I'm not sure why people do this, but I know you're not the only one.  There are a few games I've done that with myself, and I have a friend who's a lot worse about it.

Maybe you have a subconscious fear that those games' endings will suck and / or ruin the quality of the game overall, so you stop yourself from finishing them to preserve their sanctity?

I have been having the same issues with some games recently.  More often it's RPG's.  For example I have been trying to play through Mother 3 and just cant seem to finish it.  The same goes for Final Fantasy X.  I got to the ned and just stopped playing. 

In fact it's a lot of RPG's that do that for me.  I think, for me, it's the teidious Grinding and I just finally got tired of Going through a game having to grind because it's either too annoying to fight at the level I am at or just plain impossible.  On top ofthat these games don't provide any REAL challenge of reflexes like you see in Call of Juarez (A game I am currently playing.), or Kingdom Hearts. 

Also, after playign WoW for almost 5 years I got tired of LEvel grinding.  I mean thats all you do in WoW.  Ugh.  Maybe thats why I don't like RPG's

To be quite Honest I never try to turn down a uniqe game be it an old western/Steampunk Shooter Ala Bioshock and Call of Juarez, or a Bloody mash up of comedic and cultural genius ala No more Heroes or Katamari Domashi (the second I have yet to play just because I cant freaking find it anywhere.).

Okay that little section over, I will say, whenever I see an RPG, no matter how unique it is (With the exception of the Mother Series) I think....okay, but is level grinding going to be teidious and boring?  Cus if it is I'm gonna say pass.  To be honest I think Earthbound was the last RPG I actually played all the way through not counting games I've played before. From the list of games A lot of these yearn for more to be in them. (Not sure about Beyond good and Evil.)  I mean I love Bioshock and the story and environment got me into it.  First FPS in like 3 years I have played on a PS3 and only because my computer sucked at the time. 

As for the Metroid Prime games...I found myself doing the same thing with the first two.  I would get close to the end and just stop playing.  I recently gotther trilogy and was able to beat them now.  

As for Shadow of the Colossus...well...I really don't blame you for quiting that game.  It is boring 70% of the time until you fight one ofthe bosses.  And the horse took forever to get to max speed.

I beath Kingdom Hearts 2 but I can understand why you stopped.  After a while it starts to feel the same. 

Never played Xenogears.

Super Mario Sunshine....Really?  I mean thats an awsome game.  I mean it's the black sheep of Mario games but still, that dosen't make it THAT Black sheep.

As for the Zelda games.  Well, I absolutly hate Phantom Hourglass simply because the controls are terrible despite what people say.  It's just god awful to make an entire game where you move and attack by doing the same hting.  I mean it's sad when you die to a Kesse Because Link thought you wanted him to run instead of slash.

As for everything else...well I don't know.  They don't seem like bad games, just...well Sonic an Knuckles I never really got into because I played so much Sonic 2 that by the time that game came around in my life (Like 5 years after it released) I was jsut like... ugh, another Sonic game where you mindlessly run form point A to point B.

I'm still waiting for that game that lets you do all those bad ass things you see in cutscenes that make you say "NOW WHY THE *explicitive deleted* DON'T YOU GET TO DO THAT?!?!?!" aloud even if you are just playing at your local game cafe and no one is really with you.  I mean we can't even do a wall walk outside of Assassins Creed/ Prince of Persia.  I was watching E3 this year and Saw the Trailor for, I think its Brink.  And I beleive I saw some wall jumping in the CG.  I can garentee you they won't let you do that.  I mean it would be awsome if they did.

Anyway, got a little carried away with that.  But I thought it might be a reason you stopped playing osme of these games.  Because you see some awsome seen you dont get to be a parto f or some crazy thing is done that you can't emulate.

I do this very thing and  I'm not sure what causes me to do so either.  Some I pick up and go back to months later.  Others seem to sit on my shelf and develop cabin fever sitting in their cases day in and day out.  When I do go back to one I usually start from scratch and don't pick up where I left off for whatever reason.  Like you said Roo; some of these are games I really enjoyed but haven't finished regardless.

A few of the titles that are slowly going mad on my shelf include:

Zelda: Twilight Princess

GTA: San Andreas

GTA 4

BioShock

Metriod Prime

Super Mario Sunshine

Shadow of the Colossus

... and going way back...

Brainlord

Actraiser

Ogre Battle

don't finish FF8 the ending is bullshit

Codemonkey: Those ideas make sense.  Or perhaps I'm enjoying the game so much that I don't want it to end... though that's pretty messed up, and certainly not always the case (*cough* FF8)

dragon: I don't know, I just never got into the groove of Mario Sunshine or Shadow of the Colussus.  I mean, I played them quite a ways through - but I never really was hooked.  And you're right, the controls for Phantom Hourglass sucked royally.  That was definately the reason I never finished that one.  Nice comment overall, too.

ZombiePaul: *gasp* ActRaiser?  I don't know if I can accept that one... :)

Arkus: No worries.  I played it a long time ago on PC and lost the save game when I upgraded.  Later on I downloaded the ending to see what it was all about (since I got to right before Ultamecia's castle and figured I wouldn't miss much in between).  Lame.

 The FF8 hatred. Probably the only thing I openly dislike about this web site :P

Roo : Yeah, I suspected someone would give me a finger-wag for ActRaiser. 

My wife is out of town this weekend and I'm off work.  Perhaps a six-pack and a SNES session is in order.

Hipermusic: Wow, you must openly dislike a lot of gaming websites then, huh?  :)

ZombiePaul: You won't regret it.  And honestly, I've finished the game in one sitting many times.  Great though it may be, an epic in length it ain't.

I never finished FF7, there were a couple of nigh impossible creatures (one red, one blue I think) that Iwanted to defeat before I finished the game that I never levelled up enough to beat. 

Life took over my gaming time.

Now that I think about it, that's probably the only real obstacle that I have had.  But I wouldn't trade it for all the games ever published.

But now I have a daughter that loves to play games with me (more like watch me play them).

I've played through both Lego StarWars games and most of the way through Scooby Doo: Night of 100 (or is it 1000?) Frights and Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube, only to have her start new games over the saves.

The problem is that she didn't know anything about the "Load Game" screen on these games and would select the new game option from the main menus and start new games over the previously played ones.

Yeah, it's annoying, but if that's the worst thing she ever does, we'll be in pretty good shape.

Besides, who got hurt?

Nobody.

And while I'm annoyed, I'm not going to yell and scream at her over it.  It's not worth it.  There's more important things to get mad about.

The last time it happened, I told her she would have to play through to that point herself, but I know that I'm going to do it anyway.

I'm a sucker for "Come play a game with me, Daddy!"

Damn.

I fall into that category.

A lot of games (too many to count), I just play then just don't want to play anymore. And I move onto the next one, just to repeat the cycle. Right now, I am trying to finish some old Zelda titles.

Mostly the old GBC ones, since they are short and I can beat a dungeon a night.

I do that, a lot! I can sympathize with you there, Roo.

I feel that for some excellent games, I never want to put in that very last push of effort. Usually don't finish some games because I don't want the experience to really end. Or sometimes my attention is caught elsewhere and interest begins to wane.

Examples: All Zelda games after Link to the Past, Dragon Age, any Metroid, Lost Odyssey, No More Heroes, Half Life 2's episodes, etc.

I guess I just have to be exceedingly enthralled by the characters and storyline...speaking of which, finish Xenogears! :)

Goveynetcom: You have a good point there.  I'm going through Advance Wars: Days of Ruin right now, and I can finish a mission a night while I'm... visiting my porcelain friend, so to speak.  That's a good way for me to fit in some time to play.

Kurara: You know, I actually enjoyed Xenogears quite a bit... up until the end.  It really lost me when they started wrapping up important plot points with text boxes in order to get to the end.  The sad thing is, the story was so grand in scale, I don't even know that I would know what's going on if I went back to it today.

TommyJames: That's awesome.  Really, you've described one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to when it comes to having kids.  I can't wait, and I envy you, sir.

What?  The saving over your game so you have to start over?

LOL.

It really is cool.  I highly recommend it.  But don't force it.

Start with simple games.

What does that mean?

It means that you're probably going to have to start with a SpongeBob or Dora game.  Or a simpler system, like the NES.

Good luck, Roo!

BTW, one game I burned out on, probably was......

gulp....

EarthBound.

Blasphemy I know. But I got up to Four Side and the Desert part (been a while since I have played), where you have to fight the moles in the mine. I just sort of quit, and I need to beat this game. So, when I am on my trip next week I am devoting time to finishing the game.

The awesome thing is, I have a modded PSP so I can play EarthBound and the other great SNES games on it (been meaning to play more E.V.O., Illusion of Gaia, FF6, etc.). Portable EarthBound FTW :D!

 PSP is the best system for that! I have only played 3 actual PSP games there lol

That's cool, I understand.  I mean Shadow of the collosus...well there's a reason I never played past the first few "Bosses". 

also, Thank you for confirming that Phantom Hourglass has bad controls.  It's like the only people who say that are me and like the 3 friends of mine who played it. 

Another thing, thanks for the feedbacko n my comment.  It's nice to know that the guys who run the site also get into conversations.  It's rare to see that. (For me anyway.)

I feel the same in most games I usually get somewhere toward the end, usually the last castle, or something of the nature. Other games, like GTA 4, I don't focus much on the story, and more on just fooling around and blowing crap up.