Games You Keep Coming Back To

[Kindness]

Having stared at the favorite games thread in frustration for more time than I care to admit, I must come to grips with the fact that I am far too indecisive to pick a favorite anything.  That said, there are some games that I can't help but re-install year after year.  I feel it's rather similar to Jake being able to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean films again and again; sometimes media is just perfectly consumable without necessarily having to be great.

 

The two examples that immediately leap to mind are Max Payne 2 and Hitman: Blood Money.  My repeated forays into Hitman make sense to me somewhat; there are no other games that provide me the tools and the environment to bounce effortlessly between Le Samouraï and Grosse Point Blank.  As such I've burned through Blood Money about 5 times.

 

My obsession with Max Payne 2 is a little less straightforward: first of all, I've never actually played any farther than the demo of the first game. Moreover I've never had much of an interest in third person shooters.  Yet here I am on playthrough 12.  12!  I have no idea why, as I don't think the experience has evolved much from the first time I beat it in highschool.

 

 

 

What are the games that you come back to?

[Gormongous]

Way back, I had a recursive loop where I kept reinstalling and playing Sid Meier's Pirates! It was the same every time, I'd get three frigates, fill them up with guys, and start flipping Spanish ports for the French. I think I just really liked the tactical battle minigame? I don't know, college is full of weird ways to waste one's time.

 

I also played the first Mass Effect to 100% five separate times, even though I only remember doing it twice, because I do remember installing Mass Effect 2 and having to figure out which of five level-sixty characters was my main.

[youmeyou]

I've played through the first two Mass Effects more times than I care to admit. While the central narrative does not change, I love playing with the conversational choices that subtly alter my overall experience enough to keep me coming back.

 

I just finished my second playthrough of Dishonored (violent asshole mode) and was astonished at how different the game is when you approach it as a violent asshole. You're basically a superhero. Windblasting fools, freezing time, spawning rats and shooting everyone, it's an utterly different game. Now I'm going for ghost/no kills/no powers, which is also a pretty different game than merely playing it stealthily. I'm forced to run along rooftops and try and find alternative routes where there are less guards (and also totally ignoring side quests and runes and trying to find the quickest route to the target).

 

I also think with both these examples the worlds they exist in are so compelling that I don't mind seeing them as backdrops as I explore the boundaries of the mechanics.

[Nachimir]

Super Hexagon. Me and a friend have a good rivalry going with it, and taking it in turns to beat each other's scores, have pushed it past completion and pretty far up the high score tables.

[Zeusthecat]

Minecraft.

 

My friend and I play our world non-stop for a couple months at a time then get burnt out and stop for a couple months. We have gone through this cycle several times now and each time we come back it is still fucking amazing.

[Sno]

I could list a whole lot of games i've played consistently over the course of a few years, so i'll try and focus on things that have gone on for longer than that... Which brings me to this fancy new computer i built, and how the first thing i did on it was install Total Annihilation.

I've also played through Deus Ex and System Shock 2 both probably about a dozen times each over the years.

Definitely played through the Half-Life games an unreasonable number of times as well. Every time i get a fresh install of Steam up and running, i see HL and HL2 sitting there in my library and I just feel like "Well i guess i'm playing through those again."

[Gormongous]

Also, according to Steam, I've put 546 hours into Crusader Kings II. I've never uninstalled/reinstalled it, but it's still worth a mention.

[SecretAsianMan]

I already said it was my favorite game so it's a bit redundant, but TF2.  It's what I play between other games or when I don't feel like doing anything particularly serious and just want to have some pointless fun.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I can play X-COM forever and likely will.

[Berzee]

Tribes: Ascend. I keep playing it, and then noticing that 80% or more of the matches are shutouts. Then I become newly astonished at just how poorly balanced that game can be -- not so much in the matchmaking, but in the fact that on a team of 15 people, having one exceptional person can guarantee you win 5-0. Then I ragequit the whole game, and then a few weeks later I think how cool it is to ski down a hill, and then I'm logging in once again. =P

[Don Jon]

It is a pretty generic choice, but Fallout 3 would have to be the game I keep coming back too. It's world and immersion are unparalleled, and its the only game I have logged over 700 hours in enjoying every minute.

 

 

However, Star Fox has the ultimate trength.

[Max Ernst]

I have 650 Team Fortress 2 hours and I am ashamed of it. Often, I feel that learning a new game entirely is too exhausting for me, so I just flip on the ol TF2, put on whatever record I am currently fucking with on the sound system, and dick around for a couple of hours. Sometimes I quit this routine for several months, but I always come crawling back. It is my comfort food. 

 

I've also played Fallout: New Vegas three times to completion, but that was to role-play, that is to play with a strict set of character traits and rules, so the experience was quite different every time. Even now I am considering starting a character who is so addicted to drugs that he immediately takes whatever drug he picks up, regardless of where she is or what she is doing. Might make her melee to really emphasis a crazy hopped-up junkie tearing around the Mojave like a pit-bull that has broken free from its chains. 

[Twig]

Ashamed? I have 1000 hours of TF2, and about 1500 of Dota 2, and I ain't ashamed.

 

I might be ashamed of my WoW time, though, if I even knew it.

[Max Ernst]

Whenever I play TF2, it is often with the mindset of "I should be doing something else". I tell myself it is to 'unwind' but really it is to procrastinate. 

[Twig]

Eh, I've reconciled that feeling with myself. I fucking love video games, and that's what I like to do in my freetime! WHAT OF IT!!!

[thestalkinghead]

dungeon keeper (more 2 now) is a game i replay constantly, and hitman blood money also but i have almost played that every way (i want to) possible, i come back to plants Vs zombies a lot and black and white, but with most games i play the most recent version of that game (including games that aren't sequels, just similar games) but i think games i have played to death are jagged alliance 2 and fallout 2 

[Zeusthecat]

Eh, I've reconciled that feeling with myself. I fucking love video games, and that's what I like to do in my freetime! WHAT OF IT!!!

 

Amen brother!

[SecretAsianMan]

Whenever I play TF2, it is often with the mindset of "I should be doing something else". I tell myself it is to 'unwind' but really it is to procrastinate. 

 

I feel guilty sometimes that I'm playing TF2 instead of some other amazing game I probably should be playing, but once I join a game all those thoughts fall away because I'm having too much fun.

[osmosisch]

I've played one bot game of League of Legends per evening just for the first win of the day bonus for close to 2 years now.

 

At least now that ARAM has become official I can do something similarly relaxing except against people.

[DaveC]

Deus Ex, Deus Ex, and Deus Ex. 

[Lu]

I frequently go back and play Bionic Commando... The wife-arm one. The multiplayer is dead now, but sometimes I boot up a game and just swing around the levels on my own... I dunno, I just really, really enjoy that swinging mechanic.

[n490]

Dungeons of Dredmor, because being a vegan geologist who kills animals by summoning giant mushrooms can be a viable option to save the world.

 

Minecraft, because mods.

 

Wipeout HD/Fury, because Rapier is the best speed class.

 

Aquaria, because for some odd-reason, I'm sure I'll never finish it, but I always want to swim in it, hear that music, and see the depths of that world.

 

Dota 2, because.

[melmer]

um... nothing

 

I did get a crazy urge to play panzer dragoon orta a few months back, then got majorly bummed out when i found that the backwards compatablity of the xbox disc on 360 was borked and the game would crash after the third lvl. booooooooo

[JonCole]

I toss myself in with the TF2 crowd, I'll go without playing that for months and months and then proceed to play for like 50 hours in the span of a week. Really addictive, continually fresh, solid mechanics.

 

And then instead of pointing at just one game, I'll go ahead and say any of Bethesda's 'first-party' Fallout/Elder Scrolls games. I've played just about every one of them since Morrowind for upwards of 500 hours each through multiple playthroughs, leading to 100% achievement completion in Oblivion and Fallout 3 on 360. I'll eventually do the same with New Vegas, undoubtedly, and I still feel like there's a lot of juice behind Skyrim that simply isn't my jam at this very moment.

[Jac]

I keep going back to Skate 3, i don't think i could ever get tired of it.

 

The sun is always shinning in that game and in a way i think it takes me back to my youth. Hanging out with friends, skating all day and little care for anything but having a good time.

 

For a time World of Warcraft had a strong grip in me, but these days are long gone.