Quake, no comparison. I replayed the game in it’s entirety, and all the levels individually soooo many times. Nightmare w/ no deaths allowed. I was firmly established on my self built PC, living in my Park Slope, Brooklyn 1BR browstone apartment. I downloaded qtest for hours on a modem, got Quake shareware, and seemingly received one of the earliest copies of Quake via snail mail pre-order. I was in the Amish Quake clan. Then when I got a 3DFX Diamond Monster, played it again a ton. It was the convergence of the game, the Internet, and OpenGL that gave it such longevity.
My biggest mistake of my Quake-era days was going out w/ this really cute woman. Over dinner, she told me she completed the Quake SP campaign 2-3 times. Instead of immediately asking her to marry me, I made some crack about multiplayer being the true test of mettle. Ah, what might have been. I’m quite happy w/ the actual Mrs.mono and kids, but the intoxication of the possibile, and all that…
@AustinArlitt mentioned Tetris: The Absolute: The Grand Master 2, which would require a copy of MAME and a specific ROM. That’s my personal favorite Tetris, but it’s pretty brutal compared to, well, pretty much every version of the game that isn’t Tetris: The Grand Master.
Puyo Puyo Tetris is the best casual version of Tetris ever made (and happens to be a crossover with Puyo Puyo, a much better multiplayer game than Tetris), but it’s not in English (not a huge deal) or on PC (slightly more annoying).
[quote=“WarpRattler, post:44, topic:125522, full:true”] @AustinArlitt mentioned Tetris: The Absolute: The Grand Master 2, which would require a copy of MAME and a specific ROM. That’s my personal favorite Tetris, but it’s pretty brutal compared to, well, pretty much every version of the game that isn’t Tetris: The Grand Master.[/quote]
Or a Japanese arcade cabinet & original PCB! We’ve got quite the collection assembled between us all in Seattle.
Diablo 2 is probably my most replayed single player game, having been a mainstay on my hard drive for the better part of the last 15 years. It’s an unbelievably good game but it’s always hard for me to describe why. It’s just pure, perfect gameplay with a magnificent veneer courtesy of the Blizzard art team and Matt Uelmen’s wonderful soundtrack. That’s it.
In second place would be either Half-Life or Sonic the Hedgehog 2, both of which I’ve completed well over a dozen times. It’s not even really any kind of time investment these days though because I can plow through both in short order.
I really just love revisiting old games, though. Every single year you’ll find Doom, Fallout 1/2, Stalker SoC/CoP, Deus Ex, Arcanum, Bloodlines, Divine Divinity, Morrowind, KoTOR, Thief/2/3, X-Wing/Alliance/TIE Fighter, System Shock 2, Serious Sam, Age of Empires 2, Unreal, AvP, etc, on my hard drive at one point or another.
Or I’ll just dig through my collection, read a few manuals, and then put it all back. Something I’ll miss greatly with digital only games.
Well as a brief aside, multiplayer games tend to be highly replayable but discounting that here we go:
Hitman: Blood Money: I dunno, I just get a kick out of trying goofy things in the levels repeatedly over and over. That level in La Jolla which is San Diego, I played to death trying everything, but I still replay it for kicks. Max Payne 1: One word: MODS! I played so many Max Payne 1 mods…from Kung Fu to Enter the Matrix. Many plays. Baldur’s Gate: Not so now anymore, but I use to play this a lot. Most plays never got far but I did finish it completely twice. Earthbound: At least 5 playthroughs by now. Today, just nostalgia fueled. Mostly to see if it still rose-colored glasses and to see if the difficult spikes are the same. They change! (That Kraken!) Fallout: Many plays I lost count. Worth it in every way because most of the skills are viable and offer a difference experience. Also doing thing out of order. (Like saving Necropolis from Mutant holocaust and talking to Set)
I dont think I’ve ever replayed a single player story in a game all the way through. I’ve restarted a lot of RPGs to try out different classes; but I don’t recall a game I’ve played all the way through beginning to end more than once.
It’s a different story when it comes to strategy games like the civs. I probably played more games of civ 3 than E anything else.
In terms of a game I spent the most time played it would either be battlefield 2 or bad company 2.
If i think over games in my lifetime and not just what I have replayed recently there are quite a few:
Advanced Wars (I will play this if I am stuck in my bed sometimes)
X-COM (original)
Civ 1 - 4 (though 4 the most)
Lost Admiral
Grandest Fleet
Sword of Aragorn (I used to love this game but do not have the disks etc)
MOO 2
MOM
Fairway Golf
Plants and Zombies
Defense Grid 1 & 2 (though only DG2 these days)
Hex TCG (but by its nature I guess I will always be playing it)
Kingdom Rush Series on my iPad (again if I am sick or travelling)
Sim City
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (Planet Coaster may change this)
