Yep, I completed both expansions as well as the main game story. I don't recall struggling with any of it like I did getting through GTA5. Like you I ignored most of the side stuff, except maybe some "strangers and freaks" missions when I stumbled upon them. GTA5 just kept throwing endless stuff at me when I was trying to end it, which was really off-putting.

Also I have to say I really liked GTA5 in the opening section when it was Franklin meeting Michael and planning the first big heist. It was after that when Trevor got involved and they started really changing the tone and gameplay that I kind of checked out. Honestly almost everything after that jewelry store heist story-wise was pretty meh in my book. In contrast I found all three main stories in GTA4 compelling.

I still haven't finished Breath of the Wild. I started it the day it launched and have probably put over 300 hours into it... but I still haven't actually bothered to beat the boss. Once I had been everywhere in the game my interest waned. Turns out that the bit that I was enjoying was the exploration more than the actual gameplay or story.

I'm a massive Zelda fan, but BotW is missing a lot of the things I actually like about Zelda games.
Aha! Same here. Zelda games generally keep giving you new items with new gameplay mechanics right up until the end, like a Metroidvania. My problem with Breath of the Wild is that it doesn't. The map is huge, but it gives you all of the gameplay/puzzle mechanics at the beginning (and there aren't even as many as in a normal Zelda game).

I would say that this can happen easily with Elder Scrolls games. I actually haven't beaten a single game in the series, even though I do enjoy playing them, despite their many flaws (some of which do cause me to lose interest faster than I would otherwise).

Incidentally, the only Zelda games I really enjoy playing nowadays are Zelda 1 (second quest only), Zelda 2 (any, think I want to try the FDS version), A Link to the Past (only with major glitches), and Majora's Mask (but I get the Stone Mask before the second stealth section; is there a way to get it before the first?).

At least Elder Scrolls/Fallout games have story missions throughout and to an ending. From what I understand Breath of the Wild is almost story-less for the majority of its run, which is a big turnoff for me. Not that I have a Switch anyway, but I considered buying one for a while just to play that game before deciding not to.

Yeah, more or less. The state of the world in the game is very static, almost the entire story happened prior to the start of the game and is revealed to you as you go (the old amnesiac protagonist trope). There aren't really many events in the *present* in the game and NPCs will still mostly be saying the same thing no matter how far you are through the game.
Most of the 3D Zelda games have an actual plot that occurs y'know... during the game. Events occur as you progress, not so for BotW.

Incidentally I didn't buy a Switch for it, I played it on the Wii U (which was a solid system despite flopping hard). Disappointingly, Nintendo nerfed the Wii U specific features so Switch owners wouldn't complain about having an inferior version.

alot of games i play i feel this way, but all the monster hunters feel this way to me. I want to get to the end, but it's always such a chore to find good people to play with, since people tend to abandon you if you fall behind 'cause you commit the unforgivable sin of having a job or a life.

I've played Zelda 1 a few times but I'm not sure I've ever finished the second quest. I never managed to get into Zelda 2 but I did finish it once with save states kind of just to have done it. I suppose that one is on topic for this thread, heh.

What is it about glitches and sequence breaking that makes LttP and MM stand out for you?

WARCRAFT 3.

It's not like I hated it, but I had an annoying experience with it. I always remember that after finishing the last stage (the defense against the last attack) and waiting for the cinematic finale, nothing happens. Nothing played and we go straight to the credits. This is pre-Youtube days of course so we can't just go surf the internet and asking for the finale to be viewed (or shudder, watching other people finished the game).
I'm so pissed off and wait for 2 weeks to finally played the level again with a bored and stoic face.

I really liked Warcraft 3, I waited for it a long time, I was excited about it, I had fun with it... but honestly, fuck that final mission. I already admitted to it here before: I never won that one fair and square. When I reached I was already getting kinda tired of the game, as much as I enjoyed it, and not being very good with RTSes as soon as I saw I'm supposed to manage three different bases all at the same time I was like "you want me to do WHAT? Uh uh, no way man. Fuck that noise." And I went ahead and used cheat codes.

Yup, my first try was quite hard, so when there's no cinematic reward it's just like I've been cheated. My second try is much faster though.

For aLttP, here's the thing:

A sizable portion of the game is normally quite linear. In the Light World, you have to beat the first dungeon before you can access the second, and you have to get the item in the second dungeon to access the third. Those three dungeons all need to be completed to reach the dungeon whose clearing allows full access to the Dark World. Even in the Dark World, you still have to get the item in Level 1 before the game finally opens up.

With glitches, in particular the Exploration Glitch, the game is broken wide open from the beginning; no longer do you have to do the earlier part of the game in the order the developers intended. This opens tons of possibilities. In particular, it allows for some interesting self-imposed challenges, where I try to get everything possible with one significant restriction. For example (these are two different challenges):
* The rain, which normally stops once you escape with the princess at the beginning of the game, must continue; get everything possible while it's still raining. This creates some interesting situations with respect to overworld sprites; light world has none, while dark world has the ones that are normally found in the light world.
* The moon pearl, which prevents you from turning into a bunny every time you enter the dark world, is forbidden. Get everything that is possible to get without getting the moon pearl.

The Witcher. The story is pretty good, but towards the tail end of chapter 3 I always just get bored and quit. The combat is too repetitive and tedious, and most of the storyline kind of peters out for me about the time you find what was really going on with the Salamandra. I wanted to side with the Order, but there was NO way I was going to murder all the Scoia'tael in the bank robbery to do so.

Fallout New Vegas. It was great at the beginning. Several major flaws however:

1) Game is too big, especially with all the DLCs. I lost most of the interest before I even reached New Vegas itself. I finished it only because I already put too much time in the game and refused to not finish it.

2) Game loses point immediately after reaching max level. Ancient graphics, nonexistent facial animations and at best mediocre gameplay is not why I'm playing this game.

3) You quickly become too powerful for everything in the game.

4) The first 80% of the main story are completely uninteresting. I had zero drive to go forward with it and only did so after finishing every side quest and exploring everything and there was nothing else to do.

I am seriously baffled as to how anyone could play through this game multiple times. Even second time would be a torture to me.

Fallout 3, NV and now fallout 4. I love the initial part, searching containers just to scrounge out some caps, items and all and then buy stuff. But in late game when you're overpowered it loses interest. Some exploration but not a challenge any more. I tried to hold off NV for a while since I didn't finish 3. Then 4 came out, and I rushed all the dlc for 3 and nv, then finished my NV game.

Now in fallout 4 I've just finished the vault dlc and was about to clear it out and move to nukaworld, then I discovered skyrim last Dec. Fun part is the early part. Maybe I'll get oblivion and morrowind on a gog sale and put skyrim on hold.