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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.
The Legend of Zelda
Wasteland
Nethack on alt.org
Star Control II
BZFlag is one of those free multiplayer games that keeps pulling me back in almost every day. The competitiveness of the game coupled with the community is hard to beat. And it's open source to boot!
...It has to be the Zelda games... almost every one is a classic, my personal favourite has to be Ocarina of Time, its so fantastic.
The newest game to captivate me like this is Resident Evil 4, its a classic, getting to shoot anything with a shotgun, brill.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
One of the koulest games around for linux, eighties style.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
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.
I still haven't got to the last level :(
I think most people will agree on this game. I play a lot of games, most of them once through (I'm not a huge FPS/online player, so a trip through the single player game and I'm usually done). The addictive thing about Diablo is the play mechanic... I was actually done with the game, and didn't have a desire to keep playing it, but for some reason I had to go through and play it again anyways.
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!"
is the one game I've been playing for more than a decade, on and off. No fancy graphics, but great gameplay. Yeah, cool slick graphics and corresponding sound is nice, but no substitute for great gameplay.
Yo, bud... I've got some Evercrack here. By one hit, get one level free...
I just love this game. Probably one of the best RPGS EVER. I'm also playing Civ 2 and Civ 4 on the side.
"It's not stealing if you don't get caught!"
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.
You guys are probably too old to remember some of these classics, which I still play occasionally today:
Crystal Castles (Rocks)
Omega Race
The original Star Wars, with the vector graphics
Xybots (this one isn't too old)
Pong is the only game for me.
Best game ever. Bar-none
... and Deus Ex (played that one on my last four computers). Both great games with extreme replayability, since they offer so much customzing options for your character. And, what's more important, those choices actually matter in terms of gameplay and are not purely cosmetic, resulting in sometimes radically different games.
Don't get me wrong, I like (for instance) the Splinter Cell series, but if you don't sneak in the levels where you're supposed to sneak, you simply lose the game; when I've made it through such an obstacle course once I see no motivation to do the exact same thing again the next time through.
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
Monkey Island II is the game I play the most. I normally play through at least one Monkey Island game every year, I just love the humor (I like the first two parts the most but enjoy III and IV as well).
Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle is also one of those games I replay quite often. Like Monkey Island, the humor is just great.
Too bad Sam and Max II was cancelled and that the gaming industry doesn't produce good adventures (especially humorous adventures) any more... at least I haven't heard of any.
If what you like out of video games is competition, nothing beats CS. It's so easy to organize 5v5 matches, hop in a server with some friends and it's as if you're in a high stakes shootout with all the tension. There's always TONS of people playing, always tons of competition, it's no wonder it's the top competitive video game around.
Think of it this way, why do you go back and play the same sport you like over and over. Because you like to compete in basketball, or football or whatever. Same thing with CS, it's all about competition, and it'll keep you coming back.
P.S. If you're worried about cheaters, there's many communities that are organized with the specific goal of stopping this threat with sophisticated anti cheat software and admin support.
Check out ESEA CEVO NEL CAL GGL
Gunstar Heroes (Genesis, Treasure) - It just has great gameplay, your characters seem like an extention of you. The stages are each unique and are fun obstacle courses to run through.
Megaman (NES, Capcom) - It's just a really unique and weird game, one of the first of its kind, the enemies and characters had a lot more personality than other games and it's always fun to go back and play because of the aesthetics, ambience, and gameplay.
Wildsnake (Genesis/SNES, Alexy Pajitnov) - It's party fun! You'll never stop playing!
Ghouls & Ghosts (Genesis, Capcom) - Again with the memorization here, plus a very unique concept and characters. The music, stages, and characters all came together to provide a fun experience. One wrong move and you're dead, but it's fun to get to the point where you can run through without dying. It may seem cheap at first but when you become one with the controls you'll do surprisingly well.
Streets of Rage II (Genesis, SEGA) - This game is great. Different characters to choose from with their own moves. Yes, moves in a brawler, like a side scrolling Street Fighter II where you beat up more than 1 opponent. This was the pinnacle of brawlers in my opinion. Had great music, graphics, and long stages that keep you entertained.
Thunderstrike (Sega CD, Core) - A blast! You'll keep playing the missions until you have a shred of life left and must escape. It's an arcade helicopter shooter... Sounds weird but incredibly fun. Lots of missions with varied objectives, music that fits the game, and great controls. Very good presentation and hasn't been a game that comes close, except maybe Warhawk on PSX.
Castlevania SotN, Metroid II, Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Quackshot are some others really worth checking out.
Twinstiq, game news
Definitely Super Metroid. Perhaps because the game has the most amazing music and a slew of secrets that just give you a sense of satisfaction to find over and over again, years after you beat the game with 100% of the items. Not many games can do that.
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 -
I loved the original Deus Ex and played all the way through it twice and played just the first few levels a number of times since then. I would definitely consider playing it all the way through again! It's a shame the second one wasn't as good as the first.
The sad thing is I have it for the Mac and it only runs in classic mode now. When the intel move becomes ubiquitous they aren't going to do classic and I'm going to lose Deus Ex (as well as all my nostalgic classic apps). Very sad.
-David
There. Now go play some cool javascript games!
I have played these two more than any other games I bought. Played them each for years, still will play them today.
From the original all the way to Civilization IV. Addictive.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
System Shock - Simply a stunning game... And although it isn't as scary as it used to be when I played it the first time, I'm still afraid of going to the third level
:P
:)
Nethack - Of course. Though I'm not that good at it
Transport Tycoon Deluxe (And OpenTTD) - This one never gets old, and with OpenTTD it gets new features all the time.
Thief 1 & 2 - Simply great, too bad Thief 3 (imo) wasn't nearly as good as these two
Fallout 2 - I hope Bethesda can make Fallout 3 as good as this one...
Operation Flashpoint - Not that old yet, but a superb game, especially in multiplayer co-op
Doom 1 & 2 - Somehow I still can enjoy playing the same old original maps through one more time
And of course many C64 and Amiga games, though most of them feel too hard today. I guess the new games have spoiled me.
You can get a free version of SCII for 3DO that runs on PC -- voice and everything! Check out The Ur-Quan Masters
"Holy shit! A talking muffin!"
Great strategy game. Decent AI, good story, and very deep gameplay. You can micromanage to death or automate what you want. I've been playing it since 1999; it's the one game that is always on my hard drive. The Civ games never did it for me.
There are games are fade away when you realize how dull the graphics are. There are games that let your mind make all the graphics.
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
10 years old, and I still play it with some friends. It's small and fast by modern standards, quake2evolved gives it updated looks, and I don't need to learn new controls, carry an external mouse with my laptop, or have a dedicated "just for games" console at home. I've tried the newer FPS games from Id and played Quake3 for a little while, but I keep coming back to Q2.
"Nothing was broken, and it's been fixed." -- Jon Carroll
Both Myth and Starcraft are ancient games with increible online play. They cant compete on graphics but still have some of the best gameplay around.
adom of course. I started playing it about 9 years ago. 3 years ago I've won for the first time. This christmas I just won for the second time. So diverse gameplay, each class/character combination is so different I never can belive it.
oh, and system shock 1, and fallout 2, and elite 2/frontier
I even bought system shock 2, but it wasn't that good.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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For its time, a really great game.
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Writers get in shape by pumping irony.
When I found out the music in SC2 was MOD files, I found a ripper on my local BBS and promptly extracted the music. That was in June of 1994, and the files have followed me from drive to drive, filesystem to filesystem, with their timestamps intact. I still love listening to that music, having burned bits of it to CD for the car, and all of it still enjoying a place in my Winamp playlst.
Occasionally when a discussion of game storylines crops up, I'll pitch in a few kind paragraphs for Star Control 2. The conversation archives on The Pages of Now and Forever still relate the same compelling story, and I still remember my horror when I initially learned of the Kohr-Ah's plight. The most convincing villain is one you feel sympathy for, and they had that going, for sure.
A few weeks ago, I downloaded the most recent build of The Ur-Quan Masters. The first build I tried a year or so ago wouldn't start up, but this version ran flawlessly. The music was perfect, the graphics were just as I remembered them, and the interface took a little getting used to but then felt very comfortable.
So why did the game bore me? I played for probably half an hour, and couldn't seem to get interested. It's not that I knew the ending -- I played the game through 3 or 4 times back when it was new, and it didn't seem any less fun the second time around. I haven't been much for games in the last few years, and I'm still struggling to figure out why.
...but Myth 3 was godawful. Marathon 1 and 2 were good, but I didn't much care for 3. Played through all of those several times, mostly because they're good, immersive games with a great storyline.
Elite. So much so, that I'm now the Linux maintainer for the tribute game, Oolite (originally for Mac OS X). Oolite is an open source Elite clone written in Objective C and Cocoa for the Mac, GNUstep for Linux/BSD. Oolite is extensible with scripts and new ships, too.
http://oolite-linux.berlios.de/ - for the Linux binary installer (autopackage or tarball, your choice - has *no* dependencies for most distros) and source code.
http://oolite.aegidian.org/ - for the Mac OS X version.
A windows port is also under way (currently in alpha, you can get it from ftp.alioth.net/oolite)
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Nintendo games tend to keep me coming back more than any other...
Mario Kart, Starfox, and Animal Crossing...
It doesn't take up many resouces, so it's nice to have in the running in the background. I take a break from whatever I'm working on and see if my subs can work their way into range of that juicy carrier group.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The types of games that I keep coming back to are simulators with a sandbox interface, that require you to develop a new skill or learn something new. Flight simulators are particularly challenging - There's always something new to learn on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, and similarly for remote controlled aircraft on Realflight G3.
In fact I'm a bit of a flight sim nut so long as the sim is sufficiently complex. There is always something new you haven't tried. Learnt Acrobatics? Try navigation. Learnt to navigate, learn to fly a 747 properly. Learnt that too how about crosswind landings, night flying etc. With the remote control sims there's always a new trick to try and master and your accuracy to improve. What's more you don't have to spend $200 and 3 weekends fixing things after every crash.
Then there's software that teaches you a classic game like Chessmaster. You can always get better at chess, and there are lots of tutorials in Chessmaster 10 so you can go through them again after a year or so and you're reminded of something you'd learnt but almost forgotten. The I can play in a virtual tournament against a number of virtual opponents.
These are the sorts of games I keep coming back to. They manage to keep your mind and/or your reflexes going without being completely artificial...and sure it's a cartoon world with virtual this and that, but hell I'll never get to land a real 747 or play chess against a grandmaster for real, so I appreciate these experiences.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
There are a lot of people who think the same. Including OSS programmers. You might want to look up the term "freedroid" in Google. Its an OSS clone of Paradroid.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Possibly the greatest space flight sim of all time. Freespace 2 was the sequel to the phenomenal Descent: Freespace. The sequel surpassed the original giving you an incredible feel for the massive scale of the ships involved (sometimes many kilometers long, while you flew in a fighter or bomber only a few meters long), and had absolutely incredible dogfighting. Tons of varied weapons, and extremely diverse gameplay; you've got escort missions, stealth reconnaisance, bombing runs, search and rescue, etc.
The game gets complicated with all the different tasks it requires you to do (switch the targetted subsystem to destroy critical points of capital ships, commanding squadmates to attack specific targets, targetting bombs, etc.) but flows into it smoothly with a very forgiving learning curve.
This is an all-around fantastic game. It's showing its age, but still looks excellent graphically.
No comment.
Games like Counter Strike, UT2004, and Quake 3 bring replay value because the experience is never the same each time. This is why I prefer racing games and multiplayer games.
A modern game with infinite replay value is SimCity 4 (and really any other SimX game). You can build a city different each and every time. I NEVER get sick of that game, whereas I'm already bored wtih Doom 3. Same goes for Civilization 4 and its previous versions.
And it just never ever got old.
"Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson
It's not often you can claim you've played some multiplayer game precisely once.
And my heart still pounds as I press the keys with all the force I can muster, as if this will make my planeteer go faster.
Every platform game since has been basically a poorer imitation. It's just good fun.
I am trolling
Carmageddon 1, 1.5 and 2 are among the greatest games ever created in my view. The third is very good, but lacking something, especially the way the multi-player modes were changed. Why mess with perfection? Playing Fox and Hound Carmageddon 1 with eight players over IPX was the pinnacle of gaming for me nine years ago. I wish I could play it again now. Sigh. It was hilarious hurtling down a mountain road chasing the fox car with six others, only to have someone cock it up and cause a pile-up sending a couple of cars somersaulting over your head and into the sea. I've never laughed so much playing any other game.
Such a shame that Carmageddon 4 got canned. I still have hopes for its appearance though. Fingers crossed.
I consider Tetris the best game ever created, and the original Mac version the best version of it. (I usually get really picky about the physics, and that version gets it perfect.) It's the game that never gets old, and has the simplest concept (next to Pong).
As for Quake 1...I first played it in 1997 on my Windows 95, Pentium 1 computer. I've since played it at some point on every computer I've owned since then. I don't know what it is, but I have yet to find a finer FPS, especially one to replay so much. Perhaps it's the complete lack of scripted events mixed with the oldest-considered realistic graphics and atmosphere...but whatever it is, I can't get enough.
I also have a soft spot for Novastorm, a somewhat mediocre Playstation (1995) sci-fi blaster game. Despite its flaws, I have to play it every now and then, for the primitive charm.