I need to lose myself in a game for a couple of days

Games
21

Children of the Nile is good like that – the maps take a while and everything moves pretty slow, but theres always stuff to look at. It’s a great beer and tv game because it’s so low key. For instance, I cleaned my room, ate breakfast, did my core exercises and went for a jog while playing this one map where you have to build a giant pyramid.

Really any of the old Impressions city builders are perfect for whiling the day away – they’re shiny and well realized gems that don’t demand a lot of attention.

Sins of a Solar Empire is another good one for the beer and tv circuit – busy enough to keep you engaged, but relaxed enough that you can concentrate on whatever Dr. “look out, alien lava monsters from before the dawn of time” Who is up to.

Civ 4 with Fall From Heaven 2 is probably the best choice though.

22

I’m going to go against the grain and actually recommend Team Fortress 2.

23

Originally Posted by jellyfish
Does fortified beer count as a game?

Yes, but only if you’re playing ‘Beer Tycoon’.

24

23 posts and nobody has yet mentioned Master of Orion or Master of Orion 2?

Seriously, QT3, I’m disappointed in you.

25

MOO2 is an excellent idea, Kraaze! I haven’t played it in probably 10 years or more. But I still own it…somewhere. Maybe it’s time to start digging. It runs in XP just fine?

26

Actually i’m going to go off on a different tangent and recommend an RPG, something like Vampire: Bloodlines, to while away a couple of days. Strategy games can hold my interest for months but not for hours in a single sitting. Stuff like Bloodlines is great for a couple of days, and you’re glad to finish it, but not play it over and over and over again like a strategy game.

27

Oni was a really good one for me. I played it start to finish in a day or two.

28

GTA4 is totally hooking me right now. I’m just driving around the whole goddamn city like a speed-addled hobo racer, and the acting in the cutscenes is downright compelling. They even have a statistic for “How Addicted” you are, for fuck’s sake.

29

Grand strategy games are, by far, the best for this. You’re constantly setting short term goals for yourself, but each goal when reached creates new opportunities for decisionmaking, which means you get to set more short term goals, which means…

So the usual list o’ gems:

Imperialism 2(WHY DOES NOBODY ELSE LOVE THIS GAME LIKE I DO???)
MOO2
Civ 4
SMAC

HoI2:DD grabbed me pretty hard last month.

And Jagged Alliance 2 is fantastic, as always.

30

Jagged Alliance 2, with the 1.13 mod

[edited: great minds think alike, Hudson beat me to it while I was writing the post.]

31

Since you said console is fine, you might want to look into MGS4. It is a spectacular game. If you’re looking for older games only, then try out Planescape: Torment or Deus Ex?

32

Play Silent Hunter 3 without using the time compression.

33

How about Dangerous Waters then? :)

34

What does that mod do? I was thinking about just using Gametap’s Gold version of JA2 if I get around to playing it again (which is not a bad idea, actually).

35

Haha and that’s just the running between areas and chatting to guildmates. If you do fighting and questing it’s a whole nother dimention of timesuck.

36

mass effect. you can make it last, or have a short and awesome ride.

37

Portal
GTA4

38

Ummm…Portal is like 3 hours long. It’s a great game, yeah, but unless I wanted to play it over and over again…

I dug out MOO2. Any essential patches I need?

39

King of Dragon Pass sounds like just the ticket, a 4Xesque game in which your write your own legend.

40

Allows 1024x768, dramatically changes the inventory system, adds about a trillion new guns, adds weather effects, some other minor changes. It’s really quite impressive.