I don’t know if it was already a thread… but I have a few games I am revisiting fairly regular. I think I like how clean and polished they are… you can say I am addicted to those…
Bejeweled 2 (any platform)
usually I play it on the 360. Classic mode. This game is so smooth and relaxing and boring. But it became some kind of habit to play a few levels and trying to get those hypercubes… and then play some more levels. I am also hooked to the space theme and the synth music… it does not take any deep commitment to play this game. It is always there, waiting.
Ridge Racer 7 (PS3)
After finishing the main campaign I noticed that I only finished 50% of the game… This game is so clean and cool looking, I can’t stop playing until I have 100%… some of the races take me an hour to succeed… good that the cars don’t have a damage model… it would disrupt the flow of the racing. It is not a racing game, though. It is a drifiting game. Magic.
Every Extend Extra Extreme (XBLA)
I usually play the 5 minute blitz mode. The only game I know where you can get more than 1,000,000,000,000,000 points in 5 minutes… it is true, you start with 0 and after 5 minutes of good play, you can reach that number. You need some luck, though… problem with this game is that I want to play only 3-4 games and then I play for 2-3 hours.
Advance Wars/ Fire Emblem (DS)
I just like to see toy tanks blowing up (must be my german side)… or knights hitting each other. I usually skip the story and play for fun.
Shiren The Wanderer (DS)
I died a 1000 times, but starting from scratch does not feel frustrating at all. Perfect designed game.
I still spent a significant amount of time reading about EverQuest 1 related news and topics, and I haven’t played the game in six years. That may or may not count, but I get as much enjoyment reading about the game than I would sitting in it grinding out my next level or quest piece the way the game is set up today. So my experience with it, as of late, is vicarious in nature, but still entertaining. I can’t seem to let it go.
TF2 , I say to myself… BOB play one of your 30+ backlog games (damn steam sales) that are just sitting there ( some still wrapped ) but no … I say just a few more achievements, and I am done, but no then a new update, and more achievements! This weekend I will be moving up gear, and using my robotic fist to kill people. :) I have almost 1500 hours invested :o
MMO’s usually. I have literally sat some nights after work and thought, " I really don’t feel like playing a game right now," then within the hour I find myself logged in and wondering what happened. Not in the sense I don’t remember logging in, but nearly in the sense I’m compelled to keep playing the damned things.
Other games though:
HOMM 3 - A wonderful time waster. It’s one of the few games I know well enough that I can play most anything on it and still have fun.
Age of Wonders: SM - Like above, only with friends. If they ask, I can’t say no.
Jagged Alliance 2 - My de facto travel game on my work laptop. It takes very little room, runs on anything, and I have a loooooooong running campaign that’s lasted several business trips now. It’s such a routine now I actually look forward to travel JUST for this reason.
X-COM - Same as above but I prefer JA2 slightly more these days.
Medieval 2: Total War - A single player weekend waster. I love it. I can’t seem to remove the thing off my hard drive. I’ve bought it twice I think.
some games have the strength to become a habit… I don’t play MMOs, I tried, but there is a (time) commitment, which I did not enjoy… Usually I go back to games, which don’t require any commitment: time, interface, people, story… some games I can’t go back, because I forgot how to use them (interface), other games I forgot the story… so I guess I go back to casual games (easy to use, easy to play, but with enough depth)… if I have to rel-learn the game… forget it.
is someone revisiting a AAA game every once in a while…? Something like Bioshock, Uncharted, Halo (Singleplayer)… COD4 MP would count, only if you go back, meaning: you stopped for a month (at least), then go back… playing a game once a week without hiatus is not exactly going back to the game… I think I should have pointed that out, that a hiatus is required… :-)
Fallout 3. I’ve spend so much time in that game. I keep firing it up just to mess around. I’m now trying to kill everyone in the world all the while I’m building a Nuka Cola shrine at its plant.
Heroes of Might and Magic III or V, Age of Wonders Shadow Magic, Temple of Elemental Evil, Fallout 1/2/Tactics, Half-Life 2+Episodes 1 & 2, Civilization IV+Expansions, World of Warcraft, Dawn of War II are the big ones I play on and off and have for (in many cases) years and years.
Final Fantasy XII. I think I load this up about every nine months and play it for 100+ hours.
LOTRO. “Okay, I’ll just do one batch of quests… okay, and go on a woodworking run to get another 100 points in… oh, and here’s a skirmish or two… okay, if I get 25 lebethron branches I can get another 4000 points of rep with the guild… oh, I wanted to swing by Rivendell…”
Diablo 2 used to be the major game for that for me, though I’ve barely touched it in the last couple years, so I guess the urges have finally faded.
Angband and its variants. I also haven’t touched this one in a while, but now I’m curious if Zangband has been up to anything interesting lately…
World of Warcraft I find myself playing in bursts, usually when an expansion comes out or one of the holiday events starts.
And I’ll occasionally fire up Trackmania United, to see what crazy new tracks are popular on the servers and take a few more stabs at trying to set gold times.
