Painman on 6/6/2009 at 07:25
We all have a couple... those games we all come crawling back to, despite our intimate familiarity and contempt, because they just know how to work us. Like a crusty old whore, every time we find ourselves back in their midst we ask ourselves, "What the fuck am I doing back here?", but deep down inside... We know why. They just know how to work our... bits.
Thief/SS/DX, well most of us crawl back to those from time to time I reckon, but what else?
I'll start:
Diablo II. A static, mindless hack-n-slash, on its surface anyway.
OK, on much more than its surface.
There's only so much to do in this game; what's magical, however, is how many different ways there are to do it. It's not so much the character and skill system, though that's a large part. It's also the item generation system. This is the sort of game in which you might pick up an item, and then decide that you must make a whole new character, just so that you can go round and round the hamster wheel again, with that new character... built around that item. The permutations are endless. I've been playing on and off for 9 freakin' years, and there's still a ton of stuff I haven't tried... still a ton of stuff I have never found.
The banality has gotten to me more quickly the last few times I picked it back up, but I still do so now and then.
X3:Reunion/Terran Conflict. I have a love/hate relationship with this game, or perhaps more exactly, the company who produced it, Egosoft. It's an extremely large, open-ended and complex space-sim with trading, building, fighting and thinking aspects (so says the marketing shpiel anyway).
Well, yeah, it incorporates all of these things. Unfortunately, the company responsible for this monster of a game ought to "think" their ambitions through more clearly: If there was ever a game that was a near-fatal victim of its own case of feature-creep, X3:TC ought to be the poster child.
I could go on and on for paragraphs, but suffice to say, the more you "think" about what you wish to accomplish in this game, the more you realize that the built-in scripting for it all, is an outrageous pile of rubbish.
Its User Community is its saving grace. Egosoft knows it, but like most companies, is too arrogant to own up to most of their fuckups, and pretends that there's really not that much "wrong" with the Vanilla game. A chorus of masochistic fanboys helps them maintain this illusion about their misshapen colossus of a game.
...But despite all the vitriol I wish to toss at Egosoft, I still play. I'm a Space Junkie, and despite the fact that X3:TC infuriates me at times with its half-baked schemes built upon yet more half-baked schemes, I still find myself playing it relentlessly... with a bit of help from the scripters and modders who are all much smarter, patient and charitable than I am.
...That, and X is basically the only modern sandbox space-sim in town... Egosoft could really use some competition. :(
So, yeah. There's my poison. What's yours?
Jason Moyer on 6/6/2009 at 07:59
iRacing. I took several months off from the competitive side to play Fallout 3 and some other stuff over the winter, but I still fired it up for an hour almost every day just to get some laps in.
Team Fortress 2 was the same for me until they started adding more maps and the class upgrade stuff. Out of the box it was the most brilliantly designed multiplayer shooter I've ever played.
june gloom on 6/6/2009 at 08:12
TF2. I keep coming back for more for precisely the exact reason Jason stopped.
Fallout 1. WHY DO I KEEP PLAYING THIS OVER AND OVER
Half-Life series. I kinda burned myself out on the original, but with HL2 my interest was revived and really hasn't gone away since- in fact I'd say I'm an even bigger queer for the series than I was the first go-round. Definitely as big as I am for Thief.
The Warriors. I always end up playing this one at least once a year. It's just such a great fucking game.
Metal Gear series. While I haven't been willing to touch it in the last year or so until I got my hands on MGS4, you can bet that as soon as I do I'm going to disappear for a few weeks playing every game in the main series that's not on a PSP.
Shakey-Lo on 6/6/2009 at 08:12
Tribes 2, I still play it after all these years (almost a decade). Though recently the Aus scene dropped off suddenly, so we don't get full servers any more, making the game a shadow of its former self and one that I reluctantly admit to not finding as interesting. Would still love to see the community come back though.
Civilization IV, I actually uninstalled just yesterday but I know it's probably only a matter of time before I reinstall and lose another few months of seeing daylight.
Donkey Kong Country, the game I really grew up with and know everything about but still play through, despite not quite knowing why.
Fragony on 6/6/2009 at 10:44
The Europa Universalis games, I even play it in my head if I can't sleep.
gunsmoke on 6/6/2009 at 11:17
Gothic 2.
Probably the greatest single-player RPG ever created. Especially with Night of the Raven. I just lose myself in Myrtana. Everything about it just fits together so well. The music, gameplay, voices, story, action, and the serene moments of calmly exploring the countryside. Crafted with love. The series will never be the same, now that PB isn't making them anymore. :(
GTA
I regularly re-visit Liberty City, Vice City, and the great State of San Andreas. Everybody knows these games, so I don't suppose I need to explain why they are always within arm's length.
Freedom Fighters
I can't believe that this game has never received a sequel. Maybe it's for the best, I mean it was pretty original and it would be hard to improve anything other than the graphics. The gameplay was pretty much razor sharp, I guess the levels could stand to be a bit more open, but they had several ways to approach any obstacles. The squad AI never got hung up on scenery, and the instant they received an order...they carried it out. The enemy AI was pretty tenacious, as well.
henke on 6/6/2009 at 11:34
Whatever GTA game came out last. The GTA4 multiplayer did keep me hooked for a few months but overall it hasn't had the same unquittable-quality as 3, VC & SA.
DX-Ball 2
Taipei
skate
Back in the day:
Quake
Midtown Madness 1
Civ 2
Kuuso on 6/6/2009 at 13:07
Solitaire.
Chimpy Chompy on 6/6/2009 at 13:59
Quote Posted by Painman
X3:Reunion/Terran Conflict. I lost a few months of my life to X2 - it was pretty awesome setting up my own trading empire. I ran out of steam though when i realised i was going to have to play for approximately half a million years to afford the big toys (carrier, destroyer). Maybe I never quite got the hang of the economy.
Oh and the lack of mouse support in the interface was a pain, it looks like X3 fixes that at least.
Paulie007 on 6/6/2009 at 14:11
Battlefield 2
The cracks might be starting to show now but for me its still the most intense online gaming experience around.
SWAT 4
I've Played and re-replayed these missions dozens of times but my hunger for tactical take downs never seems to wain.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Riding a motorcycle at high speed off the top of a skyscraper with a parachute on my back. All to the sound of GnR's Welcome to The Jungle -- nuff said.
I sometimes feel a tad guilty re-playing these while the likes of Bioshock, Half-Life2, and Assassins Creed sit idle on my shelf.
