest.

It's because of the 'expedition' aspect. You don't just leave town and fumble your way through the world- you can't.. You need to prepare, know where you are going, have ammo and food and health supplies. And working guns.

Every expedition is an adventure. Death is seconds away at every moment, and it's your skill and knowledge that keeps you alive, not game mechanics or leveled enemies. It feels real.

I remember one time, I had a nice mp5 and I was going through Lab X16. A snork jumped out at me and in fright I emptied the whole mag. It was dead in 3 bullets, most of the mag went in to the ceiling. Ammo conservation is a real thing, and it's not about being accurate or efficient. It's about keeping your wits and trying not to panic-fire.

I've never had that experience in any other game ever.

Portal 2. I just couldn't get into it at first but for some reason after not touching it for a year or so I went bad and played the ever living shit out of it. I know we won't ever get a third especially not for console but I'd love to see it happen

Prey (2017), Monster Hunter, Stalker, Dark Souls. All great games that only show their true self after some time investment. Not too ridiculous time investment apart from Monster Hunter which gets really fun literally only after a few tens of hours, maybe even a hundred. I wish I was kidding.