If I posted all the popular games that I've quit early on, I'd be here all day. 
Here's a few recent ones:
Okami: Quit after finishing the first village. Reason: Bored.
Metroid Prime 3: Quit during the Mogenar boss battle. Reason: Frustrated.
Zack & Wiki: Quit during "The Fountain Guardian" level. Reason: Annoyed.
F-Zero GX: Quit after beating the tracks on the easiest mode. Reason: Ridiculously hard difficulty.Tomb Raider Underworld: Quit during the Mexico "Poison Pool" level. Reason: Lost interest. Finally finished it June 2011!
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: Quit after beating Chapter 2. Reason: Bored.
Hmm, I really need to stop buying games. I don't seem to like them much, lol.
Experienced that with Fallout 3. I sold my copy so I can get the GOTY edition later since it was just cheaper to get that instead of purchasing all those DLCs. Once I finally waited long enough to find a GOTY edition on sale, it was difficult to continue where I left off.
Usually, it's open world games (Red Dead Redemption), RPGs (Fallout 3, FFXIII, Mass Effect 2), and some FPSs (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Bioshock, FEAR 2) where I have a hard time sticking with it. Yes, even Metroid Prime Trilogy mostly because of the constant back-tracking, etc. Some adventure games as well. I haven't really played Alan Wake yet and I never really got around to playing Batman Arkham Asylum! Can you believe that? I bought Batman AA and barely played it!
Back in the day, I could spend hours playing through these time-consuming games. And like all things, I guess my patience and tolerance changes as we get older and just don't find enough time to play these.
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Now Playing: Golden Sun Dark Dawn, God of War Ghost of Sparta, and DKC Returns
Mirror's Edge has this level that I found impossible, but I kept at it for hours -- I think 4 -- I just kept going over and over again (and finally got through it). Now whenever I get stuck in a game I just remember how I persevered that day and that has gotten me to keep trying.
It helps if the re-load time after failure is short, like with Eternal Darkness when I die now, I have to sit through the opening cutscenes of a level, I just switch over and watch TV until I hear the ROM drive stop whirring (it's like 4-5 minutes).
Metroid Prime 3 -- no idea where. I was lost, would have to consult FAQ, gave up.
Jet Set Radio Future -- one of the challenges. It was either kill the game or myself.
Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D, Sonic Pinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine -- Couldn't take anymore.
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 -- First cavern. Ridiculously complicated ruleset, failed miserably, wasn't reading a novel to learn how to play.
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind -- Searching the countryside for mushrooms for a quest.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Searching the countryside for some other crap for a quest.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:Metroid Prime 3 -- no idea where. I was lost, would have to consult FAQ, gave up.
Jet Set Radio Future -- one of the challenges. It was either kill the game or myself.
Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D, Sonic Pinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine -- Couldn't take anymore.
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 -- First cavern. Ridiculously complicated ruleset, failed miserably, wasn't reading a novel to learn how to play.
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind -- Searching the countryside for mushrooms for a quest.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Searching the countryside for some other crap for a quest.
Dark Alliance 2 complicated? Not the strongest game for sure, but not very complicated. -- and I'm a simpleton when it comes to complexity in games.
Yodariquo said:. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind -- Searching the countryside for mushrooms for a quest. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Searching the countryside for some other crap for a quest.
I'm starting to see a pattern here...
Yodariquo said:Jet Set Radio Future -- one of the challenges. It was either kill the game or myself.
Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D, Sonic Pinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine -- Couldn't take anymore. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 -- First cavern. Ridiculously complicated ruleset, failed miserably, wasn't reading a novel to learn how to play. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind -- Searching the countryside for mushrooms for a quest. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Searching the countryside for some other crap for a quest.
Yes to Jet Grind Radio, that game sucked balls.
Epic fail on Sonic.
Dvader said:Yodariquo said:Jet Set Radio Future -- one of the challenges. It was either kill the game or myself.
Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D, Sonic Pinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine -- Couldn't take anymore. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 -- First cavern. Ridiculously complicated ruleset, failed miserably, wasn't reading a novel to learn how to play. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind -- Searching the countryside for mushrooms for a quest. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Searching the countryside for some other crap for a quest.
Yes to Jet Grind Radio, that game sucked balls.
Epic fail on Sonic.
Vade -- you finish so many games - -have there been any big games where you've walked away after a fair amount of time invested?
I'm like Raven, if a game either bores or frustates me, I have no compulsion to keep playing anymore.
Notable ones are GTA4, that bank heist was ridiculous, I tried it like 6 times, escaped the bank, shot the shit out of the cops, went through some tunnel. Got into a car and guess what? My criminal buddies decide that they aren't going to get into the car, so I sit there whilst a million cop cars just ram me to death. And that was only on the last attempt, before then AI or stupid checkpointing or random events just killed me.
Okami, gave up after that bit on the ship. Bored.
Dead Space, I can't even tell where I was because the entire game looked and played the same, which is why I stopped playing. Where is the RE4 like variety?
Bio-Boredom, was bored.
Mass Effect - got stuck on some stupid hacking puzzle, WTF before then it was fun chit chatting and action segments, then they stick you on this stupid puzzle and I didn't have that thing to skip it, some item or other and I couldn't feasibly go back to get it.
Tons of other stuff too.
KOTOR II.
It was incredibly boring. After I met up with a Jabba the Hutt pimp I couldn't continue. It was painful to play.
Sonic and the Hedgehog 2 (happy now?!).
Err, after a few levels. I haven't really quit I just don't have any motivation to continue...I'll say I quit. 
You reminded me, KOTOR 1.
I couldn't even make it off the space station at the start, it just felt so incredibly shoddy, the frame rate was all over the place, there were low res textures and jaggies everywhere and not even a decent lead in/tutorial on how you should be playing. I threw it on the scrap heap.
In this thread people quit legendary platformers.
aspro said:Vade -- you finish so many games - -have there been any big games where you've walked away after a fair amount of time invested?
Mostly just RPGs, I sometimes wonder why I buy them. If I ever stop an action game its either cause I hate it or something new and shiny came out and I got distracted but that is rare. Now with RPGs, it took me about 3 years to finish both FFIX and FFX (I have not finished FFXII because I lost my save file). I finished Grandia 2 last year after leaving the game for about 8 years near the end. I got half way through Skies of Arcadia and never returned. Took me about 2 years to finish FFVI on the FF collection. I have Super Mario RPG almost done and I have not played that in months. I started Baten Kaitos Origins, I have not returned to it. Morrowind became a mess, everyone in the captial city wants to kill me so I can't peacefully get missions from them plus forgot what I was doing as that game keeps track of nothing.
In terms of getting frustrated, that doesn't stop me. In fact it probably makes me want to beat it even more.
Wow nice comment box. Looks so sexy.
I quit more games than I ever finish. Popular or not. When I get bored (and I eventually get bored with most games) or distracted, I jump ship to another thing that entertains me.
gamingeek said:You reminded me, KOTOR 1.
I couldn't even make it off the space station at the start, it just felt so incredibly shoddy, the frame rate was all over the place, there were low res textures and jaggies everywhere and not even a decent lead in/tutorial on how you should be playing. I threw it on the scrap heap.
Yeah, that was a really shaky start.
SteelAttack said:Wow nice comment box. Looks so sexy.
I quit more games than I ever finish. Popular or not. When I get bored (and I eventually get bored with most games) or distracted, I jump ship to another thing that entertains me.
Valkyria Chronicles--yeah, you better keep at it! 
Dvader said:Mostly just RPGs, I sometimes wonder why I buy them. If I ever stop an action game its either cause I hate it or something new and shiny came out and I got distracted but that is rare. Now with RPGs, it took me about 3 years to finish both FFIX and FFX (I have not finished FFXII because I lost my save file). I finished Grandia 2 last year after leaving the game for about 8 years near the end. I got half way through Skies of Arcadia and never returned. Took me about 2 years to finish FFVI on the FF collection. I have Super Mario RPG almost done and I have not played that in months. I started Baten Kaitos Origins, I have not returned to it. Morrowind became a mess, everyone in the captial city wants to kill me so I can't peacefully get missions from them plus forgot what I was doing as that game keeps track of nothing.
In terms of getting frustrated, that doesn't stop me. In fact it probably makes me want to beat it even more.
And yet you still made it through Cursed Mountain. That speaks volumes about the games' quality
Hang on...... "I got half way through Skies of Arcadia and never returned. "
WHhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????????????????
Steel did you hear that?
And did you catch anything?
aspro said:Dark Alliance 2 complicated? Not the strongest game for sure, but not very complicated. -- and I'm a simpleton when it comes to complexity in games.
Sorry, I'm mixing up my games. I meant Baldur's Gate 2: Shadown of Amn. The PC one everyone loves so much.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:aspro said:Dark Alliance 2 complicated? Not the strongest game for sure, but not very complicated. -- and I'm a simpleton when it comes to complexity in games.
Sorry, I'm mixing up my games. I meant Baldur's Gate 2: Shadown of Amn. The PC one everyone loves so much.
I was a bit worried there for a second -- thought I had beaten yet another game without knowing what the point was.
Thought this was worth bumping.
In recent times, I think Bayonetta has been the only popular game that I quit on. Oh and Little King's Story.
In Bayonetta I tried playing it twice, but gave up on the third level. I just got bored with the fighting, even though I was enjoying the world and character. Plus I had no real direction as to where to go.
Little King's Story, I think I was 27 (?) hours in. I got to the TV world level, and it was just a pain in the ass. You have to do that platform part just before it when they kill all your team, then you have to go into some weird battle where it's not clear what exactly you are supposed to be killing. So after 3 tries of that I gave up on it.
EDIT: relating to the first post, I did end up beating GTA4. After that one mission I was snagged up on I sailed through the game.
My most memorable were:
GTA4: Pegorino's Pride (describe below) and
GTA Vice City: Cop Land
The first one is fairly deep into the game, and I just cannot beat it (plus it has so much re-tracing to do to get back to it -- in typical GTA style).
The second one I fail only because the game fucking sucks. You have to get two cops into a garage, steal their uniforms and car to get in a restricted area, set off a bomb, get out in time and then escape a high star level. So first you have to drive to the garage - hopefully getting into enough trouble to get a cop to follow you. This usually takes a few minutes. Then 9 times out of ten once you get the cops into the garage you get a message "the garage door is blocked" -- even though there is nothing there. So you end up pretty much endup getting arrested after you have lured 4-5 additional cops to the garage in an attempt to herd them in.
Okay here (from a FAQ) is the GTA4 mission I can never get pass: