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Games That Keep You Coming Back?
The Guardian Gamesblog kicked off a great discussion on their site, talking about games that just keep pulling you back in. Games that, even if you've played through them once, you just have to pick them up again. eToyChest and Kotaku both have related threads. So, what about you? What are some videogames that, even years later, you just have to play through one more time?
For me, besides my ongoing fascination with World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, and Everquest II, there aren't that many that needed more than one playthrough. Both Half-Life titles, of course. I needed to play HL2 just to get everything I missed the first time. Jedi Academy and System Shock 2 required additional plays to try the game at a different angle. Similarly, I've played through the Diablo titles more than once each, as there's just so much clicking to be had. I somehow managed to avoid the gravity well of Civ4 for the most part, but Civilization 3 was almost the only game I played in college. Good times.
Even though I'm a geezer, I find games like Vice City and San Andreas to be supreme. Why is that? Because I can easily edit the vehicle properties, for instance. I like having Cabbies that can go 800 km/h, while cop cars and paddy wagons that top out at 2 km/h. Even modifying the landscape is fun to do. People have added additional islands to Vice City, for instance.
Then again, card games are also always entertaining, and keep me coming back for more.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
X-Com was a brilliant blend of strategy and role-playing elements that manages to make every game exciting and different.
:)
Fallout 2 was amazing -- a huge world, violent weapons, and intensive role-play action. Anything post-apocalypic gets marks up from me
NESkimos -- Best. Nintendo. Metal. Ever.
"Holy shit! A talking muffin!"
X-COM UFO DEFENSE was my all time favorite. I even played it a year or two ago. I wish they would re-release it with the exact same A.I. only with AWESOME graphics. That would be great.
Starcraft: For a RTS with such diverse races, it is amazingly balanced and has some very interesting gameplay in UMS maps. Time and again I uninstall SC only to reinstall it soon after. It is the one game for which I can say that I enjoy it as much as I did the day I got it.
Super Smash Brothers Melee: My and my friends spend hours battling it out. One of the few games of this last (meaning pre-X360) generation that really had incredible gameplay. For the majority of people I know that own a GameCube, this game is the reason why they bought it.
Diablo 2: Patch 1.10 added a whole lot of material and pulled back a lot of people who left during the 1.09d era because of hackers, dupes, and overall lack of depth.
Pokemon: Fun to replay it with different creatures...what can I say. I didn't believe that my friends were actually going to spend several hours playing this all over but I have to say, I kinda wanna play it right now haha.
Baldur's Gate II: So much depth in this game. Tons of classes and races, tons of items, over 200 hours of play time because of a myriad of subquests - and this doesn't include the expansion.
Fallout 2: One of the best RPG's ever. And so unique in comparison to the stale overused 'fantasy' setting RPG's. Fun to go run around towns doing side quests and talking to all those people I never talked to before.
Unreal Tournament: Still a great Lan Party game, because it runs well on everyone's computers and just has outstanding FPS gameplay overall. A few years from now, I'll add 2004 to this list because it's gameplay modes are also amazingly addictive.
Note: I know there are a lot of CLASSIC games that aren't on this list (esp. on consoles), but I leave them out because I think the important factor here is replay value and so the grading is a little different. Games that tend to be strictly linear especially hurt from this.
I play Command and Conquer - Renegade all the time. Renegade was the only FPS in the C&C universe and it rocked. Wish they'd make a second one.
;^) I always shot down every offer 'cause I liked to kill without prejudice ;^)
I bought the game the hour it was released locally (Mechanicsburg, PA, where I was at the time) and was eventually recruited for every clan on the net
Yeah, I play as iggy_mon there, too. If you pick up the multipack for around $20(us) join me!
--iggy_mon - www.ananonymouskiller.com - Die Trying -
The irony, in the 6 years that I've played the game, I have yet to learn how to aim.. instead, I've learned how to improve my spray-and-pray. <shrugs> I must be the most leet noob I know.
/dev/random
Every platform game since has been basically a poorer imitation. It's just good fun.
I am trolling