Football Manager
I have a list.
Knights of the Old Republic - 9 playthroughs.
Mass Effect - 9 playthroughs.
Mass Effect 2 - 8 playthroughs.
Mass Effect 3 - 5 playthroughs.
Dragon Age: Origins: 4 playthroughs.
If we add MMO’s, I have thousands of hours in Star Wars: Galaxies and WoW. Hundreds in many others.
JA2 plain, 1,13, and mods.
To me, it is the original Pirates! (with the exclamation mark!) from Sid Meier’s.
I went into it pretty late, in 1990, and I have been playing it systematically at least every couple of years.
It just transports me. The way you have to learn the currents and winds, and then exploit them. The solitude, and then excitement of making it back to civilization. The feel of freedom.
It’s the ultimate space game!
Stalker series. Such atmospheric games, always love revisiting them. The mod community keeps putting out ambitious mods to keep it fresh too.
Civ 4
Homm 3
and I don’t have to review any manuals to remember how to play them…perfect games…goes right up there with chess
I’m waiting for Misery 2.2 for my “final” playthrough of the universe. At least for a good long while…
I hardly ever replay story heavy games. My alltime replayed game has got to be Civ IV. This is before I had it on Steam and had to easily have 1000-2000 hours.
I have not played Mass Effect or Dragon Age yet. Without spoiling story can you explain why you wanted to replay so many times? I always thought these were 1 and out kinda games.
Most replayed games for me aren’t very proper. Because instead of replaying a game from start, I replay saves like crazy til I see what options lead to what. So Witcher 3 I’ve kinda replayed 10x but still in first technical playthrough.
Outside of that most replayed game are probably:
- Each version of Simcity
- MOO 2
- Gal Civ 2
- Civ IV
- Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
- Each version of Tropico
- Crusader Kings 2
- Some years of MLB the Show and Madden
- Dungeons of Dredmor
- XCom
- ARMA 2
- Pinball Arcade/Pinball FX2
Because they’re my favorite stories. Ever. And there are variations.
I have just barely touched The Witcher 3, and have been intimidated by it. Hopefully this week I’ll get into it and I’ll put that at the top of my favorite stories. From everything I hear, it’s just a silly thing of silly amazing.
EU IV (by far)
CIV IV and 5
Diablo 3 (think I’m finally done with this version though)
HoMM - (my SO loves it, I like it a lot so we play it together)
Age of Wonders
- Diablo III
- Battle of Olympus
- Gladius
- Space Rangers 2
- Minecraft
- Streetfighter II (all versions)
- Def Jam Battle for New York
- Skyrim
-Halo III
Out of the Park Baseball
Various versions of Civilization, but especially IV
Honorable mention:
the original MOO
the first three HOMM
I’ve been a role-playing geek since 1979 and Witcher 3 is probably my all-time favorite CRPG. It has some warts, but the amount of detail in its open world, the characters, the writing, the quality of animation when it comes to expressing emotion, and the overall story are all wonderful.
In terms of total hours probably Civilization IV and SimCity 4. Civ V is up there too.
When I think of playing a game over and over, I tend to think of older games. I haven’t picked these up for a while, but I played them multiple, multiple times: Colonial Conquest, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates!, Roadwar 2000, Tass Times in Tonetown, PSI-5 Trading Company, Law of the West, Killed Until Dead, Civ 1 and 2, MOO 1 and 2, Empire, Star Fleet I, Rails Across America, Gold of the Americas, 1830.
Most overall replayed games? Retro titles: Master of Magic, Master of Orion II, Command HQ, Railroad Tycoon series Civilization series, Panzer General series, Heroes of Might and Magic series, WarCraft series…the list goes on and on.
More recent titles? World of WarCraft (2004 - present), I almost feel like Francis in this YouTube video.
My tastes in PC gaming have changed over the past twenty-seven years and I no longer enjoy the genre of games I did in the past. My favorites now are turn-based 4X games, but the “reimaginings” of past great games (which most of today’s titles seem to be) fall far short of the original games they are attempting to imitate and modify. Add to that the infatuation (or is it greed?) that many gaming entities have for DLC of all types and which are released endlessly (I’m looking at you, Paradox), I just lose interest.
But I can still hope.
Just in terms of how long I’ve been playing it, MissionForce Cyberstorm probably tops my list. I replay that one every year or so, and a VMWare image of Win98SE dedicated to just running that game. I also replay Warlock, Master of the Arcane and the original Dawn of War when the mood takes me.
If we’re talking straight replaying over again, then it’s probably something like FLT or Spelunky for me. If we’re talking total hours invested, then it’s Borderlands 2, followed closely by Skyrim.
In some sense, I’m not sure I can say I’m replaying Tetris, since I’m still working towards an end goal of TGM2 GM. But it’s definitely one of the games I’ve played the longest.
In general, I’ve treated games much the way I treat movies. I run through them again and again, rarely tiring of the good ones. I’ve largely trailed off from gaming altogether in my life, only playing Tetris, Counter-Strike, and pinball these days, all of which are timeless and competitive, but there have been a few perennial games over the decades.
I may have tired of the original Super Mario Bros, but I’ll always play through SMB3 every few years, probably till I die.
Each time I visit my hometown, we have an N64 and bagel bites night, like the 90s never died, and play a round or two of all the multiplayer games. Favorites include Mario Kart (duh), Mario Tennis, and NFL Blitz.
On the singleplayer side, I’ve always replayed games with stories, just like I watch movies over & over. The Monkey Island series, Phoenix Wright, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time top the list. SWAT 4 and the Half-Life series probably take the cake on the other end of the spectrum. Maybe HoMM3 or Morrowind.
Seeing you mention that game reminded me, as far as games with a story frameworks goes, I had replayed the first Front Mission over and over for at least half a dozen years in the same way.
There must be something to customizable tactical Mech games!