I think I got to right around the final mission of Hulk Ultimate Destruction about 3 years back, then got distracted by other games. Maybe after I beat GTA 4 (which I also got distracted from) I'll give it a go at completing it.

If you ever find yourself in such a place and really want to see the final battle and story resolution, there's usually a video on YouTube of someone doing just that.

Guess I got lucky on Dead Space 2 in using the right weapon on the final boss on the first attempt, because I don't think I even lost any health, and the battle was over in about 10 seconds.

Anyway, the only game that I distinctly remember giving up on right at the end is Dark Cloud for PS2. I remember it because I loved the rest of the game up till that point. For most games, if I'm invested enough to stick with it all the way to the final boss, I'm not giving up then.

It was a while ago, but I remember having to jump on flying platforms and attack him, I kept get knocked off...it was just annoying to me. Maybe I was making it too hard. I swear I beat some of the bosses in that game on sheer blind luck so maybe I thought it had run out at that point

I'm really glad I'm not alone in this practice - I thought I was weird for not sticking it out.

In Doom II, I just could not get 2 rockets into the portal. What I did do was back into a corner on the platform and using cheats for health, armor and weapons, slaughtered a googolplex of mutants. I don't know how long I was doing that but after a while the whole thing just locked up and crashed. There was just piles of corpses around me while that was going on.

On Half Life, I could not do the jump on the last boss and finally just gave up. I liked the game until then.

Not right at the end but some I've quit on recently:

Final Fantasy XIII: not that big into RPGs in the first place but I fell into the hype from my friend ranting about how much he liked it and decided to blind it. It was alright but I lost interest..

GTA IV: I played through quite a bit of the storyline (at least I think) and I just found it repetitive and wasn't having fun playing it so I set it aside for later. Haven't came back to it yet.

Dead Space: I started playing in January and got to about mission 8 I think when I wanted to break to play another game. I intended to get back to it but as yet haven't. I still intend to get back to it hopefully though.

Dead Rising: I was having fun with it but my game or system or something was having some weird glitch where it wasn't saving my progress. I tried saving multiple times to ensure it was saving, but it never did so I just got fed up with it and never have played since.

If I know I'm at the end, I'll always finish it. However if I'm half way through, and not enjoying myself, I'll stop playing.

Mercenaries 2 was that game for me.

I found sephiroth easy.. it was the emerald weapon guy i couldn't beat.. Luckily you didn't need to beat him to win the game.

Final Fantasy VIII

hated the drawing/junctioning system. when i got to Ultimecia, i wasn't powerful enough to beat her and i didn't care enough to grind. i think i finally ended up using a gameshark just so i could beat it and see the ending.

Only game that comes to mind is Final Fantasy V. I played thru most of it on a Translated rom on an emulator years before it was released in the US. Still not sure why I stopped.

Just a couple years ago I popped in the PS1 comp and played it all the way thru, and was shocked at how much I remembered (meaning how close I was to the end before I quit).

The Witcher -- Got to the very end, climbed up the mountain and fought and fought and fought finally I got killed and said the heck with it.

Crysis -- My video card could not handle the very last scene on the aircraft carrier it kept on messing up and I never finished.

Fallout 3--- got very far and then accidentally stumbled to the end of the game, got bored and never went back.

Not often if I'm right near the end. I'll definitely quit before the endgame if I'm bored. If I'm at the very last boss/mission, I definitely try to slog my way through it to finish, but if I'm not real close, I have no problem quitting.
Sometimes it's not my fault - Saints Row 2 froze like a dozen times in the last mission, it annoyed me, haven't gone back.

Glad I wasn't the only one on the Saints Row 2 freeze at the end. It happened over and over and I finally gave up. It was fustrating though cause I logged a lot of hours on that game. Great game till that point.

Conan was another one mentioned that I really liked, but that ending boss was just horrible. Gave up and traded it in.

That was one game I hated giving up on. Got up to the desert missions. Having a great time and then I get to the airplane tutorials. After 50 times failing, I finally gave up. Had logged 70 + hours so I definitely got my moneys worth. But I really wanted to get to the vegas missions

Knights of the Old Republic (I was new to RPG's and I didn't level my player right so the Final Boss was kicking my ass)

I was at the end boss in Gears of War, and gave up because I kept dying. I traded it in, and never even tried Gears 2, and have no interest in Gears 3.

I just gave up and sold the game.

No More Heroes.

I wasn't having a very good time with it (seriously, what do people see in this game?) And was riding the motorcycle to the final mission. I messed up and missed some turn off on the road and died. I needed to again drive to that point, which took about 5 minutes. When I missed it again, I said screw it and immediately sold it.

I got screwed by a glitch on Dead Rising and my last save didn't have enough time to enter the endgame. I haven't had the heart to restart the game.

Lost Planet. Was on the last level, and just had enough.

Phantasy Star II for me as well. As I remember you had to go through a dungeon to get to him, and then he'd kill me pretty quick. Still kind of bugs me that I got all that way and didn't finish though.

GTA IV, for the same reasons stated---no checkpoints and insanely frustrating to go way, way back. Not fun, no thanks...

(Just started Dead Space 2; hope to finish and not be posting in this thread on that one...)

I'm the type of gamer that will play through a game multiple times in order to get all the achievements, so I have quite a bit of patience. But I have done this twice that I can remember...

Dragon Quest II - I got to the final boss and was a few levels under-leveled (which is amazing, since I usually over-level in RPGs). I tried a few times and then decided I didn't care.

Final Fantasy III - After playing and enjoying I and II, I played III and got to the point where you go to the Temple of Time, which is underwater. That isn't exactly at the end, but I almost always finish story-based games that I start, so it's unusual enough to include here. The enemy difficulty seemed to sharply increase here, and I was kind of bored with the game, so I just stopped.

Someday I'll come back and finish these, but for now the wizard has not been stopped and the world remains imbalanced. Sorry, digital dudes.

So to sum up this thread, RPGs and open world games.

Metroid Prime for me as well.