There are a few:

Valkyrie Profile 2- I really liked this game a lot, but I got stuck at one point and suddenly lost interest. Now, however, I really wish I had finished it because I think about it all the time.

Star Ocean 3: 'Til the End of Time- I mostly just regret finishing it because I invested over 40 hours and never even got close...I was trying execute the whole "do absolutely everything" concept, and I found I just didn't have the time. Damn.

Front Mission 3- The damn EB-branded memory card corrupted 30+ hours of my game data, and it pissed me off so much, I just couldn't restart and do it all over again.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne: Much like SO3, I put a lot of time into it but never completed it. It really annoyed me because it was the second straight RPG I didn't finish, and that SO isn't like me.

Silent Hill 3- I loved Silent Hill 2, was really getting into SH3, and then something happened...I don't really remember what it was, but I'm sure it was some other game. Then another game got in the way, then another, and before I knew it, I had totally forgotten about it.

I HATE not beating games. :( But at least 90% of all the games I have in my collection are complete.

Every gamer can ask the exact same question of the genre they just don't get. I can do that for flight sims and most platform games.

But I'm an avid RPG gamer, and for the most part, turn-based RPGs are dying out very, very quickly. It's difficult to even find one these days. The FF series, the one place I could turn to for pure turn-based fun, has gone at least quasi-real-time in FF XII, and I can't remember the last time I played a NEW turn-based RPG since DQ VIII and the wonderful Suikoden titles. But I think Persona 3 is turn-based...

Anyway, my point remains- unfortunately, I don't think the turn-based RPG will last much longer. It's not what the new generation of "twitch gamers" wants.

Eh...I don't think that's entirely true, DZA. There are some cases where GameSpot is slower than many other major sites, but it's not common, and they remain one of the first - and most trusted - sites on the 'Net. I often have theories pertaining to possible biases at GameSpot (some of which I find painfully obvious), but then again...I have trouble thinking of a source I'd consider to be 100% objective. Let's face it; that's tough to do.

IGN has been beating GameSpot to the punch on a lot of big reviews this year, I'll give you that. I understand a lot of what Alex is saying regarding review copies, though; at PSXE, we sometimes have to suffer through sporadic availability of titles. Sometimes we get actual review copies and sometimes we only get the retail copy, which means we can't get it until the actual day of release. We were one of the first couple sites to put up a Resistance review, for example, but we never even got Rainbow Six Vegas (we have virtually no relations with Ubisoft, unfortunately), so our review was up weeks late. We don't have the same staff power or resources as GS, but I can't imagine publishers always delivering exactly what GS needs without any delay at all in providing the goods.

For the most part, GameSpot is almost always one of the first 10 sites, and usually one of the first three or four major sites, to post a review. You may have a case for some of the hotly anticipated titles here and there popping up late on GS, but I don't think that's the norm.

It can be argued that this decade made the industry what it is today.

It'd be impossible to jam all my memories from those years into one post, but let's just say that despite playing my first game in 1982, the '90s were the years that made me a gamer.

Well, it wasn't exactly an in-game moment, but it very much sucked when 30+ hours of Front Mission 3 data got corrupted on my EB-branded memory card. First and last time I ever bought anything third-party for one of my Sony consoles.

I've had some ridiculously frustrating moments with the Hot Shots series over the years, especially with HSG: Fore! online. It's just the kind of game that really likes to screw me over at exactly the wrong time.

Depends on the game. In RPGs, yes, definitely. I try to do every single challenge there is in RPGs (you mentioned FFT; I've done it all in that one, primarily because it's my favorite game of all time).

Something like GTA, I'll try to do all the challenges there, too. But straight-up action games like Ninja Gaiden, DMC, God of War, etc....I don't really care too much about finishing all the extras/challenges, just because I'm not as good at those games, anyway. I'm just happy when I beat them.

I have trouble deciding between FFT and FF VII at #1...perhaps they're tied. But after that-

FF X
FF VIII
FF XII
FF IX
FF VI
FF X-2
FF IV
FF I

I really want to play this game now. It kinda snuck up on me, actually... I played and liked SMT: Nocturne, but I never got a chance to play any of the Personas. I don't know why, considering I played just about every PS1 RPG worth playing.

But it's just bad timing. What with Bioshock, Warhawk and Heavenly Sword all coming out within the next four weeks (and I want all of them), there seems to be no way to squeeze in a RPG. :(

If turn-based were to live, they need to up the AI, NOT JUST give you more stuff to do.

Instead of the monster that does the same patterns, therefore is easily beaten with the same strategy, they need to have it play smarter.

In chess, the computer doesn't sit there and do the same moves when you change your strategy. No it REACTS to you and adopts its own strategy. Queen out in the open? The com will say thanks and snatch her.

If only AI in games were like that instead of the zombie mentality of: see player, chase player.

You look at raids in WoW. It's basically a really big but still stupid boss that has some pattern to beat and that's it.

I can play turn-based games, so long as the AI is competent. I can play chess, I can play many board games. But it's boring to play with braindead AI that is predictable.

But then if playing SMARTER were the case, then that would devalue the importance of stats instead of having stats as the all-important deciding factor of the winner. But then I guess it would turn into a strategy game.

Revelade

...I've played plenty of turn-based RPGs, especially RPGs, where the AI isn't always predictable. In fact, many of the skills used by enemies are entirely random in some cases. In my experience, most of the "braindead" AI I've encountered in RPGs have come from real-time RPGs...